Something must be changing. Today I completed my 2 mile jog without stopping. They were 10 minute miles and most people probably could have walked just as fast, but they were nonstop none the less. Today completes one calendar week of the increased activity and I just don't believe that there is any significant training effect at this point, to me this points to better fuel availability for the muscles. I felt more energized most of the day today, where for the past 6 days I've felt very tired. Ketones are still level 4+ so not convinced that my muscles are using these for fuel. It could be that they are now using fatty acids directly.
Another thing I noticed is that the weight loss has either stopped or at least slowed significantly. For the first 4 days of this phase of my experiment I lost over one pound per day at the rate of about 1/3 water and 2/3s body fat. For the past 3 days my weight hasn't varied more than one pound up or down from 160.
BG has been in the high 80s low 90s all day and about the same over the last 3 days. If my muscles have adapted to using FFAs rather than ketones in place of the glucose this could explain both the higher BG and the reduction in weight loss.
Here's my current theory: I eat enough protein to create about 58 grams of glucose per day. Without the added muscle activity of jogging this amount seemed adequate for glucose dependent systems. I increased my activity and this started sacrificing some lean muscle mass as well as a significant amount of body fat to release glycerol to create enough glucose to support the added activity, but discarded the resulting FFAs as they couldn't be used at the time - hence the rapid reduction in weight.
If my muscles have now started to use FFAs, the body fat will still be transported out of storage as triglycerides when energy expenditure increases when I exercise, however, now the 3 fat molecules of the triglyceride will be used as fuel for the muscles which is far more efficient and requires far less fat for a given amount of energy. The glycerol molecule will still be converted to glucose by the liver, however the muscles don't need this anymore as they are now using the FFAs as their primary fuel source. This means that the newly created glucose will be released into the blood stream and raise BG. If no systems need this glucose, and if it rises high enough, then insulin will be released from the pancreas to convert the excess BG to glycerol which will combine again with 3 fat molecules from the high fat diet I'm eating and then stored again as body fat - hence no weight loss at all as the glycerol molecules are just going through a cycle from stored body fat, to triglyceride, to free glycerol (releasing 3 fat molecules in the process), converted back to glucose in the liver, then converted again to glycerol in the presence of insulin when BG rises, and finally combining again with 3 fatty acids to make a triglyceride to be transported to fat cells for storage.
Fatty acids from the foods we eat will only be stored as body fat if there is a free glycerol molecule to bind with them to create a triglyceride. Glycerol is a by product of glucose metabolism in the presence of insulin. As long as we limit BG (by eating zero carbs and reducing protein to a minimum), to a level just sufficient to support glucose dependent systems, then no insulin is released, no glycerol is created, and no triglycerides can be formed so no additional body fat is stored. The excess fat from the diet will be turned into ketones by the liver and eliminated from the body through lungs and urine.
What I think is beginning to happen to me now is that the protein I consume creates enough BG for BG dependent systems. The muscles are converting to using FFAs directly as their primary fuel source so these are being consumed by the muscles when they are realeased from the triglycerides molecule and before they can be converted to ketones. The glycerol molecule is no longer needed for muscle fuel so it is converted back to glucose by the liver but the protein I eat already meets my body's needs so this new glucose causes BG to rise. The rise in BG causes insulin to be released which converts the glucose back to glycerol. The glycerol hangs around until I eat my meal and flood my system with FFAs at a time of low activity so there is no competition for them from the muscles. Some of the FFAs bind with the glycerol and create new triglycerides that are again transported to the fat cells for storage until they are again released during periods of high activity. Fat that is not used either to create a triglyceride or as a direct energy source for some body function is converted to ketones by the liver and used to fuel some systems but most is discarded.
As you can see, if my theory explained by the above process is accurate, we should expect weight loss to totally halt and the body will just recycle the extra BG from the triglycerides over and over again. If I were to increase protein or add significant carbs then weight would increase again due to more available glucose, until again a balance is reached. If I were to reduce my protein, then I will lose weight due to less available glucose until this balance is reached again. The problem is, if I reduce protein to low, then there won't be enough protein to maintain and repair muscle tissue so when I lose weight, much of it will be lean muscle mass rather than fat. This is what happens when people go on a water fast. I did this for 31 days straight and lost about 90 lbs - much of it muscle. It took me over 2 years to recover. Doing this experiment has helped me understand what actually happened on this water fast and I would caution even my worst enemy against it. However, I was young and even more gullable than I am now, and was convinced that Sheldon, Bragg, Carrington, and a host of other gurus championing the long water fast had found the holy grail. I no longer think so.....
Well, that's what I'm thinking. It could all be nonsense and pure hokum, but it seems to fit within my understanding of how our basic metabolism works. It also provides a reasonable explaination to account for BG, ketones, weight, and other parameters I'm monitoring.
It will be interesting to watch this unfold and see what unexpected surprises are around the next corner.
Lex
