Fat-fueled brain: unnatural or advantageous? • Hacker News Board

Re: Fat-fueled brain: unnatural or advantageous?

#11

Post by jlturner » Wed, Sep 28, 2016, 2:52 PM UTC

I'm on my third ketogenic diet stint, and I can attest to how fantastic it is. I'm narcoleptic and I experience nearly no symptoms on the diet, my fiancée is epileptic and is transitioning off her meds to the ketogenic diet (with the supervision of her nutritionist and neurologist), and a former employee uses it to keep her benign tumor from spreading (actually! And she's totally normal, again with doctors). All of us report much better hair, skin, daily energy levels, ability to think more clearly and focus better, and massive weight loss. The first month my first time doing keto I lost 30 lbs without trying to, ended up being a total weight loss of about 70lbs and I became very lean and muscular.

Why stop? Bread is delicious and it make social eating event difficult / less engaging. You can take a meal off from the diet and be fine, but it's a slippery slope of will power.

Re: Fat-fueled brain: unnatural or advantageous?

#12

Post by ukdm » Wed, Sep 28, 2016, 2:52 PM UTC

tzaman wrote: post #7

I do keto once a year for about 3 months, and truth be told I feel like a superman. I feel more energetic, loose a ton of fat (ironically with increased fat intake), get more stuff done and overall feel better. The only reason is stop doing it is because I'm a sucker for sweets :) I started all this by asking a friend of mine who's a personal trainer what's the best way of loosing 15 kilos (because I was fat) and he…

I've been on a low carb diet for 5 years now. The key I found to "sucker for sweets" desire is you take one day a week off. I find sugar is like salt now... if you give it up for a while and go back it's really really sweet and after a day of enjoying sugar I'm ready to stop eating it again for 6 days. If you haven't tried the one day a week off I recommend it next time you do your 3 months.

Re: Fat-fueled brain: unnatural or advantageous?

#13

Post by mixmastamyk » Wed, Sep 28, 2016, 2:52 PM UTC

artellectual wrote: post #2

Actually, I've tried the ketogenic diet. It's great, however it does have negative side effects. That is the lack of fiber. This can lead to hemorrhoids. Which can be extremely painful. Everything was great, I burned a lot of baby fat, but it was painful in the toilet, there was bleeding involved. You need to supplement yourself with fiber if you want to try the ketogenic diet.

Flax seeds and meal are low carb and high fiber. I put them in my smoothie every morning and am an olympic-class pooper.

Re: Fat-fueled brain: unnatural or advantageous?

#14

Post by davio » Wed, Sep 28, 2016, 2:54 PM UTC

rpazyaquian wrote: post #10

The main problem I have with ketogenic diets is that it's actually quite difficult and sometimes expensive to eat a 90-95% fat diet. I tried it for a while, and since I couldn't have carbs OR too much protein, I had several instances where my dinner in a pinch was melted down cheese and half-n-half. Your diet basically becomes cheese and avocados with some, but not too much, salmon or chicken. I'm not arguing that it…

You should listen to the Tim Ferris podcast with Dominic D’Agostino. It's pretty fascinating what Dominic does with keto diet as a researcher.

Re: Fat-fueled brain: unnatural or advantageous?

#15

Post by ethanbond » Wed, Sep 28, 2016, 2:57 PM UTC

jlturner wrote: post #11

I'm on my third ketogenic diet stint, and I can attest to how fantastic it is. I'm narcoleptic and I experience nearly no symptoms on the diet, my fiancée is epileptic and is transitioning off her meds to the ketogenic diet (with the supervision of her nutritionist and neurologist), and a former employee uses it to keep her benign tumor from spreading (actually! And she's totally normal, again with doctors). All of u…

One great feature of keto in my experience is that if you're truly rocking ketosis, cheating oftentimes feels absolutely awful. It's just the first few weeks that's somewhat hard really.

Re: Fat-fueled brain: unnatural or advantageous?

#16

Post by ethanbond » Wed, Sep 28, 2016, 2:58 PM UTC

davio wrote: post #14

rpazyaquian wrote: post #10

The main problem I have with ketogenic diets is that it's actually quite difficult and sometimes expensive to eat a 90-95% fat diet. I tried it for a while, and since I couldn't have carbs OR too much protein, I had several instances where my dinner in a pinch was melted down cheese and half-n-half. Your diet basically becomes cheese and avocados with some, but not too much, salmon or chicken. I'm not arguing that it…

You should listen to the Tim Ferris podcast with Dominic D’Agostino. It's pretty fascinating what Dominic does with keto diet as a researcher.

Could you provide a synopsis or a bit more info regarding the relevance to the topic at least?

Re: Fat-fueled brain: unnatural or advantageous?

#17

Post by CuriouslyC » Wed, Sep 28, 2016, 3:01 PM UTC

vixen99 wrote: post #9

artellectual wrote: post #2

Actually, I've tried the ketogenic diet. It's great, however it does have negative side effects. That is the lack of fiber. This can lead to hemorrhoids. Which can be extremely painful. Everything was great, I burned a lot of baby fat, but it was painful in the toilet, there was bleeding involved. You need to supplement yourself with fiber if you want to try the ketogenic diet.

There are many options for avoiding your problem. Vegetable fiber using vegetables with minimal or zero reserve carbohydrate should do it. Cabbage for instance also offers additional benefits from its phytochemicals. See for instance http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0304423806...

You can even go one step further and eat Sauerkraut. A lot of the (limited) carbohydrates in the cabbage are fermented into lactate, which has some health benefits, and if you make it yourself it is a good probiotic.

Re: Fat-fueled brain: unnatural or advantageous?

#18

Post by rpazyaquian » Wed, Sep 28, 2016, 3:02 PM UTC

ethanbond wrote: post #16

davio wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You should listen to the Tim Ferris podcast with Dominic D’Agostino. It's pretty fascinating what Dominic does with keto diet as a researcher.

Could you provide a synopsis or a bit more info regarding the relevance to the topic at least?

I would like more info or a small review as well, too. Mostly cause I'm at work and I'll forget by the time I get home...

Re: Fat-fueled brain: unnatural or advantageous?

#19

Post by rpazyaquian » Wed, Sep 28, 2016, 3:04 PM UTC

rpazyaquian wrote: post #10

The main problem I have with ketogenic diets is that it's actually quite difficult and sometimes expensive to eat a 90-95% fat diet. I tried it for a while, and since I couldn't have carbs OR too much protein, I had several instances where my dinner in a pinch was melted down cheese and half-n-half. Your diet basically becomes cheese and avocados with some, but not too much, salmon or chicken. I'm not arguing that it…

I'll also admit that a big reason I had middling success on keto was that I had no idea how to cook for myself without relying on a source of carbs. Learning how to cook fat-heavy, low/no-carb meals is something that I've never learned, and I'm stumped. I'd be interested in resources on cooking for keto!

Re: Fat-fueled brain: unnatural or advantageous?

#20

Post by ni-hil » Wed, Sep 28, 2016, 3:05 PM UTC

rpazyaquian wrote: post #10

The main problem I have with ketogenic diets is that it's actually quite difficult and sometimes expensive to eat a 90-95% fat diet. I tried it for a while, and since I couldn't have carbs OR too much protein, I had several instances where my dinner in a pinch was melted down cheese and half-n-half. Your diet basically becomes cheese and avocados with some, but not too much, salmon or chicken. I'm not arguing that it…

There is different types of keto diets, and the ones recommended for "non-sick" people, does not asks you to restrict your protein intake. You should still consume around ~1g of protein per lb of lean mass, probably even more if you are an intense bodybuilder. Only carbs are restricted (often I also recommend the `Tim Ferriss - Dom D’Agostino on Fasting, Ketosis, and the End of Cancer` podcast, and as you will see, being a bodybuilder on keto does not seems to be an issue. Not for him also.

There is another podcast with him `Dom D’Agostino — The Power of the Ketogenic Diet` but I haven't got the chance to listen to it yet.