Re-engineering my health

[Docrates]

Hi all. I don't post here much, so I'll start with my story (a brief brief summary)
- Started on Atkins in 2003. Lost 50 pounds total in about 6-8 months and reached 175 (If I did the cool sig thingy i'd put 5' 5", 225/175/150), then maintained my weight at around 180 (still on atkins)
- about two months ago I gained another 5 pounds after falling off the buggy a little bit
- Never exercised beyond my sunday mornings Racquetball games
- Read this book: http://www.fantastic-voyage.net/
- on Sunday, August 27 2006 I decided to re-engineer the whole thing (which is how I did it the first time. Doing atkins came after 4 months of studies, books, research and tests...i'm obsesive like that)

So this is what I'm doing:
- Joined the gym immediately. It's good and within 3 mins walking distance from my house (it has TV's in every machine which basically fixes my previous problem: what to do with my brain while I work out):
+ I'm doing 30 mins elliptical (300 cals burned)
+ I'm doing 30 mins treadmill (200 cals burned)
+ I started weight training last thursday and plan to work really hard on this, probably scaling back on the cardio work.

- In addition to my low carbing (I'm averaging 33g of net carbs per day) I implemented:
+ No sugar alcohols
+ No coffee (switched to black and green tea instead...Used to do 3 cubs of really really strong coffe per day)
+ No sodas
+ No sat fats and overall low fat: I'm averaging 81g per day
+ low calories: I'm averaging 1520 cals per day
+ no red meat
+ trying to eat broccoli and/or green beans every day
+ added 1-2 protein shakes per day (whey and soy, usually alternate)
+ as always little to no sugar

Since that day I'm down to 177 (but really started at about 183). but already feel GREAT and my clothes are just starting to hang loose again.

My biggest fear right now is stalling, as in trying to prevent it. I'll do the low cal thing until I reach my desired goal of 150, then I'll switch to a maintenance mode, but always low carbing and low sat fats for the rest of my life.

What advice, comments, links, etc. do you recommend?

Thanks!

[2big4mysize]

Re: Re-engineering my health

did you know protein is converted to sugar which will spike your blood sugar when you body protein stores reach capacity? that was why Dr Atkins recommneded not doing extra protein with our Atkins plan as the sugar will stop ketosis and thw appetite suppression you get from it.

[Docrates]

Re: Re-engineering my health

I'm quite confused.

I understand your body will only turn protein into glucose in small amounts, aproximately the amount of glucose needed by those regions of your brain that can't function on ketones alone...

If the body has a protein storage capacity, how much is it and what makes you think I'm passed that point?

I'm heavy (purple) into ketosis everyday (I theorize because my body is extracting large amounts of fat for ketone production triggered by my large caloric deficit and surge in energy needs caused by exercise and limited diet), I "feel" like my blood sugar level is right and overall don't feel the typical insulin instability symptoms I get when I do have inadequate amounts of glucose in my body.

Your comments are appreciated.

[Docrates]

Re: Re-engineering my health

Any thoughts?

[Kent]

Re: Re-engineering my health

The body will have to do one of two things with excess protein. Expel it through the waste process - urine, or convert it to sugar. How much is excess? It depends entirely on the amount of exercise. I am not sure how often you are doing the above 1 hour total of exercise each week, but if it's every day, it pretty certain you could be classified as quite active. That said, most recommendations I have seen are for 1.2 to 1.6 per lean kg body mass.

If your BF% was 15% (meaning 85% of your approx 80kg was LBM), your required amount of protein would be about 109g per day. Anything over this amount required to rebuild your muscles and other body tissues would be the excess and possible be converted to glucose.

[Docrates]

Re: Re-engineering my health

After reading 8-10 different articles on the topic, I've reached some preliminary conclusions:
- gluconeogenesis (creation of new glucose, in this case from protein) is something to worry about
- There are some conflicting reports as to how to calculate the correct amount of protein a person should eat on a low carb diet: some say 1-1.6 your total weight in Kg in grams of protein. Others say about 40% of your caloric intake. this is quite a difference.
- Those that support the 1 to 1.6 theory hold that excess proteins will turn into glucose at a 58% efficiency rate and although this process consumes fat as the energy source for the conversion, the total glucose released to the body is large enough to warrant a net loss healthwise for your system.
- Those that support teh 40% theory (like Ray Kurzweil who co-wrote that book I mentioned and some other physicians I found online) basically explain that after about 10 days, your body learns the right amount of glucose required for the body tissue that can't live on ketones and, unless your consume inordinates amounts of protein, will only cause gluconeogenesis in the right amounts. The rest of the protein basically goes the way of all protein digested by people not on a ketosis: it will turn into muscle mass or fat.

Right now I'm averageing about 200gm of protein per day which translates to about 40%-50% of my caloric intake. I think I'm going to scale it back to about 175gms and see what happens. Trying to change that into a higher fat diet will inevitably cause me to increase my caloric intake by quite a lot (9 calories per gram of fat vs. 4 calories per gram of protein) which is something I trying to prevent.

Please please let me knwo what you think.