planning my own experiment

jem51 · planning my own experiment

i decided to try a week of increased fat and vlc just to see if a woman like myself, would gain. my plan is to stay w/in my calorie range, eat about 80% fat and maybe 5 carbs. the rest of course protein. i do not want to increase my protein but stay at the lower end of my needs in order to not gain from too much protein. my focus here is fat. i made up a couple menus just to see...and realized how difficult it is for me to up fat w/o upping protein. i do not want to spend the week w indigestion, so may have to do smaller, more frequent meals. my plan is to start when my produce is gone, for the most part. this will truly be a challenge since i love vegies and make dinner plate salads daily. love them!! but a week is nothing and if it's going well, i may do more. as it is, i do not eat low fat. but this'll be a definite higher fat each day. i think that sunday may be the start as i sadly see my produce dwindling. that alone is causing me anxiety. but i am determined!!

ghost72

Good luck, it will be interesting to see the results a woman might have with this type of experiment. Jeff's experiment is interesting, but not be typical of all people. I've found when I overeat zero carb foods I gain weight although I didn't track my protein levels, they might have been too high. I wonder though if its the amount of protein that is important or the protein/fat ratio?

Red

Um,

I'm a woman and I did the same experiment...

No weight gain here. Protein does matter - for me anyway. I didn't exceed 80 or so grams and excess calories came from fat, not protein.

Jessica

Hi Red!

Do you have a journal of what you ate/etc?

I'm just curious, would love to see it! Sounds extremely interesting! Grin

jem51

red, that's what i'm thinking. i could never lose on atkins and even though i didn't pig out on protein, i think that it was the reason. when i decreased protein, i lost those annoying extra pounds. now i will be starting from around goal. so it'll be interesting. i don't want to eat less than 80% fat. i'm thinking about ways to increase it w/o having to eat totally greasy food. i'm starting to see brie, sour cream and cream as playing a role in this. do you have a post about it? i probably won't find st. andre brie on fit day....

Red

All my posts about my experiment are here:
http://magicbus.myfreeforum.org/ftopic813-0.php

jeff

Yayyyy!!! An experiment not involving me. LOL

Good luck, Jem.

jem51

looks like sunday will be the first day. i've been rummaging through my freezer for some fatty cuts. i get grass fed beef by the side each year so no worries. but some cuts can be pretty lean. the burger is a bit leaner than chuck but i am a burger lover and will do what it takes to bring up the fat. i noticed that there was a discussion about eggnog on one of the other challenges and i was wondering if anyone sweetened it. i am a stevia user but hadn't planned it. not many opportunities. anyway, i did factor in the possility of 1/2 avocado/day if i want. also the possibility of fresh garlic. i will continue w juice of 1/2 lemon in my water. black coffee, (i refuse to ruin my freshly ground brew w coconut oil, yuk). and i will allow myself a 4 oz glass of red wine. the only thing that's a given is the coffee. we'll see what happens after a week. i will weigh at the beginning then not again for a week. i don't want to start obsessing about fluctuations. mmm, i just found a beautiful package of short ribs. i'll pop em in the crock pot tomorrow.

Jessica

Vesna

jeff

jem51

wow, vesna that is cool. well, here i go. i weigh 121 this morning.

jem51

well i had a completely miserable first day. i had a couple eggs w cream cheese cooked in a couple teaspoons of butter and got heartburn that would just not go away. i didn't eat again til dinner so i guess it turned into calorie restriction. i drained the juice from the short ribs and skimmed it. i will use the fat for cooking but i just could not face heartburn all night as well. this has been a problem since i developed it as a vegetarian. getting away from sugar/starch cured my vegetarian induced IBS but the heartburn has persisted. i already know that the fattier the meal the worse it will be. i was so excited about doing an experiment that i forgot. i don't eat low fat at all but in excess, it kills me. i usually drink smoothies for breakfast made w cream cheese and full fat yogurt. funny thing is that dairy does not cause this....unless i eat too much cheese. so i wonder if i use cream and cream cheese whipped up in the morning, if that would be okay. i don't want to give up so will try it tomorrow. right now i don't even want to think about food.

Dean

Jem,

You could just go on an elimination diet, and get rid of the bacteria that are causing this heartburn. You have to kill off the bacteria, by starving them. You are eating foods that are keeping those colonies alive. Once you get your gut bacteria in line, you will lose that heartburn, trust me. Yup

jem51

yes, i've done everything except complete water fasting. tried IF, naturopathic cures such as herbs, ACV, homemade kefir, etc. i think straight water fasting is probably next since strict lc and paleo are elimination diets. have done enough time w each to make some difference, i think. well, to water fast, i will have to wear a straight jacket. i swore after the '80's that i would never fast again. never say never, huh?

Dean

Hey, I know what heartburn is. I get MAJOR heartburn now, if I do excess carbs. My gut bacteria is geared more to zero carb carnivore eating. If I stray, I pay. Wink

Jaime

Vesna

Good luck, Jem! Keep us posted. Well, there's another thing we have in common. I'm also down on water fasting after my experiences in the '80s. Be careful. I don't know about you, but water fasting was a large contributor to my becoming obese back then. I wouldn't lose during the fasts (even the 21-day-long one), but I would gain thereafter.

The very word "fast" gives me the willies. I got in trouble on LCF for criticizing Intermittent Fasting. I didn't realize that the term was being tossed around loosely to describe, basically, skipping meals. And every time I see the phrase "meat and egg fast," I have to laugh, or at least knit my brows in puzzlement, because it seems so totally oxymoronic!

jem51

good morning. vesna, that's the exact response i have to fasting. i also did extensive. my stepdad did a 30 day juice fast way back then, mainly for his BP, and lost like one #. he had a pretty big gut too. there's way too much sugar in that plan. and dean, i appreciate your help and am pretty determined to figure it out. but i don't have to stray to get heartburn. i eat clean for months and months and still get it. i have tried to monitor what causes it the most. large amts of animal fat (real fatty cuts) and too much cooking fat. also things w tomato sauce. the thing about the fat is; if something i prepare does not have enough fat, i give it a good splash of olive oil....no problem. i also usually scramble eggs in a mix of butter and olive oil...again no problem. i know there are plenty of peops here that don't like olive oil but i am not one of them, yet. and i said it before, i don't want to start obsessing since i have a history of some very disordered eating. so that being said, i'd love to hear what has worked for peops w this problem. keep in mind, i already am w/o sugar/starch and processed foods. my last thing was protein powder and it's been put in the road trip bag and will only be consumed in case of nothing else. when that can is gone, no more.

Jessica

FWIW, I get heartburn from mayonaise. Not sure why. It's probably evil, lol.

Kim

Dean

jem51

i am so disappointed that after my visit to fitday, that my fat only came to 64%! i kept going over the numbers and quantities but to no avail. even w/o going into detail about quantity, here are things i included; brie, cream cheese, deviled egg, sour cream, tallow. i did have a c of full fat yogurt but you wouldn't think that would make that much of a difference. i had a glass of red wine and two cups of coffee as well. i did however try cooking liver similar to a method that came from this board; sauteed mushrooms and garlic in tallow. then the liver. then mixed in some sour cream. it was really good. i don't know if i'll ever love liver but i could do it again. when i get my beef i always ask the butcher for all the stuff no one else wants...so this year i got maybe a dozen packs of liver. mostly it's for my pal, lucy. well, the night is not totally over so i could still whip up some cream for dessert.

Vesna

Jem,

In advance, let me note that I'm aware that what follows might be completely irrelevant to your case. But, just in case it is relevant and might be helpful, here goes.

It's possible for GERD to be hormonal. It can respond to certain medications.

My experience with debilitating heartburn and GERD was during pregnancy. It was horrible for months. My practitioner and I both were inclined towards natural remedies, so beneficial bacteria and so forth, eliminating whatever yeastie beasties or whatever might be involved was the tack I took for a long time. I downed tons of high-grade acidophilus, for instance. Then we started medications. I worked my way up from Rolaids, which did absolutely nothing, through every nonprescription medication possible.

It was getting to be a serious issue, because even a few sips of water would cause excruciating pain. I couldn't eat. Wasn't gaining weight.

We worked our way up through increasingly strong and/or expensive prescription medications until finally we tried something that was astoundingly expensive. (Fortunately, I had no out-of-pocket obligation.) It was absolutely the only thing that worked, and it worked instantly.

Then I had the baby. (Giving birth triggers huge hormonal changes, big enough to result in lactation and all that stuff.) Instantly, the GERD was gone, never to return.

My point is that your heartburn is not necessarily caused by toxic gases or bacteria or whatever. It could be some other kind of chemical imbalance that can be treated with medication. Perhaps a visit to a smart GI doc is in order.

Also wanted to be sure that you know that chronic acid reflux can lead to esophageal cancer. The way it works is this: Lots of acid in the esophagus (which is not equipped to ever have any acid in it; hence the burning pain) leads to the formation of cells in the esophagus that are actually stomach lining cells. It's sort of a way for the esophagus to protect itself from being burned alive by all that stomach acid. But stomach lining cells don't belong in the esophagus, and so eventually they can go haywire and become cancerous. That's how I remember it from when I was reading all about it four years ago, anyway.

So my other point is, this chronic heartburn thing is really, really serious, potentially life-threatening, and I encourage you to explore every possible avenue for remedying this condition, including the allopathic and pharmaceutical. Best wishes.

jem51

i figured out the problem! i hit the wrong line on fit day and it turned my yogurt into frozen yogurt. way more carbs so skewed the ratios. i also remembered the 1/2 T coconut oil in green tea. now i am at 70%. my goal is 80% for my experiment. we'll see. my norm is betw 60-70 which i fall into w/o blinking. since it's easy and i don't have to think about it, i'm sure i will go back to it after this week. that amt is also very satisfying.

Heather L

Jem- Good luck with your experiment. Using fitday was confusing for me at first, but it is getting easier.

jem51

thanks vesna, i have done many things including pharma. eent checked out my throat and said it looked fine. considered that it might be that the sphincter was not completely functional and causing me to feel more than actually is there. interesting. and that might be the reason that acifex and nexium did not work. anyway it is annoying, still. also had endos which showed nada. and i know about the cancer...cells can only heal themselves so many times before they began to mutate. i think this next visit my md will send me to a different GI. it'd be nice to be able to get comfortable eating something other than yogurt and cream cheese. not that it's all i eat but i put off eating meat/protein til later in the day. okay so back to the expirement; fats been staying around 80. added some coconut oil to keep it up there. i don't feel that my weight is different but will know for sure on sunday. bye for now.

jem51

today is the last of the week and i may take it a step further. i have learned so much this past 7 days. it took me several days to increase fat to >80 and now i think i'll stay w that (maybe more, who knows?) and see where it takes me. you may have read my post that talked about heartburn. well, now i'm wondering if it is more about the protein OR the fat. so i will work to limit protein in the next week...to my minimum requirements...which is 50 something. it is easy to get protein, too much. i am planning to eliminate egg whites for one. those deviled eggs i've been enjoying will be yolks only. i have cream, cream cheese, brie, bacon and a fatty roast. and of course butter, tallow, etc. this is good.

jem51

i just don't believe fitday. i ate more fat than usual and it has me at 73%..6%carbs, 18%protein. i know st andre brie is higher fat than most brie but even so. i ate bacon, CO/PB bark, brie, turkey slathered w mayo, a salad w dressing, burger cooked in bacon drippings w mushrooms and sour cream. i had planned to have some cream which would change things but we'll see. i'm full. the calories make it look like i ate more fat....anyway, i plan to lose the PB in the bark which would get rid of any nut fiber and the turkey had not fat hence the mayo. i wouldn't have had it but it is around so....it is actually kettle fried which increases the fat but it's still pretty low. oh, i also had a latte w whole milk. tomorrow's a new day and i will keep this up. my salad was small so i feel pretty good about my reduction in vegies for this. don't have to many on hand.

Heather L

Jem- Don't feel bad about the percentages. You are so close. You are doing an excellent job. It is almost impossible to get it all perfect every day. Hang in there.

Vesna

Jem,

Well, the week is completed. How do you feel? Heartburn any better? How about the thing you were testing for: whether you would gain weight or not?

Are you thinking about going another week now that you have gotten the hang of attaining 80% fat?

I was going to point to the turkey for the high protein, but you beat me to it.

In Jeff's experiment thread, he said he drank cream, sometimes with coffee and sometimes with egg, to get the fat intake up. It's harder than it looks to do 80% fat! I fully expected to have numbers over 80, and instead they're coming out around 75.

You could post your public fitday URL, if you're so inclined, as I have for my experiment.

jem51

i did end up making a little dessert from cream and cream cheese. that got the fat up to 76%. my weight is basically the same,121. my calories have been betw 19 and 2200 which is quite a bit different. i will forge ahead since i've just gotten the hang of this. that week turned out to be just practice!!

jeff