Diet questions for CPAP users

Im interested in nutrition for weight loss and weight maintenance. I lost 100 pounds in 2014 thru Fall 2015 but gained it back in 2016. I am getting ready to undertake another diet/exercise regime to do it all over again.

Some questions for readers:

1) do you eat a lot of protein? And if not, why? Are your meals based around protein or more around carbs? In America at least, high carb diets are ruining the health of Americans. Lean protein should be the core of major meals

2) do you drink a lot of diet sodas? Diet sodas and artificial sweeteners are now being implicated in causing weight gain because of the changes they cause in the gut, increasing "bad bacteria" which causes weight gain. The science and research behind this is complicated but is out there if you google it. I learned about it from my bariatric specialist a year back.

3) do you think most Americans, including yourself, eat way too many carbs and too much simple sugars? Carbs and simple sugars contribute to insulin resistance whether you are diabetic or not and insulin resistance makes it easier to gain excess weight and harder to lose excess weight

4) do you attempt to integrate activities that speed up your resting metabolism? Specifically weight training, muscle burns calories even when sleeping whereas fat tissue burns nothing at rest. Also, sleep quality has a lot to do with the speed of your metabolism and untreated apnea is known for contributing to a slow metabolism.

1- I follow (try) the South Beach diet, with some vegetarian meals thrown in.
2. Mostly drink water, milk, herbal tea. no caffeine, no alcohol, no soda.
3. Yes.
4. I try to do some exercise each day.

Ice cream is my downfall. Love it.

1. Yes
2. No...Water
3. Yes
4. No

this sound like a great topic for a "POLL".... everyone will love that

Sure for weight loss, use nasal mask, tape mouth secure, never remove tape! Make a poll, we love moron poles... Jim

One size does not fit all and I think you need to be careful about advocating for e.g. so much protein without knowing who's listening... many of the people here are elderly and shouldn't necessarily have a lot of protein at all, though just carbs, depending on the type, is not the whole answer either of course. Neither are heavy workouts... though people feel guilty if they don't do them. It's now believed that just a few minutes daily of the right kind of exercise can be sufficient for many older people and even some younger ones. And diabetics should listen to their doctors, not us.

I remember reading a comment from a girl that said when she would eat grains her CPAP wouldn't work well but when she didn't eat them her CPAP worked better. I've also been hearing tons of good things about a raw food diet so I am going to try a 30 day challenge and see how I feel. I think everything is interconnected so I think eating healthy in some way affects sleep and CPAP treatment. I'd say avoid acidic foods at night time. I wake up choking with acid reflux when I do.

Food as medicine. What a great concept...

One diet does not fit all. You have to find the diet that resonates with your body. The one thing in common is to avoid refined sugar.

You have high fat low carb, or low fat high carb. Find the one that works for you.

The subject of protein is open to debate. But after reading many studies I picked up some
things it may be a damn if you do and damn if you doon't. And after you get about 60 things change
too. Lot's of studies show that following a rather low protein diet say about 50 g a day for women
and about 60 G a day for men is healthier with less obesity, diabetes and cancer. But after about
60 something happens and we just don't handel protein as well and it's natrial to lose lean body mass
at this time the health benefits of keeping the protein rather low no longer apply andit may be good
to up our protein uptake. But back to the younger folks. Eating a lot of protein does have a very
satiating effect and it minimizes lean body mass lost on a diet but there may be another downside
to it .http://time.com/4526448/high-protein-di ... s-insulin/

Well I may be the exception to the rule. Typically on a day I give in
and eat a lot of junk food pizza, ice cream and candy my my Apap tells me
I had an AHI of 2 and my 95% pressure was 11.5 . But on a day I
eat a good rather low carb diet my Apap may report my AHI was
6 and my 95% pressure was 15" .

Carbs are a much misunderstood and much maligned food. Lets face it, zero carbs equates to low energy - not good. It's the type of carbs that you eat that make the difference.

One simple rule of thumb with carbs is to look at the glycaemic index (GI) of the particular carbohydrate you're eating. The lower the GI the better the carb is for you. Let's compare different carbohydrates:

Pure sugar, in any form, has a GI of 100 - the highest possible score. What it equates to is a very quick uptake into the bloodstream. It's also used very quickly as I'll explain in a further on. New potatoes have a low GI (about 54) and this means that their uptake into your system is much slower. If you cut and soak the potatoes you can get it even lower but it's not really necessary.

What affects how your body uses carbs is your pancreas. It's designed to release insulin to normalise the levels of sugar in your blood stream. Sugar provokes an extreme reaction from your pancreas and the insulin released deals with the sugar 'threat' (hyperglycaemia) very quickly and so any effect of giving energy doesn't last long as your pancreas goes into overkill mode. The potatoes induce a much slower and lower insulin reaction meaning that the energy provided gets more of a chance to work. They stay in your system for much longer because the pancreas reacts normally.

The high GI foods induce what's known as a 'sugar spike' which is quickly followed by an insulin spike causing a 'sugar crash' or hypoglycaemia. It's the last thing you want and if this happens regularly type II diabetes is the outcome as your pancreas eventually throws in the towel.

This is a very simplistic explanation but the basics are correct. I've been trying to get the parents of my competitive swimmers to understand this process and that what and when they feed their children during the day of a swim meet will affect how they perform, especially at the back end of the day. I'm getting there as their improved PBs for the later races are beginning to show. Save the sweet treat for after the meet as a reward is my motto.

My wife put me on a low salt diet, < 2,000mg. I don't have to watch anything else. With that anything enjoyable and good tasting is eliminated. Amazing how much salt is in everything. Pretty much eliminated breads, baking powder and soda count as salt. You just don't need that many calories. Winter is hard because I am a bored eater. I am relentless about weighing myself every day. Those days I go to Sam's or Costco and have a "senior lunch" I can see it the next day. It is very difficult to maintain these habits for years. I have one indulgence, milkshakes. They satisfy my cravings for sweetness and fullness. I have a 1927 Arnold drink mixer. That mixes up the cocoa and splenda to double the volume. Have about five of these small ones a day.

Protein: I find protein quite satisfying and it helps me to stick to an eating plan I enjoy, so I start my day with 2/3 cup of plain Greek Yogurt yogurt (18 grams of protein) mixed with two tablespoons of milled flaxseeds, two tablespoons of chia seeds and a generous amount of walnuts. Then have a boiled egg or sardines on carb free flaxseed bread (I make the bread myself from a recipe in Prof Tim Noakes book "The Real Meal Revolution")

I don't eat again until dinner (because I'm not hungry.)

Dinner is a huge amount of vegetables with protein (chicken or fish or lamb etc)

Diet sodas: Hate them and can't stand the taste. Try to stay away from these modified foods as much as possible.

Carbs Many cultures rely heavily on carbohydrates and are perfectly healthy. Unfortunately, large companies have created unhealthy but extremely tasty foods that are nutritionally worthless but addictive and cheap, laden with carbs, bad fats and no nutritional value ... we're not talking lentils, rice and beans here.

I avoid carbs though because ever since I was diagnosed with OSA I am super aware of insulin resistance.

Activities that boost metabolism Yes, I try to run every second day and do short bursts of high intensity sprints on the days I don't run. I recently read a study that showed that incorporating 6 sessions of 30 seconds of flat out sprinting between 4 minute intervals of light jogging/cycling or walking is very good for improving insulin resistance. I don't exercise to lose weight though because I think that is a mug's game. I prefer to watch my diet in that regard.

I am on the no diet, diet. I really don't watch what I eat what I normally would have without trying to stay away from anything in particular. Volume is what has changed.

My favorite drink is water, cool not cold and we use sparkletts so not really tap water (not great here) but do if I am thirsty.

My eating patterns have changed greatly however since 2014. I simply don't eat the volume of food that I used to. I do track what I eat to make sure I am eating enough (sometimes not), but I am not doing it to limit the food I eat or what I eat.

Having CHF means having a high metabolic rate and lots of exercise is a painful way of going through life, but I do try to keep moving when I can and have recently obtained a Garmin Vivofit to at least see if I have been moving. I don't do exercise specifically but do try to walk around more and not sit for long periods of time. But I've lived with CHF now for more than 5 years so that is not much new.

I am now about 165 lbs less than I was in 2014 and still losing weight slowly. I can now see the weight loss in certain areas, I have a bit more energy and people who have not seen me for a while really notice it in my face, body etc..

Goals, yes I have them, but not a driving force. May main goal is now only about 40lbs away and my ultimate realistic goal is another 50-75lbs from there but I'm getting there without really working at it.

What works for you? Not a clue. Can others do what I am doing, perhaps, but maybe not on any long term basis. I'm not really trying to do what I did, it just happened.

In the past, diet's didn't work for me because I could not stick to them. I could follow them for a period of time and then I just wanted something different. So I would lose the weight, and then it would come back.

So diets don't work for me, a change in lifestyle did however. Not 100% sure what triggered it or I would sell it in a bottle... just happened over a period of time in a fairly large shift that may or may not have been triggered by a medical issue. Not sure.

OK, you sound like a swim coach. Im not talking about endurance athletes here Im talking about fat people who have to use CPAP gear.

I agree with you if you are talking about young, healthy, endurance athletes, yeah they need to load up on those mashed potatos so they can train hard doing laps in the pool or miles on the road.

However for the target audience here I dont agree that carbs are a much maligned food. In fact I think for the general population and for the sick population (this forum basically) I believe "carbs are the devil." I used to think exactly as you do regarding carbs until I entered a bariatric weight loss program in 2014 (non surgery program). I too believed in that "glycemic index" thing for many decades. Learned it in college back in the late eighties and early nineties and stuck to it until mid 2014. Boy they re-educated me there.

Here is how I look at carbs now. I divide carbohydrate foods into four types. 1) simple sugars, which are BAD and should be avoided as much as possible if you have obesity issues. 2) fruits, these have fiber and vitamins and minerals which are good for you but its still got sugar in it so eat fruit sensibly 3) Traditional starch type carbs...potato based foods, bread based foods, noodle/pasta type foods such as macaroni and spaghetti, corn based foods...the traditional starches. These should be eaten in moderation if you have obesity issues. You dont need much of these unless you are engaging in endurance fitness sports like marathon running. And 4) non starchy vegetables, spinach, asparagus, peppers, etc. these are both low in calories (very low) and their glycemic index is so low you should basically not even count it. And these non starchy vegetables are the ones most loaded with fiber, vitamins and minerals and anti-oxidants. You can eat all the non starchy vegetables that you want.

Its real scientific and specific, yet once you learn it, this becomes relatively simple to think of in terms of "this kind of carb, that kind of carb, etc."

The old food pyramid, with the bottom of the pyramid being mostly whole grain products (bread, cereals) is total bs. They actually taught me that in the bariatric program. The nutritionists these days HATE the old traditional food pyramid, that was made up by lobbyists from companies that sell and market carb foods like various cereal products, bread products, etc.

Food is a highly political subject in the USA, but most Americans are unaware of that.

Holden4th wrote:Carbs are a much misunderstood and much maligned food. Lets face it, zero carbs equates to low energy - not good. It's the type of carbs that you eat that make the difference.

One simple rule of thumb with carbs is to look at the glycaemic index (GI) of the particular carbohydrate you're eating. The lower the GI the better the carb is for you. Let's compare different carbohydrates:

Pure sugar, in any form, has a GI of 100 - the highest possible score. What it equates to is a very quick uptake into the bloodstream. It's also used very quickly as I'll explain in a further on. New potatoes have a low GI (about 54) and this means that their uptake into your system is much slower. If you cut and soak the potatoes you can get it even lower but it's not really necessary.

What affects how your body uses carbs is your pancreas. It's designed to release insulin to normalise the levels of sugar in your blood stream. Sugar provokes an extreme reaction from your pancreas and the insulin released deals with the sugar 'threat' (hyperglycaemia) very quickly and so any effect of giving energy doesn't last long as your pancreas goes into overkill mode. The potatoes induce a much slower and lower insulin reaction meaning that the energy provided gets more of a chance to work. They stay in your system for much longer because the pancreas reacts normally.

The high GI foods induce what's known as a 'sugar spike' which is quickly followed by an insulin spike causing a 'sugar crash' or hypoglycaemia. It's the last thing you want and if this happens regularly type II diabetes is the outcome as your pancreas eventually throws in the towel.

This is a very simplistic explanation but the basics are correct. I've been trying to get the parents of my competitive swimmers to understand this process and that what and when they feed their children during the day of a swim meet will affect how they perform, especially at the back end of the day. I'm getting there as their improved PBs for the later races are beginning to show. Save the sweet treat for after the meet as a reward is my motto.