Low Carb Confidential

So I’ve now gotten to the part about various diets in Gary Taubes’ Good Calories, Bad Calories having finished the chapter on the Conservation of Energy. I’m hoping there’s a loophole out there in the second half of the book because right now it seems like we’re all ultimately doomed to be whatever we are, fat or lean. Okay, so maybe the lean aren’t “doomed.”

Granted, I’m delighted to find that the lifestyle I’ve adopted is really good for me, in a multitude of ways. But I came into this in 2003 to lose weight, and I did, 30 pounds of it, and I kept most of it off for a good long time (see what went wrong here). Now I’m back in full force, and it’s not going quite as well as the first time. I’ve read about the “One Golden Shot” theory, but that seems to be centered around having difficulty getting into ketosis unless net carbs are dropped to some amount lower than previous attempts. (This idea seems to be refuted somewhat by a comment I read on Jimmy Moore’s blog to the effect that, “Being in ketosis is like being pregnant–you either are or you’re not; regardless of what the Ketosticks show you, if you are eating less than 30g carbohydrates a day, then you ARE in ketosis.” I’m assuming the comment meant net carbs, but I could be wrong.) Despite this comment, my sticks have been showing at least a trace of color since I went back into induction on Jan 2, so I feel assured I am in ketosis and therefore burning fat stores for fuel (or so the science says).

But I’m not losing any more weight. It’s been eight weeks and I’ve lost only between 5 and 8.8 pounds depending on what day of the week you want to check. The 8.8 came after just three weeks, but right around then, something happened to me. Almost like flipping a switch, suddenly I felt “unwell,” for lack of a better term. There was a sort of cognitive disconnect between my mind and my body, as if I were somehow out of sync with myself. I started gaining weight back in small amounts, and then in larger amounts as the days went by, even though I was maintaining less than 20 net carbs and around or under 2000 calories daily.

After two weeks of that, a sudden return of anxiety disorder symptoms that I hadn’t experienced since 2001 and some internet research convinced me to make an appointment with my doctor. I asked to have my thyroid function checked, although the symptoms I was experiencing pointed to hypothyroidism while the others suggested hyperthyroidism. He also prescribed a complete blood count along with vitamin B12, folate, and testosterone measurements.

While waiting for the test results, my upward weight spikes grew in intensity, the worst being 2.6 pounds overnight. Then, just like a switch being thrown again, I began to feel well. The mind/body disassociation and any remaining symptoms of anxiety disorder resolved themselves within days. I started losing weight again, and dropped nearly four pounds in the space of a week. The blood test results showed up with just about everything in the middle of the expected range except the testosterone, but I’ve had a history of low testosterone for ages.

Now I’m back to the sawtooth pattern on my weight graph. I’ve only lost half of what I lost in 2003 by this time; that old graph line is about to take its next downward swing of 5 pounds over a three week period, and here I am, struggling.

I have no solid explanation for what happened to me in January and earlier this month, but I have a few observations that may or may not have anything to do with any of this; all these things happened almost coincidentally with my feeling of unwellness:

• The night before I started feeling crappy, my wife had grilled me a half-pound burger on our stove top grill. It looked great on the outside, but when I cut into it, just about everything except the outer 1/8″ was nearly raw (we’re still getting used to using this grill, obviously). I put the burger in the microwave for a bit, but it still looked pretty bloody. I ate it anyway. Lots of people eat rare burgers and love them, who am I to complain? Despite how I felt the next morning, at lunchtime I ate one of the spare burgers she’d cooked and it was basically the same story.
• I’ve read Taubes’ “Big Fat Lie” article and its implications regarding exercise, but in spite of that, I’d started doing light workouts every other day during the second week of induction. After a week of that, my weight started going up. At the end of the second week of workouts, I thought that if I increased the intensity of the workout and burned more calories, I would start losing weight again. I went to the next level on the treadmill and damaged my metatarsal on my right foot, similar to how I injured my left foot a few years ago. That was the end of the running, and my weight dropped in small increments for several days after that.
• After two weeks of induction, I resumed drinking martinis, one a night during the week, two a night on the weekends. I’ve been aware since the beginning that alcohol will be used for fuel before fat while in ketosis, but I’d been drinking moderate amounts of red wine, low carb beer, and martinis the first time around and it didn’t seem to affect my loss at all. I’ve recently learned that alcohol stimulates insulin secretion as well, and where I have a fear of this reaction as a result of eating carbohydrates and even the possibility of it with regard to ingesting caffeine, I continue to accept its inevitability when it comes to my cocktails. I rationalize it by telling myself it’s okay because I’m not stimulating insulin secretion with much of anything else.
• I have occasional complications from prostate surgery I had a few years ago; sometimes it manifests itself as a result of exertion, other times because of inflamation from a viral or bacterial infection. A week ago I started seeing signs of this problem and, after several days, called my urologist who prescribed the first line treatment, a course of antibiotics. I’m happy to report things are looking up after 3 days on the drugs. Was this the last vestige of whatever had been in my system for weeks?

As of this morning, my loss stands at 8 pounds; I had hoped by now it would have been at least 16. I don’t mind losing slowly, as long as I’m losing. My graph from 2003 shows plenty of lengthy plateaus and sawtooth patterns, so I have that to keep me motivated. I just have to hope that the slowdown was due in some part, if not all, to something foreign in my system that my body was probably fighting for weeks.

In the meantime, I’ll have to be content in the knowledge that I’m getting healthier every day in every other respect.

Filed under: Atkins, Books, Mindset, Personal Journal, Starting on Low Carb, general health | Tagged: Exercise, ketosis, low carb, Taubes, thyroid, weight loss