is it easier to lose weight again if you were once successful?

coneregs07 wrote: »

I'm not convinced about substituting fats for carbs. When I first tried South Beach diet in 2006, I focused on eating strawberries and almonds and cut out rice and pasta entirely. Lost my 30 pounds in six weeks. I'm now convinced that when diets work quickly it is because there is a temporary metabolic imbalance that alters expression of enzymes required for nutritional homeostasis. Essentially, the new diet induces nutritional stress. I've been on low carb so long that my enzymes have reestablished nutritional homeostasis at low carb. So now I must find others stressors. Eating more fat may help some people diet, but perhaps that simply prevents reestablishment of homeostasis. This is not necessarily a healthy long term solution. What might be better would be to cycle through different diets in sequence in three month intervals, those diets being ones that each person finds works for them. The theory is that when diet A replaces diet B it will be successful if it induces metabolic stress.

coneregs07 wrote: »

Like I said I've taken carbs out of my diet for years. The reason I gained the weight back had little to do with diet. Your theory suggests I simply have no more water bound to glycogen to lose. Yes it is true that the first 5-10 pounds lost when starting a diet is water. That water can be lost from any number of stressors including sudden increase in exercise. Body metabolism ... The TCA cycle for example that controls whether sugar is stored or quickly used for energy is controlled by the feedback expression of the enzymes responsible for such things as glycogen storage versus utilization. Up or down regulation of enzyme levels occurs over 24-48 hours and is influenced by a vast network of hormones such as corticosteroids , adrenalin, endorphins to name a few. Exercise is a healthy way to lose weight and convert fat to muscle.
That conversion is not simply about losing water through sweat. No pain no gain is also about changing ones metabolism through exercise stress. You've no doubt heard about endorphins. Endorphins co-exist on the same precursor protein as corticosteroids and ACTH. Exercise induces increased expression of the enzymes that process the precursor protein to active hormones and peptides. 'Though I've used exercise to maintain or lose weight over long periods of time, I'm getting older and now find that fasting for a day now and then or rotating my diet helps. As I said, I've kept carbs out of my diet for a long time and not relied on eating fat. I am now exploring ideas such as binging on carbs for one day twice per month and a day or so later fasting for a day twice per month. It's really too bad that you feel you must resort to saying "who sold you that garbage" As a retired biochemist and physiologist I'd be more interested in researching the point you made about glycogen and water without your posturing. By the way.... .. I'm not referring to enzymes one buys at a store and ingests. Perhaps that is what set you off. Enzymes are special classes of proteins that like any protein are metabolized to amino acids when ingested. So it's absurd to buy them based on false claims that they burn fat. There are hundreds of thousand different enzymes that are up and down regulated continuously in all parts of the body. Most are site specific and only active for microseconds before they are metabolized.