wabmester Member

Interesting, but not surprising. It's probably the hyperinsulinemia rather than resistance per se. Insulin is anabolic and is generally associated with robust growth (including some tissues that you don't want to grow, like the prostate for men). I've even seen somebody suggest that the reason we're so much taller than our…

I think so. That's probably where the genetic component comes in. Some people are able to efficiently store more fat than others. I never made it to obesity in terms of BMI, but my metabolism was probably the same as many obese. High TG and low HDL were my markers of insulin resistance. I think my high levels of TG were…

For those who don't have a two-seater and a twisty country road, you can do a simpler reaction time test with a ruler. http://www.topendsports.com/testing/tests/reaction-stick.htm

Anytime your weight moves by an amount that large in such a short time, it's guaranteed to be due to water weight. Your blood volume was low. You can fix it by eating a ton of carbs, as you discovered. Or by increasing your sodium intake. Your call. :)

It's usually been due to low sodium for me. Salting your food may not be enough. How was your BP when you went to the doc? If lower than usual, that would point to sodium. Above the eye could also be a sinus headache. Carb levels seem to change the mix of bacteria and fungi. Did your doc check for sinus inflammation?

It doesn't sound like gout to me, but there can be a connection with low-carb diets. As ketoacids are wasted by the kidneys, uric acid concentration in the blood rises. The change is the biggest in the first couple weeks, but the kidneys need to re-adapt anytime your carb intake or ketone levels change.

http://americanbaconrace.com/

There are also very real physiological adaptations in the first week or so that are the primary cause of the initial sodium losses. Blame the kidneys. :)

Agreed -- I can't drink hot soup during the hot months. There are other sources of sodium. Pickles, sauerkraut, kim-chi, preserved meats, etc. Blood tests aren't great for any of the electrolytes. Low sodium first manifests itself as low blood volume, not low blood levels of sodium. It's the low blood volume that causes…

Low-carb always causes sodium losses, but they are higher with higher ketone levels, and ketone levels are higher with exercise. It's also worse during the summer months when sweat compounds the losses. If you've been losing sodium for a while without replenishing, you've probably also lost potassium and other minerals.…

Headaches? Nausea? Fatigue? Classic symptoms of sodium loss. Did you read this yet? http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10358179/dizzy-weak-tired-headaches-cramping-muscles-electrolyte-imbalance-may-be-your-problem

Yes! It would bust most of the myths in this thread. :) (Oh, how I love the internet!) Specifically, pp 162-163. Paraphrasing, 100g of carbs and 100g of protein would drop ketones below 0.5 mM. "While there is nothing magical about ... this threshold," Phinney and Volek like it because it saturates the brain with ketones.…

I usually limit my runs to under an hour, but I did bring a bag of mixed nuts and coconut flakes with me on a fairly intense 3-hour bike ride. I ended up not eating any, and I wasn't hungry for a couple hours after the ride either. [Macadamia nuts are nature's fat bombs, BTW.] But it depends on the feeling. You can still…

There's a lot of mythology out there. Keto is not muscle sparing compared to high carb. If you're not eating enough to meet your minimal glucose needs, you will convert protein to glucose. If you're not eating enough protein to cover both that need and your muscle building needs, then you'll lose muscle. Ketosis is called…

Try this calculator: https://www.supertracker.usda.gov/bwp/

The minimum is around 40g/d. That's for the entire body. Brain is about 35g, blood cells use most of the rest. Carbs are around 4 kcal/g. Ketones are around 5 kcal/g. Brain needs about 500 kcal/d. About 2/3 can come from ketones (333 kcal or 66g ketones).

I usually just eat the skin. That's where all the nutrients are. Blueberries have about the same as an apple (if serving size is the same), but berries have more fiber (more skin per serving). BTW, Peter Attia is walking around with a continuous glucose monitor these days: http://eatingacademy.com/personal/2016-update…

How much slower? There is an adaptation period. Fascinating how it works. Endurance exercise seems to stimulate mitochondrial biogenesis. High intensity seems to stimulate mitrochondrial respiration. Anyway, in the early days, the first mile was the hardest for me. The start of exercise seems to have a higher glucose burn…

Exciting news for science geeks. It's a pubmed Hall and Ludwig smackdown! Bascially Ludwig did an earlier (2012) study that found a larger "metabolic advantage" than Hall recently found. So Hall says it's bogus: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22735432#cm22735432_16096 And Ludwig says it's not bogus:…

Definitely. Fasting is very ketogenic. "Nutritional ketosis" was basically designed to mimic those fasting effects while still giving you all the nutrition you need. The longer you fast, the more ketones you'll make. It's somewhat self-regulating, so when levels get too high, lipolysis gets shut down to reduce the…

Understood. But that's the problem I have with a lot of bottom-up science. They are making some interesting observations, but I like to try to fit those observations into a top-down framework that makes sense in terms of evolution or non-pathological physiology. It saves me from getting lost in the minutia. :) I'll re-read…

Personally, I don't think there's a lot of difference. Anything in the range of 25-75g should work fine. But you've been at this for a while, right? Is there a level that works best for you? Either in terms of how you feel or how easily you can sustain it as a lifestyle? Don't overthink it. :)

Good question, and I have similar questions. Why is adipose associated with inflammation? Why would inflammation be a bad thing? It's a sign of healing, right? I've looked into this a little bit, and I couldn't find any great answers, so I can only speculate. It's not the inflammation that's bad per se, but it's an…

Are you exercising? That can get you into a high range like that. If not, then your protein could be too low. Also, some shorter-chain fats can only be processed in the liver, so they'll typically be used for ketogenesis substrates. E.g., MCT, coconut oil, butter. Personally, I wouldn't want to stay in a range that high…

I guess we'll have to wait until the study is published, but I don't think this study was about weight loss. It was a test of one of the mechanisms proposed by Taubes. Basically, Taubes says that on a high-carb diet fat cells sequester some of the available energy, making it unavailable for us to use, and that's the reason…

I don't know if he did in this study, but he looked at leptin in his "biggest loser" study: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/oby.21538/full As a computer geek, I kind of like the guy. His specialty is mathematical modeling of metabolism:…

This particular study seemed to just look at "metabolic advantage." I don't think a lot of people expect or rely on a metabolic advantage, but even the small one he found could be useful in the long term. He hinted at effects on appetite regulation. Nobody's talking about that, but I think it's the key mechanism of…

Even blood levels just give you a small snapshot in time of what's going on. It'd be more interesting if you could measure continuously, and measure both arterial levels and venous levels so you know your utilization rate. That's essentially what Cahill did in the 60's: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC292907/

Yeah, I was still making ketones when consuming 100g/d carbs. Let's do some math! A guy like me will burn 500 kcal with a fast 30 minute run. Depending on speed, half those calories might come from glucose. So that means I'd burn around 60g of glucose during the run. Depending on timing, that 100g of carbs *might* help…

Sounds like you're trying to do some sort of quick-fix cut. In that case, no. I mean it won't kill you, but it'll slow down your fat loss, and you'll regain a bunch of water weight. It takes something like 4-6 weeks to "adapt." In quotes because nobody really knows what that means, but one of adaptations seems to be that…