Significant improvements in the last couple of days including increased libido, less hunger, more energy and way better skin.

My gallbladder is recovering from estrogen's onslaught. That's why I had so much trouble with fat and was showing a deficit in fat-soluble vitamins since my operation. Low iron levels are also not surprising.

I'm slowly regaining my health. 

I also met up with a group of friends yesterday and everyone was drinking except me. Still had alot of fun, enjoyed the conversation and feeling great this morning. You don't need to drink to have a good time...trust me you...I hadn't had this much pleasure in a long time...alcohol NOT included!

Obesity is not caused by overeating, it seems. It is mostly caused by insulin. And insulin is stimulated by carbohydrates. The reason why people are fat is because they are eating carbohydrates and the reason they are frequently hungry is because carbs increase insulin secretion which keeps fat stored for longer periods of time. Unable to access fat for fuel, people get hungry, eat more carbs and the vicious cycle continues.

Read Gary Taubes' book "Good Calories, Bad Calories".
 

I'm now on estrogen patches. I've been eating more fat lately but doing ok. And my ketones are still close to negative.

remembering my dreams starting the first night I started to eat raw paleo.  And their calm Happy dreams.  I wake up peaceful too.

I experienced the exact same thing the other night...and more and more...The best feeling in the world.

Personally, I think we ought to eat if we're hungry and if food is available. Fasting and hungry is just not right, in my book...done it and never will do it again unless I DON'T have a choice. I agree with rawrock.

I've eaten raw meats (including organs and seafood) from supermarkets, non-organic, grain-fed. Some actually tasted pretty delicious. Never had any problem. Did not see a difference (health or taste) with the time when I was eating exclusively organic grass-fed meats (bison, beef). Plus, it's cheaper.

My 2 cents...

I agree Lex. If I end up measuring my BG levels, I will be sure to report back.

Liver contains glycogen.

I know about rabbit starvation but also realize that my body will clearly let me know when it is time to eat more fat...I will begin to crave carbs or fat...at that time, I will increase my fat. In other words, I will let my body guide me. I'm just barely beginning to actually have those cravings...I'll keep you all updated and thanks Lex for your advice and feedback. I look forward to your fat experiment. 

At the moment, I'm barely eating any fat, very extra-lean veal. And I feel better everyday. The last two nights, I have been sleeping so well and just a few hours ago, had the dream of my LIFE! I was so happy, so at peace and woke up feeling incredible but also sad because it was only a dream.

I can't say I've totally recovered but the bloating is gone, the aches are gone. Ketones are trace. Weight remains the same. There are moments of intense energy, other of intense calm and peace of mind like this morning. I've only had one or two hives in the last week or so. Skin is softer but still dry a little. Hair is healthier, it seems.

Aren't ribeyes fattier than that?
According to http://www.nal.usda.gov/fnic/foodcomp/cgi-bin/list_nut_edit.pl,
fat is 74% of calories and that's when it's trimmed to 0' fat.

Also, the weight gain from increased fat intake strangely feels to me like water weight. Perhaps, ketosis (or too many ketones in the body) affects water distribution or retention...speculation on my part.

From http://www.nutritionandmetabolism.com/content/3/1/16

"Amino acids derived from protein are converted to glucose through gluconeogenesis. In 1915, Janney reported that 3.5 g of glucose were produced from 6.25 g of ingested meat protein [11]. Thus, theoretically and actually, for every 100 g protein ingested, 56 g of glucose can be produced. For other proteins the range of glucose produced was 50–84 g.

However, in 1924, Dr. MacLean in England gave 250 g meat, which contains ~50 g protein to a subject with type 2 diabetes whose fasting glucose concentration was ~280 mg/dl [12]. Following ingestion of the beef, the glucose concentration remained stable for the 5 hours of the study. When the subject was given 25 g glucose on a separate occasion, the amount of glucose that theoretically could have been produced from the 50 g protein in the 250 g meat, the glucose concentration increased to nearly 600 mg/dl.

With this [12] and other information [13-18], several years ago, we determined the glucose and insulin responses to 50 g of protein given in the form of lean beef to 8 normal subjects [19] and 7 subjects with type 2 diabetes [20]. When normal subjects ingested the 50 g protein, the plasma glucose concentration remained stable during the 4 hours of the study. When subjects with type 2 diabetes ingested 50 g protein, not only was the glucose stable, it actually decreased (Figure 2).


Figure 2. Glucose (left panel) and insulin (right panel) response to 50 g protein, given in the form of very lean beef to 8 normal subjects (bottom, broken lines) and 7 subjects with type 2 diabetes (top, solid lines).

In normal subjects there was a modest increase in insulin concentration. However, when subjects with type 2 diabetes ingested protein, the insulin concentration increased markedly (Figure 2).

In normal subjects, the insulin increase was only 30% of that to 50 g glucose [19], but in people with type 2 diabetes, it was equal, i.e. 100% [20]. In addition, ingestion of 50 g beef protein had very little effect on glucose production either in normal subjects [21] or in people with type 2 diabetes [22].

The studies cited above were single meal studies testing the effect of dietary protein alone. From these and other studies we concluded that in people with type 2 diabetes, dietary protein is a potent insulin secretagogue. In addition, protein does not increase blood glucose. Protein actually decreases blood glucose, even though amino acids derived from digestion of the protein can be used for gluconeogenesis. Subsequently we demonstrated that dietary protein acts synergistically with ingested glucose to increase insulin secretion and reduce the blood glucose response to the ingested glucose in people with type 2 diabetes [20,23].

In order to determine the effect of substituting protein for carbohydrate in mixed meals over an extended period of time we designed a study in which we increased the protein content of the diet from 15% in the control diet to 30% in the test diet, i.e. we doubled the protein content of the diet [24]. To accommodate the increase in protein, we decreased the carbohydrate content from 55% in the control diet to 40% in the test diet. Since 56 g of glucose could be produced from each 100 g protein ingested [11], the carbohydrate in the diet, plus the glucose produced from the additional protein, would represent a potential carbohydrate content of 48%. The fat content was 30% in both groups. Twelve people with untreated type 2 diabetes were randomized in a crossover design in which they were on each diet for 5 weeks with a washout period in between. The diets were isocaloric, the subjects were weight stable, and all food was provided.

The plasma glucose concentrations during the 24-hour period at the end of the 5 weeks on the control diet, or 5 weeks on the high protein diet, are shown in Figure 3. The blood sampling was started at 8 am. Breakfast, lunch, dinner and snack are shown on the X-axis. The differences appear modest. However, when these data are integrated over 24 hours, using the fasting glucose concentration as baseline, the integrated glucose area actually was reduced by 38% on the high protein diet (Figure 4).


Figure 3. Plasma glucose response in 12 subjects with type 2 diabetes. The response to the control diet (15% protein) is shown in the top, dotted red line. The response to the test diet (30% protein) is shown in the bottom, solid black line).

Figure 4. Net 24-hour integrated glucose (left) and insulin area responses (right) to ingestion of a 15% protein (red bar) or 30% protein (black bar) diet in 12 subjects with type 2 diabetes.

In spite of the lower integrated glucose area, the integrated insulin area response was increased by 18% when compared to the control (15% protein) diet results.

Most importantly, with the 30% protein diet, the % total glycohemoglobin (%tGHb) decreased from 8.1 to 7.3 (? = 0. (Figure 5). It decreased from 8.0 to 7.7% during the control (15% protein) diet (? = 0.3). The difference was statistically significant by week 2.


Figure 5. % total glycohemoglobin response to a 15% protein diet, (top, broken red line) and a 30% protein diet (bottom, solid black line) in 12 people with type 2 diabetes.

In summary, increasing dietary protein from 15% to 30% of total food energy at the expense of carbohydrate resulted in an increased integrated insulin concentration, a decreased 24 hour integrated glucose concentration, and a decreased %tGHb.

These data were presented in 2004 at the Kingsbrook Conference on Nutritional and Metabolic Aspects of Low Carbohydrate Diets [25], and an adaptation of that presentation was later published [26]."

From http://www.biomedcentral.com/content/pdf/1743-7075-1-6.pdf

"This lack of increase in blood glucose concentration following
the ingestion of protein was confirmed by Conn
and Newburgh in 1936 [3]. These investigators fed a relatively
enormous amount of beef, i.e. 1.3 pounds of beef,
which is the equivalent of ~136 g of protein and which
should yield 68 g of glucose, to a normal subject with a
fasting blood glucose of 65 mg/dl and to a subject with
diabetes whose fasting blood glucose concentration was
150 mg/dl. In neither case was there an increase in blood
glucose concentration over the 8 hours of this study. However,
when the same subjects were given 68 g of glucose,
there clearly was an increase in glucose concentration in
both cases.
That ingested protein did not raise the blood glucose was
largely ignored, in spite of this evidence in the scientific
literature. Indeed, in his textbook in 1945 [4], Dr. Joslin,
one of the most influential diabetologists at that time, was
still counseling dietitians and patients to consider 56% of
dietary protein as if it were carbohydrate."

From http://jcem.endojournals.org/cgi/content/full/86/3/1040

"As expected, when the subjects ingested only water (fasting controls) there was a gradual decrease in serum glucose concentration over the 8 h of the study (33). When the subjects ingested 50 g beef protein there was a small initial and transient increase in glucose, but by 2.5 h the glucose concentration had decreased and continued to decrease until the end of the study. Over the last 5.5 h, the concentration was slightly less than when only water was ingested (Fig. 1)."

"As indicated previously, it has been reported several times that protein ingestion does not raise the circulating glucose concentration or raises it only modestly (3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10). The reason for this has been unclear.

In 1971, it was suggested that protein ingestion did not raise the circulating glucose concentration because an increased production and release of glucose from the liver was balanced by an increased uptake and utilization of glucose by peripheral tissues (34). The mechanism proposed was that an increased circulating glucagon concentration, resulting from the ingestion of protein, would stimulate glucose production from amino acids in the liver. The increased insulin concentration resulting from the ingestion of protein then would stimulate peripheral tissues, primarily skeletal muscle, to remove the glucose produced and to store it as glycogen (34). The latter is a well known effect of high concentrations of insulin. However, using direct hepatic vein catheterization techniques, a significant increase in glucose production in the splanchnic bed after protein ingestion could not be demonstrated either in dogs (35) or in humans (36). "



 

I had those heart palpitations too...definetly ketosis. Perhaps too much fat or glycogen from organ meats. I was also so worried about rabbit starvation that I overdid the fats...not an uncommon occurrence among zero-carbers.