[mwigdahl]

I think part of it comes from the fact that you can't do "partial keto" -- you're either in ketosis or not, it's hard for folks to achieve (particularly when new to the diet) and the dietary modifications required are nontrivial.

So it is not at all uncommon for folks to fail to get the benefits of the ketogenic diet because they aren't compliant with the diet. They then conclude the diet doesn't work, and get into conflict with other folks who are compliant and do see benefits from the diet.

The rhetoric gets pretty heated, and I think that contributes to the general feeling of "religious war" that surrounds the topic.

[riehwvfbk]

I don't know, I'd say this is true for all diets. Many of us have had that friend who's lost a bunch of weight or got into good shape and that's all they'll talk about from now on. Usually that person also starts picking on other people who don't join their compulsion. I think it's a strategy to mask a lack of accomplishments other than the weight loss.

[mwigdahl]

It's definitely a factor for all diets, true. But as I understand it there's a (close to) binary cutover between "you're in ketosis" and "you're not in ketosis", rather than a gradient. If you're 90% compliant with a normal diet you might still get the benefits, just at a slightly lower level. If you're 90% noncompliant with a ketogenic diet, you get 0% of the benefits because you don't trigger ketosis.