Let’s Zoom towards Halloween with no bad carbs to be seen

We have not checked the qualifications of anyone posting here. If you are have any health related symptoms or concerns, you should contact your doctor who will be able to give you advice specific to your situation.

  • posted by JGwen
    on
    permalink

    I know that our 4 week challenge is helpful to newcomers as well as people further on the journey, so heres the next in the series.

  • posted by alliecat
    on
    permalink

    Thank you JGwen, for setting up the new challenge! As you know, I’m a believer in the challenge concept
    too, so I’ll be dropping in from time to time….I’m intent on increasing my fitness, particularly since I noted
    while out at the beach that it has diminished some. Walking in the sand reveals all! Quads definitely need
    some work 🙂

  • posted by Madmare
    on
    permalink

    Hi JGwen
    I would like to join this challenge and for once I am on time!!
    But most of all I want to say a massive thank you for bringing L-carnitine to my attention. There is someone else but I cannot find them. After reading the links I bought some for my parents in particular my father who is suffering from early stage dementia. It’s been over a month now and he swears he feels better and they are doing him good. To be honest I think he’s right he seems to have less bad days than he used to. I have been taking them too. Over the last 9 months my nails have been splitting the top layers have been peeling like onions. They are definitely stronger. All my life I have had weak nails though they grow really fast. And I am sure my hair is getting thicker.
    Thanks again
    MM

  • posted by JGwen
    on
    permalink

    Hi Madmare,
    Sorry for not replying sooner, I have been deep in thought for a few days. – Thank you for the thanks and I am glad to hear that the L-carnitine is helping your father.

    However, I don’t think its the cause of your improved nails or hair, I think that its a sign of improvements in your gut flora. Its a long story, but there has been research undertaken in Australia that demonstrates when horses have been fed a high sugar diet they develop increased levels of a particular gut bacteria. That bacteria results in an enzyme being released into the blood stream. That enzyme causes inflammation, in the case of horses one of the results is that it caused the hoof wall to grow faster than it should. – Because a horses hoof is made of lots of individual tubes of horn and each tube is attached to its neighbours by a system that can be simply pictured as like velcro, the tube has to disconnect from its neighbours to row. – When growth rate is too high, having too many tubes disconnected at a time makes the structure weaker. As all the horses weight goes down through the hoof wall in the the worst cases it causes the wall to distort and pull away from the internal structure of the hoof. Very painful.
    Cutting back on the sugar in the diet reduces the problem, slowing the rate of growth of the horn, but I noticed having worked with a number of horses with this condition (laminitis), that just cutting back on high sugar diet doesn’t necessarily completely reverse the growth rate, their hooves still grow faster than they would wear down in a natural environment so need their hooves trimmed regularly. In these cases the horses have to have their diet carefully monitored long term because just a small amount of additional sugar can cause another attack. I suspect that the background level of the problem bacteria in the gut is sufficient that the growth is faster than it should be and the horn is not as strong as it should be but is not as weak as a full blown attack.
    However, I have seen if you get sugar levels down low enough, or by adding coconut to the feed kill off more of the population of gut bacteria that feeds on sugar and the horn growth rate slows right down and becomes stronger.
    I have notice the same has occurred with both my finger nails and toe nails. My finger nails used to split and now are strong enough to get longer, and my big toe nails have ridges in them marking where I moved over to OMAD and then another ridge from moving on to longer fasts.
    The research into the enzyme released by the gut bacteria that I have seen is specific to the hoof wall, but that doesn’t mean that it isn’t same mechanism that applies to all inflammation linked to a high sugar diet.

  • posted by Mariet
    on
    permalink

    Hi everyone, I’m back after a month or so break from the forum and I’d like to join the challenge as well. I’m still in maintenance, still bobbing around the upper limit I set myself and as we head into summer I’d like to get closer to the bottom of my target band. Three kilos, if I can. I’m so glad you are still settling up the challenges 😊

  • posted by MaggieBath
    on
    permalink

    JGwen that’s really interesting about laminitis, horses have a miserable life when the develop it. Golden Paste is recommended too as an anti inflammatory https://www.turmericforhealth.com/turmeric-for-pets/5-ways-turmeric-benefits-in-horse-laminitis If you haven’t already come across it there’s an excellent Turmeric Users Group on FB. I’ve taken the dogs off refined carbs which noticeably helped with their arthritis and the Golden Paste has given them a further boost.
    Hi Marie, lucky you having summer ahead; the fact you achieved so much during the cooler months hopefully means you’ll see off those irritating kgs in fairly short order! Good luck though, the last bit of weight always seems to be difficult , at least it is for me!

  • posted by JGwen
    on
    permalink

    H Maggie,
    I intended to buy and follow Dr MMs book on healthy gut initially and only got the BSD because it was a better deal than ordering the one book and paying for postage. – I thought the BSD may provide some useful background info for helping horses. 🙂 I am now coming up to my first anniversary of low carb eating from that one decision.
    I am in the process of taking my dog off canned / packaged dog food as well. My older dog recently was not eating and loosing weight and after a visit to a vet where the blood tests ruled out a range of diseases I spent a couple of weeks encouraging him to eat with smaller meals of straight minced meat and human pate. – It turned out that there wasn’t a huge difference in costs but he was putting the weight back on. –
    Unfortunately he had some form of major seizure and died a few weeks ago. So I am down to the one dog at present and still have the stock of food for two to finish off. But when that’s gone I will be changing her over completely from processed food.

  • posted by Mariet
    on
    permalink

    Not sure what weigh day you all use but I’ve always been a Tuesday weigher- at least, I weigh nearly every day but Tuesday is the one I take notice of.
    So happy to report 600g down since last week. Onward and downward!

  • posted by Ellesmere
    on
    permalink

    Please can I join as well I’m four days in to the 800 diet. I’ve read on one of the replies about l carnitine im interested in what it does can someone tell me?

  • posted by JGwen
    on
    permalink

    Hi Ellesmere, Welcome to the forum.
    You asked about L-carnitine. Its an amino acid which is important in the process of turning body fat into energy.

    The main source of L-carnitine in our diet is meat, but as a vegetarian thats off the table for me. The next 8 main sources are all off the table if you are eating low carb, which means either eating buckets of asparagus, or taking a supplement. – Apparently the recommendation is to take 2mg a day.

    https://www.webmd.com/vitamins/ai/ingredientmono-1026/l-carnitine

  • posted by Ellesmere
    on
    permalink

    Thank you for your reply I will try them out. I’m really pleased I’ve lost 3pounds in this first week so over the moon . It really helps to encourage me to keep going. I don’t know when other people weigh in but I really need to know if lost something. I desperately need to get in my Halloween outfit before I sew the spiders on it. It was a touch tight the first time around.

Please log in or register to post a reply.