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can you really lose weight eating hi fat on low carb?

the_anticarb said:
Another question someone may be able to answer - if I drink alcohol (which I do on around a weekly basis, but when I do drink I will have quite a few beers or glasses of wine) will this act as a carb and turn the fatty foods into fat? ie stop the 'magic' working? As I say this only happens about once a week but when I go out for a few drinks I want to be able to just drink what I like and not have to worry too much about that, although if it will impede the weight loss maybe I will have to
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I find my weight loss increases dramatically when I stop the alcohol! The alcohol is empty calories so I guess your body doesn't need to burn fat if it has alcohol to use as energy. Having said that I tend to be strict with everything for a month or so then relax it for a week or so, I think my body has to 'catch up' with it's weight loss and adjust to it's new weight. If I don't give it a little 'breathing space' I feel it wants to revert back to it's former weight and weight loss slows. So what I do is I drop 7 to 10 pounds, then regain 3-4 maintain for a couple of weeks , then drop 7-10 etc. Feels the right way for me, but you may well be different.

If I do drink I tend to drink dry white wine and spirits at home, and then only 1 or 2 or lager when I'm out. I tend to find I can't drink anywhere what I used to so even on a big night I'd have 5 or 6 pints at most, most of the time I'd have 2 or 3. I could drink like a fish in my time LOL But like I said though I see bigger drops in weight when I don't drink.
 
Alcohol and Weight Loss
Can You Have Both?
Alcohol and weight loss are enemies, but an occasional drink can have a place in a prudent healthy lifestyle. In fact, many experts note the health benefits of consuming a single drink per day, including a reduced risk for high blood pressure. If, however, you are exceeding one drink daily, you might be sabotaging your weight loss plans.

Alcohol is metabolized differently than other foods and beverages. Under normal conditions, your body gets its energy from the calories in carbohydrates, fats and proteins that need to be slowly digested in the stomach—but not when alcohol is present. When alcohol is consumed, it gets special privileges and needs no digestion. The alcohol molecules diffuse through the stomach wall as soon as they arrive and can reach the brain and liver in minutes. This reaction is slightly slowed when there is also food in your system, but as soon as the mixed contents enter the small intestine, the alcohol grabs first place and is absorbed quickly. The alcohol then arrives at the liver for processing. The liver places all of its attention on the alcohol. Therefore, the carbohydrates (glucose) and dietary fats are just changed into body fat, waiting to be carried away for permanent fat storage in the body.

Alcohol is a diuretic, meaning that it causes water loss and dehydration. Along with this water loss you lose important minerals, such as magnesium, potassium, calcium and zinc. These minerals are vital to the maintenance of fluid balance, chemical reactions, and muscle contraction and relaxation.

Ken.
 
I'm getting a little confused now - is alchohol a form of carbohydrate or a different thing altogether? I know it is formed from fermenting stuff like grapes/hops/potatoes so not sure if that means it is a carbohydrate?
 
Thanks, found this


Alcohol contains calories, but drinking alcohol doesn't lead to weight gain, according to extensive medical research, and many studies report a small reduction in weight for women who drink. 1

The reason that alcohol doesn't increase weight is unclear, but research suggests that alcohol energy is not efficiently used.

Which has really made my day! 8)
 
Hi Ac.

Know just what you mean. As a reformed ex-fish like drinker myself I now restrict myself to
1 - 2 Pints of Guinness a WEEK. Tastes all the better though. :D
Glass of wine, preferably Red in moderation is good as well.

Sorry to spoil your day. :(
Ken.
 
I only drink one evening a week, usually a saturday, figure I can be bad once a week and it won't do tooo much harm. The beer does tend to put my bgs up a bit, maybe I will try and stick to the vodka and diet mixers instead, I love flavoured vodka especially strawberrry stolichnaya!Oooh loverly in summertime with a load of ice and some slimline tonic!
 
Strawberry StolichnayaVodka.
Nutritional information.

Calories (kcal) 60
Energy (kj) 251
Fats 0 g
Carbohydrates 0.5g
Protein 0 g
Fibre 0 g
Sugars 0 g
Cholesterol 0 g
Sodium 0 mg
Alcohol 9.9 g

Looks good to me. Cheers. :D Just the one mind.
Ken.
 
Hi

Sorry to be a nuisance but energy cannot just disappear, if I remember the laws of physics correctly. So where do the extra calories in fat consumed go to? Are they excreted? If I had followed a low carb diet and, for instance, had 4000 calories (not sure how many joules that is) of fat, what would happen to the calories of fat in excess of what my body needed at that time?
 
Hi Osidge,

Put simply, when insulin levels are kept low, more calories will be preferentially burned off
rather than stored. So, it's not about calories disappearing, it's about how accessible calories
are for fuel.

Regards,
timo.
 
cugila said:
The alcohol then arrives at the liver for processing. The liver places all of its attention on the alcohol. Therefore, the carbohydrates (glucose) and dietary fats are just changed into body fat, waiting to be carried away for permanent fat storage in the body.
Ken.
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They missed a bit there, while the liver is metabolising the alcohol it stops putting glucose back into the bloodstream. Thus one effect may balance out the other - or even overbalance it, it's not unknown for alcohol to cause hypos.
 
Osidge said:
Hi

Sorry to be a nuisance but energy cannot just disappear, if I remember the laws of physics correctly. So where do the extra calories in fat consumed go to? Are they excreted? If I had followed a low carb diet and, for instance, had 4000 calories (not sure how many joules that is) of fat, what would happen to the calories of fat in excess of what my body needed at that time?
Click to expand...

The main thing is that when you replace carbs with fat you shut down the hormonal systems that generate hunger and you naturally eat fewer calories, your intake becomes more closely balanced to your needs so you would stop before you overrate.

Then there are internal losses, generating your glucose requirements from protein and generating ketones from fat are more lossy processes than converting carbs to glucose. It's very complicated and becoming more so as different players in the game are revealed.
 
So we are saying that a lot of those 4000 calories are lost in the metabolic processes? I think this is a really interesting question, if say a woman using an average of 2000 calories per day eats 4000 calories of protein and fat then 2000 of them need to turn into something other than fat to stop her putting on weight. So if they are not excreted, where does the energy go, does it turn into heat?

Anyone out there who can answer this in laymans terms?

Thanks
 
the_anticarb said:
So we are saying that a lot of those 4000 calories are lost in the metabolic processes? I think this is a really interesting question, if say a woman using an average of 2000 calories per day eats 4000 calories of protein and fat then 2000 of them need to turn into something other than fat to stop her putting on weight. So if they are not excreted, where does the energy go, does it turn into heat?

Anyone out there who can answer this in laymans terms?

Thanks
Click to expand...

Part of it is eaten by gut bacteria etc. and turned into turds. but the main point is that she wouldn't eat that excess of calories in the first place, she would stop when she'd had enough.
 
Aha but according to Dr Atkins you can eat piles of cream, cheese, belly pork etc and still not put on weight. So is this true? Saying she would not eat that amount doesn't answer the question - we have all eaten more than our bodies needed from time to time
 
Well don't know how it works but I once ate 13,000, yes, 13,000 additional calories in maca nuts in one week and lost four pounds, this was on top of huge amounts of chicken wings, eggs, butter, ribs, cocnut oil, double cream coffees, pork chops, belly pork, lamb kebabs (not bread), the list goes on...I really should be too embarassed to admit all that LOL
 
Read Gary Taubes "The Diet Deception"
He's a journalist with scientific training, who searced through all the published material on diet and came up with this remarkable book. He doesn't claim to be a medic or a scientist, but uncovered some mind blowing information. There are almost 100 pages of checkable references in his book.
I have a US Copy, which I've read thoroughly. Next project is to get a copy of John Yudkin's "Pure, white and Deadly"
Yudkin was the most significant nutritionist of a generation until Ancel Keys came along and pleased the sugar industry.
 
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