Anyone on Dr. Atkins?

reply to post by DevolutionEvolvd

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He is type 2 and he is not on insulin. His diabetes is nearly reversed and quite honestly I think the reason why his cholesterol is still high is because there hasn't been enough time to get it down. I think if he keeps going the way he is going it will go down.

He is eating a very well balanced diet. Which usually consists of some kind of whole fiber cereal in the morning, he brings smart ones brand dinners for lunch (which I kind of oppose of because of the sodium content) and our dinners usually consist of one portion of meat, lots of veggies and a small portion of potatoes or rice. Between then he has been eating a lot of apples and grapes as snacks.

We have limited his intake of sweets and deserts. We have cut back out consumption of red meat and his cheats are turkey bacon and eggs on saturdays and pizza on wednesdays.

His doctor has cut all of his meds in half (except for the cholesterol meds) and she says that he is doing great.

Great reply.

I do need to eat more vegetables, but wonder why you'd counsel less fruit? Why grapefruit over watermelon - are there specific cholesterol lower effects for grapefruit, or does watermelon impact cholesterol. I have no problem adding grapefruit (citrus).

My Carb/Fat/Protein ratio changes, but here it is as of the past month:



Here is June 4-July 4 :



---------------

#7 - I'm generating 220watts for 30 min on a fluid trainer, and about 200 watts on the road, with sprints and hill climbs at about 3watts/kg for 60-90 seconds, and 2.5watts/kg for 12 min. (I no longer jog due to joint problems.)

Lifting I did for many years but do less now. I plan to add reg squats and overhead squats.

In a way, brisk hill climbing is quite close to weight lifting - though you're not bearing weight on your shoulders you are generating G+ forces in the arms and legs. Astronauts have found that this is not enough to maintain bone density. I have had a bone scan w/in the last few years and the tech said I had the densest bones he'd ever seen.(g)

I've cut back on most resistance training due to the fact that I bulk up quite easily, even on low rep work. Thoughts appreciated on this if you have comments.

Adding nuts. Yes I usually eat about 12 almonds per day, but had cut back during the summer. I also eat pumpkin seeds. Sorry I failed to note those. What are your reasons for adding more nuts wrt cholesterol? Got any links on that?

Thanks again for the detailed reply here and in U2U.

Though my calories may seem low, I'm trying to eat less for longevity reasons. As you know recent studies support calore downregulation as a life extension measure in humans. (prev only proven in rats).

My accuracy is about +/- 10% in capturing my intake.

PS - my ideal weight is probably about 175lbs (note the muscle mass and dense bones). In the winter I typically weigh less, down to 183lbs on 12/07, and now about 190 at 5'9". That's considered on BMI charts to be moderately overweight. My waist is 32-34". As I mentioned at 180, I looked gaunt and was getting comments from the neighbors about terminal disease. (grin).

Thanks again.



[edit on 5-8-2008 by Badge01]

Why, exactly, are you restricting eggs and turkey bacon for cheat meals????

Anyways, the reason I asked if he was Type 1 or 2 is because type 2 diabetics are Insulin Resistant. That is, his body has become resistant to Insulin due to over production of insulin by the pancreas. This happens because when you eat carbs, they turn to sugar in your bloodstream and the only way to lower blood sugar is through insulin.

Now imagine being stuck in a room with an awful smell. After a while, you become resistant to the smell and you can't smell it anymore. This is what happens with insulin. Too much insulin, and your cells say, "hey! whoa! time out". Insulin is very damaging. So the amount of insulin receptors surrounding your cells decrease. They become resistant.

So back to the smelly room. How do you increase your sensitivity to the smelly room? Well, all you have to do is remove yourself from the room, wait a few minutes, step back in the room, and HELLO. It's back. It works the same way with Insulin.

If you want to increase insulin sensitivity and decrease insulin resistance you have to decrease the amount of exposure your cells have to insulin. How do you do that? Control your blood sugar!!! Keep it low.

What foods raise your blood sugar? Carbohydrates. Some quicker than others but all of them raise your blood sugar.

In your case specifically, or your fiance's, cholesterol is a problem. Well there are numerous studies associating Insulin resistance and High Cholesterol, or Hyperinsulinemia and cholesterol synthesis.

www.jlr.org...



You might want to ask yourself; Why is it that Insulin Resistance is almost always associated with high cholesterol, heart disease, high blood pressure, osteoporosis, obesity and many more?

I can say with complete confidence that improving Insulin Sensitivity can abd will lower cholesterol and triglycerides in most cases. It's all about what you eat.

reply to post by DevolutionEvolvd

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Because eggs are high in cholesterol and he has high cholesterol.

No he does not need to eliminate carbs, he needs to eliminate bad carbs and increase good carbs. That is what they told him and gave us information about during his diabetes education session. He can have 60 carbs per meal and carbs from dietary fiber do not count as daily carbs. So that means, cutting out all the bad carbs such as candy and pastries is more than enough.

Again, his blood sugar has been consistantly normal since we changed his diet so obviously we are on the right path.

reply to post by snowflake_obsidian

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Wow, I just wrote a great reply and I accidentally hit the back button.....

Oh well, I'll just make it shorter now.......



Our bodies produce about 85% of the cholesterol while the rest is obtained through diet, however, the production of cholesterol increases when you eat small amounts of cholesterol and decreases when you eat a lot.

I eat eggs everyday. Yummy. Turkey bacon too. That's a good breakfast.



Well, I never said "eliminate" carbs. Most should be avoided, unless they are fibrous.

You say eliminate the bad carbs but you still feed him potatoes and rice?? Brown rice?? Sweet potatoes??? You do realize that potatoes are basically just a blob of sugar(glucose), right? White rice, same thing. Ask any type 1 diabetic if potatoes spike your blood sugar. You might was well be feeding him a bowl full of sugar and multivitamins. Hell, that might better for him considering the multivitamin.....

Even if you're feeding him brown rice and sweet potatoes, whole grains instead of bleached, enriched flour, his blood sugar will still rise. Slowly yes, but it will still rise.



Ok, I don't expect you, or anybody for that matter, to believe every thing I say on these forums. At the same time, I think believing a doctor or diabetes education session word for word just because "they said so" is just as ridiculous. I'm not bashing doctors or diabetes seminars either, but are we not here to deny ignorance???

All I'm saying is do a little research for yourself. Those diets that "they" recommend for diabetics have been killing them and making their lives miserable for the last half century. Time for a change don't you think? You see, the diet that most diabetics have been prescribed over the last 40 years or so has been a low fat, high carb, low protein diet.

Why?

Partly because "they" have become so afraid of fats. Partly because it was believed that controlling blood sugar was impossible some 30 years ago....

Anyways, I could go on but I will stop for now.

A few Doctor's I believe you and your fiance would benefit from would be......

Dr. Ron Rosedale-----Insulin and It's Metabolic Effects. You want to learn about insulin? This guy is on the leading edge of Insulin and Leptin research.

Dr. Richard Bernstein-----Diabetes Solution. This guy is great. He's been through 62 years of living with type 1 diabetes. Just amazing. He became a doctor in his 40's when he figured out how to completely reverse almost all of his symptoms from Type 1 diabetes. Just an awesome story.



If his blood sugar levels normal/low, then you definitely on the right path. Keep up the good work.

Hope this helps.....

-Dev

reply to post by Badge01

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Wow, thanks for the information. You're making it too easy for me.......

I love fruit. Who doesn't? I allow all fruit while maintaining. When I have a client who is dieting and not maintaining, I will restrict certain fruits to only morning time and post workout. Why? Well, in the morning you need sugar(carbs) to restore glycogen levels in your liver back to normal. The best way to do this is by eating fruit because fruit has fructose. Fructose is not digested like glucose. It's processed by the liver so it goes straight to where it is needed for storage.

The other time for fruits and any carbs for that matter would be after a workout because your body will burn it off. The other good thing about carbs post workout is the insulin spike will take your body from an catabolic to an anabolic state. That means, your body will stop breaking down tissue and will start building it back up.

So, the reason I say replace watermelon with grapefuit is because grapefruit is lower in fructose, best of all, they are FULL of fiber. I know, awesome right? Here's a little article on the benefits of grapefruits.....

findarticles.com...

Eating at the right times is just as important as what you eat. And what you eat at certain times is even more important.

I like your Macronutrient profile for the month of July better than the one before. What I don't like is your inconsistent calorie intake day to day. All that jumping around is stressful.

Now, I calculated that your Resting Metabolic Rate(RMR) is between 1700 and 1800 calories(might be wrong). That means your body burns 1700 calories just to think, pump blood, and basically keep you alive. This number doesn't even include the calories burned just moving around. So, seeing that you are very active(30 minutes exercise at least everyday), you aren't eating enough calories per day.

It seems that two things are happening here:

1) Your training seems more of an aerobic type workout. This in itself is inneficient and will cause you to store fat for later rather than burn it now for fuel.

2) In combination with #1, your body realizes that it needs to store fat for energy from sugar for two reasons. A) because you're burning too much energy throughout the day and, B) because you exercise for long periods of time on a calorie deficient diet.

I'll find a graph for ya tomorrow and post it. I'm a visual person and I'm sure others are too.


You want your body to burn carbs(sugar) during workouts. That's it. Not fat. Why? Cause if you burn carbs instead of fat, your body won't have a need to store any fat.....unless you're overeating of course. So how do you burn carbs instead of fat?

High Intensity Interval Training

Basically, very intense exercise for a short period(1-2min) followed by a longer period of low intensity(3-5min). Repeat 3-5 Times. The intense part is a 9 or 10 on a scale of 1-10. Takes about 30-45 min. This works because it burns fat AFTER your workout. Ever heard of EPOC. Excessive Post workout Oxygen Consumption. Because of the high intensity, you're still burning calories(mainly fat) for up to 24 hours AFTER your workout. Pretty awesome huh. Now that is efficient.

Just look at the difference between a sprinter's body and a marathon runner's body. Hands down, the sprinter wins. I've seen plenty of overweight people finish marathons, barely. How many overweight people can sprint for very long????


Holy Cow!!! That is a lot of INFO. Hope it makes sense......

If you're worried about longevity and "CRANS" or "CRONS", AKA calorie restricted diets, I would worry more about insulin. It seems in those studies that insulin is more of a contributor to aging than the amount of calories is. The link above concerning Insulin describes the exact subject you referenced, longevity.

If you don't want to consume more, we can modify some things and make it work.

One last thing though. Break down your carb intake for me. What kinds of carbs and when.



-Dev

Edit: For Clarification and spelling

[edit on 5-8-2008 by DevolutionEvolvd]

[edit on 5-8-2008 by DevolutionEvolvd]

reply to post by DevolutionEvolvd

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If you read what I said, I said small portions of potatoes or rice. It is perfectly fine to have small amounts of those things as long as it doesn't go over your number of carbs that you eat per day.

The thing that you do not seem to be listening to is that the regimine that we have him on is working. His blood sugar has been stable for 6 months now. The regimine we have him on is working so well that they cut his meds in half and he has lost a considerable amount of weight. Obviously we are doing something right.

You eat eggs everyday...good for you. However I would never feed anyone who has cholesterol problems eggs everyday. No matter how much you like to manipulate the facts, eggs are high in cholesterol.

reply to post by DevolutionEvolvd

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Thanks for the detailed reply.

Looking forward to graphs. I love graphs.





[edit on 5-8-2008 by Badge01]

Hey now. I'm not manipulating facts, I'm providing you with facts that have otherwise been hidden from you. Facts that would seem to go against the grain. I did say that you guys are doing great. A lifestyle change like the one you two have undertaken isn't easy. I think it's great that his diabetes has been reversed.

I, however, would like to provide you with information that might help your fiance lower his cholesterol. Information that is a combination of old school alternative treatments and news school research that supports those treatments. It's up to you to take the time and study that information and decide whether to discard it or use it. Pretty simple huh?

The thing about eggs is there are conflicting studies on the topic of dietary cholesterol and blood cholesterol. Eggs just have a bad rep and new studies are showing how eggs aren't as bad as once thought to be. Thats all.

I sincerely want to help you out. I'm glad the regimine is working and I'm sure it has something to do with the reduction in his carbohydrate intake? Right?

If insulin really is the problem, wouldn't it make sense to reduce the amount of insulin in the body at any given time until a healthy point is reached. Then, once insulin sensitivity is restored, you can return to cheating here and there.

The reason I brought up the potato is this; if a potato just turns to sugar almost immediately after you eat it, why eat it? It just doesn't make sense. Maybe if you're healthy and you love potatoes but if you're trying to fix a health problem, why not go for the kill?

Best of luck, sorry for the confusion.

-Dev


[edit on 5-8-2008 by DevolutionEvolvd]

[edit on 5-8-2008 by DevolutionEvolvd]

But cutting out the other sugary carbs in his diet has left plenty of room for him to have a half of cup of potatoes at dinner time.

Believe me, we have tried the brown rice and sweet potatoes. We can't stand the brown rice and we both think that the sweet potatoes are too sweet for a dinner side dish. I don't know if you know what a typical miswestern meal consist of, but we were all raised on beef, potatoes and corn as the vegetable. We have substituted the corn for leafy veggies, so really, I think the potatoes can stay...just in smaller portions.

But again, we are having another problem with my pushy atkins friend. As I mentioned in my first post to this thread that I told her that my fiance can't be on the atkins diet because of his cholesterol. She just sent him a message last night telling him not to believe doctors about cholesterol because high cholesterol is actually good for you. No, she wasn't just referring to HDL, she was implying that high cholesterol in general is a good thing. Can she be serious?

reply to post by snowflake_obsidian

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Steak and potatoes, that sounds like every other dinner I had growing up in East Texas. That's good stuff.

I'm sure she's serious. Whether she is right or not......who knows. There is lot's of conflicting data on the subject of cholesterol synthesis and artherosclerosis.

Some studies indicate that the amount doesn't matter and that it is the size of the cholesterol that is crucial. Others say that it is the RATIO of LDL/HDL that matters, not the overall count. Still, if you look, you will find data that supports her idea.

www.cholesterol-and-health.com... Foods-Raise-Blood-Cholesterol.html



Good article on a couple of myths about cholesterol. It also brings up the eggs issue.

Here is another article on high cholesterol.....
www.westonaprice.org...


It really is important to understand the why people get high cholesterol. This is not a disease, yet it is still treated as such. It is a symptom and people should realize that when you treat symptoms, most of the time it compounds the problem. The problem compounds because those symptoms are there for a reason. And a good one at that, usually. That is, they are your bodies way of fighting off infection(fever) or your bodies way of compensating for deficiencies or overexposures. You have to treat the cause of the problem.

I believe this problem is INSULIN.

-Dev



[edit on 6-8-2008 by DevolutionEvolvd]

[edit on 6-8-2008 by DevolutionEvolvd]

[edit on 6-8-2008 by DevolutionEvolvd]

Just thought I would add another article. One that supports what I've been saying about serum cholesterol and dietary cholesterol. Plus, it is full of great information:

www.diabetes-normalsugars.com...



Interesting. This may seem a little off for most but it is fact. Dietary fat and Cholesterol are not the culprits.



I'm telling you, there are plenty of myths and misinformation in this field. The said thing is, believing a myth in this genre can kill you.



This article is chock full of them. The evidence, if you look for it, is conclusive.

Happy Reading

-Dev

reply to post by whaaa

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Hey I went on that diet after having my first son, I had preclamsia and though a lot of weight was water I gained some fat too. Lost 40 pounds on Atkins 27 years ago and never gained it back, took about 4 months. It definitely works if you stick to it. Yeah you get sick of bacon and eggs, and with steak the price it is now that is a luxury. I bought that "Very Thin Bread" I think that is the actual namebrand, because I had to have a piece of toast w/ bacon and eggs. I made sandwiches w/ one slice. You can have a little lettuce, make a taco salad without the taco chips, I ate a hundred of those. You can do it, I know you can and you will feel so much better. A good deal is to buy and bake a whole turkey, they are really cheap and very versatile. Use them to make turkey nachos, turkey, cheese, sour cream, jalapenos. Use a chunk of turkey like a taco chip, bake w/ cheese then when out of oven top w/ sour cream, salsa. All of this is allowed on Atkins.

reply to post by DevolutionEvolvd

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Look, my grandmother died of a heart attack at the age of 57 that was brought on by high cholesterol. My fiances dad had a heart attack at the age of 35 also brought on by high cholesterol. Neither one had diabetes at the time (although my fiances dad developed it later), so I am going to choose to believe that having low cholesterol is better than having high cholesterol.

Thanks.

reply to post by snowflake_obsidian

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Sorry to hear that. Look, my grandfather almost died of a stroke a little over a year ago. I asked him what his cholesterol levels were before the stroke and what he said shocked me. He told me they were just below normal. What? So I then asked him what his doctor's plan was for after his stroke and he said they put him on even more statins and blood pressure medicine(his blood pressure was lower than normal too. I nearly flipped after that one. Something is wrong with that.

High cholesterol is a sign that your body is trying to fix itself. So when you target cholesterol as the problem, you get even more problems in the process. Treating symptoms does not work. High cholesterol is the symptom.

The problem, I think, is that doctors see a common theme with atherosclerosis, the cause of most heart attacks and strokes. That common theme would be high cholesterol. But is the high cholesterol the cause or effect of atherosclerosis? It's the effect. Blaming cholesterol for heart disease is like blaming skid marks on the road for traffic accidents. They are symptoms of a bigger problem.

A good portion of first time heart attack victims have relatively normal cholesterol levels......

www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov...



That includes LDL cholesterol levels.....



Just because neither had been diagnosed with diabetes at the time of their respective heart attacks, doesn't mean that their insulin levels were already higher than normal due to insulin resistance. Basically, abnormal blood sugar levels cause these problems.

www.phlaunt.com...



So, just a thought, since your fiance is diabetic type 2, he is insulin resistant. Although he is making progress, doing great by the way, his body is still reacting to even small amounts of carbohydrates(potatoes, ect.). I would think that the best way to return to normal health would be to eliminate almost all carbs, except fibrous fruits and vegetables.

You might think that his blood sugar levels are normal, however, how and when you measure blood sugar makes a difference. Say, after a meal as a opposed to a fasted reading?

Do you know how many heart attacks immediately follow a high carbohydrate meal. Lots of 'em. Why? Could it have something to do with the spike and then subsequent fall in blood sugar levels? All this activity, thanks to insulin, is very stressful on your body.

I think I'll just start another thread on Heart Disease, Cholesterol and Insulin!

Hope that helps!

-Dev

reply to post by DevolutionEvolvd

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Starred and seconded.

What are your fav authors wrt this, namely insulin-resistance and disease?

I presume you've read McDonald, Eades and others?

reply to post by Badge01

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Yea, I read a little of what Dr. Eades has to say.

I actually got into the field after reading a book called Eat Right for Your Type by doctor Peter J. D'Adamo.

Then Dr. Mercola caught my eye with his low grain approach. I started reading quite a bit of information on his website. There is a ton of information on his site.

Soon afterwards, I found a guy named Dr. Ron Rosedale. This guy is Great! He is one of the doctors that discovered leptin and leptin resistance.

I also read quite a bit from Dr. Richard Bernstein about diabetes. His website is linked in an earlier post.

Also, a lot of what I study has to do with sports nutrition. Someone who's work I really like goes by the name of Dr. John Berardi

I would have to say that Dr. Rosedale is my favorite on the subject of Insulin resistance........without a doubt. As far as Type1 diabetes, I like Dr. Bernstein


[edit on 7-8-2008 by DevolutionEvolvd]

After reading a bit on Dr. Eades website, Proteinpower, I ran across another article that might be of some importance here.

www.proteinpower.com... -per-day-keeps-the-belly-fat-away/

Eggs are on the menu!!!!



I love this:



Stop worrying about the good foods. Eat your eggs guys.

-Deveth

Double post

[edit on 7-9-2008 by DevolutionEvolvd]