fett_arsch

hello forum, apologies if the question i'm about to ask grosses you out. but it is a serious question about something i am genuinely curious about. i'm something of a "health nut". i stopped eating meat in 1989. i first had spirulina back around '90. i hadn't had any after that until a couple months ago, when all of a sudden i started craving the taste of spirulina. i bought a 1lb jar of now foods brand organic spirula powder. i add 7-10 grams into my twice-daily protein shakes (14-20g/day total). i was not surprised when i noticed my bowels flushed a deep, dark green color. that is to be expected, of course, given spirulina's high chlorophyll content. i eventually polished off that first jar after a month or so. and because it was so expensive, and took so long to ship to where i live, instead of restocking with that particular brand, i went with a cheaper no-named brand (also organic) from some guy on ebay. it was a lot, lot cheaper, and it was delivered a lot, lot faster. for the last 2 weeks or so, i've been eating the exact same amount of this no-named brand as i ate of the expensive named brand. what i am surprised about now that i've switched brands though, is that my bowels are not flushing that deep, dark green color that i was expecting them to flush. so that brings me to my question: why might one brand of spirulina color my bowel movements a deep, dark green color and another brand not add any trace whatsoever of anything near a green color? my bowel flushes the color of the arizona mountains. my first thought was it was because the cheaper no-named brand is of inferior quality. but on the other hand, i also have to consider that it might be because my body might be actually "using" all of whatever it is in the no-named brand that causes the greening (chlorophyll? betacarotene?); and since it's "using" it all, that might explain why it's not getting flushed out as waste??? somebody in another - less scientific - forum, suspected that it might be down to the spirulina cell walls being too hard to digest. but, that theory contradicts the sort of thing that i recall reading many times before about spirulina: "...Spirulina are Gram-negative, with soft cell walls that consist of complex sugars and protien..." [1] "...Spirulina has a soft cell wall made of complex sugars and protein, and is different from most other algae in that it is easily digested..." [2] "...Most microalgae taken directly from the ponds is almost useless to the human body because of the cell wall. This cell wall holds in all of the nutrients, and our bodies do not have the capabilities to digest this. Spirulina seems to be special in that it is relatively easily digestible in its fresh form (Richmond 97)..." [3] ...and so on, and so on, and shoobie-doobie-doobie does anybody here have any thoughts on what might be happening? i would appreciate whatever expertise you have to share. thanks in advance for your time. respectfully, fett_arsch [1] A Microbial Biorealm page on the genus Spirulina [2] The Study of Spirulina [3] HUMAN UTILIZATION OF ALGAL BIOMASS FROM SPIRULINA

who needs the Anatomy, Physiology and Neuroscience forum's "experts" when there's google? Definition of Weight Loss Plateau What Causes a Plateau in Weight Loss? Getting past a weight-loss plateau

after googling "+metabolism +plateau" i now have a better understanding of what the body is doing in the situation of a weight loss plateau. while on my daily cycling workout, i digested what i'd googled the night before and thought of an analogy: as i understand it, the situation of a weight loss plateau is analogous to the situation of joe consumer having to cut back when the economy is in a recession; much like joe consumer adjusts his spending so that he can "live on less" when he realizes the economy is on a down turn, the body - analogously - goes through biological adjustments that make it necessary for it to "live on less". in economic boon times, joe consumer earned $2200 a day. and he spent every penny of it (say, $1600 on "essentials" like his mortgage, food, and whatnot; and, the remaining $600 spent on "luxury", "non-essentials" like, gadgets from the sharper image, cigarettes, hookers - or whatever). analogously, under normal circumstances my metabolism might need to burn every single joule of 2200 kcals. except in a plateau - when my body detects that fewer kcals are coming in - my body makes adjustments in such a way, that it learns to "spend its money" much smarter. where it once needed 2200, it's adjusted it's spending habits so that now it can get by (and very comfortably, thank you very much) on just 1600; and because it's "spending smartly", that 1600 stretches just as far as the 2200 once did. i look at the body hitting a weight loss plateau as being analogous to the once shop-aholic joe consumer turning into a penny-pinching miser during a recession.

thank you mr skeptic, water weight was - in fact - the first thing i suspected i'd lost when i weighed in 7 lbs lighter a couple weeks ago. although i dismissed it at first because i drank an avg 110 oz (3.25 ltr) of water everday that week (because i read you should drink a lot of wah-wah on low-carb/high-protein); i've also drunk the same amount everyday since then. so i am aware that water has something to do with weight. that said, i should make it clear: i did not gain the 7 lbs back. but the week after i lost the 7 lbs, i did gain 0.22 lbs back (for a net loss of 6.78 lbs in 2 weeks). i have a reasonable basic understanding of some of the "why" aspects of metabolism plateaus (body gets more efficient at using calories over time; body's survival mechanism kicks in when it suspects food is becoming scarce, and so forth...). what i hope somebody here can help me understand, is the "what" aspects of metabolism plateaus. as in, "what is the body doing when metabolism plateaus?" as opposed to "why is the body's metabolism plateauing?" if you don't have time to go into details, maybe somebody here can give me an analogy expressed in layman's terms that would shed some light on the "what" aspects? if there is a another forum that can better answer my questions, please point me to it? thanks in advance for any knowledge anybody can share. many thanks, fett arsch

weight: 184 lbs (83.4 kg) - height: 5' 7" (1.7018 m) - age: 40s - sex: male - activity level: sedentary mostly; but i consistently ride 14 miles/day on my bike, 1 hour/day, 5 days/week - weight goal: 135 lbs. hello forum, 5 months ago i started a bicycling workout regime to lose weight. for approx 1 hour, i ride for 14 miles at approx 14-16 mph on average. i meticulously monitor and record every calorie i consume and expend. without boring you with the details, i pretty consistently have a daily calorie deficit of between 1000-1100 kcals. for most of the past 5 months, i've lost on average approx 2 lbs/week. sometimes my metabolism plateaus. when it does, i "zig-zag" my daily calorie intake so that i don't take in the exact same number of calories everyday. another way that i sometimes break plateaus is to tweak my macro-nutrient intake. i've found that low-carbs, high-protein works wonders for breaking a metabolism plateau. for example, 3 weeks ago, i reached a plateau. i had a pretty sizeable calorie deficit as usual that week, but i didn't lose any weight that week. not a single pound! so for 1 week after that, i consumed a daily average of 1600 kcals, but with a very low %-age of carbs and a fairly high %-age of fat and protein. in that 1 week, i lost 7lbs! however, the next week after that, i went back to my normal way of eating (avg 1600 kcals/day; for a 1000-1100 kcal/day deficit). whereas in previous weeks, with that same formula i'd lost 2 (sometimes 3) lbs. but that week i actually gained 0.22 lbs! i repeat: i gained weight even though i had a deficit of 1000-1100 kcals! i should have lost at least 1 lb! right? so please, can you explain to me: 1. what exactly is the body doing when the metabolism plateaus? 2. since i definately had an average daily deficit of between 1000-1100 kcals, why in the heck did i gain weight? 3. isn't my metabolism defying some law of physics (or thermodynamics) or something by not losing weight when i have a calorie deficit? thanks in advance for your time and expertise. sincerely, fett arsch