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

Low carb and diabetes

by | Jan 18, 2013 | Diabetes, Low carb diet | 0 comments

Here you will find my comment on post at Jimmy Moore’s about low carb and diabetes

 

amywolfe87 posted:

I lost 18 pounds thanks to low carbing but my nurse is worried as my BMI plunges. She thinks I need to eat more carbs (I’m currently between 80 – 120 grams a day). My constipation is also being blamed to low carb. Is there actually a connection on it? Has anyone else had this problem? Thanks.

 

My response:

Hi amywolfe87,

Janknitz makes a lot of  sense in what she says and I too would advocate reading Dr. Bernstein’s Diabetic Solution; if nothing else, just to understand what you’re body has been going through and to have some scientific  back up as you start to take charge of your health and needed to talk to medical professionals about it.

In addition to what Jan has said, I would also encourage you to exercise more; in fact exercise is probably the main factor that will help a recovering diabetic to overcome their problem in the fastest way possible. It really is one of the most powerful and quickest ways to lower your resistance to insulin and leptin.

The other advantage of exercise is it will get everything moving including your digestive tract and  in addition to the probiotics suggested by Jan, I would also suggest that you do a short course on digestive enzymes as well as that would balance out the work of the probiotics in a way that probiotics can’t do on their own.

Hope that helps,

Mark

Super-Low Carb Or Intermittent Fasting?

by | Jan 18, 2013 | Low carb diet | 0 comments

Below is a copy of the post over at Jimmy Moore’s regarding low carb and fasting that I have replied on

 

From JimmyMoore:

Super-Low Carb Or Intermittent Fasting?: http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/ask-the-…sting.html ~Why not both? Eating a high-fat, moderate protein, low-carb ketogenic diet will spontaneously make you IF naturally. That’s what I’ve found doing my n=1 experiment testing nutritional ketosis over the past eight months. Consuming food that produces an adequate level of blood ketones will allow me to go 16-24 hours between meals on most days with ease. So I think you can get both the benefits of healthy high-fat, low-carb AND intermittent fasting at the same time. If you are eating enough in your high-fat, moderate protein, low-carb meal(s), then IFing is a cinch.

 

My response:

Strangely enough, I found exactly the same experience when I first started low carbing and was weight training at the same time. It was very easy not to eat anything between 6 in the evening going right through ‘til mid day the next day. In fact, the lack of hunger throughout that 18 hour period was for me, in many ways, proof that the way I was eating was right for me.

Fast forward a decade or so and I can still eat like that without any problem. My bacon and egg breakfast will quite often slip through to 1 o’ clock and become lunch and lunch will move through to later afternoon or early evening with an occasional munch on a bit of cheese or slice meat depending on what sort of work load I’ve got going on during the rest of the day.

I find I thrive under a regime like that. In fact calling it a regime is probably totally misleading as it’s not something I dictate to my body. It’s more something that my body leads me into doing. I find I sleep better and I have more energy and of course there’s a gain in time through not having to prepare or even think about more than two meals at the most each day

Why not give it a try?

Mark

I need help.. To stay on the phase one or go on to OWL

by | Jan 17, 2013 | Food Choices, Low carb diet, Meat Products | 0 comments

This is a copy of my comment on a post over at forum.lowcarber.org regarding induction

 

kim_va said:

Hello everyone
I have been on phase one now for 3 weeks. I dont know if I want to move on or not. I want to say on phase one to lose more weight, but then again, I want to move on to OWL because I can have a little bit more food. How long did you all stay on the induction phase/? Thanks

 

My reply:

Hi kim_va,

If staying on induction is working for you, carry on but do make sure that you take a good range of supplement to make sure that you’re getting all the vitamins and minerals that you need.

A lot of people seem to be worried about opening themselves up to temptation when they move on from induction. Whilst that may be a legitimate fear, there are a number of things you can do to lessen the chance of temptation because really the temptation is only there if the extra foods you consider adding back into your diet come from the same range of choice that you’ve had before you started  your low carb journey.

My advice is to increase your horizons and instead of adding back smaller amounts of the same choice of foods that you’ve had before, look for new foods to try. Simply choose low carb new foods, so that’s different types of meat. If you’ve only ever eaten beef, pork and chicken, why not try duck or pigeon or guinea fowl or wild boar. If your vegetable choices before has only ever been potatoes, carrots, peas, parsnips and beans, say, why not go through the vegetable section in your local store and try something you’ve never tried before. If you fish choice has only ever been a nondescript piece of white fish covered in bread crumbs, why not try lobster or shrimp. I’m sure you get the picture.  

We don’t always have to move on from induction. We can take induction along with us for the journey simply  by making new food choices.

 Hope that helps,

Mark

Stop Trashing Eggs: Large Study Finds No Harm

by | Jan 17, 2013 | Food Choices, Low carb diet | 0 comments

Below is a copy of a recent post where I have commented on about eggs

IdahoSpud:

Link to article here:

Link to study (warning: long-winded) here:

No food has had more ups and downs over the last century or so than the common egg. Following a long period in which eggs were ubiquitous and highly regarded, eggs fell from favor with the rise of concerns over cholesterol. Currently the American Heart Association recommends that people restrict dietary cholesterol to 300 mg per day, which effectively limits people to 1 egg per day at most. However, the relationship of dietary cholesterol and serum cholesterol is, at best, tenuous, and a significant number of experts now believe that egg consumption poses no risk to cardiovascular health.

In a new paper published in BMJ, a group of researchers from China and Boston performed a meta-analysis of 8 studies that included 263 938 participants for coronary heart disease (CHD) and 210 404 participants for stroke and followed them for 8 to 22 years. The authors found no evidence for an association between egg consumption and either coronary heart disease or stroke:
•Relative risk of coronary heart disease for adding 1 egg per day: 0.99 (CI 0.85 0 1.15, p=0.88)
•Relative risk of stroke for adding 1 egg per day: 0.91 (CI 0.81 – 1.02, p=0.10)

However, an increased risk for CHD was observed in the subgroup of patients with diabetes in the group of participants with the highest egg consumption compared with those with the lowest consumption (relative risk 1.54, CI 1.14 to 2.09, p=0.01). No similar increase in the risk of stroke was observed in this group, though a protective effect against hemorrhagic stroke was observed in those with the highest egg consumption (relative risk 0.75, CI 0.57 – 0.99, p=.04). The authors cautioned that the findings in the diabetes subgroup required confirmation in additional studies.

The authors concluded that the findings of their meta-analysis “do not support a positive association between egg consumption and cardiovascular disease outcomes in the general population.”

On CardioExchange, the ever-refreshing Richard Lehman waxed eloquent in praise of eggs and offers the following thought:

Quote:

Why anyone should be troubled by the consumption of eggs as a medical issue, I cannot imagine, but this dose-response meta-analysis of the subject simply reinforces my advice to eat lots of eggs. They do not increase your risk of stroke or coronary disease, but even if they did, it would simply be a good reason to eat as many as you can while you still have the chance.

Comment: The AHA should long ago have revised its recommendations regarding dietary cholesterol and eggs. There is a reasonable chance that the current position is doing more harm than good. Even if eggs are ultimately found to be somewhat harmful– though that seems unlikely at this point– they are almost certainly better than the replacement foods– mostly containing starches and sugars– toward which most people are likely to turn. Are eggs really worse than, say, a “low fat” (but high calorie and high sugar) muffin?

 

My comment:

The healthiest types of eggs to eat are free-range ones but make sure they’re guaranteed to be free from genetically modified food types such as GMO corn and so on.

The healthiest way to eat the egg is raw; simply because cooking them will damage the valuable nutrients like lutein and zeaxanthin which we find in the egg yolk.

Now if you don’t like them raw, then I guess the next best thing would be the soft boiled or sunny-side up. But in any case, leave the yolk as runny as possible.

I think I’ll go and make some bacon and eggs now.

Cheers,

Mark