The Carb-Sane Asylum

Thanks to Yoni Freedhoff of Weighty Matters blog for providing me with the full text of this one.  Check out his take on the results.  Update 11/11/13:  Full text now available free HERE . Context:  An important goal during weight loss is to maximize fat loss while preserving metabolically active fat-free mass (FFM). Massive weight loss typically results in substantial loss of FFM potentially slowing metabolic rate. Objective:  Our objective was to determine whether a weight loss program consisting of diet restriction and vigorous exercise helped to preserve FFM and maintain resting metabolic rate (RMR). Participants and Intervention:  We measured body composition by dual-energy x-ray absorptiometry, RMR by indirect calorimetry, and total energy expenditure by doubly labeled water at baseline (n = 16), wk 6 (n = 11), and wk 30 (n = 16). Results:  At baseline, participants were severely obese (×± sd; body mass index 49.4 ± 9.4 kg/m 2 ...

Can't seem to imbed yet:   LINK I haven't seen the whole thing yet so won't comment.  But thought I'd let my readers know the MRSA talk is up. Edit - Classic Kruse-ism at the end: Ideation without execution leads to deletion.

From Matt Metzgar Scientific habits of mind, or the scientific process, can be succinctly summarized as the use of evidence and reason to arrive at conclusions. This sounds simple but it’s a demanding code: Take nothing for granted, form conclusions on the basis of careful observation and honest thinking, and be willing to modify those conclusions in the light of new experience. Art Hobson, Professor Emeritus of Physics, University of Arkansas I copied this here because I think this is a far better description of what science is, or should be, than the black swanning meme I keep hearing.  By that I mean I get pretty tired of hearing the various versions of the "a good scientist tries to disprove their hypothesis" nonsense.  Any research scientists in my audience believe that?  This is why I've said all along that there was never a need for an alternate hypothesis to explain the obesity epidemic, and further that the alternate hypothesis put forth anyway was never formu...

I'm asking my great audience for help answering this.  Does anyone know of any evidence that high circulating insulin blocks leptin action in the brain (hypothalamus)?

With all the recent discussion on losing weight, exercise, bariatric surgery etc. here at the Asylum, I was reminded of this short post I intended to make on Carnie Wilson.  I had seen her on Fox & Friends with Wilson Philips promoting their new album.  Her's is a cautionary tale but also goes to show there's more to this obesity thing than many folks seem to want to acknowledge or talk about.  

You've probably all seen it somewhere perusing the low carb web ... the carbsmart affiliate logo, or even that yellow and blue C S .  Carbsmart is ... err was ... an online retailer of low carb foodstuffs -- mostly the stuff we'd call junk foods.  For over a decade low carbers could order up their favorite goods from this outfit.  As many low carbers do still depend on some of these "frankenfoods", I actually have no problem with outfits like the former  C S   filling their needs.  In my opinion this is "honest business" whether the founder and CEO weighs 180 lbs or 380 lbs.   C S  was a "middle man" in such potential low carb frauds as Dreamfields pasta and similar products, and I hold DF's makers responsible for that fiasco.  I also have no problem with  C S   advertising on websites and blogs with subject matter likely to attract potential customers.  I'm a bit more critical of same-said bloggers and website owner...

I get the feeling from the comments on my last Random Thoughts post and the NEAT post that folks think I'm pretty down on HIT resistance training or HIIT "cardio".  Not true.  But it would be fair to say I am pretty down on the "culture" surrounding these minimalist-time protocols.  I know, I know, telling people that they'll have to walk for an hour a day every day to stave off weight gain is so old school conventional wisdom and downright unsexy.  OTOH, it's highly appealing to us to get all the benefits of any thing doing it slightly differently in less time!  So it's not the merits of the methods themselves that I have an issue with, it's the whole "be super fit and buff in 10 minutes a week!" ...  implied:  and you can sit on your butt the rest of the time.   There's a distinct tone of discouraging good old fashioned "cardio" that frequently skirts close to putting down those who engage in it as stupid drones and need...

In the interests of saving a bit of time and gathering thoughts, I thought I'd jot down some would-be comment replies in a blog post instead.  First, so we're all (newer readers especially) on the same page, I did no formal exercise during the active weight loss phase and long plateau from sometime summer 2007 through spring 2009.  This was not really by design, but more out of fear as the last time I low carbed I experienced the racing heart mostly when doing rather short periods of pilates and such.  So I kept meaning to up the activity level a bit but never really managed to get around to it.  In 2009 I did start doing concerted cardio -- walking and biking -- and later some more cardio-like exercise DVD's.  As for strength training, the only formal training I have done was that 100 pushups thing that was popular in 2010.  I got to 100 "girlie" pushups and was on my way with the regular ones when I pulled something in my side that made rolling over in b...

Apparently not! According to this study , how one creates a caloric deficient can make a difference. The Impact of Exercise Training Compared to Caloric Restriction on Hepatic and Peripheral Insulin Resistance in Obesity Context: It has been difficult to distinguish the independent effects of caloric restriction versus exercise training on insulin resistance. Objective : Utilizing metabolic feeding and supervised exercise training, we examined the influence of caloric restriction vs. exercise training with and without weight loss on hepatic and peripheral insulin resistance. Design, Participants, and Intervention : Thirty-four obese, older subjects were randomized to: caloric restriction with weight loss (CR), exercise training with weight loss (EWL), exercise training without weight loss (EX), or controls. Based on an equivalent caloric deficit in EWL and CR, we induced matched weight loss. Subjects in the EX group received caloric compensation. Combined with [6,62H2]glucose, an ...

With all the reminiscing over childhood days I was reminded of a scene in Fat Head where Tom Naughton shows cars lined up to drop kids off at school.  He contrasts this to how he used to walk to and from school often twice a day as he went home for lunch.  That scene could have been shot in my neighborhood these days, and is a far cry from my childhood.  I walked to school most days -- I'd like to exaggerate and say uphill both ways, but it was only uphill one way -- 3 hills to be exact.  In milder weather I rode my bike.  And, like Tom, after school spent several hours most days playing all manner of running games.  It definitely seemed that Tom was making a case for less activity contributing to the obesity epidemic.  If not, what am I missing?

Where reversing obesity is concerned, lots of excuse-making going on vis a vis the damaged metabolism.  Usually when someone challenges this to clarify what they mean, they are met with silence.  I've got four candidates based on various low carb theories and dieting truths.  So just some thoughts:  (OK a lot of thoughts - grin)

< RANT WARNING >  This post is a compilation of several that have been lying in the draft bin.  Consider it a response to a perfect storm of the arrogance and pitiful whining by staunch low carb advocates in past months.   I've had enough of the absolute abomination that is Jimmy Moore orchestrating the rhetoric, but also many of the attendant hangers on.  So yes, I'm going on a rant here folks.  You've been forewarned.  Fasten your seatbelt and enjoy the ride, or just hit that "X" button up there on the corner right of your browser.  < /RANT WARNING > Most readers are probably aware of Jimmy Moore's latest demonstration that he's LLVLClue to the hilt lately:   Jimmy Moore’s n=1 Experiments: ‘Safe Starch’ Sweet Potato .  I mean really, I cannot imagine that this experiment resembles in any way what Paul Jaminet would construct for someone adding starches back to a low carb diet.  The pricking begins on day one of addin...

Higher HbA1c levels predict better outcomes in advanced heart failure with diabetes   (free registration required) "We're finding that in heart failure [plus diabetes], higher HbA 1C  levels are associated not with worse outcomes, but with better outcomes," lead investigator Dr Tamara Horwich (University of California, Los Angeles) told  heartwire . This suggests that for patients with both diseases, "the focus should not be on lowering the HbA 1C  levels to as low as possible," she said, adding that "aiming for a midrange of 7.2% to 8.2% may be very reasonable." OK, this is in people with established heart disease and diabetes, but lower is, apparently, not always better.  And what is it we keep hearing about all these damaged metabolisms and all ...

direct image link For those not familiar with "Kimmer", allow me to fill in with a little background.  Kimmer was the screen name used by one Heidi Diaz who started a subscription weight loss site KimKins.com.  The website -- version 3.0 -- lives on.  KimKins is essentially several low carb diets that are also low fat and low calorie.  I think the most severe of them is around 300 cal/day.  Kimmer used pictures of others for fake "after" pictures while remaining obese herself and promoting KK as a successful weight loss plan.  You see, here is the before and apparently a real intermediate pic of Kimmer, and her "after" shot.  Below that we have a montage of before/afters used by Heidi.  It always amazed me that folks were apparently unquestioning of these shots, but maybe it's just me that would look at any of them and at least wonder whether this was the same person or not.  Below right is a split screen of Heidi's before picture and the ...

So I was getting my morning news fix the other day and of course the new study mentioning gastric bypass as a cure for diabetes was discussed.  One of the many mainstream press articles about two recently published articles in NEJM can be found here .  The full texts of both studies are available online free:   Bariatric Surgery versus Conventional Medical Therapy for Type 2 Diabetes  - Mingrone et.al. and  Bariatric Surgery versus Intensive Medical Therapy in Obese Patients with Diabetes  - Schauer et.al.  I've discussed some other studies previously here .  Lastly on the links for now, I have not followed all contained in this post, but from a surgery center blog we have:   Gastric bypass to ‘cure’ diabetes goes mainstream   (you are forewarned that the last one is a "medical tourism" clinic in Colombia).

I guess at least one other person saw an infomercial for the Schticky and wondered how long that thing has been around.  Because today's giggle that tickled me was that someone found the Asylum searching on: how old is the schticky We know the Atkins Diet has been around for 40 ...

Lerner posted a link to this study in comments on another post:   Cold-Activated Brown Adipose Tissue in Healthy Men .  A small part of the study where they looked at BAT activity for the three subjects with the most BAT under neutral thermal conditions caught my eye, and I think this is central to some of the confusion Kaptain Konfusion has introduced into this whole discussion.  They tested all subjects lying on their backs in a chamber, first for one hour in thermoneutral temp, next for 2 hours at 17C.  For three subjects they retested in thermoneutral temps for the entire time.   There was no detectable brown-adipose-tissue activity in the three subjects who were retested under thermoneutral conditions. Brown-adipose-tissue activity was recorded in Subject 2 at 856.5 kBq during exposure to cold and 0 kBq in thermoneutral conditions, in Subject 3 at 587.2 kBq during cold exposure and 0 kBq in thermoneutral conditions, and in Subject 4 at 250.0 kBq during...

It's been a while since we last had a Star Wars installment.  With the War on Insulin raging out there, it seemed a good time to re-address the FIRKO mouse in this series.  You gotta admire the tireless efforts of    TWICHOOB 's  in rescuing a hypothesis.  It's a brave face to herald an Insurgency while one's hypothesis is circling the drain.    There are a number of IRKO mice -- Insulin Receptor Knock Out.  There's FIRKO (Fat), LIRKO (Liver), MIRKO (Muscle), NIRKO (Brain).  Interestingly enough, two of these (M&F) are consistent with and seem to support TWICHOO, while the other two (L&N) present serious stumbling blocks (in the case of LIRKO, pretty much fatal for the hypothesis).  Allow me to introduce our characters for today's saga, C5L2KO and Kit FIRKO.  

Richard Nickoley/Free the Animal has posted a follow-up post entitled  Cold Therapy and Adaptation and Ray Cronise .  Although he comments a few times, this comment  addresses Ray's thoughts on it all.  So far I see no need for a warning label on this one ;-)  In any case, Ray presents some excellent information on the topic and I urge my readers to go take a look before diving into the icy water and trying to work up to hours on end in same.  For my part, after reading Ray, I think I may well get an inflatable pool and some pool dumbells and such and put it up in the back yard to exercise in this summer.  There's a town pool here, but if I have to drive somewhere I know compliance suffers, and although I have access to facilities where I work, no student gets to see me in a swimsuit!! I admittedly don't know much about Ray as, in all honesty, I've only recently heard of him and Wim Hof what with all the recent buzz.  But he sounds knowledgeable ...

... from my Inbox: "What happens when smart people may be smart in one field (domain specificity) but are not smart in an entirely different field, out of which may arise weird beliefs. When Harvard marine biologist Barry Fell jumped fields into archaeology and wrote a best-selling book, America B.C.: Ancient Settlers in the New World (1976) about all the people who discovered America before Columbus, he was woefully unprepared and obviously unaware that archaeologists had already considered his different hypotheses of who first discovered America (Egyptians, Greeks, Roman, Phoenicians, etc.) but rejected them for lack of credible evidence. This is a splendid example of the social aspects of science, and why being smart in one field does not make one smart in another. Science is a social process, where one is trained in a certain paradigm and works with others in the field. A community of scientists reads the same journals, goes to the same conferences, reviews one anothers' ...

I thought I'd post here the comments Jack Kruse left here on my blog in response to  this post .    I hadn't read much from him at that point, but enough to write his stuff off as quackery.   john Aug 8, 2011 08:12 PM I thought I'd come over because my name was used in vain. For the record.....I was surfing for six hours in Orange County before the AHS. Hence the sunburn. People see my pictures constantly on FB. I am white as ghost as an Irish Catholic with freckles usually. I guarrantee you I eat more carbs than Carb sane.......and less protein too. The people who ate with me at AHS were a bit shocked. I do 42 labs on myself every three months in a quantified self program and I adjust my diet to meet my epigenetics switches. I've been doing it five years and I am an open book to my methods. Patients see me constantly and I don't hide behind an internet ambient awareness. I don't dye my hair nor have I had any plastic surgery. I work hard rebuilding my former s...

Yeah, I know, I know, I tried to move past this whole Kruse Missile Krisis, but as it turns out Richard Nickoley has some inside info on Jack he shared when he weighed in on the latest escapades of Jack Kruse NEUROSURGEON , and I kinda got sucked in to the discussions there ;-)  ( WARNING :  Apparently "Angry Dick" is back and he drops the "c"-bomb twice in response to female commenters and defends it no less.  His comments on the God thing at the beginning are extremely offensive as well.  So if you're not into that, you might want to skip the first couple of paragraphs to "...Jack lost" and avoid the comments all together.) But two things keep coming up over and over (and over) in discussions about the burgeoning KMK in the paleo world.  It boils down to well, maybe he's crazy, but maybe he's also on to something.  And what's the community* as a whole to do with Dude, I'm a Neurosurgeon!  After all, owing to some perfect storm ...

I'm hoping this will be the last post I'll have make addressing the phenomenon that is Jack Kruse MD,DDS aka Leptin Man, Dr. Duvet, Quack Frost, Quilt, Digisurgeon etc.etc.   According to Melissa McEwen over on Paleo Hacks, there are some bigwigs in the community who are concerned enough about this that they are planning to address it in concert publicly soon.  I say, the sooner the better.   Kurt Harris recently informed us of the severing of any ties that may have  existed between Jack and Mark Sisson.  This is encouraging to learn.   However until then there are those who are inferring motive on some of his more outspoken detractors such as Melissa and myself and countless others who haven't devoted entire blog posts to the matter.    One of the more common defenses of Kruse I've seen lately, particularly following PaleoFX, is that Kruse is a genius and those who don't get him simply don't understand his brilliant ideas.  T...

A comment on another post by SJ pretty much nails the starch angst pervading the low carb webosphere on the head: A couple of paleo/primal dieters mention that they're eating potatoes and it's the g*****mn carbocalypse.  Why is it so upsetting to these people that some people feel better when they eat a bit of starch? Let's presume that is not a rhetorical question and answer it.  This behavior is explained by the fact that somehow carbohydrate restriction has become a religious cult, with all the trappings thereof.  All the lost suffering souls who found solace and redemption after reading Good Calories, Bad Calories in the Church of Taubes.   It makes me very glad that in 2007 when I decided to try one last time to shed the weight I did it on my own, telling nobody but my immediate family that I was even doing it, and just going from memory doing a pretty clean Atkins induction.  The Church of Taubes sucks you in.  For all their knocking of Weight Watch...

About a month or so ago, I started seeing infomercials for the Schticky.  That whack Sham Wow guy is back hawking the reusable silicone lint roller.  There's a similar product being peddled by the heir to the late Billy Mays.  It struck me as funny because I have one of those things around here somewhere.  My inherited pack rat gene does not allow me to throw the thing away though we never use it.  It's something we have courtesy of the hubs' ex, so I know it is at least twenty years old.   Which got me thinking about the Atkins diet and low carbing in general.  And the name "Schticky" brings with it its own connotations vis a vis one Gary Taubes use of the word schtick in describing scientists.  The similarities are many: It works very well the first time on most things It has come back after a hiatus from the "As Seen on TV" world It doesn't work as well after you wash it, especially if you don't let it dry fully before using it the next ti...

I'm going through a period of intense disillusionment with the state of this larger diet/nutrition/fitness ancestral/paleo/whole-foods/LC community on the internet and beyond.  By far the greatest contributor to this disillusionment has got to be the meteoric rise of one Dr. Jack Kruse, NEUROSURGEON! , although there are certainly others adding to the malaise.   The other day I forced myself to re-read -- more slowly this time -- his Holy Trinity post from the night of his Paleo Summit presentation .  Now, apparently Quack Frost (there are just so many good names for this guy, I have to rotate them for him!) has some inside information on how Lance Armstrong trains in the cold.  And Phelps too?  He implies that he does.  But in the Paleo Summit he states affirmatively that Phelps spends 18 hours a day in a 50 degree pool.  This is how myths start, because I just Googled "Phelps cold adaptation" and I come across this .  Folks I don't have a medi...