Nutrition is an area where otherwise like thinking people (like Freepers) can have widely disparate opinions based on one's own life experience.
In a nutshell, my life experience has been this: In 2003, I discovered to my horror that I was closing in on 350 pounds. I'm six foot three so it wasn't like I was Michael Moore but I was definitely obese and while still reasonably healthy, I was running all the medical signs of impending troubles down the road like high blood pressure, early onset diabetes and heart disease.
The moment of truth came on a business trip when I was walking down the aisle of an airplane to my seat and I saw that a pretty attractive woman was sitting in the seat that was to be next to mine. I will never forget the look of disappointment and disgust she gave me when she realized I was going to sit next to her, with my gut spilling over the armrest into her area.
I knew something had to change. During lunch at work, when I would normally get a six-pack of Tacos from Taco Bell or a couple of cheeseburgers and fries from the burger joint, I decided to take a walk instead. Fortunately there was a rails-to-trails path near my workplace and so it was convenient to take a nice long walk without having to worry about auto traffic and other congestion. I also read up on nutrition and the popular diet at the time was the Atkins Diet so I thought I'd give that a try - only skipping the induction phase because I thought it was too extreme. I wasn't concerned about losing a lot of weight as once but just changing my lifestyle to a healthier one.
So I ate much more meat, eggs, nuts and cheese and a lot less breads, pizza, pasta and rice. As for junk food like cakes, pies, cookies, chips, I cut that out immediately. Lot less carbs but I wasn't counting. Just trying to be healthier.
I ended up losing over 100 pounds within a year. I have lots of posts here on Free Republic from that era as we had a lot of discussion back then.
After a few years, I gradually moved back into the diet I had before. It's easy to do. A pizza here. A plate of spaghetti there. Before long, I was pretty much eating the way I ate before except I always maintained my exercise regime and still to this day walk over 10,000 steps a day and usually closer to 20,000.
In November of 2015, I was back over 300 pounds again!
So once again, I eliminated all the carb-laden foods. No more pasta, breads, pizza (my favorite food!), candies, pies, sweets of any kind. I started drinking my coffee black.
Almost immediately the weight dropped off again. My doctor was amazed. By last summer, I was back down around 225 which is heavy but carries very well on my 6'3" frame.
I am now convinced that at least for myself, a "lower" carb diet works. But in particular, a diet based on whole foods. I couldn't care less how many carbs are in things like blueberries, apples, bananas, and such. I eat as much of those as I want. But if it comes in a package and it's labeled "low fat" or it includes high fructose corn syrup or hydrogenated (trans) fats, I don't eat it.
Even yogurt is where I can pack on weight. If I ate the low-fat yogurt, it is likely to have 30 or more grams of added sugar. But with the full-milk yogurt (higher fat), you have no or very little added sugar at all and it is delicious. Especially when blueberries or blackberries are mixed in.
This by the way, goes completely against the advice of my doctors who always spout the generally accepted "balanced diet" approach which means lots of cereals, breads, rice and pasta - which I know for a fact makes me fat.
Thanks for the great history. I am glad that you have found something that works for you. But please be careful and if you start having health problems let your healthcare professional know about your dietary philosophy.
There is no doubt that a “low carb” “high protein” diet helps millions of people lose weight. And carrying a high amount of excess body fat puts one at risk for all sorts of health problems. Our daughters have had battles with weight and they yo-yo back and forth. They lose weight while on their low carb diets and they gain it back as soon as they go back to their normal routines. The “low carb” diets they choose do not seem to be sustainable or healthy for them. When they are on them they tend to be grumpy, mean and have very bad breath.
People are able to get away with this approach when they are young. But as we age our bodies are less able to absorb the needed amount of essential nutrients from a diet that is intentionally restricted to exclude “carbs”. Many foods high in “carbs” are easily used by the body for its essential energy needs. Foods high in animal fat and protein especially often have to be used by the body in a more circuitous manner that puts a strain on the liver especially but also on other organs.
In addition unrefined foods which contain “carbs” in the form of whole grains etc. provide an important source of fiber which is important for digestive health. This is not to mention that many “high protein” foods contain large amounts of animal fats which have known health risks associated. This is all debated by adherents to certain diet philosophies to a point that would make Global Warming fanatics blush.
The primary problem that I have with “low carb” “high protein” diets is specific to persons who have a history of cardiac problems. I have seen over and over people who literally will not give up their ill advised diet philosophy until it kills them. I am not arguing that the philosophy does not produce results. I have seen first hand however that in the long term that it is not healthy.
The evidence that the adherents are acting irrationally is very easy to observe. You can try to convince them to take a more balanced, moderation in all things approach until you are blue in the face. They will ignore all evidence that contradicts the nutrition philosophy that they have chosen. That is very nearly the essence of irrational behavior in all its ugly forms.
Even yogurt is where I can pack on weight. If I ate the low-fat yogurt, it is likely to have 30 or more grams of added sugar. But with the full-milk yogurt (higher fat), you have no or very little added sugar at all and it is delicious. Especially when blueberries or blackberries are mixed in.
We were out this afternoon; I did want to mention that to me it sounds from your description that you have a well thought out diet plan that works for you.
My wife's "little" sister was up visiting for a week in December. She is someone who spent her lifetime abusing her body by smoking, drinking, eating poorly and letting herself become obese. She is actually two years younger than my wife, but my wife looks ten years younger than she does. More importantly my wife's sister can't get around without a cane while my wife is still very athletic and able to enjoy life like someone decades younger.
While her sister was visiting I had to go to Costco and buy her special organic high protein shake powder made from a huge assortment of healthy sounding stuff. Then I bought her a bunch of frozen and fresh fruit, nuts and expensive almond milk. So in the morning while I was making a more traditional breakfast she was blending up these shakes which she insisted were extremely healthy.
She refused to eat most of the food that I prepared while she was here including my beef stew made in the pressure cooker with fresh vegetables and potatoes, or even my home made chicken soup. She wouldn't eat my homemade bread. She refused to eat the smoked beef, pork or even turkey that I made during the week she was here. She actually did eat some of the oatmeal that I made from machine cut oats. But every night she went through literally about a pound of candy before she went to bed.
We had to endure long winded lectures about her new found knowledge of nutrition that she was parroting mostly from her 18 year old daughter who has become a vegetarian. It was almost comical to have this person who spent almost her entire life abusing her body preaching to her sister about nutrition. And I did realize a little why there is so much disagreement about nutrition.
People come at this from so many directions. There are vegetarians who want everyone to give up all types of meat or even animal related products such as dairy. Then there are body builder types who want to eat a bunch of high protein products that they think will increase their muscle mass and virility. Believe me I ran into that a lot at my previous job. And then there are a large number of people who are OK with “carbs” but believe that gluten is an evil player in available foods. The largest group however are those who want to lose weight but do not want to experience the hunger pain associated with a traditional diet. And it seems that this high protein low carb diet helps people with that a lot. All the groups want to believe that they are making very healthy choices.
It seems these days that only a small minority are now those like my wife and I who started out or achieved athletic conditioning in our younger days and mostly just want to maintain our good health as we age by making good choices in our diet and activity level. We are willing to listen to the other groups but we take a lot of what we are told by people with a grain of salt. I have eaten everything left behind from my sister-in-law's visit other than the high protein organic vegetable powder. I am just not a true believer in any of this stuff. I believe in moderation in all things and staying busy enough that I don't sit around eating all day.