It's very helpful. I get so tempted by those "diets" and their promises. Even Weight Watchers makes me twitch in ways I can't quite define. My idiot fiance is following some ridiculous "soup diet" but only until he loses 10 pounds, and he's close - after a month. He'll probably gain it all back. Me? Only 4 pounds, total, in as many months. I'm trying to learn to eat better, not diet, and my stubborn head isn't helping.

I know, exercise would help. I'm fighting that battle too.

But yes, thanks for talking about these things. They keep me sane. :)

You might be doing your best Don Quixote impression for most people. I, on the other hand, appreciate someone posting this stuff. Lots of people tend to get surly when I bring it up. In this age of instant gratification, everyone wants results now. The other day I was speaking to someone about the importance of changing their eating habits in lieu of, or in addition to, their diet. I mentioned how even a tiny change in caloric intake can affect their weight with the following example:

Say you're eating dinner and you decide to have an extra dinner roll. That's 100 extra calories, on average, so no big deal, right? Wrong. Imagine ingesting 100 extra calories every day for a year. You will be celebrating the New Year accompanied by 10 more pounds.

Probably had no affect on the other person.

Oh, and some feedback on the Weight Watchers thing: my wife uses the program(she stopped while pregnant) and it looks like a decent combination of limiting intake while simultaneously changing behavior. Participants are forced to account for each and every food item that they consume, and are gently persuaded to eat less caloricly dense foods. You are also required to eat a minimum number of servings from fruits, vegetables and dairy products. The dietary mix achieved is fairly healthy. Oh, and people are encouraged to exercise daily, if for no other reason than bonus points are accrued allowing them to add the occassional snack. My only beef with Weight Watchers is their blind support of the height/weight tables. All through high school, I was classified as overweight, even when I had a 28" waistline and 6% body fat. Consequently, I pretty much ignore the tables. If I tried to get down to the weight suggested by WW, I'd have to lose about 25 pounds of lean muscle mass en route. Not a chance. I do have my own handy dandy fat calipers, though, which I find much more useful in keeping track of my weight.
The upshot of this long-winded comment is that I, at least, appreciate your health related-posts. Thanks.

I'm a tentative Atkins believer -- and the diet is much different than parodied. The "jump start" is not a psychological thing, it's designed to clear your liver of stored gylcogen so that your body will switch over to a fat-burning metabolism. There's also very little of totally eliminating foods. The "diet" is most strict during the first two weeks, but gradually becomes much more balanced as fruits and more carbohydrates are reintroduced. In some ways, Atkins is not truly a diet, but is designed to be a permanent change in the way you eat. Not for nothing is his second book entitled "Atkins For Life."

And no, your "Kashi" isn't quite as bad as soda. Fiber is good (and is encouraged on Atkins). After that, your Kashi looks like it has about 30 grams of carbs, including 11 grams of sugar. Sugar, of course, will make your body rapidly react by producing insulin. The other carbs (except the fiber) will do that to a greater or lesser extent, depending on their composition.

If you are a lucky person whose body reacts properly by producing the right amount of insulin, that's great. For many of us, though, that amount of carbohydrates will produce a rush and then a crash (just like when you were a kid and had too much sugar). That, in turn, leads to all sorts of symptoms, including headaches, irritability, difficulty sleeping, and increased hunger. Switching to a way of eating that avoids that rush/crash cycle can be tremendously helpful to a huge number of people. It may not be for everybody.

I'd urge anyone considering a change in the way they eat to read up on Atkins and other diets before they start anything. Most of the information in the Atkins book is available free on www.atkins.com.

And no, I don't work for them, but I've been on Atkins for about 3 weeks. I'm losing weight slowly but steadily, but more importantly, I feel 1000% better. My headaches are gone, I'm less irritable, less hungry, and I sleep better. It may not be for everyone, but I'm a believer.

Clear glycogen! I have to cough; you're talking to an athlete. Clearing glycogen is a BAD thing.

Fat burning! You mean ketosis. You know - the stuff that taxes your liver, makes your breath bad (potentially), and burns muscle BEFORE it burns fat.

That being said, I do use Splenda any time I would "add" sugar (like, teaspoons). If I sent you a list of what I eat each day, it wouldn't qualify, but I hit all the food groups (light on dairy, actually - taste, not restriction), and I'm medium carb, medium fat. I have to be because I'm burning the carbs.

I've not seen Atkins work for anyone in more than the short term. So, color me a skeptic. And the lack of harsh restriction on saturated fat really turns my face red.

Simple carbs probably do produce the rush and crash. I simply wouldn't know - I avoid them in most cases - maybe a bit of bread with dinner, but I never do "pure refined carbs" unless I'm on the bike and planning to ride for more than an hour and a half.

Good luck with Atkins. Watch your kidneys. Watch your liver. Get plenty of salt and water...but you probably know that. And if you're not exercising, get your ass away from the computer and MOVE.

:) Thanks - well-written and intelligent response, even though we disagree.

hln

P.S. I don't think I am "lucky" - I think I'm careful and eat really well, and I definitely advocate eating often, eating consistently. I eat five times a day, sometimes six to seven (depending on amount and timing of exercise...I'm likely to hit 7 times today, but two of those times will be only 60 calories - graham cracker or some dates to RESTORE glycogen. I use that stuff).

I should slap a full day's diet up on here to show what I mean.

hln

I've lost over forty pounds (and kept 'em off for the most part, tho the weight does go up a bit 'round the holidays...) in just under three years, basically by using a Weight Watcher's diet: balanced meals, watch the excess fats and empty calories, more veggies, portion control, and breakfast.

The gf and I have attended one-evening lectures at the local hospital, taught by nutritionists: Vegetarian eating, and meals-on-the-go. Vegetarian because of my cholesterol (we're not vegetarian, though we have cut back on the meat and we have several vegetarian dinners each week); on the go because of the same reasons anyone else might. If you can take similar lectures, I highly recommend them.

Two points I'd like to make: The sugar/carb crash can be minimized by eating protein with your carbs--for instance, a tablespoon of peanut butter works wonders. I don't recall the mechanism exactly, but it made sense when it was explained to me, and I try to keep protein and carbs balanced (Heather, you might also talk about why protein helps one recover after exercise in the future).

Breakfast works wonders. Eating within three hours of waking 'counts' as breakfast; waking up at 6 am and eating at your desk at 10 am doesn't count. Skipping breakfast puts your body in 'starvation mode' because it doesn't know when you'll eat next, and your metabolism goes down to preserve energy.

And I love Kashi, too! Though I'm eating it with soy milk, mostly.

Next thing for me: Gotta get to the gym and exercise more. In the meantime, I'll stick to less meat, more veggies, and fewer sugars--just like doctors have been telling you to do for years.

--Victor
P.S. Did you delete a comment? Your 'clear glycogen' comment seems to have come from nowhere. . .

I've lost over forty pounds (and kept 'em off for the most part, tho the weight does go up a bit 'round the holidays...) in just under three years, basically by using a Weight Watcher's diet: balanced meals, watch the excess fats and empty calories, more veggies, portion control, and breakfast.

The gf and I have attended one-evening lectures at the local hospital, taught by nutritionists: Vegetarian eating, and meals-on-the-go. Vegetarian because of my cholesterol (we're not vegetarian, though we have cut back on the meat and we have several vegetarian dinners each week); on the go because of the same reasons anyone else might. If you can take similar lectures, I highly recommend them.

Two points I'd like to make: The sugar/carb crash can be minimized by eating protein with your carbs--for instance, a tablespoon of peanut butter works wonders. I don't recall the mechanism exactly, but it made sense when it was explained to me, and I try to keep protein and carbs balanced (Heather, you might also talk about why protein helps one recover after exercise in the future).

Breakfast works wonders. Eating within three hours of waking 'counts' as breakfast; waking up at 6 am and eating at your desk at 10 am doesn't count. Skipping breakfast puts your body in 'starvation mode' because it doesn't know when you'll eat next, and your metabolism goes down to preserve energy.

And I love Kashi, too! Though I'm eating it with soy milk, mostly.

Next thing for me: Gotta get to the gym and exercise more. In the meantime, I'll stick to less meat, more veggies, and fewer sugars--just like doctors have been telling you to do for years.

--Victor
P.S. Did you delete a comment? Your 'clear glycogen' comment seems to have come from nowhere. . .

AWESOME - couldn't have said it better myself. I have always watched what I eat and tried various diets - including Atkins. I didn't lose true, steady weight and found it EASY to maintain until I met with a personal trainer and got advice on nutrition and exercise. I just started to count calories every day - no matter what way shape or form and only eat so many. Of course, within those calories, you have to choose for yourself what you want to eat to feel the best. If you want to drink alcohol for all your calories a day, you would probably lose weight, but probably wouldn't feel that great or be that healthy. A skinny person is not necessarily 'healthy'. Just like some larger people are fairly 'healthy' even if they don't look it. With my personal trainer, I also found although I did do weights every week, I had to change up my routine and add some cardio with it. Now my base exercise routine just amounts to about 5 hours a week and I count calories. No problem. I lost 25 pounds and 10% body fat and GAINED muscle. It was over approximately 6 months of time and have maintained for over 3 months. I feel so in control of my body - it's wonderful.

Oh yeah - and Weight Watchers is good, too. All it is is WW counting your calories for you. If you read the packaging, the serving sizes, and actually measure out all your food, you can easily do that on your own. The only thing missing is the "group" support and atmosphere.

I think that there are a lot of things that Atkins was right about, and have since seriously curbed my carb intake. Since I did that, my tastes and cravings have seriously changed. The main thing that I did was drasticly cut back on the sugar I ate. The main part of that was simply giving up soda pop. I still eat my share of carbs, but it isn't the bulk of my calories anymore.

The other thing that I did was start weight training. I have twice the strength I had a year ago, and my weight has changed exactly three pounds. On the other hand, I've gone from about 26% body fat to about 19%.

Nice, Phelps!

I never drank soda, so I wouldn't know how that would impact someone. (I'm an odd duck, no?) I haven't done anything to "curb" carbs per se with nutrition, but I have tried to drop empty calories of all sorts from my day-to-day intake. So that means the switch to whole wheat pasta, full fiber cereals, etc. And LOTS of fruit. I'm proud to say that with the very few processed foods we eat here in Noggle manor, I don't get much "added sugar."

Ladies - check out the Luna bar post!

hln

Phelps, I'm curious: What kind of carbs *do* you eat? I'm assuming you're cutting out the simple carbs (sugar, basically) but if you are weight training, you need carbohydrate so your muscles will have something to use as fuel.

(I realize we don't know each other, so let me assure you there's no 'hidden agenda' in my question--I truly am curious.)

Very well-stated! I came across your blog through Live Journal somehow.

I enjoyed this entry a lot. Thanks!