Gaining fat but I havent changed a thing!!!

[Temple]

VLC - are you on any supps??? If you drop the cals and do that much cardio you are going to lose a good bit of lean mass. It also appears to me that that your sleep schedule is really messed up. Spats has enough mass and has built a metabolism that will allow her to do quick fix loss without much long term damage. At some point you are going to have to up your cals, perhaps cycle your carbs and train your butt off to solve this problem.

 

[littlesurfer]

I think you will find in general that women do not do as well on ultra low carb/keto diets. Of course there are always exceptions, and I have anecdotally noticed that addition of AAS seems to improve a woman's tolerance for low carbs. Aside from feeling like death on keto diets, the majority of women that try them seem to have unacceptable rebound fat gain afterwards so all in all I wouldn't worry if you can't stick to no carb dieting. Just reduce your carbs (preferably cycle them high and low) and stick to the high fiber/low GI stuff as much as possible.

This is very true. The weight comes off fast but it's also just as easy to gain it all back by eating what would have been your maintenance calories prior to the diet.

When you cut carbohydrates from your diet, your body turns to proteins and fats to make the sugar derivatives (otherwise known as ketones) to supply your brain and muscle, but it
also has to lower your overal metabolic rate to make this happen.
Your liver is working overtime to make this happen. And once you eat carbohydrates again in any normal portion (i.e. 30-40% of your calories), your liver is gone take every bit of sugar and store it up. Furthermore, because you have been in a state of ketosis or starvation, you have lowered you metabolism, so you will have to exercise again to rev it back up once you go back to a normal diet.

This is why most successful low carb dieters consider it a lifestyle change not simply a diet over a few weeks.

I would be very interested to know if there is a way of going on the low carb diet for 4-8 weeks and then going back to eating normal maintenance calories and carbs without gaining the weight right back.

 

[The Shadow]

but it also has to lower your overal metabolic rate to make this happen.

Please state your reasoning behind this....

 

[littlesurfer]

If you were out in the desert and you had no food, for the first 24
hours, your liver would break down the sugars/carbohydrates it had stored away. Then, it will turn to breaking down your stored fat and protein (in the form of muscle) to keep your blood ketone (a product of fat metabolism that the brain can use instead of glucose/sugar) levels high enough for your brain to function. At the same time, it will tell the rest of your cells (which it considers less important) to reduce their metabolism so that there is enough energy to go around for your brain and heart. This is called starvation mode.

When you reduce your carbohydrates to a level less than 20 grams a day, you have automatically within a period of 24 hours, shifted your body into what it sees as starvation mode. Hence, it will signal your cells (muscle, skin, kidney, etc), other than those of your brain and heart, to reduce their metabolic activity. Thus, your overall metabolism goes down.


I would love to hear your ideas.

 

[The Shadow]

If you were out in the desert and you had no food, for the first 24
hours, your liver would break down the sugars/carbohydrates it had stored away. Then, it will turn to breaking down your stored fat and protein (in the form of muscle) to keep your blood ketone (a product of fat metabolism that the brain can use instead of glucose/sugar) levels high enough for your brain to function. At the same time, it will tell the rest of your cells (which it considers less important) to reduce their metabolism so that there is enough energy to go around for your brain and heart. This is called starvation mode.

When you reduce your carbohydrates to a level less than 20 grams a day, you have automatically within a period of 24 hours, shifted your body into what it sees as starvation mode. Hence, it will signal your cells (muscle, skin, kidney, etc), other than those of your brain and heart, to reduce their metabolic activity. Thus, your overall metabolism goes down.


I would love to hear your ideas.

That's not necessarily true. Are you assuming a hypocaloric diet?
20 grams of carbs on a 3000 calories diet will NOT shift the body into a starvation mode. I thought perhaps you were referring to reduced T-3 production while on an extended low carb diet. Liver and glycogen stores are usually 500-600 grams worth. The body will transform a protein molecule into glucose. So there will not be a starvation mode on a calorie-rich, although carb reduced diet.

Ketosis is easily acheived on 200 grams of carbs per day along with ala.

Forming ketones is not necessarily a marker of metabolic rate declining.

 

[littlesurfer]

The state of ketosis, where the body is required to make ketones out of fats and protein, typically triggers starvation mode.

I think the reason for this is that the body needs to expend a lot more energy to break down fats and proteins into ketones. This is why eating 2000 low carb calories causes you to lose weight, where as eating 2000 moderate carb calories would not.

If you sufficiently increase your calories above your maintenance calories, then even if they are eating low carb you are taking in enough calories to compensates for the excess energy your body uses to break down the proteins and fats. But at this point you wouldn't be losing weight.

I had a hard time even eating my maintenance calories while doing low carb b/c it suppresses my appetite.

btw, I'm not a doctor or a med student. This is only information that I've read or been told.

my current diet:
fruits for breakfast
protein (lean) + a little carb for lunch
protein + fat for dinner

I am certainly not losing like I was when I avoided the carbs completely so if you think my reason for avoiding low carb is wrong please let me know. thanks.

 

[VeggieLifterChick]

Temple, supps are creatine after lifting, flax oil, adiopkinetix stacked with guggulbolic, and a multivitamin. I have glutamine around too. My sleep schedule is wayyy fucked up right now, that's true. I'm working on it. But I do tend to get more than 8 hours. By the way, you gave me some guidelines for a good lifting program a couple months ago, and I have been following that except I've been doing it on a different schedule (instead of eod lifting I've done it ed during weekdays). And I have made some gains. (I wanted to put that in there to counter your "at some point you will have to work your butt off" - I am!).

I would consider not doing cardio if it would be more beneficial not to do it. I am just trying to figure out the most effective way to drop my stress-fat pounds in this week before the special occasion. I'll go back to a normal, good schedule after with adequate calories.

Corn, I hope you didn't take that as a slight. I respect and appreciated your advice about the high/low calorie thing, but I feel quite confident that the problem is stress, and that it isn't a lagging metabolism. the ol' "cutting = 9-12x your weight" puts my range at 1233 to 1644 kcal. So although 1485 is way lower than I am used to, its more than 10x my weight and its only for a week.

 

[The Shadow]

Corn, I hope you didn't take that as a slight.

I don't.

I just don't like to see people wasting time and effort.

If you think cortisol is the culprit - do you not see that reducing calories further will make that situation WORSE??

End of rant.

Good luck

 

[Temple]

A quote from MS on a different thread:

"Never forget the triad for optimal bodybuilding is training, nutrition and REST. If you short change yourself on any of these you will get less than optimal results whether gaining mass or dieting for a show."

Severe restriction of calories without the use of AAS will result in the loss of lean mass. Optimal training is not possible without adequate nutrition. Training five days straight does not give your body time for adequate recovery unless you are incorporating some of the things that Spat's and some of the others use and if you are training on that level you then have to up the calories to support it. Rest does not mean sleep only - it means days off to recover.

 

[rez]

in my case, i can only exercise for about 30mins a day light-mod cardio. it sux, but my back is still not 100%..so thats the way its got to be.'
my cals are under 1500 - more like 1300. my carbs as i think ive stated before only come from vegies, and occasional straw/blueberries.

i think this is fine because of my little amount of strenous exercise.
Vegie chick-
lower you carbs but NOT cals! theres a difference. Good quality carbs w high fibre is easy...do some research. An excellent book is BODY BUSINESS by donna aston.