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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 iteratio
by 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 agoOK, 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 agoIndeed. 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 agoSome 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 agoA much better book, written by an actual scientist, is Life Without Bread.
- MikeCapone 16y agoCan 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 agoMuch 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 agoSounds good. Thanks.
- phreanix 16y agoI'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?
- WilliamLP 16y agoI think he's just reframing the levels of causation a bit. You don't say pregnant women gain weight because they eat more than they consume, although from a thermodynamic point of view this is strictly true. Have you ever met skinny unhealthy programmers who are very sedentary and eat a lot of junk food? I have met many. The point is that different people have very different reactions to food, in terms of hunger, mental reward pathways, tendency to burn off calories through adjusting subjective energy levels (e.g. lethargy) and things like jittering, and hormonal responses. Some of this is affected by the kinds of foods we eat, and much of it is affected by genetics. The real point is that we can do better than saying "just eat less and exercise more" by looking at things from a different perspective. (I'm speaking as someone who lost 45 pounds in the last year and am currently at about 10-11% bodyfat by the way.)
- phreanix 16y agoThanks, that's clearer to me. =) Can you share how you got to where you are now?