Low carb doesn't work for me anymore

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  • Dragonwolf
    Dragonwolf Posts: 5,600 Member
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    This makes way too much sense, even though I don't want to hear it. Normal weight range is still a range, and I am not happy with how I look at the higher end of it, so I'm certainly not stopping, but I guess it makes sense it will be more difficult. I don't think I helped my cause going back on and off low carb several times over the last year and gaining and losing the same 10 pounds over and over, either.

    That sounds like even more reason to start focusing on body composition. What is it that you didn't like about your body? If you're still trying to lose weight, I'd venture to guess it's because you think you look fat. This is generally known as "skinny fat," and you're not going to be able to fix it by dieting down to a particular weight. You fix it by strength training, so go pick up some heavy stuff! Then, go do it again!
    Maybe you need more fat to help with hunger.

    Meat based diet? Sounds good to me......good luck and let us know how it goes and what changes you make!

    It's a good suggestion, but I was happily eating fatty cuts of meat with the fat still on it and coconut oil, too. The more I think about this, the more I realize I was just getting discouraged too easily by expecting it to be too easy.

    Still, it can't hurt to try a higher fiber, more roughage based diet for a few weeks and see if my stomach settles in. I've been avoiding my veggies since childhood, except for onions and whatever comes in a spice rack, so why not give it a real go? I was vegetarian for awhile but I ate all the crappy processed fake hamburger and fake chicken patties plus lots and lots of candy and soda, so I never did give it a real try. This time before I call it quits I'm determined to stick it out a bit longer. If my belly decides it really does hate these foods, at least I'll know I gave it a good try and I can go back to being mostly carnivorous.
    Anyway, I'll give what I'm doing another week or so, but my belly doesn't seem too happy with this. I think it liked the meat based diet better.

    Are you listening to yourself? Both your body and your words are saying that you do better on a meat-based diet. And yet, because it was "too easy" you think it must not be right? Does that make sense to anyone?

    It sounds to me like you go from one extreme to the other. From what you've been saying, there's been pretty much no middle ground. You can include veggies in a low carb diet (low carb is not no carb) without going full-on vegetarian.

    It also sounds to me like you think we should always be battling with our food in order to stay at a healthy weight. Why? It was really only in the last 35 years or so that people on a large scale had issues with obesity and its related disorders. Until then, people were pretty effortlessly staying at a healthy weight for the most part. Why is that? I think it's in no small part due to the change in dietary composition. It was about 35 years ago that the USDA started pushing the old, grain and carb based food pyramid and started telling everyone that fat was bad. And if you drop fat, where do you have to get your energy from? Carbs. Prior to that, what were people eating and cooking with? Real butter, real lard and tallow, bacon, eggs, fatty cuts of meat next to vegetables that may or may not have butter on them, a slice of bread that probably had butter on it, and a glass of whole (possibly raw) milk.

    Suddenly, it was recommended that that be replaced with oatmeal or corn/rice cereal, skim milk (that had to be pasteurized, and then homogenized!), margarine (made with trans fats for a while, until people realized that those where really bad), tons of polyunsaturated fats (even though they oxidize easily, which is also really bad), egg whites (if you did eggs at all), and other "low fat!" stuff that turned to real garbage when the processed food industry got its grubby fingers on our food. Then what happened? People got fat. Diabetes rates skyrocketed (even kids are starting to get T2D, which was unheard of even 10-15 years ago).

    Why? I'm of the opinion that it's because people aren't eating what they're meant to be eating. Even if you argue that the high-starch diet of Japanese have been linked to longer life, I'd argue that it's at least partly due to the fact that they're eating their traditional diet, or the one their ancestors ate into antiquity. Even discounting the idea that Paleolithic man evolved to the point that the Neolithic age (and thus, farming) happened due to diets that often had large animal-based components and sticking with dietary patterns of one's ancestors through this age, you will more likely do better on the diet of your ancestors, which, from the sound of it, is more meat-based (remember - look past your parents and grandparents, and look at the regions your family comes from). And, of course, above all, always keep in mind what you do best on.

    The tl;dr version:

    1. Staying a healthy weight does not need to be a battle.
    2. Dieting very likely won't get you the body you want (unless you're looking for "skin and bones" or "skinny fat").
    3. Eating what your ancestors ate will likely serve you better than someone's arbitrary standard of what a healthy diet is
    4. Listen to your own body, above pretty much all else - feed it what gives it the proper nutrients and makes it feel its best

    http://health.usnews.com/health-news/diet-fitness/diabetes/articles/2008/10/30/rate-of-diabetes-cases-doubles-in-10-years-cdc
    http://www.cdc.gov/diabetes/statistics/prev/national/figage.htm
    http://www.changingdiabetesbarometer.com/diabetes-data/countries/usa.aspx?intmap=prev#tab-1 <-- shows projected prevalence rates of diabetes over the next 10 years or so
    http://www.cpmedical.net/newsletter/up-for-debate-does-eating-fat-make-you-fat
    http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jonathan-bailor/obesity-epidemic_b_4355781.html
  • fruttibiscotti
    fruttibiscotti Posts: 986 Member
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    Dragonwolf, I love what you wrote here.....two thumbs up!!

    And yes, people keep ignoring the difference between Paleolithic and Neolithic eating patterns, as well as geographical differences in ancestral lineages which impacts digestion tolerances.
  • Niccidawn092
    Niccidawn092 Posts: 64 Member
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    People don't realize just how much fat Japanese people eat! Fatty cuts are extremely expensive as they are more coveted. A lot of dishes are very fatty, and it is pretty common for Japanese women to cut out rice, pasta and bread if they want to lose a few pounds. Quite a few sweets are made with Stevia instead of sugar or high fructose corn syrup. I miss Japan!
  • fruttibiscotti
    fruttibiscotti Posts: 986 Member
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    People don't realize just how much fat Japanese people eat! Fatty cuts are extremely expensive as they are more coveted. A lot of dishes are very fatty, and it is pretty common for Japanese women to cut out rice, pasta and bread if they want to lose a few pounds. Quite a few sweets are made with Stevia instead of sugar or high fructose corn syrup. I miss Japan!

    I agree. And China is the same. I remember when I was in China for a whole week on business, and i would have supper with my Chinese colleagues every night, and not once did we eat a grain of rice. I was shocked. When I asked them about it, one of them scoffed: "rice not healthy for you, makes you fat, better to avoid, and usually the poorer you are the more rice you eat because you cannot afford food like this". I almost fell out of my chair I was so shocked.
  • camtosh
    camtosh Posts: 898 Member
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    People don't realize just how much fat Japanese people eat! Fatty cuts are extremely expensive as they are more coveted. A lot of dishes are very fatty, and it is pretty common for Japanese women to cut out rice, pasta and bread if they want to lose a few pounds. Quite a few sweets are made with Stevia instead of sugar or high fructose corn syrup. I miss Japan!

    Yup to this. I came to Japan in the early 80s and was horrified that my bf not only did not eat low fat, but relished the yakitori and grilled stuff with all that fat dripping off it. But now I am eating every bit of it, too.
    The sad thing is that the "low fat" diet craze has arrived and the ubiquitous "Office Ladies" are eating low fat yogurt and zero cal soda drinks, etc. It seems everyone is "dieting" constantly, to the point where lots of young women (and men) look anorexic (thighs that are narrower than their knees!).

    OTOH, the "Wheat Belly" book has been translated into Japanese, so there is hope....
  • Dragonwolf
    Dragonwolf Posts: 5,600 Member
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    People don't realize just how much fat Japanese people eat! Fatty cuts are extremely expensive as they are more coveted. A lot of dishes are very fatty, and it is pretty common for Japanese women to cut out rice, pasta and bread if they want to lose a few pounds. Quite a few sweets are made with Stevia instead of sugar or high fructose corn syrup. I miss Japan!

    I agree. And China is the same. I remember when I was in China for a whole week on business, and i would have supper with my Chinese colleagues every night, and not once did we eat a grain of rice. I was shocked. When I asked them about it, one of them scoffed: "rice not healthy for you, makes you fat, better to avoid, and usually the poorer you are the more rice you eat because you cannot afford food like this". I almost fell out of my chair I was so shocked.

    Everything I kept finding on them was all biased in the vegetarian direction, I guess it's because most of the information is based on observation of those areas shortly after WWII, when they were pretty much starving (incidentally, it seems that's also how the Americanized "Mediterranean" diet came about - post-WWII half-starved coastal villages) and so eating whatever they could get their hands on, which happened to be a lot of rice.

    So, thanks for the clarification, and I love the response from your Chinese coworker!