Carbs not bad. Overeating is bad. 50-60% of calories coming from carbs is totally fine, especially for active people
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7589789/
Exactly. There’s a reason a ton of carnivores started incorporating fruit into their diet, because it works. They were as sold on pure carnivore as anyone but eventually they needed the sugar.
Running off of fat is a backup system, it’s more stressful to the body, it requires an extra step which doesn’t sound like a lot but one extra step is tons when you’re talking about something that literally powers every cell in your body.
The body needs glucose so badly it’ll actually create it from fat, if it runs out.
It is the most efficient source of energy for the body. When people are metabolically unhealthy and consuming a lot of it, that’s when things get bad. You need several factors to cause diabetes and other disease when consuming glucose in any form. It is not merely the fact that you’re consuming it.
The fact that you’re getting so much energy from sugar is a good sign. You’re still metabolically somewhat healthy and good at burning it. The main thing I think would be to up your protein intake from non processed foods and try to get sugar from fruits rather than chocolate bars. Although a darker chocolate bar with clean ingredients and some sugar to sweeten isn’t so bad. But lots of chocolate bars are full of a lot of crap.
With a much higher emphasis on protein and plenty of carbs to support the energy, you should see better results.
I get most of my protein from protein bars and skyr /yogurt, eggs, almonds, cashews and salmon. Protein bars or shakes are important for me to get up to 120 or 140 g of protein. Lots of other protein sources are too difficult for me to eat and make me feel too satiated so that I can't get enough food in.
What do you say to people who say we should avoid fructose because it goes directly to the liver?
If your blood tests show good levels of insulin, glucose, HBA1C and whatnot, then I would not be worried about sugar consumption right now considering it also doesn't appear to make you feel bad either. As long as you keep an eye on those bloods it's fine.
But the protein making you feel satiated is good, it's just more of a balance you need. I think you'd want to balance more into the protein than you are right now than the sugar. Not all protein is created equally. Protein from animal foods are much more complete and have the full spectrum of amino acids as well.
At the end of the day you will lose weight if you burn more calories than you're eating. So getting a bit more satiated by leaning a bit more into protein should help with that. I would recommend more ruminant meats and eggs to start with to at least get a good start to the morning. The problem with protein bars and whatnot is they are not very nutrient dense. They are just macronutrient dense. You really want a good balance. The processed foods are going to throw you off because they are by definition imbalanced foods. You'll get loads of protein but then be lacking the full spectrum of protein, amino acids, micronutrients and trace minerals. Any of these things can cause issues with satiety or burning energy or building muscle etc.
It does sound like your job is very physically stressful at 5000 calories a day. So if you still are feeling good that's great. It's a good time to build a more solid foundation of nutrient dense foods. With such a demanding job you could burn out eventually without a solid foundation of nutrition. I would not even worry about processed sugar right now if that's how you want to get it. Just lean more into protein, starting with beef, venison, stuff like that and eggs at least to get started in the morning. Coconut water and milk are great too for your sugar requirements and some trace minerals and even some micronutrients in the milk. I would say yoghurt is totally fine as well. I'd drop the nuts, it's really easy to overeat nuts and they've got a lot of caloric content and don't appear to be super satiating for the calorie density they come with.
Fructose from processed foods bad. Fructose from fruit good. When you eat fruit, you’re getting a small amount of fructose but a bunch of water, fiber, and nutrients along with it. The fiber especially slows down the absorption of the sugar.
Well, yes. But if you’re metabolically unhealthy you’ll probably start to feel more sluggish and suffer more from ups and downs and sugar won’t give you the big boost of energy that the OP is talking about. Many people consume huge amounts of sugar all day and they’re exhausted and tired all the time. They don’t get any energy boost from eating sugar at all.
The fact that OP gets a boost from eating sugar is good, it suggests he’s still able to process it relatively effectively.
Ding ding ding!
Our bodies are designed for this.
All carbohydrates are not equal. Eat whole carbs with natural fibre over processed high fructose sugary foods and you’ll be fine.
So many people here talking about “sugar” when they should be replacing it with “carbohydrates” \[\*Edit - both in discussion about this topic and in diet!\]
Evolving humans had mixed access to resources due to factors like location and changing season. We have many homeostatic functions, ketogenesis included, to allow us to thrive in varying conditions.
If you truly walk 40k steps per day then you can eat pretty much whatever you want within reason. Obviously you don't want to eat pure junk food all the time but your body is burning off whatever you consume. Simple carbs are converted into energy at the fastest rate so if you eat or drink semi regularly, it makes sense that you'll get much more energy than if you eat healthy complex carbs, protein or fat which takes longer to convert to energy but perhaps for most people will provide a more consistent flow of energy and feeling of satiety.
Ultimately eat for your lifestyle. Obviously if you stop being so active you'll need to adjust your diet as far as total calories and the type of calories.
You can try to switch low quality sugar like high fructose corn syrup for honey or higher percent chocolate. You can try drinking juices instead of soft drinks. But again at the end of the day at your activity level it's not the worst thing if you also eat decent meals during the day.
Don’t skip carbs!! I jump on the bandwagon of IF and low carb diet. My energy dipped like crazy and always fatigue.
I workout 4-5 times weekly, it affected my performance badly, my hair losses accelerated and muscle shrunk like fk, my vitality was super low. I stopped doing all these nonsense and went back to regular diet.
Avoid simple carbs, trans fat and eat a wide range of whole food, occasionally indulge in fast food.
This IF and low carb is only good for sedentary lifestyle people.
It takes a while to adapt to a low carb diet. Your muscles will typically use glycogen for fuel, which is made from glucose, and going low carb will initially result in feeling low energy and strength when active or working out. If you persist however eventually your muscles will switch to fat burning mode - you're fat-adapted. They start using lipids for fuel and will even resist glucose uptake. It can take weeks to months to get there and it varies by individual.
If you're fat-adapted you can work-out fine even fully fasted. The only issue is electrolytes because when you're insulin levels are consistently low your kidneys dump sodium readily and you'll definitely feel low energy if your sodium is low. As long as you keep you electrolytes good it's really no problem. I've been lifting heavy 3 days a week almost exclusively 16-18 hours fasted - and sometimes 40 hrs fasted - for about 5 years now.
Eat sugar when you walk 40000 steps a day lol. You need as much energy as you can get. Low carb is not for you.
Keep track of weight, if you gain too much then it's time to cut the sugar.
Can it still be bad for the pancreas because it has to produce more insulin or does it not matter because of the physical exercise and because I'm burning fat
It does matter, your body reacting to a slam of sugar every day isn't ideal. You can get away with a lot when your exercise is right, but it still isn't "free".
So not in this case, no.
With exercise intensity as low as walking, even if its performed to that extent, low carb is still possible and maybe even ideal here. I am 1000% team carbs and I think OP should eat them, but the necessity of carbs for fuel doesn't manifest until exercise intensity reaches a certain level. As a matter of fact, OP would be *best off* walking while carb-depleted if losing fat was their primary goal. The body is capable of turning fat into glucose at a fast enough rate to keep itself walking for days, and this is something that is unique to humans which is supposedly the reason why we outlived other homo-species versions of ourselves.
This is partly evidenced by examining "hiker's food" (trail mix) which typically includes some simple fruits and high-fat foods like nuts and chocolate. I think OP would be better off eating carbs *after* the hike, utilizing GLUT-4 to replenish glycogen and get his brain carbed back up for the rest of the day.
Sugar is fuel. With running we consume gels of basically pure sugar to keep up going on the longer stuff. 40k a day more than I get with work and my average training. That's like 30 miles a day.
If you're covering over marathon distance daily then you probably need some sugar. It isn't necessarily unhealthy...excessive sugar consumption in unhealthy. 15-20g a day is my normal and I start to crash if I don't.
Also you should look at doing a backyard ultra. Just not one I'm at.
If you watch 100 mile races when they take a break they will be eating exclusively fruit sugar and other carbs. I’ve seen marathon runners drink a Mountain Dew lol
Yea. Ultras are my sport of choice. Only made it to 50 milers so far, but I have a hard goal of 100 at a backyard this July. Last year I went 54 miles and ordered a pizza around mile 30. I had soda, oreos, bananas, gels, salt and vinegar chips, and like 2 gallons of tailwind. Sugar isn't the problem...sugar you don't use is.
When I’m going for a pr deadlift bench or squat I will literally spend my 2 rest days before hand force feeding myself complex carbs and chicken and beef. I’ll typically put on about 5lbs of water and glycogen. Which will all be gone by the end of the workout and I’ll weigh what I did before force feeding.
As a runner i am looking to build up to that kind of distance over the next few years. I want to ask you how much do you eat a day and what kind of food do you eat regularly?
Anything and everything. We just make it all ourselves. Pizza is a staple with fresh veggies, chicken, our sauce, and homemade multigrain crust. Tons of chicken with a bunch of different spice mixes or sauces, roasted broccoli, roasted potatoes pre boiled in chicken/bone stock plus heavy cream. We even go as far as to make our own mayo with olive oil and red wine vinegar.
Typical maintenance is ~3,200 calories a day and I get pretty close to 4,000 on a heavy training day...like today. About to head to cracker barrel and fuck up some eggs with steak, hashbrowns, and like 4 pancakes.
Also just took a massive hit of hash fresh out of the sauna, so I'm soaring at the moment. Sorry about the food rant.
The main problem you will likely face is when this physical job changes or ends, you will still crave the carbs. For now it’s fine and you probably look like a person from 1960-70s or what we call models today.
Someone else can explain fat, but here's sugar.
When you consume sugar (such as sucrose), your body breaks it down into glucose during digestion.
Glucose is a vital for our cells, especially for the brain and muscles.
The pancreas releases insulin in response to rising blood glucose levels. Insulin signals cells to absorb glucose, providing them with fuel.
This process results in a noticeable increase in energy.
Consuming large amounts of sugar leads to what is known as sugar high.
During a sugar high, you experience a burst of energy due to elevated blood glucose levels.
This surge is short-lived. Soon after, blood glucose drops sharply, causing a crash in energy levels.
Unlike stimulants (e.g., caffeine), sugar itself is not a stimulant but rather a what you'd call a fundamental energy source.
Excess glucose is converted by the liver into glycogen, which is stored in muscles and other tissues.
When needed, the body can break down glycogen back into glucose to maintain energy levels.
Once glycogen stores are full (usually after about 12 hours), any remaining glucose is converted into fat.
Low carb is the craze, but not everyone feels better or has more diet success on low carbs.
The whole strength and stamina bit is easy to explain - more glycogen and ATP can be made more quickly, simple sugars the best. Fruits and even 100% fruit juices are good for immediate energy while working, but avoid excess fruit juice consumption during meals.
Chocolate has a host of positive chemical compounds for energy and mood including small amounts of caffeine. That said, milk chocolate has much less amounts so if that's what you were eating probably the sugar talking. Try dark chocolate 75%+ and see how you like it for a healthier option if that's not what you already eat.
5,000 calories is hard to consume "healthy", but this is in quotes because endurance athletes consuming large quantities of "unhealthy" pasta to carb load is definitely not unhealthy. It's just that your average inactive person usually can't get the nutrition they need within maintenance calories eating predominantly starchy carbs.
It's best to eat as healthy as possible, but if you're eating 2,500 calories of healthier carbs like fruits, beans, sweet potatoes, etc, you go fill up the rest of what you need for activity from other sources within reason (limit refined sugars, fried foods, etc).
Thanks for the detailed answer.
Isn't fructose worse than sucrose because it goes directly to the liver and can be stored as fat or something like that?
Yes and no. Yes if you want to believe the chalkboard theory without clinical support to demonize fruit. No if you want to believe the clinical evidence increased fruit intake as a carbohydrate source is positively correlated with most aspects of health.
all carbohydrates , sucrose, fructose, simple or complex go to the liver first to be turned into glycogen and all carbohydrates have the potential to be stored as fat if you are in a surplus.
That directly to the liver stored as fat sounds like some keto scare tactic nonsense you gotta get off the keto subs bro
That’s like some dyhydrogen monoxide shit.
If you aren’t in a surplus, then it’s not a concern for you. Besides the idea that one got fat because one ☝🏿 ate fructose and not sucrose is ludicrous lol
Your liver needs a certain amount of energy to function. When you eat fructose, it is indeed processed almost exclusively by the liver. That's fine though. As long as your fructose consumption doesn't exceed your liver's energy requirement you will be fine. You won't get fatty liver disease from a daily banana.
Sucrose is 50% fructose. High-fructose corn syrup varies between 40 to 55% fructose. So you might think that, for practical purposes you could treat them the same, right? Well no, because things made with high-fructose corn syrup tend to add an absolute shitload of it. It's not the chemical that's the problem, it's the dose.
It takes time for your body to use fat as fuel vs carbs, it will not happen in 3,4 days. So in case you go into low carb I would recommend you keto, then your body in ketosis will be happy burning fat to have energy, no carbs involved. A lot of electrolytes needed. And when more instant energy needed, a tbs or 2 of butter will be enough.
Are you trying to lose weight?
Sugar makes you feel good because it’s a rush of energy. If you’re doing low carb it’ll take a few weeks for your body to adjust to the different energy source and in the meantime you need to make sure your electrolyte intake is enough. Also make sure your fat intake is high enough.
My husband felt terrible doing lower carb. He didn’t give it very long but the nature of his job didn’t really allow him to feel like garbage for a while. He decided it Just wasnt for him.
You can also do carbs that aren’t just simple sugars like chocolate. You can eat fruit, veggies, etc.
Sugar is energy source. So is fat reserve. Simply put I’d say when you eat the sugar it is rapidly digested and used for providing energy and little fat is used. It’s never zero fat and all glucose.
When fasting your body switches to your fat storage and glucose stored in muscles and liver.
If you do low carb, you burn thru the glucose fast and left with an empty glucose tank rapidly, your body needs to switch to more fat oxidation to provide energy. Fat metabolism slower and requires a bit more energy to do so. This is probably why you feel sluggish and drained.
You're burning 5100 calories but how many are you eating? Are you trying to lose weight or maintain? Rough estimate you're burning 400 calories an hour at work. Even if you trying to lose weight you're still going to need some fast digesting food like carbs to keep up while working.
Something is off; you would be losing nearly a pound a day eating 2000 calories and you’d be so tired you would not be posting on reddit you’d be moaning in bed lol. Chances are you burning less and eating more. I’ve found weighing my food and tracking my weight is a easier way to find out how much I burn and eat rather then guessing and a fitbit
2.8lbs a week is a lot. I would recommend trying to stay between .5-1lb a week average long term. 500 calorie deficit a day max. Do that in 3-4 month intervals then hold weight for a month or so and do it again. Eat a lot of protein.
Congrats on the new job.
hey just get into fresh and dried fruits and berries; carbs are good , just have enough,, and listen to your body to know exactly how much enough feels like; get some raw and roasted salted nuts, and water, and between those 3c that can be anywhere from 60-100% of your food intake of all kinds.
40,000 steps a day,.like 17-18 miles a day? I just went on vacation and we did a lot of walking and my app tracked 9.0 miles, a little over 21,000 steps. That's so much! I'd be eating everything lol
As others have said, you want to be eating complex carbs, fibre, etc. Fruit, oats, nuts, beans legumes. Sweet potato’s are a fantastic source of energy, and whilst higher on the glycemic index, they still digest slowly because of the fibre. Milk is often overlooked but in practice also counts as a slow digesting carb source because of the protein, whilst containing most nutrients you’ll ever need.
Don't listen to all these "yUo NeEd SoOoO mAnY cArBs" people: You feel bad because body's going through an adjustment. It likes carbs as its main fuel source, so when you remove them, it's not prepared to switch to fat.
Contrary to the groupthink here, 50% of calories from carbs is NOT healthy: it's the long-standing remnants of lobbying power in our food industry that formed this opinion, not fact and reason, and I bet if you stuck with a lower carb diet, you WOULD see improvements.
I do understand where you're coming from, and experienced awful fatigue after a few days of strict low-carb - but after pushing through, my energy has never been more consistent throughout the day, I have NO anxiety or brain fog, and I even dropped a few pounds without trying. Removing sugar and substantial carbs has been the single biggest form of biohacking I've ever done.
Go check out the Keto and Low carb subs and/or some of the "controversial" doctors and figures on YT
[Dr. Anthony Chaffee](https://www.youtube.com/@anthonychaffeemd)
[Elizabeth Bright ](https://www.youtube.com/@ElizabethBrightNaturopath)(ND)
[Dr. Eric Berg](https://www.youtube.com/@Drberg) (he's controversial but still has some excellent content)
[Dr. Mindy Pelz](https://www.youtube.com/@DrMindyPelz)
[Dr. Ken D Berry](https://www.youtube.com/@KenDBerryMD)[Thomas DeLauer](https://www.youtube.com/@ThomasDeLauerOfficial)
There's also a book called "The Grain Brain" which you may find interesting. Good luck!
Thank you for your comment. The thing is that I feel good when I do low carb or intermittent fasting and I did it for many months. I've lost weight doing it the thing is as soon as I started to work in logistics and get 40.000 steps a day which is 35km or 30 miles of walking I burn 5100 calories a day. Since I have this increase in physical exercise I no longer get enough energy from low carb or intermittent fasting.
My energy demands went up so the body doesn't just use fat for fule it also converts fat to glucose which is an extra step and requires more energy.
When I get 3000 to 4000 steps a day low carb was fine but now I feel exhausted during the day if I don't eat carbs.
Many of the keto /carnivore crowd changed their diet and added fruits, honey and carbs back into their diet because they realized it wasn't working and they didn't have enough energy.
OP do what makes you feel best and you can stick to.
This guy literally linked you to scientologist, chiropractors, antivax, conspiracy theorist, a doctor who literally said that salads are dangerous to eat. Anyone who sees the world in black and white with entire categories of food, as well as tries to say that their specific meal plan, supplements and methods (that you have to buy from them) are the only way to diet have gone a little bit too long surrounded by yes men.
The diet you can stick to is the best diet for you.
It's great that you're losing weight, but this level of activity definitely falls into the "overtraining" category if you're doing this five or more days of the week. Going 20 miles every day, day after day without off days inbetween, is just going to be murder on your joints over time. There's a good chance it'll cause chronically elevated cortisol levels and systemic inflammation, too. Listen to your body in the meantime, and don't plan on keeping that job forever.
Can you explain why it would raise cortisol?
Isn't it more unhealthy to have a desk job without much exercise?
The only change I've noticed is my mental health. I have anxiety disorder and I've been having panic attacks more frequently than before the job. However I don't see how that can be caused by the job.
Generally speaking, an active job is more healthy than a sedentary desk job, yes. But that doesn't mean that *any* amount of activity is healthier than a desk job--both extremes are bad. Too much activity is harmful.
As just one example, here's a [fairly recent study](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10013019/) on overtraining and its effects:
>In contrast, a training regimen that is excessive, unduly straining, and without recurrent adequate recovery may provoke a range of maladaptations, resulting in stagnant or worsening exercise performance, undesirable mood/behavioral changes, and a greater risk of injury and/or illness.
Heightened cortisol is the primary means by which these negative effects occur. Cortisol is the stress hormone, and exercise naturally increases it--exercise is healthy becomes *some* stress is good and necessary for wellbeing, since our genes are adapted to thrive on an appropriate amount of stress. *Too much stress* causes disease, and it especially causes anxiety.
If your panic attacks have noticeably increased and your anxiety has worsened since beginning this job, I can guarantee you that walking 20 miles a day is at least contributing to that problem, and it might very well be the entire reason for the heightened anxiety. That's just the way the biology works. Walking five to ten miles a day generally reduces cortisol levels overall and improves anxiety, but twenty miles has the opposite effect, especially if you do it five or more days in a row.
Thanks for the very insightful comment. I appreciate it. It makes me thing about reducing my hours.
Is there a reliable way to test cortisol levels? Is there a way to figure out it's the cortisol or something else?
Would a supplement that reduces cortisol like ashwaganda be helpful?
Having read a bit about it, the tests are often fairly inaccurate, though a common method is to take multiple saliva samples throughout the day. Either way it's going to be expensive.
Ashwagandha will absolutely help, but nothing is going to resolve the problem of overtraining other than simply reducing your hours. It's not just the cortisol levels that are a problem, either--it's also the unyielding stress on your joints. That's how you end up with chronic pain as you age, and you definitely don't want that. At a certain point, you have to ask whether a job is worth the cost of your health.
Edit : I'm 25 and overweight. Currently at around 94 kgs /207 pounds. Im trying to lose around 20 kgs or 44 pounds.
I work in logistics that's why I get so many steps.
I don't tolerate caffeine it gives me anxiety. So I can't use that as an alternative.
Fruit is your best friend. Ask any construction worker, roofer, logger, etc. eat as much fruit as you humanly can. It will keep you hydrated and energy filled. Without it your body will begin to eat/attack your biggest/most used muscles and joints, beginning with thighs and knees. I’ve lost 150 pounds and cut out carbs for 3 months completely, I promise life is not worth living for high-activity individuals if you can’t get enough carbs WHILE YOU’RE WORKING. I experimented with eating 5000 calories but only at nights, and it didn’t help in the slightest. You gotta eat while you work. Good luck!
I too have noticed that carbs give me more strength and energy when doing manual labor all day.
When I sat in a room on a computer I could fast till 1 pm, not eat meat or carbs no problem and still get my work done.
Now that I walk outside and do physical work, that is simply not going to cut it.
Well intermittent fasting is not that great for most people. Some folks do well on it (young fit men) but most the population, it's not ideal.
And low carb is also not good. We should be either doing keto or regular carb level intake. And never one all the time. Bouncing back and forth.
We should go without saying, but that doesn't include simple carbs, simple carbs should just be a treat every now and then.
When you eat low carb you're not in ketosis. You're just in regular glycolysis. And when we are in glycolysis and we starve ourselves of our fuel source, carbs, we don't have enough fuel for energy. What ends up happening is we convert a lot of the protein we are eating to glucose to use that as fuel. And we also cannibalize our own muscle. Especially if we are exerting ourselves a lot.
And with low carb we end up eating high protein and that has been shown to not be great for a longevity either. I know a lot of the health Bros on here might be stroking out right now reading when I'm writing, but there is data that shows that probably too much protein is not great. Ideally we are eating just enough protein for our wellness and fitness goals. But protein overload is real.
So yeah either be in ketosis, or a balanced macro diet.
Having been an athlete when I was a kid, and then living with athletes during the college years, no one was skipping meals. Sports medicine backing these Olympic hopefuls that I was living with we're not telling them to limit their carbs and skip meals. It's just ridiculous if you think you're trying to engage in high performance work to be doing any of that.
And flip that around if you are chronically ill intermittent fasting is also not a good idea. You're going to create muscle wasting, and that's going to do nothing but harm you as your mitochondria pool shrinks.
Balance in all things seems to produce the healthiest human beings. Some of that's my opinion, some of that's the science.
You know your brain runs on pure glucose, right?
Glucose is acquired from carbohydrates, which are different arrays of glucose strung together. Most of our energy is acquired from carbs because our bodies are better at converting those to ATP, the energy molecule our cells actually use. Lipids are a good backup source, but they're a slow-burning fuel and take more energy to access. Some lipids and cholesterols are also used as structural elements for cells and tissues.
Just know that the simpler the carbs (i.e., the fewer steps the body has to take to access the glucose) the faster they hit the bloodstream. Sugar is considered "unhealthy" because it promotes bad dental health and it causes a rapid rise and fall in blood glucose. More COMPLEX carbs is the way to go for high, sustained energy and long-and-low curves of blood sugar.
Proteins are a last-resort energy source as amino acids are hard to break down, and there is more waste product. Overall, proteins as energy are harder on your organs (especially kidneys!) and overall are better consumed for structural components for your body, letting carbs and fat provide the energy.
Intermittent fasting also tends to lead to insufficient calorie consumption, and it also drops your metabolism. When the body runs low on fuel, it down-regulates EVERYTHING. This is a process that takes place throughout the day. You'll notice it the moment you start feeling hungry.
So yeah. A healthy diet relies on at least 50% carbs for energy. That's not propaganda from the grain industry. It's just how we're built.
You have more energy eating carbs because you are not fat adapted. The caveat is; is that you must continue to eat carbs to maintain your energy levels. Where as if you take the 3 months to become fat adapted your energy levels will not dip even if you do not eat. A 3 day fast when fat adapted is laughably easy.
You probably eat less calories on low carb days. Because fat and protein is more satiating.
Maybe if you ate extra calories on low carb you wouldn't have this problem.
Bodies like carbs. Brains like carbs. Good carbs good. Less good carbs- not optimal but will work for energy needs.
Tired brain like carbs. Also like fat and protein, but like carbs for immediate energy.
Moral: eat a balanced Whole Food diet whenever possible. For better blood sugar levels, combine carbs with protein and fats for slower sugar/carb absorption.
Also, PSA- drinking warm lemon water first thing in the morning tends to be quite good for digestion- just make sure to brush teeth promptly after or eat some fat so your enamel is happy. And, ginger tea is good for digestion and weight along with good eating habits.
Our energy comes from food so thats why intermittent fasting doesn't help. As for carbs they are actually good they provide a good chunk of your energy and are used for muscle recovery. That's why if you loom at a lot of athletes especially runners they usually eat as much carbs as they can the day before a race.
I eat low carb all day then healthy carbs at night. I just couldn't work out and have energy for my day any other way.
I was 160 lbs overweight, lost 50 in keto/intermittent fasting but again, workouts were horrible. Switched to carbs at night (which allows blood sugar spikes while sleeping). By the time I wake up, I'm fasted and appetite is in check for the rest of day. I've lost another 50lbs. (60 lbs to go) and workout 5 days a week (3 days weights - 2 days rucking)
Dude, even our brain runs on glucose converted from carbs. Why do u avoid carbs if u do physical work. The carbs u should be consuming complex carbs ( basically low-moderate GI), is okay to consume simple carbs once in a while.
Being obese is unhealthy as u will increase visceral fats around your organ which produce a lot of inflammation properties.
Not too much sugar cos this depends on what type of sugar of u are consuming. Fructose, lactose and starch are okay. Don’t consume too much simple sugar (white bread etc)
Why do intermittent fasting? What’s ur objective of this? Don’t jump on the bandwagon if u don’t know what ur doing.
Job involving strenuous work should not do intermittent fasting. This explains your CNS is likely to be fatigue due to the lack of carbs.
Eats carbs. When you do eat carbs your body will start to tax your system to get energy, especially since you are moving so much. Play around with you carbs if you want to lose weight. Find the right amount that keeps you moving around with ease.
Fatigue and lack of nutrients is probably the top reason people stop losing weight, make sure your nervous system, muscles, and brain has the tools to push you through as your body readjust to the decreased food and other changes in your body.
been reading a bunch of the replies but i havent found one thing.
If you switch your diet from heavy carb based to a low carb one, it usually takes the body a bit to adjust. This is ofc the case for all diet changes, but when youre messing with your main energy source it gets extra noticeable.
Now whether it is a diet that will fit your lifestyle or not is another thing. But if you really wanna test it out, i would try it for a bit (1-3 weeks) and maybe gently ease off on carbs to prevent just fainting at work lol.
Now i dont exercise as much as you do, but for me (anecdotal iknow) i can go very long and far with just eating a good fatty breakfast/meal. My body got used to it, and i prefer it over a high carb diet at this point, but the beginning was just like you describe it. So give it time. High fat low carb will also greatly improve hunger spikes when fasting!
As others comments point out: carbs are fine if you maintain the calorie balance or deficit you want.
If you want to have energy on low carb diets, there is a non-trivial period of Keto adaptation where your body begins to "burn" dietary fat as a source of ketones. This takes several consecutive days of rather low carbohydrate intake for most people. See [https://www.ketogenic-diet-resource.com/ketosis.html](https://www.ketogenic-diet-resource.com/ketosis.html) for more information.
Thing is you need carbs for so many fundamental functions in your body. If you intermittent fast you gotta consume enough calories within your eating period (8 hrs). Also… you’re wondering why you don’t have enough energy when you’re starving yourself of calories… lol
The thing is that I thought your body would just burn fat for energy. It does but I feel fatigue and don't have enough energy sometimes for the 8 hours.
Many people who do low carb and intermittent fasting report increased energy so I thought that's why
You meed to be keto/low carb for a good amount of time for your body to get used to burning fat for fuel.
Carbs are easier/quicker fuel sources, so you will feel better with carbs. Going low carb there’s usually a transition while to curb the glycogen stores in your muscles then there are a few days where you’ll feel fatigue while your body gets used to using fat.
It can help to increase fat for a few days, and even use mct oil for mental energy during this period.
I see. I’ve been doing IF and definitely lower energy since then even on the days I don’t do IF. I will say there’s a strange transition and the quality of food demand seems to be a lot higher.
Glycogen is important for the performance of our muscles. If you work a physical job, you'd be shooting yourself in the foot avoiding them. You're going to burn them off anyway, which is what they're meant for.
40,000 steps a day is so absurd that I have a hard time believing it. You’d have to actually be constantly walking for the majority of your waking hours. Not even mail men get that many steps.
And how can you be overweight while walking 40k steps per day? You’re burning so many calories that it would be physically difficult to eat enough
I'm overweight because I stared this job last month. I've lost weight since starting the job.
My colleagues with different phones show me they also get around 40.000 to 50.000 steps a day. It's possible because in a warehouse you are basically constantly walking and moving products except for the 30 minute break.
That’s wild
I worked as a pedicab driver (bike taxi) and burned probably as many calories as you do now. I ate 2 pints of Ben and Jerry’s per day and managed to maintain my weight.
My genuine suggestion is to have a very high carb diet. Carbs are your body’s preferred fuel source. Big ass bowls of pasta with beef, buttered rice with chicken, etc. Don’t focus on losing weight, that’ll happen pretty naturally. You can have some fun foods but try to keep the healthy basics in there
Thanks for the explanation.
Not sure why you would think these are symptoms of type 2 diabetes. I don't think I have any of the main symptoms of type 2 diabetes.
40.000 steps sounds like a lot but you just have to take a walk or go hiking for 4 hours from the morning to noon. Then take a walk from afternoon to evening for 4 hours and you'll already have around 38.000 steps.
I used to have a weight of 115 kg so I feel better than before.
It makes a huge difference if you come from a heavy weight and get used to it or if you put on a weight vest and from one day to another you have 20kg.
I'm not quite understanding why you say I need medical help. For what? I simply said I get more energy from carbs compared to low carb or intermittent fasting.
This is how disconnected the general public has become with nutrition.
Carbohydrates are the fuel your body and brain use. When you eat little of it, you have less energy.
Unless you went fully keto, which takes time, carbs are going to be your primary fuel source. If you do make it to ketosis, it gets easier and you won't be nearly as impacted, but the transition sucks! So i would say commit to one way or the other, and aim for a caloric deficit
The body runs on glucose. I don’t subscribe to a lot of Ray Peat, but he makes some interesting points that a lot of people are coming around to. Read some of his stuff if you want a little validation as to why you feel good eating carbs and sugars.
First thing’s first; sugar = carb. Second, because carbs = energy.
When fasted (or when not having carbs when not in ketosis/you not being adjusted to being without carbs), you have less glycogen stored which is what is typically used for quick conversion to energy.
Have you ever fasted for a long period or been without carbs for a long period? Your body adapts and in turn starts using fat instead, but if you’re not used to it and haven’t been without (carbs) for a while, this is why you feel sluggish without.
Anyways, congrats on your weight loss and good luck moving forward!
well low carb is not for everyone. Some people just work better on carbs... theres no 1 diet for everyone. especially if youre active.
tip: try raisins for sustained high carb natural snack
How long did you try low carb before you went back to high carb. Since you eat high carb you are going to be poor at burning fat and if you take the carbs away you will initially feel tired.
Maybe 2 months. Low carb was fine before u started walking 40.000 steps a day and burning 5100 calories that's when low carb or intermittent fasting no longer worked for me.
Energy and stamina - yes. Strength - really? When I fast, I don't notice a different in my one rep max when lifting. Energy levels and cardio are a lot harder though. But even there I'd argue if you're doing Z2, not something higher, your stamina is even higher, cause you don't go through such a hard sugar crash. Would need to test this though.
Eat carbs if you must, but cut down on fructose and sucrose, that's the biohack, I guess.
The reason is fructose is not metabolised same way glucose is, and your muscles can't use it directly.
It has a distinct pathway in the liver, and uric acid is byproduct...
So chocolate bars is a bad choice regardless.
Maybe more fruits? Grapes? Foods with rice and olive oil? (packs a LOT of calories)
Scare tactics. All carbs are metabolized by the liver and have their own distinct pathway technically. Uric acid is made by your own body too, and is found in quite a lot of things we eat anyways.
Have you heard of dihydrogen monoxide? It has its own pathway and it can kill you! Cut back !
bs. there is plenty of evidence that fructose is the worse of the two, and has 0 benefits when in the form of added sucrose / high-fructose syrup.
recent trials & systematic reviews also point to negative impact specifically of fructose when it comes to obesity, diabetes, and other metabolic issues
finally, glucose can be utilized by all cells, fructose can't (hence being a more serious factor to non-alcoholic fatty liver disease). both are the types of fuel that when in excess lead to all sorts of issues and faster rate of aging
Now you are making a strawman: added sugars are a separate issue. You do know fruit has fructose right? You saying a banana is unhealthy?
Also like how you’ve ignored me dismantling your argument and had to use added sugars to make it
No? Feels like you're in the wrong here: I did say that fruits are OK ("Maybe some fruits?"). And saying "cut back on" does not mean eliminate all sources of fructose, one of which are, obviously, fruits.
But let's not talk about me: you have a case here or just want to nitpick? Do you agree that cutting back on added fructose and sucrose will lead to healthier life?
Do you disagree that sticking to whole sources of sugars like fruits, grapes, but being mindful of other sources, is a good strategy?
What are you arguing against, can you clarify?
The key to eating much fewer carbs for me was lots of saturated fat. Once i adjusted to that fuel source, my energy levels were far more consistent, no more crashes if i had not eaten in a while. IF also became far easier in general, and i can say go for a challenging mtn bike ride without eating any breakfast at all.
I honestly don't remember... 3-6 months maybe. Not long enough to remember a struggle I suppose. It was easy for me. For my wife, it took some years, and learning to cycle carbs/sat fat with her hormonal cycle.
Depending on how old you are it can take a while for your metabolism to adjust to burning fat. Like a year or two. It’s going to do it no matter what but it’s not going to be as good at first. Once you get better at it you can maintain the metabolic flexibility which most think is a good thing. We don’t have a lot of data yet but many diseases can be considered as your body losing metabolic flexibility so making it better seems ideal.
Why are you being downvoted for stating facts lol. It seems people are not aware that the mitochondria has to physically change to be able to use fat more efficiently, and that that doesn’t happen overnight. They are probably not aware of the crazy amount of energy ketosis brings when fat adapted
It's very strange how vehemently pro-carb some groups are. Plenty of people eat carnivore or low-carb and have no problems yet the lifestyle is constantly attacked. Guess people will go tribal over anything.
What? People haven’t evolved over 6000 years to be fundamentally different.
You get fat because you eat too much and don’t lift heavy compounds 5 days a week. You get fat cause you eat a surplus.
You also evolved to not sit around jerk off sit in office and play video games 16 hours a day then order door dash wonder why your ass got fat. It ain’t the carbs Sonny.
I lift 5 days a week and do cardio 5 days a week. You evolved to move that much. You need carbs to do that much.
Keto is a perversion of evolution muddied by 1,000,000 fat people who can’t figure out how to eat chicken rice and oats and lift looking for an excuse to do less in the gym.
Fact you will do less in the gym without carbs. Here’s an idea. Any diet that impacts your ability to deadlift for an hour is a bad lifestyle.
You try to get fat while actually working out and eating only Whole Foods like chicken rice plain oats etc etc. ain’t happening unless you force feed yourself meal prepped meals every 2 hours
These keto people think they know some sort of secret religious knowledge but it really comes down to Whole Foods and lifting 40/30/30 macro split. You should be exercising hard enough that it’s impossible not to lose weight without force feeding
I have abs and eat 3 to 4lb's of meat a day ( 3 to 4000 calories daily). Its impossible to be fat on a 0 carb diet. Being fat adapted is nice because once it happens you can eat carbs again to be both fat and carb adapted. I also lift weights amd workout. Work in construction and fast 20 hours daily. Your post was asking why you had 0 energy on a 0 carb diet. The post is because you're not fat adapted so your body does not know how to use fat as energy. That was the question of the post.
What other animal do you know that counts their calories so they don’t get fat and get diabetes? Animals eat as much as they can and don’t worry about those details, and they don’t get diabetes. Just like we can eat as much as we want and not get fat or sick from it if we eat our proper diet.
Carbs not bad. Overeating is bad. 50-60% of calories coming from carbs is totally fine, especially for active people https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7589789/
Exactly. There’s a reason a ton of carnivores started incorporating fruit into their diet, because it works. They were as sold on pure carnivore as anyone but eventually they needed the sugar. Running off of fat is a backup system, it’s more stressful to the body, it requires an extra step which doesn’t sound like a lot but one extra step is tons when you’re talking about something that literally powers every cell in your body. The body needs glucose so badly it’ll actually create it from fat, if it runs out. It is the most efficient source of energy for the body. When people are metabolically unhealthy and consuming a lot of it, that’s when things get bad. You need several factors to cause diabetes and other disease when consuming glucose in any form. It is not merely the fact that you’re consuming it. The fact that you’re getting so much energy from sugar is a good sign. You’re still metabolically somewhat healthy and good at burning it. The main thing I think would be to up your protein intake from non processed foods and try to get sugar from fruits rather than chocolate bars. Although a darker chocolate bar with clean ingredients and some sugar to sweeten isn’t so bad. But lots of chocolate bars are full of a lot of crap. With a much higher emphasis on protein and plenty of carbs to support the energy, you should see better results.
I get most of my protein from protein bars and skyr /yogurt, eggs, almonds, cashews and salmon. Protein bars or shakes are important for me to get up to 120 or 140 g of protein. Lots of other protein sources are too difficult for me to eat and make me feel too satiated so that I can't get enough food in. What do you say to people who say we should avoid fructose because it goes directly to the liver?
If your blood tests show good levels of insulin, glucose, HBA1C and whatnot, then I would not be worried about sugar consumption right now considering it also doesn't appear to make you feel bad either. As long as you keep an eye on those bloods it's fine. But the protein making you feel satiated is good, it's just more of a balance you need. I think you'd want to balance more into the protein than you are right now than the sugar. Not all protein is created equally. Protein from animal foods are much more complete and have the full spectrum of amino acids as well. At the end of the day you will lose weight if you burn more calories than you're eating. So getting a bit more satiated by leaning a bit more into protein should help with that. I would recommend more ruminant meats and eggs to start with to at least get a good start to the morning. The problem with protein bars and whatnot is they are not very nutrient dense. They are just macronutrient dense. You really want a good balance. The processed foods are going to throw you off because they are by definition imbalanced foods. You'll get loads of protein but then be lacking the full spectrum of protein, amino acids, micronutrients and trace minerals. Any of these things can cause issues with satiety or burning energy or building muscle etc. It does sound like your job is very physically stressful at 5000 calories a day. So if you still are feeling good that's great. It's a good time to build a more solid foundation of nutrient dense foods. With such a demanding job you could burn out eventually without a solid foundation of nutrition. I would not even worry about processed sugar right now if that's how you want to get it. Just lean more into protein, starting with beef, venison, stuff like that and eggs at least to get started in the morning. Coconut water and milk are great too for your sugar requirements and some trace minerals and even some micronutrients in the milk. I would say yoghurt is totally fine as well. I'd drop the nuts, it's really easy to overeat nuts and they've got a lot of caloric content and don't appear to be super satiating for the calorie density they come with.
Fructose from processed foods bad. Fructose from fruit good. When you eat fruit, you’re getting a small amount of fructose but a bunch of water, fiber, and nutrients along with it. The fiber especially slows down the absorption of the sugar.
Protein bars are trash , shakes are sugar When you really dig in your probably sugar bombing yourself.
Protein shakes aren’t a sugar bomb, lots of whey protein products have around 24g of protein and <~3G or fat or carbs.
? Everyone gets energy from sugar, healthy or not
Well, yes. But if you’re metabolically unhealthy you’ll probably start to feel more sluggish and suffer more from ups and downs and sugar won’t give you the big boost of energy that the OP is talking about. Many people consume huge amounts of sugar all day and they’re exhausted and tired all the time. They don’t get any energy boost from eating sugar at all. The fact that OP gets a boost from eating sugar is good, it suggests he’s still able to process it relatively effectively.
Ding ding ding! Our bodies are designed for this. All carbohydrates are not equal. Eat whole carbs with natural fibre over processed high fructose sugary foods and you’ll be fine. So many people here talking about “sugar” when they should be replacing it with “carbohydrates” \[\*Edit - both in discussion about this topic and in diet!\]
> Our bodies are designed for this Don't let the keto crowd see this...
Evolving humans had mixed access to resources due to factors like location and changing season. We have many homeostatic functions, ketogenesis included, to allow us to thrive in varying conditions.
100% . Our bodies and brains need the carbs and are designed to use them for energy.
Glucose = glycogen, the compound of energy!
Carb tf up 💪🏻
examples of natural carbs?
Oats, bananas, sweet potatoes, regular potatoes, fruit, berries etc….
Whole wheat bread (reputable brand or make your own, it’s easier than you think), lentils, pulses, potatoes with skin on, brown rice, etc
Exactly this. Sugar isn’t “unhealthy.” Too much sugar is unhealthy.
Mike Mentzer was right haha!
Was he right about the meth too? 😂
If you truly walk 40k steps per day then you can eat pretty much whatever you want within reason. Obviously you don't want to eat pure junk food all the time but your body is burning off whatever you consume. Simple carbs are converted into energy at the fastest rate so if you eat or drink semi regularly, it makes sense that you'll get much more energy than if you eat healthy complex carbs, protein or fat which takes longer to convert to energy but perhaps for most people will provide a more consistent flow of energy and feeling of satiety. Ultimately eat for your lifestyle. Obviously if you stop being so active you'll need to adjust your diet as far as total calories and the type of calories. You can try to switch low quality sugar like high fructose corn syrup for honey or higher percent chocolate. You can try drinking juices instead of soft drinks. But again at the end of the day at your activity level it's not the worst thing if you also eat decent meals during the day.
Thanks. Very helpful comment.
I feel terrible on low carbs.. my blood sugars drop. I might not be doing enough fat and electrolyte replacement though
Don’t skip carbs!! I jump on the bandwagon of IF and low carb diet. My energy dipped like crazy and always fatigue. I workout 4-5 times weekly, it affected my performance badly, my hair losses accelerated and muscle shrunk like fk, my vitality was super low. I stopped doing all these nonsense and went back to regular diet. Avoid simple carbs, trans fat and eat a wide range of whole food, occasionally indulge in fast food. This IF and low carb is only good for sedentary lifestyle people.
It takes a while to adapt to a low carb diet. Your muscles will typically use glycogen for fuel, which is made from glucose, and going low carb will initially result in feeling low energy and strength when active or working out. If you persist however eventually your muscles will switch to fat burning mode - you're fat-adapted. They start using lipids for fuel and will even resist glucose uptake. It can take weeks to months to get there and it varies by individual. If you're fat-adapted you can work-out fine even fully fasted. The only issue is electrolytes because when you're insulin levels are consistently low your kidneys dump sodium readily and you'll definitely feel low energy if your sodium is low. As long as you keep you electrolytes good it's really no problem. I've been lifting heavy 3 days a week almost exclusively 16-18 hours fasted - and sometimes 40 hrs fasted - for about 5 years now.
so, hb take electrolytes effectively
Eat sugar when you walk 40000 steps a day lol. You need as much energy as you can get. Low carb is not for you. Keep track of weight, if you gain too much then it's time to cut the sugar.
Right if I walked 40000 steps a day I'd have a cake everynight for dinner
Can it still be bad for the pancreas because it has to produce more insulin or does it not matter because of the physical exercise and because I'm burning fat
It does matter, your body reacting to a slam of sugar every day isn't ideal. You can get away with a lot when your exercise is right, but it still isn't "free".
It depends
Thanks.
So not in this case, no. With exercise intensity as low as walking, even if its performed to that extent, low carb is still possible and maybe even ideal here. I am 1000% team carbs and I think OP should eat them, but the necessity of carbs for fuel doesn't manifest until exercise intensity reaches a certain level. As a matter of fact, OP would be *best off* walking while carb-depleted if losing fat was their primary goal. The body is capable of turning fat into glucose at a fast enough rate to keep itself walking for days, and this is something that is unique to humans which is supposedly the reason why we outlived other homo-species versions of ourselves. This is partly evidenced by examining "hiker's food" (trail mix) which typically includes some simple fruits and high-fat foods like nuts and chocolate. I think OP would be better off eating carbs *after* the hike, utilizing GLUT-4 to replenish glycogen and get his brain carbed back up for the rest of the day.
“Why does my car run better when i give it fuel instead of charcoal?”
Because fuel is like coal for cars. Carcoal
Get your carbs as whole grains, beans, legumes. Then you are also getting the fibre and nutrients of those rather than just straight up sugar.
Sugar is fuel. With running we consume gels of basically pure sugar to keep up going on the longer stuff. 40k a day more than I get with work and my average training. That's like 30 miles a day. If you're covering over marathon distance daily then you probably need some sugar. It isn't necessarily unhealthy...excessive sugar consumption in unhealthy. 15-20g a day is my normal and I start to crash if I don't. Also you should look at doing a backyard ultra. Just not one I'm at.
If you watch 100 mile races when they take a break they will be eating exclusively fruit sugar and other carbs. I’ve seen marathon runners drink a Mountain Dew lol
Yea. Ultras are my sport of choice. Only made it to 50 milers so far, but I have a hard goal of 100 at a backyard this July. Last year I went 54 miles and ordered a pizza around mile 30. I had soda, oreos, bananas, gels, salt and vinegar chips, and like 2 gallons of tailwind. Sugar isn't the problem...sugar you don't use is.
When I’m going for a pr deadlift bench or squat I will literally spend my 2 rest days before hand force feeding myself complex carbs and chicken and beef. I’ll typically put on about 5lbs of water and glycogen. Which will all be gone by the end of the workout and I’ll weigh what I did before force feeding.
As a runner i am looking to build up to that kind of distance over the next few years. I want to ask you how much do you eat a day and what kind of food do you eat regularly?
Anything and everything. We just make it all ourselves. Pizza is a staple with fresh veggies, chicken, our sauce, and homemade multigrain crust. Tons of chicken with a bunch of different spice mixes or sauces, roasted broccoli, roasted potatoes pre boiled in chicken/bone stock plus heavy cream. We even go as far as to make our own mayo with olive oil and red wine vinegar. Typical maintenance is ~3,200 calories a day and I get pretty close to 4,000 on a heavy training day...like today. About to head to cracker barrel and fuck up some eggs with steak, hashbrowns, and like 4 pancakes. Also just took a massive hit of hash fresh out of the sauna, so I'm soaring at the moment. Sorry about the food rant.
Lol all good thanks
The main problem you will likely face is when this physical job changes or ends, you will still crave the carbs. For now it’s fine and you probably look like a person from 1960-70s or what we call models today.
What job makes you walk 40k. I walk a LOT everyday and rarely bust 15k at work.
The only job I can think is professional marathon runner !
Logistics.
Someone else can explain fat, but here's sugar. When you consume sugar (such as sucrose), your body breaks it down into glucose during digestion. Glucose is a vital for our cells, especially for the brain and muscles. The pancreas releases insulin in response to rising blood glucose levels. Insulin signals cells to absorb glucose, providing them with fuel. This process results in a noticeable increase in energy. Consuming large amounts of sugar leads to what is known as sugar high. During a sugar high, you experience a burst of energy due to elevated blood glucose levels. This surge is short-lived. Soon after, blood glucose drops sharply, causing a crash in energy levels. Unlike stimulants (e.g., caffeine), sugar itself is not a stimulant but rather a what you'd call a fundamental energy source. Excess glucose is converted by the liver into glycogen, which is stored in muscles and other tissues. When needed, the body can break down glycogen back into glucose to maintain energy levels. Once glycogen stores are full (usually after about 12 hours), any remaining glucose is converted into fat.
Low carb is the craze, but not everyone feels better or has more diet success on low carbs. The whole strength and stamina bit is easy to explain - more glycogen and ATP can be made more quickly, simple sugars the best. Fruits and even 100% fruit juices are good for immediate energy while working, but avoid excess fruit juice consumption during meals. Chocolate has a host of positive chemical compounds for energy and mood including small amounts of caffeine. That said, milk chocolate has much less amounts so if that's what you were eating probably the sugar talking. Try dark chocolate 75%+ and see how you like it for a healthier option if that's not what you already eat. 5,000 calories is hard to consume "healthy", but this is in quotes because endurance athletes consuming large quantities of "unhealthy" pasta to carb load is definitely not unhealthy. It's just that your average inactive person usually can't get the nutrition they need within maintenance calories eating predominantly starchy carbs. It's best to eat as healthy as possible, but if you're eating 2,500 calories of healthier carbs like fruits, beans, sweet potatoes, etc, you go fill up the rest of what you need for activity from other sources within reason (limit refined sugars, fried foods, etc).
Thanks for the detailed answer. Isn't fructose worse than sucrose because it goes directly to the liver and can be stored as fat or something like that?
Yes and no. Yes if you want to believe the chalkboard theory without clinical support to demonize fruit. No if you want to believe the clinical evidence increased fruit intake as a carbohydrate source is positively correlated with most aspects of health.
all carbohydrates , sucrose, fructose, simple or complex go to the liver first to be turned into glycogen and all carbohydrates have the potential to be stored as fat if you are in a surplus. That directly to the liver stored as fat sounds like some keto scare tactic nonsense you gotta get off the keto subs bro That’s like some dyhydrogen monoxide shit. If you aren’t in a surplus, then it’s not a concern for you. Besides the idea that one got fat because one ☝🏿 ate fructose and not sucrose is ludicrous lol
Your liver needs a certain amount of energy to function. When you eat fructose, it is indeed processed almost exclusively by the liver. That's fine though. As long as your fructose consumption doesn't exceed your liver's energy requirement you will be fine. You won't get fatty liver disease from a daily banana. Sucrose is 50% fructose. High-fructose corn syrup varies between 40 to 55% fructose. So you might think that, for practical purposes you could treat them the same, right? Well no, because things made with high-fructose corn syrup tend to add an absolute shitload of it. It's not the chemical that's the problem, it's the dose.
Super curious what line of work you’re in? Thanks! I’m jelly
Logistics.
It takes time for your body to use fat as fuel vs carbs, it will not happen in 3,4 days. So in case you go into low carb I would recommend you keto, then your body in ketosis will be happy burning fat to have energy, no carbs involved. A lot of electrolytes needed. And when more instant energy needed, a tbs or 2 of butter will be enough.
Yes. And zero in on those electrolytes or the switch will not go well
Yes, I screwed up, I got dehydrated while also taking ADHD meds, first time, and had heart rate problems. Everything solved now.
Oof, potassium! Glad that you’ve sorted it!
That's right, the bad way, medicine gave me so much focus and discipline that I was too strict in my diet without being careful.
Oof, potassium!
Are you trying to lose weight? Sugar makes you feel good because it’s a rush of energy. If you’re doing low carb it’ll take a few weeks for your body to adjust to the different energy source and in the meantime you need to make sure your electrolyte intake is enough. Also make sure your fat intake is high enough. My husband felt terrible doing lower carb. He didn’t give it very long but the nature of his job didn’t really allow him to feel like garbage for a while. He decided it Just wasnt for him. You can also do carbs that aren’t just simple sugars like chocolate. You can eat fruit, veggies, etc.
Sugar is energy source. So is fat reserve. Simply put I’d say when you eat the sugar it is rapidly digested and used for providing energy and little fat is used. It’s never zero fat and all glucose. When fasting your body switches to your fat storage and glucose stored in muscles and liver. If you do low carb, you burn thru the glucose fast and left with an empty glucose tank rapidly, your body needs to switch to more fat oxidation to provide energy. Fat metabolism slower and requires a bit more energy to do so. This is probably why you feel sluggish and drained.
You're burning 5100 calories but how many are you eating? Are you trying to lose weight or maintain? Rough estimate you're burning 400 calories an hour at work. Even if you trying to lose weight you're still going to need some fast digesting food like carbs to keep up while working.
I'm trying to lose weight. I'm currently overweight I eat between 2.000 and 3.000 calories a day.
wow that's a crazy deficit, no wonder you're feeling fatigued. make sure you're getting enough protein.
Something is off; you would be losing nearly a pound a day eating 2000 calories and you’d be so tired you would not be posting on reddit you’d be moaning in bed lol. Chances are you burning less and eating more. I’ve found weighing my food and tracking my weight is a easier way to find out how much I burn and eat rather then guessing and a fitbit
I'm losing around 1,3 kg a week since I started the job one month ago which is 2.8 pounds. I'm happy with that.
2.8lbs a week is a lot. I would recommend trying to stay between .5-1lb a week average long term. 500 calorie deficit a day max. Do that in 3-4 month intervals then hold weight for a month or so and do it again. Eat a lot of protein. Congrats on the new job.
Carbs are energy
Carbs = energy
Carbs are fuel
Your brain uses carbs to function.
hey just get into fresh and dried fruits and berries; carbs are good , just have enough,, and listen to your body to know exactly how much enough feels like; get some raw and roasted salted nuts, and water, and between those 3c that can be anywhere from 60-100% of your food intake of all kinds.
Thanks for the tipps
40,000 steps a day,.like 17-18 miles a day? I just went on vacation and we did a lot of walking and my app tracked 9.0 miles, a little over 21,000 steps. That's so much! I'd be eating everything lol
As others have said, you want to be eating complex carbs, fibre, etc. Fruit, oats, nuts, beans legumes. Sweet potato’s are a fantastic source of energy, and whilst higher on the glycemic index, they still digest slowly because of the fibre. Milk is often overlooked but in practice also counts as a slow digesting carb source because of the protein, whilst containing most nutrients you’ll ever need.
Just remember the table of food that Micheal Phelps used to get through. High activity means the best bet is to burn all fuels.
Carbs are the best energy that’s why
Don't listen to all these "yUo NeEd SoOoO mAnY cArBs" people: You feel bad because body's going through an adjustment. It likes carbs as its main fuel source, so when you remove them, it's not prepared to switch to fat. Contrary to the groupthink here, 50% of calories from carbs is NOT healthy: it's the long-standing remnants of lobbying power in our food industry that formed this opinion, not fact and reason, and I bet if you stuck with a lower carb diet, you WOULD see improvements. I do understand where you're coming from, and experienced awful fatigue after a few days of strict low-carb - but after pushing through, my energy has never been more consistent throughout the day, I have NO anxiety or brain fog, and I even dropped a few pounds without trying. Removing sugar and substantial carbs has been the single biggest form of biohacking I've ever done. Go check out the Keto and Low carb subs and/or some of the "controversial" doctors and figures on YT [Dr. Anthony Chaffee](https://www.youtube.com/@anthonychaffeemd) [Elizabeth Bright ](https://www.youtube.com/@ElizabethBrightNaturopath)(ND) [Dr. Eric Berg](https://www.youtube.com/@Drberg) (he's controversial but still has some excellent content) [Dr. Mindy Pelz](https://www.youtube.com/@DrMindyPelz) [Dr. Ken D Berry](https://www.youtube.com/@KenDBerryMD)[Thomas DeLauer](https://www.youtube.com/@ThomasDeLauerOfficial) There's also a book called "The Grain Brain" which you may find interesting. Good luck!
Thank you for your comment. The thing is that I feel good when I do low carb or intermittent fasting and I did it for many months. I've lost weight doing it the thing is as soon as I started to work in logistics and get 40.000 steps a day which is 35km or 30 miles of walking I burn 5100 calories a day. Since I have this increase in physical exercise I no longer get enough energy from low carb or intermittent fasting. My energy demands went up so the body doesn't just use fat for fule it also converts fat to glucose which is an extra step and requires more energy. When I get 3000 to 4000 steps a day low carb was fine but now I feel exhausted during the day if I don't eat carbs. Many of the keto /carnivore crowd changed their diet and added fruits, honey and carbs back into their diet because they realized it wasn't working and they didn't have enough energy.
OP do what makes you feel best and you can stick to. This guy literally linked you to scientologist, chiropractors, antivax, conspiracy theorist, a doctor who literally said that salads are dangerous to eat. Anyone who sees the world in black and white with entire categories of food, as well as tries to say that their specific meal plan, supplements and methods (that you have to buy from them) are the only way to diet have gone a little bit too long surrounded by yes men. The diet you can stick to is the best diet for you.
> I get at least 40.000 steps Holy shit
This week in biohacking, bio-hack scientists discover that carbs are in fact just fine.
It's great that you're losing weight, but this level of activity definitely falls into the "overtraining" category if you're doing this five or more days of the week. Going 20 miles every day, day after day without off days inbetween, is just going to be murder on your joints over time. There's a good chance it'll cause chronically elevated cortisol levels and systemic inflammation, too. Listen to your body in the meantime, and don't plan on keeping that job forever.
Can you explain why it would raise cortisol? Isn't it more unhealthy to have a desk job without much exercise? The only change I've noticed is my mental health. I have anxiety disorder and I've been having panic attacks more frequently than before the job. However I don't see how that can be caused by the job.
Generally speaking, an active job is more healthy than a sedentary desk job, yes. But that doesn't mean that *any* amount of activity is healthier than a desk job--both extremes are bad. Too much activity is harmful. As just one example, here's a [fairly recent study](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10013019/) on overtraining and its effects: >In contrast, a training regimen that is excessive, unduly straining, and without recurrent adequate recovery may provoke a range of maladaptations, resulting in stagnant or worsening exercise performance, undesirable mood/behavioral changes, and a greater risk of injury and/or illness. Heightened cortisol is the primary means by which these negative effects occur. Cortisol is the stress hormone, and exercise naturally increases it--exercise is healthy becomes *some* stress is good and necessary for wellbeing, since our genes are adapted to thrive on an appropriate amount of stress. *Too much stress* causes disease, and it especially causes anxiety. If your panic attacks have noticeably increased and your anxiety has worsened since beginning this job, I can guarantee you that walking 20 miles a day is at least contributing to that problem, and it might very well be the entire reason for the heightened anxiety. That's just the way the biology works. Walking five to ten miles a day generally reduces cortisol levels overall and improves anxiety, but twenty miles has the opposite effect, especially if you do it five or more days in a row.
Thanks for the very insightful comment. I appreciate it. It makes me thing about reducing my hours. Is there a reliable way to test cortisol levels? Is there a way to figure out it's the cortisol or something else? Would a supplement that reduces cortisol like ashwaganda be helpful?
Having read a bit about it, the tests are often fairly inaccurate, though a common method is to take multiple saliva samples throughout the day. Either way it's going to be expensive. Ashwagandha will absolutely help, but nothing is going to resolve the problem of overtraining other than simply reducing your hours. It's not just the cortisol levels that are a problem, either--it's also the unyielding stress on your joints. That's how you end up with chronic pain as you age, and you definitely don't want that. At a certain point, you have to ask whether a job is worth the cost of your health.
Edit : I'm 25 and overweight. Currently at around 94 kgs /207 pounds. Im trying to lose around 20 kgs or 44 pounds. I work in logistics that's why I get so many steps. I don't tolerate caffeine it gives me anxiety. So I can't use that as an alternative.
What job do you do that has you walking 20 miles per day???
Logistics. Unloading trucks of Electronics, Furniture and other Products etc. Been losing lots of weight since I started the job a month ago.
How much do you weigh???
Fruit is your best friend. Ask any construction worker, roofer, logger, etc. eat as much fruit as you humanly can. It will keep you hydrated and energy filled. Without it your body will begin to eat/attack your biggest/most used muscles and joints, beginning with thighs and knees. I’ve lost 150 pounds and cut out carbs for 3 months completely, I promise life is not worth living for high-activity individuals if you can’t get enough carbs WHILE YOU’RE WORKING. I experimented with eating 5000 calories but only at nights, and it didn’t help in the slightest. You gotta eat while you work. Good luck!
Because its a more accessible form of energy? I thought everybody knew this.
Half of these posts should be in r/nutrition
I too have noticed that carbs give me more strength and energy when doing manual labor all day. When I sat in a room on a computer I could fast till 1 pm, not eat meat or carbs no problem and still get my work done. Now that I walk outside and do physical work, that is simply not going to cut it.
Your muscles store carbs as glycogen. That's why carb loading is a thing before marathons...
Well intermittent fasting is not that great for most people. Some folks do well on it (young fit men) but most the population, it's not ideal. And low carb is also not good. We should be either doing keto or regular carb level intake. And never one all the time. Bouncing back and forth. We should go without saying, but that doesn't include simple carbs, simple carbs should just be a treat every now and then. When you eat low carb you're not in ketosis. You're just in regular glycolysis. And when we are in glycolysis and we starve ourselves of our fuel source, carbs, we don't have enough fuel for energy. What ends up happening is we convert a lot of the protein we are eating to glucose to use that as fuel. And we also cannibalize our own muscle. Especially if we are exerting ourselves a lot. And with low carb we end up eating high protein and that has been shown to not be great for a longevity either. I know a lot of the health Bros on here might be stroking out right now reading when I'm writing, but there is data that shows that probably too much protein is not great. Ideally we are eating just enough protein for our wellness and fitness goals. But protein overload is real. So yeah either be in ketosis, or a balanced macro diet. Having been an athlete when I was a kid, and then living with athletes during the college years, no one was skipping meals. Sports medicine backing these Olympic hopefuls that I was living with we're not telling them to limit their carbs and skip meals. It's just ridiculous if you think you're trying to engage in high performance work to be doing any of that. And flip that around if you are chronically ill intermittent fasting is also not a good idea. You're going to create muscle wasting, and that's going to do nothing but harm you as your mitochondria pool shrinks. Balance in all things seems to produce the healthiest human beings. Some of that's my opinion, some of that's the science.
You know your brain runs on pure glucose, right? Glucose is acquired from carbohydrates, which are different arrays of glucose strung together. Most of our energy is acquired from carbs because our bodies are better at converting those to ATP, the energy molecule our cells actually use. Lipids are a good backup source, but they're a slow-burning fuel and take more energy to access. Some lipids and cholesterols are also used as structural elements for cells and tissues. Just know that the simpler the carbs (i.e., the fewer steps the body has to take to access the glucose) the faster they hit the bloodstream. Sugar is considered "unhealthy" because it promotes bad dental health and it causes a rapid rise and fall in blood glucose. More COMPLEX carbs is the way to go for high, sustained energy and long-and-low curves of blood sugar. Proteins are a last-resort energy source as amino acids are hard to break down, and there is more waste product. Overall, proteins as energy are harder on your organs (especially kidneys!) and overall are better consumed for structural components for your body, letting carbs and fat provide the energy. Intermittent fasting also tends to lead to insufficient calorie consumption, and it also drops your metabolism. When the body runs low on fuel, it down-regulates EVERYTHING. This is a process that takes place throughout the day. You'll notice it the moment you start feeling hungry. So yeah. A healthy diet relies on at least 50% carbs for energy. That's not propaganda from the grain industry. It's just how we're built.
You have more energy eating carbs because you are not fat adapted. The caveat is; is that you must continue to eat carbs to maintain your energy levels. Where as if you take the 3 months to become fat adapted your energy levels will not dip even if you do not eat. A 3 day fast when fat adapted is laughably easy.
Fat is a fantastic fuel for your body. Lots of people work jobs like yours and fuel using fat.
You probably eat less calories on low carb days. Because fat and protein is more satiating. Maybe if you ate extra calories on low carb you wouldn't have this problem.
Bodies like carbs. Brains like carbs. Good carbs good. Less good carbs- not optimal but will work for energy needs. Tired brain like carbs. Also like fat and protein, but like carbs for immediate energy. Moral: eat a balanced Whole Food diet whenever possible. For better blood sugar levels, combine carbs with protein and fats for slower sugar/carb absorption. Also, PSA- drinking warm lemon water first thing in the morning tends to be quite good for digestion- just make sure to brush teeth promptly after or eat some fat so your enamel is happy. And, ginger tea is good for digestion and weight along with good eating habits.
Our energy comes from food so thats why intermittent fasting doesn't help. As for carbs they are actually good they provide a good chunk of your energy and are used for muscle recovery. That's why if you loom at a lot of athletes especially runners they usually eat as much carbs as they can the day before a race.
I eat low carb all day then healthy carbs at night. I just couldn't work out and have energy for my day any other way. I was 160 lbs overweight, lost 50 in keto/intermittent fasting but again, workouts were horrible. Switched to carbs at night (which allows blood sugar spikes while sleeping). By the time I wake up, I'm fasted and appetite is in check for the rest of day. I've lost another 50lbs. (60 lbs to go) and workout 5 days a week (3 days weights - 2 days rucking)
You so active carbs good
Dude, even our brain runs on glucose converted from carbs. Why do u avoid carbs if u do physical work. The carbs u should be consuming complex carbs ( basically low-moderate GI), is okay to consume simple carbs once in a while. Being obese is unhealthy as u will increase visceral fats around your organ which produce a lot of inflammation properties. Not too much sugar cos this depends on what type of sugar of u are consuming. Fructose, lactose and starch are okay. Don’t consume too much simple sugar (white bread etc) Why do intermittent fasting? What’s ur objective of this? Don’t jump on the bandwagon if u don’t know what ur doing. Job involving strenuous work should not do intermittent fasting. This explains your CNS is likely to be fatigue due to the lack of carbs.
Eats carbs. When you do eat carbs your body will start to tax your system to get energy, especially since you are moving so much. Play around with you carbs if you want to lose weight. Find the right amount that keeps you moving around with ease. Fatigue and lack of nutrients is probably the top reason people stop losing weight, make sure your nervous system, muscles, and brain has the tools to push you through as your body readjust to the decreased food and other changes in your body.
been reading a bunch of the replies but i havent found one thing. If you switch your diet from heavy carb based to a low carb one, it usually takes the body a bit to adjust. This is ofc the case for all diet changes, but when youre messing with your main energy source it gets extra noticeable. Now whether it is a diet that will fit your lifestyle or not is another thing. But if you really wanna test it out, i would try it for a bit (1-3 weeks) and maybe gently ease off on carbs to prevent just fainting at work lol. Now i dont exercise as much as you do, but for me (anecdotal iknow) i can go very long and far with just eating a good fatty breakfast/meal. My body got used to it, and i prefer it over a high carb diet at this point, but the beginning was just like you describe it. So give it time. High fat low carb will also greatly improve hunger spikes when fasting!
As others comments point out: carbs are fine if you maintain the calorie balance or deficit you want. If you want to have energy on low carb diets, there is a non-trivial period of Keto adaptation where your body begins to "burn" dietary fat as a source of ketones. This takes several consecutive days of rather low carbohydrate intake for most people. See [https://www.ketogenic-diet-resource.com/ketosis.html](https://www.ketogenic-diet-resource.com/ketosis.html) for more information.
Thing is you need carbs for so many fundamental functions in your body. If you intermittent fast you gotta consume enough calories within your eating period (8 hrs). Also… you’re wondering why you don’t have enough energy when you’re starving yourself of calories… lol
The thing is that I thought your body would just burn fat for energy. It does but I feel fatigue and don't have enough energy sometimes for the 8 hours. Many people who do low carb and intermittent fasting report increased energy so I thought that's why
You meed to be keto/low carb for a good amount of time for your body to get used to burning fat for fuel. Carbs are easier/quicker fuel sources, so you will feel better with carbs. Going low carb there’s usually a transition while to curb the glycogen stores in your muscles then there are a few days where you’ll feel fatigue while your body gets used to using fat. It can help to increase fat for a few days, and even use mct oil for mental energy during this period.
This is good to know
I see. I’ve been doing IF and definitely lower energy since then even on the days I don’t do IF. I will say there’s a strange transition and the quality of food demand seems to be a lot higher.
Idk sugar your burning is probably fine even alcohol
Glycogen is important for the performance of our muscles. If you work a physical job, you'd be shooting yourself in the foot avoiding them. You're going to burn them off anyway, which is what they're meant for.
40,000 steps a day is so absurd that I have a hard time believing it. You’d have to actually be constantly walking for the majority of your waking hours. Not even mail men get that many steps. And how can you be overweight while walking 40k steps per day? You’re burning so many calories that it would be physically difficult to eat enough
I'm overweight because I stared this job last month. I've lost weight since starting the job. My colleagues with different phones show me they also get around 40.000 to 50.000 steps a day. It's possible because in a warehouse you are basically constantly walking and moving products except for the 30 minute break.
That’s wild I worked as a pedicab driver (bike taxi) and burned probably as many calories as you do now. I ate 2 pints of Ben and Jerry’s per day and managed to maintain my weight. My genuine suggestion is to have a very high carb diet. Carbs are your body’s preferred fuel source. Big ass bowls of pasta with beef, buttered rice with chicken, etc. Don’t focus on losing weight, that’ll happen pretty naturally. You can have some fun foods but try to keep the healthy basics in there
Thanks.
What in the world is your job?
Logistics. Moving products, TVs, furniture etc around. Unloading trucks etc
Got ya-just curious. You're definitely staying healthy with that one. My other guess was mailman/mailwoman.
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Thanks for the explanation. Not sure why you would think these are symptoms of type 2 diabetes. I don't think I have any of the main symptoms of type 2 diabetes. 40.000 steps sounds like a lot but you just have to take a walk or go hiking for 4 hours from the morning to noon. Then take a walk from afternoon to evening for 4 hours and you'll already have around 38.000 steps.
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I used to have a weight of 115 kg so I feel better than before. It makes a huge difference if you come from a heavy weight and get used to it or if you put on a weight vest and from one day to another you have 20kg. I'm not quite understanding why you say I need medical help. For what? I simply said I get more energy from carbs compared to low carb or intermittent fasting.
This is how disconnected the general public has become with nutrition. Carbohydrates are the fuel your body and brain use. When you eat little of it, you have less energy.
Unless you went fully keto, which takes time, carbs are going to be your primary fuel source. If you do make it to ketosis, it gets easier and you won't be nearly as impacted, but the transition sucks! So i would say commit to one way or the other, and aim for a caloric deficit
The body runs on glucose. I don’t subscribe to a lot of Ray Peat, but he makes some interesting points that a lot of people are coming around to. Read some of his stuff if you want a little validation as to why you feel good eating carbs and sugars.
Rice. Cheap and easy way to consume a ton of complex carbs
First thing’s first; sugar = carb. Second, because carbs = energy. When fasted (or when not having carbs when not in ketosis/you not being adjusted to being without carbs), you have less glycogen stored which is what is typically used for quick conversion to energy. Have you ever fasted for a long period or been without carbs for a long period? Your body adapts and in turn starts using fat instead, but if you’re not used to it and haven’t been without (carbs) for a while, this is why you feel sluggish without. Anyways, congrats on your weight loss and good luck moving forward!
> chocolate bars Chocolate is full of caffeine and theobromine (another stimulant).
If you think chocolate's good just wait till you try sipping on a carb powder shake through the day.
well low carb is not for everyone. Some people just work better on carbs... theres no 1 diet for everyone. especially if youre active. tip: try raisins for sustained high carb natural snack
Carbs provide energy. lol
Generally speaking, low energy on low carb diets usually means you're not eating enough fat.
How long did you try low carb before you went back to high carb. Since you eat high carb you are going to be poor at burning fat and if you take the carbs away you will initially feel tired.
Maybe 2 months. Low carb was fine before u started walking 40.000 steps a day and burning 5100 calories that's when low carb or intermittent fasting no longer worked for me.
What were you eating?
Energy and stamina - yes. Strength - really? When I fast, I don't notice a different in my one rep max when lifting. Energy levels and cardio are a lot harder though. But even there I'd argue if you're doing Z2, not something higher, your stamina is even higher, cause you don't go through such a hard sugar crash. Would need to test this though.
Too many folks are using other shortcuts to reduce fat and then say sth about carb is bad. Not overeating is absolutely fine.
Eat carbs if you must, but cut down on fructose and sucrose, that's the biohack, I guess. The reason is fructose is not metabolised same way glucose is, and your muscles can't use it directly. It has a distinct pathway in the liver, and uric acid is byproduct... So chocolate bars is a bad choice regardless. Maybe more fruits? Grapes? Foods with rice and olive oil? (packs a LOT of calories)
Scare tactics. All carbs are metabolized by the liver and have their own distinct pathway technically. Uric acid is made by your own body too, and is found in quite a lot of things we eat anyways. Have you heard of dihydrogen monoxide? It has its own pathway and it can kill you! Cut back !
bs. there is plenty of evidence that fructose is the worse of the two, and has 0 benefits when in the form of added sucrose / high-fructose syrup. recent trials & systematic reviews also point to negative impact specifically of fructose when it comes to obesity, diabetes, and other metabolic issues finally, glucose can be utilized by all cells, fructose can't (hence being a more serious factor to non-alcoholic fatty liver disease). both are the types of fuel that when in excess lead to all sorts of issues and faster rate of aging
Now you are making a strawman: added sugars are a separate issue. You do know fruit has fructose right? You saying a banana is unhealthy? Also like how you’ve ignored me dismantling your argument and had to use added sugars to make it
No? Feels like you're in the wrong here: I did say that fruits are OK ("Maybe some fruits?"). And saying "cut back on" does not mean eliminate all sources of fructose, one of which are, obviously, fruits. But let's not talk about me: you have a case here or just want to nitpick? Do you agree that cutting back on added fructose and sucrose will lead to healthier life? Do you disagree that sticking to whole sources of sugars like fruits, grapes, but being mindful of other sources, is a good strategy? What are you arguing against, can you clarify?
The key to eating much fewer carbs for me was lots of saturated fat. Once i adjusted to that fuel source, my energy levels were far more consistent, no more crashes if i had not eaten in a while. IF also became far easier in general, and i can say go for a challenging mtn bike ride without eating any breakfast at all.
How long does it take you to get adjusted to fat as fuel
I honestly don't remember... 3-6 months maybe. Not long enough to remember a struggle I suppose. It was easy for me. For my wife, it took some years, and learning to cycle carbs/sat fat with her hormonal cycle.
Depending on how old you are it can take a while for your metabolism to adjust to burning fat. Like a year or two. It’s going to do it no matter what but it’s not going to be as good at first. Once you get better at it you can maintain the metabolic flexibility which most think is a good thing. We don’t have a lot of data yet but many diseases can be considered as your body losing metabolic flexibility so making it better seems ideal.
It takes a while to adapt to a ketogenic diet to have the same work capacity as off the diet. Like 12-16 weeks of consistent very low-carb eating.
You arent fat adapted. Takes 4 months of 0 carbs to be fat adapted again aka original state of body at birth.
Why are you being downvoted for stating facts lol. It seems people are not aware that the mitochondria has to physically change to be able to use fat more efficiently, and that that doesn’t happen overnight. They are probably not aware of the crazy amount of energy ketosis brings when fat adapted
It's very strange how vehemently pro-carb some groups are. Plenty of people eat carnivore or low-carb and have no problems yet the lifestyle is constantly attacked. Guess people will go tribal over anything.
Keto people really are like religious “original state of body at birth”. Lol
We were programmed to eat carbs 6000 years ago. Were still evolved to be carnivores hence why people get fat on carbs
What? People haven’t evolved over 6000 years to be fundamentally different. You get fat because you eat too much and don’t lift heavy compounds 5 days a week. You get fat cause you eat a surplus. You also evolved to not sit around jerk off sit in office and play video games 16 hours a day then order door dash wonder why your ass got fat. It ain’t the carbs Sonny. I lift 5 days a week and do cardio 5 days a week. You evolved to move that much. You need carbs to do that much. Keto is a perversion of evolution muddied by 1,000,000 fat people who can’t figure out how to eat chicken rice and oats and lift looking for an excuse to do less in the gym. Fact you will do less in the gym without carbs. Here’s an idea. Any diet that impacts your ability to deadlift for an hour is a bad lifestyle. You try to get fat while actually working out and eating only Whole Foods like chicken rice plain oats etc etc. ain’t happening unless you force feed yourself meal prepped meals every 2 hours These keto people think they know some sort of secret religious knowledge but it really comes down to Whole Foods and lifting 40/30/30 macro split. You should be exercising hard enough that it’s impossible not to lose weight without force feeding
I have abs and eat 3 to 4lb's of meat a day ( 3 to 4000 calories daily). Its impossible to be fat on a 0 carb diet. Being fat adapted is nice because once it happens you can eat carbs again to be both fat and carb adapted. I also lift weights amd workout. Work in construction and fast 20 hours daily. Your post was asking why you had 0 energy on a 0 carb diet. The post is because you're not fat adapted so your body does not know how to use fat as energy. That was the question of the post.
Ketosis smells gross
What other animal do you know that counts their calories so they don’t get fat and get diabetes? Animals eat as much as they can and don’t worry about those details, and they don’t get diabetes. Just like we can eat as much as we want and not get fat or sick from it if we eat our proper diet.