High sugar / fast fat loss conundrum

[Techlab2k]

Hi, hopefully someone might have a quick and sensible solution for this. I’ve ditched just about 12kg in the past 4 months following the principles of the fast800 and various other low carb regimens. Into this I’ve added weight training to increase muscle mass and thus burn more calories. It’s working better than expected and I’m burning visible body fat daily quantifying it as what seems the equivalent of about a pint glass of body fat a day. I am still at an average of 7.5mmol daily though on a 2000 calorie a day intake with expenditure of about 2900 calories a day.
When I have a bit of a ‘relaxed’ evening with lots of healthy snacks, nuts, yoghurt fruit etc and maybe a couple of large glasses of red wine and approach or exceed my calories burned for the day I get my fasting BG the next day down to 4.2 - 4.7 and it stays low until I start exercising then it creeps up to 7-8 again.

The question is, do I keep hammering the fat until it’s at an acceptable amount and take a short term hit on high BG then try to match calories to maintain weight or do I narrow the calorie deficit and slow down the fat loss and have lower BG?

The more I think about it the more I confuse myself. My brain says slow it down but the inner me keeps telling me to go for it as I’m looking great and really enjoying having a good figure and wearing well fitting small sized clothes.

If it helps, from several calculators, my body fat percentage is about 22% now.

Thanks for reading, and in advance for any advice.

 

[Techlab2k]

Sorry, just done my weekly measurements (wrists, neck and waist) and body fat now 19.4% down from last weeks 22%. I’m thinking I need to level out soon at this rate.

 

[Cluso]

It is normal for the liver to dump G when you exercise, its technically supplying stuff to burn... Perfectly healthy people do this too

Anyway 7 to 8 is not a criminal level... if its in the context of exercise and high activity.

I lost 17.5 KG in less than 2.5 months, under no physical activity (got my knee in a mess, barely leave the house), so it was only with diet. My BG varies between 3.6 and 5.6 during the day, less than 3 months ago my average BG was north of 14.

I would recommend a very low carb diet (only meat eggs and fish with green leaf - lettuche, broculli, celery, cabbage, collard and so on). Im doing 2 meals a day Max 600 calories each. No exercise at all. So even if you do 3 meals a day of almost no carbs, you should be able to lower BG (I think) and still loose weight (assuming you should loose a lot more, maybe you have reached the goal).

 

[MrsA2]

Ignore calories, they are meaningless for T2s.
For us it's carbs that matter.
Once your average (hba1c) is down where you want it to be you can maintain weight by keeping carbs low, increasing or decreasing the fat you eat to lever weight up or down and keep eating enough protein for fuel and feeling full.
Snack will disappear, wine can stay in occasionally and moderately. Simples!

 

[catinahat]

The low fasting levels after wine or any alcohol for that matter, is very common. something to do with alcohol being a poison, so the liver prioritises on the job of getting rid of it, and has no time for it's usual duties like giving us a shot of glucose to get us going in the morning.

 

[Techlab2k]

Ignore calories, they are meaningless for T2s.
For us it's carbs that matter.
Once your average (hba1c) is down where you want it to be you can maintain weight by keeping carbs low, increasing or decreasing the fat you eat to lever weight up or down and keep eating enough protein for fuel and feeling full.
Snack will disappear, wine can stay in occasionally and moderately. Simples!

It makes sense. My first two months saw a total elimination of alcohol but it drifted back in over Christmas and stayed. That’s off the list from today. My snack of choice, a handful of mixed nuts can stay as they fill a gap. If I keep on my current plan my body fat will get too low so I think I just need to go up a level with protein shakes with full fat milk on top of my, very low carb, diet. I find regular weight checks are quite random and can vary by up to 1kg either way day on day but I think if I persevere I should be able to see a trend.

Thanks

 

[Techlab2k]

Thanks everyone for the advice. It’s all going to be included in my next phase - maintaining the correct fat / weight levels - I think I may have to lower my exercise levels a tad as I’m a bit to over enthusiastic - my watch says I burned 1500 active calories yesterday (on top of my 1400 inactive usage) and that has to come from somewhere and at the moment that is from my body fat more than from my daily food intake. I just need to fine tune the diet to have energy on tap without breaking in to my body fat too much. Logic says eat a little, more often in the day rather than the 2-3 ‘main’ meals I normally have. Time will tell but if I start to put on weight I know I can lose it again rather easily by juggling food and exercise. This stuff is so complicated, I’m trying to get the Doc to refer me to a dietitian but as it’s NHS he’s hoping that he can medicate me lower without having to waste money on extra services.

Thanks again for the advice.

 

[Cluso]

Thanks everyone for the advice. It’s all going to be included in my next phase - maintaining the correct fat / weight levels - I think I may have to lower my exercise levels a tad as I’m a bit to over enthusiastic - my watch says I burned 1500 active calories yesterday (on top of my 1400 inactive usage) and that has to come from somewhere and at the moment that is from my body fat more than from my daily food intake. I just need to fine tune the diet to have energy on tap without breaking in to my body fat too much. Logic says eat a little, more often in the day rather than the 2-3 ‘main’ meals I normally have. Time will tell but if I start to put on weight I know I can lose it again rather easily by juggling food and exercise. This stuff is so complicated, I’m trying to get the Doc to refer me to a dietitian but as it’s NHS he’s hoping that he can medicate me lower without having to waste money on extra services.

Thanks again for the advice.

If you are worried with going too low with body fat, then you can eat more fat (which is what I do if my weight loss is making me weak). For that I drop tons of olive oil in my salads, eat avocados and olives, some fat meats and especially Brie cheese (very high fat very low carbs), 100% dark chocolate (Lindt for example) seems to have many carbs but its mostly fiber.

These nutrient dense foods will keep you from over loosing weight while the fat slows down digestion and fully replaces carbs as a fuel source.

 

[KennyA]

It might help if you gave us some info about your condition, HbA1c etc? I'm assuming you're T2.

I pay no attention to calories - its carbs that count for T2s. Do you know if you're producing ketones, and if so how much? If you're low carbing and losing body fat I'd expect that you were.

I've found that alcohol makes little or no difference to what actually happens although it seems to depress bg readings and hide carb impact for a while.

 

[Techlab2k]

It might help if you gave us some info about your condition, HbA1c etc? I'm assuming you're T2.

I pay no attention to calories - its carbs that count for T2s. Do you know if you're producing ketones, and if so how much? If you're low carbing and losing body fat I'd expect that you were.

I've found that alcohol makes little or no difference to what actually happens although it seems to depress bg readings and hide carb impact for a while.

Hi, yes, I’m T2. I don’t actually know what my HbA1c is. On my last review I was told it was markedly lower than my previous but forgot to ask for the numbers as I was asking lots of other questions. I’m going in again next week so will get all my historic numbers then as I think I will be able to see a trend.
As for carbs, I’ve come to the same conclusions by experimenting and have precious little now. When I do, like last night, onions, peppers, chillis, mushrooms, spelt grains, lentils stir-fried with king prawns and a 1lb steak to boot. Glass of red with it too. This took my calorie intake to my expenditure level for the day and fasting figure was 5.2. When I have a 2000 calorie food day and, I expect, a 2900 cal output then I know my fasting figures will be about 7 tomorrow.

It’s a strange condition as when I first started the weight loss, the less I ate and the more exercise I did drove my fasting figures right down. About 2 months in the fat was reducing massively and the figures were off the charts and ketones were occasionally detected. When I say massive I’m talking 25mmol and higher. This stabilised rapidly through the day to 7 or so though and now I’m only getting good numbers from balancing intake/output but I still need to shift about 2.5kg of body fat to get to 15% body fat.

 

[HSSS]

Perhaps rather than focus solely on calories looking where those calories come from is more important and the ratio of fats proteins and carbs. Lentils and spelt are the higher carb items you mention. I’d check on the snacks yoghurt and fruit too.

Eating more frequently rather than confining to meals means you raise insulin more often whereas limiting the times each day you do so usually has better effects on insulin resistance and glycemic control.

Most of us find that getting the bgl under control using carb control incidentally sorts out the excess weight. As you’ve already made huge inroads into weight loss and exercise maybe now is the time to switch focus directly to bgl and carbs Rather than calories and weight loss as the primary goals.