Originally Posted by Samurai (Post 4040321)

Following is my understanding after reading this book, pardon any mistakes.

Low-carb or no-carb diet works by limiting insulin secretion. Insulin is secreted from the pancreas in response to the glucose in the blood. It's job is to encourage the cells to accept glucose from the blood, there by reducing the blood sugar levels. Those destination cells could be muscle cells, liver or fat cells.

As graaja already mentioned, we eat 3 kinds of food:

1. Carbs - These convert quickly into glucose and go directly into blood. That is why carbs satiate your hunger very fast.
   
2. Proteins - These take long time to convert into glucose and need the liver to do that.
   
3. Fat - Don't confuse edible fat (cheese/butter/oil) with physical fat. Edible fats are required to digest vitamins and protein. If you starve yourself of edible fat, your body can't break down the proteins and vitamins you are eating. Many foods containing these vitamins also come with the fat required to digest them. For example, the fat in egg yolks allows the body to access the vitamins A and D it’s so abundant in. So all the egg whites in the world won’t help you out if you’re not eating them with the fats in the yolk to access that protein properly. Read more here.

When you eat carbs, it quickly turns into blood sugar, and insulin is secreted to supply the glucose to the cells. If the person is doing physical labour or workout, the muscle cells will demand a big share of the glucose. The left over glucose will be supplied to the liver to store it as glycogen for future usage. However, the liver can only store up to around 5% of its mass as glycogen. So all the remaining glucose will be sent to the fat cells. If you eat further carbs, it results in more blood sugar, and further insulin will be secreted and it will all end up in fat cells. This storage in fat cells is what makes you fat. Inside the fat cells they form triglycerides.

Sugar and starch also cause insulin to secret much faster, because these too become blood sugar very fast.

When you eat proteins only, the glucose is generated at a low rate from the liver, so the rate of insulin secretion will also be low. Then even a low activity person's muscle cells and liver will accept most of the glucose and nothing much is left for the fat cells. This is why protein diet doesn't make you fat.

Coming back to carbs/sugar/starch, let us see what other harm it can cause.

1) The insulin secretion in high quantity will eventually make the cells resistant to insulin. Thus it requires more insulin to encourage those cells to accept the glucose from the blood stream. So the pancreas will produce even more insulin. And the cells will become even more resistant. This vicious circle will continue until the insulin production is no more able to meet the demand. That is when the person is diagnosed as having type 2 diabetes.

2) LDL is the protein that carries the cholesterol. LDL particles exist in different sizes. On one hand there are the large, fluffy, cotton-ball like molecules, and on the other hand the small dense molecules. Studies show that people whose LDL particles are predominantly small and dense, have a threefold greater risk of coronary heart disease. Furthermore, the large and fluffy type of LDL may be protective. There is an inverse correlation between blood levels of triglycerides and LDL particle size. Thus, the higher your triglycerides, the higher the number of small LDL particles. Conversely, the lower your triglycerides, the higher the number of large, fluffy LDL particles. Read more here. Now remember triglycerides, they are formed in fat cells because muscles and liver cells couldn't deal with the deluge of glucose. In other words, carbs/sugar increase the chance of triglycerides creation, which increases small LDL particles, and hence higher chance of heart disease.

Thus, low-carb or no-carb diet decreases the chance of diabetes, heart disease and obesity.

The most dangerous drug most of us are addicted to is sugar, it is nothing but slow poison to our body. Even if you avoid using white sugar, it is also present in natural form in most fruit. I know we are conditioned to think that all fruits are good, but you need to remember that most fruits have abundant sugar. In fact, it is the result of thousands of years of selective breeding to maximize sugar. So replace fruits with vegetables, that will cut down sugar drastically.

Check this site for details on the carb/sugar content of fruits and vegetables.

We humans in the current form have been around for 2.5 million years. But agriculture was invented only 10,000 years ago, and it took another 5000 years to spread to rest of the civilized world. Most tribal communities stuck with hunting and foraging until the 20th century. So what were humans eating in the first 99.6% of the time? Meat/Fish and wild berries/plants, whose carb content was less than 10%. They got meat and fat from hunting, and berries/plants from foraging. Our carb intake increased only with the invention of agriculture, that is in the last 0.4% of human history. Finally, processed sugar and flour became widely available only after the industrial revolution, that is the last 200 years. That is not enough time for humans evolve into carb/sugar tolerating species.

It is been shown through many studies that tribal communities in 20th century who switched from hunting/foraging to modern processed food started having instances of diabetes, BP, and heart disease, which was unknown in their communities until then. We survived as species at least 99.6% of the time eating meat and fat. Yet we blame these modern diseases on meat and fat. Real culprit is sugar, followed by starch and carbs.

Fat Loss

Now let's see how low-carb diet helps fat loss. Most of the following content is contributed by moderator ampere who has been following this diet since few years.

Body's energy production cycle is called the Tri Carboxylic Acid or TCA cycle. Whenever one does any activity, the first source of TCA is always Glucose. And the easiest source of glucose is carbs, getting it from fat is more complex. Therefore body will always preserve fat, whenever it sees carb coming into the system.

People who eat carbs and exercise don't lose fat, because the body uses the glucose from the carbs and leaves the accumulated fat alone. So if you eat and workout until hunger strikes you, and then eat carbs again, your fat will be left alone. There will be no weight loss.

In other words, if you eat proteins/fat instead of carbs, the glucose supply comes in a long trickle instead of a sudden flood. So if you workout or spend energy under these conditions, the body will desperately look for alternative source and finds the fat storage in fat cells and starts using that. That results in fat loss.

If you have heard the term runner's high, its basically glucose in your muscles getting consumed first and then body turning to fat for energy. That's why during the second session of workouts or run, one does not feel panting for breadth that much. Its the fat mode of energy conversion kicking in.

Originally Posted by ampere (Post 4040373)

The other part to note is the *fat loss* part:

- Body's energy production cycle is called the Tri Carboxylic Acid or TCA cycle). It was discovered by Hans Krebs in '37 (who got a Nobel in '53).

- The first step called Glycolysis, breaks down Glucose into Pyruvate (This releases only 2 molecules of ATP)
- Its this Pyruvate that enters into the TCA cycle and releases 38 molecules of ATP which is the energy part.

In case of use of fat molecules for energy; the first compound to be broken is a ketone instead of Glucose. (Hence the term Ketosis/Keto diet etc)

If you go by the original supposition of eat small quantities etc it still works if you slog it out. Its after all also a question of how much you burn.

Now whenever one does any activity, the first source of TCA is always Glucose. Hence body always looks at it for use as its a simple compound to break. Fat is a much more complex compound difficult to break and very efficient for storage. So in the event of energy requirement body always looks at Glucose first and fat later. If you have heard the term runner's high, its basically glucose in your muscles getting consumed first and then body turning to fat for energy. Thats why during the second session of workouts or run, one does not feel panting for breadth that much. (Its the fat mode of energy conversion kicking in)

Coming back to fat loss:

When you eat carbs at continuous intervals, you dont give body any chance for it to tap into the fat reserves. Thats why even when you reduce your intake, you never feel your weight going down or fat levels coming down. Its now a big function of how much you slog in the gym. Because body will always preserve fat, whenever it sees carb coming into the system.

So the idea here is to trick the body by depriving it of carbs so that body has no options but to look at fat for an alternative source of energy. So the moment body finds out low levels of starch, it switches energy mechanisms to fat mode.

So now in this mode, even if you eat fat, it will always burn because it is now the primary source of fuel for body.

That is how obese guys come down on weight. They are asked to take fat and no carbs.

To add to advantage, as Sharath mentioned, excessive consumption of Carbs also aids insulin resistance. (Thats the problem). Hence reduction in carbs helps diabetes as well. Cholestrol levels actually improve with this approach.

(As a next level; search for bullet proof coffee! :) An espresso shot with whipped cream and coconut oil ! :D )

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bulletproof_Coffee

Its ones of the best controlling agents for insulin spike.

Originally Posted by ampere (Post 4040394)

Coming to diet part, getting fats into the system is OK. But its the protein part which is tricky.

For non-veg, proteins are very easy. Its for the veggies, its difficult. I use Whey and take it in moderation. (Why moderation? Because heavy usage can also have adverse effects on kidney. I am not sure about it though. But I exercise caution on that front)

Another aspect is effective use of fasting. Micro-Fasting is another way to detox the body (along with water intake) and speed up fat loss. I have been at it for a long time. Works very well. (Search for IFIK: Intermittent Fasting Intermittent Ketosis). After my previous night's dinner, my next intake is next day late noon.

We have a long history about "Eat breakfast like a king..."

This is highly counter intuitive. I have not been having breakfast for last 2-3 years now. Only espresso. I dont feel any hunger pangs during these hours. I have a protein intake (2-3 days a week) in the evening with almonds walnuts for munching; followed by regular fat based food (buttered veggies, cheese slice, salads, etc). Once in a while indulgence is fine.

You can now see the dieting regimen now fits the theory of fat loss that I mentioned in the previous post (which many have been at it too). No restriction on quantities. Its all about how to eat and what to eat.

Its also highly useful to have the blood and sugar levels checked on a yearly basis.

A Corollary : Many mention they cant stay without eating for long. They get acidity problem etc. As per me acidity is a transient phenomenon and not a steady state response of the body. Body is highly adaptable. Based on your regular cycle of food intake, it knows/anticipates when you are going to give it food. Hence in preparation it keeps the digestive juices ready. So if you *dont* have food at that time, you get acidity. Try to withstand for a week, you will see it vanishes. Because body will then realise, there is no more food coming in at that time and then it will stop the digestive juice secretion.

Results? I came down from 85 to 69. Now stable at 72-73.

If you note, I never mentioned about workouts. Because I firmly believe weight loss/control is strictly an artifact of diet and *not* workout.

Work out is mainly for increasing your stamina or strength index or conversion of fats to muscle. I am *not* into that majorly. So I just have been following a 6.5-7km of walk/hour every day for the last 15-20 years (for maintaining the basic metabolism). So you can already see that the walk is not some thing which helped me come down on weight.

Originally Posted by cooldude1988765 (Post 1569006)

@bblost: I was advised by a lot of trainers, physiotherapists not to use the treadmill when one is overweight. You wont know it immediately but it leads to a lot of knee problems. Our family doctor also told me the same. Lot of people who come in for knee replacements mention the use of a treadmill. Use the crosstrainer instead.

Originally Posted by ajmat (Post 1569022)

I used to be touching 100 kg and wore 44 trousers and 44 shirts.

Originally Posted by SS-Traveller (Post 1569098)

:) So did I... Six months ago, after injections of corticosteroids for my back problem, I developed seriously high levels of blood sugar and triglycerides. These are back in control now, but I totally gave up some foods on the way, namely,

1. Fried foods
2. Dairy products (butter, cheese etc.)
3. Sweets and chocolates
4. Red meat and
5. Ethyl alcohol in any form.

Now, 16 kg later, I wear size 40 trousers. The exercise regime is not strictly followed, but eating is unlimited as long as the stuff is not on the list above. The weight loss trend is still on.