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Insulin, Glycogen, Leptin, Cortisol... weight loss is like a science! Mix all the right ingredients together in the right way and you won't blow up! Here's an article on Glycogen! This is why I'm up and down 3 lbs every other day!
Don't Be Fooled by Quick Losses and Devastating Gains
After a week of doing a low carb diet, new dieters are filled with excitement. They've lost anywhere from four to ten or even twelve pounds. They conclude, "This diet works!" and their enthusiasm after that quick weight loss may motivate them to stick with the diet even when the weight loss slows down to normal levels--3 to 8 pounds a month.
But there's a dark side to this instant weight loss. Slip up and eat a "normal" diet for a day and what happens? The lost pounds are back, all five or ten of them! The feeling of failure and distress can set the dieter on a spiral of binging and despair that quickly leads to their regaining of all the weight lost through weeks of dieting.
In fact, both the joy and the despair you feel in response to this rapid loss or gain is misplaced. The quick losses and gains are almost entirely water. Whether you are low carbing or not, you must burn off 3,500 more calories than you take in to lose a pound of fat and you must eat 3,500 calories more than you need to gain a pound. Despite the hype in the diet doctors' books, low carbing does not repeal the basic laws of thermodynamics. So what is that four to ten pounds of "easy go, easy come" weight all about?
What you REALLY Lost or Gained
When you cut the carbs out of your diet, your body empties out the "emergency" stores of carbohydrate it keeps in the liver and muscles in the form of a substance called glycogen. Glycogen is a normal part of our metabolism and allows us to do energy-intensive things like sprinting, for example, by letting us draw on the carbs stored in our muscles for energy.
More importantly the glycogen stored in our liver allows us to keep our brain functioning. A person who is not low carbing needs 100 gms of glucose a day merely to supply the brain's basic needs. If the body can't get glucose from the diet it has two choices: use stored carbohydrate--our friend glycogen again, or convert dietary or muscle protein into carbohydrate using a lengthy process called "gluconeogenesis" which takes place in the liver. Because the body wants to avoid using its own muscle fibers for fuel, it does what it can to keep that liver glycogen store filled up.
Medical textbooks usually tell us that a typical 150 lb man is carrying about three quarters of a pound of glycogen, but in my researches for my new book Diet 101:The Truth About Low Carb Diets I found some solid evidence that suggests that this estimate only applies to the young, lean, male college students who were research subjects in the 1950s and '60s. If you are overweight, especially if you got overweight eating a diet full of starch, sugar, and high fructose corn syrup, it is very likely that you are carrying a lot more glycogen than that estimate.
And the news gets worse, because it turns out that each gram of glycogen is bound to four grams of water.This means that when your liver and muscles are charged up with glycogen you gain four times the weight of that glycogen in water.
When you start a very low carb diet you cut off the body's supply of dietary carbohydrate and this leads to a rapid emptying of these liver and muscle glycogen stores. And when you lose that glycogen, you also lose the associated water. That's the reason why, during the first couple days of a low carb diet, you lose weight so dramatically. It's also why you may feel slimmer and lose "inches." You haven't lost fat. You've simply squeezed out the water and glycogen in your muscles and liver.
But what happens when you go off the diet for even so little as a single meal? If you eat a significant amount of carbs, your liver and muscles grab glucose from your bloodstream to replenish that emergency stock. As they do this, four grams of water join each gram of glycogen and, as fast as you can say, "Omigawd, I cheated!" the pounds you lost at the very beginning of the diet pile back on.
How many carbs does it take to replenish your glycogen?
Not too many. If you were only carrying that three quarters of a pound of glycogen the textbook's 150 lb. man would carry in his liver, you'd only need about 70 grams of carbohydrate to start refilling it.
Chow down some french fries and a regular soda and you're there.
Do you lose any REAL fat weight on a Low Carb Diet?
Probably not in the first three days--unless you cut 1200 calories out of your usual diet, too. But once you have gotten through the first week or two another benefit of low carbing kicks in that does make it much easier for most people to cut out the calories they need to cut to lose real fat.
That's because when you cut out your carbs you eliminate the blood sugar swings that cause hunger in most people. The cravings you used to get when dieting may fade out in as little as two weeks. When you stop eating in response to those nasty hunger cravings, you will find it much easier to eat a whole lot less than you used to. It is the drop in calorie intake that follows this drop in hunger that that results in the very real and often dramatic weight loss so many long-term low carbers report.
Will you gain it all back when you go off the diet?
Many books and experienced low carb dieters warn that low carbing brings with it a "devil's bargain." They tell you that you can lose all the weight you want on their diet but if you do, you must make low carbing a "way of eating" for the rest of your life.
The instant weight regain that low carbers experience tends to confirm that this is true, which can be very frightening if for one reason or another the dieter decides to return to a balanced-type diet.
But it turns out that while it is true that many lapsed low carb dieters DO regain a lot of weight--often ending up heavier than they started, the reason has nothing to do with the fact that they were eating a low carb diet.
The real problem is that eating very low carb diets teaches people to eat a lot of fat, so that erstwhile low carb dieters who go off their diets but keep eating the high fat foods appropriate only to a low carb diet end up boosting their calories. If they don't, once they refill their glycogen and put on the extra water weight associated with it they will not gain any more weight than can be explained by the old, boring equation, one pound of fat = 3,500 calories.
There's plenty of research documenting this, which you can read about in Diet 101.
The take-home message from this is if you are eating a very low carb diet you need to remember every time that every time you get on the scale your REAL weight--the weight you will be when you stop dieting-- is whatever you weigh now plus whatever you lost during the first weeks of the diet when glycogen burns away.
If you go off plan for a day, don't panic when you step on the scale. That instant three pounds is only water. Compare what you weigh--with the water--to what you weighed the last time you went off plan. It's less, isn't it? And that is REAL weight loss!
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This Comment
Having a glass of water before eating makes a huge difference! I have been using this one for years and it has made all the difference.
July 10, 2012 - 5:08pmThis Comment
Tip of the day
For those of you who don't really get a chance to exercise as much as you should or want.
Tip#1 Try sometinhg as simple as parking futher away from the store when you're out
Tip #2 Try to challenge yourself! Example, I have stairs in my house so I said I have to do arms dips on the stairs at least one set before I go to bed or I have to sleep on the couch. Or every time I use the bathroom, when I'm at the sink I work my calve muscles by flexing my heels up and down about 20 times while keep my balance on the ball of my foot.
If you need to put some little post its up as reminders. Hey, it works....I have one at my computer desk of my eating schedule.
May 9, 2012 - 7:56amThis Comment
Tip
#1 Plan your plate
> 1/2 non starchy veggies, 1/4 protein, and 1/4 starch or grain
This Comment
Tip for the day!
How to avoid over eating.
#1 Try to drink a glass before each meal
#2 When eating chew your food at least 25 to 30 times
>this will give your body a chance to send the signal that you are full.
Did you know it takes about 20 mins for our bodies to send the signal that we are full?
So take your time, eat slower, savor the flavor, and get full before you finish the whole plate.
This Comment
Great Tips Danielle! Just to piggyback off of your tips:
Dietary fibers are found naturally in the plants that we eat. They are parts of plant that do not break down in our stomachs, and instead pass through our system undigested. All dietary fibers are either soluble or insoluble. Both types of fiber are equally important for health, digestion, and preventing conditions such as heart disease, diabetes, obesity, diverticulitis, and constipation.
Soluble vs. Insoluble Fiber
Soluble fiber dissolves in water. Insoluble fiber does not. To some degree these differences determine how each fiber functions in the body and benefits your health.
Soluble fibers attract water and form a gel, which slows down digestion. Soluble fiber delays the emptying of your stomach and makes you feel full, which helps control weight. Slower stomach emptying may also affect blood sugar levels and have a beneficial effect on insulin sensitivity, which may help control diabetes. Soluble fibers can also help lower LDL (“bad”) blood cholesterol by interfering with the absorption of dietary cholesterol.
• Sources of soluble fiber: oatmeal, oat cereal, lentils, apples, oranges, pears, oat bran, strawberries, nuts, flaxseeds, beans, dried peas, blueberries, psyllium, cucumbers, celery, and carrots.
Insoluble fibers are considered gut-healthy fiber because they have a laxative effect and add bulk to the diet, helping prevent constipation. These fibers do not dissolve in water, so they pass through the gastrointestinal tract relatively intact, and speed up the passage of food and waste through your gut. Insoluble fibers are mainly found in whole grains and vegetables.
• Sources of insoluble fiber: whole wheat, whole grains, wheat bran, corn bran, seeds, nuts, barley, couscous, brown rice, bulgur, zucchini, celery, broccoli, cabbage, onions, tomatoes, carrots, cucumbers, green beans, dark leafy vegetables, raisins, grapes, fruit, and root vegetable skins.
Source: http://www.webmd.com/diet/fiber-health-benefits-11/insoluble-soluble-fiber
April 17, 2012 - 1:46pmThis Comment
chrissy10,
Great tips! I'll add a few more:
Fiber: Make sure to get plenty of fiber in your diet. This will help keep you full and satisfied, and keep you regular :)! The worst part about trying to lose weight is feeling hungry!
Water: Drinking plenty of water will also help keep you full, but more importantly, hydrate and cleanse. Add a bit of lemon to your water to alkalize and cleanse your body.
Best,
Danielle.
April 17, 2012 - 8:39amThis Comment
Tip #1
Try to eat at least 5 times a day
>This keeps your metabolism going throughout the day
>controls hunger
Tip #2 Portion Control
>prevents over eating
>>when eating out split your meal in half as soon as it arrives and ask for a carry out box
This Comment
Healthy weight loss isn't just about a "diet" or "program". It's about an ongoing lifestyle that includes long-term changes in daily eating and exercise habits.
To lose weight, you must use up more calories than you take in. Since one pound equals 3,500 calories, you need to reduce your caloric intake by 500—1000 calories per day to lose about 1 to 2 pounds per week.1
Source: http://www.cdc.gov/healthyweight/losing_weight/index.html
April 16, 2012 - 11:12am
Here's how insulin affect weight loss/gain:
EVERTHING YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT INSULIN AND WEIGHT LOSS
The master weight loss hormone is insulin. Master insulin control and you will master your weight. Understand how insulin works and you will understand all the keys to weight loss
What Insulin Does
Lowers blood sugar
Stores energy in the liver as glycogen
Moves sugar (glucose) from the blood to the cells
Think of insulin as a traffic light. Insulin basically functions as a signalling molecule. Special enzyme receptors made from tyrosine are embedded in the cell membrane. These receptors are activated When insulin is present in your bloo The action of insulin on these tyrosine enzyme receptors signals a "green light" to move sugar from your blood into the cells where it can be converted to energy.
When insulin is not present this acts as a "red light". Sugar does not move from the blood to your cells without a signal from insulin.
The actual work of transporting sugar into the cells is reserved for special proteins in the cell wall called Glut 4 proteins, but without the signal from insulin on specialized receptors, these proteins can't do their work.
The Problem of Insulin Resistance
Too much insulin damages cells
Insulin resistance makes you fat
insulin resistance has a snowball effect on your weight
Continuing on with the traffic light analogy, if you were color blind and could not tell red from green, you would not know when to move from a stop light. This is a very loose analogy, but it helps us to understand how insulin resistance works. When the tyrosine receptors in the cell wall stop responding to the signal given from the presence of insulin, the become 'resistant' to insulin.
How insulin Resistance Damages Cells
The problem with insulin resistance is that when cells become resistant to insulin, your body starts to make more and more insulin to solve the problem. This makes the problem of insulin resistance worse.
Your body has a special class of proteins, called Heat Shock Proteins. Heat Shock Proteins serve to reduce inflammation brought on by overheating. insulin resistance disrupts the action of heat shock proteins, which leads to damage to cells.
Additionally, too much insulin damages the delicate balance cells require to function. For example, insulin acts as an important signal for calcium and magnesium influx into the cell. This becomes compromised by insulin resistance.
How insulin Resistance Makes You Fat
When your cells become insulin resistant, your body has no choice but to store the sugar in your blood as fat. When you eat foods that quickly raise blood sugar, or require a lot of insulin such as a lot of processed carbohydrates at once (like a glass of orange juice) the excess blood sugar gets stored as fat.
How insulin Resistance Promotes belly fat
The key thing to understand about insulin resistance is that it affects different types of cells differently. What this means is that insulin resistance can often be localized to certain areas and types of cells!
Fat cells in the midsection are often a prime culprit with insulin resistance. These cells become damaged. New research shows these cells suffer from hypoxia (lack of oxygen) resulting from inflammation and restricted blood flow. The fat cells in this region become insulin resistant and tend to store fat more readily. People who struggle with belly fat in reality struggle with damaged fat cells in the stomach region.
December 7, 2012 - 9:52pmThis Comment