I first want to thank you both for great information that helped me with my weight loss. I started cutting at the beginning of the year and it improved my health and overall well-being by a mile. I went from 288lbs and ~28% body fat to 247lbs and ~15% body fat. My waist circumference went from 47.64" to 33.5". All of that while my e1rm on SBD stayed more or less the same. I will post the pictures by the end of the week in the facebook group.
Squat before: 485lbs, after: 465lbs
Deadlift before: 615lbs, after: 620lbs
Bench before: 385lbs, after: 375lbs
My max bw pull ups went from 6 to 15.
And my LDL cholesterol went from 127 mg/dl to 82 mg/dl
As you can see, I had great results… and now my next plan is:
Maintain for a while, then bulk until my waist is 37", and then cut again - rinse/repeat.
Now to stop with bragging. I want to ask the real question. Lately I’ve increased my fiber intake from 15-20g (I had this intake on average since I started the diet), to 45-50g a day. Most of the intake is from: oats, apples, bananas, peach, carrots, broccoli, cauliflower etc.
But I am having issues with gas and bloating. It’s almost unbearable sometimes. I didn’t add any different food, just increased the amount of the same food that I already eat in a day. Is it because the body needs more time adapting to the fiber intake? Should I wait until the body adapts? Or should I drop the intake by little each week and see how much fiber is the maximum that I can function normally?
Thanks for the post and sharing your experience. You’ve done awesome so far! Truly.
To your question on fiber and gas, yes, there is a bit of a run-in period where the body needs to get used to the increase in fiber. A couple of weeks usually does it. If it’s really uncomfortable, I’d cut fiber down to 30g or so and run that for 2-3 weeks before bumping it up to 35-40g for a few weeks, before finally reaching the level you’re at currently.
You may also change the cooking methods used, e.g. soaking the oats overnight, steaming the vegetables, etc.
I will try to adapt for few weeks and see from there, if it does not get any better, I will try to reduce to 30g, and run with that for few weeks and then I will increase intake gradually.
Another question. Since I really like this high fiber diet from the taste/satiety standpoint… Is there an upper limit to the daily/weekly fiber intake? I love fruits, and I can see myself eating 60+ grams of fiber a day. If I increase that from fruits mainly, would there be any health downsides? All of that assuming that my waist/BMI is in check, as well as other health markers.
That would be ~ 14 bananas yielding 1500 Cal and 378g of carbohydrates. Still, if that fits someone’s energy intake profile and they’re hitting the fiber targets, I’m not worried at all about naturally-occurring sugars. Added sugars are a different deal.
The answer to that is: Maybe there is too much of anything? The fruits, veggies, and the fiber is all a part of the health promoting diet, but is there maybe a limit to the intake amount? Is the higher fiber amount worth it if the sugar intake will go up?
You are overthinking it while conflating sugar that naturally occurs in foods with added sugar. As mentioned before, they are not the same things and do not have the same effects