Thu, Mar-03-11, 08:48
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Senior Member
Posts: 6,498
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Plan: VLC, mostly meat
Stats: 202/200/165
BF:
Progress: 5%
Location: Montreal, Quebec, Canada
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Quote:
Originally Posted by teaser
MartinLevac said;
Just a little nit-picking here... 500 calories sounds more like outright starvation than semi-starvation, this might make things a little different. Maybe depending on how much carbohydrate is taken in, or how much protein (I understand there's not much fat in the diet, so any hormonal effect of fat isn't an issue). I'm on the hcg-skeptical side--I'm not sure if the hcg is doing what is claimed--but I see some people with good results. The standard diet looks like it's about one half calories from protein, one half from carbs--that would make it around 60 grams each protein and carbohydrate. So it is technically a low-carb diet... and the lower protein intake might not be a positive as far as retaining lean mass is concerned, but if you look at a 1600 calorie diet, 60 grams of carbs, or a 500 calorie diet, 60 grams of carbs, both the insulin response to meals and the basal insulin levels during the course of the diet are likely to be quite a bit lower on the lower calorie diet.
Returning to the diet that got you fat in the first place is never a good idea, no matter how you lost the weight. But does the diet you maintain on have to be the diet you lose weight on? Transition to maintenance might be smoother if it is, but is it a necessity?
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The fewer calories for equal carbs, the higher the carb count per calorie, the higher the insulin response to those carbs. Fat slows down digestion and thus rise in blood glucose.
There is no maintenance phase to a semi-starvation diet. If semi-starvation is what it takes to cut weight, it's also what it takes to maintain it. Taubes explained that a semi-starvation diet works only because we are cutting carbs. Every low carber knows that to maintain weight, we must eat no more than X amount of carbs. Accordingly, if the reason semi-starvation works is because we cut carbs, then to maintain we must continue to semi-starve.
If we eat low carb and eventually hit a wall and can't lose any more weight just with diet, how is semi-starving going to change the hormonal milieu any further and keep it there once we stop semi-starving? When the nail is in and you can't push it any further with the hammer because the head is flush with the plank, it won't make a difference to just hit the nail harder with the same hammer. You've done all you can with that tool, it's time to use a different tool, one more suited for this new different job.
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