Six common beliefs addressed, Part 134

1. You should use a scale that calculates metabolic rate. 

The only thing you should be tracking are results. Results are seen in inches lost and improved metabolic markers. Better yet, the results are seen when you stand naked in front of a mirror and are pleased. After all, if you are getting lean, then your metabolic rate is working to keep you that way and if you are obese, your metabolic rate is working to keep you that way. Your metabolism is always working to keep you in the state you are currently in. 

• Having a high metabolic rate, while being obese, means that your body is working hard at putting on the pounds. 
• Having a low metabolic rate, while being obese, means that your body is hardly working so it can keep those pounds on. 
• Having a high metabolic rate, while being lean, means that your body is working hard at keeping the pounds off. 
• Having a low metabolic rate, while being lean, means that your body is hardly working at putting on the pounds. 

At the end of the day, body fat determines what your metabolic rate is doing. What it's doing is ultimately all you care about. How fast or slow it is doing this, is irrelevant. Speed doesn't change the outcome. 

2. I can eat a whole steak and a pound of ground beef in one sitting. Though I have lost weight, I am now stalled at 20 pounds from "goal weight". 

It doesn't matter if you can eat a side of cow, if you are losing weight and/or keeping it off. How much you eat is irrelevant, in that context, but if you are stalled and/or gaining weight then you have to lay off on the amount of fat you are in taking, if you are already low carb. 

Dietary fat is the Achilles Heal of low carb diets. The carbs are gone, so they aren't the ones adding to the pounds. The fat remained or has increased and so that is definitely the culprit of a weight stall or gain. Eat leaner meats. Make sure your steak is sirloin and not rib eye. Make sure your ground beef is marked lean and not chuck. See if that makes a difference. Also, scan your diet for any other fat that you might be in taking in the form of dairy or added fats like butter or oils. Cut back on them. 

Check your diet for other culprits that can be interfering with your blood glucose, like too much fasting, erratic meal times, not enough exercise or the wrong kind of exercise, too much artificial sweeteners and in taking caffeine. All of these dysregulate blood glucose regulation and will sabotage your results.

I hate the term "goal weight". Your goal is not necessarily your body's goal. It is very common to stall 20 - 25 pounds from "goal weight" simply because the body refuses to go too low on its body fat. This is especially true of women. Let your body decide how much weight it wants to lose. Being 20 - 25 lbs. from "goal weight" is not stalling like it would be at 50 or 100 lbs. from it. I have seen people complain over being 5 lbs. from goal weight, if you can believe it. 

We only deal with serious overweight/obesity, on this blog, not vanity weight. Vanity weight can be reduced with simple caloric restriction. 

3. If you just eat rib eyes, you will be fine. 

Unfortunately there are two types of low carbers out there, that always want to throw in their two cents, when they should really just keep their coins to themselves. On this blog, there are no slots to put them in. The vending machine is closed. These two nickel and dimers are: 

• The low carber who is not truly overweight/obese, but wants to trail the bandwagon anyway - This type of person can basically eat rib eyes until the cows come home. Literally. They aren't stalled. They aren't gaining weight. Everything is happy in the Land of Obesity Resistance. Yet, they want to take their experience and pass it on to you, making you fatter in the end. 
• The low carber who was once a diabetic and now has "lower blood glucose" - This type of person is basically happier than a pea in a pod because their blood glucose runs at 120 mg/dL instead of their usual 200 mg/dL. They still suffer from morning and postprandial highs, but who cares when their HbA1C is now two points under the diabetic range and their doctor removed them from diabetes medications. Hint - Their still diabetic, but it hasn't gotten bad enough to require medications.... yet. Of course this person will tell you that rib eyes "cured" them and now wants you to do the same. 

Don't follow these fools or you will be going off the cliff with them. The reality is that your overall dietary composition is king in determining what you can eat. If all you eat are rib eyes and you never have dairy, nuts or use added cooking fats, then there is a possibility you will get results and you just might be able to sustain them. Of course, time will be the determining factor of that, but let's just assume you really could sustain results long term, for argument's sake. On the other hand, if you are eating rib eyes, adding a stick of butter to cook them in, frying up bacon and drinking half a carton of cream with your coffee, rib eyes are guaranteed to not get you sustained results long term. 

So, If you are truly serious about your metabolic health and the direction it will take, in the future, you would not guide yourself by temporary successes or failures, but rather by an overall progress that can be sustained. For this, you should be moderating the fat in your diet and making sure you are prioritizing protein. That is the only way to not end up like the failures we see daily, who follow low carb and remain semi sick and absolutely still obese. 

4. I have been trying to stick to "keto/carnivore", but I always end up sabotaging myself. The sugar and bread addiction is so hard to break. 

First, we don't believe in a "sugar and bread addiction" on this blog. Second, you need to find another type of diet. There are many different diets, out there, that address metabolic dysfunction, from caloric restriction to vegan/vegetarian to low fat. I don't know why you want to narrow down your choice of diet to only "keto/carnivore" if it's obvious you can't follow it. 

Low carb diets are elimination diets. Whoever tells you that's not true is because they are either lying to you on purpose, in order to sell you snake oil, or they simply don't know how to follow a proper low carb diet. With low carb diets you have to severely restrict and/or eliminate an entire macronutrient - carbohydrates. The least restrictive of all low carb diets is Atkins because that diet simply keeps carbs under 100 grams a day and they can come from any source you want, including sugar. Other than that, you will be completely eliminating sugar and grains, in all of their forms, and the only carbs left will be non starchy vegetables. This has to be sustained for the long term as metabolic/obesity treatments only work when followed for the long term. This means that low carb is not only restrictive, but it's a commitment to boot. This isn't a "7 day fat loss diet" like you read in a tabloid. Low carb is a lifestyle. 

Many people simply can't do it and so it's best they don't even try. I am going to elaborate as to why. If you follow low carb and are actually able to sustain it, for some months, and you end up losing a lot of weight, improving your metabolic makers, but end up eating sugar and bread again because of your "addiction", you will quickly regain all of the weight you lost and it will be twice as hard to get rid of again. Going up and down in weight (yo-yo dieting) is detrimental to metabolic function. You are better off remaining consistently obese than to lose weight to only become obese again. That only ends up training your fat cells to grow even larger with each subsequent weight regain and losing weight will start becoming impossible as you completely annihilate your leptin expression. So, instead of fooling around, you should find a diet that you can stick to and follow consistently. 

5. Will "keto" always correct triglyceride (trigs) levels?

Keep an eye on your trigs to see if they are on a downward trend. Sometimes it takes time for the liver to stop dumping fat, from within itself, into the bloodstream. That's a good thing because you want the fat out of your liver. 

But if your trigs stall and remain high, then lower your dietary fat intake and see if that makes a difference. Usually the type of "keto" that is followed advises on way too much dietary fat. Trigs are a measure of too much energy in the blood, whether from carbs or fat. Carbs have a more profound effect on trigs, but that doesn't mean fat is exempt. 

Other than that, there are certain genetic profiles that cause for some people to run very high trigs, even on a healthy diet. 

6. Insulin resistance is a precursor to diabetes. 

Diabetes is the end stage of poor blood glucose regulation. Once you develop diabetes, blood glucose remains high all of the time. There are people with poor blood glucose regulation that do not ever develop diabetes or will only develop it very late in life. Insulin resistance can be described as a condition of poor insulin function as a result of poor blood glucose regulation. This can result in diabetes if it reaches its end stage.