jclements
Thu, Jul-16-09, 19:10
Hello, I have recently finished reading Good Calories Bad Calories and as someone who has read a lot of science books over the years, especially skeptical, rational literature, I just couldn't help avoid the probable conclusion that moderate or high protein, high fat diets were better for you. I have lost nearly 25 pounds over the past three years, from 200 to 176 this morning (have ballooned to 210-215 at times), and a lot of that was not necessarily low carb, but it's been rollercoaster as I've worked out a lot, fallen off the wagon, and had to get control of my beer and carb intake, before alighting on this book. I train to do mountain climbing and outdoor stuff, and I've really been tired of carrying around excess fat over the years.
I was a skinny kid, joined the Navy at 17 and slowly putting the weight on over the years, settling in at around 200. Always drinking a lot of beer or free-feeding carbs and sodas and the like. I had always loved the outdoors and did a lot of hiking and backpacking, and while living in Colorado got into mountain climbing, enjoying the challenge of high-altitude exercise (peakbagging fourteeners). I really got into trying to understand exercise nutrition after trying to understand the factors of what I was eating and how it affected a given day of climbing. For anyone who's interested, Hammer Nutrition (who makes energy gels and sport drinks) has done a lot of research into this, and they're finding that they need to include fats and proteins in their products for endurance athletes doing over two hours of performance. It's still primarily glucose-based (using maltodextrin), but who knows what they'll find in the future. I've been reading online about targeted ketogenic diets that concentrate a few carbs around workouts.
Anyways, the wife has struggled with weight also, as well as multiple health issues such as IBS, diarrhea, heartburn, acid reflux, sinus infections, allergies, and general fatigue, and she got on a kick awhile back about eating gluten-free. I was skeptical at first, and I still think it was maybe just cutting out more refined carbs, but she felt an improvement, yet felt certain relapses when she slowly replaced the wheat with more rice and corn-based products, such as sorghum-based gluten-free beer. Anyways, we've tried certain diets over the years, Zone, veganism, etc., and we've always bought the CW that while body types varied, thinness was a result of self-denial and dedication to exercise, though we've known for awhile the dangers of HFCS, hydrogenated oils, refined carbs, etc.
A few weeks back she sent me a link to Taubes' talk online (if you haven't seen it, get thee) and at first I was skeptical - I thought Atkins was a fanatical diet and that there were apologists out there trying to forgive obese people their laziness by blaming it on genetics, etc, and how stupid it was to think that one doesn't lose weight by burning more calories than one consumes, but I was intrigued by his comments, and being interested in nutrition and body chemistry, I got the book from the library. By the time half the book was read, I decided I would try it, and that I too, someone who thinks he's got a handle of various empirical matters, have been fooling myself. Or fooled, one.
I've been training for a few days' climbing vacation in the Sierras in August, and I really want to cut the fat. Anyway, I can go into more detail in a journal, but suffice it say I'm going to give this WOE a try. I've known for a while now that I had to cut out beer (down to one 12 ozer once a week, and now I'll probably go longer) and refined carbs, and so it just seems to make bodily and mental sense. Eating more fat, I've noticed a difference in my energy levels as well - my body is telling me something.
The implications are staggering, it seems, that we have six-billion persons on the planet eating mostly a high-carb diet, that empires and civilizations exist because of the production, refining and consumption of substances that ultimately resemble addiction and enabling. But can we support this many people on this planet on low-carb? Anyways, topics for other posts...
So I've finished the book and the wife is working on it, we both went through an induction phase the past few days and are feeling better, had a great workout today and we're losing the cravings for sugar and carbs, and generally tiding over through most of the day without the up and down feeling of starving before the next meal.
Anyways, thanks if you made it this far through my ramblings... Best of luck, or better yet, best of knowledge to everyone.
John
I was a skinny kid, joined the Navy at 17 and slowly putting the weight on over the years, settling in at around 200. Always drinking a lot of beer or free-feeding carbs and sodas and the like. I had always loved the outdoors and did a lot of hiking and backpacking, and while living in Colorado got into mountain climbing, enjoying the challenge of high-altitude exercise (peakbagging fourteeners). I really got into trying to understand exercise nutrition after trying to understand the factors of what I was eating and how it affected a given day of climbing. For anyone who's interested, Hammer Nutrition (who makes energy gels and sport drinks) has done a lot of research into this, and they're finding that they need to include fats and proteins in their products for endurance athletes doing over two hours of performance. It's still primarily glucose-based (using maltodextrin), but who knows what they'll find in the future. I've been reading online about targeted ketogenic diets that concentrate a few carbs around workouts.
Anyways, the wife has struggled with weight also, as well as multiple health issues such as IBS, diarrhea, heartburn, acid reflux, sinus infections, allergies, and general fatigue, and she got on a kick awhile back about eating gluten-free. I was skeptical at first, and I still think it was maybe just cutting out more refined carbs, but she felt an improvement, yet felt certain relapses when she slowly replaced the wheat with more rice and corn-based products, such as sorghum-based gluten-free beer. Anyways, we've tried certain diets over the years, Zone, veganism, etc., and we've always bought the CW that while body types varied, thinness was a result of self-denial and dedication to exercise, though we've known for awhile the dangers of HFCS, hydrogenated oils, refined carbs, etc.
A few weeks back she sent me a link to Taubes' talk online (if you haven't seen it, get thee) and at first I was skeptical - I thought Atkins was a fanatical diet and that there were apologists out there trying to forgive obese people their laziness by blaming it on genetics, etc, and how stupid it was to think that one doesn't lose weight by burning more calories than one consumes, but I was intrigued by his comments, and being interested in nutrition and body chemistry, I got the book from the library. By the time half the book was read, I decided I would try it, and that I too, someone who thinks he's got a handle of various empirical matters, have been fooling myself. Or fooled, one.
I've been training for a few days' climbing vacation in the Sierras in August, and I really want to cut the fat. Anyway, I can go into more detail in a journal, but suffice it say I'm going to give this WOE a try. I've known for a while now that I had to cut out beer (down to one 12 ozer once a week, and now I'll probably go longer) and refined carbs, and so it just seems to make bodily and mental sense. Eating more fat, I've noticed a difference in my energy levels as well - my body is telling me something.
The implications are staggering, it seems, that we have six-billion persons on the planet eating mostly a high-carb diet, that empires and civilizations exist because of the production, refining and consumption of substances that ultimately resemble addiction and enabling. But can we support this many people on this planet on low-carb? Anyways, topics for other posts...
So I've finished the book and the wife is working on it, we both went through an induction phase the past few days and are feeling better, had a great workout today and we're losing the cravings for sugar and carbs, and generally tiding over through most of the day without the up and down feeling of starving before the next meal.
Anyways, thanks if you made it this far through my ramblings... Best of luck, or better yet, best of knowledge to everyone.
John