Unexplained Weight Gain ('Veteran' Carnivore)

(Michael - When reality fails to meet expectations, the problem is not reality.) #7

https://www.thyroidsymptoms.ca/en-ca/hypothyroidism-diagnosis/tsh-blood-test

#8

Agreed, but plenty don’t make it out the other end ok as well. Like her, I’m in the gym a couple hours a day and demand a lot from my metabolism. I think it’s also very hard for many people to even realize they have an issue if they’re not tracking their intake and eating to satiety or only eating when hungry. I did, and if it wasn’t for that and if I’d been tracking then I would have seen that I was way under eating and that eating anywhere near normal amounts of food was causing weight gain, that heads up was missed because I trusted my hunger/satiety signals to guide me while trying to put on muscle and loose fat.

(Edith) #9

Are you getting enough iodine in your diet? Low iodine can cause hypothyroid symptoms.

(Katie) #10

Thank you, and thank you @Elizedge.

I for sure am eating enough, an embarrassing amount actually, but perhaps the key here is the fasting.

(Katie) #11

Thank you I will consider this too!

(Bunny) #12

Your eating too much meat?

4 oz. or less per meal is all you really need and are not diabetic (insulin works differently w/protein) if your trying to lose body fat, what your doing right now is doing the same thing your were doing with carbohydrates i.e. storing fat?

I personally would never-ever-over-eat protein if I was/were trying to lose the body fat; why would I want to store lipid droplets?

If what your doing is not working, try it?

Same thing goes if you over-eat dietary fat in combination with protein or carbohydrates.

References:

[1] “…In these cells, under stimulation by insulin, fatty acids are made into fat molecules and stored as fat droplets. It is also possible for fat cells to take up glucose and amino acids, which have been absorbed into the bloodstream after a meal, and convert those into fat molecules. …” …More

A little Science if you will
(Elizabeth ) #13

I lose weight when I eat about three pounds a day, maintain at two pounds.

(Vic) #14

I Listen to your posts 100%, I see many people here and elsewhere reditt and others pump up fasting and yet have to fast just to hold up maintenance stage

I started to get into fasting a lot and I started to notice this more and more

Now I will to a 16/8 or possibly 18/6 but not beyond that anymore and make sure I have some 4 or 5 days full calories every 2 weeks or or so to keep metabolism up

#15
(Jane) #16

This is SO ME since the COVID travel restrictions.

Previously I was schlepping luggage through airports every Monday and Friday. Now I sit at home in front of my computer in a online meetings while my muscles atrophy.

#17

totally agree that fasting is ruining you point blank.

carnivore is not forced fasted. zero carb eaters do eat a steady, natural maintained pattern of food on a daily basis…and you being longer on plan you know that in 2 years you should be ‘on a kinda very normal’ eating plan for you but when you fast way longer, your body has to ‘eat alot’ to make up for the days you did not eat…like for 2 days, a 48 hr fast and you are doing alot of working out.

go back to normal zc eating. eat every day. only what you want, when you want, no matter how much you want, do not limit/restrict/or monkey with what your body is asking. It should not take too long at all for you to go back to a normal daily eating routine, your appetite will naturally regulate for you if you just allow it to do it and stop playing in the carnivore plan…by playing I mean adding in all the fasts per week etc.

some when on plan later down the road can and do like to fast a bit but when carnivore people fast, it can awaken many problems…just like you are experiencing. But some few do well on a bit of fasting and it ‘fits their body’, I don’t think this fasting and big working out at the gym is ‘fitting you’ at all.

go back to the basics. eat when hungry each and every day, do not eat when not hungry…I know some zc’ers told me to ‘just get out of my own way’ and let things happen naturally. I did that and it works so just backtrack and let it become natural each day again and leave it alone and I bet within a month or so you should be in better shape…you might start seeing some lbs. coming off again and you will put yourself on a right track.

best of luck!!

(Katie) #18

Wow, I read this correctly? You lose weight when you eat more calories?

(Bacon is a many-splendoured thing) #19

Depends on what you’re eating. But yeah, when you eat food that doesn’t keep you in fat-storing mode all the time, it’s possible to eat quite a bit and still shed excess fat. It worked for me, anyway.

(Elizabeth ) #20

Yes.

#21

If said whole food increases hormone levels.

(Katie) #22

What foods are those?

(Elizabeth ) #23

Items that raise your insulin. a lot of protein can but it’s slow it’s much less than carbs and some people don’t have any insulin reaction to protein

#24

what E said is true for me…days I eat alot more food is when I usually drop about a 1/2 lb or so. I love it, I eat alot and the scale gives me a treat…could take a bit for the scale to give it up, but it does, but I get lower and lower slow but sure on that nasty scale. All the time just eating as my body asks.

(Bacon is a many-splendoured thing) #25

The foods that raise insulin levels the most are carbohydrates and sugars (certain sugars also pose additional problems for the metabolism). The reason is that carbohydrates are just glucose molecules arranged in different ways, so they raise the blood sugar to levels that the body finds dangerous. The insulin response to that elevated blood sugar brings with it its own set of problems. Chronically elevated blood sugar and insulin levels are damaging to the body over the long term.

In the context of a high-carbohydrate diet, protein has an insulin response about half that of carbohydrate. In a low-carbohydrate context, however, the insulin secretion is matched with an equivalent amount of glucagon. As long as the ratio of insulin to glucagon stays low, we remain in ketosis and stay healthy.

One of the jobs of insulin is to clear glucose from the bloodstream by stuffing it into our fat cells and keeping it there. When insulin drops, the fatty acids can be released from the fat tissue to be metabolised. So whether you are eating a ketogenic diet in order to regain your metabolic health, or simply in order to lose weight, you want to keep your insulin low. And the easiest way to do that is to keep carbohydrate intake low.

Now, fat, the remaining macronutrient, has almost no effect on insulin secretion (all food has to have some effect on insulin, or we would starve to death, but the effect of fat on insulin is the bare minimum required for survival). This makes fat the macronutrient of choice for replacing the calories lost when we stop eating so much carbohydrate. Weird as it may sound, eating fat helps us lose fat, because our fatty acid metabolism increases to use up both the fat in our food and the excess fat in our fat tissue. However, if we restrict calories, the body will do its best to slow down our metabolism and hang on to our fat stores, in order to get us through the “famine.” So again, paradoxically, we need to eat enough food in order to lose fat.

This is why we say that the hormonal effect of food is more important than the number of calories we eat.

(Elizabeth ) #26

Terrific explanation thank you!