Well, I can now say from experience that high-fat diets are a disaster for me but they seem to work for quite a few people. I wanted to give it an honest try with logging everything I ate because I keep getting badgered by people to go "high-fat" and I keep telling them, "It doesn't work for me" and they don't believe me, and I always doubted myself too because I was haphazard on the implementation. But this time around, I carefully logged and planned and weighed every bite. The only place I failed in following the Optimal guidelines was in carbs. I kept them low, just out of habit. But I can't believe 20 carbs was the difference between success or failure.
I started gaining immediately. I've got new stomach fat I had gotten rid of long ago. It does seem to be working out for some people. Some have had stalls of months or years that they've broken. So my take-away is, it works for some people, just like Atkins works great for some people. But one-size doesn't fit all.
But to be fair, it might be dairy fat is just a disaster for me. But I think it'd be pretty tough to do this without dairy products. I'm going to try it as soon as I can wrap my head around what to eat.
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1a. If so, what is the metabolic process responsible for turning dietary protein into fat?
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I haven't read his book but quite a few low carb doctors say excess protein can turn to glucose (via gluconeogenesis, I suppose) which in turn raises blood sugar and can be stored as fat. Dr. Bernstein advises that in his book on low carb to diabetics that have problems.
I know that many of you believe that low carb automatically cures any and all high blood sugar issues but in reality, it doesn't for everyone. I can get very high blood sugar readings eating nothing but protein. In fact, eating a lot of protein at one meal seems to give me really high readings the next morning.
I think it might be possible to keep my protein intake down by just consuming a ton of veggies cooked with lots of fat and perhaps also lots of coconut fat products and really fatty nuts like macadamias.
It is worth a try!
Another thing that happened to me is my appetite was incredible. Maybe the dairy products, or maybe the lower protein. I know when I eat lots of protein my appetite is pretty small and my calories can drop quite low. But whoa, I was consuming over 2000 calories a day and still hungry. I notice the people who seem to be losing weight weren't having the hunger issues I had.
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3. Is the premise of the Optimal Diet that it that no excess macronutrients are consumed?
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Except fat, at some point in your progress you can pretty much have all the fat you want, but protein and carbs are limited.
The other questions I can't answer.
Now I'm kicking myself for buying all this damn cheese!