Worse than a cheat meal

Something clicked today that I should have realized much earlier. Nothing groundbreaking and earth shattering like my usual rants but still…

Something clicked today that I should have realized much earlier. Nothing groundbreaking and earth shattering like my usual rants but still an interesting realization. I was always under the impression that each time I cheated and had an “improper” meal, I was breaking my diet and forcing my body to restart the entire process of fat adaptation.

Subconsciously, each time I had a bowl of rice at a restaurant or some sort of dessert that a friend baked, I thought to myself that it will be another few days to get back on track. On top of it, I fully expected to see it reflected on the scale and by the very scientific pinch test.

Nothing was further from reality. In fact, most of the time, I saw absolutely no change what so ever. Now, in hindsight, it is ridiculous to think that one bad meal or even one bad day could really cause any noticeable weight gain but there is also a slightly deeper insight. Thanks to Amy Berger I realized the difference between being fat adapted and being in ketosis. More importantly, I realized that just because you cheated, does not mean you’re suddenly not fat adapted.

Let’s start with an example. if you’re a typical SAD (standard American diet) consumer, eating tons of refined wheat flour, you are probably well tuned to convert glucose to energy. All the right enzymes are in place. This is your default mode and it seems to work okay for you. If you were to eat a meal high in fat but low in carbs at this point, you’d probably feel pretty cranky. Of course there’s an exact parallel to being tuned to eating and using fat for energy.

So what happens if you all of a sudden decide to cut the carbs from your high carb diet? Your body cannot get it’s energy nearly as efficiently anymore and it freaks out. It needs time to develop and express the enzymes related to oxidizing fat for energy. That helps explain why some people experience the so called “carb flu” when first switching to a low carb diet.

But my point is that this process is never an overnight event. It takes time to switch an adapt to a new form of energy. You are very likely to still be a fat burning machine the next day. Therefore; there’s worse things that you can do to your diet then once in a while having a bowl of rice.