That's why the European tradition of walking after a meal is best. On weekends I always walk to and from the restaurants I frequent, which results in a 30 minute walk each way (or more).

If we had a pill for that folks would definitely abuse it.

If memory serves...doesn't taking a shot of apple cider vinegar after a high carb/sugar meal do just that?

Diluted with some water, of course, to spare the esophagus.

Steve, you are so right!  we would be starting rehab services for such a pill!

interesting strategy.  bet the fitness purists would have other ideas about your exercise choice.  it got the job done though.

honestly, i have not been as physically active as i should be and i wonder if that is why my fasting glucose is not low.  it can be over 90 some mornings.  not outrageous but not low for someone habitually eating low carb.

That post makes me wonder what food choices should be for athletes?  Should they stick to a higher carb diet with the knowledge that they're going to burn it off with a few hours of intense exercise?

(I'm not an athlete, but I'm curious as to your answer).

Thank you, Dr Davis, I can now ask my wife to buy an Xbox and a stationary bike for my, ehrm, our, health.

L-carnosine, l-arginine, l-lysine don't have anti-glycation properties?. They might help after lunches.

I like to have, dare I say Pizza 2-3 times a year. It has been shown to have the biggest spike in my blood sugars, so I time it before a work out.

I eat my Pizza usually at lunch not dinner, then do something like pushups and running up and down the stairs.

The first time I tested after pizza, I was shocked. I started the pushups, then the stairs. Within 20 minutes of working those muscles blood sugar dropped more than 80 points.

My name is Maureen and I have been reading your blog since last fall and I have found it very interesting and informative.  I have not fully incorporated paleo diet but understand its merits.  I try to follow the Mediterranean diet with some "cheating" for the past year and a half.

I have had a weight isssue most of my life with a few times of successful dieting. I am happy to say that I have never regained all the weight  back and then some like you hear most people do. I currently want to lose 15lbs and for me the best way to do that is with structure, ie a specific diet plan that tells you what to eat and how much such as so many carbs, proteins and fats.

My question to you is if I were to follow this way of eating and I gain the weight  back would it be better than if I were to follow the Mediterranean  diet?

I would appreciate your feedback.

Is there such a thing as an emergency glucose lowering pill?

As background, I'm not diabetic, but I am glucose-impaired, as they say, and follow my blood sugars fairly often.  I don't know why I don't see this more often, but I've found that drinking wine (I drink red) can help keep blood sugars down on a questionable meal.  For instance, if I eat potatoes without wine, my sugars will go high.  If I drink wine with a meal with potatoes, my sugars behave themselves.  If I remember correctly from my reading, apparently alcohol prevents the liver from pushing out sugars into the bloodstream.

fyi, this is no magic pill but dietary fat is known to blunt blood glucose spikes.

Such a thing exists. It is called insulin. Just kidding of course. By the way, I used to love Indian food, great way to get a good low-carb meal, but now I worry that most indian places use lots of vegetable oil and I don't need the omega 6.

Berny3, my understanding is that alcohol simply gets in front of carbs, and is digested first.  But eventually your potato will get its turn to raise your sugar levels. So could it be just a matter of timing your glucose measurements to catch that delayed spike?

Anti-glucose pill = Pycnogenol.

http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_pwwi/is_200702/ai_n17168252/

You mentioned "a 'morning-after' pill, or actually a 'meal-after' pill, a supplement pill or liquid that blunts or eliminates the blood glucose rise after a meal".

Doesn't Alpha Lipoic Acid already do just that?

There isn't likely to be much (or any) cornstarch in Indian restaurant food. Do you tend to have problems with lentils, chickpeas, and/or dairy?

(Kenneth - I'm not anonymous for the sake of it, but because I can't remember the 500 passwords I need for all these sites)

There IS a pill for this. Acarbose. It's an alpha glucosidase inhibitor which prevents, or at least slows the hydrolysis of small to mid size sugars into glucose. It would be entirely possible to design even more potent inhibitors or ones that target multiple pathways on the route to carb absorption. However, there is no free ride. That undigested sugar isn't going to go away. It's going to ferment in the gut and cause gas and may act as an osmotic laxative.

GI complaints are quite common with acarbose, and anyone who is lactose intolerant knows firsthand the downside of carbohydrate malabsoption. Remember that lactose is half glucose. They can gorge themselves on dairy and not get a blood sugar spike, at least from the lactose - if they don't mind spending the rest of the day in the toilet.

@ Steve "If we had a pill for that folks would definitely abuse it" and @ anonymous "Is there such a thing as an emergency glucose lowering pill?"

Yes, it's called Repaglinide or Prandin - you take it just before your high carb meal and it makes your pancreas produce a bit more insulin to cover the carbs in that meal and that meal only. It works just for the meal so it's not like other oral hypoglycaemic meds. Not that that is a good thing - it could stress the pancreas and some would say it could lead to beta cell burnout, but if you only took it occasionally when you wanted an Indian buffet ?

Doesn't cinnamon taken with a meal lessen the spike?

LifeExtension's CinSulin may provide modest lowering of blood glucose:
http://www.lef.org/magazine/mag2010/ss2010_Protect-Your-Body-from-a-Silent-Killer_01.htm

40 minutes on a stationary bike ?

Just place 4 - 5 all out sprints for 10 seconds each, spaced 2 minutes apart.
Done in less then 10 minutes, same result.

But this is the caveat, the sprints must be all out/as fast as you possibly can sprint.

Your muscles are like a giant glucose sink when they are empty.
The most efficient way to get them to  empty quickly is by explosive complete all body movements.

Kenneth again. The more I think about it, I suspect that none of the pharmacological strategies proposed would do much good in terms of truly offsetting a high-carb lifestyle or heavy binge. I already mentioned the problems inherent to blocking absorption.

Raising insulin directly or indirectly will drive down the glucose spike, but to what end? For non-diabetics, the glucose bump is temporary and likely doesn't do much direct damage - maybe some extra glycation. The real problem for the purposes of this blog is atherogenic problems - fat storage and triglyceride formation and all of the bad things that happen with lipoproteins as a result. Using insulin will lower the glucose spike by ramming it into those processes faster. Lots of diabetics who have decent control still have awful lipid panels, especially those following the standard diet.

Maybe supplements which enhance insulin sensitivity might help. Or metformin, which lowers liver production of glucose and helps sensitivity somewhat. But at the end of the day, the only solution is probably not to abuse carbs in the first place and to stay active.

In response to several commenters:

Apple cider vinegar, cinnamon, acarbose, fats/proteins can indeed blunt postprandial glucose rises, as can a number of other strategies.

However, I believe that lipoic acid and l-carnosine are better blockers of glycation than of glucose excursions, a bit different.

Also, I did not mean to suggest that riding a stationary bike while playing Xbox was somehow superior to, say, jogging or dancing. It just happened to be what I felt like doing that day.

Anya is right on the money!

Flavia--

Excellent point.

Don't you love when traditional or intuitive practices seem to provide real benefit?

Hi, Ari--

I am not a believer in "carb loading." I believe that most athletes overdo carbs and pay the health price for it down the road.

Most people who engage in serious exercise may need to ingest carbs during exercise, particularly during extreme efforts. But I believe the notion of carb loading is overblown, particularly if you are already on a low-carbohydrate restriction.

The closest thing I can think of to a magic pill would be Ortho Glucose from AOR..

http://www.aorhealth.com/html/products.php?id=204

and Mito Charger

http://www.aorhealth.com/html/products.php?id=194

I don't trust any restaurants anymore. A lot of "ethnic" restaurants think Americans want food sweet and salty and amend traditional recipes appropriately.

I ate in an Indian restaurant that adds potatoes to their raita, which is supposed to be just yogurt and cucumbers and spices.

So I always ask about ingredients.

Question: How long would it have taken you to come down from 170 or so *without* the bike? Sometimes a spike from carbs comes down quickly if you don't eat a lot of fat.

GUAR GUM CAPS BEFORE, pectin would probably work also.  I've taken 6 guar gum caps before and lowered the measured peak glucose after e.g. oatmeal.

Dr Mirkin says that you will improve your athletic performance by eating high carb/high sugar at the beginning or during an intense endurance race....but he adds, not to eat that way when not exercising.

Here's an compromise between Anya's all out effort sprints and 40 minutes on the stationary bicycle. Try some deep knee bends. Once you get the rhythm down (squat down, rising on your toes and placing your hands behind your heels to stabilize you, then stand up, lowering your heels back to the ground and raising your arms straight out in front of your chest), these comfortable, but very effective at getting your heart rate up and opening the muscles to take up glucose. Also, you can perform deep knee bends anywhere and while wearing any sort of clothing.

The real problem, I suspect, is not being lean (body fat over 15% for a man). All it takes is being a few pounds overweight and metabolism changes dramatically for the worse.

Wow!  After YEARS of studying the effects of carbohydrates on the body in an effort to prevent diabetes, I never knew that simply exercising after a meal would lower your blood sugar.  This is news to me!  I have NEVER heard this, not even from my doctor.  I have heard exercise is good of course, and I have heard that walking can lower your blood sugar overall, but not so directly as you say.  I will definitely not be getting diabetes now.  My mom got it at age 30, but I'm 43 and still have kept blood sugar low.  I guess its now about to get lower.  Thanks.

Also, laptop on treadmill is fun too, and has a way of keeping me walking for up to 4 miles.

The danger is in fructose which is converted directly to fat, because the body has no mechanism with which to use fructose.

Fructose comes from starch, bread, pasta - anything made from grains and leads to increased fatty acids in the blood.

A healthy diet means you don't need to worry about eating too much!

I always eat a high carb/sugar meal before I run, and since I've been training for a half marathon, I can use the extra energy from glucose spikes.

My main criticism of this article is: why are you not playing Black Ops!!!!!1

C'mon, Dr. Davis! When was the last time the pharmaceutical industry invented a new drug then chose NOT to sell it? But if they did come up with a pill to reverse the blood sugar spike from eating hi-carb foods, would it be able to reverse glycation, inflammation & all the other damage that sugar does to to our bodies?

Too many Americans would definitely abuse a pill like that unless it was prohibitively expensive. But the side effects from the pill would prolly be worse than the damage from the sugar.

My suggestion: Do what the French & the Italians have always done: Have a glass or 2 of wine with your high-carb meals. I've been a low-carber for more than a decade now & it's a lifestyle (not a 'diet') that I swear by. But I have yet to find a medical professional who can explain how the French can eat baguettes & croissants every day, how the Italians can have pasta at practically every meal, yet they remain thin & gorgeous & Syndrome X is practically unknown in those countries.

Maybe there's some truth to that Blood Type Diet business, but I say it's gotta be the wine.

If memory serves, there are test strips you can dip in sauces or soups ahead of time to detest the presence of sugars (presumably starches as well?)

In the January 2011 issue of LEF magazine they address this matter.
They talk about Glucose...the Silent Killer.
They also recommend/sell two supplements for this very subject.
One is for Glucose Absorption Control.
The other is a Calorie Control Weight Management Formula.

@RC:  Wine won't necessarily correct a starch centered diet in the long-run.  Obesity is not unheard of in Italy -- quite the opposite -- about half the men and over a third of the women. Huge amounts of obesity in Southern Italy and even in places where my father's relatives hail from -- Rome -- kids start out slender but decades of  pasta result in the common pot belly (pregnant looking men) and plump women by middle age and beyond.  Sicily -- another pasta and wine loving country has plenty of obese adults as well as children.  Even if pasta doesn't result in fat -- it does its damage in other ways such as the type 2 diabetes my thin father had. The benefits to the diet there is that pasta is merely a course of many courses and can be skipped.  Also, this is changing now but families used to cook meals at home -- no junk food meals.  Fresh veggies and meats, cheeses, plus of course the pasta and bread etc.  Modern times have made junk/convenience foods invade Italy -- McDonalds, fast-foods, packaged frankenfoods...ugh.

Yes, I wish that there was such a pill. Better yet, I wish that there was a pill that one could take that would provide for world peace and tranquility ...

It is disappointing to watch this once informative blog descend to its current level of mediocrity.

Count me as another reader that is finished with this blog.

Going back to my item about using red wine at dinner to keep blood sugars down, one of the Anonymous people said that the "alcohol simply gets in front of carbs, and is digested first. But eventually your potato will get its turn to raise your sugar levels."  Well, last night I didn't have potatoes, but I did have quite a bit more carbs than I normally would think wise, and had approximately 2 glasses of wine.  I then took my blood sugars three times at one hour intervals (I had to go to sleep, you see).  The first reading was 97, an hour later it was 92, an hour later it was 90.  I got up out of bed 2 hours later and it was down to 86.  Now, I'm the type where when I eat something that has too many carbs, my sugars go way up in the first 45 minutes to an hour.  By the second hour, the sugars come down into a decent range.  So I'm wondering – does the alcohol really go first, with the carbs waiting in the wings, or does the wine work to slow things down — allowing some carbs to be processed and delaying others?  If I had taken my blood sugar again 2 or 3 hours later, would I see the spike then?

Hey "Anonymous" know exactly how you feel about the blog. Its sad.

Red wine does indeed reduce blood sugar, though the effect I've seen tends to be no more than 5-10 mg/dl.

I was thinking more along the lines of, say, American ginseng. Several gram doses have the potential to reduce postprandial blood sugar by 20-40 mg/dl. However, I am uncertain of the long-term safety of such a practice due to effects on the pancreas.

A mediocre thought to keep this
on life support without the irreplaceable infusion from the blogosphere tribe of Annonymous. If they'd gone back just one entry of Doc's they'd have been able to read 2 comments of mine related to some of the science behind Doc's obsession with blood sugar.

As a disclaimer, I personally don't just say no to carbs - even though my old knees won't cooperate on wind sprints or deep bends to bail me out.

Circadian rhythm is widely known, and erroneously construed merely relate to wakefulness. There are also distinct circadian cycles involved in the liver, heart and lungs.

Not having the time now to detail the relevant liver circadian dynamic I'll just highlight some. In short,
blood glucose and insulin, et. al. is not always a linear reaction; a spike is not always just another bad spike for everyone everytime of day.

O.K., for you researchers, in circadian involvement of liver up/down regulation phases
here are some leads(in no particular order): impact on glucose and lipid balance; transcription of insulin metabolism phases; mitochondrial fat burning; gluconeogenesis; gluco-corticoid receptors; triglycerides; glucose phosphate isomerase and 6-phosphofructokinase-2; HmGCoA lysase and reductase; S-transferase theta-2 and more.

Sounds like chronic cardio to me.

I take 500 mg metfomin each night
I am not diabetic
It's my "glucose lower pill"

I think that cinnamon capsules, GTF chormium or CLA / omega-3's would do the same thing.  It all depends on if these nutrients would cause a hypoglycemic response in some people.

Serious question: what would a shot of vodka do in a scenario like this? (i.e., after carbs have been accidentally consumed, and after blood sugar has consequently risen).

Oops I see the same question about alcohol was already raised vis a vis red wine. Though I'm still not 100% clear on the answer!

Supposedly, pine bark extract taken with a meal supposedly keeps blood sugar from spiking. Then again, the conclusive evidence was only found in animal studies:

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15925302

As a glucose intolerant, I have tried all kinds of things to keep my blood sugar under control. My biggest disappointment was vinegar before meal. It did nothing for me. I am of Indian origin and used to be a vegetarian. Tried Basmati rice which some claim has a more favorable glucose response. Again no effect on me. Tried fermented Indian dishes (dosa and idly) which also didn't help. I have now given up eating rice/wheat entirely and eat a lot of eggs and fish. It may just be that I am not meant to consume carbs.

BTW, potato in Raita is quite common in India. To me, Indian cooking in the US is characterized by a very limited set of dishes with blunted flavors. But, I do wonder what was in Dr Davis' soups and vegetables. Some Indian dishes use sugar or jaggery (cane juice boiled into unrefined sugar) but the dish would be detectably sweet. Another possibility is indiscrimate use of tomato sauce or ketchup added as shortcut to flavor sauces which of course contains HFCS!

Playing Modern Warfare while pedaling away on the bike?  Your stock just went way up in my book good sir.

You people are right about the vegetable oil. Its really deplorable - our ancestors in India all used Ghee (clarified butter) heavily. Then the cholestrol propaganda from the West started a few decades ago and now everyone cooks with one or other vegetable oil.
Original Indian dishes made with ghee are much more delicious, especially non-vegetarian ones.

-Fructose comes from starch, bread, pasta - anything made from grains and leads to increased fatty acids in the blood.-

I pity those who are in care of this ignorant british MD. Starch breaks down to a glucose in the body - never a fructose. Also fructose increases liver fat more than fatty acids in the blood.

I make these often. I do not bother with the shaping of little balls. I put them on parchment paper, flat like pizza dough. Then after baking, cooling, I slice into small bar sizes.

Wow, this is a simple low carb recipe. My girlfriend likes to bake and I like to cook low carb. I think this will be a great edition to our recipe book. Thanks!

Could you recommend any energy bars that I can purchase in a store? I am a distance runner and like to eat an energy bar before a long run. Any suggestions? Thanks.

Steve Kreloff

I should have read the comments above before I made these. Mine look like short fat hot dogs. Really tasty if you like chocolate. I like the pumpkin seeds as they make it kind of chunchy. I refrigerated them and they seem to store well that way.

I also wonder if coffee/caffeine plays a role for some people. I know that coffee tend to make me hungry, and i wonder if it is due to an effect on insulin.

Before most people begin to worry..

Major Correction:  love handles and fat that makes you look soft & flabby is subcutaneous fat, not visceral fat as stated in this post.

If you can pinch it, it's subcutaneous.

Does high fruit consumption with it's high content of fructose increase viceral fat?

Visceral fat occurs behind the abdominal wall--where the organs are.

The stuff you can grab a handful of is subcutaneous fat and it is metabolically inert.

The most concerning fat is intracellular liver fat which is deposited, as the name suggests, between the cells of the liver.  It appears to be a major cause of insulin resistance, and hence obesity.

Liver fat is made out of fructose. Dietary changes including very strict Atkins-style diets do not reduce liver fat significantly (according to biopsy studies) even after 6 months.

Most treatments for fatty liver change the liver enzyme test results which doctors interpret as meaning that the fatty liver is healing, but sadly the biopsy results don't confirm this either.

Perhaps years of eating no fructose might burn off the intracellular liver fat, but I have not seen any evidence to support this in the research.

Something that's always puzzled me is that, soft drinks typically use high fructose corn syrup, but what sugar are they using when they refer to sodas using "real" sugar?

http://www.bevreview.com/2009/02/09/pepsi-throwback-mountain-dew-throwback/

If they are using sucrose, or table sugar, then isn't that 50% fructose anways?  


Jenny, is there ANY research that suggests fructose above and beyond sucrose/glucose contributes to liver fat?

For example, if you read this headline, "High Levels of Fructose, Trans Fats Lead to Significant Liver Disease, Says Study"
( http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/06/100622112548.htm
)

you would think it's about fructose, but if you read the article it's really sugar in general they are talking about!

The glucose part of sugar is mostly benign, for people with good insulin sensitivity. We need glucose in our blood in our muscles etc. It is only a problem if you do not maintain correct levels, ie insulin resistant, or insulin deficient.

Fructose does cause problems for everybody. But there also it will cause more problems to the insulin resistant than the sensitive.

Another thing is that Liver and other tissues have a limited capacity to convert fructose to fat. If it gets overwhelmed then the fructose can escape and stay in the blood far longer than it should.

A good way to prevent this is to not drink the fructose, but eat it with food. So Fruits are OK, and eating some fructose with food is OK. Trouble with liquids is that the stomach does not store the liquid for long and releases it in the blood supply, allowing the fructose control system to be overwhelmed.

Do not think that fruit juices are healthy. Fruits are healthy but not their juice, even if it is very fresh. With food it would not be much dangerous, in limits.

Per Sandra Cabot M.D.

"The liver is able to repair itself and grow new healthy liver cells and over one to two years you will be able to reverse the fatty damage to your liver and achieve a healthy normal liver.

If you are overweight you will lose significant amounts of weight within several months, however the liver will take longer to completely repair itself..."

Recommended course of action:

Follow a low carbohydrate way of eating - eliminating all grains, sugar, fructose, etc.;
Increase the amount of raw plant food in the diet;
Eat first class protein with every meal or for a snack;
Consume healthy fats;
Do not eat very large meals;
Take a liver tonic everyday;
Drink plenty of hydrating fluids;
A regular exercise program is important.
The above is paraphrased from Dr. Cabot's book: Fatty Liver: You Can Reverse It.

Obviously more research is urgently needed.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abdominal_obesity

Abdominal obesity=love handles = visceral fat= NASTY

Nina

The fructose in fruits and even HFCS will be burned for energy if the person is exercising.  If not, it turns into visceral fat.  Sorry, I can't give a url as proof but I know I read it from someone knowledgeable.

kevin

AGREED....ARE YOU MORE A FAN of mono-fat or saturated fat?

I've been able to dramatically reduce my abdominal and pectoral fat through a low-carb diet. I look very toned and lean. However even after strict adherence for 3 years, there is still some fat in the abs and pecs that refuse to go away. I don't eat any grains or wheat products and very little sugar and fructose, yet, this one last bit of fat refuses to perish. Perhaps it is possible that some of our bodies will genetically always store more fat than others?

paradoxically, I know 2 people who eat so many grains and wheat products and cannot get fat. They have remained lean all their life, don't have man boobs, and don't do that much exercise. What gives?

low carb with only just enough protein (atkins is high protein and gives high insulin from this), raw green veges, healthy fats (omega 3, nuts, avocados and olives) is the only way to fix it

Funny thing, I have been eating the types of food you recommend and avoiding those you don't on this post. After 4 months, I have lost 80 pounds, moved from morbidly obese to overweight and now see those love handles and tummy fat softening and starting to disappear (bye bye visceral fat). I can't wait to see what happens in the next four months! My energy is spontaneous and mental acuity has returned. I am even back in college pursuing an advanced degree in nursing. The benefits are much more than physical. Thank you for your insight. My life is better as a result.

Same Wikipedia source as mentioned before says: "Visceral fat, also known as organ fat or intra-abdominal fat, is located inside the peritoneal cavity, packed in between internal organs and torso...". So "love handles", "polka handles" or whatever you call them, is not visceral fat!

Re: comments about "love handles" not being visceral fat.

Absolutely correct.

"Love handles" are simply an INDICATOR of visceral fat. Last I checked, I can't grab your liver or intestinal fat.

Kellygy--

80 lbs!

That's fabulous. I'd love to hear more.

I feel better though and I seem to heal better too (could be my imagination but I had a real bad scar after my hand was stabbed with glass and it has been getting so much better). Nose bleeds have significantly decreased too (only 2 minor ones in a hole year whereas I was having them everyday before I changed my diet). I have also successfully (I think) fought off a candida yeast infection as all digestive trouble and urine infections and perpetual belly button infections have ceased too!
There was no doubt I was fat deficient after following a low fat diet all my life. I just can't lose weight though. I suspect that I have fatty liver and damaged kidneys because I get back pain alot too (used to be both left and right sides almost every day after I started HFLC but now it is only the left side occasionally). But because I am in my twenties I go to see the doctor and they can do nothing for me. They don't believe in extensive liver tests and kidney tests for someone so young. They analysed my urine and found nothing wrong so that's it. Please, someone in the know tell me my next move...
Forgot to mention I take chromium every day (because Atkins says it is good for IR) and milk thistle every day because it is supposed to help fatty liver. Also to note, my blood sugars have improved and I no longer get dizzy like when I first started HFLC. So that is some progress with the symptoms. But no matter how little I eat I can't lose weight. I'm afraid to do more exercise because I don't understand why my blood sugar readings are so high afterwards. I do a bit but not much. I tried weight training but even that gives me a liver dump. Even walking around the block gives me a liver dump. Also please note, I am HFLC. I eat alot of animal fat. I don't eat too much protein, I always eat excess of fat to try and reach ketosis and I eat somewhere in the region of 20-50g of carb a day (although I think it depends where your carbs come from as to whether they matter, so the carb in an almond is locked in with all that fat. The 6% carb of 100g of almonds is better and lower carb than eating 6g of candy. I think this because of the fat burning index (heard of that?) and the fact almonds don't impact my blood sugar  hardly at all and also the fact they seem to get me into ketosis quicker than any other food).
Anyway I'm stumped.
Someone mentioned fructose. I was reading hyper lipid's post about rats who ate saturated fat with fructose/alcohol and it protected the liver. Rats who ate a low fat diet with fructose/alcohol developed "fois gras". So, believing that fructose is worse for the liver than alcohol I avoid all fruit and most veggies.
Advice/comments would be appreciated. I don't want to fall off the wagon because I believe HFLC is the way to go. I just believe myself to be damaged beyond belief. I have been overweight ALL of my life since the age of 2. But now I'm giving HFLC a bad name because I've been on it almost a year and lost only the initial 10-12pounds. :-(

My first comment said it wa posted but didn't show up. So here's part 1:

Great post - it is straight to the point. I'm not going around pinching my fat to decide whether it is visceral or not because that isn't the point. For those of you who are obsessing about what is and what isn't visceral, read this:
"Increased visceral fat can be suggested by increased waist circumference"
Another point which is a great one:
"Visceral fat, on the other hand, is metabolically active. It produces large quantities of inflammatory signals[...] Visceral fat is also itself inflamed."

I find that my waist measurement can change overnight or within 2 or 3 days up to 3 inches either way.

I am classed as morbidly obese. I have a BMI of 38. I have terrible insulin resistance (of the liver) and have pre-diabetic blood glucose readings. I have been on HFLC since October 2009 and although I seemed to deflate 10 pounds or so within the first 2 weeks of starting it, I haven't lost a pound since. I think this is because of my insulin resistance of the liver. Just like a diabetic, I get a "morning effect" of high blood sugars without eating anything. After exercise I get the highest blood sugars I've ever got since going HFLC. I know my liver is churning out too much sugar, so I've been trying to eat a tiny amount (5g) of carb every 5 hours to prevent the liver dump, yet eating HF to try and reach ketosis for as many as possible of my waking hours (I find ground nuts, butter and cream, in the form of cakes, is the fastest way to get my into ketosis, but I only ever manage a mild ketone reading although I get the breath sometimes). Every morning I feel groggy, can't wake up and have a terrible morning effect so I think I've been fat burning during the day and then just putting it on again in my sleep, once my liver dumps the sugar, which raises the insulin.
I've been researching for months and I think I need some Metformin drug, but can't have any cos I am in the UK and they only prescribe it for diabetics. I could probably fake it and pass a diabetic test because I have researched, but should I do this? Aside from increased life insurance and the pure morals of it, I would certainly be better off as a diabetic on the NHS as I'd get free BG measuring strips and free kidney and liver tests too.
I'm really struggling now and faking it may seem extreme but I don't know what else to do. I'm so overweight and because everyone knows I am HFLC they think the diet is rubbish because I am not getting any thinner. They see me eating fat and losing no weight and they turn back to their low fat diets thinking I'm a crazy woman.

So if you can grab love handles, then that's visceral fat? Then what about the type of obesity where the belly is round and tight?   You can't grab ANY of that fat, and by all definitions THAT is visceral fat...   They can't be both visceral fat.

Can't remember where I read it but one test for visceral fat is to measure your waist while standing and again while lying on your back.  It the measurements are the same, that's sq fat.  If the measurements are different, that's internal visceral fat moving away from the waist.  

kevin

Here is the most recent treatment of this subject from WebMD:

The Truth About Belly Fat

WebMD can be total garbage, just read what they had to say on the link you provided:

"Can Whole Grains Help You Lose Belly Fat?

A recent study in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition showed that a calorie-controlled diet rich in whole grains trimmed extra fat from the waistline of obese subjects.

Study participants who ate all whole grains (in addition to five servings of fruits and vegetables, three servings of low-fat dairy, and two servings of lean meat, fish, or poultry) lost more weight from the abdominal area than another group that ate the same diet, but with all refined grains.

"Eating a diet rich in whole grains while reducing refined carbohydrates changes the glucose and insulin response and makes it easier to mobilize fat stores," says study researcher Penny Kris-Etherton, PhD, RD, a distinguished professor of nutritional sciences at Penn State University."

--these stooge researchers, never bother to compare a whole grain vs. a NO GRAIN diet, because they know what the outcome will be.

Rats that avoid  fructose also have other healthy habits, so it's hard to be sure why they got skinny.

The changes are evolutionary and ongoing. I started with Jorge Cruise's, Belly Fat Cure, and then decided to look into the underlying causes of my weight loss and came across Good Calories, Bad Calories by Gary Taubes. His book awakened my critical thinking and after stumbling across your site and TYP well, it just dominoed from there. I found resource after resource and incorporated the evidenced based research into my life health plan and it is turning into a rebirth of sorts.

Currently, I am looking into exercise techniques since my body just naturally wants to do more (I didn't do any for the weight loss.) It looks like HIIT or PACE, some cardio, resistance training, and being bare foot as much as possible are now part of the plan.

One interesting thing occurred during my low carb/sugar transition (about the time of wheat elimination), I became very dehydrated. I drank plenty of fluids but it persisted for nearly two weeks. I later learned that my food elimination was acting as a diuretic not only for water but also for sodium. I then tapered myself off my Atenolol (and onto supplements) and now have a baseline BP of 110/75. It was 145/95 on the medication. The rapid heart rates I have been experiencing for the last ten years have completely gone (not sure of the association yet).

Sleep apnea gone, hunger cravings gone, chronic fatigue gone, most back and body aches gone, wow! The dietary principles and supplements when applied properly are very powerful. Through careful evaluation, research and follow up, I am looking forward to applying these principles in my practice.

Your site is amazing.I am very impressed to see this,i want to come back for visiting your site.Keep doing Good as well as you can..

Ha, Peter!  That was funny.
Char

Bling, I have had a similar experience to yours. I've read several of the books and understand the low-carb/high-fat science, but my body refuses to lose weight after the first 10-15 pounds. No matter how low carb I go or how much exercise I do.

Worse, I also have a weird hypoglycemic response to induction. I get extreme hunger and carb cravings when I absolutely should not -- after eating plenty of protein, fat and fiber. I can eat an avocado or nuts or meat and vegetables with butter and still feel like I'm going to pass out from hunger.

It's so frustrating and I'm still looking for a way off this roller coaster.

Kali

"It's so frustrating and I'm still looking for a way off this roller coaster."

Kali, I beat my head (entire physiology really) against low carb diet for 9 long months.  Followed Bernstein's max 6 g carbs for breakfast and 12 g each for lunch and dinner.  Felt constantly more and more tired, irritable, brain fogged.  Mild exercise would leave me exhausted for 2 days...  Finally tried McDougall's diet and it helped but was having high sugar spikes.  Ended up w/ Fuhrman's Eat to Live diet, beans instead of grains. The combo of a bit higher fat that he allows from nuts/seeds and resistant starch in beans and that is working for me. Some bodies I think just do not work well in ketosis or near it for prolonged periods of time.

My local news just profiled a Diabetic who had a stroke.
In their "advice" comments from an RD, she advised that it's okay for him to have....are you ready ?...
Up to 75 grams of Fructose a day.

A Diabetic patient... 75 grams a day of Fructose ?
Do he or his doctors actually understand the grave condition of his health ?
If he listens to them, he might as well buy ownership in a Dialysis Center.

Do the schools that teach and graduate RD's have any clue at all ?
Or are they this corrupted ?

Kellgy--

Fabulous!

Please be sure to come back and update us on your progress.

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If you wanna know more go to the following links :

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OR:

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I'm sure you'll find that information helpful. Just give me your feedback.

Thanks..
Amr.

i have read that non alcoholic fatty liver disease can be reversed by vitamin e supplementation.  

http://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa0907929

Geoffrey - did you eat high fat? Simply cutting out carbs results in undernourishment. Your body will shut down to save it's energy stores. You still need to feed it sufficiently. Watch Gary Taubes' latest videos http://livinlavidalowcarb.com/blog/ims-lecture-with-slides-and-qa-why-we-get-fat-by-gary-taubes/8971

Anon - Atkins is not high protein; it's high fat.

Dr. Amr - Acai Berry = Spam. Actually Spam is much healthier than that juice crap.

"Love handles" are an indicator that you have significant amounts of visceral fat???  I'm a female, with a 26 inch waist and 21% body fat.  Yet, I have love handles.

To my knowledge, the best indicator of visceral fat is a waist circumference.

@Anon - I think you missed the point deary.

Hips are always desirable on a woman but that roll of fat above them that sometimes accompanies them on overweight women may be a marker of the visceral fat problem.

But I agree with you about waist measurement seemingly being a better indicator. "Waist" measurement on a woman is different to a man. One health leaflet I saw was saying that the "waist" meaurement is around the belly button level, which for a woman is obviously wrong.

But take note, when guys have "love handles" it just ain't right.

Give the guy a break! LOL He was trying to post a semi-humorous blog title to get people's attention. If you wrote as many long, detailed and useful posts as this guy (or had half the readership he does) maybe you'd try out an almost funny title now and again.

Joker. hahaha

Thanks for the info, I really enjoy reading it!

Such a very nice post.........

@bighippedlady

Mine are definitely above the hips.  Trust me, it's not attractive.  I just don't see how this subcutaneous fat is indicative of visceral fat on someone like me.

@Anon what is "someone like me"?

Let's not forget correlation is not causality. The big deal about abdominal fat (whether it be around the true waist or around the belly button - just around that area) is that's the first palce weight goes when you have insulin problems (usually caused by blood sugars).

If you have a bit you can pinch then don't worry about it, but when it gets bigger and bigger really easily (10 month pregnant look as hyper lipid calls it on men) that's when you have a blood sugar/insulin problem.

They have found visceral fat and other problems are "indicated" by increased in waist measurement probably because it is all a marker of insulin resistance and a trip down type 2 road eventually.

So forget about pinching this fat or that fat on your body and assessing whether your flab's attractive or not. If you are overweight, mainly around the belly area, then get your blood sugar checked. And when the doctor says is "fine, nothing to worry about", don't believe him until you have seen the numbers yourself.

Better still, get a blood sugar monitor (very cheap) some pure glucose (from the chemist or the baking aisle in the supermarket) and conduct your own mini glucose tolerance test, starting from fasting and then measuring every 15mins after consuming 50g of pure glucose. Do some googling and you'll soon see if you are normal.

This is the stuff that counts. Do it and save your life. If there is anything remotely higher than normal about your glucose tolerance test then read Jenny's sites blooodsugar101 and get a good book like diabetes diet by Bernstein. Go low carb. Monitor your glucose tolerance at intervals. Watch out for your liver giving you a morning effect or a blood sugar dump which may mess up your figures.

Do note that if you are already low carb you will get a truer reading if you carb up for a few days before taking the test.

Also note that if you are severely overweight you will probably pass the test for "insulin resistance". Your doctor won't care about it and continue to call your "normal" unless your blood sugars reach the lofty heights of official diabetics. But acting sooner rather than later (i.e. by avoiding carbs) can prevent you from developing type 2 and essentially cure your insulin resistance. This is the basis of what low carb diets do and why you loose weight.

I went off on one. Praise the Lord for low carb.

Very interesting. Thanks for posting!

I absolutely had no idea that visceral fat is that dangerous! You see, after giving birth to my youngest, I have had no restrictions on my food intake hence, my weight doubled. Tomorrow, I'm definitely going to consult with my doctor about having laser liposuction. Los Angeles, where most cosmetic surgery centers are located, luckily, is only a few miles away from my house. Anyway, after all that is done, I'm probably going to need to remove the excess skin through tummy tuck. Los Angeles and other cities need to help people with obesity and weight problems.

Well Terry, I take it that after giving birth you've had many sleepless nights taking care of the baby. In my case, that was the aftermath of my last child birth. I just opted for blepharoplasty. Florida seems to be the happening place for that kind of surgery at that time, so I asked my husband to accompany me there.

But going back to the topic, what concerns me here is the fructose part. I'm an avid cola drinker, and it looks like I'm gonna have to change my lifestyle.

We can't eliminate starch amd wheat thus carbohydrates !

I think we are allowed to eat 150 grams of carbs a day . SO !!! We can eat starch and wheat after all.


I think eating more than 150 grams of carbs a day it raises insulin and then we come to the conlculsions about visceral fat.

I am having trouble with these "love handles" The rest of me looks great. I am now back on the ground chicken and veggie diet with a side of crazy cardio!