I have followed many,many types of eating plans. In a sense you could call me a diet expert. I have read books a plenty and have had moments (sometimes long moments) of success. I guess you could say that I should teach weight loss since you know, "Those who can, lose weight. Those who can't, teach." I have a feeling that nobody wants to listen to a fat guy wax eloquent about the path to successful weight loss.
Still, I have lost well over 350 lbs. over the last five years. How many of you can say that? Unfortunately that means that I have also gained 250 lbs. The ratio is better than it could be, but I consider myself dedicated to practicing, and perhaps one of these days I will get it right!
What I've Learned
I won't pretend to know the answers, but I can tell you a little of what I have learned that seems to work when I apply it consistently.
- Exercise helps, but doesn't win the battle alone.
- Carbs are not your friend.
- There is a word for people who rely on willpower alone to lose weight, they call them fat.
- Plan ahead, plan ahead, plan ahead! Never get to hungry without knowing what your next meal will be. Hungry people don't make good decisions.
- Every skinny person is an expert on your weight loss. Because well, they're skinny right? They MUST have the SECRET!
- I used this in my first post, but it bears repeating, "The eternally thin are all the same, but everyone gets fat in their very own way." Losing weight doesn't appear to always have the same answer.
- Every diet essentially "works" in the sense that a roof over your head, of any kind, is a home. Some are cardboard boxes, and some are a bit more comfortable. Just because it's a place to live, doesn't mean you would want to call it home.
- failure isn't eating something you aren't supposed to, it's giving up entirely.
- When nutrition is high, cravings are low.
I am sure some people will come here and have an opinion on my plan, such as it is. I welcome that, on the other hand I hope you will understand if I just keep on doing what I am doing. I am open to lots of things, but frankly, spend as much time reading about weight loss as I have and you will start to notice the substantial number of people who have lost 100+ lbs and kept it off who are on some variant of a low-carb diet. I myself have had the most success on low-carb. And before anyone brings up the idea of a calorie restricted low-fat diet, I will just say that those end up being low carb as well, of necessity, since you just can't afford many carbs on 1500 calories per day.
Why Low Carb?
What keyed me in on the idea of low-carb was a period of weight loss five years ago where I lost 75 lbs. I ate 1500 calories per day. With each meal totaling around 500 calories that gives you enough for about 6 oz. of lean protein and a salad per meal with an occasional slice of toast thrown in for good measure.
I quit for a while and then tried to get back on it, only this time I bumped the calories up to 2000 per day. According to all of the low-fat diet experts I had read (including the FDA) it's a simple equation of calories in, calories out. There are formula's that allow you to calculate your basal metabolic rate i.e. the number of calories you burn by just existing/breathing/sleeping. Mine is around 3800 calories per day (based on my quarter ton girlish figure). Now according to these calculations, a 3500 calorie deficit yields a pound of fat lost, which means that at at 2000 calories per day I should see about a 3.5 lb per week loss. I tracked every bit of food that went into my mouth and at the end of three months with ZERO weight lost, I finally quit.
I cannot express to you just how dispirited I was. I didn't understand what I was doing wrong and I had no idea how to fix it. I considered going back to 1500 calories per day, but honestly I felt tired and weak much of the time on that diet, and I just didn't think I could handle it with my work load and other activities.
Several months later I came across a book called, "Good Calories, Bad Calories" by Gary Taub. I read it and then I went back and read it again. It was NOT a "diet" book, he never even recommends an eating plan. Rather, it is a science based analysis of the medical studies that have been performed over the last 150 years on the topic. His conclusion was simple,and it put a different spin on weight loss I hadn't encountered. I will try to sum it up in a couple of sentences though the book is very long and very dense. Children and adolescents eat calories far in excess of what they burn yet (usually) do not get fat, but rather grow tall and grow muscle and bone. Why is that? It's human growth hormone a chemical that instructs the body what to do with excess. Why, he says do we not look to a hormonal answer to our abnormal growth? Insulin is the hormone that regulates where excess food is stored. I won't say anything more since I am likely to only misstate something and prevent you from reading further. Regardless, I found his analysis very compelling.
What variant of low carb?
For me, the immediate plan is atkins. I have experimented with a few different levels and I find that if I eat very many carbs I get mad cravings, so this time I am following the Atkins induction plan. I am 10 days in and so far so good. I have lost 13 lbs, as of this morning and the weight loss has been consistent regardless of caloric intake. I am tracking my calories and will post that on this blog each day. My cravings seem to be subsiding already and my appetite is sated more easily. One concern I have so far is eating more green vegetables. Many leafy green vegetables are surprisingly high in carbs and I want max nutrition for the low carb count I am getting. I am also supplementing vitamins and protein using a product called Pro Complex which has 1g carbs and 60g protein per serving + about 50% of every major vitamin nutrient and mineral the body needs. My experience with the green juice before was that when nutrition is high, cravings are low.
My apologies for these two book length entries, I expect most of my future posts to be considerably shorter. Thank you for reading this far and I hope that you will continue to check in on me. I have included today's calories from my food journal on MyFitnessPal.com
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