I was reading this article by Dr Mercola on fat adaptation. He really believes an optimal diet should consist of 50% fats and he himself eats a lot of saturated fat. He also believes in restricting carbs to mostly vegetables and fruits.
It may be true that this kind of diet is best for optimal health but i’m not sure it’s for optimal body composition.
If the body has a storage depot for carbohydrates in the form of glycogen both liver and muscle when you eat carbohydrates in the form of most carbohydrates which mainly contain glucose they usually end up being converted to muscle glycogen. While fruits convert to liver glycogen in the form of fructose.
Although Mark Sisson mentions
“Donâ??t forget that your body can make up to 200 grams of glycogen from fats and protein every day, too”
I was aware the body is able to convert protein into glucose but not fats into glucose/glycogen does anybody know if this is true or not?
I thought that when a person eats a predominantly fat based diet there is much higher chance that a lot of that fat you are eating will be converted to bodyfat as the body can simply do this very efficiently without much effort. There is no internal storage depot for fats besides bodyfat. Obviously fats are incorporated into the brain and cell membranes but how much really before spill over occurs so to speak?
Analogy. Carbs are like Gasoline for a car, if you keep it in a garage and don’t drive it much trying to full the tank all the time will lead to a major spill over.
Basically his point was that for the Athlete and the Physique enthusiast, carbs are conditionally essential. While we can live and be quite healthy on meat and plants, that doesn’t mean we can THRIVE and be bad asses and take names on that sort of diet.
Also, over spilled fat will most easily be added to your adipose tissue sure, BUT your fat (and muscle) are being remodeled all day long. Just like the concept of nitrogen balance for muscle gains/atrophy, same concept applies to fat. Are you dipping into that stored fat for energy later in the day??
[quote]LIFTICVSMAXIMVS wrote:
I would say burning glucose for energy in the human body is more like burning ethanol in a gasoline engine.
It can be done but it comes with all sorts of negative consequences to the machinery.
[/quote]
Que?
Your body is way more complicated than that. You will also find different diets work better for different people…but I don’t see many people who got really swole on low to no carbs.
Your body is way more complicated than that. You will also find different diets work better for different people…but I don’t see many people who got really swole on low to no carbs.[/quote]
Yes and it is much more delicate to doing harmful things to it.
I am halfway through Gary Taubes book “Why we get fat”. This is the shorter version to his book “Good Calories, Bad Calories”. So far it is an excellent read.
Some key points from his book Good Calories, Bad Calories.
"The book isn’t just important for what it says about fat storage. It also is a ruthless expose of the current system of the peer reviewed research system. I have never read any book with as many scientific references or which goes to so much trouble to explain why the science underlying current heart/obesity research is wrong.
Whenever you read any research press release the IMMEDIATE need is to check what is in the press release bears any resemblance to what is the conclusion of the paper and then you NEED to check that what the paper discusses and found from the research is related to what is claimed in the conclusions and is accurately reflected in BOTH the abstract and the press release. Far too often the idea that initiated the research is not proven by the subsequent research but those ideas permeate both the press release and the conclusions despite the fact that the actual findings did not support that idea."
[quote]solidkhalid wrote:
Studies show that the human brain works more efficiently in a glucose-environment.[/quote]
As the rest of your body turns into a marshmallow.
I think the point here is to re-evaluate the recommended macronutrient percentages. Many people run better on low glucose aka low carb (or cyclic carbing, or carb backloading) instead of riding the glucose carb train all day, every day.
High intensity exercise requires some added carbs. Sitting on your ass all day requires no carbs.
