Health

Top 11 Biggest Lies of Mainstream Nutrition I love this article… it is a great summary of why everything we think we know about weight loss is wrong. Plus, it has links to real, honest scientific research. Some of the biggest lies: Lie 5. Low-Fat Foods Are Good For You Lie 9. Low Carb Diets Are Dangerous Lie 11. High Fat Foods Will Make You Fat I was also pleased to see that most of the “life lessons” I have learned along the way (in the last 2 years anyway) are actually listed here :) ...

I’m making a list of things I have discovered which are either unexpected, or actually the complete opposite of what I believed before. For now I’m expressing them as “old story” and “new story” and avoiding charged labels like “myth” and “fact”. The old story may work for some people… the new story works better for me. Here’s one: The story about quality vs. quantity. Old story: A great diet plan means eating whatever I want, in moderation. New story: If I find the right set of foods, I can eat whenever I am hungry, and not stress about it other times. ...

What we are always told: Diet and exercise are both important. If you do only one, and not the other, you will not succeed. What I found to be true for me: Exercise never helped me to lose weight. It was usually either a distraction, or messed with my diet, or even worse, gave me pain and injuries. I’ve seen some news lately that suggests exercise is important for health, but not actually effective for weight loss. ...

Someone posted an article “How I Lost 100 pounds” which appeared on Lifehacker.com. I spent some time writing stuff in the comments, but what emerged turned out to be a pretty good summary of my low-carb experience so far. Read on if you are interested in my journey.

I’m not officially “diabetic” but my doctor says I am “prediabetic”. So some time back I got a blood glucose meter and tested myself for a while. Since then I have also started a very low-carb diet (call it Primal/Paleo or LCHF) and have lost a lot of weight. My HbA1C tests have showed I am still on the borderline, but my doctor says it shows “excellent control” (mine is 5.1%, non-diabetic will be 4.9% or less). ...

I want to re-negotiate my relationship to food. Typical low-fat diet wisdom Eat a lot of small meals during the day Diet and exercise together–both are important Portion control is key Eat protein, starch, and veggies about equally Avoid fat, no “bad” fats, small amount of “good” fats Avoid sweets Carbs are the body’s “preferred” fuel Number of calories is the most important measurement of the diet If you eat fat, you can only eat half as much food as when you’re eating carbs What’s wrong with this picture? ...

I am still eating a very-low-carb diet. (The one I’m following is LCHF, very similar to Paleo. Look back a few entries in my LJ for more info about the diet itself.) So far, it is an awesome life-change for me and I am actually enjoying it. Compared to other “points” or “calorie restriction” diets, it has been much easier to follow and stay on. I have been losing about 2-3 pounds a week when I’m paying close attention, and staying about the same when I become lazy or cheat more than 1 day per week.. but it seems quite sustainable. ...

TL;DR Powerpoint version: I have been on the LCHF plan for 4 weeks LCHF means “Low Carb High Fat” So far, lost 3 lbs. per week Haven’t felt hungry at all What is LCHF? LCHF is a version of the low-carb Atkins-like diet that is also being called the Scandinavian diet. Read more about it here or Google it. Rather than repeating what other web sites have said about it, let me just say what I like, and what drew me to it. ...

While visiting my mom, I saw a video extolling the virtues of a plant-based diet versus an animal-based diet. The video was not the greatest in terms of production values, (i.e. most of the film was shots of someone talking, or stills with voice-overs) but it certainly got the point across. Most of the content was stuff that I already knew, but which I’ve been somewhat comfortable with ignoring. For example, I already knew: ...

Last week on WW I managed to stay below my 40 points for 5 out of 7 days. Not a lot, mind you… I’m still well within my weekly goal, since there’s another 35 “floating” points to use any time within the week. My biggest points day was when I had specialty’s breakfast sandwich with sausage, also coffee cake, and also got take-out Thai food for dinner. I can’t do that every day, but doing that once a week definitely won’t kill me. ...