Too Much FFA?

[Dean]

I've been on 20g fat/day or less for about 4 months, save a handful of days. Anyway, since last night I have this horrible whole body anxiety going on. It's like every cell in my body is in full-blown dread mode. I also tend to run my hand through my hair a lot and I've noticed for a couple of days that I have hair in my hand after a do it. Never had that before.

I was a heavy PUFA eater for most of my life. I think I've made good progress in driving it out of my tissue during this period (i.e. my face is tan right now for the first time in years). But, I'm wondering if I have too much PUFA running lose in my system right now.

I kind of have this urge to go buy some whole milk and drink that down for a few days. Would doing that (upping my fat intake) drive all that PUFA that's been released back into my tissues. Maybe I'm way off base, I don't know. Any alternative suggestions on what this could be and what I should do to nip this in the bud? I have enough going on right now without having to deal with this intense anxiety/dread. Thanks.

 

[Peata]

I don't know if my anecdote is any help, but I did the under 20g fat/day or less for about 6 weeks, and then my body started wanting more fat. This desire for more fat came about during a time I was under emotional stress. Since then I've had an aversion to skim milk or really low fat string cheese and things. I feel better on more fat, and think my intake will level out somewhere, but for now I'm eating all the fat I seem to crave. And I seem to be doing very well. I don't know if you're low on certain vitamins. Are you supplementing things like A, D, E, K? Sorry I don't know about the pufa issue. If I was getting urges for whole milk, I would have it and see how I feel.

 

[Dean]

well, I've been getting plenty of A&D. Unfortunately, I completely and boneheadedly miscalculated the amount of K I was taking. Nowhere near as much as I thought I was. Perhaps this is the problem. I stopped supplementing D a couple of days ago, when I realized how little K I was actually getting. As far as E goes, I haven't been able to convince myself to take it. I mean, so little of it is in real food after all.

 

[jyb]

I've been on 20g fat/day or less for about 4 months, save a handful of days. Anyway, since last night I have this horrible whole body anxiety going on.

Anxiety does not necessarily have anything to do with pufa. It could just mean high stress and energy deficiency from eating the way you described.

 

[Dean]

[quote="jyb
Anxiety does not necessarily have anything to do with pufa. It could just mean high stress and energy deficiency from eating the way you described.[/quote]

Yeah, could just be that my calories have gotten too low the last couple of days as I've been battling some intense nausea.

I'm still wondering what would happen to released PUFAs if I started eating more fat. I guess the theory is though that I've been restricting fats to such an extent for long enough that they should be gone by now. Like I said, however, I ate a lot of PUFA and my liver function isn't the best.

 

[ravster02]

A simple FFA blood test would tell you what you want to know.

 

[Dean]

A simple FFA blood test would tell you what you want to know.

Yeah, I hear ya. There's nothing simple about getting a blood test done in the US though, even if you have the money. Guess I was hoping there was a way to do some theoretical tea leaf reading.

 

[jyb]

Yeah, could just be that my calories have gotten too low the last couple of days as I've been battling some intense nausea.

It could be unrelated to the number of calories (unless it was really low...). I personally draw a big difference between anxiety, those symptoms, and simply increased hunger. In the former the failure of the diet is severe, in the latter there is still time to respond to the signal and go and eat more without breaking down.

 

[Dean]

well, I don't know. I drank a bunch of mag bicarb concentrate and feel detached enough from the full body anxiety/dread that I can just let it be on the periphery without getting all wrapped up in it. whatever that means.

 

[tara]

I'm pretty sure Peat has suggested vit-E as protective when there is high PUFA running loose.

Letting calories get too low could well increase anxiety (btdt), or low in fatty vitamins, as above. Or increased metabolism -> increased need for B-vits, etc.

If you do decide to increase fats for a bit, you might want to increase gradually, rather than overwhelm a system that may have adapted somewhat to lower fat with a massive amount in one go.

 

[Dean]

Yeah, I've thought a lot about E, but there's no good source in terms of supplement or real food. I've been doing it for 4 months now, so it's probably too late anyway, for any protection. At least I can get a tan again. So even if all that loose PUFA is forming cancer cells as I type, I'll be able to die looking like George Hamilton. What more could a man want?

 

[tara]

... I'll be able to die looking like George Hamilton. What more could a man want?

I imagine you have higher ambitions.

 

[SQu]

I find calcium incredible for calming and cheering up. I learned this during my own very low fat experiment. It was so effective it made low fat very tolerable though i stopped for other reasons. In milk or eggshell. Since then I've remembered the lesson and rely on dairy in a big way for that alone. So I'd really go with that urge if it was me. I've come to the conclusion that I'll never lose weight feeling that way. I've lost some since, not restricting.

 

[Dean]

I find calcium incredible for calming and cheering up. I learned this during my own very low fat experiment. It was so effective it made low fat very tolerable though i stopped for other reasons. In milk or eggshell. Since then I've remembered the lesson and rely on dairy in a big way for that alone. So I'd really go with that urge if it was me. I've come to the conclusion that I'll never lose weight feeling that way. I've lost some since, not restricting.

Thanks for the suggestion, sueq. I don't think my problem is calcium intake though. I've been consistently getting around 3500mg for awhile now. I'm more concerned about whether I've been assimilating all that calcium properly.

 

[tara]

Yeah, I've thought a lot about E, but there's no good source in terms of supplement or real food. I've been doing it for 4 months now, so it's probably too late anyway, for any protection.

It's never too late. :)
I think Peat's approach to vit E supps is to assume that if they are high dose, then the ratio of E to carrier oil is worth it.

 

[tomisonbottom]

Yeah, I've thought a lot about E, but there's no good source in terms of supplement or real food. I've been doing it for 4 months now, so it's probably too late anyway, for any protection. At least I can get a tan again. So even if all that loose PUFA is forming cancer cells as I type, I'll be able to die looking like George Hamilton. What more could a man want?

Were you doing this to lose weight? Or to reduce pufa? If so, did it work?

And can I ask, what's the correlation between being tan and eating low fat?