Best keto resources for practitioners in 2024

Keto resources for doctors || Continuing Medical Education (CME): Certification programs | Conferences | Free CME’s || Clinician questions | Fasting science | Deprescribing | Building your practice | || Keto therapy guidelines | Therapeutic Carbohydrate Reduction | Ketogenic Diet Therapies || Culture | Patient education resources | Best resources for a keto overview

We at Metabolic Multiplier are diet diplomats, and support evidence-based lifestyle interventions. If you and your practitioner feel your metabolic health would benefit from a prescription strength lifestyle intervention then carbohydrate restriction might be for you. For example, a low carbohydrate diet plays a major role in reversing insulin resistance which can control diabetes and obesity. Some people experience remission.

Similarly, interventions that create the presence of ketone bodies in blood (nutritional or can help control neurological conditions such as epilepsy and mental illness. Knowing where to start makes change less daunting. Here is our curated list of the best the credible keto and metabolic health world has to offer.

Best keto resources for practitioners

Note: A low-carbohydrate diet is a loose term for restriction of sugar & starches. Similarly, there are many versions of the ketogenic diet for weight loss. A stricter version, the medical/therapeutic ketogenic diet (TKD) requires strict macro-nutrient measurement and strict patient adherence. A TKD uses blood ketone levels as an objective criteria of achievement.

Nutritional metabolic therapies

Many dietary patterns limit carbohydrates to achieve various health outcomes, including weight loss goals. Different dietary patterns are also emerging to treat specific disorders. Some are elimination diets to treat allergies or reactions to food, others aim at improving irritable bowel or other digestive issues. Other diet versions help with neurological or psychiatric disorders. These require close monitoring and specific design. For example, carbohydrate restriction and ketogenic diets can be used to control or reverse metabolic syndrome, type 2 diabetes and these versions also require careful control. 

If carbohydrate restriction is used to treat a disorder, it is being used as a medical intervention, and as such it will require medical supervision and strict adherence.

Continuing Medical Education (CME)

|| Certification programs | Conferences | Free ||

Low-carb certification programs with CME’s in our directory

Nutritional Guidelines: Ketogenic Diet Therapies (KDT), Therapeutic Carbohydrate Reduction (TCR)

• ANA’s Ketogenic Nutrition Training – 56 hours
• Charlie Foundation for Ketogenic Therapies – KDT
• Institute for Personalized Therapeutic Nutrition (IPTN) – Therapeutic Nutrition. 18 hours
• Ketogenic Diets for Mental Health – 7 hours.
• Ketogenic Therapeutics Mastery Courses – KDT. 34 hours
• Ketogenic.com – > 100 hours
• Matthew’s Friends – KDT
• Nutrition Network – TCR.

Metabolic health conferences & Webinars offering CME’s

Stretching around the globe, you’ll find established metabolic health and low-carb conferences in our directory. The camaraderie of meeting others in the field in-person is immensely motivating! Most offer both virtual options with vibrant chat conversations and recordings for convenience.

• Institute for Personalized Therapeutic Nutrition (IPTN) – Virtual.  Canada
• Ketofest is a ketogenic food and science festival  – Connecticut 
• Low Carb Denver – Colorado 
• Low Carb Down Under – Australia
• Metabolic Health Summit – California
• Nutrition Network – Virtual. South Africa 
• Public Health Collaboration (PHC) – United Kingdom 
• Symposium for Metabolic Health – San Diego, California. Boca, Florida.  Managed by Low Carb USA & the Society of Metabolic Health Practitioners – Past presentations from 14 conferences available for free courtesy of Keto-Mojo or for CME credit through Low Carb USA.

Low Carb Events and Conferences offers a much more complete list thanks to the community-minded folks at Keto Chow.

Free CME’s

• Therapeutic Carbohydrate Restriction (TCR) Overview – Free CME. Includes a 3 credit hour, 16 episode training course. Treating metabolic syndrome, type 2 diabetes, and obesity. Great overview for the curious clinician by Diet Doctor.
• Continuous Glucose Monitor (CGM) certificate – “Putting Continuous Glucose Monitoring (CGM) into Practice: Certificate Program” by Association of Diabetes Care & Education Specialists (ADCES) – 7.5 credit hours

CME’s focused on Therapeutic Carbohydrate Reduction (TCR)

Treat metabolic syndrome, diabetes & weight loss by reducing insulin resistance

• Diet Doctor. Low Carb and Keto for Doctors
• Society for Metabolic Health Practitioners
  • Clinical Guidelines for Prescribing Carbohydrate Restriction. Pediatric epilepsy guidelines recommend a stricter version of Low Carb USA’s VLCK diet. (very low-carbohydrate ketogenic).
  • Accreditation Pathways developed by the Nutrition Network.

CME’s focused on Ketogenic Diet therapies (KDT)

Some conditions benefit form the presence of ketone bodies. Evidence shows that ketogenic diets can improve some cases of epilepsy, mental illnesses, and neurodegenerative diseases like Parkinson’s disease and Alzheimer’s disease.

For a great overview article see “3:1 and 4:1 Therapeutic Ketogenic Diets.” Our thanks to Keto-Mojo and author Nick Norwitz, PhD!

• Ketogenic Therapeutics Mastery Courses – KDT. 34 hours. Virtual. Respected founders Denise Potter, RD & Beth Zupec-Kania, RD
• Charlie Foundation for Ketogenic Therapies: trainings for professionals. Three day in-person training for your whole team which must include a physician, registered dietitian + others. CME.
• Matthew’s Friends: Keto College for medical professionals. In the UK, Canada and New Zealand. In person.
  • KetoCollege Online Tutorials – Healthcare Professionals ONLY.
  • KetoCollege Annual training meeting. Three day in-person course. CPD units. Historically in the UK or Australia.

Clinician to clinician questions asked and answered

• Institute for Personalized Therapeutic Nutrition (IPTN) A Canadian Charity, hosts a very active forum. Available for anyone who registers their email address.
• Society for Metabolic Health Practitioners (the SMHP) hosts a members-only forum.
• Virta Health hosts a “Low Carb Clinicians” group on Facebook.  It is a great resource for questions “about the use of low carbohydrate lifestyles and nutritional ketosis in the treatment of metabolic syndrome, type 2 diabetes, obesity and metabolic disease.” Clinicians ONLY. Free.
• There are Google groups focused on clinicians supporting carbohydrate reduction and another for academic discussion of related issues. Contact us for more information.

Fasting and time restricted eating

If human bodies spending time in ketosis is valuable then reaching this state through fasting may also be useful. Fasting can be broken into three categories: time restricted eating, alternate day fasting and extended fasting

• The Fasting Method: What are the benefits? Getting started. Type 2 Diabetes. Wellness. Autophagy. Research.
• Many individual practitioners can also help you with time restricted eating and fasting.
• Satchin Panda, PhD is the leading research scientist publishing on Circadian Rhythms

Deprescribing on a low-carb or ketogenic diet

• Deprescribing: Ending the Prescription Cascade – Video presentation from Brian Lenzkes, MD at Low Carb USA Speaker Series, Boca Raton 2020
• Adjusting medications on a low-carb diet – Diet Doctor
• Starting low carb or keto with diabetes medications – Diet Doctor
• Medications on low-carb – Diabetes.UK.Co
• Ketogenic Diets for Mental Health – Provides training for titrating psychiatric medication
• Metabolic Multiplier‘s Your patient toolkit for prediabetes & type 2 diabetes provides an overview of the published sources above.

Building your metabolic health practice

Help potential patients looking for a low-carb clinician find you when they are looking for clinician support on their low-carb journey. Consumers might look in anyone of over 20 listings of Keto Doctors and Clinicians near me. If you are a low-carb practitioner building your practice, then we want to provide you tools to help you succeed. This Google sheet, Marketing your low-carb practice, can help. It has links to the submission page for each metabolic health practitioners directory. Let us know how it works for you or if we can help you along the way!

Targeting your approach to your patient’s culture

We all benefit from supportive relationships in our lives. Recognizing a patient’s affinity groups in making lifestyle changes will improve their chance of success, whether your patient is a post-menopausal woman or a member of a particular ethnic group. If you treat patients from a variety of ethnic groups, then you’ll find this podcast from Bret Scher and Tony Hampton a must listen.

Guidelines for nutritional therapies

Ketogenic Diet Therapies (KDT) have been used to treat epilepsy for over a hundred years. Clinicians at epilepsy centers developed these consensus guidelines for pediatrics and adults. Low-carb diets, ranging from KDT to TCR, have more supporting evidence than any other dietary intervention.

Many other conditions (E.g., Type 2 Diabetes & obesity) respond to the less restrictive Therapeutic Carbohydrate (TCR) guidelines below.

Ketogenic Diet Therapy (KDT) Guidelines

Therapeutic Nutritional Ketosis is a metabolic state which can be measured by testing for the biomarker, ketone bodies, in blood, breath, or urine. Ketones are an alternative energy source to glucose for the body. Studies have documented many involved mechanisms of action.

Medical ketogenic diets often calculate the ratio of fat grams to grams of carbohydrate and protein. (Ketogenic Ratio).

• International Ketogenic Diet Study Group.  Consensus Statement for Optimal clinical management of children receiving dietary therapies for epilepsy. (1) 4/25/2018.
• American Academy of Neurology. International Recommendations for the Management of Adults Treated with Ketogenic Diet Therapies. 10/30/2020. (Paywall)

Patients: If you take prescription medications or suspect you have an underlying condition, then please work with your clinicians to tailor your diet to your specific needs. Of course, there are also many websites, books, podcasts and self-proclaimed experts aimed at weight loss. Buyer beware.

Therapeutic Carbohydrate Reduction (TCR) Guidelines

• Obesity, Prediabetes and Type 2 Diabetes – Mark Cucuzzella, MD, et al.
  • Quick version – “Low-Carbohydrate Nutrition Approaches in Patients with Obesity, Prediabetes and Type 2 Diabetes Pocket Guide at Guideline Central. 2019. A quicker read than the more complete version below. They’ve also developed a U.K. version in the Queen’s units.
  • Deep dive – A clinician’s guide to inpatient low carbohydrate diets for remission of type 2 diabetes: toward a standard of care protocol in Diabetes Management (2019).
• General.
  • Quick version – Society of Metabolic Health Practitioners – Overview of the Benefits and Risk of Therapeutic Carbohydrate Restriction (TCR). This 1 page overview includes 3 large studies. Available for free is you provide your email to their list.
  • Deep dive – Therapeutic Carbohydrate Restriction (TCR) Clinical Guidelines. Focuses on grams of total carbohydrates rather than the ketogenic ratio. Low Carb USA. 3/1/2020.
• If you prefer video, Diet Doctor offers a free, CME 3 hour course on this material.

Patient education resources

Clever Eats – Progressive steps towards metabolic health. Written & honed by a fellow clinician and Founding Member of the Society of Metabolic Health Practitioners. Vetted by members of their Education Committee.

Diet Doctor’s guides for healthcare professionals

A collection of PDF handouts and articles you may want to use in your practice: All include Diet Doctor branding and a link to their coaching program. They’re adding resources all the time, so check their website. For example, Blood Tests for Patients on Low Carb

Simply Good Food’s Health Care Professional Portal

A rich offering of downloadable materials for managing your patient’s medications and tests, and side effect management. Curated summary of research.

Other keto resources from Metabolic Multiplier

• Lifestyle Medicine, the key to metabolic healing
• Keto doctors near me
• How to build my ketogenic therapy treatment team
• Why write medical case reports about unique cases?