eff this dieting crap!

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I did Atkins, and am a big believer in a low carb sugar free lifestyle (as opposed to a diet). I'm currently working towards getting a degree in nutritional sciences, and likely becoming a dietitian after graduating. In my readings, there are a NUMBER of major flaws in the data that we've been using to determine what is a "healthy diet". The "science" behind the "saturated fat is bad for you" mantra is almost as fraudulent as Wakefield's "study" linking immunizations to autism!

The fact is that we NEED saturated fat, cholesterol, and protein in order to function, but the body can do without carbs (yes, glucose is absolutely needed, but that can be converted from protein and the small amounts of carbs in foods like cheeses and vegetables). When it comes down to it, there's really not that much difference between going from a diet where 40% of your calories are coming from fat to a "low fat diet" where 30% of your calories are coming from fat (but it does indeed matter WHERE that fat is coming from, as there is a HUGE difference between fat coming from a steak versus a doughnut!).

That said, I went back to a low carb lifestyle about 6 weeks ago, and it's night and day how much better I feel and how I'm rarely ever feeling hungry. FWIW, this is a pictorial of how I looked years ago before I did Atkins the first time versus how I looked a few years later (and 50 lbs lighter!):


Link to full image

everybody's dietary needs are different as a result of different gut bacteria. of course there are certain things that do make sense but what works for one person may not work for another.

i think you should keep at it.
Doing exercise will make you want to lose weight because eventually you will probably find it fun and you can then start doing sports that you maybe would not have considered otherwise.

I think that intaking lot's of water will allow your metabolism to stay at a good level. dehydration can be a limiting factor on your metabolic rate

Lots of good information here. Sorry, I missed it earlier. Jedi, I would recommend getting rid of the scale and aim at feeling better. Go for short walks a few times a day or from the car to the store. When you feel really hungry wait a half an hour and do something else instead. Sounds like you are putting forth the effort, just remain patient. It will work.

it's good.

Just so frustrating sometimes being as disgustingly fat as I am. Not quite Baron Harkonnen fat but you catch my drift.

All I want to do is eat bacon and pizza and pizza with bacon and mountain dew!

But I know I should eat much healthier than that.

What do people think about this:

A good sized breakfast; bowl of cereal (serving size), two waffles, two slices of bacon, english muffin and a glass of juice.

a snack of an apple or orange or other fresh fruit.

Lunch of a can of sardines (yum) and a glass of water.

Snack - something sweet.

A sensible dinner including veggies.

A snack of whatever.

First of all, the things you eat shouldn't be so regular. Eat what your body needs. If it needs carbs, go for carbs. If it needs fats, go for fats. If it needs proteins, go for proteins. If you don't, you're going to be hungry later. Moreover, eating meals that aren't so regular will allow you to not feel so bored with your food.

Secondly: You should be eating 8 meals or so (one every two hours). Each one should be 1/12th - 1/6th of your daily caloric intake

Thirdly: Stay hydrated. Drink LOTS of water. Moreover, don't go for juices. They add calories without adding fullness. If you want something that tastes like an apple, eat an apple.

Currently on this eating habit, aiming for 3,000 calories a day (this is actually near my minimum caloric intake). I may be falling a bit short, but I'm trying. I also have been walking every day (today was 15 minutes, the week before was 10 minutes... starting off slow). I seem to have lost some weight.

Why are you eating a snack after eating a VERY big breakfast? How long afterwards are you eating snacks? Could you cut out snacks completely between meals (going 6 hours without eating), or do you start to feel hungry again within about and hour or two? Do you feel tired after eating a meal like this (or any meal), enough to feel like you want to take a nap?

My first thought about the actual content of your breakfast is that it is filled with a HUGE amount of carbohydrates, especially if you're eating a sugary cereal and eating a "bowl" of it, versus an actual serving size (often less than 1 cup).

My breakfast today:

3 eggs
3 slices of low sodium/low sugar bacon
a saute'ed mix of 2 sliced mushrooms, 1 oz of fresh sliced red pepper, an 1/8" slice of white onion, and 2 cups of spinach.

Very little carbohydrate (maybe 5 grams tops) and plenty of protein (to feel full) and enough fat (to get flavor). This is a pretty typical breakfast for me (unless I substitute some sausage for the bacon), and I often do about 1.5-2.5 miles of walking on a treadmill afterwards (@3.5 miles per hour, minimum), with little trouble and little tiredness.

Last edited by mra1200 on 08 Jan 2011, 1:49 pm, edited 1 time in total.

that's why I said in parenthesis "serving size" and I never said anything about sugary cereal.

A serving size of non-sugared cereal with a serving size 1% milk.

I wanted to clarify that. I measured out a "serving size" of some cereals I used to eat, and I laughed my ass off it. Who the hell only eats THAT little cereal? I used to eat 4x a serving size (in that case, 3/4 cup) in a single bowl!

I'd like to add that you can get turkey bacon, which imnsho tastes as good as pork bacon* and has a fraction of the fat and calories. If you're going to have waffles, make them whole grain. A cereal recommendation: the 'Go Lean' brand may be condescendingly named, but it actually is pretty good: high fiber and protein, and the serving sizes are large enough to make you feel like you actually ate something. 'Fiber One' is also good.

I second the idea of staying away from fruit juices; also avoid sugared caffeine beverages like lattes, macchiatos, etc. from espresso joints. Basically avoid any calories (or simulated calories) in liquid form.

I disagree with the idea of getting rid of the scale; for me, it has been important. However, look at your average over a week instead of getting excited or depressed over day-to-day changes, because you can gain or lose a pound or two just based on how much food is in your gut being processed or how much water you are retaining at any given time.

Also, wrt. 'needing' saturated fats, cholesterol, and protein, I would like to dispute that a little; vegetarians do just fine (in fact, do better than carnivore-leaning omnivores in the long run) on relatively small amounts of these. One can get an adequate - even bounteous - supply of protein from legumens, nuts, and lean meats without loading up on the saturated fats. Cholesterol is necessary for life, but our bodies synthesize pretty much all the cholesterol that we need; there is no reason to load up on it in one's diet. a lot of the high cholesterol load in people with high cholesterol comes from people who are genetically inclined to over-synthesize their own cholesterol, rather than from their diets. Those people should avoid eating high levels of saturated fats and cholestrol before they embark on a diet like the Atkins diet. Have your cholesterol levels checked before you start something like that. It is not a bad idea, in fact, to consult a doctor or a dietician as you work on weight loss; they'll help to both encourage you and to 'keep it real' when you're surrounded by diet fads and misinformation and fat-shaming all the time.

The key to any program, whichever you choose, is consistency.

Anecdotes are not data, but: one of the RTs here at the hospital went on the Atkins diet and lost a lot of weight - probably ~ 40 lbs. But he was loading on high-fat, high-cholestrol foods like sausages, an almost exclusivly meat diet, all of the time; he had a massive heart attack and died after about 3 years on the diet. Fat and alive is better than thin and dead.

*not that I'll be eating much of either any more, sigh.

OK, no. Do not.

Replace some of the carb calories in your diet with fat calories. You're NOT getting enough fat. If your body doesn't get enough fat, it gets hungry VERY quickly. Moreover, there are health problems that can result from not getting enough fat.

^
I strongly disagree. You're eating pizza and bacon all the time: that's plenty of fat. More than enough fat. Too much fat. The problem is too much simple carbs, not too little fat. Switch to whole grains (complex carbohydrates) instead of simple white-flour based breads and cereals.

Turkey bacon has fat in it - just not as much as pork bacon. And it has enough protein to take a while digesting and make you feel full for a while.

You can try a high-fat Atkins diet if you want, but keep in mind that whole grains, fruits, and vegetables are empirically proven to be *good* for you, and that you should have a fasting lipid panel run first to make sure that your intrinsic LDL levels are not already high.

If you really want to go for a high-meat diet, I'd strongly recommend the 'caveman' diet over the Atkins diet.

In any case, check with your doctor before you take any of our advice.

He's not eating pizza and bacon all the time. He wants to. Look at the diet that he actually posted. He gets about 17-20 grams of fat in his diet (assuming that "something sensible" means something with little or no fat). That is not enough. Especially for a person that weights 297 pounds. His diet isn't balanced.

Actually, he didn't say either way what he was actually eating. Wanting to eat something doesn't mean that one doesn't then eat it, or hasn't been eating it. For many people, myself included, wanting doesn't even mean that one hasn't eaten it if it's sugar and fat. Likewise, 'thinking about' a meal plan doesn't mean that that's what he actually ate.

Ok, 17-20 grams of fat probably isn't enough, but loading up on the saturated fats isn't a good answer unless one is sure (like Orwell, in the vegan/vegetarian thread) that one doesn't have a problem with saturated fats. Fish oils and nuts, especially walnuts, are a good way to get those fats - I'd suggest a handful of walnuts as one of those snacks.

Admission: I've never worked out a diet for anyone but myself, and I'm stable at ~ 1,500 - 1,600 calories a day; the proposed amount of food looks like a huge amount to me, but I'll freely admit that it might not be so bad for a 290-lb guy.

here's a good resource from the mayo clinic:
http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/healthy-diet/NU00200

on addictive foods, a summary of one study:
http://www.cnn.com/2010/HEALTH/03/28/fa ... index.html
a different study:
http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2003/ ... 64977.html

Last edited by LKL on 09 Jan 2011, 9:18 pm, edited 1 time in total.

http://www.loseit.com/

This is the web version of the app that I found so helpful. I went in and plugged ina height of 6 feet (guessing), a starting weight of 297 and a goal weight of 250; if you want to lose 1lb a week (a moderate amount), an average person of your gender, weight, and height could start out eating 2,859 kcal/day* and achieve his goal weight by 12/5 of this year.

*the daily calorie budget decreases as you lose weight.

I wasn't telling him to load up on saturated fats, just more fat.

I actually used a similar calculator and figured around 2800 calories for him (I put in height as 5'10"), assuming little to no exercise.

The problem is where the calories come from. If you're not getting enough of carbs, proteins, or fats (the latter two especially), you're going to be hungry a LOT. Your body asks for the right stuff. If you don't give it the right stuff, it'll make room for it and then ask for it again.

As you can see, if you don't get enough fat, then your body will be hungry a lot more often than if you do.

where the calories come from is important, but doing nothing but snack on fatty foods all day isn't going to have you end up within your calorie limit by the end of the day. At the end of the day, the question is calories in vs. calories out.