Good to be here!

m1sty

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Dec 27, 2013
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Hi guys,

My name is Michael, I'm a 28yo fit guy, into sports and weight lifting.

Happy to be part of this forum and I'm glad I found it.

A bit of background about how I got here. (its longer than I thought it would be).

About October last year I came across Tim Ferris' 4 hour body book and decided to give his "slow carb diet" a go as it looked pretty easy to follow. Summarising this diet, it is basically legumes, with some form of protein (muscle meat, eggs, fish) and vegetables. This is to be eaten 4 times a day (every 4-5 hours) with one free day a week to eat whatever you want, guilt free.

I experienced great results with this diet and I loved it. I thought I was onto something awesome. My bodyfat was getting into the single digits fast and I was putting on muscle. I thought this diet was convenient and one I could easily stick to. Canned beans, microwaveable vegetables and meat I had cooked the day before or a big can of tuna. I'd sometimes throw nuts in for a snack or avocado (All these foods I now realise Ray Peat isn't a fan of). People were commenting on how fit I was looking and I thought I'd be sticking to this diet for a long, long time.

However, after about 2-3 months. A friend made a few comments about my hair receding. Not sure what I was really looking at so, I didn't think much of it, and forgot about it. Then someone else made a comment about my hair, so I started getting a little bit paranoid but thought they were just messing with me. I still had a whole lot of hair, however I had realised my hair was a whole lot harder to style as of late. I still didn't think much of it.. Until a few weeks later I thought I would put the myths about my hair thinning behind me and I asked the hairdresser about my hair. Thinking she would say all is good, her response was "well your hair is thinner at the back and top compared to the sides... Awesome... I was semi shocked.. Can't be happening? my dad is 60 with a perfect head of hair. Why all of a sudden has my hair noticeably become thin. My Grandfathers didn't go bald this early either. As soon as i got home, I checked out my hair in the mirror that night and did notice the hairline being sparse, This confirmed it, everyone was telling the truth.

I still didn't care too much as I thought I'd be able to just start taking Propecia which a few of my mates were taking. However after some research I found this wasn't a possibility for me (I had past pubertal gyno which was removed with surgery in 2012). It seemed by the information on the internet, if i took Propecia it was pretty much guaranteed my gyno would return, my surgeon said the same thing and there was a high chance of sexual side effects. This is when i felt powerless and it wont be long until my hair is gone.

Additionally, there were also a few other symptoms I noticed when on this diet, for example thin watery semen. Anyway maybe too much info. but it seems like this diet was messing with my hormones.

I just felt, and hopefully I'm right that everything was very odd and there was more to my hair thinning than just "genetics". I spent the last year trying to find a solution besides Finasteride and it seemed like there was nothing and i hate visiting the hair loss forums.. a lot of depressing miserable lads over there:)

Only recently i decided to search on low carb diets and hair loss (i was still on and off on the slow carb diet up until 2 months ago) and found a fair few people on low carb diets (Atkins, Paleo etc) were experiencing similar symptoms and this is when I came across Danny Roddy which has led me here.

The work of Danny and Peat has made a whole lot of sense to me and my experience and I'm ready to give these eating recommendation a crack.. I have to thank both Ray and Danny. Even if this eating plan doesn't work for me, I like reading of Peat's work and I like the approach Danny has taken to MPB. Although it may not be perfect yet I really feel he is onto something.

I've been slowly incorporating the suggestions into my daily diet, (never really eaten much of these foods besides eggs and carrots so i will slowly introduce them) and when i get a bit more settled with my living situation I will pretty much be full peat. Still got a bit of reading and understanding to do, but it seems from what I've read it can easily fit into my life and also my fitness goals.

I plan on doing 4 meals a day of the food recommendations, eating every 4-5 hours. I will add an 400 extra calories on workout days through potatoes.. Will post my diet when i have it sorted.

Anyway, If you actually read this. Thank you

And see you around.

Michael.
 

Mephisto

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Joined
Feb 10, 2013
Messages
96
Welcome! Low carb resulted in some hair loss for me too.

You might want to eat every 3-4 hours rather than 4-5 to help your hormones balance, at least at first. Even if it's just something small.
 

charlie

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Micheal, welcome. :welcome

The negative process can be turned around fairly quickly but then it takes some time for the results to start showing up.

Like Himitsu said for optimal healing you want to have shorter times between feedings. On days I want to really get down to the nitty gritty I will make sure to have something every hour even if its only milk and sugar. This keeps the liver going so that it can do what it needs to do.
 
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m1sty

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Dec 27, 2013
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Thanks the advice guys. Will definitely make sure i,'m eating with shorter time periods between meals. Makes sense.

What's the verdict here about having a day or meal where you can just eat whatever you want?
 
J

j.

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m1sty said:
What's the verdict here about having a day or meal where you can just eat whatever you want?

A day probably isn't too bad. Sometimes one has to do for convenience, being busy.
 

charlie

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m1sty said:
What's the verdict here about having a day or meal where you can just eat whatever you want?
For me it basically comes down to if I want to take the metabolic hit or not. If I throw it all out the window and eat whatever I want for the evening. It definitely shows up. I treated myself to some gluten :roll: over the holidays and wow what a disaster that was.
 

jyb

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m1sty said:
What's the verdict here about having a day or meal where you can just eat whatever you want?

You could do it intelligently by only allowing that when your thyroid function and digestion is good (mood and temperature), in which case you are less likely to notice a difference. Conversely, if I already have hypo symptoms then the equilibrium is fragile and deviating from careful foods is a big deal.
 
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m1sty

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Dec 27, 2013
Messages
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ok cool. Will keep that in mind, thank you.

I've just entered my new eating plan into myfitness pal, and compared it to my old "slow carb" eating plan.

I'm quite disgusted at myself with my old eating plan and for doing it for so long. I was only eating just over 1500 calories a day of these foods that peat isn't a fan of (legumes, meat/tuna and vege) and only 20 grams of that was sugar, zero fruit, only a few bananas after the gym.
My job is fairly physical, I train Krav maga, 90 minutes, once a week, do 3 full body weights workouts 3x a week and was training and completed a 100km charity event during this time. not smart.... i've got enough knowledge to know that i was under eating and i shouldn't have done this.

Anyway, moving on :)
 

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