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rustpot rustpot is offline
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Posts: 1,110
Tempus Fugit
Posted by rustpot
Posted Sun, Sep-15-02
Male 5 feet 10 ins.
Plan: atkins/protein power 1st
Stats: 269/278/210
BF:33%/30%/ ?
Progress: -15%
Location: Hertfordshire
Default Tempus Fugit

Bill suggested that this post (printed below) from my journal may give a perspective on success

A brief history of time

....Or the black hole of dieting .

Stephen Hawking, one of my favorite scientists and from my home town as well, gave an honest attempt to explain space time in his book - A brief history of time.

He also gave some explanations of black holes. Matter so dense that nothing escapes even light. A good description of my stomach a year ago.

Stephen Hawking had obviously never been on a diet. He was not aware that the laws of time and relativity do not apply to those embarking on a fitness campaign:

Every one knows that the third day of induction is longer than most other days.

The number of days to a fixed social event is always shorter than the number of days required to slim down into your best suit.

The time it takes to consume a cube of chocolate is infinately shorter than the time it takes to find the packet of nuts, struggle with the packaging, spill the nuts on the floor, retrieve them, wash the brazil and eat it!


Time is just not on our side when we want to lose weight.

The perception of time in the future does seem longer than the past. We say to each other that time has just flown by. Time seems to go more quickly as you get older. I remember being 6 and three quarters. Seven years old was very old and an entire age away. At yet it seems like yesterday that I passed fifty in a flash.

And so it is with losing weight. As I look back on the last year I remember the start of induction, or rather the couple of false starts before I relented and bought the book to find out how I should really be doing it. The task ahead of me seemed ernormous. Things just would not happen fast enough. I lost the water weight at first and I looked in the mirror after a week.....Nothing ....I looked exactly the same..... Two weeks of induction were two of the longest weeks I can remember. I longed for a cup of real coffee. I had been good and gone decaf. Fortunately Caffeine is not a problem for me and I swiftly returned.

I counted the days that the scales did not move. I agonised over ketostix that would not change colour. I weaved them into coasters! I read every thread on the forum on stalls and how to avoid them. I experimented with a range of supplements. In the end the only thing that worked was TIME itself.

Patience and the ability to relax into LC is a function of time. I used that time to read and understand LC. I used it to muse with others on this board. I discovered that there is a basic core of the low carb phenomenom that is true for everyone. Restricting carbohydrate, increasing protein, exercise and drinking water is all that it is about.

The plan you are on does not seem to matter that much, supplements are marginal in OWL and maitenance. Good oils, and omega3 are fine and healthy but not "essential" to low carb. You can still enjoy a drink.

My experience is that it is not possible to isolate any one thing that you do or eat and say that it was that, and that alone that caused a stall or a plateau or a weight gain. The water balance in the body has a much greater effect. By that I do not mean the amount of water that you drink but the amount of water that is retained. Some times the more you drink the more you lose.

The timescale of losing weight is not the hour, or day or even week. A better scale is the month. Daily weighing is not helpfull, but I did it nevertheless, still do. It is best not to set goals in concrete. Low carbing is not a mountain to climb but a hill to run down. It should feel easy and not a trial. If it is feeling like a prison, you hate the food you are eating, and are deperate for a pizza, or you are obsessed by what you consider to be "cheating". If you are staring into that black hole of despair at your stubborn girth. Well my advice is to take a Time out. Reflect. This is not a race. Far worse is to pack it all in for good and return to unmonitored, uncontrolled carbohydrate intake.

As I look back the best thing that I did was to keep a log of my weight, BP, and vital statistics. Four months in I did a cholesterol test to prove to myself that the increased fat in my diet was indeed not a problem ( It wasn't)

When I look at the graph below I cannot say that at any point in time I was really satisfied. My mind always wanted the weight to go quicker. But in reality I have lost 48 pounds, my BP is as normal as normal can be, I have lost 5 inches off my chest and 4 inches off my waist. Menswear shops now have sizes that fit me!

So for me My LC time has been brief in a long history of putting on weight. The LC results have reversed the black hole that was my stomach!
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  #2  
by slimmin on Mon, Sep-16-02, 18:45
Default Great post

I really enjoyed reading your brief history of your weight loss journey.

You've managed to express what makes LC a WOL, and not a diet. In a way that I never could!

As you say, if a person eats according to the program, over time the weight WILL come off (just never as quickly as we would like it to!).
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Have you got the time? rustpot General Low-Carb 9 Wed, Feb-20-02 16:32


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