I sometimes wonder where I'd be now if I had not adopted my walking regimen. I sort of had to. When I eat low carb I am compelled to get up and move. After I started eating right for my body it did not take long before I'd end up getting fidgety if I sat around too long. I'm still that way. I find it hard to sit through a movie. At work I get up at least 4 or 5 times a day for a water break. The water is on the other side of the building and while I do like staying hydrated the main reason I do it is so that I can get up to move around. So even if I wasn't going out of my way to get a good walk or two in each day, I'm sure I'm laying down 2x or 3x the steps I used to do when I was a carb eater. My desire to get up and move happened when I still weighed 400 pounds, had lower back pain, and sciatic nerve pain if standing on my feet too long. This WOE made me do something that I never wanted to do when I was eating carbs. Move.

But in addition to normal everyday activity I go above and beyond. I walk 90 minutes a day on average. Weekdays I walk 2 miles at lunch and then 2.5 miles in the evenings. On weekends I walk 5 miles/90 minutes if I can. I don't think that it had any effect on my weight loss. If it did it was more likely that it just helped me maintain a decent metabolism during my 30 months of sustained weight loss. When I reached goal I expected issues with a slow metabolism. But as it turned out I can eat what one would expect I can eat to maintain. No significant reduction in metabolism as far as I could tell.

Some people at work and at home consider me a little OCD with my walking. But I enjoy it. It relaxes me. My after dinner walk gives time for satiety so set in after dinner. It has made me more fit. I can do more and not feel the strain. I can out-hike my teenage kids. Not bad for a 54 year old. Had I not made walking an essential part of my day I think I'd still be at or near the same weight that I am today. But I'd be mushy, wimpy, and soft. I much prefer being fit and capable.

My other family members spend much more time sitting in front of the TV than I do walking. How is that not being OCD. I guess that is considered 'normal' these days. When my wife griped about my walking habit - saying that she thought that I was 'carrying it too far', I simply asked her how much time she spends watching television each day. She never complained about my walking regimen again.

My BG has remained good since I resolved my insulin resistance. I was walking regularly for months before my IR was resolved. I had higher than normal BG in spite of doing lots of walking. It was just not dangerously high as I was eating low carb. At about a year into this WOE my BG levels dropped to normal levels. They float up and down a bit for no apparent reason. But generally I'm happy with my BG. I don't know that walking has much of an impact either way.

With regards to that study Teaser posted... I have a major CVD risk factor. I have the calcified arteries of the average 70 year old man. My diet may have put the breaks on that. I hope so. But I'm hopeful that my active lifestyle and supplementation will actually reverse my risk for a heart attack. If moving a couple of hours a day helps as this study seems to indicate, then that is just one more reason for me to keep up with the walking.

yes exercise does effect BS in a very small way but the energy and stability and vigor you gain from stable blood sugar is key cause it does make one want to move more You are what you eat is so true

the healthier you get inside, the more you want to show it on the outside by using that wonderful energy....how do you do that, move

I kayak more, hike up the mts more, walk the dog more, swim more, in fact, I MUST MOVE now vs. when I was sluggy carby laden person.

I move right after I eat while others are slouched in the chair saying OMG I can't move, I ate too much I am, hey, let's put up the dishes and go for a hike...no takers HA

It is all a wrapped cycle. Stabilize the blood sugar thru food. Get benefits and healing in the body. Lose lbs as the body heals. and move forward in a whole new wonderful fashion.

different time line on healing for all of us but in the end if we hold strong, we do get results and strength and better health for sure!

Yes. It's the difference between willpower, and "drive," maybe this is just how I use the words personally, I look at willpower as forcing yourself to do something you don't want to do. If you're driven to move, it might take willpower to stop fidgeting.

I do think there is a place for structured, disciplined exercise, though. Sometimes habit can fill in for more spontaneous drive. If I work out at the same time every day, my body seems to expect to work out at that time every day, this gives me a consistency I might lack when anxiety or depression are cycling up.

Amber of the Ketotic blog has posted that on a zero carb diet, increasing exercise helps her stay in ketosis on a higher protein intake. Exercise vs. 300 grams of carbohydrate a day is one thing. Vs. zero carb, if you're already eating fairly ketogenically, things are so tight that burning through as little as ten grams of carbohydrate a day through exercise could make a big difference to level of ketosis, if you've got some condition where that matters.

One criticism of exercise is that it can increase appetite, so a person doesn't achieve any greater energy deficit. But sometimes it might be better to achieve the same deficit but at a higher food intake, even if there's no difference to fat loss, a bit more food and exercise is liable to make for increased lean mass and increased micronutrient intake.

see since I am zero carb, there is no carbs, therefore I don't have to burn thru any carbs, or pretend it is even 'a thing' to be dealt with.

zero carb, you are a ketone burning body point blank.
your 'ketone numbers' will never be equal or close to how those who 'eat some carbs' will ever be.

there is no 'in ketosis' for a zero carb eater. it just is and we don't ever care about 'being in ketosis' or achieving any number, cause it means nothing.

with zero carb I just eat as I see fit. Hungry after 6 hrs on the water kayaking, I eat maybe a second steak or 2 more cheeseburgers with bacon when I eat

I realize this is 'activity and lc thread' being a zero carber this is how my life goes down.

You are 100% correct about willpower vs. drive. Drive is life, a need, a real thing where willpower is all about make the brain think what you desire yet the body will jack that thought due to 'true physical cravings and more' thru total chemistry of how you are eating.

I find no need for any exercise to be structured cause the minute I do just that, I am now limiting my life to a restriction I probably won't ever achieve, hence failure. But if your personality is one that this suits very well, then go for it I won't do that to me anymore, try for things that I never want in my life now. I need to move I move and make the day about my activity I love. Ya love lifting in the gym or in your home....go....you love walking the dog then go.

willpower never worked for me hence my zc journey.

Amber is zero carb, though, and also managing her bipolar through ketosis. Although I guess it can't be certain that, if exercise plus zero carb is more effective for her, it's the increased ketosis that's giving her the effect.

Zero carb is not necessarily minimal carb. I could eat 200 grams of protein a day, no carbohydrate, or 70 grams of protein, 10 grams of carbohydrate. Which will more effectively lower my glucose metabolism? I realize Amber also has some blogposts showing that glucose from protein isn't well-measured. A problem here is that something can be substrate-limited without being substrate-driven--you can have a situation where eating more than the usual amount of protein doesn't increase gluconeogenesis/glucose metabolism, but if reducing glucose metabolism past a certain point is desirable, eating less than the usual amount of protein is desirable.

Protein vs. ketosis is a little less controversial, and either people like Dr. D'Agostino who look at protein within the context of a ketogenic diet are clueless, or lowering of glucose metabolism past a certain point requires looking at more than just the carbohydrate content of the diet.

I do think you can have a complete diet with zero carbohydrate. For certain nutrients, if you want very low carbohydrate intake as well as ketosis, I think a lot of people are probably better served by a diet that includes at least some carbohydrate. Less Exercise to work off the carbs in bread is silly, to work off the carbs in spinach and broccoli, it's a bit less obvious that somebody would be better off skipping these carbs.

I rarely do the response thing in a quote thingy here but it will be easier for me



you know to me if you play the numbers game and the 'how healthy can one eat' according to 'who wrote that it was correct' then ya will never learn the truth of what it really is out there about nutrition.

now am I a die hard in my zc ways and info..HAHA you bet I am LOL but I love chatting about all this cause to me it is just info out there for others.

oh and edited to say I know this is alot to take in and get your head around cause it literally took me years to go LC to VLC to zero carb as the real truth in eating but I did my reasearch hard and it suited me and I am here as I need to be.

I will never not say the carb limit some want in their life makes the eating thru life work for them and they get true benefits. I get that point blank. I say if you found a 'sweet spot' you can live with thru your entire life then you made the change and are thriving.

for me I took it further and went for 'pure nutrition' as it was meant to be out of this crazy world on food and applied what I learned to suit me. But science is science and it is truth also and we can't forget that part either.

I don't argue against zero carb understand, only for coexistence. When it comes to optimal diet, I ask, optimal for what? Or better yet, optimal for whom? One person being better off without spinach doesn't preclude another person being better off with.



I did say that I thought it could be complete, but with a caveat. Complete at what level of intake? Suppose I could get everything I needed if I ate 2 pounds of fatty steak, that's a not unusual level of intake. That will result in a certain level of ketosis. Replace half the steak with equal calories as butter. Things have gotten considerably more ketogenic. But I've divided the water-soluble vitamin content, and the mineral content of the diet in half. Is it still sufficient in that regard? I could make up for that by adding the meat back in, and make the diet less ketogenic, or I could add an amount of very low carb vegetable that will have minimal effect on ketosis, but add back in a disproportionate level of water-soluble micronutrition.

This is what I meant when I said that some people are served better with some carbohydrate in the diet--not that they needed the carbohydrate itself by any means, but that to get and the nutrition in kale or mushrooms, the carbohydrate that accompanies this nutrition is often a reasonable compromise.

Beauty of a zc lifestyle is there are 'no intake levels', there is 'no play on fat added', there is NO anything.

See with zero carb ONE MUST eat as needed.
This will vary per individual as an absolute in that we all come from so many variables (med troubles and more per person) in that Meat/Seafood/ and dairy ONLY if you can tolerate it and not allergic....that will make your journey in your own time transitioning.

There is no keto this or that better.
There is no 'level' of ketosis ever.
There is no absolutely playing 'the ketosis game' ever cause a zc person is a ketone burning body only and this whole line means nothing (which is hard to grasp but the truth)
There is NO great nutrition from kale or mushrooms because they are not protein based carbs and are in NO way needed for the body....in fact the body finds the 'truth of the toxicity levels' (again, which are hard to find if you research it but it can be found) and a carb from a plant will never equal a carb from a protein (meat/seafood) source.

There is nothing needed on ZC other than meat and seafood and if ya want to go a bit into 'non-optimal' you can do manufactured cheese, manufactured bacon, manufactured sausage etc. but if you go off the basics you then have to see how it affects you personally.

In truth a zc true lifestyle is absolute means none of the 'game of keto etc' matters and ever will.

very hard concept to get in the brain and very hard to let loose of the 'we must do XYZ' and tweak, find, change, get the best nutrition we 'think we know what the body wants' but we don't , bang for our buck cause if you eat protein carbs as the body wants, as in meat/seafood, only then you found the the zc way and the best science movement forward. (kinda think we know LC is good, so how good of an lc way is best....no carb is best if we follow this trail)

Anyone going zc can have a hard journey point blank. (personal life and med troubles) but with GIVEN LONG time on strict zc the changes will come but does anyone? ever? want to put in this time? Nope. quick fix and there is never one and won't be but the one thing I learned is science behind the truth of how a body wants to eat and a 'carb based' BS eating solution doesn't cut the science of what the body wants.

for every toxic veg you eat, you rob the body and while you think you are 'getting the great from it' it actually cancels each other out.....and your BS rises due to carb intake.

so if you elim. all carbs in all forms but from protein? where do you stand? At the front door of true health! Now how far does one go? One can only go as far as they deem fit and make it work in their life. Some got that 'extra factor' of carb control I never had. ZC was the only way I could eat the best I ever ate, all the meat/seafood, butter if wanted, some cheese etc, bacon by the boat load if ever wanted AND NEVER FEEL hungry and then get energy thru the roof and mental clarity and omgosh such a better life. Well I found my science and the truth of it all and I applied this to me.

thing is some have longer journeys making the switch but a zc total lifestyle gives back in the end, a 'carb/sugar' life is true poison and will never give back cause we always fight against it, have to tweak it, pretend we can control it.

I love this chat with you

it is all about chatting out the science and more and how we see thing and what we learned thru research and 'what we unlearned' thru science truth of it all and HOW we must get thru our lives to make it work that is so appealing of a discussion

it is a great chat

oh --and will be a bit now before coming back to post, sitting down to 1.5 lbs of crab legs dipped in butter cause it 1000% what I want right now First meal of the day cause I am not hungry at all but at 1:30 I am now hungry and after, hmm, thinking 2 cajun sugar free spice blend pork chops night with a bit of melted cheddar on 1/2 of bacon as my side.

see I want this.
I crave it today.

tomorrow my food will switch and change as I see fit to eat.
maybe bacon cheese 4 4egg omelet and some ribs later if wanted. Maybe alfedo with tons of chicken---I just eat as I need and never once question my life or food I need to live it.



results as positive. omgosh too many to list LOL

"I'll have what she's having"

I still think I have an advantage here, though you might not concede it, in that I'm only claiming that there could be situations, where a higher level of ketosis is desirable, where some level of plant matter in place of some of the meat might be helpful. If what I'm up against is the argument that there is no possible situation where adding plants to an otherwise all meat diet is a good idea, that there is no beneficial to eat, very low carb plant on the planet--this is such an strong claim, what am I to do, start naming individual plants for you to reject?

Sorry if I'm straw-manning you, but that really does look like it's the position you've taken.

I'd have trouble breathing on what she's having. Not good with shellfish. Lemme know when it's time for ribeyes.

Neither eggs or dairy are zero carb. Not much (depending), but still some carbs.

Whirlly - I am glad that 0 carb works so well for you. I have found a different route that works well for me. I stick to around 15 gms of net carbs per day. For me this is a simple way to eat and an enjoyable way to eat. I am healthy and happy and that's what counts. I seem to think more about micronutrients than some which is one of the reasons I prefer this way of eating to zero carb; it's easier to get the micronutrients. I can't eat either eggs or dairy. Both make me quite ill. So there you go, different needs different plans both working for what we each want. And I enjoy walking and miss it on the days that I can't walk outside for one reason or another.

Jean

That's the truth!