What's The Cause Of Chest And Stomach Fat That Doesn't Leave?

[Birdie]

Here is something that might help:

1. Haven't posted in this thread in a while, but wanted to do an update (tagging ecstatichamster).
   
   So, when I tried Urea orally earlier this year for a week or so, didn't really notice much one way, or another. Didn't think much of it, but after doing some dietary tweaks and reviewing old data, I has some interesting insights, and wanted to share them here.
   
   First, noticed that ever since I started "struggling" with weight again a few years ago, my protein intake has been around 100-120g a day. I decided to look back over Anthony Colpo's Fat Loss Bible Plan (which I modified a bit with some of Peat's ideas), and my fitbit data from the time. I realized my target back then was about 160g a day, but during the periods of most weight lost, I was higher, averaging something like 180g, several days getting over 200g. We all know about the thermic effect of protein as compared to other macros, and that high protein intakes promotes muscle gain, even without resistance training (High Protein Intake Increases Muscle Mass Even W/o Training). Both good things.
   
   Interestingly, low protein intakes can increase edema and water retention, and this is pretty common knowledge (livestong even has a few articles about it- Edema & Protein | Livestrong.com), apparently by preventing enough albumin from circulating in the blood, which causes leakiness into tissues. On top of that, as haidut also pointed out, higher protein intakes reliably and quickly increase Blood Urea Concentration (the BUN marker). So, Urea's effectiveness and dose might be dependent on protein intake, and also sufficient albumen. If enough albumen isn't present, sounds like the Urea could normalize the waterlogged cell, only to have that fluid shortly flow back into, due to overall leaky circulation.
   
   To the point, I upped my protein intake about 60g over the past day. Felt fantastic doing so, almost like a light switch has been flipped to "on" in parts of my body. I suspect this alone might cause a noticeable drop in water weight over the next few weeks. Also, tried about 15g of Urea today, and it did have noticeable effects warming up hands and feet, almost like it improved circulation as another poster mentioned in the KMUD urea thread.
   
   So, I will keep the higher Protein intake, and probably use 5-10g of urea a few days a week. I will keep you all posted.
   
   tankasnowgod, May 8, 2019ReportBookmark
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[Kratos]

hi thanks, yes i've tried a lot of things mentioned here but nothing has changed. sometimes i don't eat a lot of protein but now i'll try to eat more, thanks for posting that. i think i just damaged my body with years of drinking coca-cola, hot pockets and chinese food, too much high fructose corn syrup and oils.