6 Week Cure ???

[Roadstr]

Have you wondered:
How does this diet targets VAT (Visceral Adipose Tissue) fat?
Why it works when low carb dieting has failed to reduced fat?

[S Bear]

Originally Posted by Roadstr

Have you wondered:
How does this diet targets VAT (Visceral Adipose Tissue) fat?
Why it works when low carb dieting has failed to reduced fat?

I would have liked a more thorough explantion of this, yes.

I think there are at least a few obvious factors. One is the cutting of alcohol. Alcohol tends to increase VAT, especially in the liver.

Another is the heavy reliance on whey, which has beneficial effects on the liver in terms of inflammation. A fatty liver is an inflamed liver, and this gives the liver an opportunity to heal. Liver health is also helped but high levels of glutathione, and whey is one of the few supplements capable of increasing levels of glutathione in the body.

A final one is the fact that the carb counts in the first four weeks seem to be similar to the rather severe restrictions of what the Atkins people would call "the induction phase" of a low carb diet. Ultra-low-carb diets assault liver fat, and presumably other visceral fat as well (although general VAT hasn't been studied as much as liver fat).

There may be other factors, too. I wish the logic of the diet had been discussed at greater length.

Another thing that I have to remind myself about the 6WC is that the book was written for the general public, who can't be assumed to be experienced low-carbers. The effects on someone who has been eating a high-carb diet and then tries the 6WC must be astounding.

[islandgirl]

Ultra-low-carb diets assault liver fat...

Is there differentiation between glycogen and 'liver fat'?

I'm an experienced LCer (and reader) and yet I'm having difficulty keeping clarity.

I'm also thinking in circles around MCT and DAG-1,3 oils, but that's another subject (other than of course the relationship with them being processed quickly for energy, and -mostly- by the liver (IIRC?)).



jude

[S Bear]

>>Is there differentiation between glycogen and 'liver fat'?

Yes. Glycogen is a kind of carbohydrate reserve stored in the body. Some is in the liver, but much of it is stored throughout the body, especially in skeletal muscle. When glycogen levels are depleted, the body turns to its fat reserves for energy. The total amount of glycogen that can be stored is limited. In weight terms, glycogen is stored along with 2-4 times its weight in water.

Some athletes have trained their bodies to store and then deplete large amounts of glycogen, but for most people the largest amount of glycogen you are likely to lose is a pound or less. Of course, this can amount to 3-5 pounds of glycogen plus associated water, which is one of the reasons us low-carbers can suddenly jump our weight up and down by up to 5 pounds (less for most of us) by eating or restricting carbs.

Liver fat is a kind of visceral fat that accumulates in the liver. It tends to make the liver inflammed, raises blood pressure through the secretion of C-reactive protein, and alters our hormonal balance. Large amounts of visceral fat around other organs tends to have the same sort of hormonal effects, although some amount of fat around internal organs is essential. You just don't want too much.

There is no real connection between glycogen and visceral fat, except that keeping your carbohydrate intake low allows your body to partially deplete its glycogen store--and that makes it possible for the body to burn fat more rapidly and effectively.

[Roadstr]

Originally Posted by Roadstr

Have you wondered:
How does this diet targets VAT (Visceral Adipose Tissue) fat?
Why it works when low carb dieting has failed to reduced fat?

Hey... just got back from South Beach... The place, not the diet! My wife and I had a great time and if you like to walk and get tired you can take the local bus for only 25 cents.
Anyway, those two questions are not answered in the book. Why aren't the answers in the book? It's the third rail of a low carb diet, I'll explain. Targeting VAT fat is the central point of the diet, so why does it work so good for those that are already on low carb diets? And why does it work for such a short period of time and you don't keep loosing with the 3+1?
To target VAT fat is to decrease the fat that protects the internal organs. This is the fat that the diet claims to decrease and it fills this claim, but why? We have all heard that you can't spot reduce fat, but something happens when you decrease the need for fat that's surrounding your organs. And how does this diet decrease the need for VAT fat? That question is tied into why this diet works for those already on a low carb diet.
This is just my idea why low carb dieters can break through plateaus by drinking 3 whey shakes a day. The reason is they are reducing their intake of acid producing protein. Whey protein is mildly alkaline to the body and eliminating at least 2 meals that are cause an increase in acid in the body reduces the need for some VAT fat. But, why does this reduce VAT fat? When you decrease acid in the body and are still in ketosis a drastic change takes place. You start reducing VAT fat because it's no longer needed to protect your organs to a certain extent because you are reducing the amount of acid. It will only go on so long and that's why it only lasts for 2 weeks. You can only reduce so much at a time.
Before ya'll get on me with blood pH chemistry consider why extreme alkalizing diets work so well.

[maxlharris]

Roadstr: As pointed out to you elsewhere on this site, the spot reduction myth is one of exercise, not of diet.

I don't think it has anything to do with acid/alkaline balance, which is widely discredited as non-science. I think it's probably a matter of tidying up people's sloppy habits with long term low carb (discussed by Dr. Eades before the 6W book was discussed) and of trimming their caloric intake.

I have not seen anything reported that people did not report from doing (accurately) Atkins Induction for 6 weeks.

[S Bear]

For those who drink a fair amount, cutting alcohol has obvious and immediate effects on VAT.

Whey seems to have specific effects on liver metabolism and controlling liver inflammation (possibly via increased glutathione production).

If there is any major difference between this and an Atkins induction approach--and I agree with Maxl that no one has shown that there is or isn't--it would have to be from the specific composition of proteins (whey and high BCAAs), and the generally higher role of protein (the protein/fat split is less defined in Atkins than in at least the first two weeks of 6WC).

Very low-carb diets in the absence of alcohol preferentially reduce excess VAT and are now the research community's recommmended way of treating fatty liver (of course, the doctors are still 20 years behind the research). Whether a 6WC approach is more effective than severe carb and alcohol restriction isn't certain.

There are reasons to speculate that 6WC might offer an edge in this area--but note the word 'speculate.' On the other hand, the 6WC has such an anabolic orientation in the proteins recommended that I suspect most people would lose more weight (though probably not fat) on Atkins induction.

[mcsblues]

Originally Posted by Roadstr

Before ya'll get on me with blood pH chemistry consider why extreme alkalizing diets work so well.

Before you raise it again perhaps you could supply some evidence that your (or anybody else's) body has been 'alkalized' and exactly how and why our organs need to be 'protected from acid'.

[maxlharris]

I do know that getting alkalized will help solve the Spicy Meatball Problem:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ErgdUhZteqw

This guy got alkalized:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DQekE7D4e8s
Doesn't look fun.

[Roadstr]

Originally Posted by mcsblues

Before you raise it again perhaps you could supply some evidence that your (or anybody else's) body has been 'alkalized' and exactly how and why our organs need to be 'protected from acid'.

Sure, np, here is the link.