The FastDay Forum

About 1h15 talking about cholesterol release from adipose cells on weight loss. Lots of good stuff throughout, worth listening to (the video is incidental).

Thanks PhilT!

I have believed for some time that the low fat diet is the cause of much obesity and diabetes. It is interesting to hear that research is now starting to confirm this. Who knew that eating carbs (even complex carbs) leads to higher saturated fat levels in the blood and body?

Thanks for this Phil, I finally found the time to listen to it. Very interesting and plenty of food for thought!

Great to listen to. Thank you for posting. It seems to agree with a lot of what Atkins suggested way back then.

[carorees]

Finally managed to find time to listen to this. Great stuff. I was interested in several things:

• The concept of carbohydrate intolerance
• That increasing carb intake by 50g/day might be enough to tip some people into metabolic syndrome (and the corollary that reducing carbs by 50g might be enough to bring significant changes)
• Some people may get away with 100-150g carbs/day whereas those with diabetes/prediabetes/metabolic syndrome may need to cut carbs to under 50g/day
• Polyunsaturated fats should represent a smaller component of the diet if you are on a high fat diet than a low fat diet.
• Saturated fat content of the blood increases with increased carbohydrate intake and is unaffected by saturated fat content of the diet.
• Carbohydrates cause salt and water retention; low carb diet results in salt excretion, water loss and so a modest increase in salt content of the diet may be needed.
• Many of the symptoms of 'low carb flu' (which are the same as seen with fasting in the early days) can be due to salt loss.
• The salt loss from low carbing is one way that the blood pressure can be decreased.
• Cholesterol release from adipose tissue during weight loss can result in temporary high cholesterol levels.

Thanks for this, Phil! Extremely interesting.

While we're on the same thread, did you get a PM from me a while back? I didn't get a response, so I was wondering...

Haven't managed to watch the video but I'm reading their book at the moment and from what Caroline has posted it sounds pretty much the same info in the video as in the book. Its an interesting read.

The messages from these modest men is lifesaving for me.
I want the medical schools and professions supplementary to medicine, to get to grips with the research they are explaining so well on this video.
I was in e-mail contact with the Atkins organisation 10 years ago regarding my blood profile and syndrome X, then took the findings to my GP. It is history now that I was dismissed as cranky BUT, that was 10 years ago, and I was afraid to make the changes on my own, as I have explained, and thus spiralled into ill health with poly pharmia.
The momentum for changing to this dietary advice is slowly getting acknowledged by intelligent lay people, and by those who are willing to take the leap of faith and follow Phinney and Volek, as I have now done.
I can do no more than shout it out on our forum, as I am a very small cog in the wheel.
The final 10 minutes of the video are of great importance, and I would commend it to all those out there struggling with diabesity.
Many thanks to Phil for posting.

The most important thing we can do to get health care and science on the right track and to avoid stories such as 140lbs' above is to get the government out of it. The type of care people should receive is decided by bureaucrat elitists with everything but your individual well being in mind. The dietary advice is, as anyone who is literate knows, off the wall wrong. Only the government can ignore facts for decades without going out of business.

Just compare it to the relatively free market of grocery stores. Sure, you have a lot of shit food out there, but you have thousands of healthy options just waiting for you. It is now up to you to make the right choices for you. Just like a private health care system would have bad doctors, there will be good doctors who will run them out of business. In government run organisations incompetence and stupidity are rewarded, not punished.

So, if there is one single thing we can do to prolong our lives, make us healthier and happier it is to get the government out of the health care and dietary advice business. That would allow competent people to get their message across more effectively.

In response to DomDom, I am in such a dilemma, because whilst completely agreeing with his sentiments, it is so out of line with my professional life firstly in the NHS, and then culminating in the field of politics until I retired 4 years ago.
I can only conclude that neither have been good for my health, but I must keep an open mind, otherwise I wouldn't have taken on board Phinney and Volek.
So, u-turns are an important aspect of medicine and politics, but very slow in happening.

I loved the way they made it so clear and easy for laypeople like myself to understand how our bodies deal with fats and carbs. Great motivation to increase fats and cut down on carbs! However, I listened to a broadcast by Phinney on the Jimmy Moore radio talk show, and he was very cautious, actually negative, about fasting and does not recommend it. Sorry, I don't know how to post links, but if you google Jimmy Moore, it's episode 23 and about 70 minutes into the broadcast, replying to Cathy who has tried fasting as a means to lose weight.

I listened to the bit where he cautions people not to fast. His issue is that even during the first day of fasting the body loses lean tissue and not fat. The reason is that one does not consume enough protein. I would like to know what he thinks about a 500cal fast where you eat enough protein. I have moved to eating tuna and eggs only on a couple of fast days. Two cans of tuna get me to nearly 80 grams of protein.

[carorees]

The question about muscle breakdown has been debated at considerable length a while back. PhilT posted this: viewtopic.php?f=10&t=1794&start=30#p15657 showing that in the first 24 hours of fasting the lean tissue lost is from the intestines and not muscle. Further, the evidence from people actually doing 5:2 shows that virtually all the weight lost is fat. The loss in muscle probably represents a natural reduction due to less mass to transport around...if your body doesn't need the muscle for day to day life, then it gets reduced to increase efficiency.

Thanks Caroline. I am going to review that thread and more, since this is an important topic.

Phinney did not express other concerns about fasting in the podcast.

I do think though that it is probably wise not to go over 24 hours without food (particularly protein) for people with medical conditions. Even for healthy individuals I would advocate caution doing longer than 24 hour fasts without any protein. MM eats a small amount of tuna on fast day mornings I believe and I think I may follow suit and hope it doesn't trip the hunger switch. I wish MM would do a follow up programme as there must be a lot more results from studies available now.