Long term low carbers following Bernsteins advice?

[mehhh2015]

Yes, his advice is to tailor the diet to your peculiarities as long as you are within the ranges he proposes in terms of normal constant blood sugar levels which are the objective.

 

[Ian DP]

The way I see Dr B is that THE most important thing of all is BG 4.6 fasting and 5.6 2hr after eating. All his eating, exercising and meds is his advice / experience on how to help you get to these levels.

 

[Clivethedrive]

The way I see Dr B is that THE most important thing of all is BG 4.6 fasting and 5.6 2hr after eating. All his eating, exercising and meds is his advice / experience on how to help you get to these levels.

Nicely put !

 

[Winnie53]

Ian DP, thank you so much for posting your success here. I can't begin to tell you how much you've inspired me with your story. When I read it, I thought, okay, if Ian can do it, I can too. I mean it.

I also feel as you do. Dr. Bernstein's Diabetes Solution is the ultimate authority.

I'm grieving right now, actually I'm fighting bitterness. My diabetes journey began in 1980 with hypoglycemia, the year, I believe, Dr. Bernstein's work was first published in a book. How different my life would be today had I know then what I know now. I was treated by an endocrinologist for three years who is a Type 1 diabetic married to a cardiologist, and she not only withheld this information, she adhered to treatment approaches based bad science, even though she saw every day in her practice that the current treatments didn't work well and led to many patients giving up.

My goal is to follow Dr. Bernstein's hard won experience and guidance for the rest of my life.

The reason I am reading Adkins Diabetes Revolution is because he fills in some information for me that I don't believe Bernstein addresses as well: how to get through the initial challenges and frustrations with the diet and what nutritional supplements to take.

The latter is very important for me. I was formally diagnosed with gluten sensitivity a few years ago, which, like diabetes, when not adequately addressed, also results in a slow, drawn out death. Both my father and his sister lived with ulcerative colitis their entire lives and died of cancer in their 60's. Had they been diagnosed with gluten sensitivity and removed gluten from their diet, I believe they would both be alive and healthy today.

So what does this have to do with nutritional supplements?

With celiac, I believe it's referred to as coeliac in the UK, and gluten sensitivity, the villa in the small intestines are attacked and damaged by the immune system. As a result, two things happen: the ability to absorb nutrients is compromised leading to nutritional deficiencies, and food begins leaking into the blood stream leading to more food sensitivities - (this is known as "leaky gut syndrome"). Once wheat, rye, and barley - (also oats and soy due to cross contamination with wheat at the time of harvest or storage) - are removed from the diet, it takes years for the body to recover, in part because any exposure to gluten, typically in restaurants, re-activates the immune system again, though the damage is, I assume, limited only to the brief time gluten is present in the small intestine.

Apologies for the long explanation, but this is the reason I continue to need nutritional supplements.

Some people, I suspect Dr. Bernstein is one of them, have been blessed with the ability to get all their nutritional needs met through diet alone. And, as a result, make the unintentional mistake of ignoring this critical need.

My current goals are to 1) not give up on the diet even though it's hard in the beginning and 2) get my blood glucose level into the normal range. Once that's achieved I will up my goals. My fasting blood glucose 9 days ago was 245, today 160. As you can see, I've made good progress, but I have a long way to go yet.

The support mehhh2015 is providing me through this topic is exactly what I need right now. And Ian, your accomplishment is keeping me going. Never underestimate the power of our stories.

 

[Clivethedrive]

Ian DP, thank you so much for posting your success here. I can't begin to tell you how much you've inspired me with your story. When I read it, I thought, okay, if Ian can do it, I can too. I mean it.

I also feel as you do. Dr. Bernstein's Diabetes Solution is the ultimate authority.

I'm grieving right now, actually I'm fighting bitterness. My diabetes journey began in 1980 with hypoglycemia, the year, I believe, Dr. Bernstein's work was first published in a book. How different my life would be today had I know then what I know now. I was treated by an endocrinologist for three years who is a Type 1 diabetic married to a cardiologist, and she not only withheld this information, she adhered to treatment approaches based bad science, even though she saw every day in her practice that the current treatments didn't work well and led to many patients giving up.

My goal is to follow Dr. Bernstein's hard won experience and guidance for the rest of my life.

The reason I am reading Adkins Diabetes Revolution is because he fills in some information for me that I don't believe Bernstein addresses as well: how to get through the initial challenges and frustrations with the diet and what nutritional supplements to take.

The latter is very important for me. I was formally diagnosed with gluten sensitivity a few years ago, which, like diabetes, when not adequately addressed, also results in a slow, drawn out death. Both my father and his sister lived with ulcerative colitis their entire lives and died of cancer in their 60's. Had they been diagnosed with gluten sensitivity and removed gluten from their diet, I believe they would both be alive and healthy today.

So what does this have to do with nutritional supplements?

With celiac, I believe it's referred to as coeliac in the UK, and gluten sensitivity, the villa in the small intestines are attacked and damaged by the immune system. As a result, two things happen: the ability to absorb nutrients is compromised leading to nutritional deficiencies, and food begins leaking into the blood stream leading to more food sensitivities - (this is known as "leaky gut syndrome"). Once wheat, rye, and barley - (also oats and soy due to cross contamination with wheat at the time of harvest or storage) - are removed from the diet, it takes years for the body to recover, in part because any exposure to gluten, typically in restaurants, re-activates the immune system again, though the damage is, I assume, limited only to the brief time gluten is present in the small intestine.

Apologies for the long explanation, but this is the reason I continue to need nutritional supplements.

Some people, I suspect Dr. Bernstein is one of them, have been blessed with the ability to get all their nutritional needs met through diet alone. And, as a result, make the unintentional mistake of ignoring this critical need.

My current goals are to 1) not give up on the diet even though it's hard in the beginning and 2) get my blood glucose level into the normal range. Once that's achieved I will up my goals. My fasting blood glucose 9 days ago was 245, today 160. As you can see, I've made good progress, but I have a long way to go yet.

The support mehhh2015 is providing me through this topic is exactly what I need right now. And your accomplishment is keeping me going. Never underestimate the power of our stories.

Yes we all need advice and encouragement,thats one of the lovely things going on here,so many caring sharing people ,long may they continue :)

 

[mehhh2015]

Hi again,

First I want to say I really appreciate your input in the discussion and that is very useful and interesting for me to hear the different experiences and approaches that everyone has regarding Dr. Bersteins approach to diabetes management.

I would like to clarify that with this thread I was not trying to advocate Dr B Solution as the the right or wrong approach to anybody elses health concerns. My personal approach is low carb lifestyle, and I am adopting Dr. Bersteins rules within my personal approach and my experience with Atkins.

My intention, was to learn from the experiences that other members of the forum have had with it and in particular the issue of the strenuous exercise. The responses had been varied and all interesting and educating. So I thank everyone for the input as it helps me with my journey.

Having said that, I would like to stress a few things that I think are important and very interesting about Dr. B's book just to keep the debate open and going as I believe it enriches us all .

Dr. B, at no point in time in his book, advocates a 1 strategy suits all approach, on the contrary, he acknowledges that a very personalized approach is the way to deal with the issues related to diabetes and impaired glucose metabolism in general. He mentions 4 protocols for Type 2.

In another part of his book he also mentions Atkins diet.

His guidelines, as one could expect from a book rather than from a consultation with him, are a general guide to his methodologies, and he from the very beginning clarifies that he "negotiates" the "dietary advice" with his patients after having a look at all their profiles, taking into consideration lifestyles and lots of other peculiarities, including the different types of diabetes (particularly all the different type 2 ones) as well as other issues, as the one that concerns me, for example PCOS.

The main objective as I understand it, is to keep blood sugar levels at a constant rate throughout 24hours a day (not just at fasting), he says he usually (not always, at least not from the very beginning) selects a target of 83mg/dl (4.6), he clarifies this is not an average but a level to keep throughout the day.

This figure is based on his experience and research about what the blood sugar levels of a non diabetic, non obese, healthy person levels are (and which I personally would aspire to).

He says the objective is, and I quote: " to find a treatment plan that will get you off the roller coaster and keep you off".

So as I understand it is this (stable BG levels) that we are aiming at. Constant blood sugar levels at all times, avoiding spikes and as close to "normal" BG's as we can possibly aspire to. Hi makes emphasis on this aspect through various comments.

A very low carb diet as the one he advocates, would, in most people as I far as I understand it, have immediate positive results in terms of body weight and BG levels (although he well points out that there exceptions to this).

That doesn't mean it has to stay immovable from that initial state and I personally don't feel that that is his suggestion, but I might be mistaken on that one, however, that is not what I conclude from his book. However avoiding spikes and constant BG throughout the day is a must (in his opinion) to avoid complications.

In my personal experience, in all the different low carbs diets I have researched (and I am not claiming at all to be an expert on them all) the most important element in all of them is: the reduction of starches and sugars, with emphasis on processed foods.

Everything else seems to be a tweak around the main fact: Low carbohydrate consumption can help reduce blood sugar levels and encourages weight loss.

In Dr. B's particular case he takes the perspective of how this fact is applied to people with metabolic issues related to blood sugar levels (Diabetes, PCOS).

He points out at different patients stories and anecdotes... some of which for example use cookies to keep their BG's stable throughout the day. They might or might not be low carb, but from his comments I infer that is not the case.

He also mentioned different supplements and different medicines he would use to treat different patients. This all points out to me at the very fact that even his dietary plan can be adapted.

When I said that I plan to add carbs to my diet after losing weight and improving my insulin resistance, following the Atkins approach of 5 carbs a day, per week I am not contradicting or disregarding his recommendations, in my personal experience with low carb diets, a lot of people can cope really well with levels around 40-50grms of carbs a day, and even higher levels again, the differences between individuals have a massive impact on this decisions.

He also mentions that, following the rule of the small numbers, the estimates of carbs content in his dietary recommendations are well below the real levels, from what I conclude that they are closer to the 20grms a day that Atkins advocate (from my calculations) than anything else, again, I see no problems or contradictions with this.

Personally, I take ALL advice in life given to me with a pinch of salt, I agree I prefer his experience because of being diabetic and because it sounds very reliable to me when I contrast it to my own experience, but that doesn't mean that for example between the people that advocates low calorie diets (or any other sort of diet for that matter) there aren't a few diabetics as well.

There are too many individual aspects of genetic profile, lifestyle, general health levels, etc, to assume that all is fixed and written on stone. There is room for adapting his recommendations, and he leaves it open to experimentation, as long as we use our meters as the ultimate measure of the effects of foods in our blood sugar.

 

[mehhh2015]

Ian DP, thank you so much for posting your success here. I can't begin to tell you how much you've inspired me with your story. When I read it, I thought, okay, if Ian can do it, I can too. I mean it.

I also feel as you do. Dr. Bernstein's Diabetes Solution is the ultimate authority.

I'm grieving right now, actually I'm fighting bitterness. My diabetes journey began in 1980 with hypoglycemia, the year, I believe, Dr. Bernstein's work was first published in a book. How different my life would be today had I know then what I know now. I was treated by an endocrinologist for three years who is a Type 1 diabetic married to a cardiologist, and she not only withheld this information, she adhered to treatment approaches based bad science, even though she saw every day in her practice that the current treatments didn't work well and led to many patients giving up.

My goal is to follow Dr. Bernstein's hard won experience and guidance for the rest of my life.

The reason I am reading Adkins Diabetes Revolution is because he fills in some information for me that I don't believe Bernstein addresses as well: how to get through the initial challenges and frustrations with the diet and what nutritional supplements to take.

The latter is very important for me. I was formally diagnosed with gluten sensitivity a few years ago, which, like diabetes, when not adequately addressed, also results in a slow, drawn out death. Both my father and his sister lived with ulcerative colitis their entire lives and died of cancer in their 60's. Had they been diagnosed with gluten sensitivity and removed gluten from their diet, I believe they would both be alive and healthy today.

So what does this have to do with nutritional supplements?

With celiac, I believe it's referred to as coeliac in the UK, and gluten sensitivity, the villa in the small intestines are attacked and damaged by the immune system. As a result, two things happen: the ability to absorb nutrients is compromised leading to nutritional deficiencies, and food begins leaking into the blood stream leading to more food sensitivities - (this is known as "leaky gut syndrome"). Once wheat, rye, and barley - (also oats and soy due to cross contamination with wheat at the time of harvest or storage) - are removed from the diet, it takes years for the body to recover, in part because any exposure to gluten, typically in restaurants, re-activates the immune system again, though the damage is, I assume, limited only to the brief time gluten is present in the small intestine.

Apologies for the long explanation, but this is the reason I continue to need nutritional supplements.

Some people, I suspect Dr. Bernstein is one of them, have been blessed with the ability to get all their nutritional needs met through diet alone. And, as a result, make the unintentional mistake of ignoring this critical need.

My current goals are to 1) not give up on the diet even though it's hard in the beginning and 2) get my blood glucose level into the normal range. Once that's achieved I will up my goals. My fasting blood glucose 9 days ago was 245, today 160. As you can see, I've made good progress, but I have a long way to go yet.

The support mehhh2015 is providing me through this topic is exactly what I need right now. And your accomplishment is keeping me going. Never underestimate the power of our stories.

We are all individuals!!!! Soooo many things to take into account when taking these life changing decisions, keep going on your own journey, there is no right or wrong as long as it works for you (whatever is it that your goals and needs are). Whatever information you consider would be helpful to you I wouldn't hesitate reading... even reading that what is against what we think might help us in our journeys

 

[mehhh2015]

Another clarification, increasing the amount of carbohydrates for me, isn't the equivalent as increasing the amount of wheat or sugar (or any other grains or forms of sugar) .

It could well be from seeds, from extra vegetables or from tubers (as my experience with sweet potatoes was so good... the future will tell), I would personally stir away, above all, from processed foods of any kind.

 

[Winnie53]

Hi again,

First I want to say I really appreciate your input in the discussion and that is very useful and interesting for me to hear the different experiences and approaches that everyone has regarding Dr. Bersteins approach to diabetes management.

I would like to clarify that with this thread I was not trying to advocate Dr B Solution as the the right or wrong approach to anybody elses health concerns. My personal approach is low carb lifestyle, and I am adopting Dr. Bersteins rules within my personal approach and my experience with Atkins.

My intention, was to learn from the experiences that other members of the forum have had with it and in particular the issue of the strenuous exercise. The responses had been varied and all interesting and educating. So I thank everyone for the input as it helps me with my journey.

Having said that, I would like to stress a few things that I think are important and very interesting about Dr. B's book just to keep the debate open and going as I believe it enriches us all .

Dr. B, at no point in time in his book, advocates a 1 strategy suits all approach, on the contrary, he acknowledges that a very personalized approach is the way to deal with the issues related to diabetes and impaired glucose metabolism in general. He mentions 4 protocols for Type 2.

In another part of his book he also mentions Atkins diet.

His guidelines, as one could expect from a book rather than from a consultation with him, are a general guide to his methodologies, and he from the very beginning clarifies that he "negotiates" the "dietary advice" with his patients after having a look at all their profiles, taking into consideration lifestyles and lots of other peculiarities, including the different types of diabetes (particularly all the different type 2 ones) as well as other issues, as the one that concerns me, for example PCOS.

The main objective as I understand it, is to keep blood sugar levels at a constant rate throughout 24hours a day (not just at fasting), he says he usually (not always, at least not from the very beginning) selects a target of 83mg/dl (4.6), he clarifies this is not an average but a level to keep throughout the day.

This figure is based on his experience and research about what the blood sugar levels of a non diabetic, non obese, healthy person levels are (and which I personally would aspire to).

He says the objective is, and I quote: " to find a treatment plan that will get you off the roller coaster and keep you off".

So as I understand it is this (stable BG levels) that we are aiming at. Constant blood sugar levels at all times, avoiding spikes and as close to "normal" BG's as we can possibly aspire to. Hi makes emphasis on this aspect through various comments.

A very low carb diet as the one he advocates, would, in most people as I far as I understand it, have immediate positive results in terms of body weight and BG levels (although he well points out that there exceptions to this).

That doesn't mean it has to stay immovable from that initial state and I personally don't feel that that is his suggestion, but I might be mistaken on that one, however, that is not what I conclude from his book. However avoiding spikes and constant BG throughout the day is a must (in his opinion) to avoid complications.

In my personal experience, in all the different low carbs diets I have researched (and I am not claiming at all to be an expert on them all) the most important element in all of them is: the reduction of starches and sugars, with emphasis on processed foods.

Everything else seems to be a tweak around the main fact: Low carbohydrate consumption can help reduce blood sugar levels and encourages weight loss.

In Dr. B's particular case he takes the perspective of how this fact is applied to people with metabolic issues related to blood sugar levels (Diabetes, PCOS).

He points out at different patients stories and anecdotes... some of which for example use cookies to keep their BG's stable throughout the day. They might or might not be low carb, but from his comments I infer that is not the case.

He also mentioned different supplements and different medicines he would use to treat different patients. This all points out to me at the very fact that even his dietary plan can be adapted.

When I said that I plan to add carbs to my diet after losing weight and improving my insulin resistance, following the Atkins approach of 5 carbs a day, per week I am not contradicting or disregarding his recommendations, in my personal experience with low carb diets, a lot of people can cope really well with levels around 40-50grms of carbs a day, and even higher levels again, the differences between individuals have a massive impact on this decisions.

He also mentions that, following the rule of the small numbers, the estimates of carbs content in his dietary recommendations are well below the real levels, from what I conclude that they are closer to the 20grms a day that Atkins advocate (from my calculations) than anything else, again, I see no problems or contradictions with this.

Personally, I take ALL advice in life given to me with a pinch of salt, I agree I prefer his experience because of being diabetic and because it sounds very reliable to me when I contrast it to my own experience, but that doesn't mean that for example between the people that advocates low calorie diets (or any other sort of diet for that matter) there aren't a few diabetics as well.

There are too many individual aspects of genetic profile, lifestyle, general health levels, etc, to assume that all is fixed and written on stone. There is room for adapting his recommendations, and he leaves it open to experimentation, as long as we use our meters as the ultimate measure of the effects of foods in our blood sugar.

mehhh2015, thank you for this eloquent, thoughtful, and informative post.

Having actively participated in health-related, self-help communities for 25 years, both online and locally, I have been clobbered by the reality that there is no right way to do anything that works for everyone all of the time, so...many...times, it's painful, but Bernstein's contributions, in my opinion, come brilliantly close.

I agree. It's important to seek information from a variety of sources and to stick with what works. Thanks for helping me translate Bernstein's and other's work into action steps. I'm so glad I found you all.

 

[Clivethedrive]

mehhh2015, thank you for this eloquent, thoughtful, and informative post.

Having actively participated in health-related, self-help communities for 25 years, both online and locally, I have been clobbered by the reality that there is no right way to do anything that works for everyone all of the time, so...many...times, it's painful, but Bernstein's contributions, in my opinion, come brilliantly close.

I agree. It's important to seek information from a variety of sources and to stick with what works. Thanks for helping me translate Bernstein's and other's work into action steps. I'm so glad I found you all.

Very nicely put well done

 

[mehhh2015]

I have hope... that I will be one of the very lucky ones that will be able to add a few extra things to my diet hehehehe

This is what he says:

"...do you like turnips? Great, we can probably fit them into your diet, even though I don't think I've ever eaten one in my life.... it is unreasonable to try to force my personal preferences on my patients"

 

[Clivethedrive]

I have hope... that I will be one of the very lucky ones that will be able to add a few extra things to my diet hehehehe

This is what he says:

"...do you like turnips? Great, we can probably fit them into your diet, even though I don't think I've ever eaten one in my file.... it is unreasonable to try to force my personal preferences on my patients"

The meter is boss

 

[mehhh2015]

I got up thinking about my BG yesterday night and today's FBG... he doesn't seem to mention anything about skipping meals...

Yesterday night I wasn't hungry at all, and I thought about it a lot... but I ate... in part because of his thinking about keeping the meals constant (which I agree with).

Of course the levels are still within range 4.7 before meal and 5.3 and then the same in the morning after (still 5.3 so no spikes whatsoever) but it is slightly higher than my latest readings and I think that both not going to the gym yesterday and eating so late had an impact.

I wonder if skipping a meal would be much of a problem. I suspect not but I still wonder as we are told very often not to skip meals.

From a "weightloss" program point of view it can become a reason for stalling as your metabolism becomes slower (or so they say).

But from a BG point of view, as long as I don't go into strenuous exercise that would dangerously lower my BG I think I would have been fine not having dinner yesterday or having just a protein nibble rather than eating a meal (but I would be breaking his rule of keeping the meals at a constant value and level).

Thoughts?

 

[Clivethedrive]

I got up thinking about my BG yesterday night and today's FBG... he doesn't seem to mention anything about skipping meals...

Yesterday night I wasn't hungry at all, and I thought about it a lot... but I ate... in part because of his thinking about keeping the meals constant (which I agree with).

Of course the levels are still within range 4.7 before meal and 5.3 and then the same in the morning after (still 5.3 so no spikes whatsoever) but it is slightly higher than my latest readings and I think that both not going to the gym yesterday and eating so late had an impact.

I wonder if skipping a meal would be much of a problem. I suspect not but I still wonder as we are told very often not to skip meals.

From a "weightloss" program point of view it can become a reason for stalling as your metabolism becomes slower (or so they say).

But from a BG point of view, as long as I don't go into strenuous exercise that would dangerously lower my BG I think I would have been fine not having dinner yesterday or having just a protein nibble rather than eating a meal (but I would be breaking his rule of keeping the meals at a constant value and level).

Thoughts?

Let the meter be the judge,try it.

 

[mehhh2015]

Let the meter be the judge,try it.

I have, but not intentionally. I skipped a few meals during the weekend but not intentionally. BGs were fine at all times while being active. However it would be a different matter if it becomes a recurrence... therefore the question...

 

[mehhh2015]

Found it!

You can skip a meal as long as you also skip the medicines or insulin that you take to cover that meal ...

Good for next time

 

[mehhh2015]

Something else to keep me excited about this all today:

He suggests that (quote) "it might be possible, under certain circumstances , to completely reverse your glucose intolerance... weight loss can work miracles"

Which is what I've been thinking all this time, that once you achieve ideal weight and BG numbers, and increased your insulin sensitivity by means of increasing muscle mass through exercise you might be able to eat differently.

I wouldn't dare to suggest that I will go and stuff myself with carbs, particularly starches and sugars, but what he is saying is that you might be able to tolerate them much better at a later stage.

Every time I have lost weight by doing VLC. I have managed to maintain the loss for relatively long periods of time, I never achieved my ideal weight but a) I never sticked to the "diet" for long enough and b) I didn't exercise as I use to lose the weight without the need to train.

It has always been emotional factors or circumstantial factors (food available around me at work places, long hours, bad planning etc), what had brought me back into increasing the consumption of wheat products, mainly...bread.

I think these are all exciting ideas.

Weight Loss is the objective now
While keeping BGs stable

 

[Ian DP]

I don't think there is any problem missing a meal. I have done it a few times. Eg if we unintentionally have a late lunch (main meal) I would skip eating in the evening (unless hungry). I try to avoid skipping a meal because I am trying to maintain / put weight on. It has actually been good for my BG levels (less carbs I guess).

Dr Trudi Deakin in her eat fat book says it is ok to eat only twice per day, providing you don't need to snack, and says that because fat sustains you longer between meals many do only eat twice per day.

 

[mehhh2015]

I don't think there is any problem missing a meal. I have done it a few times. Eg if we unintentionally have a late lunch (main meal) I would skip eating in the evening (unless hungry). I try to avoid skipping a meal because I am trying to maintain / put weight on. It has actually been good for my BG levels (less carbs I guess).

Dr Trudi Deakin in her eat fat book says it is ok to eat only twice per day, providing you don't need to snack, and says that because fat sustains you longer between meals many do only eat twice per day.

Totally, fats fight hunger! Its easier to stick to a diet when you aren't hungry. At least for me that is the case.

But I certainly eat sooo little while LC in comparison to when I am not LC. And it has always been the case... I end up not being hungry at all... I guess I have plenty of energy stores to burn out before starving (thrifty gene?)...

Next time I will skip it guilt free.

Just out of curiosity, if you don't mind me asking... how are you working around maintaining, putting on weight? increased fats? any tweaks around protein? I wonder... cause it would be such a different experience avoiding losing weight while keeping BGs...

 

[Ian DP]

Totally, fats fight hunger! Its easier to stick to a diet when you aren't hungry. At least for me that is the case.

But I certainly eat sooo little while LC in comparison to when I am not LC. And it has always been the case... I end up not being hungry at all... I guess I have plenty of energy stores to burn out before starving (thrifty gene?)...

Next time I will skip it guilt free.

Just out of curiosity, if you don't mind me asking... how are you working around maintaining, putting on weight? increased fats? any tweaks around protein? I wonder... cause it would be such a different experience avoiding losing weight while keeping BGs...

According to Dr Trudi Deakin a 70kg male with 10% body fat has 49,000 calories of stored energy as fat but only 2,000 calories of stored carbohydrates thus if running on fat (ketogenic) he will have around 25 times more stored energy.... Maybe why we can go longer without the need for food.

To put on weight I eat more fat. A bulletproof coffee (500 calories) every day, made with 30g butter and 30g coconut oil, helps. At 6'-2" and a BMI of 22 I need around 3500 calories to maintain weight.