<20% of daily calories from CHO still low carb + still inhibits alpha-adrenoreceptors

[JAGERBOY]

After reading Lyles "The Stubborn Fat Loss Handbook", and then serching several of his articles, it appears that as long as one ingests less than 20% of their daily calories from carbohydrates, it will still block alpha-adrenoreceptors, which are involved in fat cell mobilization. Amongst other things like controlling insulin levels (which also inhibits fat cell mobilization), that is one of the main benefits of employing a low carb or ketogenic diet for fat loss. That said, I have generally used the traditional "5% of daily calories from carbs" and have gotten fairly lean, I'm at about 8-9% bf right now. I'm thinking of experimenting with increasing my CHO intake to 15% of daily calories and see if I notice any changes in body fat reduction and/or performance in the gym (I train in BJJ, MMA and lift).

Has anyone else employed a low carb diet with carb intake as high as 15%? Just curious of your thoughts and/or results. Thanks.

[JAGERBOY]

83 views and no responses.

[Kriegsspiel]

"It’s safe to say that most carbohydrate recommendations that you will see are put in terms of percentages, you should be eating 45% of your calories as carbs, or 65% or whatever number is being used.
As I discussed in Diet Percentages: Part 2, I don’t like this method. Rather, putting nutrient recommendations in terms of grams per kilogram or per pound is generally more valid (with one exception I discuss below). The percentages are simply meaningless without knowing how many carbohydrates are being provided in terms of gram amounts."

-Lyle McDonald

Also, I'm not sure that your conclusion follows your reasoning here, can you explain what you mean?

it appears that as long as one ingests less than 20% of their daily calories from carbohydrates, it will still block alpha-adrenoreceptors, which are involved in fat cell mobilization. Amongst other things like controlling insulin levels (which also inhibits fat cell mobilization), that is one of the main benefits of employing a low carb or ketogenic diet for fat loss.

[JAGERBOY]

"As I discuss in the Ultimate Diet 2.0, it turns out that low-carbohydrate diets (20% or less calories from carbohydrate for 3-4 days) tends to automatically inhibit those same alpha-adrenoreceptors. The third and fourth day of the UD2 are good for mobilizing and burning off stubborn body fat." -Lyle McDonald

I think the context of what you have quoted is different than the topic I'm discussing. Trust me, he's explicitly used the 20% rule in at least two of his books and has written about it in online articles. Obviously people and their response to carbohydrates can vary, but lets assume he is correct in that generally speaking, anything less than 20% of total calories from CHO elicits these same responses.

To answer your question, the conclusion is, that there is no reason in necessarily restricting your carbohydrate intake to 5% of total calories like a typical Keto diet calls for, assuming you elicit the same physiological reactions with basically anything under 20%. This would allow for more diet freedom and choices for satiety and sanity.

Also if you read his article "Fat Loss For Athletes", he directs people to set fat intake at 25%, so I don't think he is always opposed to the percentage method.

[Kriegsspiel]

"As I discuss in the Ultimate Diet 2.0, it turns out that low-carbohydrate diets (20% or less calories from carbohydrate for 3-4 days) tends to automatically inhibit those same alpha-adrenoreceptors. The third and fourth day of the UD2 are good for mobilizing and burning off stubborn body fat." -Lyle McDonald

I think the context of what you have quoted is different than the topic I'm discussing. Trust me, he's explicitly used the 20% rule in at least two of his books and has written about it in online articles. Obviously people and their response to carbohydrates can vary, but lets assume he is correct in that generally speaking, anything less than 20% of total calories from CHO elicits these same responses.

Yea, but in that case he has already set the caloric range. What he was talking about in my quote is just blanket statements about percentages of calories. For instance, 20% of calories from carbs will definitely increase fat mobilization when you're talking about normal dieting ranges (2000 calories, or 100g of carbs). Pragmatically, it's a different story when you're talking about 9,000 calories (450g carbs) from an athlete or huge powerlifter or something.

To answer your question, the conclusion is, that there is no reason in necessarily restricting your carbohydrate intake to 5% of total calories like a typical Keto diet calls for, assuming you elicit the same physiological reactions with basically anything under 20%. This would allow for more diet freedom and choices for satiety and sanity.

I agree with this.

Also if you read his article "Fat Loss For Athletes", he directs people to set fat intake at 25%, so I don't think he is always opposed to the percentage method.

Yea I just went to that article. I don't really know why he used a percentage, since he set calories based on bodyweight, he could have just as easily set fat based on bodyweight also (just multiply by .35, and it yields the same thing...).

[JAGERBOY]

Yea, but in that case he has already set the caloric range. What he was talking about in my quote is just blanket statements about percentages of calories. For instance, 20% of calories from carbs will definitely increase fat mobilization when you're talking about normal dieting ranges (2000 calories, or 100g of carbs). Pragmatically, it's a different story when you're talking about 9,000 calories (450g carbs) from an athlete or huge powerlifter or something.

I can agree with this, that in some cases it wouldn't always work. For most people though, who are following his recommendations of 14-16 x body-weight for setting maintenance calories, I think is what he's basing that 20% rule off of.

[Kriegsspiel]

Yea and I think that makes sense too. I think most people, when trying to lose weight, would do well to keep their carb intake on the lower side (the 20% of about 15xBW calories region). More fat would increase satiety, more EFAs would probably be eaten, etc., not to mention the increased FFA usage.

Then again, some people say they lose fat really well on a higher carb/lower fat diet, so who knows?