What is your diet like?

Cat,

Regarding intermittent fasting, it really depends on the person. I would probably not recommend it for people with existing metabolic issues. Women seem to also not handle it as well as men, though many handle it just fine, without any problems.

It also largely depends on the person's diet. A person who consumes most of their calories from carbohydrates probably could not tolerate IF because these diets cause unstable blood sugar. This is why the average person needs to eat every 3-4 hours. When you begin to eliminate refined sugars and carbs, you normalize your blood sugar while utilizing your body's fat stores for energy.

If people ate the right foods, they would not eat nearly as much as they do. They wouldn't need to. The FDA recommends that people eat most of their calories from bread, rice and pasta, so it's no wonder all the establishment health "experts" say you need to eat five times a day. It's because, for many people, they need to just to function normally (which is not normal or healthy at all).

Once a person's diet is in check, intermittent fasting is a great tool for losing stored fat while simultaneously building muscle. It increases testosterone levels in men, as well as Human Growth Hormone (HGH). There are also a ton of theraputic effects associated with IF in conjunction with a low carb diet, including improved insulin sensitivity, cognitive enhancement, and increased longevity.

 

I disagree that sugar creates more obesity than "anything". The creation of "obesity" is usually a lack of proper digestion, due to tons of different factors. Usually mixing fats with sugar is detrimental to proper digestion. When people separate their fats from sugar and eat a low-fat diet they can lose weight and feel much more energy and health, just as when some people manage to eat a low-sugar, high fat/protein diet. When I tried for a couple years to eat low-sugar, high fat, I lost my mind and could never fill myself up...I was weak, overly skinny. I had other friends following this diet who couldn't lose weight, but again they were unsatisfied and always hungry. The problem is digestion. Fats and sugars don't mix well...that means most processed snacks will not help anyone, at all.

 

I've never heard this before, and I don't think I've heard anyone complain of hunger on a low carb/moderate protein/high fat diet until now. Fats are known to be satiating whereas carbs are not. If a person is eating high fat and still hungry, it's probably because they only think they're eating "high fat" but are not, or are still consuming high amounts of carbs and/or protein, which is causing instability in blood sugar and therefore triggering hunger.

While I agree that fats and sugars don't mix, it's not because of digestion, but because of the fact that the sugar is causing an insulin response where fat is then drawn into the cells and stored instead of burned for energy as is the case when carbs are restricted. When a person's glycogen stores are full, they simply cannot utilize stored body fat for energy. Furthermore, any dietary fat will be stored as well.

The role insulin plays in obesity is pretty well known. When insulin levels are low, fat is allowed to be used as an energy source instead of glucose.

 

I can assure you there's a fairly large community of people who cannot thrive on a high-fat, extremely low sugar diet. You'll find them trying to drink apple cider vinegar before and after every meal to help their digestion...

And, I would say it is digestion and the reason is simple. Carbs/sugars digest fast, they go into your blood stream quickly and when there is fat remaining the sugars get stuck...that is an insulin response, but it is only because the slow-digesting fat is in the way, blocking the sugar from being DIGESTED! This also happens in the gut and causes gas, indigestion and other issues.

 

It doesn't quite work like that. Sugar and fast digesting carbs cause an insulin response as soon as you put them in your mouth. It doesn't matter what's already in your stomach. Put pure table sugar in your mouth and it digests long before it even gets to your stomach. Even when you eat stuff like bread and pasta, the digestion process begins as soon as the food hits your tongue and mixes with your saliva, hence the sharp rise in blood sugar these foods cause because they do digest so quickly.

 

Steel-cut oats are known to have more complex carbohydrates than rolled or instant oats and have a lower glycemic index in the 50s. Whole oats have the bran and germ which contain soluble fiber and nutrients. Some instant oats breakfast cereals have added sugar and/or dried fruit which yields a higher glycemic index in the 70s.

http://diabeteshealth.com/read/2010/02/09/6558/whats-the-deal-with-steel-cut-oats/

http://www.whfoods.com/genpage.php?tname=foodspice&dbid=54

 

noodly noodly noodles. with meat. much more noodles then spuds or rice. though i also eat most things that don't eat me furst. and by noodles i mean every kind of pasta there is.
my favorite are thick ropey udon. but its not very often that i can get or find them.
fast cooking noodes more often then other kinds.
not just raman, but more often angel hair and couscous.

aside from noodles, lots of protien and as much vegies as i can. the limitation being on how poorly they keep, and secondarily on having to cook most of them.

though the same can be said of meat. so i also eat a lot of mushrooms. but not so much cheese, which i really don't much care for.

i also eat nowhere near as many tomatoes as i used to, and even fewer of tomatoe products. i seem to have developed some kind of semi-alergy to them. that or that i tend to over use sodium when i cook them.

blood sugar balance is becoming a challange at my age, as well as having had to drastically reduce sodium intake.

i still put lemon or lime in most of my broths, and that has almost eliminated seasonal colds and flues and continues to do so.

i try to avoid overdoing sweets, but they seem to one of the things most available that keep most well.

i don't really have that much of an affinity for them, and were i living alone, would probably consume far less then i do.

as it is, i probably eat a lot less of them then most people.

fried foods and carbonated beverages i also tend to avoid. mostly because i don't very much care for them.

 

Lots of food and lots of exercise.

 

while i cannot claim that exercise entirely lacks benifit, or even deny that my life is being shortened by my inadiquacy of it, i have very little patience with the time it would take away from the creative things i enjoy doing. though i have no objection when it does come from actually doing something, rather then for its own self serving sake. i do a lot of walking because i don't own a car, and don't really desire the hassle of owning one. i realize this is probably far from adiquite, but at least there is that.