Why excessively-rapid weight loss due to starvation diets is bad.

Nearly 10 years ago, I wrote Everyone is Different. Back then, I warned about excessively-rapid weight loss, as catabolising muscle results in 5.8 times faster weight loss than losing bodyfat alone.

Recently, I was directed towards the following two studies with very similar titles:-
Change in Body Composition during a Weight Loss Trial in Obese Adolescents
&
Changes in Body Composition During Weight Reduction in Obesity: Balance Studies Comparing Effects of Fasting and a Ketogenic Diet

In the first study, the following string of text stood out:- "Although absolute LM increased in boys and decreased in girls.." Boys gained absolute lean mass and girls lost absolute lean mass. Teenage boys have much higher testosterone levels than teenage girls. Ditto for men & women.

In the second study, the full version is behind a pay-wall. There are ways to bypass pay-walls, but they're illegal, so I'm not going to include a link to the full version. I took a couple of screen-shots instead.

Here's Table 2.

Note: The Patient was a 104kg (228.8lb) man and each diet lasted for 10 days.

1. 1000kcal/day mixed diet (60%C, 20%P, 20%F) resulted in a total weight loss of 3.8kg (0.38kg/day or 0.836lb/day). Mean potassium balance was positive, so there was some net gain of LBM, even though there was weight loss. LBM gain, also glycogen+water gain explains the low total weight loss.

2. 1000kcal/day ketogenic diet (4%C, 14%P, 82%F ≡ "Nutritional Ketosis") resulted in a total weight loss of 8.2kg (0.82kg/day or 1.804lb/day), of which 6.4kg was bodyfat and 0.2kg was LBM. The rest was glycogen+water loss. Mean potassium balance was negative, so there was some net loss of LBM.

3. 0kcal/day total fast resulted in a total weight loss of 12.8kg (1.28kg/day or 2.816lb/day), of which 3.4kg was bodyfat and 6.2kg was LBM. The rest was glycogen+water loss. Mean potassium balance was very negative, so there was a large net loss of LBM.

Here's Figure 1.

Can you spot what's going on with the Nutritional Ketosis diet? The 14%P made me suspicious, as it seemed unnecessarily precise. There's a reason for that!

At the end of day 4, weight loss due to glycogen+water depletion is starting to slow down as glycogen becomes exhausted, then it speeds up again because falling blood glucose level (to ~3.3mmol/L) stimulates the pituitary gland to secrete ACTH, which stimulates the adrenal cortex to secrete cortisol, which catabolises muscle into amino acids for the liver & kidneys to use for gluconeogenesis. This speeds up the rate of weight loss for 3 days.

The Energy Balance Equation explains why losing LBM results in 5.8 times faster weight loss.

From Circulating Nutrients in Starvation, here's the Figure.

"Ketone bodies" level rises linearly from near zero to 5mmol/L by day 10 in fasting. It may rise faster on Nutritional Ketosis. As ketone level rises, glucose consumption by the various tissues falls. This is why muscle catabolism stops after 3 days - there's now sufficient dietary protein to supply the amount of glucose needed, by gluconeogenesis.

This is why protein % was set to precisely 14%. If it had been lower, weight loss would have been greater, but muscle loss would have become significant, which would have made Nutritional Ketosis look bad. If it had been higher, weight loss would have been less, which would have made Nutritional Ketosis look bad.

In conclusion, don't obsess over scale weight. It's just a rough guide. The irony is that the group of people who can't easily regain lost muscle is the same group of people who often try every fad extreme weight loss diet going - females.

In females, muscle mass is like a bargain at Tesco - When it's gone, it's gone. So please don't do excessively-rapid weight loss diets and/or not eat for more than 48 hours.

There's only one safe rapid fat loss diet and it's The Protein-Sparing Modified Fast (PSMF).

Sunday Smörgåsbord: liberty, the internet, worry, health & Lyle McDonald.

Five items this time, not necessarily related.

From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smörgåsbord

By liberty, I mean personal liberty. I believe that individuals should be free to do whatever they want, provided that they don't harm another individual. However, collections of individuals should not be free to do whatever they want, as collections of individuals (i.e. businesses) usually try to profit from individuals, so the welfare of the individual isn't of importance. Businesses obviously don't want to instantly kill their customers, as that's obvious and will probably get them sued. However, "killing them softly" isn't obvious!

In the EC, just about everything has a CE kite-mark in order that it may be sold in the EC. Standards include EMC (Electro-Magnetic Compatibility) to ensure that:-
a) Devices don't emit excessive levels of RF "radiation", which may interfere with other devices.
b) Devices don't respond to excessive levels of RF "radiation", which may interfere with their operation.
I put "radiation" in quotes, as it's TEM (Transverse Electro-Magnetic) radiation i.e. Radio Waves.

In the US, who knows?

This is about "Smart Meters" - again! I've recently seen a surge in Facebook statuses about Smart Meters. I posted a technical article about these devices in Smart meters. Even after I posted a link on Facebook to my article, links to alarmist pages still appeared. The latest one is The Great “Smart Meters” Hoax. Electromagnetic Fields Are Real And Dangerous To Our Health, where Sam Milham, MD, MPH epidemiologist & researcher tells us how things really are.

Unfortunately, he's talking shite. The problem with people talking alarmist shite on the internet is that people who read alarmist internet shite and who are ignorant of the subject, believe it! This causes Fear, Uncertainty & Doubt (FUD), which in turn causes chronic worry. Chronic worry causes chronic hypercortisolaemia, which isn't good. A placebo (e.g. wrapping aluminium foil around your Smart Meter or paying for a "proper" solution to the non-existent problem) alleviates the chronic worry, which improves health.

I don't know about US Smart Meters. For all I know, some eejit has designed them to transmit 1,000W of RF (I'm just being silly), to get an outdoor range of >100miles. As these devices are designed for short-range communication, they probably transmit up to 100mW (about the same power level as WiFi) to get an outdoor range of ~150m. 1mW is one thousandth of a Watt. Transmitting more power than is necessary increases the probability of interference to other electronic devices.

100mW is a lot lower than the power transmitted by mobile phones (up to 2,000mW for the 850/900MHz Vodafone/O2 network), which need to be able to reliably communicate with the nearest mast, which may be miles away. As mobile phones constantly transmit occasional bursts of RF (to let the network know that they are on) and they are either in a pocket or are held against the ear/in front of the face to make/receive calls etc (while transmitting regular bursts of RF) and they are safe to use, how can a Smart Meter which is transmitting a much lower power level at a much greater separation be harmful? It can't.

With WiFi, Equivalent isotropically radiated power (EIRP) in the EU is limited to 100mW. Dunno about the US. Bluetooth is very-low-power (~1mW for Class 3 devices).

So stop worrying! Chronic worry (also, reading alarmist internet shite) is bad for your health.

Finally, I noticed that Evelyn Kocur "liked" an article that I'd read and completely forgotten about. It's Evidence From the Metabolic Ward: 1.6-2.4g/kg Protein Turn Short Term Weight Loss Intervention into a Fat Loss Diet. Interestingly, the protein intake for optimum body recomposition is 1.6-2.4g/kg LBM. This is equivalent to ~1g/lb LBM, which is the protein recommendation given by Lyle McDonald in his Rapid Fat Loss Handbook. Yup, Lyle was right all along. That amount of protein isn't bad for the kidneys (even 50% more protein than that, isn't bad for the kidneys).

Negativity is NOT an option!

Oh, wait.

I received a comment on another blog post mentioning Jeffrey M Friedman's commentary Modern science versus the stigma of obesity. I took offence to the following passage:-

"This simplistic notion is at odds with substantial scientific evidence illuminating a precise and powerful biologic system that maintains body weight within a relatively narrow range."

To say that I disagree with the above passage is an understatement of epic proportions. If this is the case, how can Extreme weight loss without surgery happen? This woman went from 265kg (583lb) to 97kg (213lb).

With the right diet, huge amounts of weight & body-fat can be lost and kept off. Lyle McDonald's Rapid Fat Loss solution is a PSMF (Protein-Sparing Modified Fast) that can produce huge weight & body-fat loss. See The Protein-Sparing Modified Fast (PSMF).

Up with this negativity I will not put!

The Protein-Sparing Modified Fast (PSMF)

What's a PSMF?

A standard PSMF is ~1g of protein for every kg bodyweight per day plus lots of green leafy vegetables plus six to ten fish oil capsules per day plus vitamin and mineral supplements plus unlimited water AND NOTHING ELSE. It's a low-carbohydrate and low-fat diet. You may find this quite literally hard to swallow! PSMF may also stand for Protein Strictly , Mother-F***er!

A 100kg person may get to eat ~400kcals per day from protein + ~100kcals per day from incidental carbohydrates and fats = ~500kcals per day.

A well-known PSMF is Lyle McDonald's Rapid Fat Loss Handbook. For more information, see Facts About Rapid Fat Loss

To make a PSMF easier to manage (but have a slower rate of weight loss), here are some modifications:-

1) Instead of six to ten fish oil capsules a day, stir ~25g of powdered linseeds into a large glass of drink and swallow the lot. Do this at breakfast-time. ~25g of linseeds contains ~10g of fat (of which ~6g is Alpha-Linolenic Acid, an omega-3 fatty acid) which does the following:-

a) It stimulates the gall-bladder to empty, thus reducing the risk of gallstones.
b) a) usually results in a bowel movement some time later. The ~10g of soluble fibre/fiber in the linseeds + accompanying fluid guarantees regularity.
c) It provides women (but not men) with all of the omega-3 fat they need each day.

Men need to eat either half a 213g tin of wild red salmon per day, or take six to ten fish oil capsules a day, as their bodies don't produce enough DHA from Alpha-Linolenic Acid. See Eicosapentaenoic and docosapentaenoic acids are the principal products of α-linolenic acid metabolism in young men

2) Eat about 100g of protein per day. As meat, poultry and fish contains 20-25% protein, this means that you can eat ~1lb of meat, poultry and fish a day. 100g of protein per day is well within the capabilities of your liver and kidneys.

3) Eat about 22g of fat per day. This allows you to choose less lean cuts of meat and poultry, and you can even eat the skin on chicken as long as you factor it into your total fat allowance. It also allows you to use vinaigrette salad dressings or a small knob of butter or a small dollop of real mayonnaise to make your vegetables taste nicer.

4) Eat about 50g of carbohydrate per day. This allows you to eat shed-loads of leafy green vegetables and also an onion. It also allows you to eat a portion of fruit e.g. an apple or a bowl of berries/cherries with Splenda and a small dollop of whipped cream each day.

5) If you do any intense exercise (e.g. HIIT or resistance training with weights), eat an extra 50g of slow-release carbohydrates a couple of hours beforehand, to fuel it.

6) Supplement with 50iu for every kg bodyweight per day of Vitamin D3. Nowadays, many of us spend our lives mostly indoors, and this causes sub-optimal Vitamin D levels. See Vitamin D.

7) Don't get too far away from a toilet. Rapid depletion of muscle and liver glycogen results in rapid shedding of associated water. In addition, the oxidation of fatty acids results in the production of water. A PSMF makes you pee more.

n*CH2 + 3/2*n*O2 = n*CO2 + n*H2O + heat

(Saturated fatty acids are CH3-n*CH2-COOH. For Stearic acid, n=16. ∴ Stearic acid is mostly n*CH2. )


In conclusion:

100g of protein provides 400kcals, 22g of fat provides 200kcals and 50g of carbohydrate provides 200kcals, making a grand total of 800kcals per day. If you weigh over 80lbs but aren't losing weight on 800kcals per day, see your GP as you may have a thyroid problem.

The above diet should avoid the problems of gallstones, constipation, dry skin, dry hair, depression and dietary deficiencies. You get to eat real food and quite a lot of it too, for a fairly rapid fat loss diet.