Author Topic: Lex's Journal  (Read 883939 times)

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Offline lex_rooker

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Re: Lex's Journal
« Reply #50 on: July 22, 2008, 01:52:25 am »
Craig, my brain seems to be functioning normally, at least I don't see any impairment, but others may judge differently. ;)  When jogging I don't seem to run out of breath, it's that my legs give out and then I'm dragging for the rest of the day.  I think that this is a good thing as I want my body to struggle to meet the energy demands so that it will transition to using the more abundant ketones and fatty acids rather than glucose for fuel.

Lauren & Caroline,  Thanks for your interest.  I understand that some of what I'm doing is a bit esoteric and can be confusing.  If you'd like clarification on anything feel free to e-mail me at lex_rooker@yahoo.com and I'll try to fill in some of the gaps.

Offline lex_rooker

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Re: Lex's Journal
« Reply #51 on: July 22, 2008, 12:45:06 pm »
I took yesterday off and didn't jog, however, I did walk about 10 miles.  My jog this morning was much better after the day off and I actually completed the first mile without walking and was able to jog about 70% of the second mile.  Since I only started the added activity less than a week ago the improved performance would not be the result of any improved conditioning.  I had hopped that it might be due to some adaptation of the muscles to using ketones for fuel but alas it was not to be.  Urinary ketones were still off the charts at level 4+ all day today.

My thinking is that the day off from jogging allowed my body to replenish glycogen reserves to some extent with the glucose made from the protein in my normal food ration.  This allowed a bit better performance today (much the same as my first day out).  Since I do my jogging in the morning and I eat late in the after noon, there would have been two meals from the last time I jogged Saturday morning until my jog this morning.  With my normal protein intake at about 100 grams per meal, this would have created 116 grams of glucose, much of which could have been stored as glycogen.

I expect that tomorrow will be miserable again as I should have depleted glycogen stores again with today's jog.

Lex

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Re: Lex's Journal
« Reply #52 on: July 22, 2008, 01:33:12 pm »
Lex,

I can't wait to see what tomorrow brings. What were your BG readings for today and yesterday?
When I first transitioned, my ketones were always high. After I'd adapted, my ketones were still high after exercise.

Keep in mind that on your first day of jogging, you were only able to jog 50% of the time and this was without previous exercise so you would have still had your glycogen stores. This time, you jogged 70% after having walked ten miles the previous day! I really do think you're on your way to full keto-adaptation.

Thanks and looking forward to further updates!

Craig

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Re: Lex's Journal
« Reply #53 on: July 22, 2008, 08:39:52 pm »

I've been trying to reconcile my 4 day weight loss that seems to have lead to a 2% body fat reduction with only a relatively minor increase in activity.    I'm sure some of the weight I lost was water which was released when the glycogen was used and not replaced.  My understanding is that for every gram of glucose or glycogen the body must also store 6 grams of water.  I lost 5 lbs but the caliper measurements said that 2% of that weight or 3.2 lbs was fat. So it looks like I lost 3.2 lbs of fat and 1.8 lbs of water.  The issue is this: to lose one pound of fat you must burn around 3,600 calories. The 3.2 lbs of fat represent 11,500 calories and therein lies the conundrum, where did all those calories go?

I do believe that 1 gm of glycogen is stored with 3 grams of water.  Where did you get the 6 g info?

The only change I made was to increase my activity by adding a very slow 2 mile jog to my daily routine.  If I remember correctly the body burns about 100 additional calories above baseline per mile when jogging.  This means that I was burning and additional 200 calories per day for a total of 800 additional calories over 4 days. Even if you double this amount it only accounts for about 10% or less of the fat calories I lost, again where did they go?

It is true that 100 kilocalories are burned per mile on foot, whether walking, jogging or doing HIIT (high intensity interval training).  You might even crawl the distance to burn the 100 kcal.  I have read in runnersworld.com that HIIT actually does burn more calories than the other modalities (like 10 more methinks).  Also, interval training pushes your body to better fitness in some very profound ways.  The heart, legs and lungs get worked much harder when you sprint 100 meters, walk 100 m, repeat, than the same distance covered in a steady state.

I may be sacrificing some muscle tissue but not much as I'm using the majority of my body's muscles in the act of jogging so I don't believe the body will sacrifice tissue from the muscles that are calling for the increased fuel unless there is no other source.  I had a good bit of fat at 14% so I expect this is what was used to create the needed glucose/glycogen for the muscles.

Well, at the short distance you are covering, muscle catabolism probably isn't much of an issue, especially if you start incorporating intervals and/or strength training.  You can do some yard work for the latter, as I don't think you are into weight lifting, correct me if I am wrong.  But just look at the difference in physique of a marathon runner or a sprinter.  The sprinter has more muscle mass, whereas the marathoner will have catabolized precious muscle to endure the long distance.  This is a generalization, of course.  And I would be very curious to see the physique of a low carb marathoner.  I know they exist.  Do they burn their vastly greater amounts of fat nearly exclusively (everyone has at least tens of thousands of calories of fat on their bod) and spare the muscle, or do they burn both the fat and the muscle (to get the glucose from it)?  I would bet the latter, though it is just a guess. 

The body can only store about 2500 kcal of glycogen, and even if fat metabolizers spare it, long distances will deplete the stores, won't they?  But then, the high intensity work like sprinting and strength training burn it faster.  I would love to see you embark on a strength training protocol at zero carb.  I could do it myself but I am a wimp when it comes to an all carvivorous diet.  Besides, you have been doing this sort of diet for years, and have all the science to back you up.  Just a thought.  You see, I think low carb can go well with intense workouts and would actually spare muscle, but until and unless someone gets out there and does it, we will never debunk the myth that you need carbs for that kind of workout.  Maybe I am low carb enough to try?  I dunno, but I do some high intensity training.

Keep us posted, Trailblazer Lex!

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Re: Lex's Journal
« Reply #54 on: July 22, 2008, 09:02:44 pm »
I should note that Dr. Eades has a different spin on calories burned during a particular activity.  He may be correct in his reasoning, but I think he dismisses the power of exercise to have positive changes on body composition in general (who cares about the weight on the scale if you have dense muscles and bones and a reasonable amount of body fat (and too little fat ain't good neither)?). 

http://www.proteinpower.com/drmike/weight-loss/calories-and-exercise/

Offline lex_rooker

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Re: Lex's Journal
« Reply #55 on: July 23, 2008, 01:39:02 am »
I can't wait to see what tomorrow brings. What were your BG readings for today and yesterday?
When I first transitioned, my ketones were always high. After I'd adapted, my ketones were still high after exercise.

BG was running in the high 80s low 90s on Sunday.  After my jog Monday morning it was 66 and hovered in the 70s and low 80s for most of the day.

Keep in mind that on your first day of jogging, you were only able to jog 50% of the time and this was without previous exercise so you would have still had your glycogen stores. This time, you jogged 70% after having walked ten miles the previous day! I really do think you're on your way to full keto-adaptation.

Actually I didn't report on the first day of jogging. The 50/50 was the second day which was miserable.  On the first day I was able to jog the first full mile and about 70% of the second mile so my performance on Monday was about the same as my first day.  This is part of what leads me to believe that the increased performance on Monday was due to stored glycogen rather than any significant training effect as my performance was actally the same as the first day.

I do believe that 1 gm of glycogen is stored with 3 grams of water.  Where did you get the 6 g info?

I think I got this from Runners World back in the 1970s when I was a dedicated runner. Short, Rogers, and Anderson were my idols.  I used to run ten 6:30 miles every other day. 

Satya, you are certainly generous with MY exercise routine.  Here I am struggling to jog 2 miles and you're trying to up the ante with 100 yard wind sprints.  Please keep in mind that I'm pushing 60 and my max heart rate isn't what it was when I was in my 20s and 30s.  My bones creak, and everything sags.  To be honest, I'm very please that I'm able to exercise at all.  Many my age are riding around in power chairs.

I should note that Dr. Eadie's has a different spin on calories burned during a particular activity.  He may be correct in his reasoning, but I think he dismisses the power of exercise to have positive changes on body composition in general (who cares about the weight on the scale if you have dense muscles and bones and a reasonable amount of body fat (and too little fat ain't good neither)?). 

I read the article and tend to agree with Eadie's.  This is why I was so astounded when I lost 3 lbs of fat in 4 days.  There had to be something going on that would account for this amazing fat loss as it clearly wasn't water if you believe the skin caliper readings.  That's why I'm convinced that the fat was pulled out of storage to give the body access to the glycerol molecule to turn into glucose and it discarded the fat.  There are 3 fat and 1 glycerol molecules in a tryglyceride. Since my body seems to be using glucose to fuel muscle activity, and only the glycerol molecule could be turned into glucose, this indicates to me that the body discarded the 3 fat molecules which is 75% of the energy contained in the triglyceride. This is also supported by the fact that ketones are above the highest level measurable on the color chart.  It would also go along way in explaining where all the energy in the lost fat went.

Lex

Offline lex_rooker

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Re: Lex's Journal
« Reply #56 on: July 23, 2008, 07:06:02 am »
As expected today's jog was a struggle.  Probably back to 65/35 or possibly a bit better.  Ketones are still maxed out so no change there.  BG has been yo-yoing between 66 and 100 over the past 48 hours.  No clue what is causing this.

After this morning's jog I stopped in at the local CVS Pharmacy (which is right on the corner where my jog ends) and puffing and panting went to their BP machine to check Blood Pressure.  I was expecting both pulse and BP to be rather high as I haven't really jogged or done much cardio type exercise for many years.  Pulse was 125 which seemed about right for my conditioning level and 3 minutes or so after jogging.  It's the blood pressure that blew me away - it was 87/53.  Normal resting BP for me is usually around 105/65 and I was expecting it to rise substantially after heart pounding exercise.  Not sure if the lower BP after jogging bodes well or not.

Lex

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Re: Lex's Journal
« Reply #57 on: July 23, 2008, 08:12:43 am »
I think I got this from Runners World back in the 1970s when I was a dedicated runner. Short, Rogers, and Anderson were my idols.  I used to run ten 6:30 miles every other day. 

Lex,

Wow, what a great pace for such a distance!

Satya, you are certainly generous with MY exercise routine.  Here I am struggling to jog 2 miles and you're trying to up the ante with 100 yard wind sprints.  Please keep in mind that I'm pushing 60 and my max heart rate isn't what it was when I was in my 20s and 30s.  My bones creak, and everything sags.  To be honest, I'm very please that I'm able to exercise at all.  Many my age are riding around in power chairs.

Sir, I do apologize if I came across as pushy.  That was not my intent.  You're doing fine, and I wish you all the best!  I am really happy for you, and I am sure you will get many benefits from your fitness endeavors.  Since you have such a track record with fitness, I am sure you will progress quite nicely over time (and thus wind sprints might be in your future  ;) ).  And really, what's a bit of creaking and sag?  Better than a catheter and hospital bed, eh?  I know some really fit people past age 60, and I am so inspired by them. 

Jack La Lanne is pushing 94, and I do believe it is his exercise routine that keeps him going.  He used to push the protein, but now he is almost vegan, but with egg whites and fish, iirc. 

I read the article and tend to agree with Eadie's.  This is why I was so astounded when I lost 3 lbs of fat in 4 days.  There had to be something going on that would account for this amazing fat loss as it clearly wasn't water if you believe the skin caliper readings.  That's why I'm convinced that the fat was pulled out of storage to give the body access to the glycerol molecule to turn into glucose and it discarded the fat.  There are 3 fat and 1 glycerol molecules in a tryglyceride. Since my body seems to be using glucose to fuel muscle activity, and only the glycerol molecule could be turned into glucose, this indicates to me that the body discarded the 3 fat molecules which is 75% of the energy contained in the triglyceride. This is also supported by the fact that ketones are above the highest level measurable on the color chart.  It would also go along way in explaining where all the energy in the lost fat went.

Sounds good to me.  So your fat is at 12% now?  Are you shooting for any particular goal in this regard?

Offline lex_rooker

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Re: Lex's Journal
« Reply #58 on: July 23, 2008, 01:36:59 pm »
Satya,
I guess I should have used a smilie since my admonition about pushing my exercise limits was meant to be tongue in cheek.

I'm well past the point in my life of trying to force specific outcomes. It takes an extraordinary amount of energy, rarely works, and if I succeed I often find that it was not in my best interest anyway. Now I'm pretty much along for the ride to see where it takes me.  I started eating just meat and fat to see what would happen.  I survived that adventure and feel better than I have in years so after learning a few more facts from people like Gary Taubes, I decided to change the ratio of fat to lean to see where that goes.  I've added a little exercise to see if this will act as a catalyst to expedite the changes, but rather than try for a specific change I'm monitoring and reporting on what I experience along the way. 

Some things surprise me and seem to defy current wisdom or are contrary to my current belief system so I try to analyze them within the structure of my current knowledge and shine the light of public scrutiny on them through forums like this one to see if they hold water.

Based on the above, I really don't care where my % body fat ends up as long as I feel good and can continue doing the things I enjoy.

Lex

Offline lex_rooker

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Re: Lex's Journal
« Reply #59 on: July 24, 2008, 11:23:40 am »
Something must be changing.  Today I completed my 2 mile jog without stopping.  They were 10 minute miles and most people probably could have walked just as fast, but they were nonstop none the less. Today completes one calendar week of the increased activity and I just don't believe that there is any significant training effect at this point, to me this points to better fuel availability for the muscles.  I felt more energized most of the day today, where for the past 6 days I've felt very tired. Ketones are still level 4+ so not convinced that my muscles are using these for fuel.  It could be that they are now using fatty acids directly.

Another thing I noticed is that the weight loss has either stopped or at least slowed significantly.  For the first 4 days of this phase of my experiment I lost over one pound per day at the rate of about 1/3 water and 2/3s body fat.  For the past 3 days my weight hasn't varied more than one pound up or down from 160.

BG has been in the high 80s low 90s all day and about the same over the last 3 days.  If my muscles have adapted to using FFAs rather than ketones in place of the glucose this could explain both the higher BG and the reduction in weight loss.

Here's my current theory:  I eat enough protein to create about 58 grams of glucose per day.  Without the added muscle activity of jogging this amount seemed adequate for glucose dependent systems.  I increased my activity and this started sacrificing some lean muscle mass as well as a significant amount of body fat to release glycerol to create enough glucose to support the added activity, but discarded the resulting FFAs as they couldn't be used at the time - hence the rapid reduction in weight.

If my muscles have now started to use FFAs, the body fat will still be transported out of storage as triglycerides when energy expenditure increases when I exercise, however, now the 3 fat molecules of the triglyceride will be used as fuel for the muscles which is far more efficient and requires far less fat for a given amount of energy.  The glycerol molecule will still be converted to glucose by the liver, however the muscles don't need this anymore as they are now using the FFAs as their primary fuel source.  This means that the newly created glucose will be released into the blood stream and raise BG.  If no systems need this glucose, and if it rises high enough, then insulin will be released from the pancreas to convert the excess BG to glycerol which will combine again with 3 fat molecules from the high fat diet I'm eating and then stored again as body fat - hence no weight loss at all as the glycerol molecules are just going through a cycle from stored body fat, to triglyceride, to free glycerol (releasing 3 fat molecules in the process), converted back to glucose in the liver, then converted again to glycerol in the presence of insulin when BG rises, and finally combining again with 3 fatty acids to make a triglyceride to be transported to fat cells for storage.

Fatty acids from the foods we eat will only be stored as body fat if there is a free glycerol molecule to bind with them to create a triglyceride. Glycerol is a by product of glucose metabolism in the presence of insulin.  As long as we limit BG (by eating zero carbs and reducing protein to a minimum), to a level just sufficient to support glucose dependent systems, then no insulin is released, no glycerol is created, and no triglycerides can be formed so no additional body fat is stored.  The excess fat from the diet will be turned into ketones by the liver and eliminated from the body through lungs and urine.

What I think is beginning to happen to me now is that the protein I consume creates enough BG for BG dependent systems.  The muscles are converting to using FFAs directly as their primary fuel source so these are being consumed by the muscles when they are realeased from the triglycerides molecule and before they can be converted to ketones.  The glycerol molecule is no longer needed for muscle fuel so it is converted back to glucose by the liver but the protein I eat already meets my body's needs so this new glucose causes BG to rise.  The rise in BG causes insulin to be released which converts the glucose back to glycerol.  The glycerol hangs around until I eat my meal and flood my system with FFAs at a time of low activity so there is no competition for them from the muscles.  Some of the FFAs bind with the glycerol and create new triglycerides that are again transported to the fat cells for storage until they are again released during periods of high activity.  Fat that is not used either to create a triglyceride or as a direct energy source for some body function is converted to ketones by the liver and used to fuel some systems but most is discarded. 

As you can see, if my theory explained by the above process is accurate, we should expect weight loss to totally halt and the body will just recycle the extra BG from the triglycerides over and over again.  If I were to increase protein or add significant carbs then weight would increase again due to more available glucose, until again a balance is reached.  If I were to reduce my protein, then I will lose weight due to less available glucose until this balance is reached again.  The problem is, if I reduce protein to low, then there won't be enough protein to maintain and repair muscle tissue so when I lose weight, much of it will be lean muscle mass rather than fat.  This is what happens when people go on a water fast.  I did this for 31 days straight and lost about 90 lbs - much of it muscle.  It took me over 2 years to recover.  Doing this experiment has helped me understand what actually happened on this water fast and I would caution even my worst enemy against it.  However, I was young and even more gullable than I am now, and was convinced that Sheldon, Bragg, Carrington, and a host of other gurus championing the long water fast had found the holy grail.  I no longer think so.....

Well, that's what I'm thinking.  It could all be nonsense and pure hokum, but it seems to fit within my understanding of how our basic metabolism works. It also provides a reasonable explaination to account for BG, ketones, weight, and other parameters I'm monitoring.

It will be interesting to watch this unfold and see what unexpected surprises are around the next corner.

Lex


Offline Nicola

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Re: Lex's Journal
« Reply #60 on: July 24, 2008, 06:47:30 pm »
A new "Slanker's Newsletter" was mailed to me today with a health report from a "Caveman"...Lex!

http://www.texasgrassfedbeef.com/

They should send you your meat for free...

Nicola

Satya

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Re: Lex's Journal
« Reply #61 on: July 24, 2008, 11:42:21 pm »
I guess I should have used a smilie since my admonition about pushing my exercise limits was meant to be tongue in cheek.

Lex,

I was pretty sure you were joking about me taking liberties with your workout.  However, you might have been miffed.  So I did what Korean cultural influence dictates:  I took no chance of offending an elder.  Wisdom comes with age and it should be valued and respected.

I am glad you are getting some energy back.  And you are eating 100g of protein a day, yes?  That should be more than adequate for your present workouts, don't you think?
« Last Edit: July 25, 2008, 01:53:10 am by Satya »

Offline iamdj

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Re: Lex's Journal
« Reply #62 on: July 25, 2008, 02:43:41 am »
Lex:

My hat goes off to you.

In 2003, I had a stent put in my left anterior descending artery. It was 99% clogged. The doc's tried to put me on statins and the like. Long story short, I am a FIRM believer that cholesterol is not only necessary, it is VITAL to our well being. Taking a pill to hammer my liver because of my blood cholesterol seemed illogical. Later of course, after reading more about the cholesterol myth, it lead me to discover about how our ancestors ate and that it was agriculture of GRAINS and how we process them is the more likey culprit of my clogged artery.

There have been studies of certain tribes in Africa, forgot the tribe name, that heard grazing animals, and the typical diet of these tribes consists mostly of meat and blood from these grazing animals. When they examined the bodies of these tribes people, their was no trace of atherosclerosis in any of them. Clearly eating fat and protein (animal) has no relevance to arterial damage. Saturated fat and red meat have been demonized. I could go on with other studies of course.

Your diet clearly DESTROYS all assumptions and studies that eating protein and fat causes high cholesterol and/or arterial damage.

When I attempted the ATKINS approach, I felt horrible after a while. My head was foggy and I felt out of it. Did you go through any of those feelings?

I have increased my fat and protein recently, but still eat some carbs. Mostly vegetables and fruit, some nuts and seeds.

Thanks,

Dave

Offline lex_rooker

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Re: Lex's Journal
« Reply #63 on: July 25, 2008, 10:44:50 am »
Hi Dave,
Thanks for the encouragement.  This started out as a simple experiment and has gotten far more attention than I ever expected.  I had no idea so many people were interested in this sort of stuff.

When I attempted the ATKINS approach, I felt horrible after a while. My head was foggy and I felt out of it. Did you go through any of those feelings? 

To be truthful I never really had much trouble at all until I upped my fat level to 80%.  Even then my head has been clear, it's just that my body became annoyed with the change and in the course of adapting I've had a couple of weeks of feeling real tired.  This happened when I increased my exercise level beyond what the glucose created from the 90-100 grams of protein I eat per day could support.  Before this I was eating about  150 grams of protein a day and this provided plenty of glucose to run just about everything.  Ketones were created and present in the urine, however I think these were just unused fatty acids that the liver converted to ketones so they could be eliminated.  This is just speculation of course and I could be full of horse pucky but it makes sense to my limited mental capabilities.

Lex


Offline lex_rooker

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Re: Lex's Journal
« Reply #64 on: July 25, 2008, 10:48:34 am »
Hi Satya,
And you are eating 100g of protein a day, yes?  That should be more than adequate for your present workouts, don't you think?

I seem to be doing well on the 90-100g of protein.  There isn't any evidence of excessive loss of muscle mass and I'm beginning to feel much better so I don't think my lethargy had anything to do with protein deficiency.  I'll keep it where it's at for the time being and see where this leads.

Lex

Offline lex_rooker

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Re: Lex's Journal
« Reply #65 on: July 25, 2008, 11:17:15 am »
I amazed myself again today by completing a full 2.5 mile slow jog without stopping.  This is 1/2 mile more than yesterday and I truly believe that I could have made 3 miles but my legs were getting very heavy and the last thing I need is a broken bone from tripping over a high curb.  I have no "goal" as I'm not trying to become "conditioned".  My purpose in starting to increase my level of exercise was to attempt use up blood glucose to try to expedite whatever changes my body is going to make.  This seems to have worked as my BG curves over the last week have changed dramatically from the previous week. Any conditioning will just be a side effect.

BG actually rose a bit after my jog this morning and I feel that this supports my idea that I'm releasing stored body fat to obtain the fatty acids and the left over glycerol molecule is being converted to glucose by the liver as when I'm exercising there is no surplus of free fatty acids around to create a new triglyceride as the FFAs are being used by the muscles for fuel. (see yesterday's long winded post for details of what I believe is happening).

BG range today was again from the high 80s to the mid 90s.  Another sign that I'm not really using much of it.  When I first started jogging a week ago my BG would plummet during the jog and be in the low to mid 60s for several hours after the jog.  Now it starts in the low 80s and rises after the exercise.  This is a completely new BG response and it will be interesting to see if it changes again as this adventure continues.

Ketones were level 4+ as usual and again I have a suspicion that this is the body's effort to remove unused FFAs.  Eating 80% of my calories as fat I'm sure there are plenty to get rid of. 

Pulse this morning was 66 upon awakening, and resting BP was 98/63. Highest recorded BP for the day was 111/69.  This is amazing since my starting BP in 2005 seldom dropped below 145/95, and the cool thing is that I take no medication.

Lex

xylothrill

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Re: Lex's Journal
« Reply #66 on: July 25, 2008, 11:45:21 am »
Lex,

It gets better everyday as it did for me. It took some time before my ketones went down to trace levels but I felt much better even before that happened. Do you still have to force yourself to eat or are you able to eat to appetite? I'm not suggesting you change your protocol but if you were only to eat to appetite, your ketones would probably go down sooner. I do believe you need fewer calories when 80% come from fat and if you're forcing them down for the sake of the experiment, something has to happen to them; they have to go somewhere.

According to Gary Taubes' research, the more calories you take in, the more energy you'll expend. So, as you become more fat-adapted, your energy levels may increase to help burn some of the extra calories.

Craig

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Re: Lex's Journal
« Reply #67 on: July 25, 2008, 11:56:25 am »
Dave,

I did experience heavy brain fog and infrequent feelings of passing out with seeing dark blotches. I couldn't concentrate and would forget something I was told the second after I was told it. This seemed to come and go and get less frequent as the adaptation went on. My brain improvement coincided with my physical energy improvement. After about two weeks, I was pretty much adapted and I had a sense of calm about my brain with the return of a steady energy. Before, as a high carb eater, my energy was a nervous energy accompanied by ups and downs. I'm sure this was a result of BG and insulin swings.

Craig

Offline lex_rooker

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Re: Lex's Journal
« Reply #68 on: July 25, 2008, 01:18:51 pm »
Hi Craig,
I think you're experience is pretty much paralleling mine with the exception that I really haven't experienced the brain fog.  This may be due to the fact that I'd switched to a raw meat diet about 18 months before this experiment in raising the fat.  Under my old protocol I was eating much more protein so I'm sure there was plenty of glucose to keep things running smoothly.  I was still producing ketones even then so possibly my brain transitioned slowly over time since both glucose and ketones were available in abundance. I'm now starving my body for glucose and forcing it to expend muscular energy which has interrupted the status quo -at least for the muscles.  The brain is fine so it must have made an orderly transition to ketones many months ago.

For the sake of the experiment I'm attempting to eat the same number of calories that I did before - just change the fat/protein ratio.  This means I'm eating significantly less volume of food, about 630g vs 900g.  I get full rather quickly and on occasion find it a struggle to finish even the lesser portion, though on other occasions I'm left wanting a bit more.

Yes Taubes said his research indicated that there was a theory that, all things being equal, if more calories were ingested then the body would increase energy expenditure over time to match.  Who knows?  I have no idea if my thinking is anywhere near cogent.  What I can say is that since going all raw meat, at times I wake up at night quite warm and have to throw off even the sheet in an effort to get back to sleep.  My wife thinks it's amusing as she had similar issues as she went through menopause.  The difference with me is that when eating a vegan diet I was always cold and usually slept with a blanket even in summer.  Now I usually sleep with only a sheet, a ceiling fan on low, and often with no covering at all so it's not really a hot flash.  But something is stoking the furnace that's for sure.

Lex

Lex

xylothrill

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Re: Lex's Journal
« Reply #69 on: July 25, 2008, 01:31:45 pm »
Yes Taubes said his research indicated that there was a theory that, all things being equal, if more calories were ingested then the body would increase energy expenditure over time to match.  Who knows?  I have no idea if my thinking is anywhere near cogent.  What I can say is that since going all raw meat, at times I wake up at night quite warm and have to throw off even the sheet in an effort to get back to sleep.  My wife thinks it's amusing as she had similar issues as she went through menopause.  The difference with me is that when eating a vegan diet I was always cold and usually slept with a blanket even in summer.  Now I usually sleep with only a sheet, a ceiling fan on low, and often with no covering at all so it's not really a hot flash.  But something is stoking the furnace that's for sure.

Lex



Hmmm.. I remember reading something about futile cycles. It has something to do with the body getting rid of energy and increased heat is a result or side-effect. I can't recall the details or how it works though.

Craig

xylothrill

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Re: Lex's Journal
« Reply #70 on: July 25, 2008, 03:25:51 pm »
A new "Slanker's Newsletter" was mailed to me today with a health report from a "Caveman"...Lex!

http://www.texasgrassfedbeef.com/

They should send you your meat for free...

Nicola

I got it too and in the past couple of days, the unique views have almost doubled, putting this thread in #1 place for unique views! I'm sure it's due to the Slanker's Newsletter! I'll check the Awstats when they update but I've found that email links are hard to track.

Craig

Offline CherylJosie

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Re: Lex's Journal
« Reply #71 on: July 25, 2008, 05:51:45 pm »
Hello Lex,

There are a few things I recommend that you do before committing to your experiment long-term.

First, I would read McDougall's Medicine: A Challenging Second Opinion, because it recommends basically the opposite of your regimen and gives scientific analysis for the why. It will give you insights into the other side of the aisle, which could be vital to proper analysis of your experimental results.

Second, I recommend that you investigate the following items to see how your regimen is affecting them:
  • blood PH... amino acids and fatty acids, when consumed in excess, make the blood PH go down, and the body may dump calcium from the bones into the blood stream to compensate. Since leafy greens are rich in calcium, it might be vital to add them to help buffer your PH and spare your bones. Basically, by eating grass-fed meat, you are eating animals that did in fact have alkaline diet, bur you are inverting your PH by eating the animals rather than the leafy greens. I recommend a bone scan periodically too, to make sure you are not dissolving your vertebra and setting yourself up for crippling injuries or fractures.
  • free radicals... long chain fatty acids of the saturated variety are not as bad as unsaturated in this respect, but basically any fat that is heated to cook it is damaged and will end up with dangling bonds. The dangles represent spare or missing electrons that can cause the cooked (broken-down) fatty acids to react with (glom on to) other molecules, causing them to also become reactive, resulting in long tangled chains or bursts of additional dangling bonds, and cross-linked proteins. Cross-linking causes connective tissue to become less flexible (hydrogenated oils are worst in this respect) and also can cross-link right into DNA, potentially activating growth genes that might start the cell reproducing uncontrollably in a tumor. This is basically a process of 'oxidation' or burning when these burnt fats get into your system and start reacting with your own cells, and anti-oxidants serve to terminate the long chains of free radicals by donating or accepting an electron without damaging a cell in the process. Again, leafy greens are rich in anti-oxidants. The animals you are eating had the benefit of the leafy green to protect them from cancer and connective tissue damage, but you do not.

I just hope that your experiment is not causing you too much damage. The original Eskimos did eat a diet of nearly pure fish, and did not die of heart disease or blood clots, but the high concentration of Omega 3 in their diets interfered with clotting, essentially blocking the plaque from forming a clot when it ruptures and preventing stroke and heart attack by that mechanism, not by actually cleaning the arteries out, sort of like super-aspirin or heparin when used in the hospital during coronary thrombosis or stroke. Will a diet of pure grass-fed eventually cause you the same side effect that the Eskimos suffered -- fatal nose bleeds from inability to form clots?

These extreme diets may produce all sorts of interesting effects, but just because some test results get 'better' does not necessarily mean that you are healthier. I encourage you to try reading many different sources and getting a more wholistic view of what you are doing to your body, just in case you are robbing Peter to pay Paul with your dietary changes rather than actually building equity in your health.

Skepticism is a rare quality to have, just remember to be skeptical of everything in equal measure so that your mind stays open to the possibility that you too are in error, and that there may be more to the picture than just doing the opposite of conventional wisdom to maximize health.

Cheryl

xylothrill

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Re: Lex's Journal
« Reply #72 on: July 25, 2008, 06:48:55 pm »
Hi Cheryl and welcome,

Perhaps a little of Lex's history is should be known.
Please read: http://www.rawpaleo.com/lexR.html

Craig

Offline Raw Kyle

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Re: Lex's Journal
« Reply #73 on: July 26, 2008, 01:26:12 am »
CherylJosie Lex has more tests done on his blood than anyone I know. Also he eats his food raw so the free radical creation from cooking you're talking about is a non-issue.

Although if he hasn't had any pH tests (which I would find hard to believe knowing Lex a little by now) then perhaps he should.

Offline TylerDurden

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Re: Lex's Journal
« Reply #74 on: July 26, 2008, 01:35:39 am »
The issue re Eskimos and nosebleeds has been way overblown. And Eskimos on traditional diets actually had much lower rates of heart-disease- it was when they switched to modern, refined diets that they started getting serious problems re heart-disease etc.
"During the last campaign I knew what was happening. You know, they mocked me for my foreign policy and they laughed at my monetary policy. No more. No more.
" Ron Paul.

 

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