Everyone freaks out on me

[dodgechargerfan]

when I tell them how I lost 18 pounds in two and a half weeks.

It is a fasting diet. So, it's not a long term plan. 30 days is the goal.

The key is understanding the nutrients that you need.
The nutrients in the diet I have been doing look like this:

Total fat - 90% of the recommended daily value (DV)
Saturated fat - 99% DV
Cholesterol - 51% DV
Sodium - 102% DV
Potassium - 21% DV
Total carbs - 0% DV
Dietary fibre - 0% DV
Protein - 108% DV
Calories are sub 1000 per day, give or take, it with the high fat, I don't feel hungry between meals.

The usual vitamin Bs and such are low.
So, I take one-a-day vitamin and a potassium supplement to balance things out.

I do cheat and add an avocado every other day or so. That bumps up the good fats and throws a few carbs into the mix. I also had some roasted chickpeas as a crunchy snack a few times.
But the core of that list above is delivered by

BACON.
7-8 slices for each and every meal. Every day.

I know. I'm the bacon nut job around here, but there's some good science around this.
Talk to body builders and they'll talk about getting into ketosis to lose fat. This fasting diet is essentially a kick starter to that kind of lifestyle.
Once I'm done, I'm just going to focus on keeping the carbs low and the good fats high.
It's all about reducing the insulin dependence. If you don't dump carbs into your system, you don't need a lot of insulin. But insulin converts carbs to energy! Where do you get energy, then? From your own body fat.

Why am I doing this?
My doctor told me I need to lose weight and get my blood sugar in check.
He suggested reducing carbs - bread, pasta, sugar, etc.

So, here I am 18 pounds lighter and looking to get to about 25 trimmed off. Hopefully, when I start adding other foods back into my diet, I'll still lose a few more.

 

[dodgechargerfan]

20 pounds gone!

 

[gtrjunior]

when I tell them how I lost 18 pounds in two and a half weeks.

It is a fasting diet. So, it's not a long term plan. 30 days is the goal.

The key is understanding the nutrients that you need.
The nutrients in the diet I have been doing look like this:

Total fat - 90% of the recommended daily value (DV)
Saturated fat - 99% DV
Cholesterol - 51% DV
Sodium - 102% DV
Potassium - 21% DV
Total carbs - 0% DV
Dietary fibre - 0% DV
Protein - 108% DV
Calories are sub 1000 per day, give or take, it with the high fat, I don't feel hungry between meals.

The usual vitamin Bs and such are low.
So, I take one-a-day vitamin and a potassium supplement to balance things out.

I do cheat and add an avocado every other day or so. That bumps up the good fats and throws a few carbs into the mix. I also had some roasted chickpeas as a crunchy snack a few times.
But the core of that list above is delivered by

BACON.
7-8 slices for each and every meal. Every day.

I know. I'm the bacon nut job around here, but there's some good science around this.
Talk to body builders and they'll talk about getting into ketosis to lose fat. This fasting diet is essentially a kick starter to that kind of lifestyle.
Once I'm done, I'm just going to focus on keeping the carbs low and the good fats high.
It's all about reducing the insulin dependence. If you don't dump carbs into your system, you don't need a lot of insulin. But insulin converts carbs to energy! Where do you get energy, then? From your own body fat.

Why am I doing this?
My doctor told me I need to lose weight and get my blood sugar in check.
He suggested reducing carbs - bread, pasta, sugar, etc.

So, here I am 18 pounds lighter and looking to get to about 25 trimmed off. Hopefully, when I start adding other foods back into my diet, I'll still lose a few more.

I'm glad you realize that this is only a short term diet plan. Bodybuilders do in fact use the Keto diet when approaching a contest because it does work. BUT it's a short term crash diet. It was originally intended for athletes that need to lose weight quickly in order to make weight for their sport (wrestling etc.). Then Average Joe hears about it and thinks that this is something that might be good for him/her...but they often don't realize that it's meant to be short term. So I'm glad to see that you realize that. The key in the end is learning how to construct a balanced diet that gets you all of your nutrients without the excess calories. You're on you're way and congrats on the weight loss...it ain't easy.

 

[yabba]

I love bacon and other processed meats just as much as the next guy, but I'd be hesitant to make it the center of a diet - fats, etc are fine; but if you could get those fats without the nitrates you'd be better off, cancer-risk wise.

 

[bsman]

It's basically the Atkins diet -- with the difference being that the Atkins diet has different phases that gradually normalize the diet:

1. Phase 1 (Induction): Under 20 grams of carbs per day for 2 weeks. Eat high-fat, high-protein, with low-carb vegetables like leafy greens. This kick-starts the weight loss.
2. Phase 2 (Balancing): Slowly add more nuts, low-carb vegetables and small amounts of fruit back to your diet.
3. Phase 3 (Fine-Tuning): When you are very close to your goal weight, add more carbs to your diet until weight loss slows down.
4. Phase 4 (Maintenance): Here you can eat as many healthy carbs as your body can tolerate without regaining weight.

I've always wanted to try this, but my problem is I don't eat much meat (probably 3-4 servings of fish and chicken/week and 1 serving of red meat).

 

[dodgechargerfan]

4 weeks - 25 pounds.

I've started adding other foods into my diet, but it's still mostly high fat, low carb (almost no carb) stuff.
I will still lose some weight, but not as quickly.

 

[dodgechargerfan]

I love bacon and other processed meats just as much as the next guy, but I'd be hesitant to make it the center of a diet - fats, etc are fine; but if you could get those fats without the nitrates you'd be better off, cancer-risk wise.

Nitrates are not the problem exactly.
It's the kind of nitrates and how the food is cooked.

Basically, don't burn the crap out of your food, and the nitrates are not an issue.
It's when you burn them, they turn into something else (can't remember the name) and that is the concern with regard to cancer.

Spinach has way more nitrates than bacon, but it's different and you're not going to burn spinach. So, no one warns about the nitrates in spinach.

 

[yabba]

Nitrates are not the problem exactly.
It's the kind of nitrates and how the food is cooked.

Basically, don't burn the crap out of your food, and the nitrates are not an issue.
It's when you burn them, they turn into something else (can't remember the name) and that is the concern with regard to cancer.

Spinach has way more nitrates than bacon, but it's different and you're not going to burn spinach. So, no one warns about the nitrates in spinach.

Yes, the jury's still out about nitrates/nitrosamines (the something else you're trying to remember the name of), but the correlation between high intake of cured meats and various cancers is pretty widely agreed upon.

In other words, even if we don't yet fully understand how or why, it's probably wise to take it easy with cured meats.

 

[dodgechargerfan]

I'm not out to win, or even have, an argument as might be suggested by the title but this article explains a lot and backs it up with links to studies and more information.

https://authoritynutrition.com/how-to-win-an-argument-with-a-nutritionist/

I think the site has some credibility as, even though it does offer a paid member service for things other than their articles, it's not pushing any single idea as far as nutrition is concerned. Unless you consider the idea of backing up statements with studies a singular idea.

Sure, there are studies for every side of a topic. I can't see any way to avoid that.
In the meantime, I'll go with what makes me happy, helps me lose weight and feel better. We'll see what happens when I get my blood work done again in June.

 

[dodgechargerfan]

I'm hovering around 30 pounds lost for the last week and a bit. 247.8 down to 217.6

I've been doing some more work at my daughter's. So, I may have built a bit of muscle while losing some fat.
I look and feel thinner, but the scale stays around the same.
I'll take it.

I'm sticking to the eating style and expect to lose more weight. Just not as quickly.

I travelled last week and had to eat in restaurants. I think I managed well enough.

Breakfast - a couple of boiled eggs. Coffee.
Lunch - Smoked meatloaf and a side salad with bleu cheese dressing. Sparkling water.
Breakfast - a bag of cashews and a bag of bacon jerky. Coffee.
Pound of chicken wings...and a shot of vodka.
A burger with peanut butter and bacon, no bun, and a side salad with bleu cheese dressing. Sparkling water.

I lost a couple of pounds over those two days.

I can deal with this kind of meal plan.

Snacks? Not often needed, but cheese, nuts, dry sausage/salami/charcuterie type stuff work well.

My favourite is a couple handfuls of mixed nuts tossed in Frank's Red Hot sauce and heated in the toaster oven until the sauce reduces and dries a bit. I call them wing nuts.

I'm looking at a ramen recipe that uses spiral cut zucchini for noodles. I'll try that later this week, I think.
I might try Miracle noodles too. They have zero glycemic index and zero carbs. Zero calories too. It's like eating long skinny air...

 

[Punchy]

Awesome, man.

Probably what makes it work for you is you seem to be enjoying it. Once tried to start the South Beach thing and it was horrible. Seemed like a good idea at the time.

 

[LeftyTom]

Onward and downward (with the weight ).

 

[dodgechargerfan]

Awesome, man.

Probably what makes it work for you is you seem to be enjoying it.

Exactly. I'm so fucking happy!!
It was pretty easy to fast on just bacon and the occasional avocado.

I think if I find a good alternative for bread and buns, I'll never miss the old way of eating.
I do have a recipe for pizza crust that is mostly cheese and a bit of almond flour among other things. It is supposed to hold up just like a pizza crust, but maybe not quite as crispy. I just have to try it.
There's a bread recipe that is pretty much eggs and egg protein powder that looks promising. If I get that nailed down, I can has me some sammichs again.
The Miracle Noodle people make no sugar, no gluten buns too. I'll have to see if I can track some down, but so far, I don't miss bread at all.

 

[rickenvox]

I think the balance in health comes with exercise and that takes carbs for muscle glycogen. I haven't figured out how these diets can sustain any reasonable amount of daily exercise. You certainly couldn't run a marathon off of available fat stores. What am I missing?

 

[dodgechargerfan]

I think the balance in health comes with exercise and that takes carbs for muscle glycogen. I haven't figured out how these diets can sustain any reasonable amount of daily exercise. You certainly couldn't run a marathon off of available fat stores. What am I missing?

I don't run marathons.


But yeah, you're right. If you're going to do some heavy amount of exercise or work out to build muscle, then you need to take a bit of a different approach.
Not much though. I'm not fully versed on the details, but a friend of mine started working out with a group of weight lifters at around the same time I started this diet. Weight lifters, not body builders. They recommended a similar diet to mine, but with more protein.
That same fiend is also an avid cyclist. He needs carbs to fuel that activity.
So, he's figured out a diet that includes carbs used strategically, but overall reduced.

For me, the fat is enough to fuel a walk, or the effort of any of my hobbies or home reno projects.

 

[rickenvox]

I don't run marathons.


But yeah, you're right. If you're going to do some heavy amount of exercise or work out to build muscle, then you need to take a bit of a different approach.
Not much though. I'm not fully versed on the details, but a friend of mine started working out with a group of weight lifters at around the same time I started this diet. Weight lifters, not body builders. They recommended a similar diet to mine, but with more protein.
That same fiend is also an avid cyclist. He needs carbs to fuel that activity.
So, he's figured out a diet that includes carbs used strategically, but overall reduced.

For me, the fat is enough to fuel a walk, or the effort of any of my hobbies or home reno projects.

Do you also monitor cholesterol levels in your blood? Does this diet address that?

 

[dodgechargerfan]

Do you also monitor cholesterol levels in your blood? Does this diet address that?

I will be. I'm due for my next blood test in June.

There's a lot written about that though.
The net of it is that dietary cholesterol is not a problem. Never was. All of the warnings we've heard over the years we're based on bad studies.
Yeah, that sounds like a Facebook rant, but here's the gist:
If you don't eat enough cholesterol, your body will just make more. Your body needs it.

And in most people with stable health (meaning no disease that would affect these numbers), higher fat diets actually improve the blood test results.

Here are a few videos that better explain. The second one is pretty deep with lots of graphs, but not overly difficult to follow. The idea is that he figured out that high fat will improve your markers and low fat (or no fat) will make your markers worse.

 

[dodgechargerfan]

I should have pointed out that those videos are just simplified explanations.
I recognise that they are bit "Dr. Google" in tone. That irks me, but their explanations are pretty good.
Eric Berg has a number of videos about cholesterol and clogged arteries.

I linked an article earlier in the thread that references a number of real studies.

 

[rickenvox]

I will be. I'm due for my next blood test in June.

There's a lot written about that though.
The net of it is that dietary cholesterol is not a problem. Never was. All of the warnings we've heard over the years we're based on bad studies.
Yeah, that sounds like a Facebook rant, but here's the gist:
If you don't eat enough cholesterol, your body will just make more. Your body needs it.

And in most people with stable health (meaning no disease that would affect these numbers), higher fat diets actually improve the blood test results.

Here are a few videos that better explain. The second one is pretty deep with lots of graphs, but not overly difficult to follow. The idea is that he figured out that high fat will improve your markers and low fat (or no fat) will make your markers worse.

Well that's interesting. I don't eat much processed sugar anyway, but I don't see myself starting up a diet with bacon fat. I do eat eggs, cheese (more dry cheeses), and fish. I only eat red meat occasionally, not due to any diet but just don't like it that often. I eat bacon when we go camping, that's about it. What he doesn't address very well are the people who have had problems with high cholesterol, clogged arteries, and subsequent heart attacks who have improved their health by cutting down on bad cholesterol ("so-called" or not). Those people aren't relying on studies, but their own dietary changes and improved health. I think these videos would just make me cut down somewhat on sugar, although again if you're an athlete it's exactly what you need to burn.
It all sounds good, but I have to weigh that against my own doctor's advice. Dietary trends come and go faster than fashion.

 

[dodgechargerfan]

Definitely listen to your body, but with an understanding of what it's telling you.
You have that understanding. It seems so.

The person that got me interested in this was obese and had horrible blood markers.
He's lost a lot of weight and he did a version of the protocol described in the video above. He ate 4000 calorie a day for two weeks. It was all meat, cheese, eggs. He had blood tests before and after and his markers improved.

The key to managing this with your doctor is to make sure that your doctor understands what you're doing.
Basically, the usual numbers that they look at to determine health will go out of whack when you lose a lot of weight - no matter how you do it. So, they need to be able to look at other markers to determine health.
There's a different test that will tell your doctor the size of your lipids as well as the quantity.
It's the size that matters.
The quantity isn't really a good marker because that just measures what's going through your bloodstream at the time of the test - and it's moving. It's going somewhere to be used as energy. So that test doesn't really measure what's getting used. No test does as far as I know.
The idea that the quantity matters comes from the idea that if there's a lot, some of its going to clog things up. A law of averages kind of thing.
Well, if the lipids are large, they won't get snagged on the lesions in the blood vessel and build up to form a plaque. So, no, there won't necessarily be clogging just because there are a lot of lipids as long as the lipids are large.
You get large lipids by packing them with fat, triglycerides and cholesterol.
Eric Berg has a video that explains this but I can't seem to find it right now.