What's wrong with me?

#1

I know the typical answer is to talk to your doctor, but my doctor tells me to eat whole grains and avoid fat so it’s pretty sad when I don’t consider my doctor to be an expert in health.

I’m not asking for medical advice from anyone here, just wondering if anyone has come across anything similar.

So I’m about 5’10" 300lbs, big gut, typical body shape for a diabetic. I am a programmer so I sit on my butt for 8+ hours at work, and then I go home and sit on my butt some more. Drink a lot of terrible crap like energy drinks and root beer and coke. Eat pop tarts for breakfast because its a quick thing to grab at the gas station on the way to work. For a while I was eat Culver’s for lunch just about every day and almost always getting a concrete mixer with reeses.

I suspected if I’m not diabetic, i’m probably at least pre-diabetic. I got a blood glucometer and tested my fasting blood sugar in the morning after waking up. I don’t remember my day 1 results, but I was surprised so I tested it a few times in the morning after waking up. It was always in the 70-85 mg/dl range. So even with my terrible nutrient deficient sugary diet, sedentary lifestyle, and 300 pound body, to my shock, I was still not even pre-diabetic.

So I thought maybe I’m insulin resistant. I’ve listened to a lot of Robb Wolf’s podcasts among others and one thing I’ve heard a lot is when someone has a lot of belly fat, you can be sure they are insulin insensitive.

To test my insulin sensitivity I tested my fasting blood sugar in the morning again, ate some food and drink with lots of sugar, as usual, and tested my blood sugar periodically after that. Of course there was a big spike after 30 minutes, but after about 1.5-2 hours I was back down to a totally normal blood sugar.

The last time I was at my Doctor’s, the nurse tested my blood pressure. She thought the sphygmomanometer was broken because I am clearly not in great shape, and I don’t remember what number she read off but she said that my blood pressure was perfect. She wanted to check it again to make sure. Same result. A few minutes later the doctor came in, looked at the chart, and checked my blood pressure again because, apparently, he didn’t believe it either. Again, same result, perfect blood pressure. He said he wanted to check it one more time at the end of the appointment, but he forgot, and my bet is it would have come back the same as it did the first 3 times they checked it.

So I have normal blood sugar. My body responds exactly the way it should to insulin. I have perfect blood pressure. But I’m clearly obese. If I believe diet and sedentary life style lead to insulin insensitivity which leads to weight gain, then I cannot explain my body. Whatever did it to me is not what apparently does it to most people.

I’ve tried keto several times, I’ve never got that mental clarity everyone talks about.

I always got that “keto flu” and that was usually the end for me. when I know all I have to do is drink a can coke and this splitting headache will disappear, it’s too hard not to.

A few times I did make it past the keto flu. One time I used MCT oil and significantly helped. Another time I used exogenous ketones and that helped a lot too.

Most recently I started again and I’ve been doing it for about 2 weeks. But this time I never got any of the the “keto flu” symptoms and I’ve only dropped about 2.5 pounds in 2 weeks. When I’ve done it in the past I lost more than that in just water weight after the first day or 2. I know the pee sticks are not the most reliable way to test ketones, but they do show that my body is in fact producing a measurable amount, I’m just not efficient at using them for energy yet.

I really don’t know what’s going on with me. Every measurement except for the scale would point to me being healthy already and keto seems to have very little effect on me right now. I almost miss the terrible headaches in the beginning, at least they let me know it was working.

(Jenn Monaghan) #2

Sounds like me in my 20’s. I didn’t show any signs of being unhealthy (other than being obese) until I was over 35.

(CharleyD) #3

You may be one of the lucky ones with adipocyte hyperplasia, where you can make new baby fat cells. As long as you can do that you won’t get pathological insulin resistance.

#4

I agree Jennifer, if Hom is a youngster (20’s, maybe 30’s) ones organs are basically “immortal” and are working great, it’s the nature of the human body with a good set of genes without the presence of disease. However when overload happens functional collapse will typically happen and permanent damage is the result. Remember that cardiovascular disease often takes 40+ years to manifest symptoms. In the case of a sedentary individual, the first symptom is a heart attack or sudden cardiac death… Sorry that sounds scary as hell but it’s a statisticial medical fact. Hom, ya gotta drop the weight. Kicking a sugar addiction will take two weeks… go cold turkey AND DONT CHEAT, otherwise you just cycle back to the addiction. The headache is a symptom of the sugar addiction (especially since you say a soft drink or something sugary to eat clears it immediately) Make The Keto COMMITMENT, don’t cheat and stick with it! Best Of Luck!

#5

Go look in the mirror and stick out your tongue - is it white?

So what did you eat over the past two days, lost everything please.

#6

Go look in the mirror and stick out your tongue - is it white?

Yes… how did you know?

So what did you eat over the past two days, lost everything please.

In the last 2 days I have had

  • 3 meals of Bacon with asparagus & egg cooked in the bacon fat (my grocery store had all this on sale so I’ve been eating this a lot)
  • Chipotle, no tortilla burrito wrapper, rice, or beans. I only get a bowl with lettuce, pico, cheese, guacamole, fajita vegetables (i pick out most of the onions), and carnitas.
  • hard boiled eggs with salt between meals when I get hungry at home
  • Quest bar between meals when I get hungry at work
  • some ketoconnect low carb rolls topped off with salted kerrygold grassfed butter

And to drink I’ve had

  • Zevia (I’ve used a blood sugar meter to verify that I have no glucose or insulin response from this)
  • Water
  • Monster Rehab Peach Tea - This may stick out like a sore thumb, and I know I should stop drinking these, but they’re not as bad as they sound, carb-wise. There’s only 5 carbs in an entire can.
#7

Tongue is white - that is a sign of an excess of yeast in the body.

You suspect that you are experiencing Keto Flu, actually you are experiencing a massive die off of yeast in the body and skin. That is why you feel better as soon as sugar is digested.

Google is your new friend on this one, candida.

Apple Cider Vinegar will help to clear out the yeast, expect lots of gas and sudden weight loss with the die off.

The sooner you clear the body of yeast, the sooner you’ll start to recognize benefits from Keto.

#8

As for the diet, simplify.

Drop the tea, drop the bar, even drop the rolls, certainly drop the Chipotle as that meat has had sugar added to improve flavor and retain customers.

Zevia, drop that also.

Do that for at least a week, so you can recognize the benefits of Keto - that will help you to make decisions.

My message here is - you need a baseline of as natural and basic consumption first, the candida will be gone at the end of the week and you will feel FANTASTIC.

#9

Water and salt.
Tablespoon of ACV in water each day.
Avocado each day.
Walnuts or pecans as a fat snack.
Lots of lettuce is a good thing, no dressing for the first week until you start making it yourself.
We all love bacon.
Cheese, read the label - though it might be better to wait for the candida to die off before adding cheese.

Follow that for a week and you will feel completely different.

(Rebecca) #10

And PLEASE update us after this really intriguing insight by @Keigan. I’m really curious now if this does the trick for you!!

#11

even drop the rolls

I can easily do that. I’m just still not into the idea of chewing on a stick of butter right out of the fridge, so I only made them one time and only as a delivery system for grassfed butter. I’m not sure what I will do with the butter now…

certainly drop the Chipotle as that meat has had sugar added to improve flavor and retain customers.

According to the website, carnitas has a total of 0 carbs.

The bowl I get from there has 7 net carbs, and I think a lot of that is coming from the onion, which I don’t eat.

Avocado each day.

Ahh, I knew I was forgetting something. I am eating avocados, too.

So… would this be ok?

breakfast: Bacon & Eggs & Asparagus; water with salt & ACV

lunch: salad with avocado & nuts

then hard boiled egg if I get hungry later? This doesn’t seem like enough food.

(Candy Lind) #12

NOTHING’s wrong with you - we are all unique snowflakes! :snowflake:
And now that @Keigan has got you dialed in, you are finally in the right place at the right time to get rid of that gut and get really healthy! We’re glad you’re here.

It’s not. Especially if you’re a big guy. Eat more fatty foods - boiled eggs dipped in mayo, salt & pepper, or summer sausage (watch the carbs) sandwiched in those keto rolls with mayo or sour cream & a slice of cheese; put mayo or olive (or avocado!) oil on your avocado; put fat on all your veggies. Just the other day I was still hungry after a big meal, and had already eaten enough protein for the day, so I wrapped butter and mayo in some cabbage leaves and ate it. It was actually not bad! You get to where you crave fat like you used to crave sweets on this way of eating.

KCKO! :wink: (Follow that link - you’ll be glad you did.)

#13

Coconut oil is also purported to be good at reducing candida.

#14

Nothing wrong with butter.

Keep things simple for a week, add in whole and known ingredients and stay away from the restaurants - just for a week.

If you get a rash, probably just the yeast die off.

(Tessy M.) #15

My take on your food you listed is that you may be getting more than 20 carbs during the day.
Which quest bar? How many carbs? (Dr. Fung talks about snacking between meals, it’s not terribly desirable)
That Monster has 6 carbs (4 sugars)
Nuts will have carbs
The keto roll is low carb, not no carb. How many carbs are in here?
The sauce from Chipotle that is on the veggies could contain some sugar too.
I would really encourage you to use MFP for a bit to really get a handle on the carbs your’re taking in.

(Tessy M.) #16

I’ll add, I too have had the same response from doctors. When I first switched last, my doctor commented “I was not expecting an overweight person based on your labs, they’re excellent.”

#17

My take on your food you listed is that you may be getting more than 20 carbs during the day.

Yeah, it is more than 20. But it’s also less than 50, and I am definitely in ketosis.

That Monster has 6 carbs (4 sugars)

It’s 5 carbs. You’re probably looking it up on some website (my best guess would be myfitnesspal with a user entered database). I’m looking at the label on the actual product as I’m typing this.

The keto roll is low carb, not no carb. How many carbs are in here?

1.6. But I’m not positive about that. The eggs I bought don’t have nutrition info so all I can go off of is the possibly inaccurate numbers from myfitnesspal. We all know eggs do have carbs, but not a lot, so maybe somewhere between 1.6 - 2.

The sauce from Chipotle that is on the veggies could contain some sugar too.

There isn’t a sauce on the veggies. They cook them on a flat grill in oil with salt and oregano. Whatever wetness appears to be on them is from the oil that they are cooked in and the water leeching out of them.

(Tessy M.) #18

That’s what I looked at. Each serving has 3 carbs, two of which are sugar. The can is two servings.
Also, Chipotle does spice their veggies. Do you know what they use the spice them? Could the mix contain sugar?

(Michael King) #19

Candida is tough to eradicate for many.

#20

The can has per 8oz serving info and per 15.5oz can info. The per can info says 5. This is probably due to round. The per serving is probably something close to 2.5 but they don’t use decimals so its being rounded up to 3.

They only use salt and oregano on the fajita veggies. Chipotle does not add sugar to anything.