"Dirty and high carb eating"! Works for me!

Works for me too.

Thing is, you can't gain weight eating at a deficit. It defies the laws of thermodynamics. You cannot make something out of nothing. So those who say that they are eating at a deficit and gaining weight and blaming carbs, there is something going on that you are not telling us because that is impossible.

I love it when people who clearly don't have some kind of metabolic issue that makes them sensitive to carbs chimes in with their "wisdom". I recall going on Weight Watchers a couple decades back and it was a high-carb/low-fat plan. I weighed/measured/recorded everything and gained about 8 pounds in the course of about a month (don't recall now the exact weight and time-frame). I was called a liar and told I must be cheating. Not so. However, I was also miserable. I was starving all the time.

I don't mean to be rude, but it's not wisdom, it's physics. You cannot gain weight eating fewer calories than you consume, because you cannot make something out of nothing (ie fat from nothing). I am not denying that some people fair better eating a low carb diet, I am saying that if you are eating fewer calories than your body burns you cannot gain fat. What works for you works for you, but you can't argue with the laws of thermodynamics.

I have to add that there is a reason why I get a bit passionate about telling people they don't have to cut carbs from their diet or eat only lettuce leaf to lose weight. The reason is because I used to be a yo yo dieter, trying every diet under the sun, believing that if I ate carbs I would somehow magically gain weight. Sure I could cut carbs out, for a week, two weeks, a month. But in the end I would feel like having some pasta, and I thought I had 'failed' my diet, I gave up and just went nuts and regained any weight I'd lost. Now I know better, I know I can fit pasta into my diet and still lose weight, I know I can have a bowl of icecream and still lose weight. The guilty feelings are gone, and I can just focus on living my life without having a new list of foods I am not allowed to eat.

Explains the ticker... Don't people read the twinkie diet??? The person obviously did not eat 100% of his diet in twinkles but it was a great percentage of it. you can have one big mac meal and be done with your eating if you choose. You can have a few donuts if you choose its up to you! Many people go on through life without even thinking of what they are eating and yet they maintain their weight. I think the less energy we put towards our food the less negative energy we consume.

Its not rocket science!

it doesn't take as long as you might think for an anorexic person to die...
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1327010/Parents-girl-died-anorexia-claims-lived-better-care.html

Ever since I have allowed myself "dirty" foods, I no longer have out of control binges. It is awesome.

Works for me too.

Thing is, you can't gain weight eating at a deficit. It defies the laws of thermodynamics. You cannot make something out of nothing. So those who say that they are eating at a deficit and gaining weight and blaming carbs, there is something going on that you are not telling us because that is impossible.

I love it when people who clearly don't have some kind of metabolic issue that makes them sensitive to carbs chimes in with their "wisdom". I recall going on Weight Watchers a couple decades back and it was a high-carb/low-fat plan. I weighed/measured/recorded everything and gained about 8 pounds in the course of about a month (don't recall now the exact weight and time-frame). I was called a liar and told I must be cheating. Not so. However, I was also miserable. I was starving all the time.

I don't mean to be rude, but it's not wisdom, it's physics. You cannot gain weight eating fewer calories than you consume, because you cannot make something out of nothing (ie fat from nothing). I am not denying that some people fair better eating a low carb diet, I am saying that if you are eating fewer calories than your body burns you cannot gain fat. What works for you works for you, but you can't argue with the laws of thermodynamics.

I have to add that there is a reason why I get a bit passionate about telling people they don't have to cut carbs from their diet or eat only lettuce leaf to lose weight. The reason is because I used to be a yo yo dieter, trying every diet under the sun, believing that if I ate carbs I would somehow magically gain weight. Sure I could cut carbs out, for a week, two weeks, a month. But in the end I would feel like having some pasta, and I thought I had 'failed' my diet, I gave up and just went nuts and regained any weight I'd lost. Now I know better, I know I can fit pasta into my diet and still lose weight, I know I can have a bowl of icecream and still lose weight. The guilty feelings are gone, and I can just focus on living my life without having a new list of foods I am not allowed to eat.

Explains the ticker... Don't people read the twinkie diet??? The person obviously did not eat 100% of his diet in twinkles but it was a great percentage of it. you can have one big mac meal and be done with your eating if you choose. You can have a few donuts if you choose its up to you! Many people go on through life without even thinking of what they are eating and yet they maintain their weight. I think the less energy we put towards our food the less negative energy we consume.

Its not rocket science!

While I realize my weight loss isn't as much, I think my ticker should speak for itself as well. And, while some can lose weight that way, some of us with various metabolic issues ranging from insulin resistance to hypoglycemia to diabetes to PCOS and probably a few more that I'm unaware of don't react positively to carbs in our diet even in a calorie deficit.

Do you honestly think I spent over 20 years of my life trying to lose weight to the point where I had to go into therapy, had virtually no self-esteem or confidence, thought I was a failure in everything in my life because of this one issue and weighed/measured/tracked every bite that passed my lips for years without success until I simply lowered my carb intake would have been lying to myself all those years? Especially since I love carbs. Love them. My favorite food group. And I'm thrilled that due to my increased fitness and, probably, my lowered weight, I can process carbs better now and can eat a few more. If it was all about what I like to chew, I would be all for a high-carb diet. But it doesn't work for me. And I know I'm not alone in that.

And, before anybody jumps in and says with the lowered carbs, I've lowered my overall calorie intake, that's not true at all. I upped my protein and fats to compensate for the lowered carbs and then now have actually raised my net calorie intake to where I'm averaging about 4000 calories per week more than I used to eat when I ate low-fat/low-protein/high-carb.

I'm curious why someone who thinks it's not rocket science is giving kudos to someone who brings physics into the discussion. Odd.

The model isn't rocket science, but the model is a non-linear equation with unknown variables, not simple arithmetic. The human body is so much more complicated than a mere machine. I am always fascinated to see people living "for years" under starvation conditions. A grown man. In a village someplace Manually farming. On 1200 calories a day. Who doesn't have the option "to cheat" on his "food diary" because there is no other food to eat. He may not be in optimal health or very happy...but he remains alive. For a really long time. Or the anorexic who runs 10 miles a day. TEN MILES A DAY. And eats 500 calories. Yeah...she'll eventually die. No joke. But the time frame is measured in YEARS, not months. The model hasn't changed, but clearly, the x has different values. And the line leading to death may appear asymptoptic for pretty long stretch. If we were machines, we wouldn't have endured. Human bred Holstein cows? *They're* machines. Without careful tending by agricultural specialists...feeding them the exact right nutrients at the exact right time? They die. Evolution (or God if you swing that way), isn't as dumb as we are. We were meant to last. The Holstein cow?...to be milked for a few short years and then eaten as hamburger.

Now. I'm not saying that each of us is "sooo" complicated and "such" an individual that basic rules of thumb can't, more or less, be true. I just think that the human animal is a much more magnificent specimen than we often give it credit for. We live in desserts and on glaciers. Eating mostly blubber and whale meat, or mostly tapioca root. So why is it so hard to believe that some people got that blubber eating gene, and some people got that tapioca root loving gene? Its not so much that one "couldn't" adapt to the other regime. But if they had a choice, why wouldn't they chose what's easiest?

Sure, I "could" train to be a basketball star. I'm sure I'd get some benefit. But at 4'11"...well, I might just be spittin' in the wind with that one. I might be happier doing...whatever it is that short people are good at. Looking cute? Yeah...looking cute. I'm working on *that* one.

Well said. I've often wondered if it's due to my 100% Norwegian heritage. After all, I'm sure that unless they were pillaging grain from other places, that they had limited access to grains in their daily life. I'm really half-joking here.

I only come into these discussions because I get to tired of telling people what they should eat. While I agree that some basic principles regarding protein intake for maintaining muscles, eating enough calories to fuel your body and to not depress your metabolism, etc., make good common sense that everyone can apply. However, the make-up of the individual foods we eat should be respected across eating styles whether it be low- or mod-carb, vegan, vegetarian, pescatarian, paleo, whatever. Any one individual eating plan is not superior to the other for the general population. However, one eating plan might be superior for that individual person.

And I'm not against eating "dirty". Heck, as I mentioned earlier, I've had three slices of pizza today. Over several days last week, I enjoyed a slice off a huge cinnamon roll slightly heated in the microwave with melted butter. With that gone, I'm now enjoying slices off a great cranberry-crumble pastry each day. I occasionally go to fast food drive-thru windows when pressed for time. Last week, due to being late to play rehearsal where I would either have time to go home and eat a healthy dinner and skip exercise, or exercise and eat in the car on the way to rehearsal, I had a local burger joint hamburger one day and a Filet-o-Fish from McDonald's another day.

And I do encourage those who complain that they miss their wine, beer, pie, cake, ice cream, whatever to learn to indulge in it so they don't go through their weight loss feeling deprived and, thus, eventually failing. I just know that I have to carefully watch that the carb creep in my diet doesn't get too high on a consistent basis or my weight loss totally grinds to a halt even if I'm keeping my calories at the same level. Now, sometimes I choose to do this as a break from dieting (and I'm all about flexible dieting) like during the holidays and during a week of vacation. But I can't go above certain carb limits on a regular basis if I want to lose more weight.

Well, I've probably yammered on enough here.

So down 17lbs. while still having "dirty" foods and a good amount of carbs. The "clean eating" may happen on my last couple of pounds, but till then I continue to eat like I always have.

A.C.E. Certified Personal/Group FitnessTrainer
IDEA Fitness member
Kickboxing Certified Instructor
Been in fitness for 28+ years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition

walking the walk

same. like the person above i eat healthy, but at the same time eat a ton of what clean eaters would call crap. i mainly shoot for 150-250g of carbs a day and it works for me

Enjoying life is certainly key.

But I would humbly submit that if you've maintained your same physique for 20 years, you don't have the same predispositions that most of us on MFP do. The obesity epidemic in the US? The evidence is pretty clear that the population statistics that keep getting touted, hide the reality of subpopulation variance...which is to say, the changes that have led to increased obesity have only affected the susceptible. Those who weren't susceptible to our national shifts in exercise and dietary habits aren't having any problems with their weight. (hint, hint: its not because they're more disciplined people).

So, I have no doubt it works for you. I've also met people who are incredibly disciplined about their diets (so disciplined that they scare me...I couldn't live that way) yet they are always struggling to keep their weight down. Both of these life experiences are just as real. And the current scientific evidence, both population and clinical/lab studies, backs that up.

(and to clarify, I'm not just talking about metabolic dispositions, but behavioral ones as well. For example, some folks can't eat 2 cookies. Its either none, or a tub. In a different era, when someone had to make cookies, from precious resources, and parcel them out to a large family, a predisposition to "binging" would be moot...there would be no opportunity.)

I was thinking maybe it's easier for OP to maintain. Doesn't take much effort?

Way to downplay or undermine the OPs dedicated efforts over the past 20 years. Talk about trying to knock someone down in order to boost yourself up.