Tuesday, August 30, 2011

Psychological Desires

What is keep the desire to eat grains alive in myself?

Is it the advertising, images, and the like of good tasting poison?

Advertising has three main objectives, raise awareness of a product, to sell the benefits, and raise desire for the product. That sounds like they are successful.  Even Wheat Belly (Dr. W. Davis, all the reasons that wheat should not be eaten), they had to stick a picture of bagels, the ultimate poison, on the front cover. These are not suitable as food.

It is my opinion that for we addicts, the only solution is complete abstinence of the offending product, and anything similar, or that may be a psychological substituent.  I am not completely clean on the substitutions yet, but getting better.

The concept of cheat meals, cheat days also must go, for those tend to keep the addiction alive, or the desire for those evil food alive.

Complete abstinence of  sugar, grains, omega 6 oils, and substitutes for those is not easy, only necessary. TV must mostly go to avoid commercials. Food pictures must go. They do know how to stimulate appetite, those bastardy marketing people. The food industry would be far less profitable without us compulsive people around.

Temptation is everywhere. Real food grows. Intimation eatable products come from packages, and should not be considered to be suitable for food.

Consultants make money with unclear directions, but I can say that the overweight, obese, and grosely obese who are serious about losing weight should not eat any sugar, grain, omega 6 oils, or anything that reminds us of them or looks like them. Is that clear enough.    

Monday, August 29, 2011

Mainstream Medicine

Mainstream Medicine as http://www.drsharma.ca/will-physicians-calling-out-patients-on-their-weight-do-anything-for-them.htm still has no answers.

Leave it to a consultant to point out the obvious and they still have no workable solution for most of us, so pointing out that we are obese is just offensive or of little help. All but the blind already knew they have a weight problem. The only solution is eat less carbohydrates, move more anyway in some form.

Providing a method of dealing with hunger, cravings, stresses, low impulse control, reward, addiction, and appetite stimulus and all those other things that drive us to food is beyond the medical doctors scope anyway.

The real “trick” is making our mind think that we are fat enough and are not hungry, crave nothing, and all our appetites are satisfied.

They typically will not say no sugar, grains, or omega 6 oil because that reality would not be politically acceptable, but point out the obvious to an obese person is acceptable. Oh well. What do we expect from a government paid consultant?  There is good money to be made studying the problem.



http://www.foodpolitics.com/2011/08/good-news-at-last-chocolate-is-good-for-you-maybe provides the wrong message for those who are serious about weight loss or maintenance.
Most studies are self reporting; therefore the data is suspect. 
Most studies a done on healthy young people with undamaged metabolisms. 
Chocolate is addicting through dopamine and serotonin. 
The only treatment for addiction is complete assistance. That is the rest of the story.
It would be political incorrect to say no chocolate, but I can say that, and any obese who is serious about recovery from obesity.

http://www.naturallyintense.net/blog/diet/why-the-food-industry-needs-us-to-overeat-the-economics-of-obesity/ as pointed to by Beth at http://weightmaven.org/2011/08/29/quote-of-the-day-10/ cut to the point.

Also note that the fast food industry would be in the same situation, as would the advertising industry with their food commercials,  and the "diet" industry. Oh, well money greases the world.

http://healthcorrelator.blogspot.com/2011/08/men-who-are-skinny-fat-there-are-quite.html provides a relationship between %BF and BMI

Today I have an opinion on lots of stuff. Back to work.

Sunday, August 28, 2011

Obsession

Weight control is as much other things in life as it is about known what, how much, and when to eat, and all the inverses of the foregoing lists. Obsession with life, if you prefer, would be the ideal situation to lose weight in, an environment where we we busy with other thing, with little time nor interest to think of food, or the issues of diet, weight, eating, not eating or the like.

Diet, low carbohydrate, food knowledge and the like has become an obsession, perhaps an unhealthy one, for me. Sorting out the bull from the feathers is a major task. Relevant utilitarian information from the pile is even more difficult. Oh well, that life.

"1. We are born and we die. No one cares, no one remembers, and it doesn't matter. This is why we laugh."
followed by Our pack and the hunt are important. Desperation and purpose, followed by a solution; a cult. Christianity, Buddhism, 12 step all follow this pattern. Gnolls Credo a new cult base? or just a novel. Potential of Ann Rayn? -- J. Stranton?   Some to think about, or not.

Friday, August 26, 2011

"Nice Paper"

There is a nice paper at http://wholehealthsource.blogspot.com/2011/08/roadmap-to-obesity.html where the overeating problem is lightly summarized. Once again the implication is eat less, move more, but does not address or acknowledge any of the items that I found necessary for my recovery thus far. Oh well, research is about research, understanding a part of the problem, not about finding solutions.

First is a change in attitude, to one that includes- conventional society does not have the answers, just look at the obese conventional people- hang with the losers, and understand what made them lose weight. Sort and throw out the bull-shit.

A bit more knowledge helps. The best line I have seen is at http://weightmaven.org/2011/08/25/a-quick-evolutionary-look-at-obesity/ "The “trick” is in convincing your brain that you have more fat than you need. " Thanks Beth.

Eat less carbohydrates, up the vitamins and minerals, reduce calories, move more after losing a bit of weight. Weekly resistance training and weekly heart and lung exercise is required for a good life. Either work or exercise. Wood for winter = exercise.

Look to the physics of the problem. Nutrition Density, caloric density, are good indicators. Foods with a high caloric density and low nutritional density should be avoided.

Atwater factors are out to lunch, due to the personal variation in digestion, absorption, relative efficiency of conversion to organic energy variation. These apply to the central 1/2 of the population, plus/minus about 20 percent. For me carbohydrates are relatively higher, fats lower than reported values.

The government thinks everyone is more active than I. My BMR is less than 55C/kg LBM, and my voluntary movements are essentially zero, like a Zucker rat or a black six mouse.

Ultimately, all the learning has resulted in a change of lifestyle. My new lifestyle includes usually three meals each day, a few days occasionally of to much good food, a few days of losing weight gained with the too much good food, followed by a return to three meals of real food each day. Meat of almost any fresh kind, vegetables, and a bit of fruit some days, No sugar, wheat, cooked omega 6 oils, or manufactured eatable products. Occasionally rice, potatoes, and oat bran is small quantities slips in.


Tuesday, August 23, 2011

Cravings

To clarify, I did not intent the FD to suggest eating to address cravings. I agree with Nora, and Beth. But without eating something like 3 times a day, hunger becomes an issue, which when combined with either cravings or obsession, is a receipt for a run-a-way. Cravings, obsession, and addiction are all different, at least in my mind. Cravings seem to result from sub-clinical deficiencies, or the like, something physical. Since starting an the dose of supplements that I take, these have reduced to only occasionally. But the cravings, obsessions, and addition are just laying there, waiting, for an opportunity to arise and give me troubles. 

Phil Maffetone's Two Week test convinced me to give up most carbohydrates. Rolls and later Davis convinced me that wheat is evil. I have been mostly off sugar for most of thirty years.

Exercise helps if I have above average blood glucose, but not if the BG is less than about 5.0mm/l, 90 mg/dl, other than as a distraction. Exercise does help with impaired fasting glucose or high glucose. In my case, exercise does not seam to raise my blood glucose as it does for some (Jimmy Moore). I must use all glucose that I produce.

I still have some issues with stress induced cravings, but they come with the stress. Indecision or agonizing over decisions has a similar effect. These are identifiable by the time of onset. Either way, I still must eat 3 time/day. 

Protein supplements did not seam to help, which are often recommended. Off the top of my head, I do not remember which supplements Nora suggests, but when I read her book, I tried the ones I had not tried. (Nora came after Julia Ross) I could not notice any difference. Heavy doses of Multi-vitamin helped, so I started through the vitamins and minerals one at a time. Those that seemed to make a difference, I stayed on. Those which did not seem to help, I passed by.     

The obsession is the worst, when I cannot get my mind off the lunch bag that is within reach, or that banana on the counter that the wife is saving for tomorrow. Any thing that I like better than eating would distract me, but there is little left in my life that I like better. Work no longer interests me. All my hobbies just sit there while I pick away at this weight/eating/hunger issue.

Schwartz's four step method of overcoming obsession/compulsion : Relabel, Reattribute, Refocus, Revalue, 
and the OA program help, but the compulsion is still there, and some periods of time, I just lose it, what ever it is.

Food addiction is not the problem now that sugar, grains, cheese, and nuts are mostly out. Some days I am just hungry, that physical gut feeling that no one seems to able to define the cause of, that occurs about the time that gluconeogenesis must start.

Mediation does help, but I also need to do a few thing. I can mediate myself into inactivity, lack of urgency to get anything done, and just live in my head. It is not a bad place to be, living in my mind, but the pay is kinda poor. Walking mediation is good until my hip starts to hurt, but I can easily over do it. Bitch, bitch, yeh, I know I am full of myself. Time to get back to work.


decision 1


Dr Sharma states the success of the modern medical approach at http://www.drsharma.ca/the-edmonton-obesity-staging-system-is-not-a-license-to-do-nothing.html.

Obesity is not a single cause thing. Recover requires a change in life style diet to something like Paleo or Dr. Richard Bernstein, protein, vegs, a bit of fat X 3 per day, plus a bit of study. After a suitable diet, and food knowledge, removal or avoidance of food addiction, mild OCD, compulsions, cravings, energy issues, hunger, rewards, temptations, insulin/leptin issues, V&M deficiencies, social pressures (food pushers), digestion absorption, stress, boredom, appetite stimulus, exercise issues, breathing (oxidation) issues, sleep, and assorted bullshit is still required. 

But there is a quote from the Sharma "there are only two types of obese patients - those that are untreated and those that are treated. The only difference between the two groups is the fact that patients in the treatment group are managing their weights - when treatment stops, group 2 reverts to group 1 - i.e. the weight comes back or continues to increase - there are no exceptions!"


So I guess it come down to treating ourselves.

Wednesday, August 17, 2011

Guyenet, Taubes and Rogge

This AHS T&G debate and http://www.gnolls.org/2407/when-satiety-fails-why-are-we-hungry-part-4 got me thinking.

There are a number of places down the food or glucose-fat processing that could be the issue, and for different people, different locations.

Guyenet and the reward theory are one, where we overeat due to a food reward, which put the responsibility back onto the individual. I can easily gain weight on a boiled potato, cabbage,  eggs and hamburger paddy diet, or with portion control, lose on the same diet. Reward is not likely my issue. Over stimulation with food images and advertising is an issue for me.

Having said that reward is not my issue, addiction is one of my issues, which is a chemical reward. D2 dopamine receptor issues make more sense, as suggested by Dr. J, as I am also an introvert with other issues, including low energy. I do get periods of time that I am not low energy, and those relate more to intrest or necessary to produce the urgency, I assume adrenaline to foster actions.

Taubes suggests that it glucose driven insulin rise driving fat storage into the fat cells depriving the muscle cells of energy. Low carb diet does not energize me, as it reportedly does Taubes and others low-carbers-Paleo people. Something is just not there. I did lose weight but the energy dropped. My triglycerides are not low. This does not suggest a shortage of energy on the supply side of the cells. I try to keep my BG low anyway.

Rogge suggests that is the mitochondria that are not producing ATP readily enough, hence, drive hunger, allow the insulin to put away excess fat. This makes more sense. It should be measurable with the RQ, the ratio of carbon dioxide produced/oxygen consumed. If that is the case, quick tiring, low energy, but strong muscles, and adrenaline driven energy, and the need to be hungry to lose weight would be expected. This describes my situation.

All this is just speculation, and the current medical main stream knowledge is twenty years behind the times and proud of that.

Lustic and fructose phobia, insulin, leptin resistance, and that who process may be part of the process, but not the cause, or a separate cause, but the sugar is out anyway.

Is there any diet that will increase energy? A trickle of glucose, perhaps, with excitement in my life to keep the adrenaline up.


The Action Plan

It has occurred to me that most of the yoyo that I did was based on the lack of learning about the food, and the failure to realize how damaging sugar, most grains, seed oils, manufactured eatable products are, and the unwillingness to give those up. Add to that list nuts and cheese, because I cannot stop eating them, and I lose weight, down to my current overweight condition.

The damage likely applies to only a subset of the population, of which I am part, and likely to all obese and grossly obese persons who are introverts. The D2 receptor deficiency also is noted in both the obese and introverts.

To remain an ex-obese person, an ongoing commitment to abstain, avoid, or otherwise not intake these foods is required. These are all nutrition poor as measure by the nutrition/calories ratio. There is no reason to eat any of these unhealthy food, no reason to have them in the house, no reason to buy them. None.

I do keep oats and oat bran around, for the constipation; however, I have not had any for some time. I do need the supplements, including magnesium, for that reason if no other.   

Monday, August 15, 2011

Weight Historesis

After watching Dr, R Lustig and reviewing Hall and Chow papers it is apparent that there is weight historesis.This is typical of a situation where there is a non-recoverable energy loss moving either direction. This makes it much easier to maintain a constant weight over time with variation in food intake.
We see this similar effect in soil swelling/shrinkage, transformers, dried foods, and other places, so why not in people, and the chemical processes. Every action has a cost, so does conversion of glucose to glycogen, and glycogen to glucose, fructose to fat, FFA to triglycerides, triglycerides to FFA, and the like. So how does this help me? I do not know, but it is one more bit of the whole store. 

Is hunger the sensation of the liver ramping up Gluconeogenesis? Any view on the subject? Then is excessive hunger a sign of inability to manufacture enough glycogen, or stress in manufacturing?

Attitude is everthing

Dr. Sharma Staging system found at http://www.drsharma.ca/setting-the-stage-for-edmonton-obesity-staging-system.html is nice for the doctor's: it set priorities for the doctors.

Two thing are absent in the staging. First is attitude of the patient. Until there is sufficient desire to address the problem, nothing is going to change. The attitude must become a strong desire to change in a good way, and to seek out necessary information, and to ignore (wrong) conflicting information, along with the ability to sort the two.

Secondly, the treatment options are limited, and does not easily contain the necessary knowledge that I required to get started down the weight loss path. As a long time yo-yo, obese to overweight cycles of nearly 100 pounds, there was an increase in the speed of cycling until I learned certain facts, such as sugar in all forms is addicting, (chemically rewarding), as is grain (mainly wheat) and omega 6 oils, at least for some people. I can eat no sugars, grains, manufactured oils, cheese, nuts, artificial sweeteners, or manufactured eatable products without a run-a-way, none. Moderation is not for me. I can eat none of these products, else I eat until I reach a full state, that leads to rapid weight gain and rapidly going through the stages.

Until this fact sinks in, the problem will continue. I see people ever day around me with the same problem, but the main stream medicine ignores the obvious and cure with no revenue to the medical industry.

Whether it is a true addiction is irrelevant to the treatment, abstinence from the offending products, is the only proven solution for those who are addicted. One item suggest that addition one of these items could be universal, or strongly addicting to 25 percent of the population. It's your life, you believe what you like, and I will believe what gives me relief from what causes obesity. 


Sunday, August 14, 2011

hunger

Is hunger the sensation of the switch in the liver from glycogenesis to glyconeogenesis, or perhaps gut fauna signaling. It has nothing to do with the stomach as removal leaves the sensation in some people.

If that is the case, n=1 potato should relieve hunger quickly, and last for a while, as it does. Is the effect lasting? 

Question


Historically this is the situation 

Now we have

The plan



decision

N=1
How little potatoes can I eat and manage hunger? The reason I chose potatoes is that I have quite a few new potatoes that the bugs killed down and will not grow to any size or be worth keeping, and potatoes are known for there filling quality.

Preliminary results: 50 to 80 gram doses of boiled cold potatoes, 40 to 65 calories are good for 2-2.5 hours. My BMR is about 65 per hour, so these should put me in a weight loss condition. Yesterday

AM BG 5.1, 1.1 hr PP BG 5.3

Saturday, August 13, 2011

Blood Glucose Vs Hunger

What is the relationship between hunger and blood sugar?

After creating a hunger scale, and measuring 150 blood glucose, the relationship between BG and hunger for me is clear. There is not one. So WTF?

Is fat cell insulin resistance that transient?

Is there a relationship between insulin level and hunger?

There is a better relationship between time of eating to hunger, but absence of hunger is too rare.

Thursday, August 11, 2011

Calorie burn rates

In Dr Robert Lustig video at http://ancestryfoundation.org/ he states that the rate of utilization of energy is 50 C/kg/day of fat free mass and that that rate drops to 42 C/kg/day during starvation (weight loss).

This is one more example of hysteresis in the human, that is so common in biological process as well as many other areas, not just transformers. I digress. Oh well. No SGN6, HB attitude.

Weight loss is really about a change in attitude.

For the diabetics http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1570767/

Wednesday, August 10, 2011

Hope for the main line medicine?

Dr. Sharma post http://www.drsharma.ca/obesity-is-it-time-to-abandon-the-notion-of-personal-choice-in-dietary-counseling.html? raises the question of personal choice. I say it is a sign of hope that the mainstream medical community is starting to understand, but only starting.

My response is as follows:

That is the only advise that will work long term, and possibly over correction to start. The facts are so diluted and sometimes wrong in Weight Wise that it is dangerous and useless. These may work with minor overweight, but the grossly obese and many of the obese need the full monty to make major corrections in there lives. The Weight Wise need a quick start hard program to get rid of food addiction, insulin/blood glucose issues, chemical reward, psychological reward and the like.

Low impulse control, continual temptation, and habit also play a role, as does whatever drives the gut hunger sensation, and what ever drives the craving sensation. A change in attitude toward food, along with a bit of knowledge to separate real information from junk science, expert opinion, and rat science also helps. A bit of physiology, bio-chemistry, bio-physics, will not go amiss.

Throw away your Canada Good Food Guide. Complete avoidance of sugars in all forms, wheat for sure, all grains to start with, omega 6 oils to get the trans fats out, and all the manufactured eatable products. Elimination or portion control of the dense carbohydrates, and portion control of fats, and meats is required by many. Greens do not matter much and are required at every meal.

The issue with omega 6 is that the labeled amount of trans fat is pre-processing, plus or minus 20 %. Trans fat always increase with cooking, deep fryers increase oxidation rapidly, and corn oil turns brown at about 24% trans fat. Most restaurants use the oil until it is a dark brown, and starts to brown the foods. Trans-fat become a death sentence.

Wheat has many issues. See http://www.wheatbellyblog.com/ for the full story. Sugar is just empty calories. Excess fructose is converted into fat in the liver, resulting in visceral fats.

We need to over correct to deal with the obesity problem, nothing else has worked yet.

(For the grossly obese and obese only) Meal sizes must be kept to a size that blood glucose does not go wild. Once we start to burn stored fat as a primary source of fuel, we need resistance training (MacGuff style is the safest), and adequate protein(1.2 gm/kg LBM), not reduced protein, adequate carbohydrates (20 to 150 gms, reduce to keep BG, 1 hr, <6.0 ), adequate vitamins and minerals, Omega 3, and adjust the fat to control the rate of loss and hunger. Every one with an obesity problem should know these facts off the top of there head but it takes much searching to fine the facts out. There is so much wrong advise. How is one to know what is right without study of each issue? Go against some of the “experts”, for there recommendations are mutually exclusive, but which ones?

Test it on your self, and see what works and what does not. Do the tests in short periods of time and track everything. But I digress. No SGO6, HB attitude.

Tuesday, August 9, 2011

Taubes vs Guyenet

It is understood that at the Ancestral Health Symposium there was a bit of a dispute.

It is my opinion that these two fellows are both right and wrong. My N=1 evidence, for my weight loss from gross obesity to just overweight suggest that both insulin/blood glucose and reward drive the weight up. These are not mutually exclusive: both can and seem to coexist. The insulin / blood sugar was a big factor at first, but now that sugar, grains, omega 6, and manufactured eatable products are mostly not foods... not food that I eat, the rewards play a bigger role in overeating.

Low impulse control, continual temptation, and habit also play a role, as does whatever drives the gut hunger sensation, and what ever drives the craving sensation. A change in attitude toward food, along with a bit of knowledge to separate real information from junk science and rat science also helps. A bit of physiology, bio-chemistry, bio-physics, will not go amiss.

No SGO6, HB Attitude




Saturday, August 6, 2011

Avoid Wheat

http://www.wheatbellyblog.com/2011/08/back-to-4th-grade-weight/ make the claim

Conventional “wisdom” is that wheat elimination, as practiced by people diagnosed with celiac disease, results in weight loss because of deprivation, a reduction in variety of foods. Joel can tell you that there was no feeling of deprivation, hunger, or lack of choice. Purposeful reduction of calories is not part of the Wheat Belly approach, although calorie intake falls, on average, 400 calories per day due to the avoidance of the appetite-stimulating properties of the gliadin protein unique to wheat.


This is typical of my experience in the first years of letting go of the wheat, the main grain I was eating. 
 
Michael at   http://michaelprager.com/diet-advice says his best advice is: "Get a very clear plan, and follow it rigorously. Some people will interpret “rigorously” as “anally,” which is the same meaning with a negative value judgment tossed in. "

That is what I belief has been key. No sugars, grains, omega 6 oils or other manufactured eatable products. Lately, I have adopted a honey badger attitude. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4r7wHMg5Yjg&feature=player_embedded I just do not care about shit that does not concern me, and carry on with what is in front of me.

Tuesday, August 2, 2011

Duh

Dr. Sharma

"In many ways, one can look at excess body fat simply as a sign or symptom of the fact that there is a something “wrong” with energy homeostasis. The excess body fat tells us nothing about what the problem is - sure, it’s either excessive food intake or reduced energy expenditure - but that is like saying that the creatinine levels are elevated because the kidney is not excreting properly. I can think of a long list of reasons or factors that would contribute to excessive caloric intake or reduced energy expenditure: sociocultural factors, psychological factors, biomedical factors - figuring out what exactly is causing the energy imbalance is the real problem."

First, start with food addiction for the grossly obese. No sugar, grains, omega 6 oils and see what happens.

And a supporter of the addiction theory at http://www.kriskris.com/wheat-heroin-morphine

but lets no forget the other causes.

Monday, August 1, 2011

Flatt, Bray, Ned vs Davis

This item at http://healthcorrelator.blogspot.com/2011/08/there-is-no-doubt-that-abnormally.html  and the comments after remind me of Flatt (http://www.nature.com/oby/journal/v19/n4/full/oby20117a.html), and the Bray paper.

All this debate and no clear answers. The human body cannot have excess glucose hanging around so it burns or store it first, then burns fat. It is the cephalic phase of insulin that stimulates over consumption.

Addiction to food is a separate issue, and some of us have it also. The addiction has a physiological, psychological, and social components, see (http://www.kriskris.com/physiological-psychological-social).

Programs like OA help deal with the psychological, and social components, and food knowledge helps deal with the psychological. Watching TV, food, and similar stuff still generates appetite, or hunger through  cephalic phase of insulin and hyperinsulinemia, which draws our blood glucose down.

It is not one factor, one cause, but a group of causes. The physiological causes are hard to know what is cause, and what is really an effect. Does wheat cause a problem through morphine-binding compounds, the so-called exorphins as per http://www.wheatbellyblog.com   or dopamine producing bacteria; it is irrelevant to the treatment: NO WHEAT or GRAINS.

Insulin rush is irrelevant to the treatment, NO SUGARS, HFCS, HONEY, ARTIFICIAL SWeetner or the like. No TV, or other forms of tempation is also required for my recovery.

You lot can debate the details, but I will stick with the solutions that I have found thus far. Being hungry this much is a bitch, but I guess that is my life.

And on a up note here's Phil http://philmaffetone.com/successfulaging.cfm

No SGO6, HB attitude.