<p>When it comes to bodyfat, the master hormone there is Leptin. (Fat cells express it)</p>
<p>a) When you lose bodyfat, you lose weight: Leptin levels go down = Less Energy Expenditure. Keep in mind that Leptin also regulates your metabolism.</p>
<p>b) Unless you happen to be a world class athlete, “adaptation” to exercise is a non-issue.</p>
<p>c) True. We call that stubborn fat. It is fat rich in Alpha-2 Adrenoreceptors.
The fat that goes off first is usually rich in Beta-2 adrenoreceptors.</p>
<p>d) Under-reporting their true caloric intake is very common. People think that they are eating 1500, when they are in fact eating a lot more.</p>
<p>It is also really hard if you eat 1200-1500 cal a day!! More typical of women.</p>
<p>I have found that eating high protein/ lo carb (15-20g/day) and lots of H2O make it hard for me to eat much over 1000 cal a day- I feel stuffed (satiated, uninterested in food). And a little sluggish when I exercise. I lose 1-2 lb/week max, sometimes less.
This is very scorched earth, but it has been to ONLY thing that works for me to lose, and I need to lose a lot more than 15-20 lb. Not very sustainable, unfortunately. I admire all you who can be so disciplined!!!</p>
<p>p.s. I keep a detailed food diary and check nutritional content for every thing I consume- it is accurate! I struggle to ADD to my food consumption…
p.s. I am hypothyroid, so that is part of my struggle. Dosing of thyroxine is an art not a science…</p>
<p>I don’t believe in dieting. I think a mindset of dieting (deprivation) for a few weeks alternating with not-dieting (no deprivation) for a few weeks is exactly the yo-yo bulk/cut mentality that is self-defeating.</p>
<p>If you want to lose fat, you need to make a permanent, sustainable downward adjustment in your calorie intake. If you have very little fat to lose, it should be a small adjustment and you should plan to creep down slowly. </p>
<p>Frankly, once you get to within 10 pounds or so of an ideal weight, I would just think of trying to get more fit/muscular/ripped and let the fat take care of itself. That way, you’ll avoid the whole problem of losing lean muscle mass and ending up looking worse as the scale drops.</p>
<p>I also make sure I am in a state of ketosis- fat burning- by using the keto urine stix. Very helpful esp when I start adding carbs for maintenance to see what the line is…</p>
<p>The 2 week maintenance portion is necessary to re-normalize your hormone levels.</p>
<p>You seem to be under the impression that a small deficit can be used indefinitely. Unfortunately, that only really works for people that have a lot of fat to lose. When you’re in the range I specified, fat loss stalls around the 4 week mark via reduced T4-T3 conversion. That’s why you need the 2 week diet break. it will bring your thyroid back up to normal. After that, you can continue on your diet for another 4 weeks.</p>
<p>There’s a lot of pro/con studies out there regarding ketosis. Some people say that the ketones blunt their hunger, while others say it doesn’t. Objectively speaking, being in ketosis all the time isn’t really necessary for fat loss. (A true ketogenic diet is 75% fat or above. See: Epileptic kids kept in deep ketosis for years as it stops their seizures)</p>
<p>One thing I find rather annoying IRL, is the current policy of using T4 instead of T3 for Hypothyroidism. I find T3 to be far superior in terms of efficacy.</p>
<p>I’ve worn a heart rate monitor and recorded peak heart rate for every workout for the last 15 months. The same workout that resulted in a heart rate of 99% of my max 15 ago wouldn’t get me to 70% of my max today – nowhere near high enough intensity. The adaptation is easy to see over time. The same adapation is equally easy to see as the weights increase in a strength training program. You can’t keep lifting the same weight for the same number of reps for a year and expect to be getting the same benefit from the workout. If anything, the non-athlete adapts faster. My weights go up faster than somebody who has been lifting for years.</p>
<p>I believe that intensity is the key to most effective fat loss exercise. Low intensity long duration exercise has little benefit on fat loss over diet alone.</p>
<p>1 to 2 pounds a week is very rapid weight loss IMO. Realistically, I think that’s pretty much the max any of us could sustain over the long haul and it’s probably high for most women, just because the maintenance level calories are pretty low. There’s just no room for a big caloric deficit. Women are also often swimming against a pretty stiff hormonal/metabolism current, more than most men.</p>
<p>I take BOTH T4 (Tirosint gel caps made in Switz) and T3 (cytomel- has both t3 and t4). T3 is immediately available. Not sure why doc prescribes the T4 as well…</p>
<p>Hypothyroidism is rampant in my family, so no surprise. Eyebrows fell out, you name it.
But my blood ranges were always in the normal range (low normal). Eventually my body temp was 96 degrees. So the doc started me on T4. Did nothing, so I probably cannot convert T4 to T3- wonder what that is about. T3 was AMAZING! So is Vit D!!! Without T3 I would probably never get out of bed… LOL</p>
<p>To me , the neur-endocrine system is a complex web of inter-related pathways, where level of one in relation to another make a big difference. It will be hard to figure it all out. Not to mention all the receptor blockers and enhancers, and the other variables like inflammation.</p>
<p>The adrenal system is one that I have found very little hard research about, unfortunately. I have a sense that it also has an impact on energy usage/storage.</p>
<p>Okay, I haven’t read the whole thread, so forgive me.</p>
<p>But, has anyone touched on the issue of what happens to a woman’s body when she hits (in my case it was like 42) and suddenly the metabolism just comes to a screeching halt? If you had a sound, it would be the sound of a train trying to stop.</p>
<p>After about two years of trying to figure out what the hell was happening to me, and I think I gained like 10 or 15 pounds in the process, even then I was still a healthy BMI, but fatty, my god, my body had changed, I finally just stopped eating any processed carbs or refined sugar AT ALL. After a very short amount of time, I was back to normal.</p>
<p>During this time, I continued to work out at a very high intensity level, cardio wise, but I also HAD to add weight training. The maintenance was just tremendous.</p>
<p>Now, I’m used to this. But, literally, up to that point, I could eat anything in any amount and never gain an ounce. It was a shock. I would guess that was entirely hormonal, and I don’t think we’re heading back to the good old days, either. </p>
<p>So, for those of you who are older than I am, now, is there something else I should be aware of, say, after I start and end the hot flash phase? Just so I can plan ahead. thanks.</p>
<p>We have fewer hormonal headwinds, but it happens to men in the mid-40s, too. All the sudden eating like a moron stops working and the pounds start adding up.</p>
<p>“mini, but which one is causing the other? Are there any other parameter(s) involved?”</p>
<p>Let’s put it this way: weight gain, sometimes substantial, is a noted “side effect” of a plurality (and perhaps a majority) of psych meds. Do you call a “side effect” the result of a cause, an association, or a correlation?</p>
<p>That, of course, is at the individual level. At the public health level, the rise in use of psych meds parallels (is correlated with) the rise in obesity.</p>
<p>Low carb may be working for you, but I know failed low carb dieters who found low carb to be to depriving to them so that they failed to stay on the low carb diet. As that study that you mentioned a while ago indicated, all of the diets studied (low carb and otherwise, with study volunteers being assisted by dietitians) had very modest success, and the actual consumption by the study volunteers was nowhere close to the ideal of each kind of diet.</p>
<p>Problems with T4-T3 conversion are usually found in the deiodinase enzyme. </p>
<p>Either a) It’s not converting T4 to T3 fast enough (reduced conversion because you don’t have enough of the enzyme), or b) it’s converting T4 to rT3 (reverse T3)</p>
<p>rT3 is an isomer of T3. It’s metabolically inactive which means reduced overall whole body metabolic rate/metabolism. It also has the effect of taking up space at the receptors sites. Because of that circulating T3 cannot bind to and activate the receptors.</p>
<p>You can test for rT3. (Most docs don’t which IMHO is a mistake)</p>
<p>At a basic level, dieting is just calories in - calories out. Burn more than you eat and you lose weight/fat. Whether you want to do low carb, moderate carb, or high carb is a choice that should be tailored to fit your own individual metabolism.</p>
<p>I’m not a big fan of diet gurus that try to pass of their “diet” as the best one.</p>
<p>One thing that really needs to change is the amount of protein people eat. Protein intake when dieting is extremely important. In as far as satiety is concerned, protein trumps all other macro-nutrients. It also has the effect of sparing your muscle mass when dieting. From what I’ve seen IRL, most people just don’t eat enough of it. The story they are sold is that high protein intake damages the kidneys. That side effect is absurdly rare and only happens in people with defective kidneys.</p>
<p>I don’t think it has to be “ideal”. In fact, trying for perfection in a diet might actually undermine you chances of successfully making a permanent change.</p>