What is the difference between Keto, Paleo and NSNG diets?

I’ve been following the NSNG (No Sugar No Grains) ‘way of eating’ for the last year and the results have been incredible. I weighed 191 pounds near the beginning of 2017 and today (Dec 7, 2017) I weighed in at 160.  So, 31 pounds have disappeared, which is truly incredible.  The statins I had been taking for a few years have also gone away (stopped them many months ago), as have my poor cholesterol scores.  And I’ve reduced/ended other medications as well, and continue to feel great.  PS Body fat % has also fallen off a cliff, from 26% to less than 18%.

Despite my success in 2017, I’m ending the year by getting even more serious about my eating, drinking and exercise habits.  And as part of that, I’ve expanded my reading on the subject.  In 2017, I read “Fitness Confidential” by Vinnie Tortorich and “Why We Get Fat” by Gary Taubes, and I’m now expanding to read “The Case Against Sugar” by Gary Taubes, “The Big Fat Surprise” by Nina Teicholz and several others (I’ll add some summaries of each later).

With all of my adherence to NSNG, and my frequent reading of Ketogenic and Paleo recipes, I realized today that I wasn’t entire sure how they were different.  So I did a little research and created a quick summary below:

• Ketogenic Diet (the Atkins Diet falls in this group, but is more weight targeted) – this diet is geared toward treating medical conditions (epilepsy is a common target; it also helps reduce LDL (“bad” cholesterol) and increase HDL (“good” cholesterol)) rather than helping you lose weight, and it is aimed to get you into, and keep you in, a state of ketosis.  Being in ketosis means that your body (and brain) no longer run off of glucose; rather, they transition to become powered by ketones (produced by your liver, by burning stored fat).  A by-product of a ketogenic diet is that many people will lose weight; however, due to the difficulty of staying in ketosis, it is often not a long-term solution that many dieters will be able to stick with.  Short story — on this diet you will eat a lot of fat vs. little protein and even less carbohydrates.
• Paleo Diet – this diet has the basic assumption that we aren’t very different from cavemen, and so you should be eating a ton of meat, and very little sugar, fruit, dairy and processed foods (i.e. grains), since cavemen wouldn’t have had much access to these foods.  So, lots of proteins and few carbs.  Again, this can help you lose weight, but is likely difficult to stick to over the long term.
• NSNG – this way of eating was created by Vinnie Tortorich and blends some of both of the above, and works for many people because it also recognizes that if you don’t “Put Life Into Living” (one of Vinnie’s favorite phrases), that you’re unlikely to stick with the way of eating.  Note that NSNG adherents use the term ‘way of eating’ rather than diet, because NSNG is about helping you eat in a way that you’ll be able to follow over the long term.  Because NSNG doesn’t push you to fully eliminate carbs and fruit, it’s possible that many NSNG adherents won’t achieve ketosis, but Vinnie proposes that the majority of people will still reap the benefits of a high fat/protein and low carb lifestyle (so he’s OK if you gorge on Christmas, Thanksgiving, Easter, etc. and enjoy a scotch or two throughout the week; but, be good the other 350+ days of the year!).  And if you want to be a little bit more rigorous, ketosis isn’t far away.  PS If you want to learn more about NSNG, I helped Vinnie create a 24-page guide — go get it for free at “Intro to NSNG PDF“.

OK — that’s a very quick summary, just for those who are interested.  I hope I got the above correct (or at least close!).  I found some background information for the above here and here.  Honestly, I don’t see vast differences — I’ve just found that NSNG works for me because it applies a huge dose of reality & common sense.  Let me know what you think!