6) CONTROLLING WEIGHT
g) Adaptive Human Body
Unfortunately or fortunately, depending on your viewpoint, we must live with a very adaptive body, one that has developed the mechanisms to thrive even under adverse conditions. The early Inuits of the Artic survived on a diet that was very very different from the diet of their cousins in the African Savannahs. For the Inuits most of the calories came from fat (typically dried fish) and very little of the calories came from carbohydrates. In some seasons even protein was only 20% to 60% of the calories in their diet. The fats they ate had a large amount of omega 3's and the calorie output of the Inuit was huge. This adaptability has two consequences for human beings:
1, Calorie Utilization: If a 250 pound man that is holding a steady weight at 2,800 calories per day goes to 2,000 calories per day, he is liable to find that he loses no weight beyond the 5% water loss everyone gets when starting any diet. His metabolism just adjusts to burn less calories (note that the percentage of calories absorbed by the digestive system doesn't change, it is always very efficient). This change is why individuals on a diet often feel cold, their metabolism has been reduced. Each person is different and will have to experiment to find that calorie level intake which allows them to lose one to two pounds per week. That calorie intake might be only 60% of the "recommended" calorie intake for your size and weight. Human bodies are each unique! Note that the higher the percentage of fat on a person's body, the lower the metabolism and the lower the calorie need. Women and older individuals typically have high fat percentages so they have to cut their calorie intake more than their weight might otherwise indicate. Note also that as any person loses weight they need to reduce their calorie intake as well, they now weigh less and will burn fewer calories per day. Failure to do this is the major reason for the phenomenon of "plateauing".
2, Ingredient "Mix": Human bodies are very good at surviving on anything from low fat low protein diets to low carbohydrate diets. Don't worry about getting "six servings of carbohydrate, three fruit servings, three vegetable servings, two dairy servings and one meat serving every day". And you don't "absolutely have to have" dark fruit for the phytochemicals or cruciform vegetables for the sulfo-chemicals, etc. etc. ad nauseum (see the Chapter on Supplements). If you try to balance everything every day, you won't lose weight because you'll be eating far too many calories, especially with the "six servings of carbohydrates". Try to very roughly balance things out over a week or so. Moreover, don't obsess over it; it is just not that important. There are some notable exceptions:
a, carbohydrates - any person with type 2 diabetes needs at least a small amount of carbohydrates from colored vegetables, beans, dairy and complex, high fiber carbohydrate foods. "Ketosis" should be avoided.
b, protein - the body cannot make proteins from fats and carbohydrates, so everyone must have protein on a regular basis. The USDA recommends a diet with 15% protein calories; our research says the ideal diet for someone with type 2 diabetes should have 20% to 50% protein calories from sources other than red meats, such as fish, white meat chicken, nuts and beans.
We found no research that said fat was a required nutrient. All we found was "opinions" and "theories", where one "expert" thought it might be essential. Specifically some "experts" feel low fat diets to be bad for men's sex life, but we found no support for this. As a matter of fact, fatty adipose tissue has a negative effect on men's sex life. Other "experts" say fats are needed for absorption of certain vitamins, but again no research could be found to support this claim. Since our Paleolithic ancestors probably ate very low levels of fats of any sort, eating very low levels of fat is probably not a bad approach. It's very difficult to get the level of fat calories below 10% of calories (the "Pritikin DietTM", the "Ornish DietTM" and other vegetarian diets are exceptions). But if you can find a mix that you can live with for the rest of your life that fits this scheme, go for it!
There is a lot of "musts" out there on this mix from the "experts". For instance, the American Academy of Science recommends 300 grams of digestible carbohydrate per day with an absolute minimum of 135 grams of digestible carbohydrates per day and states that anything less than that is bad nutrition. But it must be remembered that their recommendation is for "normal" people, not people with type 2 diabetes. In any case we can find no objective research that supports this position, even for "normal" people! It seems as though about 30 to 50 grams of digestible carbohydrates per day is just fine for some people while anything over 60 to 80 grams of carbohydrate and their blood glucose starts to rise. Some individuals start into ketosis at 100 grams of carbohydrates per day, while others need to go down to 20 grams of carbohydrates before they enter ketosis (note ketosis is a very bad state we do not recommend). Of course there is the caution that some persons with type 2 diabetes don't react like that to carbohydrates, it is a highly individualized reaction. Also if a person doesn't eat carbohydrates they must increase their intake of protein and/or fats, as there are only three types of food constituents. In some people this gives them bad blood lipids (again it is a highly individualized reaction). So test and try, test and try, test and try and find where the best comfort level is.
There are many dieting myths that even good researchers quote, possibly they just think it is easier to go along with the crowd than to get it correct. One myth is that if an individual cycles in weight: diet, lose weight, go off diet, gain weight, diet, lose weight, go off diet, gain weight…., etc. that an individual's body will get more efficient at absorbing food and it will become harder to lose weight. This is incorrect; the body is always extremely efficient at absorbing the calories put into it. Individuals who cycle in weight remain just as able to lose weight as those who don't cycle in weight. And there is no really meaningful research we could find which supports any negative effect from cycling up and down in weight, indeed, Paleolithic man probably cycled up and down in weight frequently. In the regions of the world with winters all mammals in the wild cycle up in weight in summer and down in weight in winter. Rapid weight loss is bad for one's health; weight loss should be limited to one percent of a person's weight per week (two pounds per week for a 200 pounder). There are some diets which preach a very calorie restricted rapid weight loss followed by a lifelong "maintenance" program. We don't recommend them as they typically don't work over the long term. The faster the weight loss the faster it gets put back on.
Current Chapter: 6) CONTROLLING WEIGHT
a) Introduction
b) What is "Overweight"
c) The Endless Cycles of an Overweight Person with Type 2 Diabetes
d) Food and Diet
e) Food "Rules"
f) USDA Food Pyramid
g) Adaptive Human Body
h) Timing of Meals
i) Serving Size
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