Paul Sand wrote:
> For me the key is macronutritions composition. With high protein intake I
> can get away with very high calories intake and stay lean. When a while
ago
> I tried low protein, low carbs high fat diet for a while (80% calories
from
> fat) despite rather low calories intake I gained fat. When I increased
both
> calories, protein and carbs I get back to shape very quickly.
That's interesting. May I ask how you do in terms of how you feel,
digestion, that 'toxic' feeling, when your protein level's really high? Also
what your calorie level went from (the low, not-too-good, high fat regimen,
vs. the higher calorie, protein and carb regimen that helped you get in
shape)?
I tend to do very well on high protein, but at some point it feels like it's
creating extra work for my body to process the stuff - and not necessarily
in a good way. Now that I'm trying very rare (ie, still has some enzymes)
meats, and some pretty gentle rice protein powder (I love that stuff -
Nutrabiotics, I believe), the situation seems a little different.
On diets of relatively high saturated and monounsaturated fats, my system
seems happy and good things happen hormonally. But I find it's tough to do
the ketogenic thing anymore. First, my body resists ketosis to an
astonishing (even to the 'experts') degree. Second, if I have *no* carbs, I
never seem to get out of a low-energy phase. Fats do help in that category
somewhat though. Modest (and I do mean modest) amounts of carbs *feel*
healthy and necessary to me. But I literally have an aversion to two
things - eating too much carb (either sugar or starch) or eating carb
without fat at the same time.
My diet situation's a little different from most people's. (Originally I'd
dieted down as a young teen from about 165 to 100 lbs. Started on Atkins,
moved after a plateau a few months later to a low cal regimen with lots of
healthy foods but rather low fat... ironically, I got high cholesterol; had
to continue to decrease calories to get the scale to budge, though. Was not
fun.)
About a decade ago I was eating an allegedly balanced diet of absolutely no
more than 1000 calories a day, jogging about 6 miles 4x/week, and steadily
gaining weight. Going up in calories, which I wanted to do to ensure health,
basically packed on the pounds. And some of this was even after adding a
good thyroid hormone containing t3 and t4. Go figure.
What I did was accept some extra weight gain (up from 115 or so for a 5'2"
frame) and try to keep calories more at about 1500. My weight plateaued
awhile around 130, then decided it liked 140.
I'm now looking at making sure I'm getting enough enzymes (and adding a
supplement), trying near-Paleo (though I've added raw milk, which has been
responsible for giving me actual eyebrows). And I'm looking more closely at
alleged food allergies. The idea that fat cells may be storing toxins and
other substances deemed as invaders to the body is a current theme of
exploration.
I gave up on exercizing very much awhile back as it wasn't paying off at all
for me in weight loss. I did feel pretty good from the exercise, of course.
Recently I made the (could be controversial but my body's responded well to
this) decision to have some strategic liposuction. Actually, that was
earlier this week. I had it once before in different areas, and frankly my
body healed very well, it didn't hurt much, and I suspect my metabolism got
a slight boost from a changed fat/muscle ratio. Really - and there is some
research in this area that's fairly interesting. It's detailed in a consumer
article here although you can search on the doc's name and find some of the
scientific papers: http://www.gbmc.org/communitynewsletter/lipo.htm
Basically the gist of her work was noting that liposuction - which is at
least one way to reduce body fat - seemed to help patients who had
hyperinsulin conditions. "Better than any pill could" or something similar
is one phrase I recall. Of course this research is preliminary, but...
interesting nonetheless. In the mid-90s, I'd gone in for a glucose tolerance
test and had a weird result. The sweet concoction they gave me really
knocked me for a loop. I spent most of three or more hours trying not to
slide off the chair like a Dali painting. The result I got was, from normal
baseline, my insulin spiked immediately up to normal post-challenge blood
sugar level, and then within that first half hour spiked down to fasting
level and stayed there throughout the rest of the several hour test. Most
people's blood sugar goes up and then gradually over a few hours declines to
baseline. Mine seemed to obey the laws of cartoon physics. I actually went
and bought a book of metabolic test results. The only chart that looked even
vaguely similar to mine was titled 'pituitary disorder' or similar. But I've
never heard anyone say word one about my pituitary being out of whack.
These days in my quest to figure out what makes my fat cells tick, I'm also
exploring whether fluid retention - in the form of lymph that stuffs fat
cells with liquids to buffer whatever else is in there - could play much
role. There was another interesting piece I ran across that detailed how
some women who'd had underarm lymph nodes removed (due to breast cancer)
were treated successfully with liposuction to cut down on the awful edema
their arms got: http://www.concept.se/user/hbrorson/hbrorson0.html (with
pix).
So my current plan, as soon as I'm allowed to stop seriously lounging and
draining, is to eschew aerobics for the time being but do about half yoga
and half weight training. I do tend to build muscle quickly, and we'll see
if doing this in a moderate way can yield streamlined musculature that
hopefully will help to burn calories. Yoga's great for a streamlined shape.
As to diet, I'm going to cut way back on the raw milk, much as I love it,
and stick to mostly paleo, also eliminating most if not all of the 'avoids'
noted in D'Adamo's blood type diet. (Ironically, these seem to be a lot of
the same things that an old panel of 'cytotoxic food testing' came up with.)
My diet will be mostly protein and fat, and I'll try to keep it in the 1500
calorie range to see what happens, initially. I'll probably go for a lot of
it raw.
It's interesting - I've heard of people who've broken bones having massive
milk cravings even if they hated milk before. Since the lipo, I've had
pronounced cravings for beef sashimi (or a rare steak), and pineapple,
banana and papaya. Normally I don't eat much fruit at all. All these things,
however, help with digesting (papaya), replacing potassium (banana) and
eliminating post-surgical edema (pineapple). So, I'll indulge a little bit
at least with the fruit.
Let me stop short of suggesting liposuction for anyone with other (ie,
Paleo) ways of reducing. Although I know they had a lot of interesting
surgeries pretty early on, given Aztec skulls found and so forth, somehow I
doubt lipo happened in Paleo times. It's also not a solution for gross
overweight. Bariatric surgery to lob off dozens of pounds is a whole
different ball of wax, and not something to wade into lightly. In my case,
I'm hoping the lipo will do a few things. One, I'm much, much more
comfortable with my shape (literally, and not just thinking of appearance -
there's range of movement, and so on). Two, it's really helping with body
proportion. Three, I'm hoping those fat cells, which I'll bet are the same
ones I had at a distended age 10, will be permanently gone. There's some
research around to suggest that the body utilizes readily available fat
cells more than it readily decides to create new ones. Four, maybe I'll get
a little metabolic benefit out of it. Wouldn't hurt. It definitely makes me
feel more like exercising! (Oh, and should anyone decide to divert from
Paleo and try this as an adjunct, at least apply all that great Paleo
instinct to making SURE you know your surgeon's top-notch. I'm very
comfortable with mine, and would be extraordinarily cautious around any
others, until fully assured of their capabilities - and moderation in
procedures.
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