So what is the amount of fat broken down for sugar dependent on? Assuming vlc/no carb & high fat intake?

The amount of sugar that comes from the breakdown of fat is fairly small, maybe 10 percent of the total. But it’s dependent on only the breakdown of fat. If fat breaks down, the fatty acids are stripped from the glycerol backbone. This glycerol is then freed up to be used for conversion to glucose. It doesn’t matter whether th fat breakdown happens during low-carb dieting or low-fat dieting, the glycerol is released just the same. But more fat will be broken down during a low-carb diet, meaning that more glycerol will be released.

MRE

Thanks for the addendum.

For those of you out there with Bodybuilding concerns, I want to tell you this.
I was always able to build muscle through workouts my whole life.
A few years ago, I was diagnosed with type II and hypothyroid.
After reading Protein Power, I went full-bore with high protein/fats and low-to-zero carbs.

EVERYTHING changed for the better. My muscle tone is awesome: arms – 20.5″, chest 51″, wear 36-38 pants (depending on leg cut). Strength is BEST with strictest carb-intake.
Every once in a while, I eat some carbs because I want to. Always feel worse for it.

I can ride a bike for many, many miles WITHOUT EATING a thing and ingest only water and feel great. In fact, soon as I eat something, strength/energy level goes DOWN immediately after.

I cannot believe that I am unique or some sort of aberation.
One advice: IF you eat lots of carbs one day, do the following:
1- WORKOUT the next morning on empty stomach – after sluggish start, you will feel great.
2- Eat later in day: PROTEIN/FATS only.

From the Lab that is my body,
Gil

Hi Gil–

MRE

Hi Michael–

Thanks for the question–I should have been a little clearer. As far as sex hormones are concerned, elevated insulin levels cause different in men than is women. In women, as I mentioned, hyperinsulinemia tends to convert estrogen to testosterone, which is why many obese women, especially obese women with PCS, are often masculinized. They sometimes develop facial hair and male pattern baldness. In men hyperinsulinemia causes the testosterone to convert to estrogen, which is why many obese men develop breasts, decreased facial hair, and other feminine characteristics. Body builders have a problem with this because they often want elevated insulin levels to pack on the muscle and end up with breasts. You are on the right track with a low-carb diet; it will ensure that you will get maximum benefit from all your own testosterone.

Hope this answers your question.

MRE

I haven’t spoken with Dr. Rosedale for about a year and a half. I don’t have a clue as to what’s happening with his website, or to him, for that matter. He and I are going to debate optimal protein intake at a medical meeting in San Diego in October. I’m sure we’ll get together for dinner or something while we’re there and catch up. I’ll keep you posted.

MRE

Is this a point on which reasonable people can disagree or do you think Rosedale is pretty much wrong?

Hi Imsovain–

Rosedale and I have a difference of opinion on the issue I suppose. In fact he and I are going to debate the how-much-protein-is-enough issue in a public forum at the American Society of Bariatric Physicians national meeting this October in San Diego. I’ll keep you posted as I put together my material because the issue isn’t a simple one that can be explained in a sentence or two. And there is a big difference in how much protein is required on a low-carb diet verses a high-carb diet.

Best–

MRE

I’ve never been able to gain muscle, no matter how hard I hit the weights or how much protein I eat before and after my workout. So my weight stays the same, and my dress size stays the same. I do 30 minutes of weight training and other muscle exercises 2-4 times a week depending on my schedule.

Hunger was of course the natural state of man til uber recently and though most all the worlds religions use fasting as a way of clearing consciousness/shifting biopsych blockages its seems its seldom ever mentioned unless by people who are wearing purple or dancing around with stalactite swinging from their swedes(heads) i.e people who don’t come off as being partic. well informed i.e in this case YEE !
Would you or your MRS be prepared to open up about fasting and its problems and efficacy’s ?

Thanks muchly.

Sinc.

Simon (Fellows)

Hi Simon.

Good to hear from you; you’ve been lying low lately.

I’ve given a lot of thought to the fasting issue. I try to look at everything through the lens of our Paleolithic background, and based on that I can only conclude that fasting–at least in the short term–had to have been a common occurrence for our early ancestors. The medical literature is rife with papers showing multiple health improvements with short term (i.e., a day or so) fasting. One of the more recent papers demonstrated the same thing that Zammet found 15 years ago, namely that pulsatile insulin secretion (that found when episodes of eating are separated in time, i.e., no constant snacking) increases insulin sensitivity in the liver whereas constant insulin stimulation (like that found in people who are always on the eat) promotes liver insulin resistance.

On the whole the data seems to show that going a day or so at a time every now without food is a pretty good thing. Even limiting food intake to a couple of times a day without between meal snacking seems to be a good thing. I don’t know where this nimrod advocating the latest eat-every-three-hour diet got his data; it sure wasn’t from the medical literature. I guess if you tell people what they want to hear…

Thanks for writing.

MRE

I’ve had similar questions in the past regarding the amount of protein we eat on Protein Power and the ‘risks’ of uncontrolled production of sugar through gluconeogenesis. What seems to be missed by some popular naysayers is that just because there is a certain amount of protein coming in the diet, that doesn’t mean that glucose is going to be made immediately without any hormonal regulation. Uncontrolled diabetics may be a special case because there may be overproduction of glucose, precisely because they’re unresponsive to insulin so gluconeogenesis can’t be shut down efficiently.

As a side note, when I was reading comments about stalling while eating more protein, something that has also been discussed in the past on the Protein Power discussion board, is that since protein also helps keeping lean body mass from vanishing, weight loss tracked via the scale starts to lose its meaning. Body recomposition (i.e. change in clothes sizes and/or body fat percentage measurements) instead of ‘total’ body weight, on the other hand, is a better way of tracking any changes. This is even more pronounced when people incorporate regular resistance exercise along with Protein Power.

The argument all the time is that is all we say seems to be true, then why is it that bodybuilders aren’t obese? The question would be relevant if we didn’t consider that bodybuilders are in one end of a spectrum of exercise… Even their diets are tailored to their ‘specific’ requirements. The problem seems to be that some people like to apply the principles of the bodybuilder’s diet to non-bodybuilders or even ‘sedentary’. It is no wonder what would happen to a bodybuilder who keeps eating the same way without exercising any more… where would all those carbs go? Exactly where you think they do.

Hi Gabe–

I think you’re right on the mark. It is the IGF-1 that’s important, which does require a little spurt of growth hormone. The growth hormone can be completely blocked by dietary carb immediately after the workout, even if consumed in only tiny amounts.

The recomposition issue is an important one that many people lose sight of in their focus on weight loss. No one sees weight; everyone sees size. It makes much more since to work on reducing size, but it seems that everyone monitors themselves on the scale.

Thanks for writing.

MRE