Last Inner Carnivore Post

This will be my last post on Inner Carnivore. I will continue blogging, but am moving to my new blog, Low Carb Wisdom.

Why the change? Inner Carnivore could best be described as the "honeymoon period" I have had with the low carb way of life. It was a voyage of discovery for me, as I learned a lot of new things about the low carb way of eating. However, after five months and 55 pounds of weight loss, I have also begun to notice the warts about low carbing and I want to change the focus of the blog.

The new blog will be a critical examination of the pros and cons of low carbing, including an in depth examination of the Conventional Wisdom and Prevailing Opinion about the low carb lifestyle. I will continue the low carb way of eating, but as I mentioned in the previous post, it is not a magic weight loss bullet. Hard work, willpower, and calorie counting are still necessities, as I will explain.

So if you have enjoyed reading Inner Carnivore, follow me over to Low Carb Wisdom.

Epiphany: No Magic Bullet

I have written about nutritional conventional wisdom or prevailing opinion (CWOPO) before and it is one of the most read articles on this site. However, I have come the the realization that CWOPO exists within the low carb community as well and, as is often the case with conventional nutritional wisdom, low carb CWOPO can be wrong. At least for me. Let me explain.

As I have mentioned before, I have at one time lost a lot of weight (100+ pounds) using Weight Watchers, but gained it all back. Over a nine month period, I averaged 2.4 pounds per week on WW. Five months into my low carb journey and I am averaging less weight loss per week (2.3) than on WW. I realize I am almost 50 years old, and that should explain some of the slow down, but not all. In recent weeks, my weight loss has slowed considerably, to less than two pounds per week. The low carb community on the web often talks about weight loss stalls, or plateaus, and I want to avoid that. So I have been analyzing what I have been eating, including my total calories, using software I have written about before. This led to my epiphany.

The low carb diet is a high fat, moderate protein, low carb diet. This makes sense: if you reduce carbs, you must replace the macro nutrient total with either protein or fat and too much protein can be dangerous (according to chapter 15, p. 210 of The Art and Science of Low Carb Living). So we increase the fat. If you look at my macro nutrient breakdown from yesterday (for a total of 2,100 calories) using the livestrong.com software, it looks like this:

So I am clearly following a high fat, moderate protein, low carb diet. But here is where low carb CWOPO comes into play: CWOPO tells me that calories do not count, that low carbing provides a metabolic advantage, and that I should be adding a lot of fat to my diet to boost my fat intake total. So I added fat, didn't count calories, and counted on the metabolic advantage to take care of the rest. And my weight loss has slowed.

Then I had an epiphany. At 2,100 calories, I AM eating a high fat, moderate protein, low carb diet. There is no need to add a lot of additional fat to the diet, and calories do count.

So I have made some changes. I am watching/tracking my calories on livestrong.com, I am cutting some of the fat (as adding it only adds calories, and they do count!) and for me, metabolic advantage is a myth.

What I wanted was a magic bullet to cure my weight problems. I thought low carb was it. It works well for me, it keeps the hunger demons at bay, intrinsically, I like it A LOT more than the low fat diets like Weight Watchers, but it isn't the magic bullet I wanted. It still requires willpower and hard work to make it to my goal. And it provides a way to maintain my weight that I can live with.

Tracking Macro Nutrients

I recently discovered the livestrong.com web site (developed by the Lance Armstrong foundation). While it is based on faulty nutritional assumptions (CWOPO), such as lowering cholesterol and sodium intake, it is very useful for tracking calories and your macro nutrient breakdown (e.g., how much protein, fat, and carbohydrates you consume).

As I have mentioned before, the low carb lifestyle is more about fat than protein. It is a high fat, moderate protein, low carb diet. In percentage terms, my macro nutrient breakdown for yesterday is as follows:

Translated into numbers, yesterday, I consumed 165 grams of protein, 29 grams of "arbs" (or "carbs," of which 7 grams were fiber, for a net carb total of 22 grams), and 230 grams of fat. My total calories consumed yesterday came to 2,808 but, according to this software, I also walked the dog for 330 calories, making my net caloric intake yesterday 2,478 calories. The database at this site is very extensive, the best I have seen.

So while I do not really track calories (I only track grams of carbs and I am still losing weight), this was a very useful software tool for tracking macro nutrients and for getting a picture of what I am eating.

Weekly Update

My weight loss has slowed somewhat over the past two weeks. I have lost a total of 2.6 pounds in the past two weeks, including our vacation to Maine. So I am not disappointed with the loss, as we have been eating out way too much. I make good choices, the best available, but it is certainly easier to eat at home. Follow my weight loss progress with this chart. I have now lost 52.6 pounds in 23 weeks, for a weekly average loss of 2.29 pounds.

The Art and Science of Low Carbohydrate Living

I just finished a most interesting book, called The Art and Science of Low Carbohydrate Living by Jeff Volek, Ph.D., R.D. and Stephen D. Phinney, M.D., Ph.D. The book is targeted at medical professionals who might be interested in treating patients with a low carb diet and it gives all of the ins and outs of the process. Only a couple of chapters (that went into the clinical application of low carb diets) were not relevant to me and my experience.  My verdict: I highly recommend this book.

It tackles all of the big questions (e.g., "Won't eating saturated fat cause you to have a heart attack?" or "All the weight lost on low carb diets is water weight") and outlines not only a comprehensive low carb eating plan, but also a low carb "maintenance" plan for eating, after you have lost your weight.

It is fully referenced and includes all of the pertinent studies backing up everything it claims. It also concludes with a section on healthy recipes for a high fat, moderate protein, low carb diet.

I must say, the book is well written, but it looks like it was self-published. Nevertheless, it is quite the resource. If my physician gives me any grief about my low carb lifestyle on my next visit in early September, I am tempted to recommend it, or even give it, to her.

Some gems from the book:

• A listing of diseases successfully treated with a low carb diet (e.g., high blood pressure, metabolic syndrome, type II diabetes, sleep apnea, etc.); see p. 170.
• An in-depth explanation of why a low LDL reading is not necessarily bad; see pp. 91-95.
• In the discussion of fructose (a sugar that partitions like fat), the authors have this gem: "Most energy drinks and sports beverages use sucrose or high fructose corn sweetener as their primary energy source. Given that the average exhausted athlete still has tens of thousands of fat calories in body energy reserves but is running out of carbohydrate (glycogen), why would one want to add a sugar that cannot be used for quick energy, with most of it eventually ending up as fat?" P. 57.
• The authors explain the "Whoosh" experience (where someone stays at the same weight for days, then, "whoosh," over night they lose several pounds); it is a function of water retention. You are losing fat and inches, your clothes are feeling looser, but for whatever reason, you are holding on to water. Eventually, you will lose the water. When that happens, whoosh, you have lost five pounds overnight! P. 73.
• The authors introduce the concept of "carbohydrate intolerance" (chapters 14 and 15). If you don't tolerate carbohydrates very well, restrict them. A lot of good things will happen to your health. So I can now say I am carb intolerant, and cite this book as proof.
• A maple walnut ice cream recipe (pp. 229-230).

Professional Ignorance about Type II Diabetes

There is an astonishingly bad article about how to treat type II diabetes in a publication called Diabetes Health titled Type II Diabetes: From Old Dogmas to New Realities. The author, a head-in-the-sand woman named Hope Warshaw, says that low carb diets don't help people with diabetes and that we should all follow the advice of the American Diabetes Association.

Or, as Tom Naughton of the Fathead Movie fame says, this article essentially says "Just give up and take your drugs, dangit!" Read Naughton's whole critique of this astoundingly stupid article. The ignorance of the professional medical community on type II diabetes just astounds me.

But the best part of this article are the 40+ comments, and almost all of them supports the low carb approach and offers many testimonials of the success rate of following low carb diets. Many express dismay at how utterly clueless the author is, given that she is an RD, a certified diabetes educator, and has a master's degree. Clearly, she is an example of what Glenn Reynolds at Instapundit.com calls "credentialed, not educated."

So why does the ADA promote a high carb diet, when high carb diets are the root problem for type II diabetics? I am not sure. But check out their corporate sponsor page: the ADA is sponsored by Coca Cola, Hershey's, Mars, Kellogs, General Mills, and Pepsi. Truly, a "Who's Who" of American high carb junk food.  Page referenced on July 6, 2011; corporate sponsors may change over time.

My type II diabetes has been reigned in since beginning the low carb journey. My HbA1c level is quite good, I am off insulin, I have lost a lot of weight, and my blood pressure is normal. All without following the advice of the ADA.

Weekly Update

This week, I dropped another 2.6 pounds, bringing my total weight loss to 41 pounds. You can follow my weekly progress by viewing this chart. Another milestone is that I have been in Europe for one month now and during that time, I have dropped at least 9.2 pounds (there may be a small measurement error that could increase my weight loss by another two pounds).

More importantly, there are several non-scale victories (NSVs) worth mentioning. First, I have gone down from a 50-inch waist on my pants when I started in February to a 44-inch waist, which I just started wearing when my daughter brought me over a pair of jeans when she arrived last week. And those pants are now too large! I can pull them off without unbuttoning or unzipping them. Thank goodness for a belt.

Second, I have been walking a lot more lately and can do so without hunger. I am fully keto-adapted and so exercising does not make me hungry, as it does for people on a high carb regime. We walked for miles and miles (approximately 25,000 steps per day, according to my pedometer) while in Paris for the last few days. I got thirsty, but not hungry.

Third, we have been eating out a lot, some times all three meals per day, and by staying low carb, I am continuing to lose weight, in spite of all the eating out. This is important since, beginning tomorrow, we will be on a nine-day bus tour of Europe and will be eating out for every meal.

Fourth, my blood glucose levels are still falling. One hour after eating, they are consistently in the 100-105 range, and frequently they are in the 90-100 range. They should be below 140 one hour after eating and below 120 two hours after eating. So my one hour readings are quite good. My low carb lifestyle is effectively controlling my type II diabetes.

Finally, I am not really craving carbs anymore. When I do eat carbs, such as the blueberries I ate yesterday, they taste really, really good. And sweet. My palate is no longer in sugar shock, so I can fully taste and appreciate the natural level of sweetness in the berries I have been eating.

Life is good.

Higher Protein Diet Best for Maintaining Weight Loss

So you've lost a lot of weight.  How do you keep it off?  According to this study in the New England Journal of Medicine, a diet higher in protein and lower in the glycemic index was significantly better at maintaining weight loss than a low protein, high carb diet.  Those who lost weight and tried to maintain the weight loss with a low carb, high glycemic (high carb) gained back the most weight.

Is it any surprise that low fat, high carb diets like I used to follow have a terrible success rate of people trying to maintain weight loss?  When I think of all the money I spent on Weight Watchers, I could cry.

The Weight Loss Sweet Spot

So, assuming you are NOT a type II diabetic, what is the optimal number of grams of carbs to consume to burn fat, or to maintain weight?

The Mark's Daily Apple web site has a very interesting graphic, called the Primal Blueprint Carbohydrate Curve. (The author of this web site, Mark Sisson, is also the author of the book The Primal Blueprint, which extols the virtues of a Paleo diet like our caveman ancestors used to eat.  It is not necessarily the same thing as a low carb diet, though it is very similar.  I will do a post on Paleo diets one of these days).

In this carbohydrate curve, optimal fat burning happens when you are in ketosis or when you engage in intermittent fasting, which means you consume 0 to 50 grams of carbs per day.  The "Weight Loss Sweet Spot" is 50 to 100 grams of carbs per day.  Effortless weight maintenance is 100 to 150 grams of carbs per day, and anything over 150 grams will contribute to weight gain.

Again, this is NOT for type II diabetics.  When I finally lose my weight, I will have to see how carbohydrates affect my blood sugar before adding them back, but I do think this is a useful rubric for weight loss and weight maintenance down the road.

So How Much Weight Should I lose each Week?

When I lost 100+ pounds on Weight Watchers, it took me 10 months and an average loss of 2.4 pounds per week.  I gained it all back at about the same rate, since I was essentially living on a semi-starvation diet that was high in carbs and low in fat.  When I stopped starving myself, the weight came back on.  Now, I have found a better way, a dietary paradigm shift, a new, hopefully lifelong, way of eating.  But at the same time, I am discovering that everything I thought I knew about weight loss is wrong.

Apparently, I will lose weight at a different rate than on Weight Watchers.  During the first two weeks of the low carb diet, I lost 12 pounds, but it has slowed down considerably since then.  I will probably lose less weight per week than I did on Weight Watchers, since I am not starving myself.  Still, it was a question I wanted an answer to, so I did a bit of research.  The What They Don't Tell You about Low Carb Diets web site has a section that suggests a man in my weight range will probably lose about six pounds per month on average.  There are charts and graphs for men, women, and new dieters, and each graph is broken down into weight ranges.  The more you weigh, the more you will probably lose, at least at first.  As you get closer to your goal weight, your weight loss will slow.

So far, I have conformed to this pattern.  After the initial, dramatic weight loss, I have slowed a bit.  While my average over five weeks is still greater than three pounds per week, I expect that to gradually fall to the 1.5 pound per week mark.  I am happy and content with that, as this is not a race to my goal weight, and I won't be changing the way I eat once I get there.

Because, in addition to losing weight, the low carb way of life has saved me from my type II diabetes curse.  For that reason alone I would follow the plan, even if I didn't lose weight.  Losing weight is just icing on the cake.

So Why Didn't I Lose Weight This Week?

The short answer is:  I don't know.  I am still quite new to the low carb way of life.  Plenty of people have lost a lot of weight this way, and keep it off, so I know it works, but I may need to do some fine tuning.

The long answer is:  There are several possibilities.  First of all, my weight loss experience on Weight Watchers has taught me that you simply don't lose weight every week.  There are random fluctuations at times, and a weight loss plateau is somewhat common.  Perhaps the same is true for low carb diets (LCDs).

Secondly, the proportion of fat, protein, and carbohydrates are different for everyone, but I have learned that this is NOT a high protein diet.  It is a high fat diet.  Perhaps I have eaten too much protein and not enough fat.  A lot of people are suggesting that 75% of calories on an LCD should come from fat.  In an LCD, when you restrict carbs, you replace them with either fat or protein.  I am consciously trying to consume more fat this week and a bit less protein.  I have not eaten too many carbs, that's for sure.

Another hypothesis is that I have simply eaten too much, period.  I am trying to listen to my body more and pay attention to when I am full.  In general, I do not get hungry between meals, but I may be consuming too much at meals.  This goes hand in hand with eating too much protein and not enough fat.

Finally, perhaps my body is simply catching up to the rather dramatic weight loss I had during the first three weeks and will continue the downward trend this next week.  We will see.  One thing is certain, I am committed to this way of life.  I have read too many studies now to discount what I have learned about the dangers of carbohydrates to someone like me.  I am very sensitive to them.

Non Scale Victories

For whatever reason, I did not lose any weight this past week.  The first three weeks were pretty dramatic, so I guess I shouldn't be too worried.  One thing I did learn from Weight Watchers through both of my failed attempts at weight loss on that program was to celebrate non-scale victories, or NSVs.  Their basic idea was to not let the scale tyrannize you or determine your sense of self worth, and to look for victories that do not come at the scale.  So even though I no longer adhere to the Weight Watchers philosophy of eating, I can borrow other ideas.  So here I go.

First off, my blood sugar levels are really good and I celebrate one week of being off injectable insulin.  I am assuming my blood pressure is also good, but since my nurse-wife is out of town, I haven't checked it for a few days.  My carnivore diet has definitely lead to an overall improvement in my health and that is most definitely an NSV to celebrate.

Second, I have gone down two notches in my belt since I started, and yesterday, I pulled out a pair of jeans that had a waist size of 48 inches instead of the 50 inches I have been wearing.  The 50 inch jeans were getting quite lose and it was a pleasure to discover the 48-inch jeans fit a lot better.  My wife will now have a lot of jeans fabric with which to make a jeans quilt.  So I am not taking up as much space as I used to.  A great NSV.

Finally, I was chasing the dog around the couch yesterday and realized that I had a lot more energy than I usually do.  So we chased and chased and chased and I did not get tired like I usually did (and Titan really enjoyed the activity).  I have also noticed that when I walk around the mall in the mornings, I have more energy.