I get that I need to watch calories- the month of June showed me that. I'm way, way down in calories and feel great. Adding CO to the 1600-1800 I was already eating? Not wise. I factor it in big time. But I think I became convinced that either my thyroid was down regulating or my metabolism was dying- I really had a dip in energy for the two months that I was under 30g carbs. So, ketosis was great for starting me off, for getting rid of the sugar tooth, for giving me control- but I had to go up to about 70 carbs a day and cut my calories. I could have lasted forever in deep ketosis but installed out! WTH

I wish he were tracking his calories and keeping them equal to his pre-experiment calories.

Ketosis dampens hunger; being in high ketosis might just be allowing him to draw his calories down. We can't really tell what is helping him lose weight, fewer calories or increased ketosis.

I've experimented with high fat off a few times but didn't really find that it helped. In fact, I believe I gained.

But it is really, really difficult as a paleo to do a high fat, controlled protein diet. I always end up resorting to dairy products which make me feel like poo. About the only thing I could eat would be foie gras... and that's illegal in my state now. Grrr!

That could be why meats like pork belly, brisket point and bacon (which are the foundation of my diet) work so well for weight (fat) loss. They are indeed very 'filling' as a little goes a long way, and though most people would call them "protein" most of their Total calories are from FAT.

OK, I read the article on the undeserved reputation of insulin and I have a few issues with it.

He talks mostly about healthy individuals, if you're obese, particularly as obese as Jimmy Moore and myself, you're not healthy like a 'healthy lean person'.

Insulin and glucagon not balancing themselves out causes reactive hypoglycaemia - which I certainly had during my large sudden weight gain, and to a lesser extent still, in that when I eat carbs or protein my blood glucose falls, it doesn't rise, it just doesn't fall as much as it used to, and metformin has helped with that. Unhealthy individuals do not react the same as healthy ones.

His own chart shows higher insulin release in obese people, and he himself suggests a low protein, low carbohydrate diet - of course you can't take protein too low as a certain amount is necessary - but yes to minimise the insulin response (and glucagon response) as low protein as is healthy and low carb with high fat is best - or as I have done, have fewer meals.

I don't think that carbs on their own causes weight gain, and metabolic syndrome - I believe that fructose causes the initial damage in susceptible individuals and then after that it depends on how much damage has been done as to how much carbs and protein someone can ingest and how often, and still lose weight. Regarding CICO, I do believe that for each individual there is an amount above which weight loss will not occur, but its not as simple as CICO and differs from person to person - just as some people can eat vast amounts of calories and not gain weight (and certainly even when they do gain, they don't gain according to any formula.) If I ate 6, 300 calorie meals a day of processed foods including sugar and white carbs, I would gain weight. 6 meals of 300 calories low carb food, and I wouldn't lose weight, and might still gain - but 1800 calories once a day and I'm losing weight - my own experience tells me that its not just about calories.

Yes a diet needs to be something that can be maintained long term and even lifelong. Diet composistion and frequency of meals do matter to those of us with big metabolic and hormonal challenges. I also believe there is an addictive component to certain foods, but I don't believe that eating bland foods is the answer or that 'food palatability' causes obesity - to me that's just a way of saying people eat too much of the foods they like - eating bland foods isn't going cure an addiction to sugar, in my experience eating bland foods just makes you want the forbidden foods even more. When people have an addiction to a food (a real addiction, not just 'I really like cheese'), the food generally includes fructose - they eat lots of fructose containing food, and depending on genetic susceptibility, eventually damage occurs and weight starts to rise.

Show me a fat population that doesn't consume large amounts of processed fructose, or show me a lean population that does.

Lee

I think it just goes to the point of learning to treat the causes rather than the symptoms. Obesity is a symptom. You can lose weight but if your organs are still not up to dealing in a truly healthy way with food intake, the cause has not been addressed. People who have to nearly starve to keep from gaining weight have an untreated causative factor.

PJ

I used to follow his daily food blog, and I saw very few frankenfoods there. He photographed his meals every day and posted them on the blog, and they looked pretty darn good to me, and I am pretty much of a purist with regard to eating healthily. He was addicted to the soda, and always acknowledged the struggle to stop them, but in the end getting off them didn't stop him gaining weight, so perhaps he was right.

I used to follow him too. It wasn't just the frankenfoods, it was really big meals too - he never did address that habit from the old days, as if you could just count carbs and all would be well. If he is now lowering protein and carbs, the meals will be getting smaller perforce. Fats are really low volume!

I agree; that was me, when I hit forty, on the "healthy" low fat, whole grains thing. I couldn't exercise enough, or eat small enough, to stop slowly, but steadily, gaining.

My sister lost an amazing amount of weight on Susan Powter-esque low fat and exercising. She was so incredibly thin! She had never been that thin in her teens-onward life. And this was after she had already carried a baby.

She kept the weight off for about three years. At that time she was about 32, I believe. Then it came back on...and on and on and on and on.

I love her to death and she's beautiful, but she's 60 lbs. heavier today than she was 15 years ago on her low-fat diet with exercise, despite the fact that she's been back to exactly that program again, and again, and again...for 11 long years.

I can relate, actually.

I so agree. I ate a bit of wrong food, but nothing like I used to, and exercised for hours at the gym yet was gaining and getting closer and closer to diabetes meds. I could not exercise and lose weight anymore. I really don't know if I ever did.
Started on LC now on LCHF and exercising because I want to, and have lost and am still losing. There has to be something besides CICO. I look towards insulin and whatever else was out of balance.
I now am here, amongst people who have been healthy for years and feel like I have come home.

It sounds like he's eating less to me. We'll find out if his caloric intake went down when he divulges his menus. I have a feeling it did. Most people automatically consume fewer calories when in ketosis than when they aren't.

This is true. At one point, he mentioned he'd gone hours without eating, which sounded to me as if he was inadvertently doing intermittent fasting.

It's amazing that Jimmy hasn't figured this out earlier. His problem all along, as someone else mentioned, has been the size of his meals. I remember back in 2005 or so he was talking about how wonderful it was was to be able to eat plate after plate of mongolian bbq without feeling guilty. He also takled A LOT about lc substitute foods and such. I fell into the same sort of trap back then, one of many issue that derailed me. This time I have kept the food very simple, for the most part, and haven't even been tempted to overeat.

I really do believe that trying to emulate the old foods you loved before will often lead you back to your old habits, I encourage anyone who is having problems sticking with a lc plan to try a more purist type of plan. It has worked wonders for me!

I'm not sure why there is concern about protein turning to glucose. I thought your body used glucose as energy and I don't think it could burn the protein without it being turned into glucose.

I've always heard that protein requirements should be half your healthy body weight divided by 2, then add 10-20g for protein to be processed into glucose. For a person weighing 250 lbs, but thinks that a healthy weight would be 150 lbs, the protein requirement should be about 85g - 95g.

The discussion made me go directly to my fitday and see what I've been doing for the past month. I haven't been able to lose weight for years, but this month I decided to chart everything and keep my carbs at 15% or lower, with the fats about 65% and proteins about 25%.

What I have found when I calculated my daily average for the past 4 weeks is that my calorie count is 1533, fats 66%, carbs 11% and protein 23%. The total protein was 86.8 g per day.

The first two weeks I had nice losses, but they have been much less the last two weeks. You are causing me to reconsider what I thought was a perfect ratio. Maybe I need to up the fats a little and lower the proteins to closer 75g per day.

Its not protein turning to glucose that is the worry, but excess insulin response to protein as well as carbs.

Lee