Zeroing In On Health - The Forum!

Just a casual observation, but how does someone who has never had a weight problem, who eats LC to begin with, gain 20lbs in 2 months and then casually just post a 'thought you should know' kind of post?

My hubby is maintaining a normal weight and if he gained 10lbs he would not be comfortable in his clothes, if he gained 20 we would be out buying a whole new wardrobe and really, if he were not eating carbs we would be questioning it LONG before he hit the 20lb mark... even if it was over 6 months. But 2 months?? We would be getting some serious testing done because I would be sick with worry or suspect he was pregnant.

I am not saying it did not happen, but it sounds fishy to me.

(01-30-2009 12:46 PM)CaveBabyJ Wrote: [ -> ]Just a casual observation, but how does someone who has never had a weight problem, who eats LC to begin with, gain 20lbs in 2 months and then casually just post a 'thought you should know' kind of post?

Exactly, and then they use terms like "this proves that" and "so much for the theory that". That is not asking for help. That is telling us something.

i'm one of those who gain w too much protein. when i changed to less protein and increased my fat intake, well, i made a startling discovery....

(01-30-2009 12:46 PM)CaveBabyJ Wrote: [ -> ]My hubby is maintaining a normal weight and if he gained 10lbs he would not be comfortable in his clothes, if he gained 20 we would be out buying a whole new wardrobe and really, if he were not eating carbs we would be questioning it LONG before he hit the 20lb mark... even if it was over 6 months. But 2 months?? We would be getting some serious testing done because I would be sick with worry or suspect he was pregnant.

I am not saying it did not happen, but it sounds fishy to me.

20lbs is a lot to put on...and would require new clothes. Timmy, are you sure it's actually 20lbs you've gained? I mean, even your undies would be kinda tight.

What I think this 'proves', really, is that you've got something else going on that you aren't aware of. Insulin issues, lots of things are possible. I was around your age when most of my health problems started. Have you been to a doctor?

(01-30-2009 01:21 PM)jem Wrote: [ -> ]i'm one of those who gain w too much protein. when i changed to less protein and increased my fat intake, well, i made a startling discovery....

I guess that the fat to protein ratio should do the trick.
Till the last month, while on ZC my weight is gone up by 2-3 kilos.
Sometimes I look smoother, a "water retention like" effect.

I'm afraid I'm overdoing with proteins, so I've finally find a butcher who gives me for free beef fat, I will try to mantain my caloric intake at the same level and go up with the fat % and see what it will happens.

My glucometer says 70-75mmol/dl every time, even while I'm drinking coffee, so i guess I'm not producing a bunch of insulin.
My clothes are always fitting the same.

I've started ZC while I was under 6%BF, now I'm not interested in measuring my BF% with a caliper, I've eliminated sea salt from my diet, and I'm drinking a lot more water than before so I guess that electrolyte balance etc. won't guarantee any kind of accuracy.

My muscles cuts aren't as deep as they were while I was eating around 50-20g of carbs a day, now I'm eating only meat, raw or rare, occasionaly one egg.
No pork, no butter no dairy products.

Strength is going up...stamina for low intensity activity is off the roof, stamina for high intensity activity went up in the first ZC period then decreased at a steady pace, but I cannot say if I'm training too much, or if getting stronger, so using much more "loads" even in my HIIT w.o. is affecting the high intensity conditioning part of my training.

Just to share my experience...

P.S. even when my ABS are a little bit less "harder" I've got the precise sensation that my stomach is thighter than before, but this could be related to the absence of vegetation in my diet, before I was consuming even large amounts of veggies, wich caused me bowel problems...

We have no choice but to believe him when he says he gained 20lbs in two months. We have no choice but to believe him when he says he eats only meat. He couldn't be mistaken about these two things. Where we have a problem is with the reasons or the nature of that gain.

It could be mostly lean tissue in the form of water, muscle and other things. It's doubtful that it's mostly fat. If he had been eating a high carb diet for a long time and if that caused a bunch of deficiencies that inhibited bone growth for instance then that would be fixed with ZC and he would gain weight there. He says he's young so he's still full of hormones and still growing. We all know that we can grow tremendously in short periods during our youth. This might be significant here as well.

Then there's the possibility of infection. Maybe he has a tapeworm that robs him of most of what he eats. There could be something else, who knows. He also says he saw strength improvements in the gym. This tells us he lifts weights. This can also be a significant cause for weight gain.

I'm just looking at reasonable causes for weight gain besides the "overeat and do nothing". I overeat and do nothing yet don't grow fat (thus don't gain weight) because of it. Others do the same and don't grow fat either. The mechanisms of fat accumulation don't allow fat to cause fat accumulation. Unless, of course, those mechanisms are disrupted somehow. By disease, by infection, by carbohydrate, by defect, by prior deficiency.

Pancreatitis? That would wreak havok on insulin production.

Ok bear with me here, I am only on chapter 9 of GCBC, almost to insulin.

But doesn't overeating at one sitting cause a problems with insulin levels also? I am sure I have heard Eades and Schwarzbein and others talk of that.

I know for me I just don't overeat or binge anymore. Now, I may THINK about it, but on ZC my brain is able to process the pros and cons of that decision before running off to carb load. I think with more stable insulin I just will eat enough to kill the hunger and prevent the binge.
Although I still need to eat about 4 times a day, I notice I can go longer now.

Erin

(01-30-2009 02:08 PM)allycat Wrote: [ -> ]But doesn't overeating at one sitting cause a problems with insulin levels also? I am sure I have heard Eades and Schwarzbein and others talk of that.

No. Overeating is a result of unstable blood sugar and insulin, not the other way around. When your insulin is rock solid and stable, then you simply don't really get hungry. You can easily go two or three days between meals if you chose to. Eades and Scwarzbein or pseudo-calorie counters in disguise so you have to read their writings very carefully because they sound good, but you have to do dig deep to find what they really have in mind.

Overeating only means that it should be a much longer time before you feel the need to eat again. Day to day weights are truly irrelevant.

It's not overeating that causes a problem to insulin, it's insulin that causes a problem with overeating. And what causes insulin to rise above normal is carbohydrate. And the Pavlovian response from thinking about carbohydrate even after we cut it all out.

-edit- Charles is faster than me.

I can understand the binge eating and I think many of us can. However I find that for me VLC reduces this desire to snack or crave junk or binge. However, there are some people who report more cravings and such on VLC/ZC. Maybe you are one of those folks. If so, maybe LC just suits you better.

I have PCOS and hypothyroidism and can gain weight very easily. However 20lbs is a LOT of weight to gain in two months. Even I don't gain like that with my hormone issues and I certainly don't gain on LC/VLC/ZC. So if I gained 20lbs in two months I would be off to a good doctor pronto. A good doctor should be one of your first ports of call.