1. I was told that body mass index (BMI) charts are not reliable.
I am sure that many obese people want you to believe that, but belief doesn't make things true. I have spoken about the BMI chart before and it's potential issues. This chart should not be used alone and requires context.
The BMI chart is generally correct and the results only begin to skew for bodybuilders and/or athletes that have a significant amount of muscle mass. But, that's not the people we target on this blog. If you are reading this, then chances are you are just the average overweight/obese person. Common sense will take you a long way when interpreting your BMI chart results.
For example, if you are a healthy athlete and your BMI chart results indicate you are obese, you can pretty much guess that something is off. If you are a diabetic that looks like the Kool Aid Man and your BMI chart results indicate that you are obese, you can pretty much take it to the bank that it's correct. The mirror tells you everything you need to know.
So, using common sense is vital when dealing with a not so perfect measurement, such as the BMI chart. For this reason, I have a post that explains the proper way of measuring body fat here.
2. Protein negatively affects a diabetics gluconeogenesis.
People with metabolic syndrome/diabetes have over expressed gluconeogenesis, which is one of the main drivers of the disease, and is referred to as hyperglucagonemia. Unhealthy gluconeogenesis does not allow the body to regulate its blood glucose properly, so repairing not suppressing this important metabolic function, is vital for obtaining remission. Because of this inability of gluconeogenesis to function properly, diabetics are very efficient at breaking down their bodies, and everything they eat, into glucose. This means further loss of lean muscle mass and a continuous high insulin demand, which further deteriorates blood glucose homeostasis. For this reason, people with metabolic syndrome/diabetes require more protein, as they lose significant amounts from this heightened stress response. Protein also helps regulate gluconeogenesis, so it can begin functioning normally.
The protein itself does not cause hyperglucagonemia, nor does it make it worse. It simply unmasks it, exacerbating symptoms, which were always present to begin with. But this is transient and as the condition goes into remission, the symptoms disappear. People who "chase symptoms" immediately have the knee jerk reaction of restricting protein, because their blood glucose goes higher than it should, postprandial. Unfortunately, this will not solve anything, as eventually even breathing will cause high blood glucose if it is not properly treated.
Protein restriction is not a proper treatment for metabolic abnormalities. Divide your daily protein requirement, into several small meals, instead of restricting it.
3. Should low carb diets be primarily plant based?
This is extremely common in diet advice. You would be surprised how many low carb proponents are ex vegans/vegetarians, that almost killed themselves on their plant based diets, and now want to "save the world" with low carb diets, which include meat. Actually they want to fill their wallets much more than they want to save the world, but let's give them the benefit of the doubt, for the sake of this reply.
Most of these ex vegans/vegetarians feel guilt for having left their "pure diet" and succumbing to eating animal products, so they insist that you must follow the diet with mostly plant foods. You don't have to do that. That's BS. Don't let someone else's guilt trip affect your health.
There was a time when the only "salad" that a human being would have, was found in the stomachs of ruminants, already partially digested, so the bounty of man-made, hybridized "plant foods", found at the farmer's market, is not going to save you. When trying to choose what to eat, keep in mind that:
- Meat = whole food
- Eggs = whole food
- Dairy = whole, fermented food
- Fruits = man-made, hybridization
- Vegetables = man-made, hybridization
- Grains = processed, man-made, hybridization
4. The body's stress response has nothing to do with metabolic abnormalities. Blood glucose control is completely determined by diet alone.
The body's stress response is something that is often ignored and/or misunderstood, but is at the center of metabolic abnormalities. It irks me that no one explains this to people who have metabolic syndrome/diabetes. Low carb advocates ignore it completely and keep their focus, exclusively, on what's on your plate. The American Diabetes Association (ADA) makes no mention of it, even though that's why they ignore, exclusively, what's on your plate. This does not help the person who is trying to reverse their pathological metabolic adaptation.
Even though I sometimes refer to metabolic problems as "diseases", for simplicity's sake, I want everyone to get use to the idea of thinking about their condition as an adaptation, not a true disease. Metabolism has adapted to the hypo/hyperglycemic events, caused by an improper diet. This adaptation is pathological, meaning that it causes disease and eventually morbidity.
One of the main hallmarks of this pathological adaptation is an unregulated and exaggerated stress response by the body. This is caused by many decades of erratic blood glucose regulation of which hyperinsulinemia is at the forefront. When your blood glucose is unnaturally and chronically high, along with high insulin, any dip in it, even if by a little, causes the body to overreact with exaggerated adrenal (fight or flight/stress hormones) and pancreatic (glucagon) counter regulation. The gut also has a stake in this, as glucagon producing cells exist in the stomach, as well. Basically, the body has now "adapted" to high blood glucose and even dropping glucose levels to normal is seen as "hypoglycemia". This stress response is more complicated, as it doesn't just cause exaggerated glucose production, but it also down regulates insulin's effect, requiring even more insulin.
Chronic hyperglycemia adapts metabolism to live off its stress response. This is why I like describing it as a "metabolic adaptation to starvation" response. The body's metabolism is now set for increasing body fat, not losing it, as this starvation response goes hand in hand with the stress response, preserving and sparing fat mass at the expense of muscle.
This is why I always say that metabolic syndrome/diabetes is much more complicated than what some low carb person describes it as. Just because your diet is on point, does not mean you have taken control of this adaptation and its symptoms. This is what the ADA knows and why they don't put too much credence on dietary interventions. Too bad they don't explain this to anyone, so that the person with metabolic syndrome/diabetes understands what they are truly dealing with. This is also why low carb has been seen as "quackery", since it does not address this stress response at all. Low carb only addresses one part of the problem, the easy part (symptoms), which respond to what's on your plate, for the most part. But the problem has many parts. If it was so simple, it would have been cured back when it was discovered.
5. You will not gain weight eating "keto" ice cream. It's only 65 grams of fat, for the whole pint, and hardly has any carbs.
You will soon realize this is false if you do the math correctly, using the obesity algorithm, not what an obese "keto" person told you:
- 65 grams of fat + plus the taste of sweet = 6500 grams of stored fat.
Remember to keep your dietary fat intake between 50 - 150 grams a day. The more fat you have to lose, the closer to 50 grams a day you should stay. Stop allowing for obese low carbers online, to advise you on what to eat. If their advice hasn't worked for them, it won't work for you.
The fat you consume should be from whole foods, that are not sweet and are nutrient dense. You are wasting your fat allotment by eating a pint of high energy junk, that will basically take up 70% of your daily fat intake and cause hypothalamic malfunction.
6. It is easier to lose fat gained from eating fat than from fructose.
Fat is fat. I was obese once and I know people try to negotiate with their fat mass, all the time, but it doesn't work that way. Though the chronic taste of sweet causes permanent damage to hypothalamic function, making fat loss nearly impossible, the actual fat mass on your body is the same regardless of where it came from.
The fat that accumulates in the liver, due to fructose consumption, is extremely easy to get rid of. This is why fatty liver disease can be reversed by abstaining from fructose intake for about 7 days. The body is quick to get rid of this fat, because it doesn’t want it and will get rid of it any chance it gets.
The fat that is stored directly into fat tissue, from excess fat and/or carbohydrate consumption, is extremely hard to get rid of because you need intact and proper leptin expression to do so. If you are accumulating a lot of this fat, then you can pretty much guess leptin is not doing its job anymore. This means that fat stores in adipose tissue is extremely difficult to get rid of.
The body doesn't want to let this fat go, because it has adapted to withhold it for protection. Remember, the body is experiencing an exaggerated stress and starvation response, so it always finds a way to spare fat mass, not get rid of it. You can see this clearly in many people who have lost weight, but continue having excess "flab" fat (not skin). They have lost their visceral fat, but are left with a large "soft" fat mass, which they find impossible to lose. This is a sign that their metabolism continues to be abnormally adapted for obesity, not leanness. These people can gain weight at a drop of a dime, because their fat mass is just sitting there, waiting for any chance to expand and/or grow further.
This is a problem, because it will only take a very small push for them to start accumulating fat in the visceral, once again, since they are exceeded subcutaneously. For this reason, you don't want any excess body fat, regardless of what made you fat to begin with, because exceeding your fat stores is a sign of metabolic abnormality.
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