Who are you to decide what I eat?

I’m sure that no swedish person have missed the hype in the media about LCHF being the scapegoat for the recent increasing trends of CVD disease etc. (which, by the way, isn’t true.. the stats are easily accessed). 

What really annoys me isn’t the fact that academically educated doctors dare to throw up statement after statement that are against the facts. No, it’s the fact that they do everything in their power to make people believe that the natural food is bad for you and that you should instead eat products stuffed with chemicals and that you CAN eat sweets only if you burn it off. Basically saying that we are LAZY and lack the disciplin. I’m just so sick of this propaganda and witch-hunt on us trying to have a lifestyle that suits our bodies better. 

Please spend 20min of your valuable time to watch this video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9wZwdPkjeMM

 

5:2 intermittent fasting

I can’t apologize enough for my absence here on the blog, but my interest in writing really goes up and down. At the moment I don’t have any struture in my own life so I can’t see how I can structure a blog as well. 

 

Over this summer I’ve seen countless articles in the papers about the “new” 5:2 intermittent fasting diet. Everywhere I see “I’ve lost 5kg with the 5:2 diet” etc. I don’t know how popular low carb eating and intermittent fasting is in countries outside of Sweden but I’m sure that here, and in the surrounding scandinavian counrites, it’s quite popular. 

It’s just sad to see how people get it all wrong though. The 5:2 diet isn’t about prohibit yourself to eat and when the eating window opens you can indulge in everything you want (Coke, cakes, candy etc.) No, that’s not the point. 

I can’t say this too many times but food like starch, sugar and grains are not food that belongs in a human diet. This stuff came into existence 10 000 years ago. Before that we ate natural things like berries, fruit, nuts and meat. Did we have low fat? No. Did we have coke? No. Did we eat oats with berries and chocolate sprinkled all over it for breakfast? Hell no. Did we eat every third hour? No. We most likely ate every second day, dependent on what we caught for the day. Did we leave out the fat from the animal because it was “bad”? God no, they ate everything on the animal in order to have more energy and survive those days without food. 

That’s what the 5:2 diet is all about. You’re already on a low carb diet (you understand the concept of LCHF or LCHQ or any other letterdiet and you are not afraid of some animal fat). You fast for two days and you eat for 5 days and you understand why. When you’re allowed to eat again you don’t eat cakes, coke or candy. You eat normal food. 

Once you have chosen to change your lifestyle to one with less carbs your body will automatically change to burn fat instead of glycogen. (I’ve said this so many times before it’s getting boring…) This will take about 6-8 weeks. Your body will burn fat, it will take stored energy and burn that, which means that it no longer relies on glycogen for energy. Quite simple. This also means that your muscles wont be used as a energy source anymore, and that is why you can still build muscles when fasting. 

Now, here is the damn problem that people dont or wont understand. If you are a carb addict (eat carbs for every meal and reward yourself with candy, ice cream, cokes whatever on the weekends because “I’ve been working out soooo hard so I deserve this”) you can never ever survive on a 5:2 diet. Yes people lose weight according to the papers, but what is it that actually happens? Your glycogen stores are running out and the body panics because there is no easy access to energy. It turns to your muscles and start to take the energy from them. So what you’re actually losing is muscle weight and we all know that muscles weigh more than fat. It’s really not harder than that to understand. 

So what do I think about this? I’m striving to eat as natural as possible and intermittent fasting, regardless if it’s 16:8 or 5:2, is beneficial for you and your body. I don’t, however, believe in not eating when you are hungry. When I’m hungry I eat but with time you learn how to distinguish between the emotional hunger and the “real” hunger. I definitely believe in the 5:2 diet, I just don’t have the disciplin to follow through with it, but I don’t believe in a 5:2 diet when you’re a carb addict, that’s just reckless, stupid and shows lack of research. 

 

Good news!!

I’ve got some good news for all of you. In a swedish newspaper today, read here, it is stated that the National Food Administration (Livsmedelsverket) has decided, based on EU laws and guidelines, that the LCHF and GI marking on food products will be banned. Markings like “healthy”, “only 6g fat” and similar will be banned as well.

Now you might think that this is a bad idea.. I mean, LCHF is good, and people need guidance, right? Well.. no. Im sure you have seen in some stores where they put the label LCHF on water. That’s because the LCHF tag sells. You have LCHF bread.. thats usually bullshit because the bread does contain a lot of carbs. The point is that the food producers do everything to make money and they fool us with their labelling.

This means that companies like Paulún wont be able to promote their products as GI. It will make it harder for companies to market their products overall. It will not be legal to say what health gains there are with their products.

This kind of writing wont be legal!

This is brilliant. This is a massive step in the right direction. Yeah the LCHF label will disappear but honestly, who is stupid enough to buy LCHF water? People on LCHF are educated enough (hopefully) to know what to put in their mouth. Instead, all the commercials about low calorie chocolate bars and “healthy orange juice” will go away and it means that people wont be led onto the wrong path to a healthy lifestyle. For once the Food Administration did something good! (And I bet they didn’t even realise it themselves)

My friend’s 25th birthday

Last friday I was invited to my friend’s 25th birthday. On the menu were pastasallad, baguettes with different spreadable cheeses and strawberry cake, three of them. As you can see I didn’t have much choice but to eat it. Three times during the night my stomach transformed into a hard balloon. During those horrible moments I couldn’t drink or eat. Absolutely horrible, but of course, when it went down to normal size I started eating again so I can only blame myself.

It’s “funny” to see how my body reacts, and everytime I’m so glad I’ve changed to a lowcarb diet. I would never ever go back and feel that way again. 

An the cake was deliciouussssss, of course. 

Intermittent fasting 5:2?

Well, the pain in my legs have disappeared, thank God. Unfortunately I haven’t signed up for a gym yet. A part of me thinks that I should take it easy, go for a run now and then and keep my diet strict. The other part wants to get a membership, whatever the cost, and get going as soon as possible. Decisions!

 

I’m slowly adjusting to intermittent fasting 5.2. Meaning you eat 5 days in the weak and fast 2. At the moment, those days I’m not hungry I fast, and those days where I wake up starving, I don’t. Maybe later I can go 100% in with pre-decided days etc. 

My 2nd 10k ever!

This morning I finally dragged myself out of bed to go running. I had decided the night before to go for 10k so I was mentally prepared and I had already calculated the distance on the way I was gonna take. 

After 5k my legs gave up so I stopped for 4 min to stretch and drank some water before I ran the last 5k. Improved my time with 4 min since last time, which is not bad at all really. Still over an hour, but my goal is to get under an hour. 

My body is not really used to run long distances, so my knees are absolutely killing me atm. Despite that I’m thinkng about going to the gym tomorrow, but I will focus on shoulders and arms. I’ve missed the gym!! I need to find a decent place to go to, and that’s soon! 

Fiber

I usually hear from people, who aren’t on a low carb diet, that you need fiber, which is commonly found in grains. I got a comment on the blog a while ago as well about fibers so I thought I should clear this out.

Fiber, first of all, is a carbohydrate, that’s indigestible. Meaning it doesn’t provide any energy and pass through the system “unnoticed”. What it does is making you feel full for longer and it can prevent constipation, depending on what kind of fiber it is – soluable or unsoluable. You’ll find fibers in all our famous grains, but also fruit, berries and vegetables.

As with everything else, we are differently adjusted to eat certain products. Some people may be oversensitive to fibers and some aren’t. What’s common for soluable and unsoluable fibers is that both produce gas, which makes you feel bloated. According to a Swedish article that I read ¹, only people with constipation needs more fiber, but “normal” people will do perfectly fine without too much.

In other words, I would say that fibers are overrated because it’s very individual on how much you can eat. I say “can” because some people, like myself, feel a lot better without fibers. Today I only get fibers from the vegetables I eat, seeing as I don’t eat grains, fruit or berries. My stomach is feeling better than ever, I’m not constipated anymore and I don’t feel bloated. So the old “you don’t get enough fibers” or “You need fibers” is overrated and shouldn’t be an argument for eating grains.

If you want more information I can recommend doing research, like I had to do. Don’t believe everything you read in newspapers and blogs. Read professional journals and medicine articles and create your own opinion! With that said, you shouldn’t belive me either..

¹ Läkemedelsvärlden (2003). Fibrer inte bra för alla. Link: http://www.lakemedelsvarlden.se/nyheter/fibrer-inte-bra-för-alla-2822

Today’s workout

Had a really good session with my friend today at the gym. First of all I went there on an empty stomach, which worked out perfectly fine. When I got home I refuled with 3 eggs. Perfect. 

 

Warm up:

5 min walk on treadmill (6)
10 min run on treadmill (10)

Training:

12×3 12,5kg Dumbell row
12×3 5kg standing backextension with dumbell
12×3 25kg Seated cable rows
12×3 25kg Lats pulldown
12×3 40kg Lats pull up
12×3 50kg Kneeling cable crunch
12×3 10kg Hyperextensions

Various abdominal exercises and “cool down”. 

A calorie is not a calorie

I think you should all read the following article and study about calories. Very interesting!

For my swedish readers click here: http:// http://www.kostdoktorn.se/en-kalori-ar-inte-en-kalori-2 and follow the two links on the page!

For everyone else: http://mobile.nytimes.com/blogs/well/2013/06/27/how-carbs-can-trigger-food-cravings/

And: http://m.ajcn.nutrition.org/content/early/2013/06/26/ajcn.113.064113.abstract

My health improvements with LCHF

Yesterday my mum told me about something that she read about people on LCHF and their relationship with their doctors. One guy said that his doctor didn’t want to see him anymore if he started with LCHF. Another one insisted to give blood pressure lowering medicin to a guy with high blood pressure. It wasn’t abnormally high, it was just .. high. When he started with LCHF his blood pressure went down and he never took the medicine.

Besides an obvious weight loss (-13kg) my cholesterol has gone down from 5mmol/L to 3mmol/L. 5mmol/L is normal! My blood pressure has always been low and I’m still dizzy, which I’ve always been now and then so nothing abnormal there.

My belly is not bloated anymore. I look and feel “slim”.
I don’t have a bad stomach. I’m not “hard” like I used to be when I ate too much fiber and carbs.
I’m healthier. I dont get sick as often as I used to
I have more energy. I can, without problem, work out twice a day, which I could never ever do when I ate carbs.
I’m never hungry. I don’t have to starv myself in order to lose weight, I can eat 3000 kcal and still lose weight.
Most importantly maybe.. I don’t have any moodswings anymore!! When I was hungry I could get really grumpy and in such a mood, but now I can stay happy all day! Amazing.