8 year keto veteran now struggling

(Maria Ortiz) #21

I’m going to need to edit my previous post because of the misunderstanding everyone’s having about salt. What I meant was that I don’t touch salt that contains added ingredients, same with all spices. Like that garbage Morton salt which contains dextrose and other additives. I actually love salt, probably too much, but I control it in keto or drink more water when I think I’ve had too much. Before restarting keto this time I could not tell you my level of carbs but it was astronomical, I was eating nothing but sugar, bread, and pasta. So going down to 4 grams a day I feel should have shocked my body, as it has in the past. I have 30 lbs to lose. I’m assuming it’s all fat since I haven’t had a whoosh of water weight for 2 months.

(Rob Grantham) #22

Yeah you’ve got to be so careful with salts most of them are garbage… I have a feeling that because your carb intake was so high it may like you said have shocked your body. I mean it’s got this steady supply of glucose coming in and bam! Nothing… you could be seeing some kind of metabolic slosdown which t en years ago your body would have dealt with better

(Rob Grantham) #23

Is this something in your knowledge which is specific to women? I’m asking because I think I have simalar high cortisol levels and feel very stressed and uncomfortable when not eating regularly.

#24

Yep - specific to female biology & physiology in relation to the functions of cortisol.

Though males with certain kinds of stress & trauma do indeed have cortisol issues (which I believe in the SAD context is linked to early onset heart disease but is also related to the metabolic syndrome of carbohydrate/sugar poisoning). If I remember correctly, the male cortisol/heart relationship involves the roles of testosterone and adrenaline and their past stress set point patterns and their multiplying/triggering of present ones. That can make carbs in combinations with low fat even more poisonous in high cortisol scenarios - as I read about this in Nina Teicholz’s The Big Fat Surprise - but I don’t know what happens in a high fat context - seems there is a degree of higher flexibility for many who aren’t diabetic.

Wanting to eat more frequently may be more about the leptin/ghrelin balance - and cortisol’s role in that.

Since LCHF/keto, and also just simple non-grazing and non-drinking of sugary beverages (changing from constant insulin spiking to just 1-3 spikes per day) is hormonally healing and tends to restore healthy levels of everything in both males and females, I’d wager with males that involving testosterone increasing would mean that carbs become even less helpful in terms of hormonal healing? Just guessing. Maybe start a new thread on the question?