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| Has your low-carb diet stopped working? Here's how to break through that pleateau and finally reach your weight-loss goal! |
A low-carb diet is an effective weight-loss tool because it promotes satiety and teaches you the importance of eating nutrient-dense foods.
You learn how your prior eating habits contributed to your present metabolic situation and that personal metabolic defects can cause you to crave the very foods that create these imbalances.
You also learn that changing your diet has the power to literally correct these imbalances and change your life.
However, there is no such thing as low-carb magic.
For many dieters, counting carbohydrates and staying within your carbohydrate tolerance will help you stay in the state of ketosis, but ketosis might not be enough to help you reach goal weight.
The major reason this is happening is because the misunderstandings regarding fat, fat storage, and calories have reached epidemic proportions within the low-carb community.
So this post seeks to clear out the myths about dietary fat and give you the vital information you need to break through your weight-loss plateau and finally reach your weight-loss goal.
What Caused My Own Weight-Loss Problems on Keto?
In my own case, the problem with not losing weight on Keto could be easily traced to a variety of issues:- hidden food sensitivities
- celiac disease (gluten sensitivity)
- leaky gut syndrome
- endocrine disruptors
- Graves Disease (hyperthyroidism)
- fat malabsorption
- probably excessive ASP
- and who knows what else
In general, the closer you get to goal weight, the more important calorie counting, fat intake, and portion control becomes. However, for many individuals, the amount of weight you’ve already lost and the length of time you’ve been low carbing plays just as large a role in the final outcome.
Maybe, even more.
Maybe, even more.
Misunderstandings Regarding Fat Storage
Many low-carb dieters believe you cannot store dietary fat without high insulin levels. They believe that low basal insulin and avoiding all insulin spikes creates a favorable environment for fatty acid mobilization and utilization.
If this idea was true: calorie counting would be obsolete.
However, fat storage and fat mobilization are accomplished quite differently than the way that most low carb dieters believe they do. In fact, in the latest study on low-carb diets, the study participants lost more weight on a high-carb diet with high insulin levels than they did on a low-carb diet after their insulin levels tanked.
If this idea was true: calorie counting would be obsolete.
However, fat storage and fat mobilization are accomplished quite differently than the way that most low carb dieters believe they do. In fact, in the latest study on low-carb diets, the study participants lost more weight on a high-carb diet with high insulin levels than they did on a low-carb diet after their insulin levels tanked.
When you eat dietary fats, Acylation Stimulating Protein, or ASP, rises significantly.
This rise does not occur from glucose. Elevated ASP levels are independent of insulin and cause all dietary fats not immediately needed for fuel to be stored in your fat cells.
This is opposite to the prevailing belief within the low-carb community that says insulin stays unchanged when you eat fats (therefore, high fat is good) and only rises when glucose spikes (so eating carbs is bad).
Their conclusion?
Low insulin means easy fat mobilization.
However, later on, when the body needs fuel, Hormone Sensitive Lipase, or HSL, is stimulated. HSL breaks triglyceride down into fatty acids.
Fat storage is not stagnant. It is more like a constant river that runs in and out of the fat cell. Fat cells are not actually storage depots.
The flux of ASP fat storage and HSL release can get clogged. When that happens, more dietary fat enters the fat cell than leaves.
This is what actually causes overweight and obesity: the inability to use stored body fat for fuel.
How Dietary Fats Affect Your Low-Carb Diet
Most people following a low-carb diet do not find value in counting calories. Others believe that eating more dietary fat will provide faster weight loss.
However, if fat provides more fuel than is needed, the body will store more fat than it can mobilize.
HSL only releases enough fatty acids to meet your daily metabolic needs. It doesn’t release extra triglycerides just because you’ve raised the amount of fats you're eating.
However, if fat provides more fuel than is needed, the body will store more fat than it can mobilize.
HSL only releases enough fatty acids to meet your daily metabolic needs. It doesn’t release extra triglycerides just because you’ve raised the amount of fats you're eating.
Those who eat coconut oil off a spoon, add butter to their coffee, or drown their low-carb foods in sour cream and cheese on top of their current daily fat intake do not always experience what those who chant “up the fat” claim they will.
More likely, you won't lose weight despite strict adherence to your low-carb eating plan if you are force-feeding the fat.
If you fall into the obese category, your ASP fasting levels are 58 to 400 percent higher than ASP basal levels found in those who
are not obese.
Higher circulating ASP interferes with HSL stimulation and therefore fat mobilization.
Regardless of low insulin levels achieved by following a low-carb diet, when ASP levels are consistently elevated, stored body fat cannot be broken down into fatty acids for fuel. When you raise the fat content of your diet, the result is easy weight gain rather than fat loss.
Higher circulating ASP interferes with HSL stimulation and therefore fat mobilization.
Regardless of low insulin levels achieved by following a low-carb diet, when ASP levels are consistently elevated, stored body fat cannot be broken down into fatty acids for fuel. When you raise the fat content of your diet, the result is easy weight gain rather than fat loss.
Why Portion Control and Counting Calories Matter
In the beginning of a low-carb diet, carbohydrate levels are
low.
Depending upon how much you weigh and how much you need to lose, many find they can eat high amounts of dietary fat without having to focus on portion control or calories. The reason why you can experience weight loss rather easily is because your energy needs are high.
Depending upon how much you weigh and how much you need to lose, many find they can eat high amounts of dietary fat without having to focus on portion control or calories. The reason why you can experience weight loss rather easily is because your energy needs are high.
For example, when I first came back to low carbing in 2007, I
weighed 256-1/2 pounds. Even though I’m only 5-foot tall, at that weight, maintenance
for me was over 3,000 calories a day!
Since most people are much taller than I am, maintenance calories in the beginning of your weight-loss journey can be quite high. This enables you to easily adjust to the changes that a low-carb diet demands.
Since most people are much taller than I am, maintenance calories in the beginning of your weight-loss journey can be quite high. This enables you to easily adjust to the changes that a low-carb diet demands.
At some point:
As body fat is lost and body fuel needs change, if you continue eating high-calorie foods, energy input catches up with and balances energy output, resulting in a long, lengthy plateau.
If you’re still in the obese category, as I was, that also means higher circulating ASP.
Plus, depending upon how long it has taken to reach your current level of health, your metabolic rate may also have dropped quite a bit, since we’re utilizing and optimizing the body’s starvation pathway by restricting carbs.
As body fat is lost and body fuel needs change, if you continue eating high-calorie foods, energy input catches up with and balances energy output, resulting in a long, lengthy plateau.
If you’re still in the obese category, as I was, that also means higher circulating ASP.
Plus, depending upon how long it has taken to reach your current level of health, your metabolic rate may also have dropped quite a bit, since we’re utilizing and optimizing the body’s starvation pathway by restricting carbs.
What most stalled low-carb dieters fail to consider is this:
Your new smaller body now needs less fuel.
Your new smaller body now needs less fuel.
Weight-Loss Success Sometimes Requires Less Dietary Fat
The purpose of all diet plans is to help you learn healthy
eating habits.
A low-carb diet can be an effective way to focus on and zero in on nutrient-dense foods. It can help to get you off the processed carby junk and onto a more whole-foods diet.
However, a low-carb diet doesn’t automatically translate into long-term, effective weight loss. Eventually, many of us come to realize that a 16-ounce porterhouse steak is not real life.
A low-carb diet can be an effective way to focus on and zero in on nutrient-dense foods. It can help to get you off the processed carby junk and onto a more whole-foods diet.
However, a low-carb diet doesn’t automatically translate into long-term, effective weight loss. Eventually, many of us come to realize that a 16-ounce porterhouse steak is not real life.
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| Most Low-Carb Recipes Are Super High in Fat |
They can sometimes work when you’re at the beginning of the path, but that isn’t always the case.
While a few individuals have been finding success by turning to a high-fat Nutritional Ketosis plan that lowers protein and raises the amount of dietary fats you eat, this extreme keto program designed by Jimmy Moore won’t work if you don’t easily burn dietary fats. You have to have the genetics for high-fat burning for an 80-percent fat diet to work.
It also will not work well if your ASP levels are high.
This is why it is essential to customize your low-carb diet plan to fit your:
Low-carb diets as written are wonderful starting points, but that is all they are – starting points. They give you a solid foundation to build on.
Even the Atkins Diet was never designed to be a one-size-fits-all diet plan that the low-carb community has turned it into today.
- desires
- health needs
- lifestyle
- food sensitivities
- metabolic issues
- genetics
Low-carb diets as written are wonderful starting points, but that is all they are – starting points. They give you a solid foundation to build on.
Even the Atkins Diet was never designed to be a one-size-fits-all diet plan that the low-carb community has turned it into today.
In fact, Dr. Atkins himself said that some individuals
do better on a low-fat diet. His nurse has said that sometimes calories do have
to be addressed because the diet works best if you eat only as much as you need
to avoid the discomfort of hunger.
This is very different then the high-fat mindset being preached among the low-carb tribes today.
This is very different then the high-fat mindset being preached among the low-carb tribes today.
Personal Effects of Eating High-Fat Low-Carb
The bottom line is that some people do best on a high-fat
low-carb diet. I understand that. Some people do best on a moderate-fat diet, and some people do
best on a lower fat diet.
But that doesn’t mean that if you need to eat lower fat you’re doing something wrong. It doesn’t mean that you need to change what works best for you to fit someone else’s ideal.
It’s fantastic when you find something that works for you.
It’s fantastic that so many people want to share what they’ve discovered about themselves. But let’s not forget that these discoveries are personal discoveries.
For me, this means I cannot eat a high-fat diet. Ever. I have never been able to eat a high-fat diet, even when I was doing Atkins in 2007.
I'm having the exact same experience now.
Although, I lost 10 pounds since moving to Texas and returning to a very low-carb diet, I have not lost any more than that, even though it's been several months now. My body doesn't respond to traditional Atkins.
I did do some experiments with Nutritional Ketosis and high-fat eating when I first wrote this post because I was hoping that my fat issues might have actually been due to eating too much protein, or were tied into my intestinal inflammation problems, rather than calories, but that didn't turn out to be the case.
But that doesn’t mean that if you need to eat lower fat you’re doing something wrong. It doesn’t mean that you need to change what works best for you to fit someone else’s ideal.
It’s fantastic when you find something that works for you.
It’s fantastic that so many people want to share what they’ve discovered about themselves. But let’s not forget that these discoveries are personal discoveries.
For me, this means I cannot eat a high-fat diet. Ever. I have never been able to eat a high-fat diet, even when I was doing Atkins in 2007.
I'm having the exact same experience now.
Although, I lost 10 pounds since moving to Texas and returning to a very low-carb diet, I have not lost any more than that, even though it's been several months now. My body doesn't respond to traditional Atkins.
I did do some experiments with Nutritional Ketosis and high-fat eating when I first wrote this post because I was hoping that my fat issues might have actually been due to eating too much protein, or were tied into my intestinal inflammation problems, rather than calories, but that didn't turn out to be the case.
From those experiments, I came to a few realizations about myself that I wasn’t
aware of before.
Because I adopted suggestions made by others, I paid a high price for those experiments. I paid a high price for listening to and embracing the personal discoveries of others.
My weight went up.
My cholesterol numbers went bad, as did my A1c.
Both were excellent when I was eating low-fat low-carb, so the only variable that changed moving to a low-carb, high-fat diet.
Because I adopted suggestions made by others, I paid a high price for those experiments. I paid a high price for listening to and embracing the personal discoveries of others.
My weight went up.
My cholesterol numbers went bad, as did my A1c.
Both were excellent when I was eating low-fat low-carb, so the only variable that changed moving to a low-carb, high-fat diet.
In addition, my overall health took a dump.
The vertigo on LCHF was almost as severe as it was when I lived in California and didn't correct itself, even after stopping the high-fat diet. That took a lot more time to fix. My neuropathy and arthritis came back, due to higher blood sugars, even though both were in remission before I raised my fat intake.
I was also really, really tired eating that way, but that’s not surprising given my high triglycerides and inability to burn dietary fats.
The vertigo on LCHF was almost as severe as it was when I lived in California and didn't correct itself, even after stopping the high-fat diet. That took a lot more time to fix. My neuropathy and arthritis came back, due to higher blood sugars, even though both were in remission before I raised my fat intake.
I was also really, really tired eating that way, but that’s not surprising given my high triglycerides and inability to burn dietary fats.
The point I'm trying to make here is quite simple:
A low-carb high-fat diet isn’t magic for everyone.
Some of us need to eat a low-fat low-carb diet. Some of us need to eat a low-fat, low-carb, very low-calorie diet to achieve any kind of weight-loss success.
That’s just how it is.
A low-carb high-fat diet isn’t magic for everyone.
Some of us need to eat a low-fat low-carb diet. Some of us need to eat a low-fat, low-carb, very low-calorie diet to achieve any kind of weight-loss success.
That’s just how it is.
References:
Journal of Biochemistry, Murray , Ian, and Kohl, Jorg, and Cianflone,
Katherine, Acylation-stimulating Protein (ASP): Structure-function Determinants
of Cell Surface Binding and Triacylglycerol Synthetic Activity, 342:1, 41-48,
1999
Journal of Lipid Research, Kramer, Fredric B. and Shen,
Wen-Jun, Hormone-sensitive Lipase: Control of intracellular
Tri-(di-)acylglycerol and Cholesteryl Ester Hydrolysis, 43:1, 1585-1594,
October 2002 (doi:10.1194/jlr.R200009-JLR200)
Obesity, adipocyte.co.uk,
"Acylation Stimulating Protein" (accessed May 7, 2010)
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