Six common beliefs addressed, Part 89

1. Can blood glucose drop very low, even on short fasts?

Yes. This can have multiple causes. If you are having this experience,  you should consult your doctor, as soon as possible, as this is not normal and requires medical intervention. This is especially true if you are on glucose lowering medications. In the context of metabolic conditions this can be caused by:

• Too much insulin clearing glucose rapidly causing a dependence on dietary glucose in order to keep up with the serum clearance.
• Glucagon and adrenal counter regulation are not producing adequate glucose when needed, allowing the body to go into hypoglycemia, which is exactly what it should be avoiding.

Do not ignore this. The body adapts to very low blood glucose and will not produce symptoms to warn you it is occurring, which can result in dangerous hypoglycemia of which you won’t be aware of, until you pass out or worse. 

2. Can carnivore slow metabolism?

Generally no, if you consume enough calories and protein. If calories can provide any useful information, it’s to ensure you’re eating enough. 

3. If you can keep your blood glucose "normal", then it means you have "reversed" diabetes.  

Again, as I have said many times before, normal blood glucose on isolated, random, tests is not indicative of diabetes "reversal". This is particularly true when most diabetics believe that any lowering of blood glucose means "normal" simply because it is not their usual high.

 

In order to claim that you have "reversed" your diabetes, you must obtain and sustain normal blood glucose regulation. This means the body does not over produce glucose, when it's not needed, nor under produce it when it does. You also must lower your body fat percentage, so that you are no longer at risk for developing diabetes over time.  The lowering of body fat is the main indicator that you are sustaining  proper blood glucose regulation. So, no. Chasing symptoms and trying to control them as they occur, in real time, is not "reversal" of diabetes. 

4. Low carb cannot be a "cure" for metabolic dysfunction because there are many of the same obese people commenting on low carb platforms and getting nowhere. 

This is correct. Some of these people have been at this, for years, with no "cure" in sight. We all see this on a daily basis. Low carb platforms get a slew of comments making claims such as "I got off insulin" or "I lost weight" or "My fibromyalgia pain is gone". It's mostly all BS. They got off insulin, but are still on metformin and/or Victoza, while complaining about their Dawn Phenomenon and hyperglucagonemia. They lost weight, but they are still obese. Their pain is gone, but they still have metabolic dysfunction. This is why they are still on these pages, years later. It's all smoke and mirrors and why none of this "anecdotal evidence" means anything. No one takes this serious because it isn't. 

The comments of the people who have gotten worse, are still obese or who did good in the beginning and are back to diabetes now, are never acknowledged nor replied to. This is because these low carb platforms simply have no answers and the answers won't fit their business model narrative. The true success rate of low carb, is about equal to any other diet. This is mostly due to badly formulated diets, non compliance or inconsistent compliance. 

5. Unless you fast for long stretches, you will not be able to lose weight, so the advice to eat more often for weight loss is incorrect. 

The fact that you must fast for long stretches in order to not gain weight is the main indication that you are not improving your metabolic function. If anything, you are making it worse. Soon, breathing will cause you to gain weight. 

Eating more often and not doing a one meal a day (OMAD) protocol, helps by reversing the starvation adaptation that your metabolism is currently in. This is why it stores whatever little you do eat, since it is in a constant state of not enough food coming in. Leptin will only allow the body to burn body fat, if enough food is being eaten. 

6. Low carb diets are no different than the Standard American Diet (SAD) because all they feature are alternatives to SAD foods.

Low carb is not any different than SAD for many people. That's the unfortunate fact of low carb diets. But yet these same people often complain about all the "low fat" junk food, out there. Gee, I wonder why that happened? Could it be that everyone was asking for "low fat" alternatives? 

On this blog, there are no "alternatives" for anything. This diet isn't about replacing, it's about eliminating. The only alternative you have, in here, is to remain overweight/obese.