This is a refreshing take on the challenges of the keto diet. It’s so easy to assume that a specific diet will always work, but your experience highlights how important it is to listen to our bodies and adjust accordingly. Great insights!
Great analysis. The big question is, what do you consider “weight gain.” How many pairs of visible abs, if any, is ideal for proper health? Is it better to have an extra five or ten pounds hiding your four or six-pack?
I have a hunch that unwanted weight gain can be an immune response, since fat cells tend to sequester toxins. Lipogenesis could be seen as a form of inflammation.
It’s interesting that you didn’t mention PUFAs at all.
Certainly plausible. Great thoughts, all. Relatedly, is it even healthy/natural to be 50+ with a six-pack? What degree of leanness is optimal, for whom, at what ages, etc? Open questions. PUFAs definitely need to be in the conversation. Peter at Hyperlipid (for one) has lots of compelling analysis on the badness of linoleic acid and other PUFAs. I try to steer clear but do love me some almond flour muffins: http://high-fat-nutrition.blogspot.com/2020/10/linoleic-acid-makes-you-hungry.html
Your comment on n=1 is spot on. No one nutrition plan works on everyone. At 68, I still run about 40 miles/ week but I’ve found eating 1 meal per day keeps my metabolism cranking along and my weight stays stable. Generally I eat meat heavy with a whole food carb such as potatoes (not fried). I read somewhere that every food introduced into the body causes short term inflammation which can compound over time with constant eating. Ever heard of this? Anyway, I can vary my dietary content without any weight issues but adding another meal will contribute to increased weight. One benefit of the increased meat is a possible reduction of inflammation since I’m homozygous from the MTHFR variant. My weight is the same as it was in high school so something seems to be working. The running probably helps as well.
That's fantastic. We're all n=1s, even if we all also have a lot in common, metabolically. Such is life. Haven't heard about the need to cycle out foods, but there's logic to that, in the sense that our hunter gather ancestors ate seasonally. Also, by changing it up, you minimize the likelihood that you're going to concentrate bad elements in a food in your body. E.g. if all you eat are ribeye steaks, and small doses of heavy metals (or whatever) are concentrated in the fat on those steaks, maybe that monolithic diet can have negative consequences over the long term. In terms of your OMAD style, that makes sense, in that you're keeping insulin pulsatile. 40/miles a week at 68 is great.
Thank you, Dudeman! Appreciate it. It ultimately flows (so to speak!) from Settling Point Theory, a lesser known cousin of Set Point Theory -- you can scroll to Figure 2 in this paper: https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC3209643/ -- but the Settling Point guys missed (IMO) a chance to extend their metaphor and consider the fact that the metabolic landscape itself can play a key role.
This is a refreshing take on the challenges of the keto diet. It’s so easy to assume that a specific diet will always work, but your experience highlights how important it is to listen to our bodies and adjust accordingly. Great insights!
Great analysis. The big question is, what do you consider “weight gain.” How many pairs of visible abs, if any, is ideal for proper health? Is it better to have an extra five or ten pounds hiding your four or six-pack?
I have a hunch that unwanted weight gain can be an immune response, since fat cells tend to sequester toxins. Lipogenesis could be seen as a form of inflammation.
It’s interesting that you didn’t mention PUFAs at all.
Thanks!
Certainly plausible. Great thoughts, all. Relatedly, is it even healthy/natural to be 50+ with a six-pack? What degree of leanness is optimal, for whom, at what ages, etc? Open questions. PUFAs definitely need to be in the conversation. Peter at Hyperlipid (for one) has lots of compelling analysis on the badness of linoleic acid and other PUFAs. I try to steer clear but do love me some almond flour muffins: http://high-fat-nutrition.blogspot.com/2020/10/linoleic-acid-makes-you-hungry.html
Your comment on n=1 is spot on. No one nutrition plan works on everyone. At 68, I still run about 40 miles/ week but I’ve found eating 1 meal per day keeps my metabolism cranking along and my weight stays stable. Generally I eat meat heavy with a whole food carb such as potatoes (not fried). I read somewhere that every food introduced into the body causes short term inflammation which can compound over time with constant eating. Ever heard of this? Anyway, I can vary my dietary content without any weight issues but adding another meal will contribute to increased weight. One benefit of the increased meat is a possible reduction of inflammation since I’m homozygous from the MTHFR variant. My weight is the same as it was in high school so something seems to be working. The running probably helps as well.
That's fantastic. We're all n=1s, even if we all also have a lot in common, metabolically. Such is life. Haven't heard about the need to cycle out foods, but there's logic to that, in the sense that our hunter gather ancestors ate seasonally. Also, by changing it up, you minimize the likelihood that you're going to concentrate bad elements in a food in your body. E.g. if all you eat are ribeye steaks, and small doses of heavy metals (or whatever) are concentrated in the fat on those steaks, maybe that monolithic diet can have negative consequences over the long term. In terms of your OMAD style, that makes sense, in that you're keeping insulin pulsatile. 40/miles a week at 68 is great.
Very interesting read!
Thanks, Leslie!
Just love your reference to 'topology'. Never thought of it that way! Thank you =)
Thank you, Dudeman! Appreciate it. It ultimately flows (so to speak!) from Settling Point Theory, a lesser known cousin of Set Point Theory -- you can scroll to Figure 2 in this paper: https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC3209643/ -- but the Settling Point guys missed (IMO) a chance to extend their metaphor and consider the fact that the metabolic landscape itself can play a key role.
Taubes cherry picker as much as he accuses Keyes of doing. What is explanation of historic non-obesity in all farming cultures?
He writes as if North Europeans were hunters till last hundred years instead of descending from 10,000 years of farmers.
In fact, obesity and diabetes world wide track fat intake. In particular, they track unsaturated fat intake.