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Originally Posted by ThriftyD
Incidentally, I was losing well until i started strength training. Then I stalled. I want to stick with my WOE but nudge myself out of this stall (I'm not gaining at all, just not losing!)
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I gained 10 pounds in the first two months of doing Slow Burn weight training. Yes, some of it was muscle, some was muscle water-retention, some was additional blood volume (seriously worked muscle grows extra blood vessels to carry more fuel to the new mitochondria fat-burning furnaces they also build), and some was the result of eating way too much protein and not enough fat when my body cried out for more food.
I cut down on calories. No change. I cut down on fat. No change. I started the K Plan - and am now losing those pounds while retaining (and still growing) the lean muscle mass.
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I could try upping my carbs (I'll admit this scares me! I was happy with well under 10g/day until the stall). Eat more leafy greens, maybe? I cook my greens with loads of pork fat.
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I know my response is going to be shocking to a lot of LC'ers - but especially if you're doing weight training you need to up those carbs a bit on this plan - but not for the reasons usually given by 'bodybuilders.' And, here's the shocking part - some of those carbs should be glucose in the form of starch, like potatoes. Wait - don't get out those pitchforks just yet!
First, Dr. K says that you need to eat just enough carbs (and under his formula, the net carb is still very low) to stay out of ketosis. But why is that? Isn't ketosis exactly what most LC'ers want to acheive?
Here's my working hypothesis: when we're in ketosis, our little glycogen tank (always given major priority by our bodies and refilled promptly, since it helps us fight or flight when we must) gets emptied by activity, like weight training - and in the absence of carbs, gets filled by the process of neoglucogenesis. That is, it makes 'new' glucose from another source, like protein. But Dr. K doesn't want us to fill our tanks from protein sources.
First, in order to convert protein to glucose, it needs to be affected by an insulin response. Those of us who were eating a lot of protein can testify that yes, we
were getting increased insulin response - and scale weight gain or stall as a result! With just enough carbs to fill the tank, the insulin response becomes to come only in the presence of those carbs, and not the protein.
Second, we eat so little protein we don't have a lot to spare, and thus the body begins to get the idea that whatever protein we do eat is strictly for tissue and muscle repair. That, btw, is one of the reasons protein is kept low; it's just enough for those purposes and no more. Which means the fuel the body needs to make bigger and harder muscle
must come from fat!
Here's where it really gets interesting. Weight training vastly increases fuel requirements, yet much of the extra fat we consume on this plan gets quickly burned and out of our system. It's why, as Nancy noticed, although you begin to consume many more calories under this plan, you start feeling more 'hungry' than you did while eating fewer calories but more protein. So your growing muscles need more fuel than you're giving it, but you've decreased protein intake, which they were using for fuel before. What's a hungry muscle to do?
Easy - after a few months of serious weight training, those muscles have already built new highways to deliver the fuel to the new extra furnaces - and those furnaces are happy to convert fat to energy. And guess what - if you're still overweight, you've got a built-in pantry just filled with the stuff, waiting to be emptied and used.
This is why Dr. K's plan has vastly accelarated my stored body fat burn -- because by lowering my protein and upping my fat, two processes have occurred simultaneously: my body is now getting enough fat (and a lowered insulin response) to open the fat cell spigots to let some out instead of hoarding it, and my muscles
must get their required fuel from fat, not protein.
Ergo - carb intake under the K Plan must be upped a little (if they are exceedingly low). But wait - there's more - with the caveat that many things on this plan are different for diabetics.
Starch carbs which converts to glucose, but not fructose, may help increase insulin sensitivity on this plan. [I said this would be shocking]:
Before doing my deep research on Dr. K's plan yesterday I wondered why many of his recipes used white potatoes. And why many of the plan followers were eating potatoes and still losing. Once again, it goes back to the glycogen stores, which a small amount of potatoes will fill very easily and quickly. And certainly keep me out of ketosis.
Imagine my surprise when my research showed that despite his having devised this plan nearly 40 years ago (based on his own research and experience with thousands of patients), he came to the conclusion that it was fructose, and not glucose that (along with excess protein) led to insulin resistance. In fact, he claimed then (which 'new' studies are now validating) that glucose from 'starch' -- in the presence of high fat and low protein/carbs -- helps increase insulin sensitivity. This may also help explain why other studies which show that 'resistant' starch (like Hi Maize) can be beneficial to insulin just may be right, under certain circumstances. Who'da thought?
Although under the K Plan I must continue to keep carbs low, and thus don't have a lot to play around with, I intend to add potatoes back to my diet in small amounts, and will keep track of how that affects me. I figure half a baked potato loaded with butter and sour cream (and homemade bacon bits!) will be low enough carb and protein, and high enough in fat to easily fit into the program. I'll alternate the potato days with fruit (1/4 cup berries with yogurt) and see how it goes. FWIW, YMMV
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My daily breakfast is 2 hog jowls (basically thick slabs of pork fat) and 2 eggs. If I nix the egg whites, would this be an OK breakfast?
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Depends on how much protein is in the jowls, and how that plays into your overall protein allowance. I try and eat a very HF/very LP breakfast. It gives me a head start on my daily fat requirement, lots of energy quickly, and it leaves me enough protein to make decent lunches and dinners.
Lisa