Hi all! I have a male friend that is extremely metabolically resistant. He matches the criteria layes out in DANDR. He has been following induction (the KISS method) to the letter for a month and has not lost 1 pound. He has not entered ketosis. I know that he has not been cheating. If anything, he is overly concerned about hidden sugars. He drives waitresses nuts!

He needs to lose 50 pounds to get in a healthy range for his height. His thyroid is in a good range. His other lab work (not sure what tests) came back normal. His doctor is about to put him on diet pills, but I thought he should try the Fat Fast first.

Anyway, I am trying to help him with a menu for the Fat Fast. He can tolerate cream cheese, but not very much of it. Macadamia nuts are fine. He doesn't like most of the things (avacodo, tons of mayo, etc.) that are on the Fat Fast recipe list. But, he LOVES pepperoni.

I put some figures into Fitday and found that 3 servings of hormel pepperoni slices, 2 servings of macadamia nuts and 2 servings of cream cheese equals 1027 calories, 89% fat, 2% carbs, 9% protein.

Would this work for 2 or 3 days or would the nitrates in the peperoni ruin the whole thing?

Also, would straight macadamia nuts be a bad thing? I have heard that people stall on nuts, so I wasn't sure if 5 servings of macadamias would be a good idea or not.

Thanks for any help you can give me (him).

I don't know what "DANDR" is, but according to Atkin's second edition, your friend needs stay on the Fat Fast only two days to determine whether he goes into ketosis. Atkins says that you do it after Induction, but I think you could do it anytime.

Can your friend stomach cream cheese and macadamias for two days? Or any of the other things he doesn't like?

I am going to try this Fat Fast next week when everybody's gone on vacation and I don't have to try to cook double or eat out. I have never seen the Ketostix turn a nice purple, and I want to see that!

Thank you for replying. I really need opinions on this because I haven't ever researched or tried the Fat Fast. I'm not even sure the Fat Fast would work for someone like me because the calories are only 100 less than 10x my weight. It wouldn't be worth the trouble. LOL!

I think he probably could handle macs and cheese (LOL) for two days, but I think that he is going to have to be on some form of modified Fat Fast (80% or so) for a longer period because he is so insulin resistant (I think that is what the problem is, not sure).

I have been experimenting with cream cheese recipes all morning and I think I have found a couple of "sweet" recipes that might make this WOE a little more fun for someone like him. Cream cheese is about 90% fat, but when cocoa and Splenda are added, it ends up more like 83% fat. If Vanilla, Almond or Lemon Extract and Splenda are added, it takes it down to 87% fat. I would think that adding SF jello would keep it close to 90%, but give it a lot more flavor.

I even tried a SF peanut butter recipe which was awesome, but the carbs end up a bit higher. That might be better for later, once he has seen some weight loss.

What I am not sure about is what affect Splenda has on blood sugar. Is Splenda as bad as sugar alcohols? I have read many posts about avoiding low-carb bars and chocolates like the plague, but most people seem okay with using Splenda even though it contains maltodextrin. Does it not have any affect on blood sugar even though our taste buds taste "sugar"?

I don't want to get him started using Splenda if it is going to screw him up in the long run. I had never even tried it until this morning.

I feel kind of responsible for helping him through this because I am the one who talked him into trying low-carb against his doctor's advice.

The cool thing is that although he isn't loosing weight, he also isn't gaining for the first time in recent years and isn't walking around starving all the time. I think that is the only reason that he hasn't given up.

SOrry for being so long winded. I really appreciate your help!

My pleasure...glad I could answer some of your questions.

On the matter of Splenda, the manufacturer claims that it has no effect on blood sugar. I don't know the science of this, but I do know that when I have Splenda, I have no obvious response to it. No shakes, hunger, sleepiness, etc. as I do w/ sugar.

I can appreciate your reluctance to get your friend hooked on something that will ultimately not be good for him. One way to avoid that would be to hand him the book and get out of the middle of his plan! :-) Then whatever he decides to do will be his responsibility rather than yours. It's good of you to get him started down the right path, though, and you get high marks for that. He's lucky to have such a good friend!

On the matter of his insulin resistance, Atkins says to stay on the Fat Fast only a week at a time, interspersed w/ Induction or OWL, so in his case, it may be useful only to determine if he's actually that resistant by doing the two-day jam. Once he finds that out, he can build a plan that will work for him and get him where he wants to go.

Take care...