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The Benevolent Tyranny of Social Distancing and Masks

“NowThis News” is a progressive website with cheery music, snackable videos and catchy BLM colors we’ve all subliminally come to recognize designed specifically to deliver leftist education to your newsfeed.  You’ve probably scrolled past their content a few times while doing your daily doom-scrolling: “Elizabeth Warren’s Greatest Moments” or “Drag Queen Kyne Uses Tik Tok to Teach Math.”

Last September, “NowThis News” released a particularly telling video article from a more than chipper young authoritarian millennial demanding that we all “Stop Saying ‘Hey Guys.’” because it excludes women.

Half way through her sinister monologue she mentions a few other goals that the modern feminists want to achieve: “reproductive rights . . . LGBTQ rights, and the general reprogramming of most people’s minds” (italics added).

Wait . . . What?!

This last phrase caught my attention.  “the general reprogramming of most people’s minds” sounds almost unreal.  That’s just too Orwellian, too spot-on-the-nose to really be serious, right?!  Yet, it was published in deadly earnest.  This is an example of progressive social engineering at its finest.  They attempt to nudge and drug each of us into a state of compliance with leftist ideals.   This is the explicit goal of the “woke” progressive leadership.

They aren’t hiding it. They don’t want to persuade you.  They openly want to brain wash you and your children.  And, it’s working.

Today, the first time in months for example, I was able to go back to church services with my family with “Arizona’s Phased attendance protocols” in place.  It was wonderful to meet with other members of my church and “fellowship with the saints.”

Yet, as I read through the attendance instructions required to be compliant in our state and as a “Global Citizen,” I was shocked at the verbiage I read.  A statement found in the opening pages of these instructions read: “. . . we should sustain and uphold the laws where we reside. . .  governments enact such laws as in their own judgments are best calculated to secure the public interest. We acknowledge that in exceptional circumstances all individual rights may be restricted. . .“(Emphasis added).

When is it ever OK to restrict all individual God given rights to “secure the public interest?” Yet, many I spoke with feel that “it’s different today. This is just short term.” The explained that it is justified to give up liberty and rights for short term security.  In the words of Benjamin Franklin, “those who would give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.”  14 days of quarantine has now become 6-12 months of social distancing, lock-downs, school closures and $10-14 trillion lost in economic output this year alone as calculated by the congressional budget office. That is essentially the equivalent of wiping out the income of 30 million U.S. families this year and over the next five years.

Though it may seem humane to remove ones rights to protect the masses in crisis, it actually just strips the populace of their humanity.  It changes the person, from a subject with rights to a mere object to be controlled for the desired outcome deemed most important to the ruling leader.  This is the worse kind of tyranny because it is tyranny sincerely exercised for the “good of its victims.”  In the words of Lewis, “Those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end, for they do so with the approval of their own conscience.”

C.S. Lewis predicted this development back in 1954 with crystalline precision in a remarkable essay, “The Humanitarian Theory of Punishment.”  Back then, even as today in 2020, a growing number of Westerners became squeamish about the use of the death penalty.  They were then, and many are today, disgusted with the idea of punishing criminals because they simply deserve it; but rather they feel better using rehabilitation as a means to deter them and others from criminal behavior.

C.S. Lewis wrote that the very ideas of “deterrence” and “rehabilitation,” compassionate though they may seem, undermine the entire concept of justice.  This concept is the key to a functioning republic and to society as a whole.  It is the reason the American experiment has been successful for nearly 250 years.

Wait, are you saying that enacting a mandate of social distancing and mask wearing “for the good of the people” undermines justice?

YES.  That’s exactly what Lewis wrote about in the 1950’s and its even more applicable today.

Justice, as defined by Lewis, is nothing more than giving every person what he or she deserves.  The only way we evaluate the justice of a punishment at all is by asking whether the person punished actually deserves it.  The natural objection that “the death penalty is unjust” boils down to the argument that “no one deserves the death penalty,” argued Lewis.

Completely different from justice, deterrence and rehabilitation, much like mask wearing and social distancing, are forms of social engineering.  These forms of punishment are tools for making people do what the punisher’s want, not for providing a consequence of a person’s action that they deserve.  Lewis wrote, “when we cease to consider what the criminal deserves and consider only what will cure him or deter others, we have tacitly removed him from the sphere of justice altogether.” Instead of having a person with rights, we have reduced the person, instead, to a mere object, a patient or a case.  We have removed the justice that is due, instead, to objectify the being under the guise of a cure for the common good.

It’s like the patient shows up at the doctor’s office with a serious case of syphilis, the consequence of promiscuous sexual relationships. Instead of treating the disease and killing the bacteria that causes the rash and terribly painful urogenital discharge, the doctor says, “let me send you to counseling to talk about your rash.  Let’s just rehabilitate the bacteria.  You can describe the discharge and have a few group sessions so others can understand your pain, and the bacteria should be much nicer.”

These two different governing ideas of punishment proceed along entirely separate tracks and arrive at very different destinations.  Justice – though sometimes fearsome and always imperfect – treats the human being as a moral agent of choice whose actions have weight, and therefore whose actions also have consequences.  In contrast, the “moral busybodies” of the world today (we call them “Karens”) are interested not in justice, but in social engineering.  Social engineering is a very dangerous illusion which, in Lewis’ words, “disguises the possibility of cruelty and injustice without an end in sight.”

Exactly as C.S. Lewis predicted, the logic of this social engineering has now begun to careen toward its gruesomely logical conclusion.  Social engineering is based upon the idea that human beings are effectively bags of meat and chemicals, pure matter to be therapeutically manipulated by “compassionate” and “progressive” healers.

However good their intentions may be, those “progressive healers” are in fact proposing to set themselves up as gods over men. “The things done to the criminal, even if they are called cures, will be just as compulsory as they were in the old days when we called them punishments,” wrote Lewis. “If a tendency to steal can be cured by psychotherapy, the thief will no doubt be forced to undergo the treatment.”   If a positive COVID-19 test was seen, a person will no doubt be forced to get vaccinated for the “cure of the populace.”

You can see this everywhere in modern life.  You can see it in the endless classification of EVERYTHING as a mental illness, implying the best way to fix emotional problems is with the right cocktail of medications.

You can see it in the insistence that gender and sexuality are mere social constructs, whose injustices can be rectified with surgery and hormone injections.

You can see it as the Freudian idea that religion is just a holdover from primitive tribal fantasy and really isn’t “essential.”

All of these ideas take for granted that our enlightened leadership – many of whom were never elected, and especially those best versed in Critical Race Theory and inter-sectional politics – have the right to tinker with our brain chemistry until they reprogram our minds “just right.”

This doctrine, merciful though it may appear, really means that each one of us, from the moment he disagrees with leadership or breaks the law, is deprived of the rights of a human being.  And, it is being accepted without resistance in the schools, churches, shops and hospitals across the country.

This isn’t a bug, it isn’t a feature. It is pure leftist Marxism.  It is modern materialism philosophy with the potential to turn even well-intentioned people into coercive monsters.  We were warned.  It is happening.  Now it’s time to fight back.

(adapted from – Spencer Klavan’s “C.S. Lewis On The Leftist Effort to Reprogram People’s Minds”)

Does Jung & Myers-Briggs Typology Effect Obesity?

Sitting around the dinner table this evening we began discussing personality types.  As a fun exercise, we each took the Jung Typology Test based on Jung and Myers-Briggs findings about personality.   If you haven’t taken this personality test, you might find it quite interesting and the topic of hours of conversation around the dinner table  . . . as we did this evening. The test is free on-line and takes about 10 minutes.

jung
Carl Gustav Jung – Swiss Psychiatrist & Psychotherapist

The actual Myers-Briggs Type Indicator costs about $50.00 and includes an interpretation by someone trained in giving the test. It differs slightly in its questions and the way the testing is interpreted.

Both tests provide an interesting insight into your individual psychological preferences regarding four categories.  According to Carl G. Jung’s theory of psychological types published in 1971, people can be characterized, first, by their preference or general attitude about the source of and how they express their energy:

  • Extraverted (E) vs. Introverted (I)

The second preference is one of the two functions of perception, or related to how they perceive information coming from either the external or internal world:

  • Sensing (S) vs. Intuition (N)

and the third preference relates to how one processes the information that they have received, acting as one of the two functions of thought or judgement:

  • Thinking (T) vs. Feeling (F)

Isabel Briggs Myers, a researcher and practitioner of Jung’s theory, proposed that the fourth preference related to how one applies or implements the information that he or she processed above.  She proposed a judging-perceiving relationship as the fourth dichotomy influencing personality type in 1980:

  • Judging (J) vs. Perceiving (P)

Each of these dichotomies represents an opposite pole of preference and each of us have a dominant pole toward which we gravitate.

Based upon your dominant traits, a personality type index is assigned.

PersonalityChart

Kim and Lee studied these personality preferences and how they relate to diet, health and propensity toward obesity.  Their findings were interesting in that expression, perception and judgement did not seem to have any bearing on  health or obesity. However, the application of judgement vs perception did play a role in health. Judging (J) means that a person organizes all of his or her life events and, as a rule, sticks to those plans. Perceiving (P) means that he or she is inclined to improvise and explore alternative options.

Significantly better dietary and health behaviors were identified in those preferring Judging (J) versus those preferring Perceiving (P) traits.  Those preferring the Judging (J) behaviors included eating breakfast, regularly eating three meals a day, smoking less, exercising more and having a lower tendency to nocturnal eating.

The findings show that the use of  Jung Type or Myers-Briggs Type Indicator may be helpful in identifying and index those with a Perceiving (P) trait that would benefit from dietary and exercise education, nutritional counseling and/or behavior modification programs.

It has been my experience that those with a “P” type dichotomy preference would benefit greatly from daily food planning and journaling.

So, what is your Jung/Myers-Briggs type?

Just for fun, and because my kids were very curious about what each personality type would appear as in character, I’ve included the Jung/Myers-Briggs Disney typing.

I’m an ENFJ, just in case you’re curious.

Disney Character Personality Types

References:

  1. Jung, C. G. (1971). Psychological types (Collected works of C. G. Jung, volume 6, Chapter X)
  2. Briggs Myers, I. (1980, 1995) Gifts Differing: Understanding Personality Type
  3. Kim BS, Lee YE. College Students’ Dietary and Health Behaviors related to Their Myers-Briggs Type Indicator Personality Preferences. Korean J Community Nutr. 2002 Feb;7(1):32-44. Korean.

 

Definition of Insanity: Cutting Calories/Restricting Fat & Expecting Weight Loss

Have you been cutting your calories and reducing fat and exercising your brains out and still not seeing the needle on the scale move that much?  Persistently and repetitively performing an action that doesn’t produce the desired result is insanity.  Cutting calories and reducing fat while expecting weight loss is akin to pouring water in the gas tank of your car and expecting it to run smoothly. Why do we do it? Are the 53, 000, 000 people with health club and gym memberships this year really insane?

This evening on PeriScope we touch on fat phobic insanity  and the limiting step that actually turns weight gain on or off. (We knew about this in the 1960’s, we just ignored it.)

You can see tonight’s PeriScope with the rolling chat-box questions here at Katch.me/docmuscles.  Or, you can watch the video stream below:

The only way to successfully loose weight is to modify or turn off the mechanisms that stimulate fat storage.  For years we have been told that this was just a problem of thermodynamics, meaning the more calories you eat, the more calories you store. The solution was, thereby, eat less calories or exercise more, or both. We are taught in school that a 1 gram of carbohydrate contains 4 kcal, 1 gram of protein contains 4 kcal, and 1 gram of fat contains 9 kcal.

If you ascribe to the dogma that weight gain or loss is due to thermodynamics, then it’s easy to see that cutting out fat (the largest calorie containing macro-nutrient) would be the best way limit calories.  For the last 65 years, we as a society have been doing just that, cutting out fat, exercising more (with the idea of burning off more calories) and eating fewer calories.

What has this dogma done for us? It’s actually made us fatter! (1)

World Obesity Rates
Obesity Rates Around the World

Some may argue that we really aren’t eating fewer calories and exercising more. But most people I have seen in my office have tried and tried and tried and failed and failed and failed to loose weight with this methodology. In fact, the majority of my patients attempt caloric restriction, exercise and dieting multiple times each year with no success. The definition of insanity is “doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result.”

Most of my patients are not insane, they recognize this and stop exercising and stop restricting calories . . . ’cause they realized, like I have, that it just doesn’t work!

If you’re one that is still preaching caloric restriction and cutting out fat, I refer you to the figure above and the definition of insanity . . . your straight-jacket is in the mail.

So, if reducing the calories in our diet and exercising more is not the mechanism for turning on and off the storage of fat, then what is?

Before I can explain this, it is very important that you appreciate the difference between triglycerides and free fatty acids.  These are the two forms of fat found in the human body, but they have dramatically different functions.  They are tied to how fat is oxidized and stored, and how carbohydrates are regulated.

Fat stored in the adipose cells (fat cells) Triglycerides-and-Glycerol1as well as the fat that is found in our food is found in the form of triglycerides. Each triglyceride molecule is made of a “glyceride” (glycerol backbone) and three fatty acids (hence the “tri”) that look like tails. Some of the fat in our adipose cells come from the food we eat, but interestingly, the rest comes from carbohydrates

(“What! Fat comes from sugar?! How can this be?!!“)

de novo lipogenesis
De Novo Lipogenesis

We all know that glucose derived from sugar is taken up by the cells from the blood stream and used for fuel, however, when too much glucose is in the blood stream or the blood sugar increases above the body’s comfort zone (60-100 ng/dl), the body stores the excess. The process is called de novo lipogenesis, occurring in the liver and in the fat cells themselves, fancy Latin words for “new fat.”  It occurs with up to 30% (possibly more if you just came from Krispy Kream) of the of the carbohydrates that we eat with each meal.  De novo lipogenesis speeds up as we increased the carbohydrate in our meal and slows down as we decrease the carbohydrate in our meal. We’ve known this for over 50 years, since it was published by Dr. Werthemier in the 1965 edition of the Handbook of Physiology (2).

While we know that fat from our diet and fat from our food is stored as triglyceride, it has to enter and exit the fat cell in the form of fatty acids.  They are called “free fatty acids” when they aren’t stuck together in a triglyceride.  In their unbound state, they can be burned as fuel for the body within the cells. I like to think of the free fatty acids as the body’s “diesel fuel” and of glucose as the body’s version of “unleaded fuel.”  The free fatty acids can easily slip in and out of the fat cell, but within the adipose cell, they are locked up as triglycerides and are too big to pass through the cell membranes.  Lipolysis is essentially unlocking the glycerol from the free fatty acids and allowing the free fatty acids to pass out of the fat cell. Triglycerides in the blood stream must also be broken down into fatty acids Insulin and Triglyceridesbefore they can be taken up into the fat cells. The reconstitution of the fatty acids with glycerol is called esterification. Interestingly, the process of lipolysis and esterification is going on continuously, and a ceaseless stream of free fatty acids are flowing in and out of the fat cells.  However, the flow of fatty acids in and out of the fat cells depends upon the level of glucose and insulin available. As glucose is burned for fuel (oxidized) in the liver or the fat cell, it produces glycerol phosphate. Glycerol phosphate provides the molecule necessary to bind the glycerol back to the free fatty acids. As carbohydrates are being used as fuel, it stimulates increased triglyceride formation both in the fat cell and in the liver, and the insulin produced by the pancreas stimulates the lipoprotein lipase molecule to increased uptake of the fatty acids into the fat cells (3).

So when carbohydrates increase in the diet, the flow of fat into the fat cell increases, and when carbohydrates are limited in the diet, the flow of fat out of the fat cells increases.

Summarizing the control mechanism for fat entering the fat cell:

  1. The Triglyceride/Fatty Acid cycle is controlled by the amount of glucose present in the fat cells (conversion to glycerol phosphate) and the amount of insulin in the blood stream regulating the flow of fatty acid into the fat cell
  2. Glucose/Fatty Acid cycle or “Randle Cycle” regulates the blood sugar at a healthy level.  If the blood glucose goes down, free fatty acids increase in the blood stream, insulin decreases, and glycogen is converted to glucose in the muscle and liver.

These two mechanisms ensure that there is always unleaded (glucose) or diesel fuel (free fatty acids) available for every one of the cells in the body. This provides the flexibility to use glucose in times of plenty, like summer time, and free fatty acids in times of famine or winter when external sources of glucose are unavailable.

The regulation of fat storage, then, is hormonal, not thermodynamic. Unfortunately, we’ve know this for over 65 years and ignored it.

We’ve ignored it for political reasons, but that’s for another blog post . . .

References:

1. James, W. J Intern Med, 2008, 263(4): 336-352

2. Wertheimer, E. “Introduction: A Perspective.” Handbook of Physiology. Renold & Cahill. 1965.

3. Taubs, G. “The Carbohydrate Hypothesis, II” Good Calorie, Bad Calorie. Random House, Inc. 2007, p 376-403.

The 3 Weight Loss Necessities to Weathering the Holidays

What are the three things you need to successfully weather the holidays with your ketosis lifestyle? What does a raindeer on a motorcycle look like? How does insulin resistance effect kidney stones and gout? How do you get back on track if you fall off the ketosis wagon? These and many more questions are answered by Dr. Adam Nally on tonight’s PeriScope.

You can see the video stream including the comment roll here at katch.me/docmuscles.  Or you can watch the video below:

Caffeine . . . Weight Loss Wonder Boy or Sneaky Scoundrel?

I’ve been looking for the answer for quite some time. . . what role does caffeine play in your and my weight management journey?  The answer gave me a headache. . . literally and figuratively.

As many of you, including my office staff, know, I love my Diet Dr. Pepper (and my bacon).  I found that being able to sip on a little soda throughout the day significantly helped the carbohydrate cravings and munchies during a busy and stressful day at the office.   Diet Dr. Pepper contains caffeine, however, I wasn’t really worried.  Caffeine has been well know to have a thermogenic effect which increases your metabolism and has been thought for many years to help with weight loss among the weight loss community.

Diet Dr. Pepper is, also, one of only four diet sodas on the grocery store shelves that doesn’t contain acesulfame potassium (click here to see why most artificial sweeteners cause weight gain).  The four diet sodas that I have been comfortable with my patients using are Diet Dr. Pepper, Diet Coke, Diet Mug Root-beer and Diet A&W Cream Soda.  These are the last four hold out diet sodas that still use NutraSweet (aspartame) as the sweetener.  Most of the soda companies have switched the sweetener in their diet sodas to the insulinogenic acesulfame potassium because it tastes more natural and aspartame has been given a media black eye of late.  However, NutraSweet (aspartame) is the only sweetener that doesn’t spike your insulin or raise blood sugar (click here to find out why that is important).

Yes, I know.  The ingestion of 600 times the approved amount of aspartame causes blindness in lab rats (but we’re not lab rats, and . . . have you ever met someone that drinks 600 Diet Dr. Peppers in a day?  The lethal dose of bananas, which are high in potassium that will stop your heart, is 400).  Aspartame can also exacerbate headaches in some (about 5% of people) and I’ve had a few patients with amplified fibromyalgia symptoms when they use aspartame.   But for most of us, its a useful sweetener that doesn’t spike your insulin response, halting or causing weight gain.

But, over the last few years, I’ve noticed that increased amounts of Diet Dr. Pepper & Diet Coke seem to cause plateauing of weight and decreasing the ability to shift into ketosis, especially mine.  I’ve also noticed (in my personal n=1 experimentation) that my ability to fast after using caffeine regularly seems to be less tolerable, causing headaches and fatigue 8-10 hours into the fast, symptoms that don’t seem to let up until eating. Through the process of elimination, caffeine seems to be the culprit.

Red Bull in caffeineAfter mulling through the last 10 years of caffeine research, most of which were small studies, had mixed results, used coffee as the caffeine delivery system (coffee has over 50 trace minerals that has the potential to skew the results based on the brand) and never seemed to ask the right questions, the ink from a study in the August 2004 Diabetes Care Journal screamed for my attention.

It appears that caffeine actually stimulates a glucose and insulin response through a secondary mechanism.   The insulin surge and glucose response is dramatically amplified in patients who are insulin resistant.  Caffeine doesn’t effect glucose or insulin if taken while fasting; however, when taken with a meal, glucose responses are 21% higher than normal, and insulin responses are 48% higher in the insulin resistant patient. Caffeine seems to only effect the postprandial (2 hours after a meal) glucose and insulin levels.  The literature shows mixed responses in patients when caffeine is in coffee or tea, probably due to the effect of other organic compounds (1).

Caffeine Effect on glucose insulin
Caffeine effect on plasma glucose and plasma insulin compared to placebo (1).

Caffeine also diminishes insulin sensitivity and impairs glucose tolerance in normal and already insulin resistant and/or obese patients.  This is seen most prominently in patients with diabetes mellitus type II (stage IV insulin resistance).  Caffeine causes alterations in glucose homeostasis by decreasing glucose uptake into skeletal muscle, thereby causing elevations in blood glucose concentration and causing an insulin release (2-6).

Studies show that caffeine causes a five fold increase in epinephrine and a smaller, but significant, norepinephrine release.  The diminished insulin sensitivity and exaggerated insulin response appears to be mediated by a catacholamine (epinephrine, norepinephrine & dopamine)  induced stress response (5).  Caffeine has a half life of about 6 hours, that means the caffeine in your system could cause a catacholamine response for up to 72 hours depending upon the amount of caffeine you ingest (7).

The reason for my, and other patient’s, headaches and fatigue after a short fast was due to the exaggerated stress hormone response.  Increased levels of insulin were induced by a catacholamine cascade after caffeine ingestion with a meal, dramatically more amplified in a person like me with insulin resistance. The caffeine with the last meal cause hypoglycemia 5-7 hours into the fasting, leading to headaches and fatigue that are only alleviated by eating.

Even when not fasting, the caffeine induced catacholamine cascade causes up to 48% more insulin release with a meal, halting weight loss and in some cases, causing weight gain.

Caffeine is not the “Wonder-Boy” we thought it was.

How much caffeine will cause these symptoms? 50 mg or more per day can have these effects.

caffeine-content-of-popular-drinks

Ingestion of caffeine has the following effects:

  • 20-40 mg – increased mental clarity for 2-6 hours
  • 50-100 mg – decreased mental clarity, confusion, catacholamine response
  • 250-700 mg – anxiety, nervousness, hypertension & insomnia
  • 500 mg – relaxation of internal anal sphincter tone (yes . . . you begin to soil yourself)
  • 1000 mg – tachycardia, heart palpitations, insomnia, tinnitus, cognitive difficulty.
  • 10,000 mg (10 grams) – lethal dose (Yes, 25 cups of Starbucks Coffee can kill you)

The equivalent of 100 mg of in a human was given to a spider, you can see the very interesting effect on productivity.  How often does the productivity of the day feel like the image below?

Spider Normal
Normal Spider (9)
Spider Caffeine
Spider on caffeine (9)

Beware that caffeine is now being added to a number of skin care products including wrinkle creams and makeup.  Yes, caffeine is absorbed through the skin, so check the ingredients on your skin care products.

Diet Dr. Pepper, my caffeine delivery system of choice, has slightly less caffeine (39 mg per 12 oz can or 3.25 mg per oz) than regular Dr. Pepper.  I found myself drinking 2-3 liters of Diet Dr. Pepper per day (long 16-18 hour work days in the office).  After doing my research, I realized that my caffeine tolerance had built up to quite a significant level (230-350 grams per day).

So, a few weeks ago, I quit . . . cold turkey.

Did I mention the 15 withdrawal symptoms of caffeine? (8)

  • Headache – behind the eyes to the back of the head
  • Sleepiness – can’t keep your eyes open kind of sleepiness
  • Irritability – everyone around you thinks you’ve become a bear
  • Lethargy – feels like your wearing a 70 lb lead vest
  • Constipation – do I really need to explain this one?
  • Depression – you may actually feel like giving up on life
  • Muscle Pain, Stiffness, Cramping – feel like you were run over by a train
  • Lack of Concentration – don’t plan on studying, doing your taxes or performing brain surgery during this period
  • Flu Like Illness – sinus pressure and stuffiness that just won’t clear
  • Insomnia – you feel sleepy, but you can’t sleep
  • Nausea & Vomiting – You may loose your appetite
  • Anxiety – amplified panic attacks or feeling like the sky is falling
  • Brain Fog – can’t hold coherent thoughts or difficulty with common tasks
  • Dizziness – your sense of equilibrium may be off
  • Low Blood Pressure & Heart Palpitations – low pressure and abnormal heart rhythm

I experienced 13 of the 15 that lasted for 4 days.   I do not recommend quitting cold turkey unless you have a week off and someone to hold your hand, cook your meals and dose your Tylenol or Motrin.  My wife thought I was dying. . . I thought I was dying on day two.  I actually had a nightmare about buying and getting into my own coffin.  It can take up to three weeks to completely recover from caffeine withdrawal.

The other way to quit is to decrease your caffeine intake by 50 mg every two days.   That means decrease caffeine by:

  • 1 can of soda every two days
  • 1/4 cup of coffee every day
  • 1/2 can of Energy Drinks every two days
  • 1 cup of tea every two days

The benefit of this method is that withdrawal symptoms are much less severe without the caffeine headache and the ability to remain productive.  It will take longer, but quitting cold turkey is not a pretty picture.  Been there . . . done that, . . . and I’m not going back. I actually lost another half inch off my waistline by day 5 of caffeine discontinuation.

What is the take home message here?  If you have any degree of insulin resistance, caffeine makes it worse and will amplify your weight gain as well as decrease the productivity of your day.

References:

  1. Lane JD, Barkauskas CE Surwit RS, Feinglos MN, Caffeine Impairs Glucose Metabolism in Type II Diabetes, Diabetes Care August 2004 vol. 27 no. 8 2047-2048; doi:10.2337/diacare.27.8.204
  2. Jankelson OM, Beaser SB, Howard FM, Mayer J: Effect of coffee on glucose tolerance and circulating insulin in men with maturity-onset diabetes. Lancet 1527–529, 1967
  3. Graham TE, Sathasivam P, Rowland M, Marko N, Greer F, Battram D: Caffeine ingestion elevates plasma insulin response in humans during an oral glucose tolerance test. Can J Physiol Pharmacol 79:559–565, 2001
  4. Greer F, Hudson R, Ross R, Graham T: Caffeine ingestion decreases glucose disposal during a hyperinsulinemic-euglycemic clamp in sedentary humans.Diabetes 50:2349–2354, 2001
  5. Keijzers GB, De Galan BE, Tack CJ, Smits P: Caffeine can decrease insulin sensitivity in humans. Diabetes Care 25:364–369, 2002
  6. Petrie HJ, et al. Caffeine ingestion increases the insulin response to an oral-glucose-tolerance test in obese men before and after weight loss. American Society for Clinical Nutrition. 80:22-28, 2004
  7. Evans SM, Griffiths RR, Caffeine Withdrawal: A Parametric Analysis of Caffeine Dosing Conditions, JPET April 1, 1999 vol. 289no. 1 285-294
  8. Noever R, Cronise J, Relwani RA. Using spider-web patterns to determine toxicity. NASA Tech Briefs April 29,1995. 19(4):82. Published in New Scientist magazine, 29 April 1995

Common Ketosis Killers

“I’ve tried your low-carb diet, Dr. Nally, and it didn’t work.”

“Hmm . . . really?”  If you’re mumbling this to yourself, or you’ve said it to me in my office, then lets have a little talk.  You’ve probably been subjected to the common ketosis killers.

Scale HelpI’ve heard this statement before.  It’s not a new statement, but it’s a statement that tells me we need to address a number of items.  If you’ve failed a low carbohydrate diet, I’d suspect you are pretty severely insulin resistant or hyperinsulinemic.  You probably never really reached true ketosis.   I’d want to have you checked out by your doctor to rule out underlying disease like hypothyroidism, diabetes, other hormone imbalance, etc.

Nutritional Ketosis is Most Effective as a Lifestyle Change

Next, switching to a low-carbohydrate lifestyle is literally a “lifestyle change.”  It requires that you understand a few basic ketosis principles.  And, it takes the average person 3-6 months to really wrap their head around what this lifestyle means . . .  and, some people, up to a year before they are really comfortable with how to eat and function in any situation.

I assume, if you are reading this article, that you’ve already read about ketosis and understand the science behind it.  If not, please start your reading with my article The Principle Based Ketogenic Lifestyle – Part I and Ketogenic Principles – Part II.  If this is the case, then please proceed forward, “full steam ahead!”

There are usually a few areas that are inadvertently inhibiting your body transformation, so let’s get a little personal.

Nutritional Ketosis is a Very Low Carbohydrate Diet

First, this is a low carbohydrate diet.  For weight loss, I usually ask people to lower their carbohydrate intake to less than 2o grams per day. How do you do that?  (A copy of my diet is accessible through my membership site HERE.)  You’ve got to begin by restricting all carbohydrates to less than 20 grams per day.  Any more than 20 to 30 grams per day will cause an insulin release from the pancreas and stimulate fat storage of both carbohydrate and fat for the next 10-12 hours, commonly killing ketosis.  Keep a dietary journal to record your progress, your cravings, your successes and failures.  I’m going to want to see it and review it with you if you see me.

No, I don’t believe in “Net Carbs.”  Net Carbs are a sales gimmick to get you to buy “artificial food” that keeps you coming back for “artificial food” and halts your weight loss (you’ll see why shortly).   You’re going to lose the most weight and feel your best when you eat real food. I do allow for the subtraction of real fiber, specifically non-cooked, non-blended, non-juiced leafy greens (If you cook, blend or juice a leafy green, it activates more carbohydrate availability).  Leafy greens are real fiber.  You can subtract them.  In fact, I recommend eating 1-3 cups of leafy greens per day to help bowel function & provide necessary folic acid, but, everything else is “carbage.”  Avoid it.

Yes, cottage cheese and yogurt contain carbohydrates.  Be very cautious with them.

No, oatmeal and Cream of Wheat™ are not helpful. See my article on Why Your Oatmeal is Killing Your Libedo.Alcohol

Alcohol also halts your weight loss.  It’s not the sugar in the alcohol I’m worried about, the distilling process changes the sugar to alcohol, however, alcohol stimulates an insulin response after the alcohol is metabolized in the liver with a SIMILAR RESPONSE to regular sugar.

 

To Effectively Maintain Nutritional Ketosis, You MUST get adequate Protein

Second, this is a low carbohydrate, moderate protein, high fat lifestyle.  N0 . . . it is NOT a high protein diet! However, so many of my patients don’t eat enough protein that they feel like it is a “high protein diet.”

Protein is essential for the building and maintaining of muscle, connective tissue and a number of other enzymatic reactions in your body.  However, in patients who are morbidly obese [people with a body mass index (BMI) over 50], excess protein intake can cause fat to be stored by producing an excessive insulin response.  In these patients we initially moderate protein.  Excess sugars and a number of proteins, in the presence of a high insulin response, are converted to triglyceride (the soft squishy stuff inside the fat cells that make them plump) and stocked away inside your adipose tissue.  Excessive protein, especially the amino acids argenine, leucine and tryptophan are common ketosis killers, not because they are converted to sugar, but because they stimulate and insulin response all by themselves.

If you don’t fall into the morbidly obese category (BMI over 50). Then, I encourage you to use the protein levels below.

Initially, I ask my patients to focus on lowering their carbohydrate intake and I don’t really worry about protein.  (It is often hard enough to figure out what the difference between a carbohydrate and a protein in the first month or two if you’ve never had any nutrition background.)  Most people begin losing weight just by lowering carbohydrates over the first few months.  Once you figure out how to lower your carbohydrates, if your weight loss is not moving and your pants are not getting looser, then you’re probably eating too much protein.

How much protein do you need?  It’s pretty easy to calculate and is based on your height and gender.  Your basic protein needs to maintain muscle, skin and hair growth are as follows:

  • 70 grams or higher for women per day
  • 120 grams or higher for men per day.

However, these levels are WAY TOO LOW for weight loss and maintaining good health.  Because we now know that protein acts as a hormone in a number of ways, in my office I recommend women get 80-90 grams of protein per day, and men should get > 150 grams of protein per day.

ProteinIf you’re still a little confused about protein, read my article on Why Your Chicken Salad Stops Your Weight Loss.

This also goes for protein powders and protein shakes.  Many of these have 25-40 grams of protein in them per serving, so be careful with their use.

Nutritional Ketosis is a High Fat Diet

Third, this is a high fat lifestyle.  Yes, I want you to INCREASE your fat intake.  I’m going to repeat that, again, just for clarity, . . . . INCREASE your fat intake.  Increase it to around 50% of your total calories, . . . 70% of your total calories if you can do it.  Not enough fat is a common ketosis killer.

“What?! Won’t that cause heart disease and stroke and make my cholesterol worse?!!!”

I know, take a big deep breath . . . (you may even need to breath into a paper bag for a minute if you begin hyperventilating).

No, it will not raise your cholesterol, cause heart disease, or cause a stroke.  If you have lowered your carbohydrate intake to less than 20 grams per day, then there is NO hormonal signal for you to make more bad cholesterol, worsen heart disease, or cause a stroke.  In fact, there is great data showing that increasing your fat and lowering your carbohydrates reverses the blockage in the arteries.  I see this reversal every single day in my clinic through the application of ketogenic diets.

If we remove carbohydrate as your primary fuel, you must replace it with something else.Food Pyramid WrongThat something else should be fat.  Protein must be moderated, as it will also be stored as fat if you eat too much.  So, if the carbohydrates are kept low, fat intake can be increased and the body will pick the fat it wants and essentially throw the rest out without raising cholesterol, causing weight gain or causing heart disease.  This is why we want you to use good natural animal fats like butter, hard cheese, olive oil, coconut oil, avocado, etc.  Look for fats highest in omega-3 fatty acids as these decrease inflammation and improved weight loss.  Look for meats highest in fat like red meat (55% fat) and pork (45% fat).  Take the food pyramid and flip it over.

Check Your Sweeteners At the Door

The fourth common ketosis killer and culprit in halting your weight loss is  artificial sweeteners.  There are quite a few of them.  Most of them WILL cause an insulin response (exactly what we don’t want for weight loss) with minimal to no rise in blood sugar.  Raising blood sugar doesn’t matter, if the insulin is being stimulated  . . . “you’re gonna gain weight for the next 10-12 hours.”  I wrote an article for you to print off and hang on your fridge, upload it to your iPhone or carry it with you in your purse to the grocery store. (If you’re a man and you’re carrying a purse, please don’t tell me about it.)  You can find the article here: The Skinny About Sweeteners.  The short list of those sweeteners that are OK to use and cook with, and do not increase insulin response, can be found here in my Amazon Store.

Don’t Even Start with Coffee Creamers

CoffeeCreamersFifth on my list is coffee creamer.  Coffee creamer contains corn syrup solids (another very special name for  . . . SUGAR!!) and/or maltodextrin (SUGAR’s married name!).  If you must put something in your coffee, then use real heavy cream (pure tasty fat) or real butter.   It will taste much better (I’m told – I don’t drink coffee personally) and you won’t get an insulin spike 2-3 hours later and begin craving more coffee and donuts.

Yes, “Half & Half” is half fat and half sugar. . .  avoid it too!!

Ketosis Killing Medications

The sixth culprit in halting weight loss is medications.  Please talk to your doctor before making ANY changes in your medications as suddently stopping them can be hazardous to your health.  Those highest on my list for stopping your weight loss are Glyburide (glipizide), insulin, & steroids like prednisone.  A more complete list of medications that will halt your weight loss can be found on my on my ketogenic diet plan.  If you are on any prescription medications, please talk to your doctor or to a physician board certified in obesity medicine treatment about how to adjust or wean these medications in a way that is safe and appropriate for your individual needs.

Estrogen

The seventh common culprit in halting weight loss is a lack of estrogen in menopausal or post-menopausal women.  About menopause-cartoon-02420% of women that I see in my practice who are over 55 years old, need some degree of estrogen replacement before they are able to lose weight.  Estrogen plays a very large role in regulation of the metabolism and when deficient, causes weight retention or weight gain.  Talk to your doctor about the risks and benefits of estrogen for you individually in this situation.

Stress

The eighth reason for shifting out of ketosis is stress.  Acute and chronic stress can be caused by a number of issues. The most common is lack of sleep.  You can read about stress and ways to address it in two of my articles: How Does Stress Cause Weight Gain? and Adrenal Insufficiency, Adrenal Fatigue and PseudoCushing’s Syndrome – Oh My!

For many years, we’ve thought that caffeine was great for weight loss.  However, we are finding, clinically, that too much caffeine can also cause a stress response by raising cortisol, releasing glycogen, thereby stimulating an insulin response and bringing your weight loss to a screeching halt.  How much caffeine? . . . The jury is still out . . . and remains to be determined.  But, I am currently under going an n=1 experiment on myself (as many of you know, I loved Diet Dr. Pepper.  But I had to give it up).  I’ll keep you posted . . .

Look closely at these eight issues.  Correcting them usually solves most plateaus with weight loss and improves blood pressure, blood sugar and cholesterol control dramatically.