Hi Pete!
Practitioners well-versed in Nurititional and Functional Medicine (like me!)
can identify how an individual could eat to improve any malady - including
achieving overall body weight and optimal lean to fat tissue.
No 'one-size' programme suits all - as you specify - achieving/perfecting an
individual programme is normally within the domain of an experienced
practitioner. We all continually learn! Love, Pat.


2009/7/8 Vegan Bodybuilding <pete@...>

>
>
> Hi,
> I can give you the basic theory behind it, but to be honest exactly
> how any fat loss/fat gaining occurs exactly is still a mystery, no one
> knows for sure (the easiest way to tell a liar in the fat loss scene
> is when someone says they understand the exact mechanisms of fat
> loss-the basics are common sense, 'less calories in, less body
> weight', but HOW that works exactly still isn't understood).
> The idea expounded by low carbers revolves around insulin. Insulin is
> a major anabolic drug, in certain situations it can stimulate muscle
> gains, in other situations fat gains. Having low carbs in the body
> (low glycogen stores) also means lower water storage, therefore less
> weight.
> Stage one of a low carb diet is water loss. As you have use up your
> stored carbs (glycogen stores), water basically pours out of you.
> Within reason, whatever you eat your bodyweight will drop, so for the
> first few days you get a real drop in scale weight (every gram of
> glycogen holds 3 grams of water within the body).
> Next comes the theory behind the longterm fat loss. There are
> probably other versions out there, but the most common I've come
> across is that you need insulin to add fat to the body. Therefore, no
> matter how much fat you eat you won't be able to add much stored fat
> as there will be no insulin to initiate the response of turning eaten
> fat into stored bodyfat. Also as the carb levels are so low your body
> starts using other fuels to keep the body going & so the fat is burned
> as fuel & not stored. A couple of problems with this is that the
> other main food ingested is protein & protein also illicits an insulin
> response (not to the extent of carbs, but it's there). The second
> area of fat loss involves controlling calories. By cutting out an
> entire food group you limit your options & so, even without planning,
> you are likely to have cut your calories somewhat. So the low carb
> people suggest that the lower insulin & lower calories are the 'double
> whammy' needed to start & maintain fat-loss.
>
> There are other camps that use a similar theory, some theories suggest
> eating high carb & high fat meals at separate times & not combining
> both in a meal, others suggest carb cycling (high carb/low carb days),
> still other control carbs to a lower level (but above what you'd call
> low carbs)...the list goes on. In my option most of them work if
> utilised as explained in their writings. Most diets do work, the real
> issues are can you sustain that form of eating. If you can't, then
> it's pointless trying to do it because as soon as you go back to
> eating 'normally' the weight will just pile back on. What you want is
> to find a way to eat that causes a weight change, but is enjoyable
> enough that you can do it for life, without feeling deprived, that is
> because what you are looking for is a 'lifestyle change', not a a
> quick-fix diet. I usually suggest you change as little as possible to
> a normal diet to achieve your goals.
> My basic advice for building an eating planning is to start with the
> lightest changes you can make, like removing the junk from all but 1
> or 2 re-feed meals a week (these should be planned-like when I went to
> the opening of the new vegan café 'Vbites', I knew I'd eat some junk).
> That is often enough for most people, just removing the junk &
> exchanging it for quality food, whether this is a lowering of calories
> or the fact that the better food gets the body functioning better than
> it was (or a combination of the 2) I'm not sure, but often even with
> little, or no change in calories, just cleaning up the diet can
> somehow make the body change it's fat to lean mass ratio (that is, the
> weight on the scales stays the same, but the lean mass goes up & body
> fat goes down-& the clothes sizes shrink even though the scales say
> you are the same weight!). From there if you aren't losing the weight
> you slowly begin making things slightly tougher (giving every change
> several weeks to see any effect) until you start losing fat (as I
> suggest using heavy [for you] weight training as part of a fat loss
> program I don't tend to look at bodyweight lose, but fat loss).
> In my opinion only 2 groups probably need to think about low carb
> dieting. Those into bodybuilding where some form of strict carb
> control can really help get that fat down to well below the single
> digits, or those with metabolic issues & no other form of diet appears
> to work.
> I have noted that a certain % of the population do seem to thrive on
> various forms of carb control, this may be because a certain % of the
> human race is 'programmed' with that survival feature for times of
> carb deprivation [ice ages, etc], so for a few it might be an option
> worth exploring? This is purely theory on my part, from observation.
> If you do intend to experiment, please bear in mind that
> phyto-nutrients (the chemicals in plants) are some of the most
> important substances we eat & no chemist or pill can replace them as I
> doubt we know 1% of these vital chemicals. Eating fresh fruits &
> veggies are the only guaranteed sources of these vital products, so
> even if you do plan to take some form of carb control, be sensible &
> plan your eating so you a lot of whole plant food into you. Also to
> keep the thyroid & other bodily functions working correctly you do
> need to re-feed with at least one very high carb meal weekly or you
> might well suffer from health issues.
> The above is not a comprehensive coverage of all the variations in the
> low carb diet, nor all the reasons why low carbers claim their diets
> work, but only the one's I find most likely given todays research
> (well the stuff I've read on it anyway).
>
>
> Pete Ryan www.veganbodybuilding.org
>
> 2009/7/8 jont2002 <jont2002@... <jont2002%40yahoo.com>>:
>
> >
> >
> > Hi Pete,
> >
> >> Anyone can get down to a normal weight range with some carbs included
> >> & it's only those needing to cut fat to the bone need to worry about
> >> cutting back carbs (barring junk & refined carbs they should be at a
> >> minimum for everyone).
> >
> > I have never understood this. Why would eating more fat make you less
> > fat? Why would eating carbohydrates, which have to be converted to fat
> > to be stored on your body, more likely make or keep you fat than eating
> > the fat itself?
> >
> > AFAIK, 97% of the energy from fat can be stored as fat on your body,
> > whereas about 75% of the energy from carbohydrate can be stored as fat
> > on your body (about 25% of the energy is consumed to do the conversion
> > to fat). I also understand that by weight, fat has 2.25 times more
> > energy than carbohydrate and that the human body prefers to consume the
> > energy from carbohydrate immediately rather than store it. Thus,
> > supposedly, if you consume 100 grams of fat, 97 grams (873 calories)
> > will likely be stored as fat, but if you consume 100 grams of
> > carbohydrate (far less calories, but same mass), 33 grams (300 calories)
> > may be stored as fat if you overeat enough to cause that.
> >
> > By carbohydrates, I am not talking about junk carbohydrates; I am
> > talking about natural plant-grown carbohydrates in vegetables, fruit,
> > and starches.
> >
> > I can look up references for that if you want, but it is basically all
> > coming from Dr. McDougall and his references. If the above is true, and
> > assuming you are not going into keytosis, I don't understand why eating
> > a higher range of fat would cause you to lose fat. Can you explain? Or
> > can you forward your prior explanations (I am sure many people have
> > asked you this before)?
> >
> > Thanks
> >
> > [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
> >
> >
>
>



--
Pat Reeves, Practitioner of Nutritional and Functional Medicine.
For latest info on living foods and courses, please view my website
www.foodalive.org or email me at pat@....
FULL MEMBER OF THE BRITISH ASSOCIATION FOR APPLIED NUTRITION AND NUTRITIONAL
THERAPY. Registered with Nutritional Therapy Council.
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