Monday, February 2, 2009

Fat and your body

Most people wonder what triglycerides are. Triglycerides are the fats as they are stored in your body. That stuff you want less of. It is a flag for you when your triglycerides are high, as that means there are lots circulating in your blood stream, and most likely you are in the process of storing them. They have to be broken down to get out of your cells, and that happens when you have used up (or don't have) glucose in the blood stream to burn as fuel for your body. So that is how a low carb diet burns fat: it absolutely will get fuel from wherever it can get it. And that will be the protein in your diet, and the fat stored in your body.

My husband has lost 30 pounds in the last four months on a low carb diet. He wants to lose another 10-15 lbs. He eats less than 50 g of carbs a day. I have lost 15 lbs and stay under 100g of carbs, which is one third of the recommended daily allowance in Canada. I'm sure I used to eat a lot more carbs before I knew to count carbs.

His triglycerides are now low compared to last year. His is more of a Meditteranean diet, I guess, but it is pretty low carb. We used olive oil. His HDL is good, and so is his LDL. Mission accomplished, and he walks on a treadmill. His family has high blood pressure and stroke as risk factors.

I was happy someone pointed me at "Good Calories, Bad Calories" or GCBC as its known. I recommend it.