[The Little Bowl] Who Me? Starving? Nah…

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My averages since I decided to go very low carb on June 8th: Click to enlarge. I continue to feel soooooo good! I notice that I have more clarity in thinking, feel well rested when I wake up, feel overall more alive somehow. I wished I had tried this sooner than I did! I read a great deal about the starvation mode myth last night. Here are some highlights from one source: More than half the weight loss in the obese is fat, whereas most of the weight loss in the lean individual is fat-free mass. Therefore, this model makes two simple but important predictions: obese individuals survive longer during starvation than lean individuals; and protein oxidation contributes a smaller proportion to total energy expenditure in the obese than in the lean (i.e, smaller loss of lean tissue All this hype that if we too few calories we will lose our muscle and not fat is not true. Not for the obese. I am obese. Eating very low in calories for a prolonged time for a normal weight individual is however, not healthy. The remarkable obese subject studied by STUART and FLEMING (1973) had an initial body weight of 207 kg, but after successfully starving for 382 days (no energy intake) he achieved a final weight of 81.6 kg and entered the Guinness Book of Records as the subject undergoing the longest 'total' fast.In 1966, THOMSON and his colleagues (Table 2) reported two other obese subjects who fasted 200-300 days, and several other authors have reported fasts in obese subjects which lasted between 100-200 days. In contrast, the reported survival time in lean subjects is less than 80 days So it has been possible to stop eating completely and survive more than a year on body fat alone. Interesting. The body can feeds on fat when the food source is low or nonexistent. Various famine studies have also repeatedly noted that women withstand semi-starvation better than men (KEYS et al., 1950), and this can again be explained by the larger initial percent body fat in women. While this statement has nothing to do with self discipline, but is about survival while starving, I about the instinct for women to eat more than they need, to perhaps maintain potential pregnancies during famine? Another subject, another day. Moving on, obese individuals body composition is different than someone of a normal weight. We have more lean body mass, more bone weight, more everything including fat. So when on a very low calorie diet, we don’t lose the lean body mass at the same rate as a lean person. A negative N balance during hypocaloric dieting is not necessarily detrimental. This is because obese individuals have more fat-free mass than lean individuals. Grossly obese individuals (FORBES, 1987; JAMES et al., 1978) may have over 30% more fat-free mass than lean individuals of the same height. In the example shown in Figure 3, the obese individual weighting 140 kg has a fat-free mass that is 29% greater than the 70 kg man. Obese individuals appear to have more muscle and bone than lean individuals, and these help support and move the excess body weight. Obese subjects have large vascular volumes and larger hearts, which are necessary to pump more blood around larger bodies, especially during weight-bearing activities. Obese individuals may also have visceromegaly (NAEYE and ROODE, 1970). Finally, adipose tissue contains about 15% water and 5% protein (SNYDER et al., 1975), so that the presence of excess adipose tissue is associated with excess fat-free tissue (although in obese individuals adipose tissue has a smaller fat-free component than in lean individuals). Even more interesting to me is that prolonged low calorie dieting, lean body mass loss becomes LESS, not more: Calculations based on the results of several hypocaloric studies suggest that there is a progressive decrease in the loss of N/kg of body weight (Figure 14). This implies that the contribution of lean tissues to the weight loss becomes smaller with time. A statement on low carb and sparing the lean body mass: There has been a long-standing controversy about whether high- or low-carbohydrate diets are superior in sparing protein in both normal subjects and obese individuals undergoing hypocaloric dieting. Some workers have favoured the ketogenic (low-carbohydrate) diets on the basis that ketone bodies spare protein during caloric deprivation. One of the biggest media enhanced fears over very low calorie dieting was created when back in the 70’s they came up with a protein drink fast that ended up with several deaths. Immediately the media pounced on it as “unhealthy†to consume such a low calorie intake. However, there was more to it than what they reported at the time: Since sudden cardiogenic deaths have occurred from total starvation and from very low calorie diets (often 0-350 kcal/d, usually when the quality of dietary protein has been poor, e.g., collagen hydrolysates and sometimes in the absence of adequate mineral micronutrient intakes), it is reasonable to recommend a minimum energy intake of 400 kcal/d A minimum intake of 400 calories? I hardly think my 950 is going to do me in. A bit more: The workers who favour a low carbohydrate intake remind us that acceptable changes in N balances or body composition can be obtained with diets containing little carbohydrate (e.g., CONTALDO and MANCINI, 1983 (trace - 26 g carbohydrate); FRICKER et al., 1991 (trace of carbohydrate); BOGARDUS et al., 1981 (2 g carbohydrate); HENDLER and BONDE, 1988 (2 g carbohydrate). Furthermore, several studies have reported little or no advantage of carbohydrate over fat in very low calorie diets with respect to N balance and body composition (e.g., HENDLER and BONDE, 1988; BOGARDUS et al., 1981). It has also been claimed that dietary compliance is likely to be better with diets having a low carbohydrate content. This concept is based on the observation that carbohydrate reduces hyperketonaemia, which is alleged to reduce hunger. The hyperketonaemia of starvation is particularly sensitive to carbohydrate intake. Diets containing more carbohydrate have been reported to be associated with greater hunger (DAVIES et al., 1984), and therefore more likely to be associated with a poor dietary compliance. However, hard data to support the concept that ketone bodies have an important effect on hunger is difficult to find. Animal studies suggest that 3-hydroxybutyrate (but not acetoacetate) has anorectic effects (LANGANS et al., 1985), but care must be taken to consider the effects of acid-base disturbances, species differences and the unphysiological nature of some of the experiments. In the presence of the opposing views, it is difficult to make definitive recommendations about carbohydrate intake, although it would seem reasonable to include up to 50 g carbohydrate even in very low calorie diets that provide as little as 400 kcal/d. There is little scope for further increments in such diets since the majority of the remaining energy is provided by the protein. Very low calorie diets should also contain adequate quantities of minerals, vitamins and trace elements, as well as a balanced amino acid mixture. In a study of 17 individuals who died in the USA between 1977 and 1978 while consuming very low calorie diets, the amino acid mixture was not balanced (derived mainly from collagen hydrolysates), and some micronutrients were deficient. The entire article can be found here: Effect of starvation and very low calorie diets on protein-energy interrelationships in lean and obese subjects --

Posted By elisaannh to The Little Bowl at 6/22/2010 05:44:00 AM