HELP-Don’t wanna eat NUTHIN’!

by | Jan 21, 2013 | Food Choices | 0 comments

Another copy of a comment that I have commented on at forum.lowcarber.org regarding eating habits

 

corsair915 posted:

Hey Folks I need some helps and advice. I am back on full time low carb after a maintenance period of semi- low carb. This return to serious low carb was a choice to clean up my diet and build muscle. I have gained lean mass very well on low carb. I do martial arts with heavy weapons and train heavily 12 hours/week. I have a prize fight in one month-3 grueling hours of full on contact with big weapons against guys who are a foot taller and twice my weight-all highly trained. I’m ready! And in just 2 weeks of true low carb I packed on 4 pounds of muscle-WOOT!

Now the bad news-I burn 400-800 calories/day and am deeply in ketosis. All is going well with diet, hydration, electrolytes, supplements, even energy levels. I allow up to 50 grams of carbs on days when I train more than 2 hours and I am doing well with sufficient energy. But I really have to FORCE myself to eat anything at all. I am not only without hunger, but food is a total turn-off. I just don’t want to eat anything. No nausea, fatigue not out of proportion to the level of training. But I just don’t feel like food has any appeal at all. Except for pork rinds, hahaha!

Before you all wanna kill me, seriously I need to ask if you can helps. I will not be able to repair my beat-up 49 year old body without food! Anyone been through this? Anything you found that stimulates appetite? Everything I eat tastes awful from the ketones. Just breathing heavily during a workout is like having my head in a bucket of nail polish remover. Water runs through me in an hour and I need to drink a lot so it makes me full and doesn’t helps the food intake situation. Will this pass? 

I’ve had a lot of experience and success at low carb for 4 years but this is new territory for me. Any advice and suggestions are truly appreciated!

 

My insight:

Hi corsair915,

The two keys here are variety, leaning towards the things that you like to eat and quality, making sure that they’re protein and fat rich but there is something else I noticed as well. You say you’re without hunger which isn’t that unusual for someone in ketosis but I noticed also you are drinking protein shakes. My only observation there is that you are sacrificing the pleasure of eating natural protein for consuming, shall I say, an unnatural protein.

No one and I mean no one can convince me that the protein contained in those types of supplements are superior to the protein, vitamins, minerals, trace elements and more importantly enzymes that  we get when we eat protein from a natural source.

I suspect that if you tackle those three things you’ll find that your appetite returns but also you will give your body the opportunity for it to tell you what it needs on a day by day basis.

Hope that helps,

Mark

Eggs

by | Jan 21, 2013 | Low carb diet | 0 comments

Another post at forum.lowcarber.org about eggs that I have commented on just recently

 

From Sallybear:

If you are low carbing, how many eggs is it safe to eat.

I eat loads.

 

My response:

Hi Sallybear,

You can eat as many eggs as you like providing they are coming from a certified organic source.

If you’re talking about consuming commercially-raised eggs, say from a factory far or something like that then I wouldn’t eat a single one. That’s because they’re far more likely to contain dangerous bacteria such as salmonella than those that are coming from a certified free range farm.

Now if you’re not eating free-range eggs, then you need to have a look at eatwild.com and localharvest.org in order to find a free range egg producer near you.

Hope that helps,

Mark

Not meeting the caloric needs

by | Jan 21, 2013 | Food Choices, Low carb diet, Weight Loss | 0 comments

This is a copy of the post over at forum.lowcarber.org where I have replied about calories

 

kangaroo said:

Hello everyone! 

I’ve always wondered if eating less calories is that big of a deal. I mean, now that I’m low carbing, some days I’m ok with eating between 800-1000 kcal (and rarely do I exceed 1200/1300 kcal anyway), with no hunger or anything, but everywhere I read says that I’m not meeting my caloric needs and that I’m in ‘starvation’ mode. But if I am, shouldn’t I feel starved??? 

Should I stuff myself anyway to reach the calorie goal, even if I’m perfectly fine with eating less?

 

My response

Yes your body will tell you when it’s hungry. As like most living creatures, we are hard-wired for self preservation. In fact I don’t think you’ll find a single psychologist anywhere who will dispute that. Furthermore if you’re listening to your body and it does seem that you are, then you have no need to count calories, at least not in terms of are you getting enough.

A low carb diet works in a very profound and basic level not in terms of the quantity of food that we eat but much rather in terms of the quality of the food that we eat. Everyday our bodies have a certain requirement for particular nutrients. If the food that we eat is lacking in those nutrients as a high carbohydrate diet would typically be, then we have to eat vast quantities of food in order to get the small percentage of the nutrients that our body craves and then of course it has the perks and job of dealing with all of the other stuffs it didn’t need just to get out what it did need.

Whereas by following a low carb way of eating, the foods that we eat are much more in keeping with exactly what the body needs everyday, meaning that we have to eat a whole lot less in terms on quantity in order to get what we need in terms of quality. All that to say, I wouldn’t worry at all about how many calories you’re consuming everyday and proving your body continues to say, “I’m okay with this” just carry on.

Hope that helps,

Mark

Why can’t I get back on the wagon?

by | Jan 21, 2013 | Books, Fat Loss, Stalls and Plateaux, Weight Loss | 0 comments

Here is another post at forum.lowcarber.org where I have replied to regarding weight loss

 

MishaBelle said:

:: sigh::: I am so frustrated. I’ve been trying for two weeks to get back on the wagon and I just can’t seem to get it together. I’m a veteran low-carber. I’ve lost 30 lbs… twice. I know what to do, but I’m not getting that immediate feedback (e.g., the initial woosh), so I get frustrated, tweak something, or worse, cave and eat something I shouldn’t and I’m back in the same place.

Background: just turned 50, menopausal (no TOM since July) and while my weight hadn’t changed, gravity played a mean trick and everything kinda “fell” and I hate hate hate my shape more than ever.

Help. Seriously… help.

 

My reply:

Hi MishaBelle,

You actually need something bigger than the woosh to help you reach your goal and the thing I think you’ll find most effective is to actually have a good set of reasons why you want to get slim and fit again in the first place. I say again, because you’ve already lost 30 lbs twice as you say, so you know this diet can work for you. It’s more of a question of taking away all the things that sabotage your efforts and reinforcing all the things that will helps you succeed. Simply put, if you can find a powerful enough reason why then it doesn’t matter what life, the lack of feedback or hormones throw at you, you’ll have what you need to carry you through to the place you want to be.

Now whilst hormones may be partly responsible for allowing gravity to have its way, I would also ask you what else has changed over that same time period. Has your routine changed? Have you changed jobs? Have you for any for any other reason become less active? The reason I suggest you look at that is simple, in as much as everything that we are physically is held in place by our muscle structure and if there’s been a change in routine that has caused you to be less active or not to move in the same ways that you did before, the muscles that held everything in place will no longer be there and gravity will inevitably work its work in ways that we don’t really wanted to, so that’s just something to look at.

The other thing to consider is like many of us, you’re a veteran low carber and the problem with us veterans is that we tend to rely on our own understanding of things instead of relying or rather following what the books tell us we should be doing. As you say you get frustrated and tweak something, perhaps it might be simpler just to go back and follow your original successful plan to the latter without tweaking anything as that way you’ll have a firm base to work from and you’ll be going through something that is proven to have worked for so many people.

I noticed that you mention that you snack in the evening because you don’t want to fall asleep. There is no law against going to bed early and that maybe just what your body is asking you to do so rather than fighting it why not give in to it for a week or so  to see how much of a difference it will make. I would also second samissa and Kirsteen’s suggestions of going back to the books and certainly do, really do have a good look through Jimmy Moore’s information (I’ve got a lot of respect for that man).

The thing I want to leave you with the most is if you got a good enough, a powerful enough reason why you want to get fit and healthy again and that you can clearly articulate, first to yourself and anyone else who’s interested what that is, you’ll find just the simplicity of having that will give you the strength you need to carry you through to get the body you want.

Hope that helps,

Mark

In Ketosis but no weight loss?

by | Jan 21, 2013 | Exercise, Weight Loss | 0 comments

Yet another post about ketosis on forum.lowcarber.org where I have commented on

 

Post from Myers728:

I haven’t been hungry for 5 days now, but I am not losing weight? What gives? I thought that ketosis meant weight loss. Maybe I am not in ketosis then or maybe after 3 wks my body needs time to adjust. Needless to say I am frustrated.

 

My comment:

Hi Myers728,

Yes 17 lbs in 20 days is really good!!!

When I first started I was losing about a pound a day and you’ll find there are many other people who do roughly the same so it’s not unusual as I have said I was way before. 

Just judging your success by weight alone is not the best way of doing it.  You need also to take measurements particularly if you’ve got any increase in exercise. Talking of an increase in exercise, you may not even realize that this is happening because as you have more energy, so the change in diet, things that used to be a chore just becomes second nature even without us realizing it. For instance you might be walking slightly quicker. You might be bouncing up steps in the stairs whereas before you were plodding. I’m sure you get the picture.

That is why it is important to make sure that you measure yourself at least once a week around your neck, around your bust, around your waist, around your butt and around both thighs because that way even if the  pounds aren’t falling off you’ll notice the inches disappearing which will assure you of your progress.

Hope that helps,

Mark