Category Archives: Energy balance

Study: protein & seafood. They work!

Posted on August 15, 2018 | Leave a comment

I liked this study for a couple reasons:

Effect of combined use of a low(ish)-carbohydrate, high-protein diet with omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acid supplementation on glycemic control in newly diagnosed type 2 diabetes: a randomized, double-blind, parallel-controlled trial (Liu et al., 2018)

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There were FOUR groups: 1) high-carb, low protein (HCLP, aka CONtrol group); 2) LCHP; 3) HCLP+n3; and 4) LCHP+n3. So, instead of just taking a group of people, putting them on LCHP+n3 and comparing the results to baseline, they actually controlled for the variables independently.

 

 

All groups were assign 30% fat and the protein was either 17% or 28%. THIS WAS CONFIRMED with serum urea nitrogen and you know how much I like biomarkers! n3 status of the n3 groups were confirmed with plasma n3’s and you know how much I like biomarkers!

Some more details on the study design…

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20% off some delish stocks and broths from Kettle and Fire HERE. 

If you want the benefits of  ‘shrooms but don’t like eating them, Real Mushrooms makes great extracts. 10% off with coupon code LAGAKOS. I recommend Lion’s Mane for the brain and Reishi for everything else. 

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Posted in Advanced nutrition, diet, Energy balance, Fish, insulin, Protein

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“The Big Breakfast Study” !

Posted on July 7, 2018 | 1 comment

Chrono-nutrition influence on energy expenditure and body weight (Ruddick-Collins et al., 2018) HT/ Robb Wolf

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“A growing body of evidence highlights the importance of the biological clock as a modulator of energy balance and metabolism. Recent studies in humans have shown that ingested calories are apparently utilized more efficiently in the morning than in the evening and this is manifest through improved weight loss, even under iso-energetic calorie intake.” YES!!!

Book recommendation: Why We Sleep

 

 

People eating 3 square meals a day shouldn’t be ingesting >40% of their calories late at night. <33% prior to sunset is more like it.

“The SCN of the hypothalamus, the ‘master clock,’ is primarily regulated by the light/dark cycles in order to synchronise the body to the light cycle or solar day…” but it also must by sync’d to the peripheral clocks! aka ‘food-entrainable oscillators’ (FEO).

Sure, caffeine and exercise can influence the liver and skeletal muscle clocks, respectively, but for full central & peripheral co-entrainment: FOOD and LIGHT in the morning (exercise and caffeine are optional for this).

Intermittent fasting? Time-restricted feeding? For more on all that, head on over to Patreon! Five bucks a month gets you access to all articles and there are many other options. It’s ad-free and you can cancel if it sucks 🙂

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20% off some delish stocks and broths from Kettle and Fire HERE. 

If you want the benefits of  ‘shrooms but don’t like eating them, Real Mushrooms makes great extracts. 10% off with coupon code LAGAKOS. I recommend Lion’s Mane for the brain and Reishi for everything else. 

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Posted in Advanced nutrition, circadian, Energy balance, Ketosis, Protein, Sun

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New study: very low carb diets don’t impair high intensity interval training (Cipryan et al., 2018)

Posted on June 16, 2018 | Leave a comment

Effects of a 4-week very low-carbohydrate diet on high-intensity interval training responses (Cipryan et al., 2018)

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Relevant study design details: 18 young, healthy, moderately-trained males. First, this was a study on exercise performance. Had it been on glucose management in patients with type 2 diabetes or obesity, this is not the population they would have selected. Second, they needed at least a moderately-trained population otherwise both groups would’ve made big n00b gainz which may have out-weighed any differences incurred by ketoadaptation in 4 weeks.

 

 

Third, 4 weeks is a good duration for this kind of study because maximal ketoadaptation occurs in about 3 weeks and doesn’t get stronger thereafter (gains seen beyond 3 weeks are more associated with training effects).

On to the dietary protocols, results, and 2 other relevant new studies… but for that, head on over to Patreon! Five bucks a month gets you full access and there are many other options. It’s ad-free and you can cancel if it sucks 🙂

calories proper

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20% off some delish stocks and broths from Kettle and Fire HERE. 

If you want the benefits of  ‘shrooms but don’t like eating them, Real Mushrooms makes great extracts. 10% off with coupon code LAGAKOS. I recommend Lion’s Mane for the brain and Reishi for everything else. 

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Posted in Advanced nutrition, diet, endurance, Energy balance, Ketosis, muscle, Protein, strength

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Watch the Clock, Not the Scale

Posted on June 8, 2018 | 1 comment

I’ve been known to say intermittent fasting is #weaksauce because most of the human studies show little or no effect and people frequently report being hungry (yes, even if LCHF). Human studies, not “n=1’s.”

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Well, now we know why. Time-restricted feeding (TRF) only really works when the feeding window is early (eTRF), as demonstrated by the recent Sutton study which showed, miraculously, great benefits achieved sans weight loss. Calories were strictly controlled in that study to prevent weight loss. AND when the participants were on eTRF, they actually reported less hunger in the evening.

 

 

We know from the studies by Jacobs and Hirsh that under ad lib AND isocaloric conditions, people lose more weight eating all their food for breakfast than those eating all their food for dinner.

 

 

That’s cuz metabolism is gimped at night. Lower metabolic rate and greater propensity to store fat.

Melatonin sensitizes the system, preparing it to optimally partition nutrients in the morning.

For the rest of this awesome article, head over to Patreon! Five bucks a month for full access and there are many other options. It’s ad-free and you can cancel if it sucks 🙂

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20% off some delish stocks and broths from Kettle and Fire HERE. 

If you want the benefits of  ‘shrooms but don’t like eating them, Real Mushrooms makes great extracts. 10% off with coupon code LAGAKOS. I recommend Lion’s Mane for the brain and Reishi for everything else. 

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Posted in Advanced nutrition, angiotensin, Bromocriptine, Cabergoline, chronopharmacology, circadian, Dopamine, Energy balance, Ketosis, melatonin, muscle, sex, sleep, vasopressin

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Mutual influence of sleep and circadian clocks on physiology and cognition

Posted on May 1, 2018 | Leave a comment

“The 24-hour sleep-wake cycle is one of the most prominent outputs of the circadian clock systems (Heyde et al., 2018)”

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Sleep disruption and circadian arrhythmia induce metabolic, cognitive, and immunological impairments. Is it causal? YES.

 

 

Sleep is highly conserved across the animal kingdom, since the dawn of time.

Interesting comparison: unlike hibernation or a coma, sleep is highly reversible. Lots of rebound regulation: lots of wakefulness makes you tired; lots of sleep leads to increased wakefulness.

Studies have shown improved memory performance after naps and extended sleep durations. Imo, you don’t need to go from 6 to 9.5 hours overnight, but keep that “9.5” on your radar.

Diet is easy, just eat like an adult. You can go 10 days without even eating! Try that with sleep. No, don’t try that. Most definitely incompatible with survival. Sleep deprivation impairs cognitive functions.

As a marker of health: cognitive function >>> how many reps you can do at the gym.

For the rest of this article (it doesnt suck, I promise!), head over to Patreon! Five bucks a month and there are many other options. It’s ad-free and you can cancel any time.

Also, I’m open to suggestions, so please don’t hesitate to leave a comment or contact me directly at drlagakos@gmail.com.

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Still looking for a pair of hot blue blockers? Carbonshade and TrueDark are offering 15% off with the coupon code LAGAKOS and Spectra479 is offering 15% off HERE. If you have no idea what I’m talking about, read this then this.

20% off some delish stocks and broths from Kettle and Fire HERE. 

If you want the benefits of  ‘shrooms but don’t like eating them, Real Mushrooms makes great extracts. 10% off with coupon code LAGAKOS. I recommend Lion’s Mane for the brain and Reishi for everything else. 

Start your OWN Patreon campaign!

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It STARTS with Sleep.

 

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Posted in Advanced nutrition, angiotensin, Bromocriptine, Cabergoline, cancer, chronopharmacology, circadian, depression, diabetes, Dopamine, Energy balance, insulin, Leptin, melatonin, sex, sleep, Sun, testosterone, vasopressin, Vitamin D

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The Fates of Pyruvate

Posted on April 3, 2018 | Leave a comment

As mentioned in the previous blog, obligatory glycolytic cells lack the apparatus (eg, mitochondria) to fully oxidize fuels down to CO2 and water. Thus, they can’t run on fatty acids, ketones, or beta-hydroxybutyrate. During prolonged starvation, there’s always some glucose in the blood, so they survive.

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Recommended textbook: Stipanuk or Gropper.

Glucose -> glycolysis -> pyruvate: then to lactate or the mitochondria, depending on the context. Skeletal muscle has mitochondria, but if you’re exercising hard, glycogen to lactate produces more energy faster than glycogen to pyruvate to mitochondria. Blood lactate increases in this context. During prolonged starvation, lactate is a valuable precursor for gluconeogenesis, so many tissues release lactate instead of oxidizing pyruvate.

To get the rest of this article (it doesn’t suck, I promise) or if you just like what I do and want to support it, head over to Patreon! Five bucks a month and there are many other options. It’s ad-free and you can cancel any time.

Also, I’m open to suggestions, so please don’t hesitate to leave a comment or contact me directly at drlagakos@gmail.com.

Affiliate links: still looking for a pair of hot blue blockers? Carbonshade and TrueDark are offering 15% off with the coupon code LAGAKOS and Spectra479 is offering 15% off HERE.
If you have no idea what I’m talking about, read this then this.

20% off some delish stocks and broths from Kettle and Fire HERE.

If you want the benefits of  ‘shrooms but don’t like eating them, Real Mushrooms makes great extracts. 10% off with coupon code LAGAKOS. I recommend Lion’s Mane for the brain and Reishi for everything else.

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Posted in Advanced nutrition, Energy balance, insulin, Ketosis, liver

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Obligatory glycolytic cells

Posted on March 28, 2018 | Leave a comment

Some cells lack mitochondria; they need glucose. And they don’t stop working during starvation because #gluconeogenesis.

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Red blood cells, renal medullar cells, and certain cells in the retina. Now do you see why it would be a problem if they stopped working during starvation? Hint: You’d die rather quickly.

Recommended textbook: Stipanuk or Gropper.

 

 

Those cells are unable to use conventional oxidative metabolism like the TCA cycle, ß oxidation of fatty acids, oxidation of ketone bodies and most amino acids, and the electron transport chain are all mitochondrial pathways absent from those cells.

To get the rest of this article (it doesn’t suck, I promise) or if you just like what I do and want to support it, head over to Patreon! Five bucks a month and there are many other options. It’s ad-free and you can cancel any time.

Also, I’m open to suggestions, so please don’t hesitate to leave a comment or contact me directly at drlagakos@gmail.com.

Affiliate links: still looking for a pair of hot blue blockers? Carbonshade and TrueDark are offering 15% off with the coupon code LAGAKOS and Spectra479 is offering 15% off HERE.
If you have no idea what I’m talking about, read this then this.

20% off some delish stocks and broths from Kettle and Fire HERE.

If you want the benefits of  ‘shrooms but don’t like eating them, Real Mushrooms makes great extracts. 10% off with coupon code LAGAKOS. I recommend Lion’s Mane for the brain and Reishi for everything else.

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Posted in Advanced nutrition, Energy balance, insulin, Ketosis, muscle, Protein

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Glucose dynamics during prolonged fasts

Posted on March 22, 2018 | Leave a comment

This is a somewhat complicated level of metabolism. Which tissues are producing what & how much, what are they burning & how much, etc., etc…

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After a few weeks, things begin to level out — we’ll pick it up there. Much of this is from a class I TA’d for in grad school, this book, and all the Cahill studies.

 

 

“The rate of glucose use at this time is around 90-100 g per day [remember, this is starvation, so all of that glucose comes from gluconeogenesis]. Of that, about 40 g is recycled via the Cori and glucose-alanine cycles and the remainder is ‘new’ glucose, ~18 g from glycerol and ~45 g from amino acids.”

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Posted in Advanced nutrition, diet, Energy balance, insulin, Ketosis, muscle, Protein

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Starvation ketosis and “priority” of brain fuels

Posted on March 15, 2018 | Leave a comment

“Priority” is a funny concept the fields of nutrition, metabolism, etc. For the brain, it is said to be glucose. It’ll use ketones when glucose is low and ketones are really high, like during starvation, but otherwise it’s just glucose. Why is this? One of my mentors had some great insights…

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“It seems that the loss of some energy as ketones in the urine is the price we pay to provide the brain with a suitable fuel. But there are a number of unanswered questions about brain fuel use. Why does the brain not use free fatty acids? The usual answer given is that they are not transported across the blood-brain barrier fast enough to be used as a major fuel and this is probably true. However, why did the brain not develop a suitable transport system, or localized store of glycogen for that matter.”

WHY NOT FATTY ACIDS?

Textbook: Biochemical, Physiological, and Molecular Aspects of Human Nutrition

For the rest of this article and more, head over to Patreon! Five bucks a month for full access and there are many other options.

It’s ad-free and you can cancel if it sucks 🙂

Also, I’m open to suggestions, so please don’t hesitate to leave a comment or contact me directly at drlagakos@gmail.com.

Affiliate links: still looking for a pair of hot blue blockers? Carbonshade and TrueDark are offering 15% off with the coupon codeLAGAKOS and Spectra479 is offering 15% off HERE.
If you have no idea what I’m talking about, read this then this.

20% off some delish stocks and broths from Kettle and Fire HERE.

If you want the benefits of  ‘shrooms but don’t like eating them, Real Mushrooms makes great extracts. 10% off with coupon code LAGAKOS. I recommend Lion’s Mane for the brain and Reishi for everything else.

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Posted in Advanced nutrition, diet, Energy balance, insulin, Ketosis, Protein, strength

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Metabolism of starvation/fasting =/= low carb diet

Posted on March 9, 2018 | Leave a comment

The Biology of Starvation (intro)

The Biology of Starvation: Renal Gluconeogenesis

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One of the major [obvious] differences in metabolism between fasting and low carb dieting is nitrogen metabolism… because you’re eating protein on a low carb diet, not so much while fasting. During fasting/starvation your body tries to downregulate the urea cycle because you can’t really afford to be ‘wasting’ amino acids/protein. I bet you never thought about the muscle-sparing effect of fat-derived fuels like that!

 

 

“Glucose production in starvation” is important because you need to make all of it and reduce the use of it.

 

For the rest of this article and more, head over to Patreon! Five bucks a month for full access and there are many other options.

It’s ad-free and you can cancel if it sucks 🙂

Also, I’m open to suggestions, so please don’t hesitate to leave a comment or contact me directly at drlagakos@gmail.com.

Affiliate links: still looking for a pair of hot blue blockers? Carbonshade and TrueDark are offering 15% off with the coupon codeLAGAKOS and Spectra479 is offering 15% off HERE.
If you have no idea what I’m talking about, read this then this.

20% off some delish stocks and broths from Kettle and Fire HERE.

If you want the benefits of  ‘shrooms but don’t like eating them, RealMushrooms makes great extracts. 10% off with coupon code LAGAKOS. I recommend Lion’s Mane for the brain and Reishi for everything else.

calories proper

 

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Posted in Advanced nutrition, diet, Energy balance, Exercise, insulin, Ketosis, Protein, strength

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