I stumbled upon Taubes’ book recently and it was quite the eye opener, even though I was already convinced that low carb is the best way to go in life. I love this post about calories, and the law of thermodynamics or counting calories has never particularly concerned me, however I have recently started eating restrictively low carb to ketogenic levels after a few years of sadly succumbing again to the carb addiction, and I’m wondering if there is a cause for concern in not eating enough calories while low carbing, as opposed to concerns of eating too much. In other words, if eating low carb and eating a lot of calories will not cause harm/weight gain, simply drive us to expend more energy, I assume that eating too few calories will have the opposite effect and slow weight loss over the long term… but in your experience have you found that that is indeed the case when very low carb is involved?

It’s been my experience that people both reduce calories and increase activity spontaneously on low-carb diets. It doesn’t take as many good-quality calories (the kind one gets on a whole-food low-carb diet) as it does low-quality calories to provide all the energy needs plus allow the body to access the fat stores for more. As energy becomes freely available to the body, it responds by increasing activity to burn off any extra. It’s a double whammy for the good, which is why people generally lose more on low-carb diets as compared to low-fat diets of an equivalent number of calories.

It seems to me that one factor contributing to the metabolic advantage of your low carb diet recommendation is increased testosterone levels brought about by increased saturated/monosaturated fat, cholesterol, and protein consumption. There have been studies correlating this to increased testosterone and resulting in significant muscle and strength gains. Increased lean body mass raises the base metabolism which helps to burn off fat.

I recently (this week) read a very good article which cited such a study in a men’s fitness magazine at my local grocery store. Next time I’m there I’ll try to find it and let you know what magazine it is and what study they cited. It was a very good article for supporting that the current recommendations for low fat and avoided saturated fat especially are utter “bullshit” and “lies”.
~James

I took note of all this before answering the other comment.

MRE

Thanks for explaining metabolic advantage and the mouse study in easy to understand English. I liked this post a lot!

Can I get your advice on a matter? I’ve been trying to eat Paleo with low carbs to remain in a ketogenic state. The problem is that I suffer from insomnia and have very poor sleep when I am carb-depleted. I have tried fruit before bed – apples, oranges, melons, bananas. They help only if I eat an enormous quantity before bed, but the deepest sleep still comes only when I eat starchy carbs like bread, pasta and biscuits. I had some pasta and biscuits last night and haven’t had such restful sleep in a week. The sun here rises at 6am and on Paleo the brightness wakes me up at 6am. With the starchy carbs I am in perhaps deeper sleep and don’t get woken up till it’s really bright.

I am torn between Paleo-keto and deep sleep. What would you suggest?

-Insomniac

Hi Insomniac–

MRE

This attitude is unfortunately true. When I wrote a book about how to prevent diabetes, it didn’t sell. When we simply changed the title to Prediabetes, it sold much better.

I have a relative who says constantly, “Why should I worry about a disease I might never get?” even though the disease in question has a strong genetic component. I think people who aren’t yet fat feel the same way.

And I confess I wouldn’t rush out and buy “How not to get cancer,” “How not to get Alzheimer’s,” “How not to get Parkinson’s,” etc. There would just be too many disease I didn’t want to get.

Hi Gretchen–

P.S. Your test comment came through. I deleted it.

My diet has slowly evolved into a low fat, high protein diet with lots of salad and lightly baked veggies, with the carbs coming from sweet fruits, like mango and banana.
In the past weeks, I have been further eliminating carbohydrates. My friends are telling me that my face is sometimes very white. Is this a temporary thing, because my body is switching from a carbohydrate into a ketogenic metabolism?

In the last week I have been eating nuts and banana’s when I danced a lot – for example during a tango marathon, when I dance up to 14 hrs in a 24 time span. After reading your blog, I am going to experiment with eating more fat during my meals to keep my energy coming. I guess that on a low fat and low carb diet you are starving yourself a bit. In fact I have been losing weight. My weight is now about right so I will eat more fat and oil to stabilize it.

It is now easy for me to control my weight, of which I had lost control in the last 5 yrs. The more I eliminate carbs, the fewer times I binge eat – in the past a huge problem for me. Thanks for your work, it helps me choose good foods for my body and mind.

Hi Robin–

MRE

I read Taubes’ book. I have one question that I thought of while I was reading the aging chapter. Let’s say one was female, 40 pounds overweight, insulin resistant, and destined to be diabetic at age 45. At the age of 30 they go on a low carb diet lose the weight (gets down to 20% fat) and stays there for good, will any of the aging process be reverse (i.e. will the atheromas disappear)?

Mmmm

Hi Mmmm–

MRE

Good post. Reading Taubes. It’s a bit of a slog (I need a scorecard to keep the fat zealots apart from the fiber people and the carb people, and I’m only 125 pages in), but a good slog. Dunno that the book is gonna change anything. Borders had it stashed in with Diet books, not out front, on an end cap, or any place they put new books they intend to sell. They did have a few copies.

Any rate, that’s not what I’m on about. It’s about government and nutrition. As an insider, I’m pretty sure that it’s about the money. Money is what gets people elected (so they think, and mostly they’re right), so they go where the money is. As Chris Rock noted, there’s money in the medicine, no money in the cure. They’re still kicking themselves about the lost revenue from curing polio. The drug companies that is. But if you think on this, the folks that have money tend to be “medicine” people rather than “cure” people. Drug companies. Package Goods companies like General Mills and Unilever. They make their money selling you a solution that you take the rest of your life. It’s good business. I wouldn’t be in the cure business either, not if I had to worry about revenue. Have come to the conclusion that campaign finance, hard core, top to bottom, hard, soft, and invisible money, needs an overhaul in the interest of the non-political donors. When we’re back to democracy, instead of the dollarocracy we currently have, we might be able to expect worthwhile solutions from government.

Thanks for the post.

MRE

Hilarity of course is when Ornish is asked what he had for breccy he says an egg white omelette and blueberries

http://www.charlierose.com/guests/gary-taubes

Dr come on let’s hear you take the shitty stick.And on a very personal and juvenile note…he’s a very strange looking fella is Ornish

Hey Simon–

MRE