I was thinking about the insulin resistance thing. Insulin makes the carbs you eat readily available to metabolize into energy. When that process isn't working, the extra carbs to fat process still is working efficiently. Hence, the tiredness, yet weight gain when high amounts of carbs are ingested.

Ok.. now add the rest of the nutritional picture: An average inactive person needs 50g of protein a day to maintain muscle mass. It is very difficult to find "pure" and complete protein sources that have little to no carbs (beef, poultry, fish, soy - some tofu has a little). Remember, sugar alcohols in that "low carb" protein mix still are carbs, just not processed well in the body (and why some people like me can't ingest them). One egg can have ~0.7g carb, cheeses have them. Nuts have to be eliminated. The thought of eating dry cooked meat (or perhaps stewed in water/bouillon) is beyond unappealing to me and is no way sustainable.

I'm like the rest of the posters in that I have to find the balance that works for me.

Did you know the average normie eats 250-350 carbs a day? I believe I do best at 150g. I count everything, including fiber.

Now add my rebellious nature - as soon as you say something is bad or I can't have something, that's what I'll crave. I'm trying to deal with the mental issues as well as how my body physically responds to food.

Losing weight for me is never ever going to be a simple black and white statement such as a calories is a calorie!

Sorry for my ramblings. I think this has been a good discussion for me.

Hugs,
Ratkity

Originally Posted by Deena52:
:D What the heck are we doing up at 4 am., kaplods?

I have spoiled my cat rotten so she will come and keep batting me in the head in the middle of the night because she wants her small meal that she has become accustomed to getting (thanks to overly-indulgent me)....little princess. And then I can't fall back to sleep for a while.

LOL! I also have a spoiled princess cat. My husband will lock her in the bathroom if she meows for food off-schedule, so she has learned to wake us up very subtly. We call it her "wake up and see me being good," tactic (she'll sit on or near our heads, purring loudly. Or "tap" lightly on our arm, repeatedly. If I'm lying on my back, she'll sit on my chest with her nose touching my nose. I'll wake up from the tickling of her whiskers and breath in my nose. It's still a startling experience to open my eyes and see her face, nose to nose with me.

But tonight (uh, this morning) I'm up because my afternoon nap went a little longer than expected (I expected to sleep for 20 minutes, but didn't set an alarm. I woke up two and a half hours later).

Originally Posted by Deena52:
Now I am really interested in why you have the problem with the headache/nausea/dizziness. I don't have that at all....as long as I stay below 16-20 carbs max daily.....and only get my carbs from veggies and things like eggs and dairy. I'm wondering why that is.

The headaches, nausea, dizziness, irritability, and fainting are symptoms of low blood sugar. I didn't know this when I first tried low-carb in my teens and early 20's. At the time, I didn't know anyone my age with diabetes or blood sugar problems like hypoglycemia.

In college and graduate school (psychology - requiring coursework in human biology and biochemistry), I made the connection between the symptoms and low- blood sugar. I also have had more contact with people with blood sugar issues (and was diagnosed with IR and now borderline diabetes). My husband and mother have diabetes (and is on metformin and insulin), and I was diagnosed insulin resistant several years ago, and recently borderline diabetic. Also my younger sisters have had hypoglycemia (including the fainting - it's a family joke that all three of us have fainted in church).

In comparing symptoms, it's very obvious that low-blood sugar is the reason for the symptoms.

Low-blood sugar incidents can happen to anyone. There are genetic, dietary, medication and environmental interactions. For example heat is a common factor for my sisters and I. If we haven't eaten in several hours, we're more likely to faint in high heat than in a cool environment.

Medications. Now that I'm on metformin (a blood sugar regulating medication), I have to be more diligent about eating every few hours.

Originally Posted by Deena52:
Exactly what carbs do you allow yourself to have? I'm interested in whether you add some in that I don't....or if it's totally unrelated to that. I always get fascinated when I see any sort of difference in clinical patterns.

I think the differences among individuals are too wide and varied to learn much from comparing two people. I think there are too many individual factors. Diet is just one small piece of the puzzle. Genetic and environmental differences, dietary, lifestyle, medications...

I think the specific carbs can play a small role. The simpler the carb (the more easily and rapidly digested - the high glycemic carbs) the more sudden the blood sugar spike. A rapid blood sugar increase, or spike is generally followed by a rapid decrease (especially in IR, hypoglycemic and diabetic folks).

I try to avoid high glycemic carbs for that reason. Though I even have to be careful with fruits and grains. Bread and grains are the hardest for me to avoid, because I do love them. I avoid wheat entirely, because it triggers skin and pain flares. I do eat a little bit of potato, rice, quinoa, wild rice, and millet and oatmeal.

Hubby usually makes a side dish that contains rice, quinoa, millet, and wild rice. With my exchange plan, I was eating 2 carb exchanges daily. I've cut that down to one. (so 80 calories from grain/starchy veggie).

For fruit, I usually eat a variety, but the most common are berries, apples, oranges, pommelos, tangerines, and very rarely bananas (in fact I usually buy a very small bunch of baby bananas - about 3" long and about 30 calories a piece (so 2 tiny bananas are one fruit exchange, rather than 1/2 of a standard banan = 1 fruit exchange).

I don't usually eat dried fruit, because I realize that glycemically they're more like candy than fruit, but I love craisins and will sprinkle them in a salad or occasionally eat them frozen one by one (they get chewy like caramels).

I consider craisins a small cheat though. Better than snickers bars, but still a food that I can't buy or eat in large quantities (which is why I love buying from bulk bins - I can buy just enough for one or two servings and not have to worry about eating the whole bag).

For me, I think as a young person when I first tried low-carb, I think the very low calorie level I was eating, and the high activity level I had and going too long between meals were the most significant factors (Two of the times I nearly fainted, I was on my paper route before dinner and a couple times it was in the summer when I got overheated, and hadn't eaten for several hours...)

Originally Posted by Deena52:
Also.....what do you think of egg yolks....in terms of medically causing problems (that whole cholesterol issue), yes or no? I don't even worry about them (and horrify my dad) and eat as many as I want. In fact, I see eggs as the perfect protein. Curious about what you think.

I don't worry about eggs either. Newer research suggests that eggs don't contribute to cholesterol issues much if at all (initial studies found that people who had eggs for breakfast more frequently, tended to have higher cholesterol - but that was also at a time when egg breakfasts almost always included starch (such as potatoes and/or toast) and fatty smoked meat (such as ham, bacon, or sausage) - so was it the eggs, or the fatty smoked meats, or was it the fat/carb/nitrate combination.

Because I do count calories (indirectly through exchanges) as well as carbs, I do sometimes discard some of the yolks. 1 egg = 1 protein exchange, and 3 egg whites = 1 protein exchange. So I will sometimes use a combination of whole eggs and egg whites. I used to do it for the calorie savings (I never did eat egg whites only, because I didn't like the taste, but I'd use 1 whole egg and 3 egg whites). I really like the taste and texture of the combination (I think it makes lighter, fluffier eggs).

Originally Posted by Deena52:
ADDED: You know, I'm trying to think this through.....and with insulin-resistance, your body is producing insulin but not responding to it as well as it should........so then, that could mean that you are not processing and absorbing every single one of the carbs/glucose in the low-carb items you eat (meaning the really low-carb ones) so that you need to go up the carb ladder a few steps in order to get the carbs you need to absorb to keep you from the hunger/nausea/headaches, etc. BECAUSE there is a minimum number of carbs we NEED for metabolism in general. So if I don't have insulin-resistance, I can eat a militant (Atkins induction type) diet and feel great.....because I am absorbing all the carbs in the items I eat.....but with you having insulin-resistance....could it be that you need to add more carbs and carbs that are a bit more simple (as in higher glycemic) to make up for the lower processing/absorbing issue you could have due to insulin-resistance? That if, let's say, you stuck with no more than 20 gms/day of carbs from really low-carb foods (veggies, eggs and dairy)....you would not, due to the insulin-resistance....have all 20 of those carbs available to utilize (necessary for the whole Krebs cycle thing) and need to go up the carb ladder a bit and add more carbs in to get a net absorption of 20 gms.? And....could that be why you can eat more carbs than I can when I am trying to LOSE weight (and not just maintain)? Is it making sense the way I wrote it?

I know what you're saying, but I don't think that's what's going on. If I weren't absorbing the carbs, I think I'd be losing weight at a much faster rate (because if I wasn't absorbing the carbs, I wouldn't be absorbing the calories either).

Truly, I think it's a blood sugar issue as I said above. I only lose weight at a decent pace when eating extremely low-carb, but it's at the expense of feeling decent. I also have fibromyalgia and autoimmune issues that flare badly whenever I make any drastic changes to my lifestyle, so small, gradual changes seem to work better for me - but that does mean that my results are also small and gradual.

I might be able to eat induction level carbs without blood sugar issues if I ate smaller snack/meals more frequently, but I don't always find eating every two hours very practical.

I think it's just a matter of trade-offs.

I just came in to say dont give up YOU CAN DO IT!!!!!