Feb 6, 2011

how best to start low-carb

The other interesting thought I had regarding low carb intake was that if you are trying to lose weight it is actually better to NOT exercise. Why? Well you have to understand the theory behind the low carb science. Namely that hormones control your hunger. Specifically insulin. Hormones control almost all the regulatory aspects of a human so it's natural to think that hormones control your hunger and apportionment of calories just as hormones control your height and everything else.

So here's my thinking. Your particular "thermodynamic mass balance" is controlled by hormones and your hormonal reaction to your diet. The mass balance being,

Energy stored (fat) = energy in (your diet) - energy expended (exercise and normal body operations.

Most people think we have control over both energy in and energy expended (and therefore fat stored) through sheer willpower. But the research doesn't support that. Both are ultimately controlled because the left hand side, energy stored, is hormonally set. High carb = high insulin = high fat storage. Therefore you can eat less but you'll expend less energy (lethargy). Or you can exercise more but that will just make you hungrier. If we go low carb and set energy storage to zero or negative then exercising is still just going to make you hungrier. And eating extremely low carb (think induction phase here, < 10g carb) is quite hard.

The grocery store doesn't lend it self to low carb. You are in effect stuck to shopping the rim of a grocery store - meats, fish, and vegetables. Everything in the inner sanctum is carb heavy. So to make it easier and more likely you'll maintain a low carb diet through whatever period you want to lose weight, avoiding exercise will lower your hunger and food intake needs and therefore make it easier to stay in the induction phase.

On the oil topic from the last post I've been 'drinking' about 3 tablespoons of oil a day. For me a least it's quite obvious that it utterly shuts down hunger pangs if you just don't have the time to bring together a low carb meal. Useful. It doesn't taste that great. I'm thinking of adding garlic and salt.

6 comments:

Iron Yuppie said...

Nice idea. I'm thinking there's got to be some equivalent of a gel cap for Olive Oil.

C. Fuzzbang said...

That would be awesome. Thinking about those sugar gel caps gives me the heebie jeebies though.

Iron Yuppie said...

The question is timing/value of the olive oil. Could that be a long term thing or only when you going into induction?

C. Fuzzbang said...

Depends on how much you like it. I'm not thrilled with the taste. Olive oil on its own always tastes a little synthetic. But there's no reason why it couldn't be a long term healthy solution if you believe the theory.

Iron Yuppie said...

Well - that's what's confusing to me. Aren't there potentially downside issues with something _so_ homogenous? We need soluble fiber, vitamins, etc, no?

C. Fuzzbang said...

Yes but you wouldn't just be eating this. It would effectively be a "snack". Just like gel packs serve as food augmenters.