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

Re: Fat-fueled brain: unnatural or advantageous?

#241

Post by cuddlybacon » Wed, Sep 28, 2016, 9:39 PM UTC

redwards510 wrote: post #103

circlefavshape wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I was wondering about this too. Many of the comments on this thread are "I felt great on keto and lost X lb/kg". Could you be feeling better just because you lost weight? if you have no weight to lose is there anything to gain?

I think a lot of those types of testimonials come from people who have tried other dieting styles and failed with them. One of the biggest reasons that people really enjoy keto is that a high fat + protein diet leaves you feeling sated even though you are eating less calories. You are not STARVING all the time like with a simple calorie reduction diet. Another reason is that by eliminating sugar/carbs, you aren't dea…

+1

I tried the standard advice (Canada Food Pyramid + exercise). I felt miserable (tired, irritable, hungry) and couldn't sleep well.

Keto has been the exact opposite. I feel great all the time. I sleep better. I no longer get daily nosebleeds. For the first 6+ months, I didn't exercise at all.

Re: Fat-fueled brain: unnatural or advantageous?

#242

Post by bitstein » Wed, Sep 28, 2016, 9:40 PM UTC

collyw wrote: post #193

CuriouslyC wrote: post #187

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Keto is not a body hack that bypasses evolution. Almost all humans are descended from populations with seasonal eating patterns. Carb rich diet in spring/summer/fall, keto diet in winter. The paradox is that keto diets, in the short term, seem to have a lot of great health benefits, yet all the blue zone diets are carb rich. My gut feeling is that for most people, the optimal diet in terms of health would be primaril…

The reason I don't really buy into the paleo theory (yet) is that people have lived in all parts of the world, with vastly varying diets. I haven't seen any conclusive scientific evidence on it yet (to be fair I haven't been searching). Intermittent fasting would be something that I imagine that most humans experienced wherever they lived however, and rat studies seem promising.

> people have lived in all parts of the world, with vastly varying diets

Yes, though all of them ate animal products and highly valued various animal fats.

That being said, we can find evidence of people eating all-meat diets in every corner of the globe, and often times if there were more agricultural people nearby, the carnivores were healthier and stronger (such as the Masai vs. the Kikuyu, the Sami vs. southern agricultural Swedes, etc.). Just because people were healthy eating one type of food does not mean they could have been even healthier eating another food if they had access to it.

Re: Fat-fueled brain: unnatural or advantageous?

#243

Post by jsprogrammer » Wed, Sep 28, 2016, 9:41 PM UTC

rayiner wrote: post #223

collyw wrote: post #206

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Physics, years of evidence and common sense down voted on HN where solyent is seen as a good thing.

The physics is that exercise burns so few calories it's not worthwhile from a weight loss point of view.

Where have those physics been documented?

I want to see the same person:

    'immobile
    'sitting most of the time, with short commutes and shopping trips
    'intensely exercising 1 hr a day
    'actively working out throughout the day

while maintaining their current diet and weight.

Re: Fat-fueled brain: unnatural or advantageous?

#244

Post by [deleted] » Wed, Sep 28, 2016, 9:53 PM UTC

Sargos wrote: post #214

misiti3780 wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

no alcohol either ... that is a deal breaker for a lot of people (including myself)

Alcohol is actually fine on a low carb diet. Beer has carbs but Vodka, Rum, etc are totally fine. In fact alcohol tends to have a greater effect on you when in ketosis so you even save some money when out drinking.

[deleted]

Re: Fat-fueled brain: unnatural or advantageous?

#245

Post by pramalin » Wed, Sep 28, 2016, 9:53 PM UTC

collyw wrote: post #191

PKop wrote: post #159

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're stuck in the mindset that fat makes you "fat". This is the whole point of ketosis, and a rethinking of wrong dietary guidelines that have persisted for decades. The butter in the coffee supplies fat for fuel / energy, suppresses appetite, and does not contribute to weight gain or more specifically an increase in adipose fat tissue. Simply cutting all calories is futile. Your body needs energy to sustain itself…

But adding calories in whatever form still means more calories in than not eating them. Edit: I get the point that it stops hunger, but my point still stands, and the parent posters still doesn't make a great deal of sense.

Not all calories are the same. For example, body excretes excess dietary fat, but stores excess carbohydrates adding 4 times the amount of water to it. You can find the details in any Paleo Diet related site.

Re: Fat-fueled brain: unnatural or advantageous?

#246

Post by PKop » Wed, Sep 28, 2016, 10:09 PM UTC

collyw wrote: post #191

PKop wrote: post #159

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're stuck in the mindset that fat makes you "fat". This is the whole point of ketosis, and a rethinking of wrong dietary guidelines that have persisted for decades. The butter in the coffee supplies fat for fuel / energy, suppresses appetite, and does not contribute to weight gain or more specifically an increase in adipose fat tissue. Simply cutting all calories is futile. Your body needs energy to sustain itself…

But adding calories in whatever form still means more calories in than not eating them. Edit: I get the point that it stops hunger, but my point still stands, and the parent posters still doesn't make a great deal of sense.

It's hard for me to explain why the "calories in, calories out" theory is incorrect in so far as it's not useful to structure your diet around to prevent getting fat.

Gary Taubes was the person who I learned from the most, many years ago about high fat, low carb diet, and I have been following his advice ever since, to great success.

He has MANY videos on the internet, here is a recent one:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mA4a5fjMR74

His book "Why we get fat" is also a great, clearly written explanation of all this, and I highly advise you to look into the subject, with an open mind. You may be surprised.

Re: Fat-fueled brain: unnatural or advantageous?

#247

Post by danielvinson » Wed, Sep 28, 2016, 10:25 PM UTC

ars wrote: post #236

danielvinson wrote: post #232

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Even if you're getting calories from your coffee it doesn't impact your weight loss because you're still eating less calories than your body needs to maintain the weight. This is completely dependent on other factors. Weight loss is dependent on a hell of a lot of things in tandem. It is mathematically strictly better to say, drink only black coffee or sugar-free energy drinks in the morning. Caffeine is an appetit…

> The difference is that most people don't have the personal willpower to stick to the fasting without a few calories to help them along. You are ignoring an important factor: If you don't have enough calories the body will switch to starvation mode, you'll have low energy, be cold, etc. The net result is that, unless you are actually starving (which is bad for you), you'll actually lose less weight that way!

> If you don't have enough calories the body will switch to starvation mode

This is a myth which has been proved to be absolutely false. You are simply wrong if you are basing any conclusions at all of of this.

Re: Fat-fueled brain: unnatural or advantageous?

#248

Post by l1ambda » Wed, Sep 28, 2016, 10:32 PM UTC

jules wrote: post #146

lopatin wrote: post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I also lost a bunch of weight on keto after several failed attempts at simply cutting calories. 235 lbs to about 185 and it all happened pretty rapidly (about half a year) considering I barely exercised. Lots of salads, chicken breasts, eggs & bacon, lettuce wraps, and quest bars. Regular coffee though, never was a fan of throwing butter in there. I mean I did do light cardio on and off, but I think it was mostly the…

What is the logic behind putting butter in your coffee? If your goal is to lose weight, wouldn't not eating that butter still be better than eating it?

"Low carb, adequate protein, high fat" is a more accurate description of this diet.

The other Keto adage is "calories count, but don't count calories". Meaning, if you eat a high fat diet, you naturally will feel full.

Re: Fat-fueled brain: unnatural or advantageous?

#249

Post by NotSammyHagar » Wed, Sep 28, 2016, 10:41 PM UTC

rotwoof wrote: post #209

collyw wrote: post #191

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But adding calories in whatever form still means more calories in than not eating them. Edit: I get the point that it stops hunger, but my point still stands, and the parent posters still doesn't make a great deal of sense.

The point of putting butter in your coffee is to extend your natural faste. The faste that you enter every night during sleep. It is done in tandem with also skipping breakfast on keto. The reason you put butter in your coffee instead of a spoonful of say, sugar, is that fat takes a long time to digest and even a fairly small amount of it (a table spoon of butter in your coffee) takes a while to digest. During that t…

why do you use the word faste? Does it mean something different from the usual word related to not eating, "fast"?

Re: Fat-fueled brain: unnatural or advantageous?

#250

Post by twayamznacct » Wed, Sep 28, 2016, 10:43 PM UTC

rotwoof wrote: post #138

dave_sullivan wrote: post #114

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Has there been any more research into the long term health effects of Keto? I tried it years ago, but found it to be more of a pain than it's worth (I seem to have better luck with intense exercise 3x per week and avoiding sugar). And it seems like tons of meat and cheese is actually bad long term, in the sense it clogs your arteries or increases cancer risk. Atkins did not look like he was in good shape inside when…

>And it seems like tons of meat and cheese is actually bad long term, in the sense it clogs your arteries This is an inaccurate conclusion based on old studies where the subjects underwent a high-carbohydrate high-fat diet. Recent studies on ketogenic diets (low-carbohydrate, medium-protein, high-fat intake) shows that dietary fats and dietary cholesterol barely make any sort of impact on the subject's cholesterol. R…

>shows that dietary fats and dietary cholesterol barely make any sort of impact on the subject's cholesterol.

>Rather it is dietary carbohydrates and genetics which are the primary contributor to raised cholesterol and arterial blockage. So what about APOE4 individuals, which compose at least 20% of the population, who will see massively spiking LDL with higher saturated fat intake?

Yes, it's based on genetics, but also intrinsically tied to dietary (saturated) fat intake.