Anyone heard of, or tried, this?

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Replies

  • fragilegift
    fragilegift Posts: 347 Member
    I don't keep a close eye on sodium intake, but for the fun of it the other day I added up 8 days worth and the average was 1600. I'm ok with that. :)

    Most of my 'excess' sugar is coming from fruit lately, so that's ok by me as well.
  • auctoritas
    auctoritas Posts: 204
    I've cut sugar completely out of my diet, and restricted carb intake to no more than 20g a day - usually less, and I'm aiming for most of it to be from leafy greens. I'm on a ketogenic diet - you eat a high-fat, moderate-protein, low-carb diet. The results don't lie - almost everyone who follows it correctly (bar people who find out they have certain allergies)lose a lot of weight and feel amazing. When you cut carbs AND sugar out of your diet, your brain uses ketones for energy instead. It's perfectly healthy, completely sustainable, and you lose weight quickly, since your body has no glucose to burn, it burns fat instead.
  • tigersword
    tigersword Posts: 8,059 Member
    That's not necessarily true. Fat is NOT a preferred energy source, and the brain cannot use fat as energy. Ketones that the brain CAN use for energy are actually from protein. Which means you're losing a fair amount of muscle as well as fat. Using ketones to support brain function is basically a starvation survival mechanism, and isn't something that's meant for long term, brain function slows down when it doesn't get glucose for extended periods of time, as a way of coping with less fuel. Your body uses glycogen to fuel the muscles, glycogen is created from glucose and also from amino acids. Granted some body fat is glucose that's been converted to glycerine, but not all of it is.

    Fat is an endocrine organ, your body requires fat for proper hormone balance and body regulation (hormones, body temperature, etc.) Saying that your body will burn fat just because you take away all of it's other fuel sources is no different than saying your body will burn one of your kidneys for fuel, it doesn't actually work that way.
  • Maryfullofgrace
    Maryfullofgrace Posts: 342 Member
    Sodium was my magic bullet, so to speak. Once I started watching sodium, the calorie counting took care of itself and for me, the weight came off.
  • auctoritas
    auctoritas Posts: 204
    Tiger, where did you read that ketones come from protein? They're synthesized from fatty acids. That's easy enough information to verify. You don't burn muscle on a ketogenic diet, in fact it's been shown in studies that you lose far less muscle on it than on diets containing carbs. Just ask any bodybuilder on it - and there are plenty. And you say fat is an endocrine organ that controls everything, which is true, but how does one lose weight if that fat is completely unusable? That's an absurd concept. That's like saying, oh, muscles won't get used if the body doesn't have enough energy.

    There's nothing to prove that on a keto diet, the brain can't function as well. Babies, for instance, spend most of their time in ketosis - their entire diet is breastmilk, which certainly isn't bread, and they need the ketones to form their brain.

    Check your science before bashing a diet, rather than just misinformation and hearsay.
  • tigersword
    tigersword Posts: 8,059 Member
    My mistake, some ketones are made from fatty acids, as well as carbohydrates and amino acids.
  • brandiuntz
    brandiuntz Posts: 2,717 Member
    I keep my sodium to around 1500mg/day due to high blood pressure. I seem to be sensitive to salt.
  • TAWoody
    TAWoody Posts: 261 Member
    That guy needs to be fired if he has no proof to back up his claims on fricken TV

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