1. My coach told me that I don't have to be fearful of "good carbs" as long as I follow their diet. "Good carbs" for them are "complex carbs" which include "whole grains". I am still hesitant to include grains in my meals.
LOL I apologize for laughing but I just get so many questions with all kinds of crazy stuff in them. Some of the most asinine stuff I receive are advice from coaches and trainers.
You really don't have to be scared of any carb when you're following a starvation protocol, so I have no clue why these coaches have gotten into the habit of labeling carbs "good" or "bad". It goes against the premise of their protocols. Let me give you the reality. There is no such thing as a "good carb". In fact, there is no such thing as a good anything. The "goodness" in anything you eat stops at whether it disrupts your blood glucose homeostasis or not.
Let me clarify what glucose homeostasis is. It's not when your blood glucose goes up after eating. It's when it goes up so high that insulin remains in the serum and expressed in tissues for a prolonged period of time, disrupting fasting blood glucose levels. This disruption breaks the tight regulation (homeostasis) the body has with its glucose. This isn't a one day event. This happens chronically unbeknownst to the person it's happening to.
The "carbs" that coaches are defining as "good" are carbs that contain a much higher glucose content (starch), than above ground vegetables. Things such as roots, tubers and squashes, which are perfectly fine occasionally, can remain within your macros and you will continue seeing results, if you can tolerate them well. Your coach has also lumped in grains along with these. Basically "good carbs", to a coach, is any carb that isn't a Snickers bar or Wonder Bread. Snickers bar and Wonder Bread = bad carbs to them.
Again, there is no purpose in differentiating between "good" or "bad" carbs, when a protocol is completely calorically based. If a Snickers bar and a slice of Wonder Bread fits your calories, then I don't see what the problem is, unless they are admitting that all calories are not the same, but still insist on holding onto their calorie theory none the less.... hmm. In other words, lots of double talk and not a pound lost.
My recommendation to you is that if you want to lose a few pounds, be unable to continue on the protocol and go right back to finding some other "treatment", then follow what your coach says and incorporate some "good carbs" into your diet. But if you are serious about losing weight and keeping it off, following a protocol that you can continue on for life and achieve long term weight management, then stay away from your coach's list of "good carbs". "Good carbs" interfere with blood glucose homeostasis, the same as "bad carbs".
2. You can’t get fat off what you "don’t eat".
Negative. There is no such thing as "not eating". For instance, you can get fat off your own muscle mass. All your body has to do is break it down into glucose and then store that glucose as fat. So technically you're eating. You're eating yourself. Worse, you're getting fatter doing so. This is why all obesity is sarcopenic because that's exactly what the obese metabolism is doing. It eats muscle and builds fat with it.
Now if we are talking about eating with your mouth, then you can only get fat off some of what you eat, most of what you eat or all of what you eat. That is not determined by how much you eat but by what you eat and how your metabolic state is allocating its calories. In other words, your neuroendocrine state determines how fat you become because it decides how much of what you eat is burned or stored.
3. If fat people make so much glucose, why can’t they run marathons constantly? They are technically full of energy.
Obese people are "full of energy" but it is only being used to build more body fat. All of the sugar circulating in an obese person's blood is being converted to fat and not used for working energy. Not only are there not enough marathons they can run to reverse this, but they simply have no usable energy to do so. This is why energy is subjective. For instance, it takes a lot of energy to get and remain fat. This is why a lot of fat people have high metabolic rates and pseudo hyperthyroidism.
Surprisingly, most of the energy that a person uses is not while running marathons but while doing nothing at all. That is when the most fat is burned. Unfortunately, the obese also do not use energy while doing nothing at all. They are in a metabolic state that spares energy instead, whether they are active or inactive. In other words - starvation. Their metabolism is doing the exact same thing that a starving person's metabolism would do - conserve energy to become fatter. This is why obesity is an adaptation towards starvation. That is the definition of active obesity in a nutshell.
The person who is obesity resistant does not experience this. Their metabolism responds perfectly to energy in/energy out requirements even when using the simplest and most basic energy information input, such as calories.
Calories are the smallest denominator that the body uses to check its energy status and has the least long-term effect on body fat and metabolic function. But yet, the obesity resistant person can maintain their weight, for quite a long time, even while eating Snickers bars, through the counting of calories. Of course, the caveat is that this will only continue to work as long as the lean person is able to control their blood glucose regulation.
Unfortunately, calories are a poor way to control blood glucose regulation for the long-term, so the lean always end up expanding over time regardless of their calorie counting. Blood glucose regulation reigns supreme over calories for the body to determine its energy status and what to use that energy for.
So, yes you can be full of energy and have none to spare. "Water, water everywhere but not a drop to drink."
4. I am never hungry. I don't feel like I should eat anyway.
You need to eat at your mealtimes. Schedule convenient mealtimes and keep to them. You can choose two to three mealtimes a day. Make sure you schedule them so they can be followed consistently, daily. Do not snack in between.
I know that people say they are "never hungry", but I have yet to see those same people simply not eat anything for weeks at a time. In fact, most of those people do not even go one day without eating. Most of this "never hungry" stuff is really just "never hungry for a proper meal" because they can certainly live of snacks and novelties. If you can eat a Snickers bar, you can eat a meal.
Consistent mealtimes will help regulate satiety signaling and appetite. Once your body begins to burn some fuel, it will naturally become hungry and you want it to be hungry at your mealtimes, specifically.
5. I have a cheat meal at Burger King, once a week. I have still dropped pounds and inches. I only notice that my appetite changes a bit after that meal, but I am still seeing results. I think I should just work out more, after that cheat meal, to prevent it from catching up to me.
This would be fine if weight loss and/or maintenance is all you care about but the name of this blog is 'Journey to Metabolic Health'. This means that we strive to give the best advice for you to maintain or acquire metabolic health even at a normal weight. This is not a weight loss blog. The advice we give is to help treat obesity, not weight loss. This means that your "cheat meal" is detrimental to your metabolic health.
It takes very little time for disparities in blood glucose, ups and downs, to cause metabolism to change in detrimental ways. Because your cheat meal is from Burger King, I can assure that you are experiencing disparities in your blood glucose on that day. That's all it takes for things to take a turn downhill for you. Soon, you will adapt your body to store more fat and that one meal will be enough for you to start seeing changes in your body composition.
No amount of exercise is going to stop this snowball from going downhill because it's not being caused by lack of exercise. It's caused by disparities in blood glucose, directly caused by what you eat. How does this happen?
- Eat calorically restricted meal at Burger King.
- Blood glucose rises above a normal range due to the macronutrient composition of the meal, not its calories. Let's say 167 mg/dL.
- Because blood glucose rose above normal, the body releases a larger amount of insulin, than it would normally, in order to help facilitate the clearance of this abnormally high glucose.
- Because a larger amount of insulin had to be released, for an extended period of time, it remains in circulation and expressed in tissues for longer than it normally would. Now it's driving down fasting blood glucose too low. Let's say to 70 mg/dL. That's a 97-point drop. This signals to the body that you are now starving. The body is averse to drops in blood glucose of this magnitude.
- The body reacts to this extreme lowering in fasting blood glucose (starvation) by ramping up glucose release through adrenal stress hormone activation and under expressing insulin in various tissues and organs. In other words, the body now goes into anti-starvation mode. Anti-starvation mode is code word for sparing fat mass, building more fat mass and keeping blood glucose and weight set point high.
It is important to note that the starvation mode above, wasn't caused by "lack of food". It wasn't caused by calories. It was caused by large blood glucose disparities.
The above series of events will become a vicious cycle that will be extremely difficult to reverse. This cycle drives obesity/diabetes. This is why we don't believe in "cheat meals". It has been shown that metabolism adapts to erratic blood glucose fluctuations with just one meal. When you have been eating those meals for days, weeks, months, decades, what do you think will happen? Well, we have seen the end result, right? People crying that nothing helps their obesity and diabetes. After they have adapted their metabolisms to behave this way, they expect for someone else to wave a magic wand on them and make it all go way. It doesn't work that way. Don't be one of those people.
You must be consistent with your diet and stay away from cheats. If you are going to cheat, once a week, make sure the cheat meal is in line with your diet and it's not Burger King.
6. I have been having horrific stomach pains since I began eating large amounts of vegetables. I am trying to ignore it but can hardly get sleep at night because of the bloating, gas and pains.
I have no idea why you are eating large amounts of vegetables, but I suggest you stop. You should never ignore serious digestive problems and continue to eat things that are obviously not settling well with your body.
When you change diets, there is a small period of time where your body adjusts, and you might experience some gas, diarrhea, constipation or acid reflux. These should all be mild and temporary. When they are severe and persistent, it's time to revise your diet and see your doctor.
A lot of people cannot tolerate above ground vegetables. This is understandable. Vegetables are new to us as they are a concoction of modern agriculture. We were never meant to eat large amounts of plant matter. Our digestive systems are not evolved to handle indigestible fiber. Some people can get away with it and have no issues. The body will accept all sorts of unnatural conditions and survive in spite of them.
But if you aren't thriving and only surviving, get rid of the plants. Focus on smaller meals that are protein prioritized instead.
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