Personal Fat Threshold Theory

[Greyfox]

@fractal, yes it’s truly fantastic material indeed! I was able cut my visceral fat in half doing the DDF challenge. I think I’m one of the unfortunate types that stores more fat in my viscera and organs than subcutaneously which explains why my blood markers start trending in the wrong direction if I go above a certain body fat percentage. At least I know and also know what to do about it! I’m glad another person here reads that blog.

Doesn't stress and vitamin D deficiency cause fat to accumulate in the midsection? With stress it makes sense since a high stress state causes peripheral vasoconstriction. Our hands and feet go cold in order to preserve heat for our organs but it may be that the fat isn't getting delivered to the right places. Vitamin d certainly has a belly fat reducing effect. I have had both negative and positive effects from vitamin d supplementation but one of the positives is reduced bloating.
Vitamin d is also involved with calming down stress so i'm wondering whether vitamin d status among other nutrients is involved with the amount of fat a person can tolerate. Since vitamin d is fat soluble, would your body be unwilling to burn through fat quickly if someone is vitamin d deficient? If you only had so much in storage, burning through it quickly instead of when it is absolutely needed may be dangerous.

 

[Blossom]

@Greyfox, the topic of visceral fat is really fascinating to me. I definitely still have a lot to learn. I’ll be getting my labs drawn tomorrow and Vitamin D is one thing I’m checking. My visceral fat is currently at 1 per my bio impedance scale but I’ve dramatically reduced my dietary fat and I’ve also been lifting weights.

 

[Greyfox]

@Greyfox, the topic of visceral fat is really fascinating to me. I definitely still have a lot to learn. I’ll be getting my labs drawn tomorrow and Vitamin D is one thing I’m checking. My visceral fat is currently at 1 per my bio impedance scale but I’ve dramatically reduced my dietary fat and I’ve also been lifting weights.

Oh nice. Drop your vitamin d values in here when you get them.
I have recently had really good results from dropping my fat intake significantly which made me remember this post you made about personal fat threshold.
Another thing that might interest you in regards to visceral fat stagnation is the breath. Under conditions of hypoxia and poor respiration, stress levels elevate dramatically and i believe this is a powerful cause of visceral fat accumulation. Since i started doing wim hoff i felt something in my abdomen shifting. Ever since i felt that, my appetite has improved to the point where food tastes good again and i can tolerate a higher volume of food without feeling unwell. It seems that during sleep i am experiencing hypoxia which makes it difficult to get the metabolism going upon waking. I suppose exposure to carbon monoxide from traffic and gas stoves could also contribute to this.

 

[Blossom]

@Greyfox, fantastic! I’ll hopefully get my results by early next week at the latest and I’ll definitely share them here. Thanks for the reminder about breath work. I’ll admit I’ve been slacking on being consistent with that lately. I’m glad you’re having good results with Wm Hoff breathing exercises and lowering fat intake. Have you read the book Breath by James Nestor by chance?

 

[Greyfox]

@Greyfox, fantastic! I’ll hopefully get my results by early next week at the latest and I’ll definitely share them here. Thanks for the reminder about breath work. I’ll admit I’ve been slacking on being consistent with that lately. I’m glad you’re having good results with Wm Hoff breathing exercises and lowering fat intake. Have you read the book Breath by James Nestor by chance?

I haven't read his book but i watched all of his interviews. Really changed the perception of the way i breathe. I was particularly interested in it because of its ability to increase body heat. If i meditate and do breathing exercises I can reliably improve my temperature if food alone doesn't work. It works well enough that my body can be warm even in freezing temperatures.

 

[Blossom]

I was particularly interested in it because of its ability to increase body heat.

That’s fantastic!

 

[Elie]

@fractal, yes it’s truly fantastic material indeed! I was able cut my visceral fat in half doing the DDF challenge. I think I’m one of the unfortunate types that stores more fat in my viscera and organs than subcutaneously which explains why my blood markers start trending in the wrong direction if I go above a certain body fat percentage. At least I know and also know what to do about it! I’m glad another person here reads that blog.

Hi @Blossom Is DDF simple to follow or is there a significant learning curve?
Does it involve caloric restriction at all?

 

[Blossom]

Hi @Blossom Is DDF simple to follow or is there a significant learning curve?
Does it involve caloric restriction at all?

I found it pretty simple. You do end up gradually going into a slight deficit by eating based on your personal glucose trigger which intermittently goes down and that is what allows you to use extra stored energy (fat). By seeing how different foods/meals impact your numbers you can begin to eat in a way that helps improve satiety while not over filling your energy tanks to the point that you feel starving and ravenous and make poor choices/overeat. I liked it a lot and learned quite a bit about my own body that I wouldn’t have known otherwise without the glucose data.

 

[Elie]

I found it pretty simple. You do end up gradually going into a slight deficit by eating based on your personal glucose trigger which intermittently goes down and that is what allows you to use extra stored energy (fat). By seeing how different foods/meals impact your numbers you can begin to eat in a way that helps improve satiety while not over filling your energy tanks to the point that you feel starving and ravenous and make poor choices/overeat. I liked it a lot and learned quite a bit about my own body that I wouldn’t have known otherwise without the glucose data.

thank you

 

[Elie]

I found it pretty simple. You do end up gradually going into a slight deficit by eating based on your personal glucose trigger which intermittently goes down and that is what allows you to use extra stored energy (fat). By seeing how different foods/meals impact your numbers you can begin to eat in a way that helps improve satiety while not over filling your energy tanks to the point that you feel starving and ravenous and make poor choices/overeat. I liked it a lot and learned quite a bit about my own body that I wouldn’t have known otherwise without the glucose data.

Hi @Blossom I decided to give this a try. I'm on day 4. I have to say that I have been hungry. especially in the morning, when I have to delay breakfast till I achieve my glucose trigger levels and with lower energy levels in the morning it has been hard for my brain to stay sharp.
Not sure it makes sense to me, since by this point my BG is long depleted and whatever levels are recorded are based on gluconeogenesis, which is a stressful process. Plus this has forced me to have only 2 meal on two out of the three days so far, which I am not sure is a good thing.
I have increased my protein and glucose measurably (protein mostly from cottage cheese) and reduced fat to try to minimize the stress response.

With your experience going through this, what are your thought on what I had to share?

 

[Peater]

Hi @Blossom I decided to give this a try. I'm on day 4. I have to say that I have been hungry. especially in the morning, when I have to delay breakfast till I achieve my glucose trigger levels and with lower energy levels in the morning it has been hard for my brain to stay sharp.
Not sure it makes sense to me, since by this point my BG is long depleted and whatever levels are recorded are based on gluconeogenesis, which is a stressful process. Plus this has forced me to have only 2 meal on two out of the three days so far, which I am not sure is a good thing.
I have increased my protein and glucose measurably (protein mostly from cottage cheese) and reduced fat to try to minimize the stress response.

With your experience going through this, what are your thought on what I had to share?

Following with interest, thanks for trying it Elie.

 

[Blossom]

Hi @Blossom I decided to give this a try. I'm on day 4. I have to say that I have been hungry. especially in the morning, when I have to delay breakfast till I achieve my glucose trigger levels and with lower energy levels in the morning it has been hard for my brain to stay sharp.
Not sure it makes sense to me, since by this point my BG is long depleted and whatever levels are recorded are based on gluconeogenesis, which is a stressful process. Plus this has forced me to have only 2 meal on two out of the three days so far, which I am not sure is a good thing.
I have increased my protein and glucose measurably (protein mostly from cottage cheese) and reduced fat to try to minimize the stress response.

With your experience going through this, what are your thought on what I had to share?

If you have higher blood glucose but you are hungry you can opt to eat anyway and just make it a higher protein meal. There’s a 30 day class coming up on January 6 where you can do it guided in an online group setting where there are others learning together and sharing tips and experiences. I believe the cost is in the 30ish usd range. It can definitely be challenging but I found the health benefits worth it.

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I improved my glucose and lipids pretty significantly by doing 2 rounds. My new goal this coming year will be to add muscle now that I know how I personally need to eat to keep my sugars and lipids in a range I’m comfortable living with.

 

[Blossom]

Here are my lipid labs.

 

[Elie]

Thanks @Blossom
I will check out the class.
btw, I wouldn't be alarmed by higher LDL levels, without other qualifying factors, incl., cv inflammation.
I don' know about your experience, but I am going through so many test strips.

 

[Blossom]

Thanks @Blossom
I will check out the class.
btw, I wouldn't be alarmed by higher LDL levels, without other qualifying factors, incl., cv inflammation.
I don' know about your experience, but I am going through so many test strips.

Yes, I’m not worried about my ldl anymore but I was starting to get uncomfortable when it was 205 even though I was considered low risk.

The strips required do eventually decrease after about the first week when you can transition to only checking premeal. It’s definitely a drawback but I found the information (and improvements) I gained worth it. One day when I went through 9 strips because my finger wouldn’t give up blood due to getting dehydrated from working with the pestilence for 12 hours in an n95 mask I was definitely disgruntled and about to say forget it! Hahaha
I remembered Peat inspired me to never give up though so I persevered.

 

[Elie]

You seemed pretty thin even before you started on the program.
How much protein were you having while on the program?

 

[Blossom]

You seemed pretty thin even before you started on the program.
How much protein were you having while on the program?

I was a perfectly normal bmi of 20.8 but my blood glucose and lipids were higher than I felt they should be considering my ‘normal’ weight. The personal fat threshold hypothesis made sense to me as an explanation for those numbers. I’ve had lipids and glucose that was better by conventional standards before but couldn’t figure out how I got those numbers so I decided to test out losing the visceral fat to see if it would help. It worked and I’m happy to know that I have a low personal fat threshold even though it’s a bit of a bummer. It also explains why some people (like my husband) can be in the overweight-obese range and be metabolically healthy. I don’t personally care about the number on the scale but I have a lot of life to live and I don’t want it to be riddled with illness and disability like many in my family so I knew I had to figure things. I see what happens on a daily basis to people my age when they meet the criteria for metabolic syndrome and ignore it.