1. I have been following a protocol that has been able to get my weight to the lowest it's been in years, but I am still obese. I am also stalled. I need something to get me "over the hump" and "jump start" the weight loss again.
There are no short cuts for getting "over the hump". The only way over it is to continue going.
When you find a protocol that has helped you lose weight, you have to stick to it and not jump around to something else. Jumping around will only reverse whatever progress you have made so far. Weight naturally stalls at intervals as it's being lost. This is the normal function of leptin. Doubling down will only cause this natural stall to be reinforced and become prolonged.
Also, small fluctuations in weight are not an indication of progress or failure. When losing weight, you have to look at overall, long term trends. This is why we don't recommend "daily weigh-ins". You check your progress once a month, at most.
2. I have lost weight following a calorie centered protocol but stalled. My coach told me to increase calories but that will only make me gain. I like the menu and don't want to change it, but I feel like I shouldn't add. I would feel safer "subtracting" instead.
Usually, the coaches that run calorie centered protocols are full of BS but in this case, your coach is actually right on the money. As you lose weight, you should increase your calories to prevent weight regain. You cannot continue on the same calories that you started out with.
Calorie centered protocols, like all protocols, must change with weight change. Stalls can easily become weight regains on calorie centered protocols if these adjustments aren't made. Your coach seems knowledgeable about this effect and is trying to prevent it. That means they are aware of leptin and how it works. You don't need to "add or subtract" anything. What you need to do is trust the process and keep to the calorie goals that your coach has advised you on.
3. I was told that there is a way to increase lean muscle mass and lose body fat with no change in diet or lifestyle.
That's an obvious scam. When anyone tells you that you can achieve anything without putting in any work, they are obviously lying to you. If that was truly the case, then you would have already put on lean muscle mass and lost body fat doing what you are currently doing - nothing.
It’s hard to believe that with everything that’s currently known about overweight/obesity people are still being duped into "diet" and quack programs.
4. I had blood tests a week apart, from different doctors, and the first test had my triglycerides (trigs) at 133 and the other at 150. I am on a calorie centered protocol where my two main meals basically equate to about a quarter pound of meat and one pound of vegetables. I am still obese but have lost some inches and pounds. I am now fluctuating up and down the same pounds every week as I'm stalled.
Let's go through some issues I see here.
First, you need to tell, whichever doctor you see last, that the previous one already ordered the same blood tests for you so they can get the results from those. You never want to take the same blood tests back-to-back, because it will create conflicting results. This is especially true if each doctor uses a different lab and the tests being ordered are for things that naturally fluctuate on a daily basis like trigs, insulin and blood glucose. Take to your doctor the result of one blood test. It's ridiculous that they would make you go through the wringer twice for the same exact test. You're the one getting poked.
Aside from that, there isn't much of a difference between 133 and 150. It is totally irrelevant so there is no need to get caught up with minutia. The only relevancy in both of these readings is that your trigs are high. They aren't incredibly high, but they are higher than they should be. This is typical of high body fat but also the diet you are following.
One pound of vegetables is basically one pound of carbs. Carb centric diets tend to increase trigs. Since the protocol you are following is also calorie restricted, then I am sure it is low fat to boot. So, it should not be surprising that your trigs are higher than they should be. When you starve, you release trigs.
The only diets that drop trigs are very low carb diets like "keto". High carb/low fat diets increase trigs and decrease cholesterol while low carb/high fat diets decrease trigs and increase cholesterol. You can't win for losing so you are only left to mitigate your losses and focus on your goals. If a healthy metabolism is your goal, then it is more metabolically sound to have high cholesterol than high trigs. High trigs are really bad. High cholesterol, it depends.
High trigs are not indicative of weight loss on the type of protocol you are following. In fact, high trigs are generally not indicative of any weight loss. I lost all of my weight and my trigs never went up once. But if you were following "keto", then I would have advised you to keep an eye on the downward trend of your trigs if you were actively losing a significant amount of weight. Since then, you could make an argument that the temporary high trigs are caused by a liver dump of fat, but you aren't following "keto" and you aren't losing a significant amount of weight. So, neither applies to you.
Seesawing up and down a few pounds every week, is not significant weight loss. In fact, it's active obesity. You yourself admitted to being stalled.
So, I wouldn't worry about these trig results. They aren't astronomically high and the difference between the two readings is insignificant. The tests were also not properly done. You are obviously following a diet that you can sustain and has gotten you some results so just continue with what you're doing.
5. I have end stage kidney disease. My doctor told me to limit the amount of protein I consume but an online "low carb doctor" told me to eat all the protein I want. I don't know what to do.
You need to follow your doctor's orders. You are his patient. He has seen, examined and diagnosed you. No one online, even if they have a medical degree, can diagnose or treat you without seeing you in person. So whatever low carb doctor told you this, should have his license taken as what he is doing is unethical and illegal. Why you would even consider following the advice of someone online, who you haven't even met for a condition this serious, is beyond my comprehension.
Consumption of protein does not cause kidney disease but for people who already have kidney disease, protein consumption can add an extra burden on their already failing kidneys. There are studies that haven't shown any benefit in the reduction or elimination of protein for kidney patients but why take that risk when we know the biological mechanism of how the kidneys handle protein metabolism? I personally wouldn't. End stage kidney disease is nothing to play around with.
6. Sugar and "junk food" the only things that cause diabetes.
Wrong. Anything that disrupts proper blood glucose regulation can end in diabetes. What "causes" diabetes are large disparities between blood glucose highs and lows. In other words, between postprandial and fasting blood glucose. Postprandial blood glucose is affected by carbs in the diet and fasting blood glucose is dropped by an over expression of insulin in response to the postprandial blood glucose.
Sugar and junk food aren't the only things that can cause this disparity. "Healthy" foods like grains can cause it too, particularly in modernity where there is no forced, long term, chronic calorie restriction. Lack of exercise also eventually causes this disparity, because it disrupts metabolic homeostasis. Chronic conditions and medications can too. Sugar and junk food can accelerate the process, but as you can see, they aren't always the only cause.
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