Exactly. Actually I was a bit surprised that nobody asked exactly whats he eating and in what amounts. If I'll be running on 71g carbs/day I would be flat out zombie with no power and feeling like a complete shadow of myself. Context is all that matters. I probably have around 70-100g carbs for breakfast just to start the day and mind you I'm a light-weight right now. When I was too restrictive with my food a couple years ago prior starting TRT my SHBG also was higher and after adding them back in it went lower but not by much fwiw. Usually what I find with people who are training that they are underfed and overworked and giving them more food and more rest usually works wonders even though some don't want to do it and prefer to go round and round in their old ways.
Exactly. 71g of carbs and I would run out of gas on the way to work I actually have my 1st meal at 4:30am and consume 85g of carbs in my big bowl of Honey Bunches of Oats/Almonds cereal. My 2nd meal is 250g of carbs just to make it to the gym.
These low fat diets are not so healthy. My old friend from South Africa was a huge fitness buff, ran marathons, lifted weights but he was on a low fat diet supposedly to keep healthy and died of a heart attack at 59.
Fats are needed for energy, temperature regulation and protection of internal organs. Fats are also important for hormone production and regulation. Testosterone is derived via a “sterane ring structure” where cholesterol is converted into pregnenolone, then into either dihydroepiandosterone (DHEA) or progesterone, then into either androstenedione or androstenediol, and finally into testosterone.
Here is a very good paper that explains the importance of nutritional status to the GH/IFG-1 axis.
Growth hormone (GH) and insulin-like growth factor-1 (IGF-I) are pleiotropic hormones with important roles in lifespan. They promote growth, anabolic actions, and body maintenance, and in conditions of energy deprivation, favor catabolic feedback mechanisms ...
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
8. Conclusions
As described above, GH/IGF-I axis homeostasis is strictly connected to all the diet components. Nutrients are plain modifiers of the GH/IGF-I axis. Identifying a diet with a healthy balanced mixture of nutrients also healthy for the mediated effects on GH and IGF-I is complicated by the manifold composition of energy regimens and synergistic effects of nutrients on each other and hormonal axes. Furthermore, food processes, both in experimental animal models and in human life, including home cooking and industrial processing are neglected factors because of difficulties in analyzing them, mainly in humans. Calories and nutrients modulate the pathways that have evolved to switch from growth and reproduction toward survival and maintenance during CR and famine [
378,
379]. The imbalance of one or more macro- and micronutrients could affect the short- and long-term GH and IGF-I secretion and actions, with repercussions on growth, anabolism, and nutrients sensing [
380]. All the evidence discussed in this review derives from models aiming to dissect the effect of single nutrients on GH and IGF-I. However, nutritional deficiencies due to peculiar food restrictions could hide multiple deficiencies or excesses, leading to debatable results. Recently, advances in nutritional geometry have helped to study nutrition as a framework to begin deciphering how nutrients interact and orchestrate mechanisms linked to healthy aging and lifespan [
381,
382]. Expanding this approach to hormonal regulation, like that of the GH/IGF-I axis could add new depth and open perspectives in nutrition management, prevention, and treatment of GH/IGF-I deficiency or excess at different time points of life.