12/12 Michelangelo AMPS 279, +6/125

[KPassa]

Previous Condo.

Last night, his PMPS number was 79. It was like he never came back up from his morning nadir yesterday. I tested him every 15 minutes or so and it held steady, even dropping a little. An hour later, when it was at 72, I decided to skip the PM shot and feed the poor bugger because he hadn't eaten in almost 8 hours and it didn't look like his numbers would be climbing any time soon.

After four days of pinks and yellows, to now see him holding steady at blues and greens without a dose increase is such a beautiful sight that I'm terrified it might be a sign of something else going on.



Re: the carb convo from yesterday
Basically, what I'm trying to get at is that with the Atkins diet for people, it's the total grams of carbs consumed throughout the entire day. So, even if something only has 9 grams, you can't eat it if you've already consumed your allotted amount for the day. In the same manner, even if a food has 3% carbs, how many actual grams it has is a different story. So, what I'm trying to figure out with Mikey is what his limit of physical grams of carbs is vs. the low carb percentage.

For example, if we look at a 3oz can of Fancy Feast's Chicken Feast, it contains 91 calories with 4% coming from carbs. 4% of 91 is 3.64 calories from carbs. Basically, each gram of carbs is equal to 4 calories, so divide that by 4 and you have .91 grams of carbs per 3oz can. If Mikey eats four 3oz cans, he's consumed 3.64 grams of carbs.

Now, if we look at a 5.5oz can of Friskies Special Diet Turkey & Giblets, it contains 166 calories with 5% coming from carbs. 5% of 166 is 8.3 calories from carbs. Divide by 4 and you have 2.075 grams per can. Mikey eats about two cans a day, meaning he's consuming 4.15 grams of carbs for the day. HUGE DIFFERENCE...for a cat. To put that in perspective, on the Atkins diet, the human limit is 20 grams of carbs a day.

And if I did any math wrong or missed any steps, please feel free to point it out because I hate math and never double-check my work.

But, what I ultimately want to see is what's the difference between me feeding him FF classics and his numbers remaining in the pinks and yellows to me switching to Friskies Special Diet and we're now hitting blues and greens. Maybe it's just timing, but I won't know that till Friday, when I'm working from home again. If he's still running blues and greens, I'll switch him to FF classics for the whole day and see if he shows up with pinks and yellows again. Then, I'll finally be able to put the grams vs. % carb theory to bed and move on to fat/protein ratios and ingredients lists.

 

[Anne & Zener GA]

Your math is impeccable, as far as I can see. 20 grams of carbs per day for a human is insane. I'm eating about 200 g per day and that is pretty strict. Anyway, back to Mickey.

With the Fancy Feast, he's eating 364 calories and 3.64 g of carbs. With the Friskies, he's eating 332 calories and 4.15 g of carbs. I don't think that's a huge difference in the amount of carbs (about 10%). I think the drop in numbers is IN SPITE of the change to food with more carbs.

In any case, it's great to see him doing so well.
Liz

 

[KPassa]

I should have probably picked a more disparate comparison to show the big difference. Since I seemed to do so well with the math the first time, I'm going to tempt the fates and try it a second time.

Nature's Variety Chicken, 5.5oz, 202 calories, 3% carbs
6.06 calories from carbs, 1.52 grams of carbs per can. Mikey eats 2 cans and he's getting 3.04 grams of carbs a day.

Friskies Poultry Platter, 5.5oz, 187 calories, 9% carbs
16.83 calories from carbs, 4.21 grams of carbs per can. Mikey eats 2 cans and he's getting 8.42 grams of carbs a day.

What a difference that 5.38 grams of carbs might be doing? Maybe nothing, maybe all the difference between yellow and blue in the world. I have hopefully the next 20 years to experiment on him to figure it out. :lol:\

With the Atkins diet, I've had quite a few friends and family who have been on it in the past (living in SoCal, being overweight is sooooo touristy! :roll: ). Every time any of them would go over their carb limit (it's set per individual, but the norm is for it to be less than ~20 grams a day), they would immediately stop losing and (in some cases) start gaining weight again, even if it was just a couple of grams over. If such a small amount can affect a full-grown human, I figure that just as small (if not smaller) an amount will affect an itty bitty kitty.

I've tried the Atkins diet in the past when it was first in vogue back in the late '90's. I'm not a big carb eater to begin with (I stick with around 25-75 grams of carbs a day, mostly from dairy and chocolate), but even 20 grams was too little for me! If I'm going to bother eating toast, I want to be able to eat TWO pieces. :lol:

 

[Anne & Zener GA]

Yes, the difference between 3% and 9% is pretty big. Whether that is a big deal for Mickey, you'll just have to keep track of what he eats and what his BGs are and see if you can see a difference. I know that Maggie is pretty sensitive to carbs and Ann can see a difference from different foods even when the supposed carb % was the same.

When you count carbs on the Atkins, do you count carbs in vegetables? I am thinking that you don't because I don't see how you can stay below 20 g. I don't know if you can draw that parallel between human and feline metabolism. It's pretty complicated. :roll: :lol:
Liz