Exercise, Nutrition, WLS, and Cooking Q & A - 2/12/2014

Great questions lately. I feel good about them. You care about your success and that is good!

If you have questions about Exercise, Nutrition, WLS, or Cooking...

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Hey Keith thanks so much for your time. I talked to you a couple weeks ago about my bmr being 1400 or 1700. I can't even remember now what it was. So I've been taking your advice and keeping my calories between 600-800. Also doing some walking but concentrating more on push ups and squats and lunges. I'm trying to get back into ketosis to burn off the rest of the fat. My net carbs have been below 20 and protein is 80-100. I'm barely hitting a trace on the ketostix. Do you think I'm getting to much protein? 

I have started to drop weight again so that's positive. 

Thanks Kathy 

OK, first great job on the muscle building and walking. Walking is best for fat burn. OK, so a couple of things on ketosis. First ketostix are not a great way to measure ketosis becuase they measure the ketone bi-products in your urine which are flushed and diluted in your urine, especially if you are hitting your water numbers. Second net carbs are a dangerous measure if you are being a purist on ketosis. You could be a 20 net carbs but depending on which sugar alcohols you are consuming you may be blocking ketosis. If your non-net carbs are mostly fiber, you are fine.

My guess is that you are in ketosis. It doesn't take much. I wouldn't waste my time with the ketostix, just stick to your plan and you will get there. If you are dropping weight, that is the indicator. If you want to know more about how to accurately measure ketosis (very expensive) do some research on the keto diet.

My surgery is scheduled for next Friday. I have no idea what ketosis is or net carbs...my nutrition knowledge is very little. Reading posts like this really make me nervous! lol.  I was just planning on avoiding all the yucky stuff (sugar, fake sugar if possible, grains, starchy veggies...etc) and sticking to high protein,  veggies, fruit and small amounts of healthy fat. Can I be successful without having all the technical nutrition knowledge? Or is it something that you learn as you go anyway??  

Your plan sounds perfect. Stick to that. You don't need to know the nutrition stuff but knowledge is power! Its good to know and you will learn a lot of it as you go becuase you will start to hear some of it repeatedly.

Net carbs are total carbs minus carbs from fiber and carbs from sugar alcohols. For the most part fiber is not digested so you don't actually absorb those carbs so some people subtract them from their total carb count. When you are trying to stay below 40 carbs per day, every carb counts. Some but not all sugar alcohols are not digestible and the others are partially digestible so some people subtract those as well.

Well...I know my mouth tastes like a$$, I mean dark chocolate when I wake up in the mornings so I feel like I'm in ketosis :-). Thanks again

So I'm still trying to figure out the answer to a question I posed the other day.  Which went like this....

In the boy scouts (BTW my old uniform from high school actually fits me again) we were taught to carry small bits of candy on hikes for the quick pick me up on longer hikes.  The recommendation was generally small amounts of chocolate which provided the dual combo of sugar and caffeine.

Now I'm wondering if the same theory could be applied to longer periods of exercise, particularly for longer run.  Now, first of all, I know this is like playing with fire here so anything done like this would have to be done carefully and with great consideration.  However, I see those tiny mini Hersery bars that people use in their desktop candy dishes and wonder 1-2 of them would be just about right for this.

So I guess this is a two part question, the first deals with how to balance energy carbs if engaged in this sort of training, and the second part being the evaluation of small (dark) chocolate bars as possible source.

Has your research come up with anything useful here?

I answered this question on 2/10 here http://www.obesityhelp.com/forums/VSG/5043586/Exercise-Nutri tion-WLS-and-Cooking-Q-amp-A-2-10-2014/#42550801

Short answer is eat before you leave on your hiking trip, take a protein bar with you, and eat when you are done with your hiking trip. If you get trapped in the wilderness eat a boyscout, they are high in protein. How far are you planning to run? I run a 5k in less than 30 mins and thats 3 miles. 6 miles could be done in an hour. So unless I am running a marathon or a half marathon, no extra boost would be needed. If I were running a half or a whole marathon I would take some protein bars with me.

Dark Chocolate. But stay away from candy! Dark chocolate in our world means 85% or more Cacoa which tastes like ass, so you need to put it in something or eat it with peanut butter.

Apparently what tastes like ass to you tastes like heaven to me.  I LOVE dark chocolate!

Jane

I have some at home that is 95% cacoa and it is so bitter. So maybe ass was a bit harsh but its not like eating a hershey's bar.