Confounded! PUFAs/Protein is Not The Answer

Slain by a Single Ugly Fact

07/12/23 94.2 0 1

06/12/23 94.2 0 1

05/12/23 93.7 36.52 1 1

04/12/23 93.6 36.75 0 1

03/12/23 93.5 36.97 0 1

02/12/23 93.4 36.03 1 1

01/12/23 93.1 0 1

30/11/23 93.4 36.7 0 1

So I don't need any more data to conclude that I'm in a state of rapid weight gain. And it looks like I have been for the last two weeks.

I can still explain that first week post ex150ish-4-sour-cream as water-weight regain (slightly less than usual), but in the two weeks since I've clearly gained at least a kilo, and maybe more.

Eyeballing my graph, my weight is rising about as fast as it was during the 'Mom Test'. And my thyroid dose seems to be rising slightly at the same time.

And this time, I've not been overeating protein. The insane protein cravings on the 2nd tell me that. In fact my impression that I'd been actually been eating less protein than during ex150-4-sour-cream seems to have been confirmed by that episode.

Which is a shame, because I really really liked the PUFAs/protein theory

https://theheartattackdiet.substack.com/p/new-theory-pufas-vs-protein

It seemed to explain everything elegantly whilst not being obviously wrong. There is no higher praise for an idea.

But now it is obviously wrong.

If it was true, then I'd have seen water-weight regain, followed by lack of appetite causing continuing effortless unconscious weight loss, like I have done for pretty much the last six months.

Whatever's deranging my weight-homeostat, it isn't excess protein blocking PUFA metabolism.

It can't be. I haven't eaten any PUFAs for months and I although I have eaten quite a lot of cheese this last week, that's because I wanted to. I was definitely in a protein-craving state a week ago, and I think my body's trying to fix that. I don't think I've eaten much more protein than I usually would do if I wasn't paying attention, in fact.

It’s still possible that I’ve just been fooled by noise, but I don’t buy it.

The weird thing is it doesn't feel like my appetite has gone up at all. During the "Mom Test" I was very conscious that I was much hungrier than usual. I didn't try to resist that. No willpower means no willpower. I want to know what my equilibrium state is, not to fiddle it by deliberately starving myself.

But this time, I don't feel particularly hungry, I don't think I'm eating more than usual, and apart from the single protein-craving episode my relationship with food is the usual uninterested boredom. Eating is a bit of a chore that sometimes feels like a good idea. Cheese and beef taste nice, but not must-have nice.

My waking temperatures are about normal, I feel pretty good, my mind seems fine (4-0 to me last chess night, yay!) I'm even getting occasional episodes of 'too hot', I'm doing the same amount of walking and cycling as I usually do, and yet my weight is rocketing.

This I can't explain at all.

Calories In, Calories Out is a Law of Physics.

One does not lightly diss the laws of thermodynamics. And certainly not as a result of diet experiments.

At least one of the things I believe must be wrong.

Clearly my weight-homeostat (if such a thing exists, sigh...) is currently aiming for a higher weight than it wanted last August, despite no PUFAs for months and low protein for all of ex150ish-4-sour-cream and for at least the first two weeks after.

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I am completely confused.

I almost abandon my PUFAs/protein hypothesis on the basis that it has made a false prediction. It will take some most undignified wriggling and some very surprising results and retconning to make me raise it to the level of 'worth considering' again. On the level of another 'Ooops, peanut butter' realisation.

And I lower my confidence in all other my diet-related beliefs. They are not yet refuted but I begin to doubt them.

---

Christmas looms, and with it a second Mom Test. I'm going to stay with my parents again.

I have no idea what to expect, but the last time, just going home and eating the wholesome natural PUFA-free foods I ate all my life without trouble caused my weight to rise by about a kilo a week (while apparently also causing my needed thyroid dose to drop rapidly, another strange thing).

If that happens again, then I'm going to come back in the New Year with my weight around 97kg, much higher than it has been for the last six months.

If that happens, then “PUFAs cause obesity” or at least “No PUFAs fixes obesity” will look very dodgy.

If my weight actually ends up higher than 99kg, my lifetime record weight from last May, then "PUFAs cause obesity" seems refuted. I can't see any way that not eating PUFAs for six months can have made the problem worse.

And I have absolutely no explanation for the fact that my weight dropped effortlessly for four solid months, or that the dose of thyroid drugs that I have needed to stay alive for nearly a decade has concurrently collapsed.

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I have had three ideas about that weight drop and apparent metabolic recovery, two of which I am very attached to:

(1) PUFAs cause obesity by somehow interfering with metabolism

Which I am pretty convinced of, by a load of circumstantial evidence, and also now by the recent direct evidence that

(a) they seem to do that in mice

(b) they seem to be metabolised very differently to normal animal fats in humans

(2) One has a weight-homeostat

Which I am pretty convinced of, because:

(a) how else could a design for an animal possibly work?

(b) Why do starvation-dieters always regain all their weight immediately they stop starving themselves?

(c) How come healthy people stay at a BMI around 21 without the slightest effort or calculation on their part, despite the fact that that requires very precise control of calorie balance?

(3) protein somehow interferes with PUFA metabolism

Which I just made up off the top of my head with no evidence of any kind, but which does seem to rhyme with r/saturatedfat's recent explosion of people claiming that giving up BCAAs has caused magical weight-loss and other metabolic improvements (such as reversing type 2 diabetes), and again, similar BCAA restriction results in mice, ably summarised by u/exfatloss here: https://www.exfatloss.com/p/show-me-the-bcaa-studies

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God damn it, I thought I was beginning to understand.

I can abandon (3) without too much difficulty, because I did after all just make it up without any real evidence.

But (1) and (2) seem very obviously true. Almost necessarily true, now I come to think about maybe abandoning them.

I will remember some of the words of a very wise man:

Not one unlawful thing has ever happened in the whole history of the universe.

If "PUFAs bad" is true, I wish to believe that "PUFAs bad" is true.

If "PUFAs bad" is not true, I wish to believe that "PUFAs bad" is not true.

Let me not become attached to beliefs I may not want to have.

If "you have a weight-homeostat" is true, I wish to believe that "you have a weight-homeostat" is true.

If "you have a weight-homeostat" is not true, I wish to believe that "you have a weight-homeostat" is not true.

Let me not become attached to beliefs I may not want to have.

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I am an empiricist. I am philosophically committed to empiricism above all other things. Nothing can ever shake that belief, because I came to it without evidence of any kind. It is my faith and I will burn for it.

Beliefs that make false predictions are false beliefs and when they are destroyed by the truth that is a great thing and reality has done me a huge and unexpected favour.

I will be appropriately grateful.

Here I stand. I can do no other.

A shame, though. Such beautiful ideas. If the truth destroys them I shall permit myself a bout of grief, instead of the joy that I should feel if I was sane by my own standards.

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What remains?

Well ex150ish still looks like it works.

But why?

Ketosis and Protein Restriction together work, but neither Ketosis nor Protein Restriction work on their own. And maybe double cream works better than sour cream?

When I come back in the New Year, doubtless much heavier than before, I will try a fifth bout and see whether it still works.

Experiment. Predict. Make Sure That Your Beliefs Are Paying Rent.

And maybe PUFAs are still bad metabolically, independent of whether they’re the reason for obesity?

Even the sulphites thing is looking dodgy. The other day I stayed up till 0500 with a very bad fluffy and drank an absolute bucket of mulled wine with only the usual sort of traditional hangover that was my just desserts. No sulphite-apocalypse.

This problem may be more interesting than it looked.

Let’s see what happens.