Low Carb Diets & Short Term Solutions
Years ago, when we were first exploring a high fat/low carb diet, we had to listen to obscure podcasts and search for articles and topics that not many people explored in order to figure out the best way to implement such a plan. When we talked to others about how good amounts of animal-based fats were very healthy for the human body, we saw lots of strange looks. When we told them we were only eating one meal a day, we saw eyes popping out of heads.
But times have really changed. Low carb is now “in.” Intermittent fasting is now “cool.”Everyone is doing it, all the influencers and health gurus, your neighbor, your friend (at least the ones who aren’t taking Ozempic and maybe even some who are).
Meanwhile, those of us on the fringes who have explored this diet for years are now rejecting it whole cloth. Dr Mercola, who has one of the most popular health websites since “The Web” was invented and also famously wrote a book entitled “Fat for Fuel,” has now done a complete reversal on his view on carbs and metabolism. Most of the influencers who now follow a bioenergetic approach came to it AFTER trying low carb. People like Jay Feldman, The Armstrong Sisters, and Paul Saladino all were heavily low carb and even carnivore FIRST, before turning to this pro-metabolic method of eating.
So don’t listen to the hype. There are many, many of us out there who have known about and followed low carb for years and now have come to regret our prior choices. That is not to say that “going low carb” won’t help you lose weight or feel better for a few months or even years. It may “work” in the short term, but not in the way you think it is working. And the cost to your metabolism, thyroid, heart and gut health could be far more than you can imagine.
Let’s look more closely at how low carb/keto/carnivore or caloric deficit diets in general “work,” why all your friends are doing it, and how they are ultimately detrimental to your health.
Low carb/keto diets help people lose weight…at first.
Humans become overweight for many compounding reasons. Eating too much PUFAs (seed oils) and having overgrowths of bad bacteria in the gut that produce high amounts of endotoxin are two main sources of damage. The body will store these toxic PUFAs and toxic chemicals in the adipose tissue, causing it to grow and grow. These directly attack our mitochondria. Toxic chemicals in our food and water supply, excess hormone derangement and a lack of appropriate nutrients will cause the mitochondria to become broken and unable to properly and efficiently convert glucose to ATP. This causes stress and stress signals even more fat storage.
So when humans who are in this state suddenly try eating low carb, what are they actually doing? They are bypassing glucose oxidation (the broken system) and relying on fat oxidation instead. They feel better because they are avoiding the broken pathway altogether. And because they have ramped up fat burning, their body will (at first) turn to its fat stores to feed that process, thinking that it is a temporary need.
Plus, they are reducing their calories necessarily because it is basically impossible to eat enough when only eating fat and protein, and especially if they are eating in a “feeding window” and fasting the rest of the time. So in a caloric deficit, they will of course start to see some pounds come off.
And most low carb/keto diets will emphasize whole foods (a definite win) and eliminate carb-heavy processed foods like donuts, cakes, bagels, brownies and cookies. Carnivore diets eliminate all processed foods totally. Since these are almost 100% made with ungodly amounts of sunflower, canola, soybean, rapeseed and other deadly seed oils, their reduction can only be a benefit. Plus, low carb/keto/carnivore diets usually promote animal-based fats, as we still do. These highly saturated fats are better for the body, “burn” better, and encourage the replacement and elimination of nasty PUFAs already present in the body.
So all these factors will contribute to a person feeling better and losing weight initially when going on a low carb diet. But if you lift the curtain and look behind the Great Oz and see what is going on at the controls, you are not going to like what you find.
2. Low carb/keto diets help people maintain a steady blood sugar…at first.
Humans who are obese or overweight are that way because their body is in a state of torpor, or hibernation. They have a slow metabolic rate and a low body temperature, caused by fat burning (the back-up system) being the primary means of energy production. When people who cannot process carbs efficiently continue to eat carbs, they get a build up of blood glucose that will not ebb and flow properly.
When these people go on a low carb diet, they are eliminating this signal that says something is wrong. They think they have fixed their problem. The excess glucose they had (because their mitochondria couldn’t process it properly) is no longer a bother. Their body has ramped up fat burning, their blood sugar stabilizes, and voila! They think they have discovered the “proper human diet”!
But what is really happening behind the curtain is that the stress hormones are now at the controls. And that is NOT GOOD.
A person on a low carb/keto diet for too long will experience:
WEIGHT GAIN: The body is not stupid. It was ok to give up some fat stores for a short time (which is the purpose of fat stores to begin with). But after awhile, stress hormones take over and begin to shuttle fat back into storage for the next famine. This fat storage will eventually OUTPACE the fat burning and the individual will begin to gain the weight back. This will happen sooner for women than men.
BLOOD SUGAR: Over time, a person on a low carb diet will steadily see his/her overnight fasting glucose go higher and higher. It can get to be over 100, shocking anyone on this diet because they are eating very little carbs. But when you continue to deprive your body of glucose, it will be forced to make more and more of its own through the liver (using muscle/protein). This level will eventually build up like before because glucose oxidation is still not fixed and is in fact, more inhibited than ever.
THE STRESS HORMONES ARE AT THE CONTROLS: A low carb/keto diet is essentially viewed by the body the same way it views a caloric deficit - there must not be enough carbohydrate (energy-making food) in the environment, so it’s time to shut down all the functions that are not necessary for survival. Back-up systems (like fat-burning and gluconeogenesis - the making of glucose from protein) are running, so all non-essential personnel need to stand down. The body wants to expend as little energy as possible. Our bodies are signaling us to hibernate, don’t move much, don’t reproduce, store up fat, and keep the body temperature low. It is not going to waste any energy on our hair, skin and nails, on our mood or libido, on sleep, or on digestion. And who cares about muscle mass when we have to choose between burning them up or death? This is the confused and deranged state that you put your body in when you choose to go low carb.
Strive for a better way.
The root cause of weight gain and obesity is that the human glucose burning engine is broken. Fixing this is what will set you free forever from weight problems, NOT just avoiding your broken system.
Now go drink some orange juice!