Tag Archives: body composition

Carbohydrates, calories, appetite, and body weight.

Posted on February 2, 2014 | 36 comments

The Optimal Diet, Atkins, South Beach, Paleo, Zone… all have one thing in common: some degree of carbohydrate restriction.

Low, lower, lowest: does it matter?

There are 4 relatively large, randomized ‘diet-induced weight loss’ studies that all reported fairly comprehensive food intake and body composition data. The studies ranged in duration from 24 weeks to one year and included anywhere between 50 and ~300 overweight and obese participants.

In general, participants assigned to the low fat intervention were advised to restrict calories and fat whereas those assigned to low carb were told they could eat as much as they wanted as long as it wasn’t carbs.

Your mileage may vary – but these studies cover a large number of subjects from a wide range of backgrounds, suggesting the results might be applicable across the board.  Conclusion?  the amount of body fat lost was much more strongly associated with the reduction in carbohydrates than calories.  The only modestly surprising aspect was the magnitude… (see the figures below).

The four studies, in chronological order:

Brehm 2003: over the course of 6 months, those who consumed an average of 163 grams of carbohydrate per day lost 8.6 pounds of body weight while those who consumed 97 grams lost 18.7 pounds.

McAuley 2005: 24 weeks; those who ate 171 grams lost 10.3 pounds, while those who ate 133 grams lost 15.2 pounds, and those who ate 107 grams lost 15.6 pounds.

Maki 2007: 36 weeks; those who ate 186 grams lost 5.7 pounds, those who ate 131 grams lost 9.9 pounds.

Gardner 2007: 1 year – those who ate 138 grams lost 10.3 pounds, 181 grams lost 3.5 pounds, 195 grams lost 4.8 pounds, and 197 grams lost 5.7 pounds.

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Posted in Advanced nutrition, diet, Dietary fat, Energy balance, fat

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Dietary protein, ketosis, and appetite control.

Posted on December 6, 2013 | 118 comments

“Dietary protein has a purpose, and that purpose is not carbs.”  Nor is it to break ketosis or stall weight loss.  

Drastically increasing protein intake may reduce the degree of ketosis in the context of a large energy surplus, but this is likely due more specifically to the large energy surplus than the protein.  This would explain why Warrior dieters (1 meal meal per day) often report reduced ketones if they eat too much protein.  It’s more likely that the 2000 kcal bolus is exerting it’s anti-ketotic effect by being a large energy surplus, such that anything other than 90% fat would blunt ketosis.  It’s not the proteins… Want proof?  Here’s an n=1 to try: give up Warrior dieting for a few days and try 3 squares.  My bet is that you’ll be able to increase protein intake and still register ketones as high or higher than before.  There are data to support this and reasons why it may not matter (below).

disclaimer: I don’t think “deep ketosis” is necessary to reap the benefits of carbohydrate-restriction.  But if you love high ketone meter readings, then this might be a better strategy to maintain deep ketosis while getting adequate protein. win-win.

if I hear: “oh no, I was kicked out of ketosis!” one more time… 

All of the studies below are confounded one way or another, but so are we humans.

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Posted in Advanced nutrition, diet, Dietary fat, Energy balance, fat, insulin, Ketosis, Protein

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The incredible camping experiment, circadian proper

Posted on September 13, 2013 | 19 comments

Entrainment of the Human Circadian Clock to the Natural Light-Dark Cycle (Wright et al., 2013)

Abstract (edited): The electric light is one of the most important human inventions. Sleep and other daily rhythms in physiology and behavior, however, evolved in the natural light-dark cycle, and electrical lighting is thought to have disrupted these rhythms. Yet how much the age of electrical lighting has altered the human circadian clock is unknown. Here we show that electrical lighting and the constructed environment is associated with reduced exposure to sunlight during the day, increased light exposure after sunset, and a delayed timing of the circadian clock as compared to a summer natural 14 hr 40 min:9 hr 20 min light-dark cycle camping. Furthermore, we find that after exposure to only natural light, the internal circadian clock synchronizes to solar time such that the beginning of the internal biological night occurs at sunset and the end of the internal biological night occurs before wake time just after sunrise…

In other words, they compared circadian events during 2 weeks of normal life to 2 weeks of 100% camping.  And camping won.

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Posted in Advanced nutrition, Bromocriptine, circadian, Dopamine, Energy balance, insulin, Leptin, TPMC

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Summer is fattening. Don’t do it in winter.

Posted on September 5, 2013 | 32 comments

Seasonal eating proper

More on seasonal eating in what appears to be the primary model for its justification for use in humans – hibernating mammals.

How it goes, or so they say: in summer, hibernators massively overeat, including carb-rich foods, in order to generate muscle and liver insulin resistance, so as to promote body fat growth.  The long light cycle reduces evening melatonin, which pushes back the usual nighttime peak in prolactin, which causes an abnormal resistance to leptin, which induces hypothalamic NPY and subsequent carbohydrate craving.  Ergo, summer is fattening.  In today’s day, increased artificial lights guarantee year-round pseudo-summer; and we no longer experience the benefits of the short light cycle: longer sleep times (akin to hibernation) and fasting – either complete fasting as in hibernation, or pseudo-fasting, ie, a ketogenic diet.

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Posted in Advanced nutrition, Bromocriptine, circadian, diet, Dietary fat, Dopamine, empty calories, Energy balance, fat, Fructose, insulin, Leptin, TPMC

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Sarcopenia has little to do with aging

Posted on August 9, 2013 | 11 comments

It has to do with the duration of time spent being sedentary.

They say a picture is worth a thousand words, but luckily enough today you get both.

Sarcopenia: “poverty of flesh,” or the age-induced loss of skeletal muscle mass, strength, and function = reduced quality of life.  Sorry old-timers, but I hereby officially revise the definition from “aging-induced” to “sedentary-induced.”  Herein, I present evidence that sarcopenia is not a phenomenon of aging per se, but rather of disuse atrophy.  Dear Webster’s & Britannica, please revise accordingly.

Skeletal muscles: use ‘em or lose ‘em #TPMC

Thanks to Julianne Taylor & Skyler Tanner for directing me to these images.

divide and conquer

Exhibit A. Chronic exercise preserves lean muscle mass in masters athletes (Wroblewski et al., 2011)

This study evaluated “high-level recreational athletes.”  “Masters” just means they were over 40.  And “high-level” doesn’t mean “elite,” it just means they exercised 4-5 times per week.  These weren’t super-obsessed gym rats… it’s probably who I’ll be in 7 years [sigh].

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Posted in endurance, Energy balance, Exercise, muscle, strength, TPMC

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All my organs hurt and I think I’m going blind.

Posted on July 26, 2013 | 38 comments

People, this is how you should eat.

There have been a lot of diet postings lately, and they are some of the healthiest diets you could imagine.  Please click the links to get the full versions, which include lifestyle tidbits, other pearls, and WHY.  And take notes.  I’ve just listed some of the foods here for the sake of brevity (and as an excuse to link to the diets).

Disclaimer: all of these diets fall somewhere on the “low carb” spectrum.  I don’t eat low carb because I have to*, I do so because it’s healthy, convenient for my lifestyle, and I rather like the foods.  *I say I don’t “have to” because I have no underlying health problems or carb-sensitive GI issues.  The people below are also far healthier than most (from what I can gather)… but if you are overweight &/or obesity-prone, or glucose-intolerant &/or diabetic, then you might want to consider following any of them.

Hyperlipid (Petro Dobromylskyj): The Optimal Diet
butter, egg yolks, cocoa, dark chocolate, macadamia nuts, sour cream, beef, green veggies.  His stats: BW stable, 28” waist, greying beard.  Peter will outlive us all.  And take over the world if he ever has the desire to do so.

Anna Fagan (Lifextension): Low Carb Paleo, probably keto
eggs, butter, avocado, cheese, shrooms, bacon, salmon, tea, coffee, nuts, sardines, lamb, pork, eggplant, cream  –> “high fat =/= fat.”  She’s currently off studying paleoanthropology somewhere in Turkey (?).

Jane Plain (ItsTheWooo): Ketogenic
cream, sour cream, nuts, butter, beef & fatty meats, pepperoni.  She, too, is rather fit.  The Scribble Pad = diet & lifestyle vs. psychoneuroendocrinology & metabolism (mixed with equal parts humor & gravitas).

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Posted in chocolate, coconut, diet, Dietary fat, fat, Ketosis, Protein

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Silent Leptin Resistance

Posted on July 12, 2013 | 32 comments

Conventional leptin resistance has something do with obesity.  It is known.  Silent leptin resistance is … err … complicated. 

Divide and conquer

Fructose-induced leptin resistance exacerbates weight gain in response to subsequent high-fat feeding (Shapiro, Scarpace, et al., 2008 AJP)

A remarkable 60% fructose diet fed to rats for 6 months had absolutely no effect on energy balance.  Nil. QED.
Fig 1

Food intake and body weight were unaffected because the levels of and sensitivity to endogenous leptin were identical in both groups.

Enter the Dragon

Enter the Dragon

“Silent Leptin Resistance” – The fructose-fed rats are, however, profoundly resistant to the satiating effects of Metreleptin (a pharmaceutical grade injectable leptin analog):

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Posted in Advanced nutrition, diet, Dietary fat, empty calories, Energy balance, Fructose, Leptin, Sugar, TPMC

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Look AHEAD – Nutrition Disinformation 2.0

Posted on June 27, 2013 | 1 comment

The day you’ve all been waiting for has finally arrived.  Results from the Look AHEAD study have been published.  When I first wrote about this study (HERE), it had been prematurely halted because the intervention was providing no benefits.  Everybody was in a state of shock and awe because Low Fat didn’t save lives.  But that was before we even had the data.  

Reminder: the “intensive lifestyle intervention” consisted of a Low Fat Diet & exercise.  The results?  Yes, they lost more weight than control, but they also took more Orlistat (of which I’m not a fan, see HERE for why):

orlistat

Orlistat = pharmaceutically enhanced low fat diet. 

Their normal diets were not healthy, but neither was low fat –>

med use

Medication use increased drastically in both groups.  The pundits have gone wild because medication use was lower in the intensive Low Fat group at the end of the study, but this is Nutrition Disinformation 2.0.  Eerily reminiscent of the recent Mediterranean Diet study, the conclusions are the same: keep eating poorly and the need for medications will increase.  You can call it a lot of things, but not “healthy.”  The alternative –>  How to define a “healthy” diet.  Period.


Significant adverse events:SAE

The only thing to reach statistical significance was more fractures in the intensive Low Fat group, but you didn’t read any headlines that said “Low Fat breaks bones.”  Imagine if that happened on low carb [sigh]  The next closest thing to statistical significance was increased amputations in the intensive Low Fat group :/

gem:History of CVD

Translation: if you were healthy at baseline, then you could tolerate a low fat diet.  Otherwise, not so much.  This is exactly what happened in the Women’s Health Initiative.

Ha

needless to say, none of the “possible explanations” they considered were Low fat diet Fail.

calories proper

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Posted in diet, Dietary fat, empty calories, Energy balance, Exercise, fat, mortality

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Pocket Guide to Intermittent Fasting

Posted on June 4, 2013 | 34 comments

Intermittent Fasting (IF) is all the rage these days, and there are a variety of different protocols out there, pioneered by people ranging from Ori Hofmekler (The Warrior Diet), Kate Harrison (The 5:2 Diet), Michael Mosley (The Fast Diet), Bert Herring (Fast-5), John Daugirdas (The QOD Diet), and Martin Berkhan (LeanGains), all the way to Jack Kruse (Epi-paleo Rx).  Chances are you’re probably unwittingly already doing one of them, at least intermittently.  The theoretical benefits are seemingly endless (albeit via few human trials), beyond the scope of my brain.

Tl;dr:

Non-IF: grazing; 6-8 meals per day.  Only significantly fasting duration occurs while asleep.
Normal-ish?: 3 squares.  Two 5-hour fasts, then fasting while asleep.
Eat Stop Eat or The 5/2 Bikini Diet: Eat only a small dinner 2 days/wk (600 kcal), eat normally other 5 days.
ADF: Alternate Day Fasting – 75% restriction on day 1; 25% surplus on day 2.
Leangains: Skip breakfast.
The Warrior Diet: Skip breakfast & lunch. (+1)
EOD: eat only Every Other Day.  36 hour fasts – from dinner on day 1 until breakfast on day 3.

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Posted in Advanced nutrition, chocolate, diet, Energy balance, muscle

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Are carbs stored as fat?

Posted on May 25, 2013 | 65 comments

Hint: “no”

DNL proper.

Lots of metabolism talk below, but first a brief intro.  My “muse,” if you will.

Taubes’ recent article in the BMJ (Taubes, 2013; full text) generated some interesting feedback.

In the original article, Taubes basically re-states his philosophy on obesity.  Nothing new.  But one rebuttal by Cottrell got under my skin (Cottrell, 2013), and Taubes’ response was woefully inadequate.

Cottrell [sic]: “A third incorrect assertion is that obesity can be attributed to the conversion of carbohydrate to fat. This is an unsatisfactory explanation of obesity, because this route is a minor pathway to depot fat in humans, even under conditions of substantial overfeeding of sugars to obese subjects.  An unproved assumption is that the hypothetical diversion of carbohydrate energy into fat storage leaves the subject hungry, thus stimulating overeating.”

strawman

Cottrell set up a straw man and handily took it down.  The primary mechanism whereby excess carbs contribute to obesity is via insulin’s effects on adipose tissue.  Even if you’re eating very little fat, insulin will cause it to get stored.  Insulin is very good at this – it is actually far more potent at stimulating fat storage than it is at stimulating glucose uptake (eg, Insulin vs. fat metabolism FTW).  Cottrell’s straw man is that excess carbs themselves are stored as fat.  This does not occur to any appreciable extent in humans.  Here is why I believe that to be true, from one of most insightful and informative studies on the topic IMHO.

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Posted in Advanced nutrition, diet, Dietary fat, Energy balance, fat, insulin, TPMC

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