Very nice post! I am a frequent reader of @experimental fat loss, who introduces you. I wanted to comment on your experience with the Hondey diet. I have just finished shedding a 7 day experimenting with this diet. The symptoms you describe are almost IDENTICAL to what I had! very interesting! I also felt gassy, with small headaches. Did not change temprature and weight at all.
I am a lean person who does not gain and loose weight (+- 2kg usually). Anabology wrote about the fasting period: "I think it is when you burn the fat...". Well, as a person with very low fat mass, what have I got to burn? my hypothesis is that I did not have "extra" fat tissue to get rid of, and that's why I (1) did not feel very well during the fasting phase + got bit dissy + headache, and (2) did not loose a signal kilogram off.
I did feel very energetic during the morning until around 2-3 pm, but the transition into night time wasn't working well gor me in terms of metabolism (as is evident from tje energetic "fall" I was experiencing).
On the "increased metabolic rate" stuff for the honey diet, I wonder if that's just a reversion to the mean that Peaters interpret wrong.
Maybe it'll just normalize your metabolic rate. But if you already have non-suppressed metabolic rate, e.g. from not overeating protein, not restricting calories too much, avoiding seed oils (or whatever does it), it might not do much.
Just like putting a lean, healthy person on ex150 doesn't do much. They don't lose another 10lbs.
Most of these diets are weight normalization diets, not "weight loss" diets. Except starving yourself.
Just a small note that the blood glucose rise observed in a hot shower is largely a measurement effect rather than a physiological one, i.e. the CGM sensor works in a temperature-sensitive way, and the increased temperature will give an illusory rise in blood glucose. If you're not using a CGM to drive an insulin pump this doesn't matter, but there are people on the Internet who make erroneous extrapolations from this data point because they don't understand what they're actually measuring and how it's being measured. CGMs will show a blood glucose rise during a hot shower and a fall after a hot shower that is not seen with other ways of measuring blood glucose at the same time. (It's not that this is an error per se, it's just that what's being measured and how it's being measured are temperature-dependent, but it's reported as if it were an absolute truth, which it is not.)
I did try keto probably 10-12 years ago. But it was "lots of artificial sweeteners" keto and it was before I was keeping track of things. I definitely remember losing about 5-10 lbs when going on it, but eventually it came back. But I've never been higher than 170 lbs.
The reason I was mentioning the low carb keto boundary was because there's lots of evidence that successful diets lie in the lower corners of that triangular diagram. I just haven't ever found either of the extremes to be particularly appetizing.
Some interesting stuff! I found your substack via Experimental Fat Loss. I've done some diet-related self-experiments as well. You can see details on my site:
I found that the "half-tato" diet (where I consumed half my calories from potatoes) didn't work. Supplementing with potassium chloride sort of worked, but not very well (and it had some unpleasant side effects). The "Shangri La" diet (developed by the late Seth Roberts) worked really well for quite some time but has gradually lost effectiveness over the years.
Very fascinating stuff! Some really surprising insights in there, e.g. sugar vs. honey.
I think it's pretty clear that the ALA->EPA/DHA conversion factor is <1, I'm just not sure we know what it is exactly. So hard to say if you'd need to eat 1.3x or 10x the flaxseed vs. fish.
Keep up the great experiments, loved reading this!
Very nice post! I am a frequent reader of @experimental fat loss, who introduces you. I wanted to comment on your experience with the Hondey diet. I have just finished shedding a 7 day experimenting with this diet. The symptoms you describe are almost IDENTICAL to what I had! very interesting! I also felt gassy, with small headaches. Did not change temprature and weight at all.
Glad to hear I'm not alone! And thanks for taking the time to read and leave a comment!
I am a lean person who does not gain and loose weight (+- 2kg usually). Anabology wrote about the fasting period: "I think it is when you burn the fat...". Well, as a person with very low fat mass, what have I got to burn? my hypothesis is that I did not have "extra" fat tissue to get rid of, and that's why I (1) did not feel very well during the fasting phase + got bit dissy + headache, and (2) did not loose a signal kilogram off.
I did feel very energetic during the morning until around 2-3 pm, but the transition into night time wasn't working well gor me in terms of metabolism (as is evident from tje energetic "fall" I was experiencing).
Interesting idea.
I wonder if doing exercise after the sugar window makes a difference. (I didn't do much exercise while on this diet.)
On the "increased metabolic rate" stuff for the honey diet, I wonder if that's just a reversion to the mean that Peaters interpret wrong.
Maybe it'll just normalize your metabolic rate. But if you already have non-suppressed metabolic rate, e.g. from not overeating protein, not restricting calories too much, avoiding seed oils (or whatever does it), it might not do much.
Just like putting a lean, healthy person on ex150 doesn't do much. They don't lose another 10lbs.
Most of these diets are weight normalization diets, not "weight loss" diets. Except starving yourself.
That's a great point. I'm at the point where I'm looking for this one silly old rule that will allow me to put on 10 pounds of pure muscle. 😆
Just a small note that the blood glucose rise observed in a hot shower is largely a measurement effect rather than a physiological one, i.e. the CGM sensor works in a temperature-sensitive way, and the increased temperature will give an illusory rise in blood glucose. If you're not using a CGM to drive an insulin pump this doesn't matter, but there are people on the Internet who make erroneous extrapolations from this data point because they don't understand what they're actually measuring and how it's being measured. CGMs will show a blood glucose rise during a hot shower and a fall after a hot shower that is not seen with other ways of measuring blood glucose at the same time. (It's not that this is an error per se, it's just that what's being measured and how it's being measured are temperature-dependent, but it's reported as if it were an absolute truth, which it is not.)
Wow! I had no idea. Thank you for sharing!!! Fortunately for me, I don't require an insulin pump.
you often mentioned the low carb keto boundary, any reason you didnt try that for some time?
I did try keto probably 10-12 years ago. But it was "lots of artificial sweeteners" keto and it was before I was keeping track of things. I definitely remember losing about 5-10 lbs when going on it, but eventually it came back. But I've never been higher than 170 lbs.
The reason I was mentioning the low carb keto boundary was because there's lots of evidence that successful diets lie in the lower corners of that triangular diagram. I just haven't ever found either of the extremes to be particularly appetizing.
Some interesting stuff! I found your substack via Experimental Fat Loss. I've done some diet-related self-experiments as well. You can see details on my site:
https://www.self-experiments.org/
I found that the "half-tato" diet (where I consumed half my calories from potatoes) didn't work. Supplementing with potassium chloride sort of worked, but not very well (and it had some unpleasant side effects). The "Shangri La" diet (developed by the late Seth Roberts) worked really well for quite some time but has gradually lost effectiveness over the years.
Looks neat! Thanks for sharing.
Very fascinating stuff! Some really surprising insights in there, e.g. sugar vs. honey.
I think it's pretty clear that the ALA->EPA/DHA conversion factor is <1, I'm just not sure we know what it is exactly. So hard to say if you'd need to eat 1.3x or 10x the flaxseed vs. fish.
Keep up the great experiments, loved reading this!
Thanks! Yeah, I agree re: ALA -> EPA/DHA conversion.