Comment by captainmuon | Hacker News Reader

Comment by captainmuon | Hacker News Reader

I think it is not just about the reward for eating something sweet, but simply about blood sugar levels. I found in the last couple of years I needed to maintain a certain amount of sugar, especially during difficult mental work, otherwise I would get a headache or not have enough energy to work. I remember as a kid, it used to be the opposite. I was able to skip breakfast without problems, whereas others would easily get a headache in school.

I'm trying to cut back on sugar, as in my mid-thirties I'm starting to slightly get the feared dad-bod (extra viscerial fat which is very unhealty).

In the beginning it was rather difficult but after one or two weeks I found I can go longer without sweets. I guess eating slow-burning carbs and non-carb calories is an important factor.

Does anybody here know if it is true that the body adapts to how frequent sugar is available? I don't mean full blown keto, but just dropping the snacks and sugary drinks and having larger pauses between glukose spikes. I've read about it and it matches my experience but it's hard to tell how much is backed by science.

Yeah, there are a lot of sources out there on this subject. It generally takes 10-14 days for your body to adjust to burning fat instead of storing excess sugar. People also tend to be hangry and have bad headaches during the transition. IF can be helpful to keep your body from returning to the sugar rollercoaster. The problem is our food supply is built on cheap sugar/corn. It takes focused and deliberate effort to change. Most people have too much stress in their lives already and this is just not sustainable for them.

The ten to fourteen days is debatable and depends on how fat adapted you are. People who frequently cycle keto/low carb/fasting become fat adapted faster than those using SAD.

That comports with my experience: for anyone who’s never been in ketosis, it’s maybe 10-20 days. But once one is acclimated, it’s both shorter and easier; it takes me about 3-4 days now.

When I start going back into a fast (usually when cycling fasts) I can get back into ketosis within a day according to the strips. It took years to get to this point though.

This is mostly hunch/n=1, but I think a significant factor is not just sugar, but the sugar/fiber ratio. This is one reason why whole fruits (and berries especially) are preferable to fruit juice: the fiber slows down the blood sugar spike (some of the energy is used up breaking apart the fibers for digestion).

I’ve started eating a pinch/handful of leafy greens twice a day, as a sort of medicine-for-the-gut; and while the effect is subtle, I’ve definitely noticed a stability boost to mood and energy, especially while I’m not in ketosis.

otherwise I would get a headache

In my experience, headaches from cutting out carbs are almost always because your body is retaining less water and you're running low on water/electrolytes. Add some salt, zinc, magnesium and potassium to your diet.

When I do extended fasts (1-5 days), I'll literally grind up cal-mag-zinc pills, add salt, and dilute them in warm water and drink them. It tastes awful, and there's products out there that work better, but it feels great once your body absorbs it.

fyi, zinc and magnesium are competitively absorbed [1] so you might see a bit better absorption if you took those separately

[1] https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/7836627/

Yeah, getting a headache because one didn't eat that day isn't normal. It means you're addicted to cheap carbs. Our ancestors on the Serengeti didn't have this luxury of eating 3 times every day.

> It means you're addicted to cheap carbs.

How do you know this?

Wouldn't that mean that gp's body is only able to absorb energy from blood sugar floating around the body and has lost the ability to use other sources of energy in the body. Hence has physical addiction to contionous blood sugar supply.

or maybe there some other medical condition ( other than insulin resistance) that is causing this. Curious to know what that might be.

Isn't visceral fat normal

Excessive visceral fat is related to insulin resistance, so it's a sign there's a disease process going on.

Yes it is

Yes, of course everyone will have visceral fat. Having more of it is associated with diabetes, heart disease, etc. People with lots of subcutaneous fat but relatively little visceral often have better health outcomes, even though they also can look pretty flabby.

https://i.imgur.com/2Ko0UqZ.png

As far as I understand it, the kind of (excessive) fat you put on in the gut region is more dangerous than the kind that is under your skin and distributed over your body, as it is linked to diabetes and other diseases.

oh course, if you're giving a system a break from overuse (which is the general rule with modern diets), it will work better!

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