Sixty Fiver

I have known my doctor for 15 years... our relationship is that of peers as before he was my doctor I worked in the medical field and he was one of the primary care providers to the clients I was caring for.

I don't practice a radical dietary plan... I just keep my carb levels lower than what is suggested and my already good numbers just got better. I probably won the genetic lottery as I have functioned well as a vegetarian, functioned well on higher carb diets, but have never felt so good as when I decided to lower the carbs in my diet and get back to a more ancestral way of eating.

With a chronic back problem I am often limited in how much activity I can participate in and this also affects the intensity of the activity... I have not worried about gaining weight and my energy levels have been excellent.

We do cook from scratch with whole ingredients and I do most of the cooking.

This has been most significant for my wife who has no thyroid and suffers from Celiac disease and over the past 4 years has also had major surgery and contracted pertussis which has a long recovery time (2 years is not uncommon) and as such has not been able to be as active and yet, she has lost 60 pounds since August which was the weight she gained after surgery that just would not go anywhere.

She feels great and by changing our diet her thyroid absorption is better, her vitamin absorption is better because of the increased fats and she has a higher restriction on carbs than me. When you have no natural thyroid, your metabolism and endocrine system are never right and insulin has a profound effect on metabolism.

By limiting carbs her insulin levels stay extremely stable (very important), by keeping them at or below the threshold where ketosis (fat burning kicks in) she has been able to shed the extra weight easily with no caloric restriction and no increase in physical activity.

She was never one to eat any kind of junk food, processed food, and have always enjoyed eating fresh and healthy foods.

Many of the folks who rail against a lower carb diet do not understand how our metabolisms work and to simple it up, we can burn fat or sugar but we can't burn them both at the same time.

Sugars are not created equal, fructose is metabolized in the liver and turned into fat while some fats are metabolized just as we metabolize glucose... the medium chain triglycerides in coconut oil are this type of fat.

If you are over-weight you need to enter into ketosis to burn fat and you can do this through glycogen depletion via exercise or fasting or reduce your carb intake to where ketosis becomes more of a steady state of being.

Human beings do not have to eat any carbohydrates to function, our bodies have the ability to produce glycogen on it's own.

If you are going to eat carbohydrates they should come from vegetables and nuts with a limited amount of fruit and this will vary by individual.

The problem with carbs is that they you make you crave more carbs because of insulin spikes and blood sugar swings... it is like burning paper.

If you are fat adapted you do not have insulin spikes and for most, there are no food cravings.

Besides my doctor I know other health care professionals, have worked in health care, and am married to a genius who studied biochemistry and cellular biology... she knows how things work and probably has a better understanding than most.