Six common beliefs addressed, Part 174

1. People say they love "keto" because they can "eat as much as they want". 

I hate to be sarcastic but that's not surprising. Like I have said before, behavioral issues go hand in hand with obesity as much as biological issues do. Obesity is a mind/body problem.

That is not the correct way of following the diet or any diet for that manner. You cannot solve obesity with the same behaviors that got you to it but the reality is that many of these people will remain obese on "keto" and they won't care because their HbA1C dropped three points.

2. My blood glucose is still in the 200 mg/dL on carnivore but I fast for 16 hours. Does this mean I need to fast longer?

No. If you fast longer you will increase this problem over time, regardless of any short term benefits you might see. You are a full blown diabetic and your blood glucose is being driven primarily by an adrenal stress response, not the individual foods you eat.

The only thing you can do is mitigate this stress response by getting rid of every little thing that can contribute to it, incrementally, in order to try and get it under control. Each little thing you address will help cause a cumulative effect to try and drive down this stress. At least, that's the goal.

I recommend you drop carnivore. It is exacerbating the stress response but since I don't know your exact protocol, I can't tell you why. There are a multitude of ways you could be doing this diet incorrectly. Carnivore diets are very difficult to follow. For that reason, you shouldn't follow them at all, if they aren't producing significant results. 

• Go to a basic, low carb diet, Atkins style instead.
• Stop the fasting. Ditch the 16 hours and go to a 12 hour fasting schedule instead. This means you should be eating three meals a day. Do not snack.
• Make sure you do not over exercise but you still exercise. Exercises that are steady state, low to moderate intensity, like walking, are best as it helps to mitigate stress hormones.
• Also, keep your eating, fasting and exercise schedules consistent daily, with no deviation.

3. I am very cold when I fast. The longer I fast, the colder I get. 

Your metabolic rate is dropping and you aren't burning any body fat. You are only further disrupting leptin expression and thyroid function. And no, iodine will not save you.

It is mind boggling how people will insist on doing something, that is not only failing, but making them feel like crap to boot.

Shorten your fasts to only 12 hours a day, basically an overnight fast. Eat three meals a day with no snacks in between. See if that helps.

4. "Keto" will help change your relationship with food.

No. Your relationship with food has nothing to do with what foods you eat, but how you eat. Many people bring the same eating habits into their new diet which they carried over from the past one. "Keto" is a protocol that helps address the symptoms caused by metabolic syndrome. It addresses the biology but not the behavior.

5. The body will get use to a consistent fasting schedule and this will cause a weight loss stall. You should always "change it up" instead.

The body always compensates to calories coming in. This is why you need to avoid long fasts as they technically cause the same problems as caloric restriction since that's basically what long fasts are - a method of restricting calories (starvation). "Changing it up" is not the solution for this.

The body does not "get used to your fasting schedule". It gets used to fasting, period. That is why fasts have to be of short duration so that this adaptation does not occur.

6. Stress responses do not change over time.

They absolutely can. Losing a lot of body fat can trigger an abnormal stress response while keeping it on does the same thing. We usually only think of stress responses in the context of diabetes and metabolic syndrome but the cure to these problems can induce a stress response as well.

Some people see their blood glucose begin to rise as they lose more and more body fat. They might also feel jittery. They might even begin to gain weight, after they have lost a significant amount, due to a change in leptin and cortisol expression. Their energy levels might drop as well.

Unfortunately, nothing can be done about this. The body simply does not like a challenge to its body fat, especially if it has always had excess body fat. For chronically obese people, certain hormonal functions cause for their weight set point to always be higher than it should be. So, you just have to continue with the protocol that got you to lean and move forward.