Six common beliefs addressed, Part 258 - Snacking Edition

1. There is a lot of debate about snacking and most people do not even know what it is. What is snacking and how can I enjoy snack foods without it?

It is hard to believe how many misconceptions there are about snacking but this is typical with any aspect of diet. Most diets cannot define many of their tenets. Diets in general are a hot mess.

But this blog is different. I try to refrain from vague definitions and concessions that only confuse people further. Snacking, like fasting, has been one of those things that is always being redefined or not defined at all. Some people snack during their fast, so go figure. So let's be clear on what is meant by snacking on this blog:

• Snacking is eating out of mealtimes.

That is all. Simple and to the point. Anytime you have any food out of your mealtimes, it's snacking. Snacking is obesogenic. It doesn't matter what the snack consists of or its size. You should never eat out of meal times because it causes obesogenic eating habits.

Inconsistencies in meal times:

• Disrupt circadian rhythms which causes hunger when there shouldn't be.
• Fasts that last too long, extending your time in hypoglycemia.
• Lack of hunger when there should be, which only contributes to even longer fasting times and hunger later.

Unpredictable eating patterns are very common and most people do not think about them as being something negative but they set the stage for obesogenic behaviors such as eating the wrong foods, eating too much at once or eating too little. All of these disrupt metabolic homeostasis through improper blood glucose regulation. So no, snacking doesn't harm you because it adds calories to your day. It harms you through a chronic disruption of hormonal circadian rhythms.

You do not want to feel hungry when you shouldn't and not hungry when you should. The way to prevent this discomfort, which can ultimately affect how you eat, is by having predictable and consistent meal times. Decide a mealtime schedule that's convenient for you and fits with your daily activities. Choose between two or three meals - Breakfast and lunch or breakfast, lunch and dinner. You choose which of these you would like to be your largest meal, it doesn't matter which. Usually it's dinner but for me, for example, it's lunch.

There are many low carb "snack" foods such as olives, cheese, nuts, cold cuts, chocolate, berries and nut butters which you can incorporate into one of your meals or choose them for your smallest meal. For example you can have a charcuterie plate for lunch. This allows you to keep your favorite snack foods without actually snacking.

Six common beliefs addressed, Part 239

1. Can fasting be added to any diet?

Yes, but you won't obtain any metabolic benefits. Fasting by itself does nothing for the reversal of metabolic conditions and overweight/obesity. It is only complimentary to a proper diet and exercise regimen.

2. Are there any acceptable vegetables on carnivore?

Carnivore is an all-animal based diet. So, unless animals started growing plant parts I am not familiar with, aside from the eggplant emoji, then vegetables would not be acceptable on carnivore.

If a diet does not fit you, find another one but don't change it to fit your desires because then it loses its efficacy.

3. I have diverticulitis. My doctor told me to limit meat consumption. Could it have been caused by carnivore?

The only reason I'm answering this question is because it was made in the context of diet but, people please, don't bring me your medical problems. I am not a doctor.

This is a metabolic health blog, not an "I don't have insurance" and/or "I'm too lazy to contact my doctor right now so I'm asking around the internet for help" blog. The internet is not a surrogate for proper medical care. If you're second guessing your doctor, then find another doctor and get a second opinion. Don't get your second opinion from someone who is not a doctor and not your doctor.

The answer to your question is NO. Carnivore doesn't have anything to do with this condition. Anyone can get this. Diverticulitis is when small, bulging pouches develop in your digestive tract. When these pouches become inflamed or infected, the condition becomes diverticulitis. As you get older, your intestinal walls can become weaker putting you at risk for the development of these pouches. Also, certain chronic digestive issues can make you more susceptible to this. I'm sure your doctor has explained this to you already but I'm describing it for the reader.

This has nothing to do with carnivore. The reason your doctor most likely told you to stay away from meat is because it is slower to digest, as it's nutrient dense, causing for your digestive tract to work more and irritate these pouches further. At least, that would be the logic behind the recommendation, but we don't know if that really pans out in practice. It depends on where the pouches are. If they are in your colon then meat would be your best friend. If they are somewhere further up, then not so much.

Whatever the case, your doctor is the one who diagnosed you. Ask them to explain to you clearly why you would have to limit meat specifically and not anything else. See what answer they give you. I am sure you would be able to discern if the answer is justified and makes sense or if it's just pure BS. Usually "stay away from meat" is the go-to advice for anything from a broken leg to dandruff. This is why you should question your doctor until you get satisfactory answers because you are ultimately paying him to treat you. Don't leave the office with these types of doubts because going to the internet with them is not going to make things any clearer. You have probably already gotten 70 different answers to this before you got mine. Go back to your doctor.

4. Can you still lose weight and "regulate insulin" if you only eat potatoes one meal a day (OMAD) style?

The simple answer is no. For those that want the complicated answer, keep reading.

I don't know what you mean by "regulate insulin". Insulin can only be "regulated" through proper blood glucose regulation, unless you have a serious pancreatic condition. Eating only potatoes once a day does not acquire proper blood glucose regulation, particularly when you are already overweight/obese with bad blood glucose control to begin with.

The OMAD style is actually more detrimental for this than the potatoes. Overweight/obesity/diabetes are metabolic adaptations towards starvation. Doing OMAD will only reinforce this adaptation, not reverse it. This type of eating causes a prolonged time in hypoglycemia, which is a signal to the body that it is starving and must get its blood glucose up. That's when your hypothalamic/pituitary/adrenal axis (HPA) makes sure blood glucose goes up. Way up. Stimulating this stress response daily, causes further metabolic adaptation towards starvation.

5. I am a grazer and so don't eat "meals". What are good items to munch on?

Air. Oxygen. Breeze. Wind. Draft. All of these are good to "munch" on.

Now if you want to actually address your metabolic health, then you would first have to address your bad eating habits. Grazing is one of them. We aren't ruminants. Humans don't graze. You can't make a metabolically healthy diet fit in with your bad behaviors or it will lose its efficacy.

The way metabolically healthy diets work is when they are followed properly. When you eat is just as important as what you eat. You are supposed to be eating proper meals - two to three a day and fasting in between. That's how it works. If you can't do it, you can always remain fat. Remaining fat is always an option but wasting time is not.

6. I am going on vacation and need quick results to drop 20 pounds.

Join Jenny Craig.

There are many easy, cheap and effective weight loss programs out there for dropping 5 - 20 pounds. I've said this before. If you just want to drop some vanity weight to fit into your bikini, you can do so on a weekend liquid diet. Pick up a tabloid at the check out aisle of your local grocery store and follow whatever fad diet they recommend this week to drop weight fast. After all, the bikini doesn't care if the weight you dropped is from water, fat, muscle or bones. You can cut your leg off and drop 10 pounds instantly.

But this blog is for metabolic health. It's not a weight loss blog. You have clicked the wrong link.

Six common beliefs addressed, Part 237

1. Is there a certain daily fat goal I have to reach on "keto"?

No. You have to follow your own individualized macros calculated from a reputable source. This can range anywhere between 50 to 150 grams of fat a day. No more, no less.

2. If you eat too many carbohydrates on low carb, will that cause a weight stall?

If you are following a low carb diet, which has eliminated all sugar and grains, then you will not see any long-term benefit between eating 100 grams of carbs a day or 20 grams of carbs a day. Stop chasing carbs. It's like chasing dragons. You won't reach a magical level of carb intake.

"How do you know this, Gina?" Because countless others have been down this trail before. They continue dropping carbs to try and increase benefits until they end up on carnivore and still fat. You have to understand that most serum glucose is not from dietary carbs, it's from the breakdown of your own lean muscle mass. So, you can drop your carbs to zero and still have enough blood glucose circulating to continue interfering with your insulin function as you keep storing/sparing fat.

Follow a normal low carb diet and address other factors in order to improve benefits.

3. I am diabetic, and peaches are in season. I asked my endocrinologist if I can eat them, and he said yes. He actually said that peaches "prevent obesity and diabetes" and are full of much needed "vitamins and minerals". The only caveat he gave was to just eat one or two whole peaches and not peaches in a can or a dessert. I wanted to double check with you, if that's okay.

This is what occurs when doctors are scared to tell their patients, or anyone for that matter, - NO. There is a big problem in society when people in authority cannot say NO. Well, I'm not in authority and I can easily tell you NO.

The advice your doctor is giving you is for someone who is not diabetic and would prefer they eat peaches rather than candy bars. This is what most dietary advice is based on - less bad, rather than actually good. 

If you weren't diabetic, then I would tell you that a whole peach is fine in season. Only eat whole peaches while keeping the rest of your diet very low in carbs. Only eat one or two peaches as a garnish on a salad or make fresh salsa out of them and never make them into a smoothie or dessert. But you are a diabetic and that changes everything.

"Why Gina? Peaches don't cause diabetes!" That's true but the person with diabetes already has a very high glucose load in the body and they don't need more coming in from diet. For this reason, do not waste your daily carb allotment on peaches. They aren't an ideal carb source.

Peaches do not prevent obesity or diabetes, any more than they cause either condition. The only time peaches can delay, not prevent, obesity and diabetes are when they replace chocolate cake. So, it's the elimination of the chocolate cake that prevents obesity and diabetes, not the addition of peaches. Addition never makes anything better unless you're adding meat to a meatless diet.

Also, peaches do not provide any "vitamins and minerals" that can't be obtained in meat. Every time someone tells you about vitamins and minerals in any plant source, remember that they are also contained in meat and in a much more bioavailable form without the added glucose. If you have doubts, take a supplement but don't use peaches.

4. Do I have to have protein at every meal? I was told that I don't.

You were told wrong. A meal without protein is a carb snack. Not only should your goal at every meal be to get adequate protein for the day but protein is what will create overall satiety and help mitigate the constant break down of your lean muscle mass caused by sarcopenic obesity (metabolic syndrome).

5. I was told that I can have snack foods as a meal, like berries. Is this true?

You were told wrong, just like the person above. A meal is not "berries" unless you're a monkey. Humans require protein and fat, not glucose and fiber. "Snack foods" have no place in legitimate protocols except to be used as garnishes to your main meal. Berries can go over your salad.

The goal of your eating should be to get and remain slim not to get and remain obese. So, every time you sit at the table, you have to ask yourself "Is this food contributing to me being slim or being obese?" Well, bowls of berries contribute to obesity because they are replacing nutrient dense foods that will keep blood glucose stable and satiety hormones balanced. It is also contributing to bad eating habits as sitting around eating snacks is not a proper way to eat. Stop eating just to eat. Eat like you mean it. Don't waste your mealtime with nonsense.

6. Are grain less tortillas okay to eat? My son is slim so I don't see how they could affect him. They are "gluten free".

Okay, here we go. There are three issues with this question, and it goes back to misunderstanding what obesity is and its causes. Let's break down this question and digest each part individually.

First, "grain less" tortillas are irrelevant for the treatment of overweight/obesity and metabolic syndrome. This product would only be useful for people who have celiac disease or some other condition that makes them allergic to grain proteins. Other than that, the effect they have on the overweight/obese is the same as if they were made of grains.

"Grain less" is still carbs. The effect on blood glucose is the same. You are wasting your money on an overpriced product that is the same to metabolism as if they were made of corn or wheat. If you're going to ruin your metabolism regardless, you might as well do it with the cheaper alternative of corn or wheat because you will need to save money for medical bills. They will also taste better as there's nothing like the real thing, baby.

Next, slimness does not equate to proper blood glucose control. You can be thin as a rail and still have blood glucose disparities while consuming "grain less" tortillas. There are plenty of skinny people who have metabolic syndrome and/or diabetes without ever becoming significantly fat. This shouldn't be surprising as you shouldn't be consuming any tortillas. I don't know why people equate "thin" with metabolic health because they don't go hand in hand. I know that people with metabolic syndrome/diabetes are usually overweight/obese, as the gaining and sparing of body fat is a common symptom of these conditions, but it is not necessary to be overweight/obese to be metabolically unhealthy.

We were all thin once. If you want to break your son's thinness, then feeding him grain less tortillas would be a good way to get the ball rolling and have him developing man boobs by the age of thirty. Being thin is not a pass for eating junk that causes metabolic pathology. The rules apply to everyone, fat or thin, when it comes to tortillas. This isn't a journey to metabolic health for the obese blog. The advice and information I provide is not specific to the obese only.

Finally, "gluten free" is meaningless for the prevention of overweight/obesity/diabetes. Like I mentioned above, gluten is only of concern for people with celiac disease or some other condition that causes an allergy to grain gluten, which is basically a fancy term for grain proteins.

You have to ditch the tortillas, grain less or not. They aren't necessary. Don't teach your kid to eat novelties. It's not a good habit to have. Once bad habits are carried into adulthood, they become very hard to break.

Six common beliefs addressed, Part 219

1. Diabetics are recommended snacks which they don't need.

This is because it helps them manage their blood glucose better when they are on diabetes medications.

Diabetes medications lower blood glucose levels but they continue to do this, even while the person is fasting, and their blood glucose is already lowering naturally. This can cause for blood glucose to drop too low. Eating prevents this. This is why snacking is encouraged. Not because it helps treat the diabetes. It just helps prevent the medications side effects.

2. I have been eating less than 10 grams of carbs a day and stopped taking my insulin. I also recently started fasting for 48 hours at a time. My blood glucose has not stabilized! In fact, it's worse than before. I can't get a single reading below 140 mg/dL, even after all that fasting. 

Sir, mam, you are a diabetic. I have no idea why you are eating less than 10 grams of carbs a day or why you stopped your insulin. I am really hoping, praying actually, that your doctor was the one who stopped your insulin, but I highly doubt that if your blood glucose is so out of control. I don't know what you are doing or who told you to do this. I get people from many groups and pages sending me weird questions like this. I have no doubt that someday, any day now, someone will drop dead. I see it coming. It's inevitable.

Stop the shenanigans. The way this should have been addressed is by you starting on a classic low carb diet of no more than 100 grams of carbs a day. You would have first discussed this with your doctor so that your blood glucose could be monitored, and your medications lowered or eliminated as needed. Then, with time, as you gauged your results, you would have modified your diet to meet your goals. Did you do this? Absolutely not.

Instead, you decided to go online and begin on a ridiculously low amount of carbs (fad diet) and also stop your insulin to boot. Then to make matters worse, you threw in a long fast as well. Just because. If you are on prescribed insulin, it was because you are a full-blown diabetic. You are lucky though that your blood glucose hasn't gone to 500 mg/dL. This means you didn't crap out on the gamble you took with your own health and life.

This will not improve with time. Not on the protocol you are on now. Your body will just continue making sugar on its own from the massive stress you have put it under. You will be one of those "keto" practicing diabetics, that have been able to "lower their blood glucose" while still having Dawn Phenomenon and hyperglucagonemia. You know, the ones who are always chasing symptoms and fasting longer or eating more fat to try and budge their numbers a few points down? Basically, they are striving to keep the same diabetes they started with five years ago. In about five more years, you will be back on insulin and fully diabetic once again.

Why don't you address your problem in a more sustainable, long-term way that will actually reverse your condition with time? Look at the right-hand column of this blog and choose a proper protocol under 'Recommended Diets'. 

3. It is difficult to get weight loss advice.

Because there is no one way to "lose weight". When people refer to "weight loss" they are usually talking about "fat loss" specifically. Losing fat is at the sole discretion of your leptin expression which is controlled by your neuroendocrine system. This varies with each individual. Many factors play into this, including how much body fat we are actually trying to lose.

Simple weight management can always be addressed by targeting calories. Overweight/obesity can only be addressed by targeting multiple factors. That gets complicated. Very complicated. This means that unfortunately there is no simple advice that can be given to achieve this.

• Weight loss – easy to do. Weight is water, muscle and fat. Anything that temporarily affects these, will cause the scale to lower. You can simply dehydrate for two days, and you will lose weight. In fact, this is how certain athletes try to "make weight" even though it is a dangerous practice. Weight loss is best achieved with calorie restriction. The lowering of calories automatically causes water and lean muscle mass to be lost through the temporary lowering of blood glucose which lowers insulin. That's why all diets will promise you a five-pound loss in the first week, guaranteed.
• Fat loss – hard to do. Fat is fat. It is stored in your fat mass. Your fat mass is an actual organ. It is a large endocrine modulator. It's loss is determined by leptin. Leptin expression is only affected if blood glucose is properly regulated for a long enough period of time to affect insulin expression. Leptin is a slave to insulin. Only then will leptin sensitivity be restored and body fat is burned if there is no hypothalamic damage.

What is healthy fat loss? Healthy fat loss is when fat is lost at a steady, slow rate. This is because what you are actually trying to achieve is not "fat loss" per say but a fat burn and storage balance. You want the body to burn mostly fat and not store too much of it. This can only be achieved through a healthy and balanced interplay between your fat mass, metabolic hormones and brain. It is mostly out of your control as it is governed by your hypothalamus. You can only set the stage for this to be more likely to occur than not and that stage's foundation is proper blood glucose regulation.

You do this through following a lifestyle that promotes this balance. It includes diet, exercise and stress management. By stress we are specifically referring to metabolic stress which is managed through circadian rhythms to help regulate blood glucose.

This is why there is no specific advice to be given. You can only learn how your body works and what it needs in order to work properly. Anyone that says otherwise is giving you a load of BS. That's why diet programs are all BS.

4. Don’t fat people burn a lot of calories? Wouldn’t what's a surplus for thin people actually be a deficit for a fat person? If that's the case, why is everyone recommended the same number of calories?

That’s why we don’t guide ourselves by calories. Fat people burn a lot of calories from everything but body fat.

5. Can a person who is not overweight/obese maintain their weight using calorie information only? I have a friend who is slim and always reads the calorie information of everything she eats. It seems to work well for her.

Yes. Healthy people respond well to elementary nutrient information such as calories. Of course, these calorie counting people also pay attention to which macros are supplying their calories, as they know that's where the magic occurs. But overall, they can rely on calorie information alone to maintain their weight stable regardless of macros, as long as their blood glucose continues to be well regulated.

This is because healthy people aren’t overweight/obese, so their metabolism works well even with simple nutrient information. Their weight fluctuates very little and small weight fluctuations respond to calorie information, as that's what mainly causes these fluctuations. So, these people are targeting the actual cause of their weight fluctuations.

6. How are low fat diets supposed to work?

Low fat diets work through leptin, just like low carb diets work through insulin. Your coach will tell you that they work through the overall control of calories but that's not true. It's actually leptin and insulin manipulation. All weight loss and gain is mitigated through insulin. All fat loss is mitigated through leptin.

It is assumed that people who are overweight/obese are "leptin resistant", so they don't burn fat properly. This would mean that if you lower their fat intake, they will see benefits. What would be the point of intaking more dietary fat if you aren't using what you already have, right?

It's sort of like the same premise of low carb diets. If you are insulin resistant, what would be the point of adding more glucose, to the body, if you aren't burning what you already have? The assumption actually works.

Lowering the fat intake of overweight/obese people, who might be leptin resistant, does cause some weight loss. Unfortunately, they don't lose enough to not be overweight/obese. With time they also regain what they lost back again.

The problem is that you can manipulate insulin for the long term but not leptin. That's why low carb diets work better than low fat diets. Leptin is a slave to insulin so if you don't control your insulin first, you won't get much from leptin control in the long run. You control insulin through the proper regulation of blood glucose.

The best protocol then would be low fat and low carb. That's basically a protein sparing modified fast, right? Right. So, it's not surprising that's the protocol that works best. It's just that it's difficult to adhere to for the long term. It's sort of like calorie restriction. Very hard to maintain and eventually has to be changed in order to continue with results and help keep the results you already achieved.

To solve the problem, instead of making your protocol low fat, you can instead use fat as a lever. Remember, it is being assumed that overweight/obese people are leptin resistant but that's still just an assumption that can't be applied across the board. There are many overweight/obese people who are leptin resistant but there are some who aren't. The minute they control their blood glucose regulation and obtain proper insulin expression, their weight drops rapidly. This is why it's not a good idea to jump on low fat first. You jump on low carb first and then lower your dietary fat according to your results. This is because too little fat, for too long, causes what you are trying to avoid or reverse - "leptin resistance".

This is the same thing that occurs when you lower calories for too long. The body goes into "starvation mode". "Starvation mode" is simply a trendy way of saying "leptin resistance". The body is actively trying to stay fat and get fatter. It does this through chronic leptin under expression.

The good thing is that you can continue to be low carb forever and have no such negative side effects to metabolism. You can be zero carb, forever, and have zero problems because insulin just doesn't work the same way leptin does.

So, remember the diet that will most likely achieve results is low carb, adequate protein and fat as a lever (moderate). Some people can eat more fat than others and still see results. Don't sabotage your weight loss journey by making everything too low. Only one thing can go very low – carbs.

Six common beliefs addressed, Part 218

1. My HbA1c went up one point from 4.9 to 5.0. My C-Peptide and insulin are very low though. My fasting blood glucose is normal. 

The term "HbA1c" refers to "glycated hemoglobin". When a protein within red blood cells, joins with glucose in the blood, it becomes ‘glycated’. Measuring this glycated hemoglobin (HbA1c), helps determine what your average blood glucose levels have been over a period of time, usually about three months.

However, this absolute number can be up for interpretation because other things can affect it. For instance, if your red blood cells have a longer half-life, your absolute HbA1C will tend to be higher. Glycation damages red blood cells so diabetics tend to have red blood cells with a shorter half-life. People without diabetes tend to have red blood cells with a longer half-life.

So, a point or two difference in your HbA1C is not really a big deal. If you are on low carb and are in remission from diabetes/metabolic syndrome, your HbA1C might go up a point or two in accordance with a longer red blood cell half-life. 

2. My HbA1C and fasting blood glucose are higher than normal, but my insulin level is low, so this mean I am safe from diabetes.

That is ridiculous. Diabetes is a syndrome. This means there are several abnormalities present in it. It is not just one thing. That is why we always remind people that diabetes is not "a disease of high blood glucose". This is because high blood glucose alone does not signify diabetes, even though your doctor might give that one metric enough validity to diagnose you as such.

Diabetes is a condition of improper blood glucose regulation and for that to occur, multiple glucoregulatory and other metabolic systems, within the body, must fail. These systems are everything from the adrenals to the liver, to the fat cells, to the hypothalamus, and finally, to the mitochondria itself.

On this blog, we do not put that much weight on insulin levels and claim you do not have diabetes because your insulin is low. It doesn't work that way. Your pancreas can simply be "burned out" and no longer producing enough insulin to control its blood glucose correctly.

So, low insulin means nothing without a normal fasting/postprandial blood glucose and HbA1C. If your fasting blood glucose and HbA1C is above normal, you are presenting the symptoms which are typically found in the syndrome we call diabetes. You have to figure out what is happening to your metabolism and correct it right away.

3. I have a friend who does not want to be my friend anymore because I noticed and mentioned to her that she is extremely obese. It's not that I didn't realize she "knows" she weighs 400 pounds, but for me, it is like seeing someone bleeding and not trying to help them. I know you're not supposed to mention to obese people they are obese, but I see she is also setting her daughter up to have the same life she has. My friend told me that she has come to terms with her weight because she doesn't have the finances to "do anything about it." Does it cost a lot of money and doctors to lose weight? I think lack of finances are an excuse, but I could be wrong. 

It didn't cost me any money to lose weight and I didn't have to see any doctor. So, "lack of finances" can very well be an excuse as overweight/obesity is a lifestyle choice. You can clearly see this playing out in how your friend is causing for her daughter to be obese as well by passing down the same lifestyle choices she has. This is why I don't like to push the idea that obesity is a "diet disease". It is not.

There are many things that play into the development and upkeep of obesity. I still remember my obese/diabetic friend who often displayed the type of attitude that kept her obese. She had a grocery store across the street from her house and when I told she could walk to it, her reply was "Why do I have to go walking to a store?". When I told her that she shouldn't eat the cake at the office party, her reply was "Why do I have to be the only one that can't eat cake at a party?". Her sense of entitlement was more important than her health.

This is not uncommon. I have seen it over and over in the obese. The stereotype of "gluttony and sloth", which is usually given to the overweight/obese person, is not entirely incorrect. There is some grain of truth in it, but it goes way beyond just "being lazy and eating too much". It is an attitude that affects every aspect of their life. This is why obesity is treated wit ha lifestyle approach.

But let's give the devil its due. This 400 lbs. person has probably been duped many times into "weight loss programs" that have failed. Her doctor has most likely failed her too. She probably has no clue why she is obese and has tried everything she can think of to reverse it until she simply gave up. She probably does believe that losing the amount of weight she would have to lose, would take a lot of money in expensive medical procedures and trainers to hold her hand through it. This is most likely because she does not have the ability to do what she has to do on her own, without being babysat. Remember, the weight loss programs she's most likely tried, took minimal effort on her part and promised her the world. I doubt she has the will to try something difficult. Most chronic dieters do not. They gravitate to “easy fixes”. This is why they always jump on every fad diet they come across.

Unfortunately, this type of situation cannot be fixed. You can't save people from themselves. One of the biggest hurdles in the treatment of obesity is behavioral. Oftentimes, that cannot be overcome.

4. Lily's Chocolates are everywhere now, and people are raving about them. It's the only chocolate accepted in some weight loss programs.

Chocolate is one of the few, if not the only, "novelty" that is allowed, as long as it's 85% cocoa and above. Normally the higher the cocoa percentage, the less sugar. Lily's Chocolates have allowed a lower percentage of cocoa because they don't contain sugar. Lily's uses stevia, not added sugar, so this has allowed "milk chocolate" to be put back on the menu.

There is only one problem with this. Like I have emphasized many times before, obesity is not a disease of one sole cause. It is a syndrome of many. Sugar is not the only thing that makes you fat. Hypothalamic disruption also makes you fat and nothing disrupts it more than the taste of sweet. This effect is irrespective of calories because just like sugar, calories aren't the only thing that makes you fat. Especially not the calories of one sole item.

So, like I suggested to someone else a few posts back, if you are the type of person that can keep their novelty eating under control, then Lily's is fine on occasion. If you are the type of person that cannot, then stay away from it altogether. Novelties are not required.

There are many ways to make Lily's chocolates obesogenic. First, they are already obesogenic on their own since they are just an energy dense "food" with no protein. That, in itself, is a gateway for fatness. Aside from the obesogenic profile that these items already have, they can become fat making steroids by simply:

• Eating them out of mealtimes (snacking)
• Eating them instead of proper meals (Lily's molten chocolate cake for dinner)

Both are obesogenic eating practices that are all too commonly done.

5. I lost a lot of weight on low carb. I enjoy the diet and decided to continue on it simply because it is convenient, and I really like the food selection. The problem is that even while following the same diet that got me to slim, I am starting to see my weight creeping up anyway. I wish I was slimmer and back to my lowest weight. My metabolic markers have remained stable, and I continue to be in remission of metabolic syndrome. I just don't like my current weight. I am about twenty-five to thirty pounds over what I was before and preferred. 

I have gotten similar questions before, and the answer is always the same. The reason you are gaining weight is because you lost weight. In other words - leptin.

Leptin doesn't care about your diet. It doesn't care about its composition or its calories. All leptin cares about is that there was a challenge to the body's fat mass, and it will now purposely under express, in the brain, to prevent further fat loss and actually cause fat gain. You are experiencing what everyone will experience. All diets fail. The body is protective of its fat. That is the mechanism that keeps you from losing too much weight and dying. Body fat is the largest endocrine modulator in the body. It helps regulate a lot of necessary functions. The most important one is the prevention of death, during famine. Fat is very valuable to the body. It will sacrifice its muscle, for its fat.

For this reason, the only thing you can do now is to not get fatter. In other words, don't give up on your diet and end up tossing it because you feel it is no longer working and not worth the sacrifice. That is the absolute worse decision you can make at this point, but the most common one. Low leptin expression alongside "I feel scorned" chocolate cake are a recipe for disaster.

If the diet you are on got you to slim, then it's because it worked. It's not the diet that isn't working anymore. It's leptin that isn't cooperating anymore. Doubling down now, will only cause leptin to double down even further. You don't want to end up gaining everything back and then some. You have to maintain. Actually, the better word for that is to "control" because no one can maintain diddly squat. That's a lie. Leptin doesn't allow any weight maintenance. It's going to cause weight to go up, so you have to control that. Control is not changing your diet, adding some diet crap to it, extending your fasts or lowering more calories. All of that are main causes for weight rebound.

So, instead of struggling to get to the summit of the mountain (your lowest weight), try staying a few feet down (not overweight/obese). The higher up you are, the harder the fall. It's better to control your weight than be the size you wish you were. Like I have said before, you won't return to your lowest weight. Now your job is to prevent yourself from going back to your highest.

Your weight will stabilize at where your body feels comfortable. This shouldn't be obesity, of course. Obesity is never comfortable for the body. But it sure won't be your lowest weight. Where your weight eventually stabilizes is determined by many things, so there is no one hard line number to guide yourself by. It all depends on age, gender, metabolic state, hormonal state, previous history of obesity and activity level. All of those things control fat cell function.

Carrying around more body fat than you wish you had is not necessarily pathological, until it becomes overweight/obesity. So, don't fear that you have put on a few more pounds that you would like. As you can see, this hasn't affected your metabolic markers. They are still stable because the body doesn't consider itself to be over fat, though your eyes may beg to differ. Continue keeping metabolic markers stable as instability in blood glucose regulation is the engine towards obesity.

6. Snacks are allowed if they are low carb and low calorie.

We do not recommend "snacking". Snacking is an obesogenic habit to have, regardless of macronutrient composition or calories. Our metabolism was not designed for "grazing". We aren't ruminants. Snacking keeps you eating constantly which does not allow your body to regulate its blood glucose and insulin properly. This will eventually deteriorate the function of both over time.

Snacking was once seen as a good way to control weight because it was believed that having low calorie snacks between meals would prevent you from overeating at mealtimes. It didn't pan out that way, even though in the short term, snacking did produce results in some people. It did this by stimulating leptin expression in people who chronically dieted. When you are under chronic calorie restriction, an increase in calories produces weight loss for those who were leptin sensitive. This turned out to be an epic fail though, as chronic insulin dysfunction soon deteriorated this temporary increase in leptin expression and the weight began to pile on again.

If you cannot fast for 16/18 hours a day, then have three meals a day. Space them out so that you are not fasting for long periods of time, except for overnight. Remember when everyone ate breakfast, lunch and dinner, with nothing in between? Return to that.

Six common beliefs addressed, Part 102

1. Fruit has too much sugar.

Some do, some don't. It depends on the type of fruit. 

• Tomatoes, eggplants, zucchini and basically all other nightshades are low sugar fruits. They can be eaten with no restriction at mealtimes. 
• Berries and stone fruits are less likely to be hybridized, so they are fine to eat on occasion and as a garnish to your main meal. 
• Tropical fruits and other common fruits, like apples and grapes, are highly hybridized to contain much more sugar than they would have naturally and for this reason they are eliminated from the diet. 

Questions about fruit are very common, but this only places focus on food items that are not important, nor relevant to this diet, such as fruit. This diet is not about trying to incorporate what you used to eat into it, it's about eliminating what you used to eat from it. 

2. Fructose is "toxic" to humans. 

Fructose is a liver toxin, just like alcohol, when it is consumed in excess. "Excess" is not well defined, anywhere, as there seems to be a genetic variability in tolerance among individuals. Certain ancestries can better metabolize fructose than others. This is also the case for alcohol. 

For this reason, on this blog, we stay away from fructose, which basically means sugar. Sugar is half glucose and fructose. There is no established "safe" amount of sugar consumption and for that reason, no amount should be consumed. It's really that simple.

People tend to take a hot topic and sensationalize it by giving it properties such as "poisonous" or "toxic", to try and convince themselves to not consume it. But in reality, the only reason it should not be consumed, is not because of its "toxicity", but because it makes and keeps you fat.

3. Calories in/calories out (CICO) is useless because you never know how many calories are in a given food. 

Knowing the exact calories in food is irrelevant. Knowing the exact calories you are burning is also irrelevant. 

CICO is useless because it is a short term weight loss method that does not address blood glucose dysregulation. Overweight/obesity requires a long term fat loss method that consistently addresses blood glucose dysregulation. That's really all you need to know about CICO and why it fails as a treatment for obesity. 

Overweight/obese people misuse both the calories that come in and the ones that go out, irrespective of their amounts. 

4. You can consume all of the heavy whipping cream you want and still be successful on low carb.

You can consume it, until you are unsuccessful. Outcomes are completely individualized. 

If you are an obesity resistant person, you can get away with in taking quite a bit of heavy whipping cream until you become nauseous from it but you will not become obese because it does not affect blood glucose. Because of this, obesity resistant people have great leptin sensitivity which they sustain. They can go all the way up to 150 grams of fat a day, while on low carb, and be just fine. Sometimes they can even go upwards of that. 

Most obese people have terrible leptin sensitivity and they can't consume that amount of fat without stalling or gaining weight. They need to keep their fat intake on the low end of about 50 grams a day, but no less than that. Their blood glucose control is very poor and the storage of fat, which they don't burn, stimulates insulin which further contributes to blood glucose irregularities, reinforcing the problem.

 

If the goal is fat loss, there is really no reason to be using heavy whipping cream at all, unless it is required for a specific recipe. All heavy whipping cream will do is take up most of your fat macros, for the day, and you will be skimping out on more important food items, like meat, which also contains fat. 

Protein should be your priority, not items that are mostly fat. That is why dairy is to be used as a garnish and meat is the meal. Do not base your meal on liquid fat calories, as that's not a proper meal. 

5. You cannot "overeat" if your snacks are low carb. 

You should not be snacking. Period. Not because it's "overeating", but because it's obesogenic. 

6. It is very difficult to think about food in any other context that is not calories. It is also very difficult thinking of body composition, rather than just "weight".

On this blog, we do not chase symptoms, calories or the scale because neither of those work. You will have to get use to thinking of obesity in a different way or you will never be able to tackle it successfully.