Posted on 01/01/2012 7:21:08 PM PST by Altariel
Ten years ago, science writer Gary Taubes exercised an hour a day. He avoided fat in his diet, never even using milk in his oatmeal. But he kept gaining weight. As an experiment, the self-described carnivore tried the high-protein, low-carbohydrate Atkins diet - eating bacon and eggs for breakfast, pepperoni with melted mozzarella for lunch, and a steak for dinner - and lost 20 pounds in six weeks.
Since then, Taubes, an award-winning journalist and best-selling author, has stuck with the diet and spent countless hours collecting evidence to prove that it's not how much we eat but what we eat that makes us gain weight. In his fourth book, "Why We Get Fat: And What to Do About It" (Knopf; 257 pages; $24.95), Taubes argues that an apple a day will not keep the doctor away. In fact, if your biological fate is to be overweight, that apple will tip the scales against you.
(Excerpt) Read more at articles.sfgate.com ...
How long have you kept this weight off?
And...Super congratulations!
Congratulations! It is impressive that you have both lost *and* kept off so many pounds.
Well, I live in Japan, so hunting is not an option, and beef prices are horrendous, so it’s going to be fish, chicken or pork for me.
Rice is mandatory several times weekly, but I’ll cut it back even more and keep adding the barley. As for veggies, I’ll see what I can find in the local shops. Fortunately I love spinach and other greens.
These days I take a Nature Made Fish Oil softgel (EPA-180/DHA 120) and the accompanying Multiple Vit/Min tablet with my breakfast each day.
Still and all, the freezer is a good idea. Today I picked up two big packs of chicken breasts for half price. That will last me a week or so.
I’ll get the book.
Dittos! They need to come out with a carb patch like they did for nicotine. The few times I’ve tried to go without carbs I have felt horrible. How do y’all do it that have given them up? I think I would have to be put in a medically induced coma.
I lost the weight in 2004-2005. I did start drifting upward again when my wife was pregnant with my, now, 5 year old and I ate all of the things that she was craving. I'm back down to my goal weight though by just eating the right foods.
Thanks for all of the congratulations.
>As a dietitian...reading this book has been a tough pill to swallow.<
I bet. It turned pretty much everything you learned in college on its head, didn’t it?
I don’t eat bread, sweets or anything with more than a few grams of carbohydrate. I’m well within the proper weight for my height and I feel great.
I can only do it sometimes. If I can climb up onto the protein diet and hang on for dear life, I can lose weight. But sometimes, I just can’t... climb... up. It helps, on those first 3 days, to eat as much cheese and meat and fat as you can. Those first couple days, man, just stuff yourself. If you can get the carbs out of your system, after that your eating will taper off naturally. It’s the first couple days. And avoid boredom, because that’s when the thoughts of chocolate PopTarts go dancing through your head.
Rose, first you have to bear in mind that these diets don’t advocate eating NO carbohydrates. You couldn’t survive that way. The point is to refrain from eating the crap carbs—things made from white flour, and things that contain sugar or high fructose corn syrup, rice, potatoes, sweet vegetables like carrots, and other things that when eaten will turn to sugar in your body. The carbs you eat should come from healthy vegetables, not rice, flour, sugar, or potatoes. At first you go cold-turkey to break the habit, but then add nourishing carbohydrates back in your diet.
The first couple of weeks without these carbs are hard, it’s true. It’s best to kick them out of your house altogether. I just took the bag of cooking sugar, the bag of white flour, pancake mix, sweet dried fruit, and other treats, and got them out of the house. If you read the labels on all your prepared foods you’ll be scandalized at the number of grams of sugars that are in them. Even when they say “low-fat,” the manufacturers try to improve the taste by putting in either poisonous sweeteners or high fructose corn syrup.
If you feel bad during the times when you’ve tried to go without carbs, it was probably because your blood sugar tanked rather than staying constant. Low blood sugar feels awful. Make sure you have a regular supply of healthy proteinaceous snacks for those times when you’re hungry; this keeps you from reaching for a cookie when your blood sugar, and your resistance, are low. It’s good to just snack or a graze a little bit on a regular basis, every few hours, so you don’t get those big dips in blood sugar and have a Twinkie out of desperation.
What you’ll find that after about two weeks, the desire to have carbs goes away. After a month the idea of a pie or cake will gross you out. Turning away from sugary foods and snacks won’t be hard because you’ll just get queasy at the thought. I really dread my friends’ birthdays now because everyone urges me to have just a little piece of cake, and I’m a little disgusted by the supersweet taste.
Honestly, you can do it. I lost a lot of weight on this system years ago after my kid was born. I never gained it back. I LOVE being skinny and fit—I have so much energy when I don’t have to drag a lot of weight around. You’ll love the feeling, it’s like being a young girl again. Good luck.
It’s called the “low-carb flu” and while I was fortunate not to have had a bad case of it, it’s very common. Your body is transitioning from using carbs to using fat as your primary energy source, and some people have a tough time making the transition.
The best advice I can offer is that it’s universally considered to last for 2-3 weeks at most, and it’s something you just have to get past. After you’ve made the transition, you’ll feel great, generally have more energy, be able to go longer without getting hungry if you have to (say, on a long flight where there are no low-carb options available), and begin to experience the long-term weight and health benefits.
No one would advise a heroin addict to go back to using because detoxing made them sick, and while carbs aren’t the same as heroin, they’re a lot easier to get off of and you’ve been “hooked” almost your whole life.
I’ve never even been to Japan so I have no idea how to advise you on low-cost Atkins or Paleo options there. I will say that sashimi is a great choice and in the US lots of sushi places have rolls wrapped in cucumber instead of rice, which is also excellent. No idea if that’s common or cheap in Japan though. Good luck with your efforts to improve your health. Are you in Japan permanently?
pfl
NOOOOOOO is right!
I can’t live without soda!
NOOOOOOO is right!
I can’t live without soda!
*BURP*
It may be difficult to “pig out” on fruit, but eating several servings a day will keep you as a sugar burner, make you continually crave carbs and have a lot of hunger symptoms, and keep you from being a fat burner. Fruit has a ton of fructose. A very small amount of fruit, like one apple, is 25 g of carbs and 19g of pure sugar.
If you limit all carbs including fruit, and eat plenty of healthy animal fat and coconut oil, your metabolism will become fat burning, and you will be far less hungry. Weight will fall off if you need it to.
Hello ... my name is JADB and I am a carb addict. Ha. Seriously though, I lost 25 lbs. following a modified Atkins/Sugarbusters diet. I was never hungry, and I consumed only 25 gr. of carbs a day.
You will feel lethargic the first week or so, as your body transitions to burning fat for energy instead of sugar/carbs. After that, I actually felt better and had more energy than I'd had in a while.
My favorite foods include every possible kind of bread and pasta. I make sauces and gravies several times a week. Beans and peas, I'm right there with you every time. I drink almost a quart of whole milk a day. I love my carbs.
But eating meats, cheeses, eggs, and some vegetables, does not leave you hungry. You can eat substantial amounts still lose weight. IMHO, it is the easiest way to lose weight there is because you don't feel like you are going to starve.
Look more into paleo - primal diets and not Atkins.
You “have” to eat grains and starches because you are addicted. Your body is burning sugar for fuel. If you wean yourself off all starchy carbs, after a certain time you will start to burn fat for fuel. Then as long as it’s healthy fat (from healthy animals, or coconut or olive oils), you will be able to eat as much as you wish of fat.
Potatoes and sweet potatoes are ok in the paleo lifestyle, but not alk the time. And to be used sparingly if you want to lose weight. Nuts are ok in moderation. Beans are totally out. No beans. They are too filled with anti-nutrients.
You are on your way to great health.
It all comes down to calories. Burn more each day than you take in, you’ll lose weight... guaranteed. Caloric deficit equals weight loss.
Eat a Big Mac and fries, you better plan on running ten miles that day.
And while not listed specifically, I’m sure wine is in the “foods to avoid” list. This kills it for me.
This is said as if it's a universal truth when it isn't necessarily so. While on the Atkins type diet, one sometimes must eat MORE to lose. You haven't read the science behind all this low-carb diet stuff, so you're not informed about why this happens. Some of my wife's friends have had to increase their caloric intake to break the "stall" in weight loss. They found they weren't hungry and were not eating enough to burn fat.
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