About four years ago, I was doing really well--I was lifting weights, riding my bike 100km a week, all after being a fairly obese child/young adult---I lost the weight in first year University using what seems now like a fairly Peatish diet---lots of sugar, almost no vegetables, lots of caffeine, etc. It melted off quite in line with the calorie tracking I did, 3500 calories to a pound of fat. I had nice graphs showing my progress.
Unfortunately, I had no real idea what I was doing and ended up with a girlfriend in University---great work, right? Well, she ate a very poor diet rich in processed foods and oils. I ate a lot when I was an obese young man, but it was mostly white rice and low-fat meats. We did not really eat salad with dressings, we did not really use much oil at all---if I had any fat, it was butter on rice, much to the horror of some of my Chinese friends from public school. Anyway, I regained much of the weight I had lost and yo-yoed around; what had worked in first year just did not seem to work anymore.
So, anyway, about four years ago, doing well on a low carbohydrate diet, losing weight, exercising, I decided for reasons that remain opaque to me to start eating a few tablespoons of hemp oil a day; as I recall, I was worried that I was "deficient" in PUFA, tho, really, if I was deficient in anything it was phosphorus from eating a diet w/o dairy and w/o sufficient protein. Since that time, I have gained about 80 lbs, suffered from chronic aches and pains and have generally felt like a well-reamed a**hole. And it being difficult with N=1 to determine what, if anything is the problem (my brother had died suddenly of an aneurysm right around this time, so I just did not think straight for a while, and my MD was quite ready to tell me that "depression" can cause aches/pains...)
Out of desperation, I decided to go to a nutritionist who decided that I could benefit from 2 tbsp flax oil a day. I tried that, and I did seem to lose weight, but I developed a very worrysome symptom: tingling in my tongue and fingers. My MD was pleased with my weight loss and suggested it was probably just hyperventilation; I was blowing off too much CO2. Now it seems to me that it could be, from what I have read, that I was not producing enough CO2. This has persisted, along with a low body temperature. My thyroid, per TSH, is within range, and on a lark, the past couple of days, I quit my normal intake of delicious canola oil mayo, and, sure enough, my temperature has risen by a half degree. My legs/torso feel warm to the touch where for the last year or so they have not---all with a couple of days not taking in the PUFA.
My problem is that if I eat carbohydrates, I really like eating carbohydrates. That's why I switched to a low carb mod. protein high fat diet---I found it much easier to control my intake. However, a couple of years of this has had me gaining weight, even if I scrupulously count my calories and eat less than my supposed BMR---but given my low body temperature, it seems this is likely reduced.
So, is there hope for eating a mod. protein, low carb, high fat diet if I get the fat from non-PUFA sources like coconut oil? While there may be concerns about burning PUFA released from fat stores, would it not be better to get it out of the way as quickly as possible, by burning fat as the main fuel source? Sorry if this is verbose, my academic background is in the arts, not the sciences...stupid artsie, I guess =]
Unfortunately, I had no real idea what I was doing and ended up with a girlfriend in University---great work, right? Well, she ate a very poor diet rich in processed foods and oils. I ate a lot when I was an obese young man, but it was mostly white rice and low-fat meats. We did not really eat salad with dressings, we did not really use much oil at all---if I had any fat, it was butter on rice, much to the horror of some of my Chinese friends from public school. Anyway, I regained much of the weight I had lost and yo-yoed around; what had worked in first year just did not seem to work anymore.
So, anyway, about four years ago, doing well on a low carbohydrate diet, losing weight, exercising, I decided for reasons that remain opaque to me to start eating a few tablespoons of hemp oil a day; as I recall, I was worried that I was "deficient" in PUFA, tho, really, if I was deficient in anything it was phosphorus from eating a diet w/o dairy and w/o sufficient protein. Since that time, I have gained about 80 lbs, suffered from chronic aches and pains and have generally felt like a well-reamed a**hole. And it being difficult with N=1 to determine what, if anything is the problem (my brother had died suddenly of an aneurysm right around this time, so I just did not think straight for a while, and my MD was quite ready to tell me that "depression" can cause aches/pains...)
Out of desperation, I decided to go to a nutritionist who decided that I could benefit from 2 tbsp flax oil a day. I tried that, and I did seem to lose weight, but I developed a very worrysome symptom: tingling in my tongue and fingers. My MD was pleased with my weight loss and suggested it was probably just hyperventilation; I was blowing off too much CO2. Now it seems to me that it could be, from what I have read, that I was not producing enough CO2. This has persisted, along with a low body temperature. My thyroid, per TSH, is within range, and on a lark, the past couple of days, I quit my normal intake of delicious canola oil mayo, and, sure enough, my temperature has risen by a half degree. My legs/torso feel warm to the touch where for the last year or so they have not---all with a couple of days not taking in the PUFA.
My problem is that if I eat carbohydrates, I really like eating carbohydrates. That's why I switched to a low carb mod. protein high fat diet---I found it much easier to control my intake. However, a couple of years of this has had me gaining weight, even if I scrupulously count my calories and eat less than my supposed BMR---but given my low body temperature, it seems this is likely reduced.
So, is there hope for eating a mod. protein, low carb, high fat diet if I get the fat from non-PUFA sources like coconut oil? While there may be concerns about burning PUFA released from fat stores, would it not be better to get it out of the way as quickly as possible, by burning fat as the main fuel source? Sorry if this is verbose, my academic background is in the arts, not the sciences...stupid artsie, I guess =]
