Only a part of last night's local LC support group was Periscoped. Dr Westman talked about limits on fat if you are overweight and still need to burn your "on board pantry". He is writing his own diet book (finally) and that by attending recent LC conferences in Vail and wherever, he is more supportive of fasting and less concerned about the lack of protein, muscle loss etc.

Bob Briggs posted another video on fasting...his simple plan is eat once a day. http://forum.lowcarber.org/showthre...321#post9130321

Thanks for the great news that Dr Westman will be coming out with his own book. He has so much great clinical experience to share and a really great delivery.

I'm one of those who do find it easy to fast, and I do believe it's because I'm in ketosis and not all that hungry.

But, the pounds do NOT melt off. I have been overweight or obese since an adolescent, and have been dieting most of the time ever since (40+ years) -- I believe I probably have long-term insulin resistance, and that my body is incredibly, stubbornly, holding onto it's extra 100 pounds of fat. I think it would rather eat air than give up that fat.

So even while fasting I may lose a couple of pounds, and then gain it back. Maybe, just maybe, the scale is slowly inching downward. It's that small amount that keeps me fasting -- because my previous very low carb WOE did not result in weight loss after the initial 2 weeks of induction. Full out ketosis, 10-20 carbs, netted me 0 pounds lost for months (and I gave up).

So even these very small victories that come from fasting are worth it to me at the moment. I was pre-diabetic and now my fbgs are in the 70-80's, so that's great. And it seems I am actually starting to enjoy fasting. I feel really good and energized, somehow. Is that psychological? I don't know, but I'll keep it up for awhile and let you guys know if any kind of "melting" occurs.

While I'd like to lose weight too, my main concern is my BG. I know way too many sad, true stories of uncontrolled diabetes. I don't want to be one of them.

That your fbg got down that low is great! Hope I can join you there.

Dr. Fung's latest post. Sounds almost as complicated as understanding Schrodinger's cat.

I never understood why a living cat, at least, couldn't observe itself.

Ah, but is the cat aware of being aware?

Thanks Glenda!

Love this article.

Love this pictoralanalogy (made up word):



And finally, Love the Japanese and their practical thinking.

I get a little nervous as soon as science starts to sound like something Thomas Aquinas could really sink his teeth into.

As a starter, whatever else cats might or might not be aware of, I think we can assume that cats are aware of boxes.

Cats make horrible scientists. Very poor note-keepers. And the lab mice keep having mysterious accidents.

And forget about presentations using laser pointers

I think INFLAMMATION is crucial to "gumming up many works," as Dr. Fung put it. I experienced relief from symptoms if I brute-forced down my inflammation. Of course it is better to address the source of the problems, but it shows that inflammation alone is like sugar (hair!) in the carb of the body.

Technical question:
If I add gelatin powder to my bone broth, am I breaking the fast?

Technical question:
If I add gelatin powder to my bone broth, am I breaking the fast?
Technical answer: yes.
Practical answer: not necessarily.

This is sort of a pet peeve of mine, I subscribe to a facebook page for a ketogenic diet, and people are always asking questions like this. Usually it's somebody who just wants to have one or two coffees or teas in the morning with a little bit of cream, and somebody will tell them an absolute no.

Take an empty cup. Put a single drop of water in it. Technically, it's no longer an empty cup. But neither is it a cup containing an amount of water that's useful for most purposes. Very small amounts of food will break a fast, that isn't to say necessarily that breaking the fast in this way will have much of a consequence--that the person's metabolism will be all that different from a fully fasted metabolism. Take an example, a person is eating one meal a day, at dinner. Now they change things, add 100 calories as heavy cream in the morning. Things aren't the same as if they'd just had water. Obviously they aren't the same as if they'd eaten half their day's food at breakfast--and I think they're probably closer to the fasted state than the fed.
Try a thought experiment, three "square meals." One person has 600 calories per meal, the other has 200. They are both certainly breaking their fast, three times a day. One ate enough calories to fill up their glycogen stores, so that as they approach successive meals, they will still be running largely on the glucose from the previous meals. The other person didn't eat enough to do this--so before getting to the next meal, they're already returning to a fat-based metabolism. Any amount of food will break a water fast. But I think a better question might be, "will x amount of food make enough of a difference to my metabolism, vs. what it would have been if I had not eaten at all, to remove the benefit?" I think a little bit of gelatin is unlikely to remove the benefit--and even if it reduced the benefit slightly, that might be outweighed if the gelatin made the fasting that much easier to do.

Doesn't bone broth naturally contain gelatin?

Teaser, you are my hero. Thanks for putting it in perspective.