6 ms·

I didn’t try the crazy diets like Atkins or the Maple Syrup diet. Anything that requires eating crazy stuff is probably bad for your health. Now I'm starting t

• swombat 16y ago
  If you read the appendix, you'll see that I do recommend staying away from processed sugars and other assorted white-bread-and-white-rice. In my third iteration, I'm also tending to avoid the starchy stuff most of the time (not always though). In the first two, though, I happily ate a sandwich for lunch and potatoes for breakfast, and still lost plenty of both weight and fat. I won't get into a debate about Atkins. I am naturally dubious of extreme diets (and Atkins is extreme, no matter which way you slice it), but it's worth pointing out that "what you eat" is only one third of this method. The first 2/3rds are all about motivation, and they're the important part. The third part merely suggests one way to "eat less".
  • tcskeptic 16y ago
    OK, so don't get into a debate about it, but I would like to point out that extreme is relative. From an evolutionary perspective (i.e. What we naked apes evolved to eat...) I would argue that a standard american diet is FAR more extereme than an atkins diet (at least one that avoids fake low-carb foods) based around meat, green plants, many kinds of fruit, and nuts.
    • MikeCapone 16y ago
      Indeed. For those wanting to learn (a lot) more about this, with references to all the studies, check out Gary Taubes's book Good Calories, Bad Calories.
      • bbatsell 16y ago
        Some pretty good notes to Good Calories, Bad Calories, approved (perhaps temporarily) by the publisher: http://higher-thought.net/complete-notes-to-good-calories-bad-calories/ http://higher-thought.net/complete-notes-to-good-calories-ba...
      • ahoyhere 16y ago
        A much better book, written by an actual scientist, is Life Without Bread.
        • MikeCapone 16y ago
          Can you elaborate on what makes it "much better"? I thought Taubes's book was very well researched (I think he spent about 10 years on it) and very well argued. I'd love to see something even better.
          • ahoyhere 16y ago
            Much more science, less story-telling, but extremely compelling research -- many more studies cited, not just weight but the effect of low-carbohydrate diets on things like gout. Graphs. Very much a "here's the science, here's why, make your own mind up" type of book.
            • MikeCapone 16y ago
              Sounds good. Thanks.
      • phreanix 16y ago
        I'm not sure I'm understanding this correctly: 5. Obesity is a disorder of excess fat accumulation, not overeating, and not sedentary behavior. 6. Consuming excess calories does not cause us to grow fatter, any more than it causes a child to grow taller. Expending more energy than we consume does not lead to long-term weight loss; it leads to hunger. So if I didn't have this disorder I can over-eat and become sedentary and not become obese?
• briancooley 16y ago
  The simple fact is that most people dramatically reduce sugar intake when dieting. That alone is likely to shift their insulin balance in a favorable direction. Weighing daily and graphing simply promote awareness and can be motivating. One of the things that makes low-carb believers like myself seem like crackpots is our unwillingness to acknowledge that moderate carb consumption can be a reasonable diet because we believe it to be suboptimal. For the average individual, simply eliminating most dietary sugar and refined carbohydrates would generate enough significant weight loss and health benefits to encourage them to maintain such a diet (which is likely to be more varied and interesting than a strict low carb diet) for long periods of time.
• goodness 16y ago
  The other thing to say here is that the latest research indicates that carbs may actually be a leading cause of heart disease rather than fat. For example: http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=carbs-against-cardio http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=carbs-again... So low carbs can be healthy even if you're not trying to lose weight.
  • blehn 16y ago
    The study says refined carbs are bad — that's an important distinction. Also, some research (The China Study, for example) suggests that proteins (not fat) from animal-based foods are a cause of heart disease (and cancers).
    • goodness 16y ago
      Sorry, you're right about the refined carbs. Also, going further along the meat lines, there was also recent research differentiating processed meats (e.g. bacon, sausage, lunch meats, etc.) versus unprocessed meats. If I remember correctly, the unprocessed meats had no real links to heart disease and cancers (in moderation). However, the processed meats did show some links to those health problems. The researchers speculated that it was probably either the high salt content or the nitrates in the processed meats that were the culprits, but the study didn't actually look at that.
• antidaily 16y ago
  I did the maple syrup diet if anyone is curious - documented here: http://mastercleanselemonadediet.tumblr.com/ http://mastercleanselemonadediet.tumblr.com/ I just wanted to see if I could do it. I made it. Lost 16 lbs and have kept off 10 lbs.
• ams6110 16y ago
  My most successful weight loss was on a low carb, Atkins-like diet. It's not something I could see doing for a lifetime; I like fruit and good bread too much. The article contends that graphing your weight on a daily basis is a good motivator, and I agree with this as well. Doesn't have to be a computer graph either, a piece of graph paper posted on the bathroom wall by the scale does just fine.