1. I was on carnivore but couldn't lose any weight until I dropped the coffee. Once I got rid of it, I lost thirty pounds. I thought coffee had "no nutrition", so how can this be?
Well, if you were drinking the coffee black, with nothing added to it, then it would have "no nutrition" but if you were taking it with quarts of cream, or sticks of butter, or whatever else people put into it, then it would not be surprising that dropping it would cause weight loss.
If you were drinking it black, then it's the elimination of caffeine that caused the weight loss. I have said it many times before - until you drop the caffeine you will not be able to stabilize blood glucose. Stable blood glucose is the gateway to weight loss.
2. Do you recommend Dr. Shawn Baker?
We do not endorse nor recommend anyone in the low carb community. None of them. Our advice is solely based on biology by what we know about human metabolism and how it works in the context of overweight/obesity.
I have several diets listed on this blog, on the right side column under 'Recommended Diets', but we only recommend the protocol, not the "guru" who "came up" with it because they simply didn't. Low carb diets have been around since carbs have been around. None of these people discovered anything new. They simply put it in a book, marketed online and took credit for it as their own but it's all smoke and mirrors. Every diet that's out there currently, was already out there before. Just because it's new to you, and someone copy wrote it before you did, doesn't mean it's truly new.
Baker is simply a guy who made a book called 'The Carnivore Diet'. That's it. Humans have been carnivores to varying degrees since we first walked the planet. We have cookbooks painted on cave walls from when the woolly mammoth was still roaming the plains. Baker didn't discover a thing we didn't already know. So, you don't need to follow him to know how to eat meat and drink water.
3. Do "total carbs" include sugars too?
Yes. Total carbs are total carbs and sugar is a carb.
4. Is "keto" recommended for someone with hypothyroidism?
It depends on what's causing the hypothyroidism. Generally, starvation diets are not recommended for hypothyroidism. This means no calorie deficits, long fasts or low protein diets.
"Keto" diets are interpreted by the body as starvation because of the presence of ketones. People with hypothyroidism are particularly sensitive to any starvation signal. So, you can try "keto" and see what happens, as not everyone is affected by this, but if it does affect you negatively then you would have to drop the diet and find something else.
5. What is 'Intuitive Eating'? A lot of people are talking about this, and I want to try it out.
Another diet-con to sell books and get views. In fact, the con is in the inability to even define it so most of the book sales and website views are from people simply trying to figure out what the heck it is. After all, the more mysterious it's made to be, the more intrigued people become.
Well, I'll tell you for free. I will also tell you what it really is, compared to what it's being sold as. 'Intuitive Eating' is marketed as being comprised of "10 principals":
- Reject the "diet mentality".
- Honor your hunger.
- Make peace with food.
- Challenge the "food police".
- Discover the "satisfaction factor".
- Feel your fullness.
- Cope with your emotions with kindness.
- Respect your body.
- Movement - make the difference.
- Honor your health - gentle nutrition.
You may be asking yourself, WTF is all this? Well, the definitions are as vague as the principals themselves so there is no point of even describing them as it will be a total waste of time. These "principals" are just word salad to make you think that something important is being discussed when it's not. You know, like daytime TV.
When you peel away the marketing scam, what's left is a premise that's quite simple - reverse psychology. The theory of reverse psychology proposes that people respond to the reverse of what they actually want to do. In other words, the dietitians who created this 'Intuitive Eating' BS figured that preoccupation with diet itself leads to more overweight/obesity so if you are simply not preoccupied with diet, then you might lose weight. Essentially - "I lost weight because I stopped thinking about losing weight!"
Of course, you can't trick yourself into losing weight any more than you can trick your bank account into wealth. The overweight/obese have no intuition when it comes to food. None. That's what got them in this mess to begin with. You can certainly trick other people into doing what you want by telling them the opposite, but your fat mass isn't so easily fooled. "My fat mass wants all these Twix candy bars. Well, I'll show it by eating them all!"
The reason that diets perpetuate more overweight/obesity is not because the person is "preoccupied" with them. It's because all diets use some form of starvation (calorie deficit) and the metabolism of the overweight/obese is already under a starvation adaptation. This means their body will only double down when more starvation is applied.
The unfortunate part of this is that some overweight/obese people, with intact leptin sensitivity, will swear up and down that 'Intuitive Eating' caused them weight loss and "saved their life". BS. All that happened is that they ate all those Twix bars, after years of calorie restriction, and their leptin kicked in causing temporary weight loss. In the end, they will regain the weight all back as their blood glucose continues to become abnormal from the Twix, leading to weight regain. But their temporary success will put a notch on 'Intuitive Eating's' belt and lure more people into the con. This is the case with all diets, even the ones who claim to not be a diet.
The overweight/obese need a solid plan they can consistently follow for the long term and starvation isn't it. Neither are magic tricks. Instead, they need targeted elimination and behavioral modification in order to treat their condition more effectively. In other words - lifestyle changes, not psychobabble.
6. I have been seeing a "low carb doctor" who suggested carnivore and a 'one meal a day' (OMAD) protocol for me to follow. Though I started having good results, now I am seeing my blood glucose and HbA1C numbers slowly rising, and I am concerned. The doctor is too because he checked my BUN, creatinine and uric acid levels, and they are all rising to abnormal levels as well. I am thin with low insulin and C Peptide levels. I am also highly active, and I haven't deviated from my diet. The doctor "has no clue" what's happening.
I am dumbfounded when I receive questions like these. The reason is because I am not a doctor, not even remotely, but I actually can come up with a better answer as to what MIGHT be happening, other than "I have no clue". How can a doctor "have no clue" about something so obvious? He can't even make an educated guess? This just goes to show that these "low carb" doctors are mostly quacks. They are making recommendations which they pull out of their behind, because they read it online, and have no clue as to what the effects will be or what the hell they are even doing.
I will do what your doctor should have done. Let's analyze the problem and make an educated guess with the information we have and what we should all know about basic metabolism, especially a doctor.
The first clue we have is in the tests you say are coming out abnormal. Fasting blood glucose and HbA1C are tests to determine blood glucose regulation. You are obviously losing yours if these numbers are rising. Blood Urea Nitrogen (BUN), Creatinine and Uric Acid Blood Test are all tests that measure how well your kidneys are filtering out waste product from the body. Most of this waste product is the result of protein metabolism. Uric Acid tests are also commonly used to detect gout. Gout is basically the first stage of kidney impairment. This is usually why people with gout also have high blood pressure. The kidneys are simply not filtering uric acid and sodium effectively.
The second clue we have is from the diet you are following. OMAD and carnivore. Why you were recommended this diet, while also being highly active and lean, is unknown to me. But these quacks are always jumping on some bandwagon or other and then screwing their patients up in the interim.
Now the reason that your "doctor" has "no clue" as to what's going on, even though the clues are right in front of their face, is because they most likely believe that fasting for 22 hours a day is completely normal and benign. After all, they read this on Facebook. They also believe that if carnivore can improve blood glucose, then nothing can possibly go wrong since blood glucose is the only relevant marker of health according to what they were taught on YouTube. Low carb doctors are truly one trick ponies.
So, what have the clues told us that your doctor didn't understand? It told us that you are basically burning through your own lean muscle mass. You are breaking yourself down into glucose and this is why your blood glucose and HbA1C numbers are rising. As you break down your body, your protein metabolism waste goes up and this is why your BUN, creatinine and uric acid levels are also rising.
I suggest that you drop your dietary protocol. I don't necessarily mean the carnivore part as long as you are actually following carnivore correctly. Carnivore prioritizes protein, not fat, so you shouldn't be eating a plate of cheese instead of a steak. What you need to drop is the OMAD part. OMADs are generally not good protocols to follow chronically unless all you eat are pancakes. If you are a highly active person, this is something you should have known, especially if you are following a 0 carb diet. This is why athletes avoid 0 carb diets and OMADs. When they do them, they suffer the consequences in their performance, recovery and gains and this is why they don't stay on them for long.
We follow low carb so that we don't have to be under chronic starvation. Humans have never lived under chronic starvation. We have had periods of famine, where we have either lived or died, but we never remained living while chronically starved. That is why we were able to develop our large brains because we always had sufficient nutrients, for the majority of the time. Chronic starvation is a product of modern geo-political issues. Either you are living in a country were food production is unstable and has to be rationed and/or is not always available. You may be unable to leave a certain territory where there is food scarcity because you are not allowed entry elsewhere. You may be succumbing to the inconsistencies and fickleness of agriculture. It is interestingly ironic that the "breadbasket of the world" (agriculture), which helped increase human population to what it is today, is the same thing that has systematically starved us as you would be surprised how difficult, nutrient poor and wasteful it truly is.
Now these quack doctors are right in one thing - the body usually doesn't break down its muscle mass, but they are wrong to think this is based on how much fat there is available. The breakdown of the body is not determined by fat or glucose availability, it's determined by its access to both. In other words, rate of starvation (stress). The only time the body breaks itself down is during starvation. It's supposed to work as follows -
- Fasting/starvation = Glucagon (catabolic) is high, insulin (anabolic/anticatabolic) is low.
- Eating = Glucagon (catabolic) is low, insulin (anabolic/anticatabolic) is high.
That's the proper glucagon to insulin toggle function. If you are starving all the time, then glucagon is always high, and you are continuously breaking down your body. This constant breakdown will dysregulate insulin through its effect on blood glucose regulation.
Starvation does not only happen at the gulag. OMAD is starvation. Obesity is starvation. Diabetes is starvation. That is why a 500 lb. person has plenty of fat but still breaks down their muscle at an exponential rate. A diabetic has plenty of blood glucose but still breaks down their muscle chronically for even more glucose. You are starving because of the dumb OMAD protocol you were made to follow. You are simply not getting enough calories (glucose and fat) and/or protein which is always the case with OMADs and common with carnivore.
This high blood glucose and HbA1C, are affecting your insulin function and will cause metabolic syndrome over time, but you won't get gout or kidney damage from your high protein metabolism markers. That will happen later. What will happen now instead is that you will lose most of your lean muscle mass and have a very difficult time replacing it. This will further contribute to your metabolic syndrome and eventually end in diabetes. This is the result of your metabolism doubling down on its starvation adaptation which always results in obesity and diabetes. The diabetes is what will destroy your kidneys in the future.
Please find a real doctor and stop fooling around with your health because it's truly a sad state of affairs when a stranger online "has a clue" of what's happening to you, but your own doctor doesn't.
No comments:
Post a Comment