OmManiPadmeOmelet said:
Wierd stuff.
For nearly 2 months now I've been stuck at around 233 to 235 ...
Weighed in Friday at 233....... weighed in today at 225!
That's a whoosh. Happens to lots of folks.
Quoted message said:Calories still running at 800 to 1,000.
That low you *must* be losing fat and/or lean. But the scale
reads more than just fat and lean. It reads everything with
mass. Get constipated, don't drop scale pounds. Retain
water, for example by starting a new exercise program, don't
drop scale pounds. One way or the other you were retaining
water for a while and then your body decided to let go of the
extra water.
Quoted message said:The only thing I really changed
diet-wise was to up the fat a bit in exchange for lowering protien.
Now there's a bingo. It's a basic of low carb fat loss. For
the same total calories, more fat and less protein means better
fat loss. It's true as long as you don't drop below your
minimum daily protein to trigger a stall. It's true even if
you drop below your minimum for a couple of weeks before your
body tries to stall. And it's true if your total calories are
so low your body can't stall even if it tries which is what I
suspect your current situation is.
Here's the chemistry behind how trading more fat for less
protein at the same total calories works.
Insulin above some level blocks fat from moving out of
storage. Below some level less insulin doesn't block so
even less insulin still has no further efect. Insulin is
released in direct response to dietary carbs. Eat less
carbs to get into ketosis and the blocking factor of
insulin goes away. Eat less carbs below that and the
body simply manufactures its own blood glucose. The
difference of less carbs goes from making a big difference
in and out of ketosis to merely suggesting fewer total
calories.
Glucagon above some level moves fat out of storage. Below
some level there isn't enough glucagon to move much fat
out of storage but the body leaks some minimum amount
anyways (lowfat plans use this as a metabolic loophole).
Above some level the more glucagon in the blood the more
fat flows out of storage. Glucagon is released in indirect
response to dietary fat. Eat more fat and the result is
more glucagon that removes even more fat from storage.
Since eating more fat is often also eating more total
calories eating more fat shows diminishing returns unless
there's also a matching decrease in protein to keep total
calories from going up. That's exactly what Om did.
So the best fat loss is found by moving carbs up to
just barely in ketosis, moving protein down to your
minimum, and filling in the rest of your calories with
fat. As long as you're within a reasonable total calories,
more dietary fat does pull even more stored fat out. Do
all this and your food will be more greasy than most like,
so its a lot of work. It is great at busting stalls the
times folks have tried it on my advice. I've used it
myself to drive my own loss.
I'll offer my own numbers to see how I calculate this.
All numbers rounded for convenience and to take into
account the inaccuracy of counts:
My ideal weight using body fat percentages is in the
170-175 range. Using a common total calorie guideline I
should eat around 1750 calories per day.
I fall out of ketosis at about 55 grams total, 45 net.
So my best carb intake is 50 grams total or 200 calories.
That leaves 1750-200=1550 calories from protein and fat.
According to the chapter on minimim protein in Protein
Power my daily minimum protein is 77 grams or 300 calories.
That leaves 1550-300=1250 calories from fat.
Since fat is 9 calories per gram, I should eat 1250/9=140
grams of fat daily.
So for me my gram levels for the best loss of fat with the
least loss of lean will be 50 grams total carb (40ish net),
77 grams protein, and 140 grams of fat. That's very greasy
eating so it is a lot of work to maintain it. But it's
also completely risk free.
If I happen to eat 100ish grams of protein and 125 grams
of fat for the same total calories, the glucagon released
is a bit less so fat loss would be a bit less, but the
food would be less greasy and easier to handle. At 125ish
protein and 115 fat even easier and again slightly less
loss. I could take this all the way to 200 grams of
protein and 80 grams of fat to qualify as both low carb
and moderately low fat. The result would be even less
glucagon released and even less fat withdrawn from storage.
At that level of protein much of the excess would be
converted to carbs so I'd also need to trim carbs to stay
in ketosis. But is lean jerky actually a vegitable
because its excess protein gets converted to carbs ;^)
My illustration above is why Dr Atkins warns against
combining low fat with low carb. His statement in the
chapter on Induction is that it will derail your loss.
The reason is the hormone glucagon. Glucagon drives
fat withdrawal and dietary fat drives glucagon.
Addressing the obvious - Overeat fat and you can overwhelm
this more-fat-more-loss trend. It's only true within
reasonable total calorie ranges. Going to 200 grams of
fat will only work for someone who's very large in lean
mass.
I think Om can increase his/her total calories using this
method and see better loss. Whether it's worth the extra
effort is a different story. Om, are you doing well
enough that extra effort is just extra work?
