EFA Deficiency Achievable In 2 Weeks On Fat Free Diet

superhuman

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thebigpeatowski: thank you for sharing and congrats on your results.

I have been doing low fat/no fat myself and it for sure is really really good. I did include starches like bread etc so just white sourdough breat that was baked with no oils etc. I also get fat under 10g, i did it for 6 months. The only struggle i had was that it was hard for me to restrict calories, i ended up eating so much.
 

Velve921

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Bigpeatowski and Superhuman, I'm amazed you both can go such low fat! No joke, if I drop under 100grams of fat a day I'm messed up! Urinating non stop, can't sleep, dying for food all day, low energy, etc... These are not good signs obviously, but I'm wondering if sucking it up for 2 weeks and going no fat then re feeding with all saturated fat and low PUFA after can eventually have good metabolic effects?
 
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thebigpeatowski: thank you for sharing and congrats on your results.
I have been doing low fat/no fat myself and it for sure is really really good. I did include starches like bread etc so just white sourdough breat that was baked with no oils etc. I also get fat under 10g, i did it for 6 months. The only struggle i had was that it was hard for me to restrict calories, i ended up eating so much.


Thanks superhuman.....are you doing this to lose body fat?

I'm guessing you are much younger than me and perhaps male? My apologies if I got that wrong, I lose track of peeps on here.

Do you take thyroid meds?

I only cut starch at the time because I had severe gut issues and most starch is pretty empty as far a nutrients go.

One other thing I did was take massive amounts of raw garlic and really upped my dose of vitamin A, both made a huge difference.
 
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Bigpeatowski and Superhuman, I'm amazed you both can go such low fat! No joke, if I drop under 100grams of fat a day I'm messed up! Urinating non stop, can't sleep, dying for food all day, low energy, etc... These are not good signs obviously, but I'm wondering if sucking it up for 2 weeks and going no fat then re feeding with all saturated fat and low PUFA after can eventually have good metabolic effects?


If I were you I would just eat a LOT of coconut oil, every day.
 

Peata

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Thanks superhuman.....are you doing this to lose body fat?

I'm guessing you are much younger than me and perhaps male? My apologies if I got that wrong, I lose track of peeps on here.

Do you take thyroid meds?

I only cut starch at the time because I had severe gut issues and most starch is pretty empty as far a nutrients go.

One other thing I did was take massive amounts of raw garlic and really upped my dose of vitamin A, both made a huge difference.
How much vitamin A? I'm taking 15,000 iu.
 
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I take 30,000 I.U. a day when I eat something with fat for better absorption...it sure seems like a lot, but this dose has made a world of difference for me in terms of gut healing, helping my thyroid and keeping my skin clear.
 

Peata

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I take 30,000 I.U. a day when I eat something with fat for better absorption...it sure seems like a lot, but this dose has made a world of difference for me in terms of gut healing, helping my thyroid and keeping my skin clear.

Awesome, I might as well try it.
 
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Cool, if you're having any skin issues you'll see a difference fairly quickly, within days.

I struggled with acne for decades and as I've gotten older I developed huge cysts that left horrible scars. I haven't had a problem since I went to this higher dose. Also, I happen to like this brand much better than NutriSorb A.

Carlson Vitamin A Palmitate 15,000 IU 240 Sgels - Swanson Health Products

I think it's helping my eyesight too, I no longer have problems while driving at night.
 

Peata

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Cool, if you're having any skin issues you'll see a difference fairly quickly, within days.

I struggled with acne for decades and as I've gotten older I developed huge cysts that left horrible scars. I haven't had a problem since I went to this higher dose. Also, I happen to like this brand much better than NutriSorb A.

Carlson Vitamin A Palmitate 15,000 IU 240 Sgels - Swanson Health Products

I think it's helping my eyesight too, I no longer have problems while driving at night.

Ha, that's the same one I have.

I can tell the Vitamin E has helped a lot. I'll let you know how I get along with the Vitamin A.

Thanks.
 
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Awesome! I was kinda bummed that I bought so much NutriSorb A (a huge waste of $$$, cuz I purchased it in bulk). Carlson's stuff is sooo much better. I haven't had any toxicity issues with 30,000 I.U. of vit. A, so I hope you find it helpful too.

I read somewhere (can't recall where) that some people need more vitamin A, especially for thyroid health.

I can't live without the Gamma E either...
 

tomisonbottom

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Hi superhuman,

I ate a lot of shrimp, scallops, Fage 0% fat free yogurt, frozen fruit smoothies, gelatin, lotsa coffee with 1% milk, lotsa salt, spices and lemon juice squeezed for flavor, well cooked greens, cucumbers tomatoes, low fat cottage cheese, grapes, OJ, fat free beef jerky, lotsa B vitamins, Jarlsberg 50% reduced fat Swiss cheese, steamed asparagus, oysters, liver & onions once a week, poached cod....surely I'm forgetting something. At any rate, NO butter, very limited eggs. NO starch, just fruit and vegetables.

I was very strict for 6 weeks at a time and then I took a break for a few weeks and then repeated it, always keeping fat well under 20 grams per day, often under 10 grams. If I had a social event then I took one cheat meal. If the fat cravings became unbearable then I would take a cheat meal and eat high fat for that one meal, but never more than once a week. I always made sure to get more calcium than phosphorous.

I did this over the course of one summer, not sure I'd try it during the cold and dark of winter. I used thyroid medication and often saved OJ and low fat Swiss cheese for a bedtime snack. Calories varied from day to day, some days were quite low and other days I was more hungry so I ate more. I didn't do any exercise at the time....I'm pretty sure I shared all of this somewhere on the forum, but I cannot remember where.

My completely non-expert opinion is that each person needs to do whatever works for them. My diet prior to finding Peat included truly massive amounts of PUFA and I was miserable with wicked symptoms of estrogen dominance. What worked for me, may not work for you. I won't lie, it was NOT EASY. I was hungry at times. I had moments of pretty intense fat cravings and by the end of it I had come to despise fat free Greek yogurt, lol.

This is great. Do you recall noticing weight loss within the first 6 weeks? If so, how soon?
 
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This is great. Do you recall noticing weight loss within the first 6 weeks? If so, how soon?

Hi tomisonbottom...yes, I lost weight immediately after I began a week-long gut cleanse with TONS of raw garlic. So, I started the diet and did the raw garlic at the same time. I noticed the fat falling off after the garlic Shock & Awe, I guess it was at the two week mark or so....this was done over late spring/summer almost two years ago, so I don't recall exactly.

I kept myself in a caloric deficit due to a lack of fat and starch, some days were a deeper deficit than other days. Quite strict for 6 weeks, then a break. Wash, Rinse, Repeat. If I had a social engagement then I allowed myself ONE cheat meal where I could eat like a "normal" person for that one meal and then I returned immediately to my diet.

I should mention here that I did this crash diet to resolve SEVERAL serious health issues that were caused/exacerbated by my excess body fat, such as: hypertension, hyperglycemia (technically diabetic), hyperlipidemia, massive estrogen symptoms (including a breast lump) and sluggish (probably fatty) liver/pancreas. It was a way to reduce PUFA and force glucose oxidation...at least that was my theory. And it worked quite well.

I'm a very short woman, 5'2" and 49 years old.....your mileage may vary:rolleyes:
 
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I've been trying this lately.


2 eggs a day

Fage fat free yogurt

Fruit compote

Lots of sugar

Some starch

gelatin, some completely lean meat or shrimp or fish, niacinamide, taurine, thiamine, eggshell Ca, Mg

K2 or E (mixed gamma tocopherols)

I feel a little achey. I suppose that's natural.

I'm taking a mg or two of methylene blue which seems to help my mood, and the occasional couple of aspirin.
 

Strongbad

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I did almost fat-free diet for about 2+ months last year, around September to early December. Managed to loose about 10lbs from 192lbs to 182lbs.

Gotta admit, though it wasn't easy. I craved for fat during those months.
 

shepherdgirl

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Does anyone know if this kind of rapid depletion of PUFA is actually burning it off (since there is less saturated fat available) or safely disposing of it? Wouldn't it kind of force fat-burning cells to rely more on PUFA? Wouldn't the slower "4 year" depletion cause less damage? If E, aspirin, etc. are taken would it still result in a rapid PUFA depletion or only shed body fat?
 

shepherdgirl

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Yes, and saturated body fat as well, right? But the ratio of sat fat to pufa would be lower when dietary fat is cut (since peatarians avoid pufa like the plague, it makes sense that their pre-Peat pufa percentage predominates ;). So i am thinking that a lower sat fat ratio would be less protective, and more pufa would be burned. If this is not the case, and pufa is eliminated safely with this diet, then what is the mechanism? Why would a no fat diet allow more pufa to be safely eliminated than a standard Peat diet?
 

shepherdgirl

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what i mean is: suppose you're trying to get rid of stored PUFA, so you go on this VLF depletion diet while inhibiting FFA oxidation by eating lots of sugar and taking vitamin E. Suppose this diet results in a good amount of stored fat (including PUFA) loss, apparently a common result.
How can you be sure that the stored PUFA you got rid of on this diet was eliminated safely and not burned for fuel? If you were inhibiting fatty acid oxidation, why did this diet result in so much fat loss? Theoretically you would always be burning glucose and preventing most fat oxidation, right? Isn't this "depletion" diet just burning off your fat stores in reality?
 

Orion

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what i mean is: suppose you're trying to get rid of stored PUFA, so you go on this VLF depletion diet while inhibiting FFA oxidation by eating lots of sugar and taking vitamin E. Suppose this diet results in a good amount of stored fat (including PUFA) loss, apparently a common result.
How can you be sure that the stored PUFA you got rid of on this diet was eliminated safely and not burned for fuel? If you were inhibiting fatty acid oxidation, why did this diet result in so much fat loss? Theoretically you would always be burning glucose and preventing most fat oxidation, right? Isn't this "depletion" diet just burning off your fat stores in reality?

I think the goal is excretion as opposed to burning off PUFA. NO fat coming in, means SFA is used for energy, as PUFA is excreted the metabolism ramps up, moving away from fat oxidation to sugar oxidation. PUFA is nasty stuff, as liver is energized you will pee out the PUFA.
 

shepherdgirl

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I truly hope it works that way, Orion. What you said about the switch to sugar oxidation once you offload stored PUFAs was very helpful for me. But what about before you restore sugar metabolism - how can you selectively burn off your sat fat stores while harmlessly excreting the accumulated PUFA? Do I understand the Randle cycle correctly - does it refer to the competitive metabolism of glucose versus fat(any type), or does it refer to the competitive metabolism of glucose versus PUFA only?
 

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