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30 Days Without Sugar

jdbentley.com

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Re: 30 Days Without Sugar

#31

Post by risratorn »

terhechte wrote: post #23

Does anyone know whether it's OK to use Stevia as an alternative during such a sugar-free diet?

It probably is but to be honest, stevia is the grossest thing i've ever tasted in my coffee ... I used to put one sugar in my coffee, dropped added sugar all together 2 months ago and tried stevia one single time. I can't exactly pin the taste but it's way too sweet and tastes chemical even though it's a natural product.

That being said, if you HAVE to add sweetener stevia is probably your best choice.

Re: 30 Days Without Sugar

#32

Post by brandon »

beloch wrote: post #5

According to his graph, he lost almost a pound a day for a full month. He didn't just cut out the sweets. He effectively went on a starvation diet! That is not safe. He is not to be congratulated, he is to be ushered into a doctor's office so some sense can be talked into him before he does himself permanent damage. When you go on a starvation diet your body breaks down muscle as well as fat, and some of that muscle…

He didn't go on a starvation diet; he went on a ketogenic diet. While there are still risks associated with this kind of weight loss, its rapidity can be attributed to a few things:

1. As water retention is significantly diminished while in ketosis. 10-15 pounds of initial loss can be sometimes be attributed to water weight coming off.

2. As jacques_chester put it below, "Gluconeogenesis is difficult and wasteful. Lipolysis is by comparison a doddle." The standard benchmarks around rate-of-loss are simply inaccurate for this metabolism.

Just as a point of reference, I've been on an MD-supervised ketogenic diet for roughly 7 months now. My blood pressure is perfect (down from stage-2 hypertension levels) and my weightloss has been phenomenal: http://i.imgur.com/nghqf.png

Re: 30 Days Without Sugar

#33

Post by travisglines »

After noticing the percentage differences and the weight drop, I wanted to do the math to figure out how much muscle vs. fat he lost.

He went from 219.2 at 35% body fat to 195.8 at 28.1%. If you do the back of the napkin math real quick that works out as follows:

    219.2 * .35 = 76.72 lbs of initial fat
    219.2 - 76.72 = 142.48 lbs of lean mass

    195.8 * .281 = 55.02 lbs of final fat
    195.8 - 55.02 = 140.78 lbs of lean mass
That means he lost ...

    1.7 lbs of muscle
    21.7 lbs of fat
Normally I say that these diets are often bad, and end up putting you back further where you started because you lose so much muscle and therefore regain it all much quicker.

However in this case 92% of his weight loss was fat, which is awesome.

Re: 30 Days Without Sugar

#34

Post by jdbentley »

risratorn wrote: post #31
terhechte wrote: post #23

Does anyone know whether it's OK to use Stevia as an alternative during such a sugar-free diet?

It probably is but to be honest, stevia is the grossest thing i've ever tasted in my coffee ... I used to put one sugar in my coffee, dropped added sugar all together 2 months ago and tried stevia one single time. I can't exactly pin the taste but it's way too sweet and tastes chemical even though it's a natural product. That being said, if you HAVE to add sweetener stevia is probably your best choice.

When I tried stevia it had an okay taste, but the aftertaste was awful. I could never use it.

Re: 30 Days Without Sugar

#35

Post by vl »

jerrya wrote: post #22

For the past month, I've done something similar, just following Atkins. I've monitored my calories using myfitness.com so I know my daily caloric intake has varied between 900 and 1400 calories. I've monitored whether I am in ketogenesis with some nice pee strips. Following Atkins first phase, I am maintaining about 20 carbs per day, mostly from interesting salad elements and some yummy cheeses. I've been drinking 0…

What are the goals of you ketogenesis monitoring? Staying in the specific zone? Does the strip tell you if you are going too much into it?

Re: 30 Days Without Sugar

#36

Post by nookie »

jerrya wrote: post #22

For the past month, I've done something similar, just following Atkins. I've monitored my calories using myfitness.com so I know my daily caloric intake has varied between 900 and 1400 calories. I've monitored whether I am in ketogenesis with some nice pee strips. Following Atkins first phase, I am maintaining about 20 carbs per day, mostly from interesting salad elements and some yummy cheeses. I've been drinking 0…

"I have noticed that on days when I eat very little, even though I was not hungry that day, I get a pretty nasty headache the next day"

Well, the most common reason is lack of water. Practically every food contains a lot of water and burning fat is a more inefficient process. So if you don't consume enough calories then you must drink more water/salt than usual.

Re: 30 Days Without Sugar

#37

Post by jdbentley »

travisglines wrote: post #33

After noticing the percentage differences and the weight drop, I wanted to do the math to figure out how much muscle vs. fat he lost. He went from 219.2 at 35% body fat to 195.8 at 28.1%. If you do the back of the napkin math real quick that works out as follows: 219.2 * .35 = 76.72 lbs of initial fat 219.2 - 76.72 = 142.48 lbs of lean mass 195.8 * .281 = 55.02 lbs of final fat 195.8 - 55.02 = 140.78 lbs of lean mass…

Math! What can't it do?

Thanks for these numbers. It's interesting to see how it really breaks down.

Re: 30 Days Without Sugar

#38

Post by jerrya »

vl wrote: post #35
jerrya wrote: post #22

For the past month, I've done something similar, just following Atkins. I've monitored my calories using myfitness.com so I know my daily caloric intake has varied between 900 and 1400 calories. I've monitored whether I am in ketogenesis with some nice pee strips. Following Atkins first phase, I am maintaining about 20 carbs per day, mostly from interesting salad elements and some yummy cheeses. I've been drinking 0…

What are the goals of you ketogenesis monitoring? Staying in the specific zone? Does the strip tell you if you are going too much into it?

Yes. The first phase of Atkins is this "induction" ketogenesis phase. My guess is if you follow the diet rigorously, you don't need the strips at all, but for me at least, it is nice to have a external confirmation that I am in the ketogenesis zone. They turn a shade of colors and the side of the vial has a scale.

The strips (Ketone Care) are really targeted towards diabetics and so which color on the scale they are may be more important to diabetics. I've been hitting "moderate" to "large" and I am happy with that place and level of precision.

Also, they make great little bookmarks even after they've been used.

Re: 30 Days Without Sugar

#40

Post by jerrya »

nookie wrote: post #36
jerrya wrote: post #22

For the past month, I've done something similar, just following Atkins. I've monitored my calories using myfitness.com so I know my daily caloric intake has varied between 900 and 1400 calories. I've monitored whether I am in ketogenesis with some nice pee strips. Following Atkins first phase, I am maintaining about 20 carbs per day, mostly from interesting salad elements and some yummy cheeses. I've been drinking 0…

"I have noticed that on days when I eat very little, even though I was not hungry that day, I get a pretty nasty headache the next day" Well, the most common reason is lack of water. Practically every food contains a lot of water and burning fat is a more inefficient process. So if you don't consume enough calories then you must drink more water/salt than usual.

Thanks, that's very likely and I have been much more conscious of drinking water in the past few days, and my doc called this morning to tell me I was dehydrated on the blood test from last week (although I put that down to a 10 hour fast before the test.)
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