I know some folks around here like talking about the science of gaining—how to do it well, how to avoid complications/illness, etc.—and I was wondering if anyone is familiar with/has thoughts about the ideas from Fire in a Bottle/the Croissant diet?
I’ve been trying to implement it for awhile—not for weight loss, but for energy/metabolism improvement. I feel way better than I have in a long time. My digestion feels better, I have more energy, and I don’t get blood sugar crashes or hunger pangs (I still get hungry, but no pang).
For those unfamiliar,
One of the intro posts is here: fireinabottle.net/the-croissant-diet-specification/
The author poses some interesting ideas about epigenetic signaling/control of metabolism/energy homeostasis, weight gain/loss, and diabetes.
Interestingly, like some of us here, he favors dairy fat for stearic acid—but for weight loss and improved metabolism instead of weight gain.
Basically, drawing from a number of strains of research, he proposes that our metabolism and fat storage genes respond to dietary epigenetic signals—specifically, the ratio of polyunsaturated fats to saturated fats—much the same way that hibernator animals do, with similar effects:
Excessive dietary polyunsaturated fat —> epigenetic changes —> body prepares for hibernation, ie enters fat making and storage mode (side effects of lethargy and lowered body temp).
While hibernators would enter real torpor and hibernation and burn through their fat stores, we don’t do that. Furthermore, when we burn stored PUFA, it signals just as when burning dietary PUFA. So that mechanism, plus diets high in PUFAs (e.g. from soybean oil or animals that accumulated PUFA from soy feed), people can get trapped in hibernator-like metabolism.
Eventually, that trap overwhelms the body’s ability to store dietary and synthesized fat, which results in diabetes. Like much of diet discourse, the mechanisms he addressed largely conflate obesity with eventual diabetes.
He proposes that the solution to this trap is: minimizing PUFA consumption + dietary epigenetic signaling to push the body into lean metabolism. Supposedly, saturated fats—especially stearic acid—signal the body to enter lean metabolism, which is characterized by shunting excess calories/energy to thermogenesis (instead of fat making and storage).
While I’ve happened to lose a little weight (less than 10 lbs), I do notice some pretty significant body composition changes. They reflect what feedees gainers often report/experience (including my own previous experiences), and some other people who have followed this diet but not lost weight report similar changes: namely, more subcutaneous fat storage (eg bigger thighs, bigger moobs), less visceral fat storage (eg smaller waistline, decreased pants size)
I’ve been trying to implement it for awhile—not for weight loss, but for energy/metabolism improvement. I feel way better than I have in a long time. My digestion feels better, I have more energy, and I don’t get blood sugar crashes or hunger pangs (I still get hungry, but no pang).
For those unfamiliar,
One of the intro posts is here: fireinabottle.net/the-croissant-diet-specification/
The author poses some interesting ideas about epigenetic signaling/control of metabolism/energy homeostasis, weight gain/loss, and diabetes.
Interestingly, like some of us here, he favors dairy fat for stearic acid—but for weight loss and improved metabolism instead of weight gain.
Basically, drawing from a number of strains of research, he proposes that our metabolism and fat storage genes respond to dietary epigenetic signals—specifically, the ratio of polyunsaturated fats to saturated fats—much the same way that hibernator animals do, with similar effects:
Excessive dietary polyunsaturated fat —> epigenetic changes —> body prepares for hibernation, ie enters fat making and storage mode (side effects of lethargy and lowered body temp).
While hibernators would enter real torpor and hibernation and burn through their fat stores, we don’t do that. Furthermore, when we burn stored PUFA, it signals just as when burning dietary PUFA. So that mechanism, plus diets high in PUFAs (e.g. from soybean oil or animals that accumulated PUFA from soy feed), people can get trapped in hibernator-like metabolism.
Eventually, that trap overwhelms the body’s ability to store dietary and synthesized fat, which results in diabetes. Like much of diet discourse, the mechanisms he addressed largely conflate obesity with eventual diabetes.
He proposes that the solution to this trap is: minimizing PUFA consumption + dietary epigenetic signaling to push the body into lean metabolism. Supposedly, saturated fats—especially stearic acid—signal the body to enter lean metabolism, which is characterized by shunting excess calories/energy to thermogenesis (instead of fat making and storage).
While I’ve happened to lose a little weight (less than 10 lbs), I do notice some pretty significant body composition changes. They reflect what feedees gainers often report/experience (including my own previous experiences), and some other people who have followed this diet but not lost weight report similar changes: namely, more subcutaneous fat storage (eg bigger thighs, bigger moobs), less visceral fat storage (eg smaller waistline, decreased pants size)
1 year