Sure the face looks rounder, but it's at another angle.

At least we're not looking at pictures of some russian supermodel, trying to figure out if it's really Kimmer. That's some sort of progress.

Incidentally, I don't think Jimmy is lying - that is, being intentionally deceitful - I think what he said in both the video and the blog post were true in his mind when he said them. Subjectivity of memory when it challenges beliefs.

Agreed, I think Jimmy is a stand-up guy who is willing to consider and try many approaches within reason. Similar to what many of us have done as we seek to find and refine the best WOE for ourselves. Isn't that what it's all about?

Jimmy's so heavily invested in the LC WOE that he really can't be within 100 miles of objective/open-minded about the benefits of the PHD. He went to the retreat to look for ways in which he could say it didn't work for him.

Is it really so hard to believe that it didn't work for him? I don't find it so hard.

I was reading a blog yesterday that was about Jimmy's most recent weight regain. The blogger basically gave the opinion that Jimmy had gained weight because he must be secretly cheating on the diet when nobody's looking, he's off eating carbohydrate.
http://livinlavidalowcarb.com/blog/...-may-2015/24818

In this blog post, Jimmy gives a three day example of what he's eating. Two meals a day. One of the meals each day is a bag of quest chips, some cheddar cheese, and some heavy cream mixed with cocoa powder and splenda. He also has cocoa powder, cream, and stevia at the other meal. As well as cheese. His menu as given is undoubtedly low carb. But it's also heavily dependent on some dairy foods that Dr. Atkins thought that people ought to be careful with. I don't have nearly Jimmy's history of weight problems--but I know by experience, eating the food he describes, I would be more likely to gain weight than lose it. Especially the cheese, for me. Even if I didn't end up overconsuming the cheese itself (unlikely, for me), I'd probably end up needing to eat more heavy cream to satisfy my appetite than it would have taken if I'd skipped the cheese altogether.

In fairness to Paul Jaminet, whom I admittedly have a gripe with--he dismisses a dietary approach that's lower in carbohydrate, that I think has done me and a lot of others a lot of good, as deficient--you can't really judge the effectiveness of a plan by what happens in a week, anyways. I think there's evidence that Jimmy shouldn't oughta eat much in the way of "safe" starch or any other kind of digestible carbohydrate. I just don't think this "experiment" in and of itself sheds much light on the issue.

as someone who has similar metabolic issues to Jimmy, the phd diet doesn't and wouldn't work for me either. and to go from ketosis to 150g carbs a day would lead to immediate gain of water weight - and yes, I can gain 14-18 lbs back in water weight from increasing carbs, so his weight gain seems perfectly reasonable.

The problem with phd for me is that although, sure, I might be able to lose weight on 150g carbs and low enough calories, you would have to lock me up somewhere and provide the food as my cravings and desire to eat would be out of control.

On the other hand cream and cheese at every meal wouldn't work for me either.

Not at all, but I also don't think a week is enough time for Jimmy to have an opinion on whether it worked for him. Jimmy has been low carb for a decade plus and doing nutritional ketosis for what a couple of years.

So yeah, if he starts eating the 100ish grams of carbs a day the PHD recommends, his weight and his blood sugar are going to go up.

13 pounds is perfectly within the water weight and.....let's call it gut matter...gains for a person his size (and I can say that definitely, being a person his size) and there is unlikely to be much, if any, actual fat gain there.

Likewise, those sugar numbers spiked and then went down, which is what you'd expect for a long term VLC person.

So there's much to conclude. A week is too short a time for the body to, in most case, adapt and stabilize. Saying the PHD doesn't work for him is exactly like someone getting carb flu and saying low carb doesn't work for them.

And it depends on what you mean by works. On one hand, he's kept off a hundred pounds plus for a decade, which is incredibly hard to do. On the other hand, his weight has bounced around a lot and the lab numbers he posted are pretty mixed bag.

His experiments with safe starches and the PHD have been, as far as I know, very short experiments - the PHD at a week is an outlier in length even. I'm not sure what you can conclude from a week of eating, beyond maybe whether a diet is palatable or works with your lifestyle.

And obviously, Jimmy isn't under any obligation to try other things. He can do what he likes. But experiments like he has done come across as somewhat disingenous because he cuts them off before he can realistically draw conclusions about what does and doesn't work, so he can say he tried but low carb is better. I don't think he intentionally sets out to do that, but it is the effect.

(And you know, in the money where my mouth is department, when I experiment with stuff I give it at least a month to see what happens, and even that's maybe short changing it)

Jimmy appears to have one large meal a day with a 7pm smaller meal that includes Quest Protein Chips with cheddar cheese one time per day and a serving of HWC with cocoa powder and stevia for the second time in a day. Not sure about the Quest Chips, as they are touted as a low carb protein food, but when looking at the ingredients, I'd put them in the category of a frankenfood in low carb clothing. If I were to eat the later, smaller meal on a regular basis, my sense is that I would stall or gain weight, as it appears to add a lot of protein and some starch while contributing very little nutritional value. Quest Chips ingredients: Protein Blend (Milk Protein Isolate, Whey Protein Isolate), Dried Potatoes, Corn Starch, High Oleic Sunflower Oil. Contains less than 2% of the following: Sea Salt, Calcium Carbonate, Natural Flavors.

This is way too close to the very food types I avoid. While I may have some hot chocolate with HWC, coconut oil, stevia, and some decaf coffee, I consume this on an occasional basis due to the fact that I know it's something that can't be part of my regular consumption. Note that I can only evaluate this within in the context of how I would fare with this meal, as Jimmy may have good experience and get positive results from it. As for the bag o' chips, regardless of how healthy it's purported to be, my Paleo/Primal/WPF leanings have me eating healthy whole foods over this crap.

I'd not only gain weight with those foods, I'd have a difficult time with cravings. I gained weight over the winter because I tried to convince myself that I could safely eat cheese. Nope - I can't. An ounce of cheese or cream once in a while, but every day - no way. Same with Splenda. I can handle the liquid sweeteners, but not the powdered. The chips would be difficult for me, too. I need real food, and for me, chips ain't it, no matter how lc they might be.

Dairy can definitely be a problem for some people. When Nora Gedgaudas switched from butter to duck fat as her fat source, she said 25 pounds just fell off her. She attributed it to reduced inflammation but I think it might also have to do with duck fat being high in MUFA. The stuff is actually liquid at room temperature.

Looking back at my 23andme data, I found some SNPs that might play a role.



This SNP below codes for APOA2 and interestingly, is associated with a lower risk of CAD despite making people fatter when eating saturated fat.




It'b be interesting to see what would happen if he switched to olive oil and duck fat instead of butter and cream. Especially the cream/liquid calories. I know I can drink the stuff like water.

My last 15 lbs dropped off effortlessly when I finally gave up even LC dairy - cream, cheese & cream cheese. Weightloss was never before "effortless" for me! I was able to add back 2T of butter per day, but any more than that causes cravings and food obsession. Dairy is insulinogenic, but I think it is much worse for some of us than others.

I suspect HWC is one of the causes of not being able to get to my goal. I'm staying steady (maintaining) with it, so once I run out, I'll forgo the HWC and any other dairy to see if that's the root cause. Where can I get duck fat? I'd love to substitute that for butter in my BPC!

Nora recommends Fatworks duck fat. It's pasture-raised but a little pricey. If you don't mind it, you can get conventional duck fat for a lot less, especially in bulk from somewhere like Hudson Valley Foie Gras. I've tried it before but hadn't thought of making BPC with it. I've made it with olive oil but that was revolting.