Monday, December 23, 2013

You can eat a lot during the Holiday Season and gain no body fat, as long as you also eat little

This post has been revised and re-published. The original comments are preserved below. Typically this is done with posts that attract many visits at the time they are published, and whose topics become particularly relevant or need to be re-addressed at a later date.

17 comments:

  1. Hi Ned,

    As always, you seem to think in a bigger box than most - please keep them posts coming!

    I eat only when hungry (pretty much). This equates to ~ 2 meals within a 24hr period normally. Sometimes 3, depending on exercise intensity/duration. I think my meals tend to be 'bigger' than standard 3-a-day ones.

    My question is; is gluconeogenesis up-regulated in such practices of 16-18hrs of daily fasting (within the context of a calorically appropriate and nutrient-dense diet)? What sort of upstream/downstream effects of this are interesting to assess on a continuing basis (if any)?

    Thanks

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  4. Hi Raphi. You mean GN as a protection against muscle breakdown, right? I suspect that the main compensatory adaptation in this context, related to asymmetric food consumption, is an increase in our liver glycogen tank, with ketosis being a secondary mechanism:

    http://healthcorrelator.blogspot.com/2011/01/do-you-lose-muscle-if-you-lift-weights.html

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  5. @Ned

    Hi Ned, thanks for the blog.

    OT: I clicked through that link in your last comment and noodled through to a post on fructose and glycogen:
    http://healthcorrelator.blogspot.co.uk/2010/06/fructose-in-fruits-is-good-for-you.html

    It deals with fruit, but not honey.

    Lately I've had good results with sleep on 1 tsp of honey at bedtime (about 4g of fructose?). I assume it's to do with inhibition of cortisol by restoring glycogen in the liver.

    Just curious about your view on that process + whether honey is appropriate. (Can't see a tag for honey in your contents.)

    Cheers.

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  6. Hi shtove. If I were to guess I would go with your explanation, i.e., downregulation of stress hormones due to glycogen replenishment, or a psychological effect.

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  7. I think most people agree there are benefits to changing one's exercise program to mix it up.

    I think an occasional fast (and an occasional feast) is a sort of change in exercise for our metabolic system. (As is challenging the system with occasional changes in macronutrient ratios.)

    It's remarkable how quickly the body increases and decreases synthesis of various enzymes in response to changes in conditions. Exercising those pathways seems to me to be a good thing.

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  8. Hi David. I’ve long suspected that a good way of gaining muscle is to lose some, which can be achieved by a period of calorie restriction and/or inactivity. By this I mean enduring a period of net amino acid loss, where muscle cells (the vessels) are not actually lost. When this period is over more may be gained than what was lost; the gain being in response to resistance exercise.

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  9. Muscle break-down was a part of my (granted, somewhat vague) question. The other aspect(s) I'm curious about is: what does long-term GN up-regulation mean for 'stress' in the long run? What about potential effects on longevity? Adrenal response? Is it a survival mechanism that short-term may act hormetically? But not in the long-term?
    I know the answers aren't there yet but I'm still interested in what your intuition tells you.

    PS: you & J. Stanton should get those heads together (collaboration, podcast, whatever) as your approaches are similar in that they differ greatly from the usual 'info regurgitation': i really appreciate the novel analysis of existing data rather than circular citation-counter-citation pseudo-intellectual battles all too common in the general blogosphere and research endeavours.

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  10. Hi raphi. Yes, JS is a deep thinker. We met at a recent AHS and I enjoyed talking with him.

    To answer your question, let us assume that I am right about the main compensatory adaptation in this context, related to asymmetric food consumption. That would be an increase in our liver glycogen tank, with ketosis being a secondary mechanism.

    If I am right, there would be no significant increase in stress hormones in the long term, only in the short term.

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  11. @Ned
    Thanks for this article. I want to know how long one should wait after having meals to do workout? My friend does exercise after 3 hours of meals but I don't think that a safe time gap between exercise and the meals.

    Thanks in advance!
    Arnold Brame

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  12. Hi Arnold. I guess that would depend on the size of the meal and what was in the meal – e.g., a lot of fat would slow digestion. Generally speaking, 3 h should be enough.

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  13. Really nice blog with exciting content, Nowadays bloggers publish just about gossips and web and this is actually irritating but this is nice one, I’ll be visiting it.
    shreya

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  14. is it normal for my blood glucose to rise to 150 after a meal only of protein, fat and veggies? I’m not eating VLC, but I use coconut oil. I eat veggies, one/two servings of fruit and one sweet potato. Should I be concerned? Why does this happen? I though this “physiological insulin resistance” only happened to those who do VLC and have high fasting blood sugar. My fasting blood sugar is always 70.

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  15. is it normal for my blood glucose to rise to 150 after a meal only of protein, fat and veggies? I’m not eating VLC, but I use coconut oil. I eat veggies, one/two servings of fruit and one sweet potato. Should I be concerned? Why does this happen? I though this “physiological insulin resistance” only happened to those who do VLC and have high fasting blood sugar. My fasting blood sugar is always 70.

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