Physics

I’ve been known to say that for every diet, there’s an equal and opposite binge.  At least, that’s always been my experience.  When I dieted down to a size 10 for my wedding 7 or 8 years ago, the regain began as soon as my honeymoon.  Within 4 months I was back up 35 pounds to my previous weight – about half the time it took me to lose it.

Anyway, I think the same can be said of the stomach flu.  Every stomach flu has an equal and opposite refeed to return the body to a state of homeostasis.  I am just not stable right now – I’ve had serious cravings for salt, starches, and protein.  It’s been impossible the last 2 days for me to eat all the sweetened milk and coffee I’d been living on for weeks prior.  So what I’m going to do is indulge my cravings for a few days and wait till they die down again.  At that point I’ll give low-fat a go again.  In the meantime I’m going to keep tracking everything so I can attempt to draw conclusions as to which factors in my diet are at the root of my hyperglycemia.

Oddly, this morning my blood sugar was 100.  That’s after 119 grams of fat yesterday (about 2x as much as I was shooting for).  So, things are not clear right now at all.  I can only conclude there’s an equal and opposite reaction going on as my body recovers from being sick.

Next post: How I feed my kid.

HSLFDE – Day 8

Day 8 of the High Sugar Low Fat Diabetes Experiment.

Blood sugar this morning: 130.

Confounding variables: 3 or more

I started this experiment thinking the only thing that could get in my way was my own inability to tolerate endless sweet beverages.  Of course, that was silly.  I got a stomach virus (variable #1) that lasted 3.5 days, which ran my body ragged and caused a chain reaction of variables resulting in, among other things, eating starches (variable #2), lower appetite for dairy (#3), and higher appetite for fat (#4).

So now my blood sugar is high again and I don’t know why, exactly.  But I shall not beat myself up about it – all there is to do is get back on track.  So I’m back to shooting for fat being around 20% of calories (or less).

My weight is back up to 207 today – still a net loss.  We’ll see what happens next.

High Sugar Low Fat Diabetes Experiment – Day 7 (Updated)

Well, my stomach bug/food poisoning seems to be abating, finally.  I was not in good shape the last 3 days.  I still got hungry and kept eating, but yesterday I ate only what really sounded ok – so, not much in the way of coffee, milk, and OJ, which have otherwise become my staples.  I ate a bunch of chocolate.  So my Cronometer ratios are off for yesterday – here they are:

• Calories – 1457
• Protein – 100.1g (28.7%)
• Carb – 116.8g (31.4%)
• Fat – 65g (39.9%)

So, not as low-fat as I would have liked, but I just wasn’t going to force myself to eat things that didn’t sound good when I was sick.

Today the scale was down a couple more pounds, to 203.9 lbs.  Again, may be due to dehydation, although I’ve been making a conscious effort to keep drinking water.  Fasting blood sugar this morning was 113.

So it seems I’m on to something here – my fasting blood sugar has taken a turn for the better since I started reducing fat.

Continuing on.

Update: Midnight

Well, I’ve finally recovered from my illness.  I feel great now!

Macros today:

• Calories – 2017
• Protein – 84.9g (17%)
• Carb – 263.1g (52%)
• Fat – 71g (31%)

I just let myself eat what I wanted today – including potatoes and 1/4 of a grilled cheese sandwich (Sacrebleu! Starches!).  Also didn’t want milk today at all.  I let my poor recovering stomach make the decisions today.  Tomorrow back to sweetened milk and coffee, which will tilt the ratios back in favor of carbs/proteins again.

High Sugar Low Fat Diabetes Experiment – Day 6

Fasting blood sugar this morning – 119.  That’s 4 consecutive days under 120.  That hasn’t happened since I was eating low-carb and also bicycling. It’s interesting, I think, that the less sugar I eat the higher my blood sugar the next morning.  Once my tummy is back to normal I’ll be cranking on the sugar. I can’t wait to crunch the numbers in 2-3 more weeks!

My weight has also dropped another 2 1/2 pounds.  Could be dehydration though, so I’m not getting attached to that new number just yet.

HSLFDE – Day 5 (Updated)

Blood sugar this morning was 117.  That’s the 3rd day in a row with a fasting blood sugar under 120.  The last time I had 3 days under 120 was November – 5 months ago – when I was still essentially eating low-carb and cortisol was getting me through the day (poorly).  I do think that eating very little in the way of carbs late in the day yesterday led to increased stress hormones overnight, and thus a rise in sugar level today.  But still.  Under 120.

Update 10:11PM:

Cronometer had this to say about today:

• Calories: 1507
• Protein: 141.2g (39.5%)
• Carbs: 138.1g (35%)
• Fat:43.5g (25.5%)

My GI system is still a mess so I really just ate what sounded good.  Still low fat though.  Just not as many carbs or calories as I’d normally eat.

On another note – Here’s a site worth checking out if you’re looking to lose weight…and the information is free. Sean Bissell participates in one of the Ray Peat Facebook groups and may have cracked the weight loss code that we’re all looking for.  I may be trying out his system after the current experiment.

High Sugar Low Fat Diabetes Experiment – Day 3

Day 3 of the HSLFDE.

I have to say, I’ve been feeling really good the last 2 days.  Like, in the happy zone for a large proportion of each day.  Not sure what to attribute that to, except maybe eating more sugar than I was previously.

Also – get this – my fasting blood sugar was 113 this morning.  That’s the lowest it’s been…since March 3rd – a full month.  And before that it was a couple months.  That’s how rare it is to be under 120.  And…get this…down a couple pounds on the scale this morning.  I’m probably jinxing it by telling you this, but jinx be damned!  What do I attribute this to?  Glycogen stores being filled (or closer to filled) due to higher sugar intake could result in lower fasting blood glucose.  Not sure why I’ve dropped a couple pounds – perhaps this is a correction from the 2 pounds I’ve gained over the  past couple of weeks (wasn’t sure why I gained, not sure why I’ve lost).  In any case, we’re talking one data point – nowhere near a trend.  But still…it gives me hope.

The last 2 days my macros were as follows, according to Cronometer:

4/3/14 (yesterday):

• Calories – 2158
• Protein – 153.8 (29.9%)
• Carbs – 283.2 (50.2%)
• Fat – 48.4 (19.8%)

So a little higher in the fat department than the previous day….maybe 15% isn’t realistic.  Again, I’m not restricting calories in any way.  If I’m hungry, I eat.

4/4/14 (today):

• Calories – 2247
• Protein – 190.2 (35.7%)
• Carbs – 271.4 (46.4%)
• Fat – 45.6 (18%)

Ate a lot of meat today – too much.  Must embrace the gelatin.  It’s a struggle for me I suppose not just because I’ve been turned off by the taste but because I don’t get as much salt as I used to now that I’m eating no starches and eating more sugar…and meat + salt = perfect.  Bear with me – my entire transformation from low-carb to Peat has been one step at a time – no big moves – two steps forward, one step back.  My acceptance of it has been gradual…but I’m coming up on 6 months of Peating now.

Will update with more numbers tomorrow.