Conference Highlights-2
Day 2
So Day #2 has concluded at #LowCarbBoca2025.
Today had much more Low Carb and Metabolic Health presentations so I have plenty to share.
But first, you know you are at a Low Carb conference when people are walking around with shirts like this.
Before you ask, the answer is Yes, I bought the same shirt in black.
You also know it is a Low Carb conference when you see many people who do NOT have Diabetes walking around with Continuous Glucose Monitors on their arms (CGMs). You see the monitor as a black patch on the back of the right arm in the pic above. CGMs take glucose measurements every 5 minutes and you can follows these readings on an app on your phone. CGMs have been wonderful in helping people truly learn what makes their glucose levels rise too much, so they can make changes in their diet and lifestyle.
Now back to the conference highlights.
Same format as yesterday with maybe a comment or two from me if I feel like it.
Dr Eric Westman Presentation
You burn your carbs before you burn your stored body fat. ——- so if you eat too many carbs, you will never get to your stored body fat to burn, so you won’t lose any fat weight.
Adult onset Diabetes is a chronic metabolic imbalance where you have already HIGH levels of Insulin. Soooo…. If a hormone is already high, you don’t give more of it. That is Endocrine 101. Yet many traditional Endocrinologists treat Type 2 Diabetes by giving them more Insulin. 🙄
Low Carb Diet is great for appetite suppression. It’s all the fat burning that provides easily available energy to use that cuts the appetite.—— Why would you be hungry when you have all the energy and nutrients you need already available in your body??
You crave what you eat.
The order in which the body prioritizes metabolic fuels to burn is in this order. 1- Alcohol, 2- Carbs, 3- Fat, 4- Protein. So if you want to burn your stored fat, you must burn thru all the alcohol and carbs first. So if you greatly reduce/eliminate alcohol and carbs, your body shifts to fat burning. To lose weight you must then burn more stored fat for energy than fat you have eaten. So it is a balancing act but very achievable once you are aware.
I don’t use macros (counting nutrients) when eating as it can be too much work. But if you decide to count, do NOT use “net carbs” where you subtract fiber grams from carb grams. Just count the carbs eaten.
Protein should come first with each meal.
Deprescribing of medications is real and necessary when you lose weight. This is a good thing as your body is getting healthier and rebalancing to healthier systems.
Fiber is over-rated.
Don’t chase blood glucose or cholesterol levels when on a Carnivore diet.
If you do not know of Dr. Westman, he was one of the early pioneers in the Low Carb world, way before it became a “thing”. He was talking Low Carb up when it was not in vogue. He continues to practice Low Carb medicine and what I was very happy about in his lecture is that almost everything he said is what I have been saying to all of you for the past 15-20 years. BTW, I have never met, spoke, or interacted with Dr. Westman, yet we have so many of the same views on diet, nutrition and health.
Dr Gurpreet Padda did a presentation on Metabolic health and technology. I got a few pearls from this presentation.
Chronic pain ruins metabolic health
Crisis means both danger AND opportunity
GLP1 injectables last a long long time in the body as opposed to how our body manufactures natural GLP1s which are pulsatile and short acting. The long action of the injectables are what Dr Padda and I agree are the main cause of the side effects of these drugs.
Some side effects of GLP1s include lowering gastric acid production which decreases ability to digest food, lowers protein absorption, increases risk of sarcopenia (muscle loss), increases Gastroparesis which means slower transit time of food thru your gut, may increase risk of Leaky Gut, SIBO and Autoimmune Disease.
If you lose bone/muscle when on GLP1s, once off the injections, it can take 6 times as long to regain the bone and muscle as it does to regain the fat. This means when you stop using the GLP1s, and start gaining the weight back, you gain fat back before any muscle or bone, so if you are unlucky enough to gain all the weight back, you are in worse shape than before, as now you have more fat stored and less bone/muscle mass.
Next presentation from Dr. Ben. I’d try and spell his last name but it would take me awhile. He spoke about exercise and how high intensity training, two 20 minute resistance training sessions a week, is a great way to build muscle, bone and improve inflammatory issues as well.
Exercising your muscle produces Myokines, which are anti-inflammatory signals that go thru the body to reduce inflammation.
Exercise helps move glucose into energy storage in muscles called glycogen, which is NOT insulin dependent. So exercise reduces the need for more insulin. Soooo, the more muscle mass you have, the more glucose gets stored as glycogen in muscle as opposed to fat in your fat cells.
High intensity training increases BDNF which is a brain fertilizer and VEGF which helps with circulation/making new capillaries.
Next was a presentation on GLP1s by a doc who seemed to be a proponent. I listened to his talk, but was still not convinced these injections are safe.
Next presentation from Dr. Lily Johnston, a vascular surgeon who presented on Women and Cardiac Health.
Cardiac deaths in women account for 1/3 of the the total deaths, which is more than the deaths from ALL cancers combined.
Almost 2/3 of women who die suddenly from cardiac deaths had NO PRIOR SYMPTOMS.
Some risk factors for women and cardiac disease include PCOS, Preeclampsia, Premature Menopause and Autoimmune Disease.
One of the biggest risk factors happens to be Sleep Apnea.
How to avoid bias- Be Curious and watch for, collect and monitor data.
That’s about it for Day 2.
We left and I again skipped wine tasting and a group dinner. In fact as I finish typing this post, it is 7:28PM. I have already eaten my dinner at home, a BNB in Boca and am now resting and reading and relaxing until the final day of the conference tomorrow. The suckers who stayed for the wine tasting and free dinner are just now sitting down to eat mass produced lower carb catered food, but probably not organic and probably has more seed oils in it than I prefer. Besides, these are long days that start at 8am, so if I can be done and home by a little after 6pm, then that is what I will do.
Oops, almost forgot to show my dinner tonight.
Tuna fish salad made with tuna, avocado oil mayo, chopped onion and spices (garlic and onion powder), and some slices of Swiss cheese on the side. #Delicious
It’s nice being away and still having a kitchen so I can prepare my own healthy meals with good quality ingredients, just as if I was home in Jersey.
That’s all for tonight folks.
Comments and questions welcome.
Regarding your comment "I have never met, spoke, or interacted with Dr. Westman, yet we have so many of the same views on diet, nutrition and health" I say its Dr. Westman's loss not having met you face-to-face 😎. IMHO this should be rectified at your next seminar - I am certain he'll be glad you did 👍
Good report ! I am glad to see that some Swiss cheese would be okay with tuna. Even gladder to see that you heard support that my long-standing, old-fashioned, view is correct regarding what goes into the "furnace" and in what order (alcohol before carbs before fat before muscle).