Posted on 03/16/2003 1:57:19 PM PST by Pharmboy
Foods marketed to diabetics are far too high in carbs for my locarb eating habits. I had assumed that these foods would be a resource. Got me thinking that diabetics are being done a disservice.
The real culprit, IMO, is the liberal thinking about consumption. A high-protein diet is NOT cheap--you are consuming more than your proper "share" by consuming so much meat.
I could swear my nails, hair and skin have a better texture. Good luck on that swimsuit. I've picked out one in Speigels for spring vacation...size 9.
Talk about slow, it took me a full year to lose my 25, but 25 was what I had to lose. The first plateau was discouraging, lasted a month like you said after I had lost 12 steadily over four months. But since I wasn't hungry, I continued on locarb. I was starting to like the other benefits--not feeling famished at ten in the morning and wanting a nap at three.
After a month of nothing, suddenly five were gone like, overnight. Lost steadily and very slowly (the best way to lose) after that. But I never stinted on snacks--lots of nuts and cheese.
How is your stool, yum yum?
Only if you believe the mantra "A calorie is a calorie is a calorie."
I'm at 125, consuming about 1800 calories a day (though I haven't bothered to check in a year), and doing some exercise, but no Olympian, and still losing very slowly. Only 10-15% of those calories are carbs.
Men find it much easier on Atkins to lose, and Atkins says as much.
I'm afraid the sun does not revolve around the world, and certain kinds of calories act differently than other calories in the body. The American Heart Association has turned us into a nation of rolypoly diabetics.
The "cave man idea" is a fact; this has been studied in hunter-gatherer populations from around the world. See Loren Cordain's book; again, we have evolved over hundreds of thousands of years as hunter-gatherers. During this time, it was ABSOULTELY IMPOSSIBLE for these pre-Homo sapiens to get anywhere NEAR the amount of concentrated carbos that we eat today. This only became possible when agriculture came in JUST 15 THOUSAND YEARS AGO. This is a samll amount of time from an evolutionary perspective.
One proof of all this is that diabetes is the fastest growing disease on the Indian subcontinent; adding high fat to their high carb diet is the killer. A much more natural diet for our species is higher protein, higher fat (although less saturated) and lower carbs than we eat now.
You should also understand that we as Americans have LOWERED our ingested total fat content significantly in the last 20 years, but are fatter than ever.
You seem like a smart guy; the only thing you are missing is understanding the metabolic issues involved with high carb ingestion and an evolutionary perspective. Read the posts on this thread--many are excellent.
Cheers,
PB
My ass. No diet has ever been so pilloried as Atkins. I lost 22 pounds in one year just doing Atkins (and not very strictly, either) and exercising more. When I tell people I do Atkins they sometimes say "Oh, that crazy diet." Then I show them my breakfast and lunch, which I take to work every day.
Breakfast: Black coffee, strawberries, mango, 2 hardboiled eggs
Lunch: big Mixed green salad with carrots, tomato, and sliced barbecued steak.
I figured out why Atkins works for me: I eat about the same amount of meat as before, no starches, no sodas, no desserts, and more fresh veggies. No fried foods, no margarine. Blood pressure and cholesterol much better.
I'm not going to cut out grains, but I eat whole grains as much as possible. My current breakfast is something coffee (I do add a touch of half & half), a cup of shredded wheat, a cup of strawberries, mix it with some non-fat fruit low sugar yougurt, and add for protein egg beaters and a slice of whole wheat bread or whole wheat english muffin with non-fat margerine. That's alot of food, and less than 500 calories, and quite low fat. Lunch, tuna salad, or lean roast beef sandwich with lettace and mustard, maybe a cup of chicken noodle soup. Dinner, something with protein, broiled chicken, fish, maybe a small baked potato or whole grain rice or pasta. Desert, maybe more fruit with a yogurt again. At the end of the day, it adds up to usually between 1500-1700 calories. Plus, I try to do some exercise to burn at least 400 extra calories a day and keep my metabolism up. Most of the charts I see for someone my age and height say normal calorie intake should be about 2900 calories a day.
What I avoid? Sweets (candy, cake, coke), fried foods, rich creamy sauces, mayo, and I try not to eat processed food or white bread/pasta. Whole grain if at all possible.
Pretty soon I am going to start increasing my caloric intake, I would like to build a bit more muscle. I will probably start doubling the amount of protien I have with my meals. At most I figure I would add about 1000 calories a day. At that level, with more muscle mass and continuing on a workout program I should be fine.
Don't get discouraged. Where I live, the winter has been simply dreadful. Normally winters aren't too bad, but this one has had snow, slush, and freezing weather *far* more days than usual. It's really cut into my outdoor walking time and consequently I've largely "plateaued" this winter too.
When you hit a plateau like that, it helps to gradually up your exercise a little bit, a week at a time. Try an extra 15 minutes a day for a week, then work up to an extra 20, and then gradually up to an extra 30-45 minutes. As you exercise more, your body's fundamental metabolism will shift.
What also works for me is to restrict complex carbs (whole wheat bread, non-instant oatmeal) to only *one* meal a day. For me that meal is breakfast. If I'm "being good," the rest of the day the only carbs I eat are leafy greens and low-glycemic vegetables (green beans, asparagus, cucumbers, spinach, peppers, etc.) and low/mod-glycemic fruits. Tropical fruits (bananas, pineapple, mango etc.) are out. I also have to avoid entirely starchy vegetables like corn, carrots, potatoes.
I know that when my weight loss slows, it's because I'm eating rice with dinner, or too much fruit, or breaking down & eating Girl Scout cookies or something like that. It takes a *total* lifestyle change to eat that many vegetables in my low-glycemic meals.
That becomes clear when you look at the "caveman diets" that are recommended for people with really radical food allergies. (They're allergic to just about *everything* in the modern diet - wheat, corn, soy, milk, you name it.) The "caveman" diet consists of lean meat (as close to game as you can get - lamb is about the most basic), nuts, some leafy greens, and low-glycemic, low-sugar fruits like blueberries, strawberries, concord grapes. Cavemen also got a lot of fat & vitamins from grubs and insects, but that's not on the menu, so other fats have to be added too.
People didn't start eating tubers and roots until there was the technological capability to boil water (i.e. baskets or clay pots that could stand the boiling process.) Raw tubers are generally undigestible, and others like carrots are the product of agriculture and selective plant breeding.
In other words, for hundreds of thousands of years we didn't eat high-carb foods at all; it's really only been in the past 30,000 or so that we've most likely boiled water, and only in the past 6,000 or so that we've eaten cultivated grain. The body just hasn't caught up.
Losing that extra 10 lbs or so of water is good, too. Being bloated with extra water weight from carbs is no fun, and probably bad for you as well.
That's right. I remember when restaurants used to have "dieter's plates" that were very low carb (salad, cottage cheese, pears), and the proverbial "model's lunch" (steak and a salad.) When I was in high school the only fruit some girls would eat was grapefruit, and tuna fish was big among girls trying to lose weight.
I'd like to see restaurants offer some low-carb meals again: it would make eating out a whole lot easier.
That's true, and there are probably excellent genetic reasons - if you lived in Asia in the past & needed a lot of protein, you probably simply died. That's why the whole individual metabolism, genetic heritage, etc. has to be taken into account before someone radically modifies their diet. But in general if someone is really obese, there's something out of balance and in need of change.
The great unspoken Demon, that Atkins critics routinely dance around. F* Up your insulin sensitivity, and you are in for a lifetime of fat fighting.
A sandwich is just so easy to make and put in a brown bag. Most other high-carb foods are convenient too. I'd love to eat a steak or crab legs and all those other meals but there is no way I can do that at work.
My problem is now exacerbated by the fact that Im taking night classes, after work, twice a week and have to bring two meals. I haven't been able to keep the diet up.
So do any of you have a suggestion for quick meals that one can put in any lunch container and eat cold? With no prep at work?
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