It's funny. I watch Youtube videos of presentations and interviews of the people who talk about low carbs (try finding one on high carb diets - I found one by some bloke with awful teeth, and he was like "just try a really high carb diet and see what happens". Yeah, my blood sugar will go through the roof and I'll be chugging the insulin to cope).
And as usual you find people commenting and saying how bad low carbs, are and that we should "eat less and move more" (love this poor snippet of advice). Well, I gave someone like this my experiences. Here is the post: "You need to open your mind and try looking at all sources of data. Not just ones that support your own biases. You honestly need to try reading some decent books. Like: The Art and Science of Low Carbohydrate Living: An Expert Guide to Making the Life-Saving Benefits of Carbohydrate Restriction Sustainable and Enjoyable by Jeff S. Volek PhD RD, Stephen D. Phinney MD PhD The Obesity Code: Unlocking the Secrets of Weight Loss by Dr Jason Fung I did science/research on myself about 15 years ago. I was speaking to someone who lost a lot of body fat and I was curious to know how. He said he did the Atkins diet. Which basically is a no carbohydrate diet. < Back in the early 70s Atkins was one of the leading minds in nutritional science, and he wanted to help people have a better diet than what was being touted by the likes of Keys. Part of the problem is that Keys had mates like Senator George McGovern, who was on Keys' side (lowering fat consumption lowers heart disease). Yet Atkins work (though he wasn't the first to say low carb dieting is healthier) is still going strong today. No one remembers Keys or McGovern but alas their influence is seen today in the hundreds of millions of diabetics and obese people around the World. > Anyway, I thought I'd try the Atkins way of eating. I refused any carb (outside of green veg). No sweets, potato, pasta, rice, bread, flours or grains of any kind. A very strict low carb diet if you will. I lost 2 stone (28lb/12.7kg) of fat in 3 months. And I didn't run or go to the gym or anything different. The ONLY change to my daily routine was cutting the carbs. That's incredible! I wasn't hungry either, and felt great. Don't get me wrong, it was a challenge to start with, but it got pretty normal over time. But the call of sweets and pizza and coke and all the other shite (yet damn tasty) foods drew me back in and I put the weight back on. See what happened? I cut carbs and the fat burnt right off. I started eating carbs again (dough from pizza bases, potatoes, spaghetti and the like) and the fat built back on again. I wasn't eating more, just differently. Last year I did what many say is the correct way to burn fat. I cut the calories. "Eat less, move more" and all that. Got a Fitbit and used the app as a food journal, and reduced my calorie intake by over 800 calories! In 6 months I lost 1 and a half stone, because yes reducing the calories is a way of losing weight. But it's not a very good way of weight-loss. I was constantly hungry. Honestly, my thoughts were always about what I can eat. And of course that failed. I was so hungry and tired all the time. I guess you'll say something "like my experiences don't count". Well, they do to me. What's the point of all these minds finding out how the body works if it isn't for the benefit of people like us. In summary: * Cutting carbs burns body fat (so long as you remain in Ketosis) * Eating excess carbs will make you fat (and in my case made me become a diabetic) I'm not biased to Taubes or any of these people. I only agree with him because I have personal experience in the results."
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Dawn Phenomenon
Recently on my Keto Diet journey I've started waking with really high blood sugar. And yet I've not had carbs to cause this raise. I've since learned of a thing called the Dawn Phenomenon. This is where when your body is waking up after a nights sleep, your Liver releases glucose to give you that boost of energy to get cracking. As a diabetic I don't have the insulin to deal with the amount of glucose the Liver dishes out. It's like it doesn't care, as it's not its job to regulate glucose amount only supply it. I never noticed this before as I would always have breakfast and take a dose of insulin to counter the carbs. I didn't realise that I was also producing a load of extra glucose which was spiking my blood sugar higher than I'd have expected. Catch 22 But if I'm not consuming carbs, and yet my blood sugar rises, so I have to still counter with Insulin (though not as much as I used to), but insulin is counter fat burning. What to do? How to keep my blood sugar down when I wake. Well, I was on the diabetic.co.uk forum and had some great advice. Eat something which would act as a Liver Blocker. @ickihun says "I originally used nuts or cheese as a liver block when I followed lchf diet. I now use a small amount of carb which can absorb any floating insulin I have at the end of the day." So last night I had 6 hazelnuts around 10:00 and was in bed by 10:30. This morning I woke with blood sugars at 5 mmol/l. Smack bang perfect :) My ketosis was lower than I'd have liked, but it wasn't bad. Perhaps the nuts had a few extra carbs than I'd have liked. Experimentation is needed. So, if anyone is struggling with BS spikes in the morning, give this a try. |
Andrew CoyleI've been a Type 2 Diabetic for over 11 years, and now Insulin Dependant. I'm finally learning that the advice I've been given around nutrition and med management is wrong. Archives
September 2017
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