Sunday, January 18, 2015

there's also such a thing as too little food

A certain well-known book advocates about 1200 calories per day as an appropriate amount for a woman, and about 1500 for men.  I consider this advice INSANE.  No wonder people get eating disorders, trying to follow advice like this, INEVITABLY failing (because it's grossly inadequate) and then blaming themselves for the failure.

In the infamous "starvation experiment" Keys fed his conscientious-objectors more calories than suggested above, comprised of "real food" which was available to the poor and to famine-victims in wartime Europe.  He made them hike, too -- not heavy workouts, but far from sedentary.  After a little time passed, his victims became neurotic, then psychotic.

Starvation kills ... long before one dies of starvation.  AND THIS IS EXACTLY WHAT MAINSTREAM DIETARY ADVICE REPLICATES.

Bodies do not function WELL on reduced-calorie diets.  Their little reptilian-brain control systems think there's something wrong, and they make a host of little adjustments for the sake of survival, which effectively reduce our quality of life.

We can accustom ourselves to functioning like that, but it totally sucks.  We get fatigued and stressed, our organs don't work optimally, and to combat the misery we compromise on techniques which help us to cope -- sugar, alcohol, tobacco, hedonic drugs, other kinds of "thrills."  We end up with "first world problems" which our distant ancestors would have laughed at.

This is one of the benefits of being on a low-carb, real-food regimen -- eating enough minimally-fattening foods to satisfy our appetites, we tend to be able to ingest enough energy so that our bodies DON'T think we're in danger of starving.  They DON'T perceive they're being operated on low-quality fodder which fill the belly without FULfilling nutritional requirements.

If we ARE running on a low-fuel light for a long time, we have to train ourselves to be able to ingest more -- if we jump right in, we'll only gain weight!  I'll always remember reading about those studies which had people on ultra-low-calorie diets for extended periods of time, and when the subjects added just a couple of hundred more calories per day they actually stored it as fat.  :-(  Because they trained their bodies to get along with less, nine hundred calories became a weight-gain diet.

That sort of thing is why i rant against MERE calorie-restriction as a weight-loss tool.  It IS possible to screw up your metabolism so badly that long rehabilitation is the only way back to health.  It's also why i get so angry and disgusted with naturally-thin people who accuse the overweight of lying about their diet-and-exercise reports -- OF COURSE it's easy to underestimate in food-records, but it's also easy to "do everything right" and still show no progress ... when the advice was wrong to begin with.

I have a sneaking suspicion that all the low-meat dietary advice a strong driver of constant hunger.  Wooo-like people excepted (who have physical issues with a too-high meat consumption), following advice for bare-minimum protein intake can leave some feeling ravenous.  If i, as the example i know best, don't get enough meat it doesn't matter how much of other macronutrients i ingest.  I. NEED. NATURAL. ANIMAL. PROTEIN.  No compromise possible.

We should all stop following other people's rules of what we should eat (and how much), and do a careful experiment on ourselves.  Only this provides a reliable set of instructions for our personal body-owner's manual.

14 comments:

  1. After decades of yo yo dieting, if I eat more than 1300 calories a day, I gain. But I make it the most nutritious high veggies, high fat moderate amounts of protein 1300 calories possible.

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    1. wow, that's low. :-( it's your body, though, and you're the one to know best!

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  2. G'day Tess,

    Saw an ad on TV for VLCD that mentioned ketosis and thought "holy shit, LC has gone mainstream".

    http://www.optifast.com.au/

    I shouldn't have been surprised that the "C" meant 'calorie'.

    That they are allowed to sell this nonsense is insane. If it were the other "C", all hell would break loose.

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    1. some people like those plans but ... better them than me! :-) on the other hand, even my husband doesn't like my Strong Medicine regimen. to each his own!

      glad to see you posting again! did you have a busy holiday season?

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    2. Busy, yes, but in a good way. Back to reality.

      Have a good one.

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  3. Wooo's diet is not low in protein per se, just lower than before. If I remember it well (I am lazy to go through archives), she logged sometimes too much protein, like 120 grams a day. May be my upbringing in a frugal environment prevents me from eating more, but my normal consumption is close to 60- 70 grams a day. If I eat less, several days fater that I am driven to eat more than 70 grams.

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    1. she just describes how she feels the need to limit protein, or suffers from an over-excited brain.... she reported on twitter the other day, though, that she's lowering her carbs a little and raising her protein, and so far it's going well. :-)

      for me, 90 grams plus or minus a little seems to be the "sweet spot" -- if i still have appetite after that, i need fat.

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  4. I really feel it is so hard to sustain too few a calories ..... the hunger mechanism sneaks in. That said, yes, you do need to find a balance that suits you, any food allergies you may have etc.

    As I've just mentioned on Fred's blog, I've just enjoyed chicken cooked with a slice of streaky bacon and some grated cheese, with buttery mashed swede and cabbage. I did have a little amount of chicken stock poured over the meal (or you could have it on the side of the plate).. A great meal and one that keeps me going for quite some hours.

    All the best Jan

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    1. sounds delicious! :-) yes, taking in a low-cal diet for a long time IS very difficult, but some people manage to do it -- then the mainstream-thinkers blame their continuing overweight status on "gluttony and sloth" and it just makes me FURIOUS.... some dieters are SO hard-working and self-denying, to insult them that way is outrageous.

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  5. Hi Tess

    When I was diagnosed a type two diabetic I was 50 lb over weight. I went on a keto diet for three months at 1200 calories a day. I lost the 50 lbs in three months. I found it very easy, but it must be remembered I was also using the excess body fat as a fuel, plus I had a big fear factor. Two weeks after becoming a diabetic, I buried my Father, who was riddled with diabetic complications.

    It is my belief starvation diets do not work and are dangerous. As all your readers know, it is the type of calories we eat not always the amount of calories that is so important. That being said I am not saying we can eat what we like in the way of any type of foods and hold a safe weight.

    When we are young we can get away with murder re. junk food and bad lifestyle, but as we age we pay the price. I know I am a broken record, but whole fresh food home cooked is a great way to live for everyone.

    Kind regards Eddie

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    1. no wonder you're so disciplined and passionate about low-carbing! :-) i also think that if we're eating a nutritious, whole-food diet and making sure we're getting our micronutrients, we can more safely rely on our natural appetites to regulate how much we SHOULD eat.

      that said, there are also those who need to be extra-careful about quantities. my heart goes out to people who are always hungry -- it's a miserable way to live.

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  6. Today I am experiencing again what is possible for me only on a LC diet - I am not interested in eating 100% at the moment, even though I ate last time 4 hours ago. Normally I eat a self-cooked food, and it is getting less and less elaborate , but today I decided to use a coupon for my favorite fast food place - Hardee's . I love it that they wrap their LC burgers in lettuce leaves, and burgers are thick, fatty, cooked on a charcoal grill. I had a half pounder burger with sauteed onions, bacon, tomato slices and cheese, all wrapped in a lettuce + unsweetened cold tea with a lemon slice. I like the sensation - the amount of the food was just right to fill my stomach without stretching it, and I am still feel like eating is impossible.

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    1. Galina that place 'Hardee's' sounds great ..... and they actually wrap their burgers in lettuce leaves.

      I know I do at home but I've yet to experience such a place in the UK - I live in hope.

      All the best Jan

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    2. All burger places in US nowadays offer LC versions of their burgers, but only Hardee's wrap burgers in lettuce leaves. Some people even report ordering "meatsas" from pizza places. I never did it, but "meatsa" suppose to consist from different pizza topping mixed together, covered with a cheese and baked.

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