Diet that actually works with Apnea

I had my thyroid levels checked and the endo said she wanted to do surgery and remove my thyroid.

I said screw that and went to a different endo for a second opinion and he wanted to take out my parathyroid instead.

I said bull crap, these idiots are just behind on their car payments!!

Went to a third endo with box full of tests and images that the others had done. He ran a few more tests and said we should just do a wait and see approach and check periodically. It's been two and a half years and I still have both my thyroid and parathyroid and doing fine.

Never trust a doctor just because he/she is a doctor. They are not special. They are human like anyone else. Some are evil, some are incompetent, and some are just not very good, while some actually know what they are doing.

I have hypothyroid disease - have been on thyroxin for . . . nearly twenty years now?

I know the issues with my weight and what it is from. I never gained weight from my low thyroid - my heart just kept stopping. The weight issues came on quite suddenly during treatment for a disease I didn't have. The medications - both the steroids and the pain meds really did a number on me. I'd go to bed one night and get up the next morning ten pounds heavier.

I'm sure the thyroid disease (though it is well managed) doesn't help with trying to lose weight - nor does the lack of good sleep. Even with my best effort per zeo the most deep sleep I get is fifteen minutes a night.

So, this is working. . I've lost twelve pounds - I'm going to keep doing what's working.

Have you checked your food to make sure there are no preservatives or anything else that is artificial? I know that if I eat even a small bag of potato chips (crisps if you are from the right side of the pond) I will gain a pound or two. I only eat them at weekends so it is possible that I eat too much of anything, especially if I eat fast food. However, the message here is that all the food that goes into my mouth must be 'au naturelle.' That means no preservatives, no MSG, and no artificial flavors. Of course, herbs and spices are definitely allowed.

Losing weight is not easy, especially as we get older. Diets often do not help in the long term because we need to make the changes permanent.

One of the things I have done to increase my "exercise" is to make my desk at home a standup desk. All that means is that I made a coffee table to sit on top of the regular desk so that I am forced to stand when I am using the computer. Actually I have set it up soon as I can use the regular desk when I get tired. I have also bought a high bar chair with a back so that I can take a rest if I need to. This is forcing me to stand up straight and exercise my core muscles more than if I was slumped in a regular chair. I just wish I could stand up at work during my regular day.

Sleepytwo2: ask your HR department. It MAY be a reasonable accommodation to arrange a desk and chair you stand at.

DreamStalker wrote:Carb type doesn't really matter. It is the amount of carbs (ie. total grams) that matters.

Once the body coverts carbs to glucose, it doesn't know or care what the source/type of carbs was, your hormones will respond according to the amount of glucose produced from the carbs which is a function of the total grams of carbs you ingest be it whole wheat bread or doughnuts. The glycemic index only works if you keep the total grams of carbs low. Most people misinterpret that low glycemic carbs are ok to eat and they tend to over eat them which defeats the purpose of labeling them low glycemic.

I don't think this is quite true, it does matter somewhat what kind of carbs you eat. The higher the glycemic index, the more rapid your insulin spike, which can cause metabolic problems that make it harder to lose weight. Also, a rapid spike tends to mean you get hungry again faster.

But it is indeed true that quantity matters a lot too! There's a concept called the glycemic load which is the GI times the number of grams of carbs, that represents the size of the insulin spike. Since GI tends to vary from 40 - 120 or so, you can see that if you eat 3x the amount of a super low GI food (GI=40), that's just as big a glycemic load as a super high GI food (GI=120).

BTW, a Snickers bar has a lower glycemic index number than a piece of whole wheat bread.

But the Snickers bar has a much higher glycemic load and that is the important factor.

quietmorning wrote: And with apnea. . I'm finding that even that is boarding on two much. Even with exercise, I only lost a half a pound last week. Meh. But I AM LOSING.

The realistic truth about dieting is that losing half a pound a week is considered by most doctors to be successful dieting. If you stress your body too much with radical dieting you may go into diuretic mode and simply dump water, which gives the appearance of weight loss but is actually fake weight loss which will soon come back with a vengeance once your thyroid makes the necessary adjustments (assuming it's working correctly). Summary: Half a pound a week is generally considered to be GREAT weight loss. Be stress free and happy with that result, plus take your time. Please, keep us updated on your progress.

patrissimo wrote:

DreamStalker wrote:Carb type doesn't really matter. It is the amount of carbs (ie. total grams) that matters.

Once the body coverts carbs to glucose, it doesn't know or care what the source/type of carbs was, your hormones will respond according to the amount of glucose produced from the carbs which is a function of the total grams of carbs you ingest be it whole wheat bread or doughnuts. The glycemic index only works if you keep the total grams of carbs low. Most people misinterpret that low glycemic carbs are ok to eat and they tend to over eat them which defeats the purpose of labeling them low glycemic.

I don't think this is quite true, it does matter somewhat what kind of carbs you eat. The higher the glycemic index, the more rapid your insulin spike, which can cause metabolic problems that make it harder to lose weight. Also, a rapid spike tends to mean you get hungry again faster.

But it is indeed true that quantity matters a lot too! There's a concept called the glycemic load which is the GI times the number of grams of carbs, that represents the size of the insulin spike. Since GI tends to vary from 40 - 120 or so, you can see that if you eat 3x the amount of a super low GI food (GI=40), that's just as big a glycemic load as a super high GI food (GI=120).

Think what you want. The quantity (grams) of carbs is all that matters.

I understand quite clearly the glycemic load and I certainly have a better than average understanding of arithmetic. What you fail to understand is that the body doesn't care whether it is low or high glycemic carbs. It doesn't have to use multiplication to figure out if it is a low or high glycemic load. It only cares about the total grams of carbs converted into blood glucose. That's it. How much glucose gets into the body determines how much insulin it needs to deal with it -- whether it is slow or fast does not matter.

For example, if you get a one gallon bucket and you carefully measure and pour a gallon of water into the bucket slowly, when you finish pouring the water you will have one gallon of water. If however you take one gallon of water and you carefully measure and pour it very fast into the bucket, when you are done pouring, you will also have one gallon of water (assuming you measured and poured it carefully). The gallon of water (ie. carbs) and the gallon bucket (ie. insulin) are correlated together by volume, NOT the rate (or speed) of getting the water into the bucket.

Also, a rapid spike in insulin or glucose does NOT tend to mean you get hungry again faster. Try this experiment. Go and eat a large chicken-fried steak with mashed potatoes loaded with cheese and butter and monitor your glucose with a meter. You will get a huge spike alright but I doubt you will get hungry faster ... I know because I've tried it and wasn't hungry for almost 30 hours. Yes, I have abused myself in the name of science, but I've also learned a lot.

Now if you want to get technical and say that NET grams of carbs makes a difference. Then I can buy that. There are undigestible carbs called fiber that does not get turned into glucose, that is true. However the fact remains that the rate (or speed) at which carbs get converted into glucose makes no difference at all. Why should it? Why do you need more (or less) insulin if you consume 500 grams of NET carbs in one minute vs 500 grams of NET carbs in 30 minutes? As I mentioned earlier, all you need to do is get a glucose meter and conduct an experiment on yourself. I did and I now know that the glycemic index/load diets are bunk designed to make money from those who don't understand carbohydrate metabolism. Sorry but that's my view on this subject, I studied it for several years, I've read Brand-Miller's and Thompson's books, and it will take a whole lot more to convince me than proving to me that 3 x 40 = 120.

One of my (formerly heavy) nice lady FB friends just posted, "Nothing tastes as good as zipping up a size 6 pair of pants feels."

Should I comment, "For men, it is the opposite."

Boyce wrote:One of my (formerly heavy) nice lady FB friends just posted, "Nothing tastes as good as zipping up a size 6 pair of pants feels."

Should I comment, "For men, it is the opposite."

Not Fade wrote:

BTW, a Snickers bar has a lower glycemic index number than a piece of whole wheat bread.

But the Snickers bar has a much higher glycemic load and that is the important factor.

Not from my experience. Any grain is bad. We were not designed to eat grains. Get rid of them, track how your body reacts to the lack of grains, (i.e. blood sugar will be much lower) and watch the weight fall off.


JeffH

JeffH wrote:We were not designed to eat grains.

Probably makes sense since we can't digest corn but we still eat it.

cosmo wrote:

JeffH wrote:We were not designed to eat grains.

Probably makes sense since we can't digest corn but we still eat it.

We?

Speak for yourself spaceman ...

Corn
Also peanuts!

Seems, you are suffering from 'Syndrome X'. This is a monster in disguise, a silent killer. Have you checked your HbA1C level, recently ?