PSMF ~~*JULY*~~

[gibster]

Manaloa - My plan is to do a 2-week break, but at the very least, I'll do 10 days. We'll see how it goes. After 10 days, if I feel like I'm not in control, I'll be back to PSMF. Next week Thursday will be my final weigh-in for my 12-week stint. That morning I will be winging my way to Texas to visit my DD, DSIL, and DGD. I'll be back the following Monday. So, for the first few days of my break, I won't be weighing myself at all. Scary.....

[Dharma]

Hi everyone! I was down .8 so that's good. I feel like I should be getting TOM very soon, and I'm crossing my fingers it's before my vacation. I think I may be holding water from that right now too. It's funny though - the hydration levels on my scale really don't fluctuate much at all. They're always between 50 and 52%. Does anyone else have this reading on your scales? Just curious what it usually says.

I can tell I'm not gonna be able to do PSMF after I get back from vacation. I will be moving into a more moderate diet where I can eat carbs on the days that I workout. And, I'll be adding some cardio (god forbid!) cause I think it will help. I really don't think I can lose much slower than I am now anyway, and the extra calories may even help my metabolism kick up a bit. So, my last day of PSMF will be July 28th. I am also doing a break from July 19th - 22nd while DS and DIL are here. I hope I don't get too carried away while they're here!


PSMF
6/15 – start: 159
Week 1: 153
Week 2: 151.2
Week 3: 150.2
Last 5 days: 150.4

3 day diet break

7/14: 152.8
7/15: 152

[Maddy333]

Can I join in?

I'm on Day 2 of PSMF - I am going to do it for 6 weeks, then take a week's break and decide whether to continue for another 6 weeks or try something else.

I have PCOS and over the last year I haven't been watching what I've eaten particularly and my weight has shot up. Just on day 2 my energy levels are returning and I'm 2lbs down so I'm really excited about giving it a go (though without having to deal with comments re starvation mode etc)

I'm a category 3 so have 2 free meals per week which I will probably have on day 3 and day 6

So far I'm
Day 1 - 198
Day 2 - 196

[KittyMac]

Hi Maddy! A fellow Brit who is a Cat 3! Welcome. Best of luck with PSMF and ask any questions; this is a great bunch of people, always helpful and happy to advise, I have found.

KittyMac, if you're hungry, and struggling to limit yourself to the general protein recommendation, I'd suggest that you just eat a little bit MORE protein and not worry about it. Cuz the difference between 86g and 97g is only 44 calories. And most of us are attempting to sustain quite a large deficit anyways, that even 100 calories more in protein won't make all that much difference over the long haul.

Thanks Vickie, thats reassuring. I tend to get anal about logging everything and hitting the right numbers, and getting mad at myself when I miss.

I am having a good day today. Instead of my shake this morning I had some cold meat and salad and that kept me satisfied for longer, so I was not going mad with hunger by lunchtime. I am going to experiment a bit more this week with my menus and see if I can tweak it to suit me better. I was thinking about weighing myself too. I might do it tomorrow, if I can summon up the courage, or I might leave it until the weekend.

[gibster]

Good morning, ladies.

Maddie! Glad to have you with us.

KittyMac - I tend to be anal about the numbers, too, but I've learned to cut myself some slack - at least on the upper end. I still am anal about getting my protein up to the minimum amount. I'm doing much better lately, only missing the mark once this week, and then only by about 8 grams. I tell myself that it all evens out, if I eat on the high end the next day.

Dharma - Good luck with your mini-break. Those can be scary sometimes. Just stay aware.



Start 236.8
Week 1 234.6
Week 2 230.4
Week 3 229.6
Week 4 228.4
Week 5 227.8
Week 6 224.6
Week 7 226.2
Week 8 226.8
Week 9 224.2
Week 10 224.8

Day 1: ??
Day 2: 223
Day 3: 223.6
Day 4: 222.8
Day 5 223

[Dharma]

TOM needs to just come on and get it over with!! I'm doin' okay but I know I'll lose better when TOM ends. And, I'm HUNGRY!! Tummy's growlin like crazy today. It's only 10 and I'm ready for lunch.

I'm off work Friday and I'll be cooking ALL DAY long before my kids arrive. And tasting. Oughta be interesting.

PSMF
6/15 – start: 159
Week 1: 153
Week 2: 151.2
Week 3: 150.2
Last 5 days: 150.4

3 day diet break

7/14: 152.8
7/15: 152
7/16: 151.4

[t0r1]

Hello ladies! I am still alive. I am experimenting with fasting still. I'm stuck at 135, but I think it might be muscle gain. Maybe I'll get a whoosh soon!

Dharma - Almost 8 pounds in a month is awesome! Have fun with your kids!

Linda - Keep trucking thru your break...I bet it will do your body some good! Enjoy not having to watch absolutely everything you put in your mouth.

Hello to everyone else!

[Manaloa]

Hi all. I'm not MIA, my computer died during the storm last night, we suspect a power surge. So, I might not be on much. Doing a free meal tonight.

Week 1: -5lbs
7/15/08 - 220 ____-0
7/16/08 - 218 ____-2 __FM

[gibster]

Good Morning, ladies. Reporting for duty.....Grrrrrr....I hate when my weight just hovers....I was hoping to get below 220 by next Thursday. I know, totally possible. But I wish the scale would go down and stay down. And Dharma, I don't have TOM to blame.

Oh, well. I've been totally on plan, so it eventually has to move in that direction.

Today is a busy day at work - again. Have a good day, everyone.

Start 236.8
Week 1 234.6
Week 2 230.4
Week 3 229.6
Week 4 228.4
Week 5 227.8
Week 6 224.6
Week 7 226.2
Week 8 226.8
Week 9 224.2
Week 10 224.8

Day 1: ??
Day 2: 223
Day 3: 223.6
Day 4: 222.8
Day 5 223
Day 6: 223.8

[Manaloa]

Hi all,
Found out this morning when we did some more looking around for damage from the storm that the big tree in our back yard went down. It's amazing it didn't crash through our house, that's how close it was. It looks like it just laid down between the house and the fence.
Went to Olive Garden last night. The FM went well. Had a glass of wine with dinner, two bowls of salad, 1 breadstick, 1/2 of my parmasen crusted tilapia and a couple of bites of my zuchinni/squash medley with angel hair pasta in a light garlic butter sauce. Oh, and two andes mints. Expected at least a 1lb gain this morning since I still felt full and bloated, but there's no change.

Week 1: -5lbs
7/15/08 - 220 ____-0
7/16/08 - 218 ____-2 __FM
7/17/08 - 218 ____-0

[Dharma]

Wow Manaloa glad you're okay!! Must've been some storm.

Gibster you can get there for sure.

As for me, I took a free meal last night cause psychologically I really needed it. Not great choices, but I didn't totally pig out. Worst offense was the fritos. I love those things. For my protein I just had a few turkey slices and 3 slices of fat free cheese (yuck). Oh and some sugar free margaritas.

I went ahead this morning and had an English muffin with jelly with my egg whites to help me get through my workout this morning. It definitely helped. I made it through with plenty of energy. Afterwards I just had my whey protein and having salmon for lunch. I'm still so not hungry yet, which is good!!

Funny, my weight was the same this morning. Who knows??

[Lioness0455]

Good Afternoon Everyone,
Been more than a bit under the weather the last couple of days. We had a BIG storm here last night. Enough wind to thoroughly thrash my tomatillos. And I was a-spinnin' looooong before that -- enough to spend yesterday afternoon in bed. Better today though.

I didn't know calves liver had carbs. I've avoided it for years due to a fear of toxins. But now that I think about it, that "is" where WE store part of our glycogen--so...I guess it's not all that surprising. Course, glycogen is also stored in muscle, and meat doesn't have carbs, so I guess that reasoning isn't fool proof lol.

Can't do the egg white thing. I just eat my eggs whole when I have them. In the beginning of my "last" diet round, I avoided eggs except on the weekends for that very reason, but this time, I'm just eating them. Whenever I want them. I ate lots of hard-boiled eggs and pam-sprayed scrambled eggs when on Kimkins, and it didn't affect my weight loss then. So I've just learned to be less anal in that regards.

Can't do the fat-free cheese either. My bil when he was home once, left some "light" cheese sticks he bought, (so that would make them 75% lower in fat, rather than the normal 50% lower), and took ours for traveling instead, and his were down-right awful.

My husband was sooo GREATFUL when I threw them away and bought our normal low-fat sticks. Cuz he takes them in his lunch, or snacks on them too. I can't even imagine what totally fat-free would be like.

I have a hydration reading on my Tanita-like scale too. Normal for me is about 52 to 54. That's where it's at when my vertigo is behaving itself, the weather is nice, and I'm drinking my 3 quarts of water/tea per day. So that's when I take a body-fat reading. ONLY when it's between those numbers. But it doesn't stay steady within those numbers for me, not with the Meniere's. It's up and down all over the place. Depending on what is happening with me. Especially since I'm having soooo much trouble controlling everything right now.

Welcome Maddy. PSMF has built-in controls for starvation mode, but you're welcomed here, even if you decide that psmf isn't for you. We are a mixed group here for that exact reason. Good luck with it.

I ran into an interesting thread over at lowcarber dot org in the Atkins section a couple of days ago -- about an interview that Jimmy Moore had with Dr. Berkowitz. Dr. B inherited a LOT of Dr. Atkins patients who had lost a ton of weight doing low carb, then started having serious hypoglycemic problems part way to goal. And JUST LIKE ME they can't get into Ketosis without really making themselves sick!!!

Jimmy Moore has been talking about this "some" on his blog lately, cuz he's experiencing the same thing. When he eats, his blood sugar goes down, rather than up! I'm hoping that all of this is the light at the end of my tunnel.

I've been looking through that interview, and took a bunch of notes, so I'm going to begin incorporating some of the suggestions the Doc has been using on Atkins' old patients. Especially since I had another melt down last night, just before going to bed, and started eating everything in sight.

I don't wanna make too many changes at one time though. So today, I'm just going to try to eat every 2 or 3 hours to see how that goes.

Beginning weight this round: 179.8
Week 1: 176
Week 2: 176.8
Week 3: 176.8
Week 4: 176.4

This week:
Day 1: 178
Day 2: 178
Day 3: 176.2 diet meltdown!
Day 4: 179.2

[Manaloa]

Actually muscle meat does have trace carbs. But it's usually not reported because if it's less than 1 per whatever serving then they don't "count" it. All of those nutritional facts on products are not as accurate as we'd like to think they are. That's why I don't sweat the small stuff.

Lioness, that's really interesting. What kind of suggestions?

[KittyMac]

Hi Everybody and happy Friday to you all.

I'm roughly two and a half weeks into this regime. I can see the change in my body - not a lot, but I can see I am a bit thinner in the mirror, and my jeans are getting loose. Also, I have been peeing gallons, or so it seems, so I think I am saying goodbye to a lot of water bloat. This morning I plucked up enough courage to step on the scales, and I am about four pounds down. My scales are old and hard to read, especially with my aging eyes, so its only ever approximate, and I am not even sure what my start weight was. Its enough to encourage me to persevere, even though I find it hard at times. My lowest point of the day seems to be the yawning chasm between lunch and dinner. I have a small snack in between to keep me going, but I really struggle to keep it low calorie.

Vickie, I eat liver quite a bit. Calves liver I think is the carbiest. Chicken livers have practically zero, and Lamb's liver is the lowest after that. I eat both of those a couple of times a month at least. Liver is a great source of nutrition if you can stomach it. Personally I love it, but I know plenty of people who don't.

Re the hypoglycemia and associated hunger - I suggest you try out Jenny's
two-gram cure. I keep a pack of glucose tablets with me at all times (I practise safe diabetes!) and one of those is three grams of glucose, which won't ruin any diet plan. It might put a stop to your late-night fridge raids. In fact, I think I will try it out on this afternoon's yawning chasm. If you have a BG meter its worth checking if you really are going low.

[gibster]

Good Morning, all. Happy Friday!

Well, I stayed the same - Grrrrrrr - even tho I was feeling "thinner" this morning, and after 3 bathroom trips during the night. Still waiting for the whooosh. I was planning on a free meal tomorrow night, but not so sure right now. I'm going out to dinner with a friend - going to a pub to see an old friend entertain. Their menu does have some fairly healthy choices, as long as I don't get any fries or mashed potatoes (those seem to come with every meal!). But I was planning on having ONE pint of imported beer. I guess I'll make up my mind tomorrow.

I'm getting my hair cut and ..ahem ..."conditioned"....tomorrow morning. (Read: "highlighted").

KittyMac: I love liver, but I was really surprised that the calves liver was so carby. Next time I make liver and onions, I'll use chicken livers - I like those better anyway.

Vickie - that sounds like an interesting interview. I'll go over to Jimmy's and read it today.

Manaloa - Glad you're okay! We've had our share of bad storms here in the Chicago area this summer, so I know how you feel.

to everyone I missed. BBL

Start 236.8
Week 1 234.6
Week 2 230.4
Week 3 229.6
Week 4 228.4
Week 5 227.8
Week 6 224.6
Week 7 226.2
Week 8 226.8
Week 9 224.2
Week 10 224.8

Day 1: ??
Day 2: 223
Day 3: 223.6
Day 4: 222.8
Day 5 223
Day 6: 223.8
Day 7: 223.8

[t0r1]

Good morning! TGIF! I am only working until 4 today and then heading to my hometown. I have to go thru the stuff I have at my dad's house and see what I want to take when I move. A friend of mine had a b-day on Wed. so we will be going out tonight to celebrate.

Welcome to the new people here...I haven't been posting much, but will be getting back on track. As some of you know I have been experimenting with intermittent fasting. I haven't lost any weight, but I do feel better not eating every 2-3 hours. But with fasting I have noticed that I am not picky with my food selections...so I am going to integrate PSMF and intermittent fasting. I am experimenting with the length of the fast and my eating window, so I think that I am going to try about an 8 hour eating window for now. Fasting for 24 hours 2 times a week won't work with PSMF, but an 8 hour window should give me ample time to get in all of my protein. I don't usually get hunger until 10 am so I think I will do 10am to 6pm. What do ya'll think?

I really want to get my weight down another 5 pounds before I move. My workouts have been going good, but I know that I am going to be busy packing, so I may not have time to do them everyday. I plan on doing Lyle's suggested weight workouts that he says to do 2-3 times a week. That is totally doable.

Linda - I am sure you are getting ready for a whoosh! Are you having anything new done to your hair? Mine is getting so long that I don't even fix it anymore, plus it's too hot to wear it down anyways. My mom made me an appt. with a lady in Denver next month. I need a new look for my new life, but I haven't decided what I want to do with it yet.

Kitty - Congrats on your 4 pound loss!!

Dharma - How is the cooking going? When are your kids arriving?

Vickie - I hear ya on the egg white thing...I have to have at least one yolk...that's where all the nutrients are anyways! We have our own chickens and their eggs have very pretty orange yolks.

As far as liver goes...I won't touch it with a ten foot pole. I am not a picky eater at all, but I just can't do liver or beets!!

Have a great Friday...I'll be posting up until this afternoon and then maybe not until Sunday. Last time I was at my dad's he didn't have the internet.

[Lioness0455]

Since I don't think I can post a link to the actual interview, I'll just post it. It's coming in 2 pieces, since it's quite long though.

"The Forgotten Blood Sugar Disorder: Hypoglycemia"

JM: About a year ago you wrote to me and you said... I have come across something that is so revolutionary when it comes to low carb diets... have you heard about people having hypoglycemia when they go on a lowcarb diet long term? And I said no I've never heard anybody talk about that. And he just went on and on and on about all these patients that he's seen with hypoglycemia after they've lost excessive amounts of weight or been on lowcarb for any length of time... Tell us a little about how you came across this, was it seeing the patients in your own practice and their blood sugar levels doing what they were doing that kind of led you on to this theory?

KB: Yes, definitely. I inherited several patients from Dr. Atkins who had lost significant amounts of weight, you know they had lost the first 100, 150 lbs, and all the sudden the weight loss stopped and no matter what they did, you know, they couldn't get back on track, and it was very frustrating for them. And what I ended up doing is, I put all my patients through what I call glucose tolerance tests, which means, I give them a glucose syrup to drink, and then measure their blood sugar and insulin levels for the next 3 hours after that. And I was noticing in these patients that lost significant amounts of weight, that their one and two hour blood sugars were lower than their fasting (levels). And to me that is very abnormal.

JM: It's interesting that you came across this, because at the time, I wasn't having issues or at least I didn't think I did, with blood sugar going down after you eat, that just seems so bizarre to me that your blood sugar could possibly go down, can you explain, how that's possible?

KB: Well first let me explain what's normal, and that will make more sense. Normally after you have some kind of glucose surge, your two hour blood sugar should be higher. If you think about it rationally, your fasting blood sugar, since you're not eating, should be the lowest blood sugar of your day. Well what's happening, is that instead what people are having is what we call Insulin Resistance. What that means it that after a glucose drink, their blood sugar is rising but their insulin is rising much faster than their glucose, what we call inappropriately. And the result of that, is that their blood sugar not only drops, it drops much faster and lower. So when normally people would have a higher blood sugar at two hours, now we're finding that their peak blood sugar may be at only half an hour or an hour, and at two hours they've already fallen below the fasting level.

JM: That's exactly what happened to me after having a big lowcarb meal, and zoom it went down 30 points in the span of an hour, and slowly came back up from there, but never actually reached the fasting blood sugar level, I'd never heard about that before. So insulin, would it show up on a fasting blood test, the increase in insuling?

KB: No actually it won't, and in fact in a lot of cases it's just the opposite. On the fasting we'll see very low insulin levels. And the reason for that is that when people develop LBS and hypoglycemia it's usually worse at night, and that's because when the body relaxes, the body doesn't need as much BS, and so the glucose level will tend to drop overnight. And what's interesting to me, one way I figured this out in people, is that either they get up in the night to urinate, or in the morning they feel dry and dehydrated.

JM: So the frequent urination and dry mouth and just feeling dry in general when you wake up is a possible sign of Hypoglycemia?

KB: Yes. Normally we think of those things with someone who has elevated BS. I have this analogy. If you think of a car, whether you're pressing the gas or pressing the brake, both are abnormal for the car, the car does best at cruise control. And it's the same with the blood sugar, if it's high or low, either is abnormal, you want it to be relatively within the normalrange. The body doesn't handle volatility very well.

JM: Talk about the A1c levels. What is the relationship of that to this whole hypoglycemia theory?

KB: A1c is kind of tough. It's basically a measure of an average. And it looks at your average blood sugar in the last two or three months. The problem is, as with any average, it doesn't tell you what that average makes up. So in some cases it gives you a false sense of blood sugar control. In addition, if you see a A1c that's very low, and typically we think of below 6 as being normal, non-diabetic, and everything below that being ok, but now I'm seeing more and more people that are below 5, and that corresponds to an average blood sugar in the 70s, which is very abnormal. Blood sugar should be consistently fasting 80s and 90s. So if you're having an average blood sugar in the 70s, even with meals, it shows that you have numbers that may drop as low as 40 or 50, which on the body could be construed as a panic state on the body.

JM: Talk about some of the other symptoms of hypoglycemia that people should be on the lookout for... tell-tale signs, if someone is concerned, someone should be looking for?

KB: I think the first sign is feeling hungry after you eat, that's the most obvious sign, people having cravings, it's like filling the car with a tank of gas and then having to go back to the pump. People can get things from sweating, clammyness, fuzzy feeling in the head, dizzy --

JM: Headaches?

KB: Headaches, palpitations, extreme fatigue, in some patients I see they even get bad dreams overnight.

JM: Hmmn. So like some excessive anxiety.

KB: Yeah, well and if you think about it, I look at it as, if your blood sugar is 40, your reserve is very low, to get to 0, so you don't have much to go. So the body actually construes that as a panic state, and needs to send signals to you, that hey I need to eat something, you need to bring this up as soon as possible.

JM: And I guess this could manifest also, as someone feeling really tired after they're done eating?

KB: Sure, absolutely. What's interesting to me, I have several patients that feel better when they don't eat. A lot of times they often skip breakfast, because they find that when they eat breakfast, even if they're eating appropriately, they have to eat the whole rest of the day, they never get satiated. But if they skip breakfast, they can do better getting to lunch. Because they don't have that blood sugar rollercoaster effect.

JM: And that's a tell-tale sign of the hypoglycemia as well?

KB: I think this is pretty prevalent in society even among people who are thin, as well as people who are concerned about their weight.

JM: And what would bring it on?

KB: I think it's a combination of two things. Stress on the system, with the adrenal glands and cortisol working in overdrive. And also the quality of the food. I'm seeing a phenomenon which I find kind of interesting that we've never seen before, we're now seeing people that overweight but are malnourished. And it's a concept the human race has never seen before. For thousands of years our mechanism has been to prevent starvation. That's always been our most immediate concern. What's happening now, because I think of the poor nutritional quality of the food, is that we're eating food substances, that are you know, foods that are not providing nutrition, and the body is not sensing satiety, or getting the things it needs. And because of that it feels it's still hungry.

JM: So does that explain why sometimes you might feel hungry even after eating supper, for the next few hours you just constantly feel hungry and people like to just snack and snack and snack --

KB: Absolutely, and the problem with the blood sugar, once it goes down, you're constantly fighting to keep it back up, it becomes a rollercoaster ride.

JM: I know for me, when I saw my blood sugar drop after eating, I was afraid to eat again, because I didn't want to see it drop some more!

KB: Without a doubt. And you know the problem with that is traditionally we were trained when blood sugar is low, give sugar back. Unfortunately that only continues that blood sugar rollercoaster ride. I even have trouble convincing some of my patients to this day, that eating regular food would do just as good as having a large sugar meal where you just go up again and drop down one to two hours later.

JM: You've identified the problem as hypoglycemia. What can people do? Surely there are things that we can do. We've lowered the carbs like we're supposed to, we're not eating sugar, we're doing all the right things, what can you do to try to deal to try to manage this hypoglycemia that's happening?

KB: Probably one of the most important things is eating smaller meals more frequently. I think Jimmy you described this, that you had a typical lowcarb meal, without any excess carbs, and an hour later, your blood sugar dropped. The reason for that is that even when we eat protein and fat, some of that protein and fat does turn into glucose. And does trigger that response. Probably about 50-60% of protein does that, and about 10% of fat.

JM: And that's Gluconeogenesis.

KB: Right. And the problem is that even if we're eating the right thing in a large amount, you're still going to trigger that response. Because the body has to find a way to process that food, and you either use it as energy, or move it into cells. I find my eating smaller meals more frequently, you're allowing the body to work less.

JM: I've actually implemented that personally. And that's exactly what I did in 2004, I ate every 2-3 hours, number one for hunger management, but it certainly makes sense for hypoglycemia management as well.

KB: And it's interesting; Hunger management IS (about) hypoglycemia. The hunger and cravings is a drop in your blood sugar, and that's where the correlation comes in.

[Lioness0455]

Part 2:

JM: Interesting. What else?

KB: Number two is, I think in some people they can't cut out carbohydrates completely. The reason for that is that their internal stores are impaired. And what happens is, if they cut it out completely, on a lowcarb diet, I see oftentimes that they actually don't feel good, they feel dizzy or lightheaded, because they're not able to take up protein and fat and turn it into immediate energy.

JM: So what kind of carbs should those people be eating?

KB: Well, I mean the best is always salad and vegetables, the best carbs. Sometimes in the morning I'll actually have people have a little bit of fruit, you know, focusing on the low-glycemic, berries, or pear-- and also, making sure that they have snacks on a regular routine to get to that five meals. People think they have to have 5 meals and sit down, what I really mean by that is they have to have five sittings of food. And #2 where they have to be the most careful is at night. Where people, you know we tend to eat a very large meal at night. The problem with that is, we eat a large meal when our body's trying to quiet down and go to sleep, so the body has a hard time processing that. And what happens is that people end up waking up 2 or 3 hours after that, between 2 and 4 o'clock, either to urinate, or they're hungry. So what I do is actually really monitor and watch their carb intake at/after dinner. And try, if they are going ot have desserts, to have it early in the day. And not at night, when their body's more sensitive to it.

JM: Now I know a lot of people they wake up in the morning and they're so busy, they're on their way out the door and they skip breakfast. Is that a good idea?

KB: No, actually, it's a bad idea because once you start falling behind, it's very difficult for the body to catch up. And what I find in people is if they miss that meal, they become even more ravenous the rest of the day, and end up consuming even more calories, because they're trying to regulate their blood sugar.

JM: Would you say that breakfast is, probably if you're gonna eat a "big meal" that's the one to do it in?

KB: Correct, because you the opportunity to work it off, because you're active the rest of the day. As opposed to night, when you're actually less active.

JM: So to talk about the 'balanced eating' theory that you've kinda put out there, what is that all about, and how should we be eating 'balanced'?

KB: Great question. It starts at the morning, I think that's where we have the most difficulty. I think convenience items have really taken off because in the morning is when everyone's rushed, like you said. So what I do is having someone eat, say, two eggs, and put some vegetables with it, and have some blueberries on the side. That way they're having their protein and fat, some fiber from vegetables, both serve the purpose of regulating blood sugar, and a little bit of carbohydrates which they can use of energy. And I find in addition that if someone has 'a little bit' they feel less deprived and are less likely to binge later on in the day, which is really important. If someone's 100% deprived, they end up more likely grabbing large amounts when they see it, rather than having a little bit, and being more consistent.

JM: And it's important to make sure that each of those little meals and snacks all have at least a little protein and fat in them is that right?

KB: Yeah, fat's really critical. There are really strong studies that have shown (this), one out of the Washington University in St. Louis, shows that rats, when they cut out fat completely, the rats were unable to regulate their blood sugar. And what we find without any fat, we're hungry afterwards. A great example of that is egg whites. We've been turned on the last 20 years to give up the yolk, and people eat egg whites, the problem is, that they're hungry afterwards. As Jimmy mentioned so appropriately, Gluconeogenesis has taking place, and that protein's being utilized as glucose. Unfortunately the body likes to take protein stores before it takes fat ... as a means of energy.

JM: That means taking it from muscles, is that right?

KB: Exactly. Which also shows, one other thing we forget is that if we cut calories too low, that's also self-defeating as well. Because the body ends up using its muscle stores as energy. Instead of holding onto that to protect it. And a lot of people who do very severe weight loss diets where they cut calories tremendously, end up having a hard time maintaining it, because they haven't changed their body composition, to protect, you know by holding onto lean muscle mass, and I know Jimmy you've interviewed Jeff Volek, who does a lot of research on this.

JM: Yeah. Give us some example of some snacks and foods that would have protein and adequate amounts of fat that you're talking about. What are some foods that people could be and should be eating?

KB: That's the most important question I get from all my patients. Examples of that include cottage cheese, maybe with some cinnamon, and cinnamon does stabilize blood sugar, or ricotta cheese with cinnamon, or things like hummus and peppers, wasa crackers with some almond butter, and for people that are not diabetic and don't have as many blood sugar problems, I'll even do like an apple with almond butter. So they still have some fruit, but they have enough protein and fat to slow down that spike.

JM: Slow down the sugar rush.

KB: Correct.

JM: Alright, so more ideas about how to take on this hypoglycemia, is sleep important?

KB: It's probably the most important. What happens if the body doesn't have a chance to cool down, the adrenal glands go into overdrive. And what happens is that people over time develop adrenal fatigue. And because of that have very high cortisol levels, which end up stimulating their glucose-insulin rollercoaster even faster.

JM: So, I noticed when you have hypoglycemia as obviously I do right this second, with some of the issues I'm dealing with, you tend to be a little more tired. Is it detrimental to sleep longer, or should we be getting that 8 hours, at least, or no more, or ... what's the measurement?

KB: I would think instead of longer I would use the term 'more effective'. And I think, to avoid things that you know affect sleep, things like alcohol or caffeine, that even though you do sleep, you are not sleeping as effectively. You know it's interesting, oftentimes people sleep nine hours and they're still tired. And it's because they may be sleeping, but not sleeping effectively. And I think that's critical.

JM: Now, let's get into some other things. Fiber? What's the role of fiber in this whole hypoglycemia thing?

KB: Well fiber like fat, those are the two things that don't stimulate blood sugar. The thing you want to be careful about fiber, which you see in vegetables, is that it doesn't provide enough calories for energy, so you want to be sure you still have enough protein and fat with the fiber. But it actually acts as a great balancing point. As an example I tell a lot of my clients, for lunch or dinner, half a plate of protein and fat could be poultry, meat, fish, and half could be a high-fiber vegetable. And what it does is that it helps create balance by not affecting the blood sugar, but also helps promotes satiety with a reasonable amount of caloric intake, so not overeating.

JM: And by eating the fiber you're also preventing the decline in the blood sugar, correct?

KB: Correct. The fat and fiber are the two biggest weapons against hypoglycemia from the food perspective.

JM: What about exercise? Is that important for trying to manage this?

KB: Exercise is interesting. As a caveat, I always put sleep first. One of the problems that I see in my practice a lot is that people will not sleep, and then go out and run two miles. The problem is if the body's fatigued, and you go out and run, you're actually making the body more fatigued. And the interesting thing is when the body's fatigued, it's going to hold on to fat to protect itself. It gets into starvation mode. So we've learned now that actually strength training is more effective in helping with weight and managing hypoglycemia then actually cardiovascular (exercise) is. Another mistake we make with exercise is that we don't eat before that. If you think about it, we ate dinner at 8 o'clock, and you're exercising at 7 in the morning, that's a big mistake, your body's gone almost 11 hours without eating, and it's going to start using its protein stores for energy. And if you're going to start exercising to build up your muscle mass, the last thing you want is to actually decrease it. And the last point is that people over-exercise as well. Your body needs a chance to rest, recover, to build muscle.

JM: The benefits of exercise don't happen when you're doing it, it happens as you're resting and as you're recuperating, is that right?

KB: Exactly. I have a great example, a friend of mine is a bodybuilder, in his 40s, he works out every other day. He found that his body didn't respond properly when he was working out every day, {like he did when he was in his 20s}, he needs more recovering time, but the interesting thing is he looks better now, than he did in his 20s.

JM: I started lifting weights in (last) December, and that's when this whole weight gain started happening for me, and so I'm wondering if somehow, there's a connection between the training I was doing then and the weight gain, now.

KB: One thing that may be helpful as well for you Jimmy and I guess a lot of people out there, is, you want to lean out the muscle mass, so doing multiple reps at low weight helps, just as effectively as with doing heavy weights, to build. And muscle is great because muscle makes blood sugar transport more efficient, and that's a great advantage for our bodies.

JM: Well you've already mentioned caffeine, what about alcohol and tobacco, and any kind of stimulant, drugs, anything, that obviously will have some sort of an impact on hypoglycemia as well?

KB: Yeah, that actually would make it a lot worse. Another way to think of hypoglycemia is think about 'metabolic overdrive'. Your body instead of food lasting 4 hours, it lasts 1.5 to 2 hours. For that to happen the body has to speed up. The last thing you want to do is add a stimulant to speed the body up any further. Alcohol is especially difficult because when the liver has to break down toxins, which is what alcohol is the body, its going to push aside all the other nutrients in order to get the alchol broken down first, and that would worsen hypoglycemia more. Caffeine has a dual impact, it's a diuretic, it increases water loss which has an impact on blood sugar, but it can also can stimulate insulin, which can cause blood sugar to drop as well.

JM: People write me, they tell me, I love my coffee and I drink about 8 cups a day, and I think oh my gosh, you don't know what you're doing to yourself.

KB: My question to them is do they sleep (effectively) at night?

JM: I couldn't handle that much caffeine. Well before we let you go, I wanted to tell people who are maybe concerned about, hey maybe I do have this hypoglycemia, maybe I need to get it tested out. What is the best diagnostic test for measuring that?

KB: The gold standard for that is a glucose tolerance test, with insulin levels. Often times we do glucose tolerance tests but don't measure insulin with it, together. I think it's really critical to do both. And if you think of the body, a great example is people when they go to diagnose heart disease, they get a stress test. They get a test that stresses the heart and they want to see how the heart responds. A Glucose tolerance test is very similar, in that it stresses the metabolism, it sees how the metabolism functions under duress. And that's the best way to determine hypoglycemia. And really I should use a better term, it is really what we call REACTIVE hypoglycemia, it's hypoglycemia in response to a stimulus of sugar or glucose.

JM: And is that what's possibly happening with those of us who are experiencing this hypoglycemic response, is that what it is, is it reactive hypoglycemia?

KB: Correct. We really don't see what we call fasting hypoglycemia, because that's related to inappropriate insulin production, from--usually people who get a tumor, that's incredibly rare--but we do see more reactive hypoglycemia. And I think given our eating and sleeping patterns I suspect it's only going to get greater as time passes. Interestingly in my practice I'm seeing this more often in people whether or not they are overweight, or thin, they're having the exact same problems.

JM: You've been listening to Dr. Keith Berkowitz of the Center for Balanced Health. His website is center for balanced health dot com.

[Lioness0455]

Good Afternoon Everyone:

My "experiment" yesterday with breaking my meals up into half-sized portions went very well...until -- I got busy after dinner. Before I knew it, it was 9pm and I hadn't eaten since 5:30. I did eat a hard-boiled egg the second I remembered, but the vertigo was already in full swing by then. Plus a single egg wasn't enough to get me through the night.

I woke up out of a dead sleep around midnight, sweaty, and having to go to the bathroom. So I got up and read for a little bit. A couple of hours actually. Ate a piece of string cheese, then went back to bed until 6am. Woke up nauseated with my head "trying" to spin. That's the best way I can describe it. Trying, but not really succeeding.

I had 1/2 cup of low-fat cottage cheese and 1/4 cup frozen blueberries, after which I felt better. Then 3 scrambled eggs and a slice of bacon just before going to work. But when I got to work, the kids were packed up and on their way out the door to a service project (no one called to tell me, of course), so I only had to do dinner prep.

When I got home, it was a bit early for lunch, so I went downstairs to work on organizing the basement. Only I spent more time down there than I realized. And was late...yet again, to eat. Sigh...didn't even think about it until the overwhelming exhaustion set in.

This is totally crazy. Having to eat every 2 or 3 hours. I'm about ready to just throw in the towel and go back to moderate carbs, since that's the level I feel good at.

The thing about liver with me, is the TOXINS. Not the carbs. I was "surprised" that calves liver had carbs, but I haven't been able to eat liver since I came down with Multiple Chemical Sensitivity many years ago.

Thanx for the link to the 2g glucose cure, I've been wondering just how many smarties was equal to what. I know that's what a lot of weight-lifters use for their pre-workout glucose. And the 10 to 12g for my current weight is about what Lyle recommends for bouts of low blood sugar too.

My refrigerator raids aren't about hunger though. Low carb dieting makes me deathly ill, and I can only tolerate it for so many days before I give in, and eat carbs in order to feel better. That's what I call "crash and burn." I have always not felt well when doing low carb, even in the beginning, but it's getting worse now. MUCH WORSE.

Lyle says there are some folks who don't ever "adapt" to ketosis very well so they have trouble fueling the brain as well as burning fat for energy when in ketosis. Plus if you have elevated liver enzymes (which I do, due to the MCS), the liver also has problems with gluconeogensis. So I'm outta luck from both sides of the fence I guess.

I've been suffering with Meniere's for quite some time now, and I was hoping that this new link between Atkins and hypoglycemia would shed some light on what is happening with me. Especially since 75% of all folks with Meniere's also have hypoglycemia.

I don't have a blood glucose meter, though, so I can't check it out myself. And all the docs I've gone to so far haven't been a whole lotta help. My last glucose blood test was at 1 hour after eating. It was 103, so the doc wouldn't even discuss blood sugar issues with me. Course that was right after the vertigo started, a couple of years ago, and he's the same doc who told me I wasn't disabled until a specialist told him I was disabled.

Sadly enough most of the docs I went to in California (including specialists) thought I was lying, about the vertigo. Told me to stop being lazy and go back to work. I needed to just learn how to live with it. At that time, I couldn't walk under my own power. My husband was doing everything for me, dressing me, showering me, helping me walk, etc. So it wasn't like they were seeing me waltz into their office wanting them to sign disability papers for me.

We don't live in California any more, we live in central Utah, and have gotten a lot of relief through consistent chiropractic care. But we have no health insurance, so I'm trying to figure it out on my own. I suppose the more frequently eating bit is something you just have to get used to, and that it would feel more natural as time went on. I don't know. I just know right now it kindda sucks because I keep forgetting to eat.