• Guest - w'd love to know what you think about the forum! Take the 2025 Survey »

LCHF..16 weeks in

Hi,

I think not releasing much insulin is a good thing because yes, you have eased off pressure on those overworked little beta cells. But you can also see it as a bad thing, because your pancreas has got out of practice. Got lazy. However you want to call it. There's a long scientific explanation, including enzymes and primary and secondary insulin responses, but the upshot is that now, if you eat more carbs, it will be more difficult, and take longer, to get your bg back down again than when your body was dealing with them every day.

IMHO that's not an issue. All it means is that I have more motivation to stay on VLCarbing, and when I want to increase carb intake again, I will just do it slowly, to give the laziness time to gently wake up again.

I had no idea of this little oddity of metabolism. Until I arrived at this site - well you wouldn't, would you?
Which means that while I've been low carbing for years (and years), I had also been having occasional carb splurges (everyone deserves a treat, now and then, don't they?). No idea how much damage these occasional mega-spikes may have done.

I think your treadmill may well, over time, drop your insulin resistance a smidge. :) But then so will not actually releasing much insulin. :):) (You are type 2, aren't you? I'm afraid it's too early in the morning for my memory to be working)

And sadly, your weight will plateau occasionally. Lots of people experience this. But then, for no apparent reason, the weight starts dropping again.

When it happens to me, I'm going to try and con(vince) myself that it is giving my skin time to shrink to suit the new shape, before entering another shrink phase. But I expect I will really just be as disappointed as the next person!
 
Last edited by a moderator:
:) thank you for that very enlightening reply. yes, i am T2.

this metabolic thing is a lot more complex than i thought. CICO seems such a simplistic perspective when dealing with blood sugars, ketones, enzymes, lipids, insulin etc. far too early in my journey so i do greatly value your experience. too scared to even think about carbs for fear of blowing everything up. long may the satiety of LCHF continue. :D

am content to live with those high ketone numbers provided they do not get much higher.

hope that adding exercise to the mix will increase my metabolism and thus help with the insulin, weight, plateaus and my overall cardiovascular health. but to be honest, it was extremely beneficial in reducing my peripheral neuropathy before and i am looking forward to that again.
 
msmi1970 said:
:) thank you for that very enlightening reply. yes, i am T2.

this metabolic thing is a lot more complex than i thought. CICO seems such a simplistic perspective when dealing with blood sugars, ketones, enzymes, lipids, insulin etc. far too early in my journey so i do greatly value your experience. too scared to even think about carbs for fear of blowing everything up. long may the satiety of LCHF continue. :D

am content to live with those high ketone numbers provided they do not get much higher.

hope that adding exercise to the mix will increase my metabolism and thus help with the insulin, weight, plateaus and my overall cardiovascular health. but to be honest, it was extremely beneficial in reducing my peripheral neuropathy before and i am looking forward to that again.
Click to expand...
 
We went on hol at the beginning of the month. I really tried to stick to lc, and managed quite well, but did allow more carbs than usual to slip through.

Interesting experience. Day 1, the bg reaction was... er... disproportionate. ;)
Day 2 the same.
and so on.
But by Day 5, my BG was definitely not going up so high, and was coming back down quicker.

So I'm guessing that if I was planning to really let rip (party, wedding, general carb fest) I would probably start waking up my insulin response about a week early. something small, like a potato a day, or a slice of toast. gradually increasing. Kinder that way.

Other people may adjust faster, or slower, but worth bearing in mind. :)
 
Brunneria said:
We went on hol at the beginning of the month. I really tried to stick to lc, and managed quite well, but did allow more carbs than usual to slip through.

Interesting experience. Day 1, the bg reaction was... er... disproportionate. ;)
Day 2 the same.
and so on.
But by Day 5, my BG was definitely not going up so high, and was coming back down quicker.

So I'm guessing that if I was planning to really let rip (party, wedding, general carb fest) I would probably start waking up my insulin response about a week early. something small, like a potato a day, or a slice of toast. gradually increasing. Kinder that way.

Other people may adjust faster, or slower, but worth bearing in mind. :)
Click to expand...

wow..that is very interesting indeed. don't know if any studies have been done on this. to be honest, it is an extremely healthy lifestyle but i do miss bread.:( & i suspect the majority of people who practice LCHF are unable to do so for their entire lives. how they re-adapt & react to carb intake is certainly a critical issue and i suspect the best method as you say is in small increments whilst eating by meter.

before embarking on LCHF, i was pondering where this road would take me and whether or not i would ever be able to consume freshly baked bread ever again in a manner that would not hurt me. i quickly stopped thinking of this as i was sure the temptation would eventually overcome me. so, this issue has been stored away until now.

i suppose my specific objective is to lose the 100+ lbs I need to lose, exercise consistently and hope that my body has sufficient capability to recover & repair itself to the point where i can have a couple of slices of "real" bread and not worry anymore.:D
 
Merry Christmas All!!

Update on LCHF at 16 weeks.

First the good...40 lbs lost with virtually no hunger/cravings. A1C down from 8.6 to 5.6. Blood Pressure has normalised, so off medication. Feeling good overall. ketone levels very good.:)

On a not so positive note, HDL is slightly lower and Trigs, LDL-C and Total Cholesterol significantly higher. That is a concern. will probably do the apo B test next week.
C-reactive protein still off the charts. White cell count elevated. Inflammation was already present before LCHF but it appears 16 weeks of LCHF have not made a dent in-flammation ;) despite being touted as an anti-inflammatory diet.

some observations.

although dietary carbs well under control and blood sugar at about 5 before bed, kept waking up to FBGs of between 7 to 7.5. seems, liver dumping excessively. took it upon myself to start 1000mg metformin before bed (about 3 weeks ago). tremendous improvement as FBG now consistently between 5 to 6.

was having noticeable palpitations and arrhythmia. already supplementing with magnesium and recently started potassium. last week, decided to increase my sodium intake as recommended by Dr.Phinney (despite the fact my blood test showing within lower end of "normal" range). just 1 week later and palpitations/arrhythmia completely gone.

did a couple of 24-48 hour egg fasts. wasn't too difficult. lost quite some weight. have not decided whether or not to continue.

and finally, in response to those elevated lipid numbers, have decided to (a) stop my krill oil supplements for 1 month and (b) start walking and see whether this helps lower the numbers at all.
 
Great weight loss!
Congratulations. :happy:

Have you read Phinney and Voeks comments about cholesterol? They give some excellent breakdowns of how it rises, falls and changes, particularly during the weight loss and early phases of LCHF (in the Art and Science book, I think). Your raised Trigs may be connected to the weight loss.

My inflammation (knees, hands, tendons) seems to have completely subsided, while ketogenic.
Of course that doesn't necessarily have any relevance to you!
But I wonder if you may have some other, low grade grumbling cause? Possibilities that spring to mind would be tooth or gum problems, an infection somewhere (my mother had chronic low grade inflammation for years. Turned out to be an infected internal stitch from an op 20 yrs ago. They removed the stitch and pocket of infection with a small op, and all her other inflammation issues cleared up too).

Good to hear from you. :)
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Pasha said:
Re the inflammation, did you ever consider taking a baby aspirin each day ?. ie 100 mg dosage.
Click to expand...

thanks Pasha. have not considered that before. will certainly discuss that with my cardiologist.

i have however taken extremely high doses of NSAID called Arcoxia for prolonged periods. that reduced my inflammation considerably but it would not go down below my baseline which is already extremely high to start with. my cardiologist has always suspected chronic inflammation due to my previously uncontrolled diabetes. seems he is being proved right...
 
Brunneria said:
Great weight loss!
Congratulations. :happy:

Have you read Phinney and Voeks comments about cholesterol? They give some excellent breakdowns of how it rises, falls and changes, particularly during the weight loss and early phases of LCHF (in the Art and Science book, I think). Your raised Trigs may be connected to the weight loss.

My inflammation (knees, hands, tendons) seems to have completely subsided, while ketogenic.
Of course that doesn't necessarily have any relevance to you!
But I wonder if you may have some other, low grade grumbling cause? Possibilities that spring to mind would be tooth or gum problems, an infection somewhere (my mother had chronic low grade inflammation for years. Turned out to be an infected internal switch from an op 20 yrs ago. They removed the stick and pocket of infection with a small op, and all her other inflammation issues cleared up too).

Good to hear from you. :)
Click to expand...

Hi Brunneria :)

i have been lurking, particularly in the foods or recipe threads ;) tbh, those threads kinda make me feel "hungry".

thanks for the feedback. your experience certainly gives me hope that my inflammation will calm down in the long term. my body probably needs more than 4 months to recover after a decade of abuse..btw, i did have a chronic gum infection for some time but that has well and truly cleared up after extensive dental procedures. as i mentioned in my previous post, my cardiologist thinks it's chronic inflammation as part of long term diabetes complications. i suspect that he is right and the only recourse is to keep doing LCHF and give it time.

wrt the cholesterol issue. i have indeed read Drs.Phinney/Volek's work.

the "transient" rise in LDL-C i can certainly appreciate might be due to weight loss, but the raised Trigs & lower HDL is unlike what the majority of their test subjects have demonstrated. although the numbers are nowhere near dire, it is a slight cause for concern particularly in line with my inflammation levels. anyway, i hope to take the apo b test next week. maybe that will shine some light on this.

wishing you and yours a Merry Christmas!!
 
Back
Top