There are a lot of theories pertaining to the low carb way of eating on the Internet and in popular books. And not all of the theories are sound, or backed by hard, empirical, scientific data. So I am curious where people get their ideas from. Are you getting your ideas from a science journalist? A comedian? A romance novelist whose books have "bodice ripper" covers? Physicians (such as this one, this one, this one, and these two)? Nutrition researchers? Weight loss celebrities? Cookbook authors (such as this one, this one, and this one)?
Personally, I have learned from all of the above. However, my vote for the most hard hitting and accurate information about both the low carb way of eating and type II diabetes goes to the romance novelist with the bodice ripper covers. She has three web sites: one called Blood Sugar 101, one called What They Don't Tell You About Low Carb Diets, and a diabetes research update blog. The Blood Sugar 101 site really lays it all out and is perhaps the most important type II diabetes web site on the Internet. She explains everything associated with type II diabetes, including the low carb way of eating, medications, finger sticks, diabetes on a budget, etc. And her diabetes update blog is my go to source for up-to-date diabetes information.
Her low carb site is informed by years of experience and empirical evidence. She discusses stalls (and how to overcome them), how much weight you will lose, what happens when you fall off the low carb wagon, how to overcome "keto breath," lots of practical "in the trench" advice, etc. Ounce for ounce, it is the most meaty and useful low carb site on the Internet.
I cannot comment on her romance novels, however, as my tastes in fiction go more to science fiction and epic fantasy.
The book that influenced me the most, the one that introduced me to the low carb way of eating, is Why We Get Fat and What to Do About It by Gary Taubes. However, I am learning that Taubes is a theorist and some of his ideas, such as calories don't count and exercise doesn't help are not grounded in scientific data. This book has been enormously influential in my success, but I am starting to see the holes in some of his arguments. For that reason, it does not take second place. That honor of the second most influential source of information goes to the book The Art and Science of Low Carbohydrate Living by Jeff Volek, Ph.D., R.D., and Stephen Phinney, M.D., Ph.D. Written for other physicians, it lays out the low carb lifestyle and documents every point they make. I have reviewed the book previously on my other blog, so I won't go into great detail here. Suffice it to say that it explains the "how" of the low carb way of eating.
And a well-deserved honorable mention goes to the cookbook, Nourishing Traditions by Sally Fallon and Mary G. Enig, Ph.D. (read my review). More than a cookbook, it explains what is necessary for healthy eating and how to prepare foods to achieve optimal health. Not low carb per se, but it is extraordinarily informative. I am doing much of the cooking at home and her cookbook is my go-to source for healthy recipes.
Wednesday, August 10, 2011
Tuesday, August 9, 2011
Why Low Carb Works, At Least For Me
I've previously bought into a lot of the low carb hype: there is a metabolic advantage, carbs are fattening, low carb cures all, etc. But with time, wisdom arrives. The low carb way of eating seems to work for me, and, after a lot of thinking about it, here is why.
Protein and fat are very satiating and keep me full. Indeed, research shows that low carb dieters spontaneously consume fewer calories after feeling full, which leads to weight loss. This, I think, is the key element in weight loss on a carbohydrate restricted diet. But there are some other factors, too.
Protein and fat simply taste better than the low fat fare I ate on Weight Watchers. I hate skinless chicken breasts but love steak, eggs, and bacon. And vegetables. Food choices are simply easier, and for the first fifty pounds of my weight loss, I didn't have to count anything (although, I am now counting calories). I doubt I will ever go back to a Weight Watchers style, low fat diet. I genuinely like what I eat when low carbing.
That said, there seems to be a lot of misinformation about why low carb diets work. This post by Dana Carpender is a prime example. Dana, I love your cookbooks and use many of the recipes. But you are simply wrong here. She claims a five pound weight game came from eating a few too many grams of carbs over one week. In one sense, this is true and accurate. But it's not because carbs are fattening, as she implies.
When you slip up on a low carb diet, you do gain a lot of weight, almost immediately. But it's all water. When carbohydrates are stored in your body as energy in the form of glycogen, each molecule of glycogen is bonded to four molecules of water. This accounts for the first, rapid weight loss on a true, low carb diet: you deplete your glycogen stores (a 150 pound person has about a pound of glycogen stored up) and the water bonded to it. Hence, five pounds. When you replenish those glycogen stores by eating too many carbs, the water "loss" comes back. You can literally gain five pounds over night by cheating on a low carb diet.
I am quite certain this is what happened to Dana Carpender. Just get back in the saddle and try again, though you will deal with some side effects, such as hunger and higher blood sugar levels, for a couple of days. But be wise and understand it is a water gain, not a fat gain. Making you retain water is not the same thing as gaining fat, and the carbs she consumed are not fattening in the sense that she is storing extra fat. She is simply storing extra water. Think through it logically, folks: a few hundred (or even a few thousand) extra carb calories will not cause you to gain five pounds of fat.
Protein and fat are very satiating and keep me full. Indeed, research shows that low carb dieters spontaneously consume fewer calories after feeling full, which leads to weight loss. This, I think, is the key element in weight loss on a carbohydrate restricted diet. But there are some other factors, too.
Protein and fat simply taste better than the low fat fare I ate on Weight Watchers. I hate skinless chicken breasts but love steak, eggs, and bacon. And vegetables. Food choices are simply easier, and for the first fifty pounds of my weight loss, I didn't have to count anything (although, I am now counting calories). I doubt I will ever go back to a Weight Watchers style, low fat diet. I genuinely like what I eat when low carbing.
That said, there seems to be a lot of misinformation about why low carb diets work. This post by Dana Carpender is a prime example. Dana, I love your cookbooks and use many of the recipes. But you are simply wrong here. She claims a five pound weight game came from eating a few too many grams of carbs over one week. In one sense, this is true and accurate. But it's not because carbs are fattening, as she implies.
When you slip up on a low carb diet, you do gain a lot of weight, almost immediately. But it's all water. When carbohydrates are stored in your body as energy in the form of glycogen, each molecule of glycogen is bonded to four molecules of water. This accounts for the first, rapid weight loss on a true, low carb diet: you deplete your glycogen stores (a 150 pound person has about a pound of glycogen stored up) and the water bonded to it. Hence, five pounds. When you replenish those glycogen stores by eating too many carbs, the water "loss" comes back. You can literally gain five pounds over night by cheating on a low carb diet.
I am quite certain this is what happened to Dana Carpender. Just get back in the saddle and try again, though you will deal with some side effects, such as hunger and higher blood sugar levels, for a couple of days. But be wise and understand it is a water gain, not a fat gain. Making you retain water is not the same thing as gaining fat, and the carbs she consumed are not fattening in the sense that she is storing extra fat. She is simply storing extra water. Think through it logically, folks: a few hundred (or even a few thousand) extra carb calories will not cause you to gain five pounds of fat.
Monday, August 8, 2011
On Exercise
I've done a lot of thinking about exercise lately. The standard thinking on the subject is that exercise is a powerful tool for weight loss. However, in recent months, the role of exercise in weight loss has been questioned. The basic problem: people work up an appetite when exercising, and consequently consumer more calories. A friend of mine who is an exercise physiologist at the same university at which I work, told me the role of exercise in weight loss has been oversold, and that while exercise is very good for the health, it doesn't help with weight loss, only the prevention of weigh gain. One study showed that even thinking about exercise caused people to eat more.
Gary Taubes makes two, contradictory statements in his book, Why We Get Fat and What to Do About It, the book that introduced me to the low carb lifestyle. He says that, when eating low carb, calories don't count (I am on record as stating that calories do count, at least in my personal experience). Then he claims that exercise fails to help people lose weight, because they get hungry after exercising and eat more calories, preventing them from losing weight. So which is it? I bought into this idea through the first fifty pounds of my low carb weight loss and haven't been exercising for weight loss. But with my recent stall, I am rethinking this. Tabues can't have it both ways: either calories don't count, or exercising helps. Personally, I think calories count, so does this mean exercising might help with weight loss?
I see a flaw in the argument that exercise causes us to eat more. First of all, that statement should be, "exercise can cause us to eat more," but it doesn't necessarily have to do that. This is a lesson I learned while on Weight Watchers: don't deviate from your program and exercise. That way, you don't overeat, even after exercising. That seemed to work for me and is what helped me to reach my goal weight on Weight Watchers. There is no immutable law that says you must overeat after exercising; one can exercise willpower and not overeat after exercising.
So here is what I think I will do. Continue monitoring my calories on livestrong.com and stay below the calorie threshold for my height and weight in order to lose two pounds per week, continue eating low carb, and exercise. I will do it for at least six weeks before reviewing the results. My prediction: I will bust through this weight loss stall and get back on track in the weight loss department.
Gary Taubes makes two, contradictory statements in his book, Why We Get Fat and What to Do About It, the book that introduced me to the low carb lifestyle. He says that, when eating low carb, calories don't count (I am on record as stating that calories do count, at least in my personal experience). Then he claims that exercise fails to help people lose weight, because they get hungry after exercising and eat more calories, preventing them from losing weight. So which is it? I bought into this idea through the first fifty pounds of my low carb weight loss and haven't been exercising for weight loss. But with my recent stall, I am rethinking this. Tabues can't have it both ways: either calories don't count, or exercising helps. Personally, I think calories count, so does this mean exercising might help with weight loss?
I see a flaw in the argument that exercise causes us to eat more. First of all, that statement should be, "exercise can cause us to eat more," but it doesn't necessarily have to do that. This is a lesson I learned while on Weight Watchers: don't deviate from your program and exercise. That way, you don't overeat, even after exercising. That seemed to work for me and is what helped me to reach my goal weight on Weight Watchers. There is no immutable law that says you must overeat after exercising; one can exercise willpower and not overeat after exercising.
So here is what I think I will do. Continue monitoring my calories on livestrong.com and stay below the calorie threshold for my height and weight in order to lose two pounds per week, continue eating low carb, and exercise. I will do it for at least six weeks before reviewing the results. My prediction: I will bust through this weight loss stall and get back on track in the weight loss department.
Friday, August 5, 2011
Doubling My Carbs
In the past six months, I guess it would be fair to say I have become a bit "carbophobic." In fact, I have been following a "very low carb" way of eating. Why? I can't really say for sure. I have type II diabetes and this low carb lifestyle has effectively put my type II diabetes into remission. It makes sense: carbs drive blood sugar responses, so cut back on the carbs. That is also the key to weight loss.
But why very low carb? I honestly don't know. I came to the realization that I was carbophobic a while back and decided it wasn't rational. I had been consuming, on average, 20-25 grams of carbs per day, mostly in the form of green, leafy vegetables and the small number of carbs found naturally in eggs. The theory is, to stay in ketosis, you need to consume 50 or fewer grams of carbs per day. That helps the most with weight loss. So if that is true, why was I trying to stay below 25? Why not simply stay below 50?
So in recent weeks, I have roughly doubled my carb count. I am still below 50 net carbs (after subtracting out grams of fiber), but it has made a huge difference in the types of foods I can eat. For example, the other night, I made ice cream from the recipe in Sally Fallon's book, Nourishing Traditions. In half a cup, there were about 300 calories and 16 grams of carbs. I keep my calorie total below the threshold needed to lose weight for a person my size and height, and my total carbs for the day were under 50. I also monitored my blood glucose levels and there was no blood sugar effect to doubling my carbs at all. And the homemade ice cream sure did taste good and add enjoyment to the meal. I am also hopeful that doubling my carbs will help shake things up and get me through this current stall (I will know on Monday when I weigh myself).
This is all part of my new approach to the low carb way of eating. I am challenging many of the assumptions I have made about losing weight by low carbing, as many of the posts in this blog detail. Next up: exercise. Gary Taubes tells us it doesn't help with weight loss. Is that true? Or just another Internet myth...
But why very low carb? I honestly don't know. I came to the realization that I was carbophobic a while back and decided it wasn't rational. I had been consuming, on average, 20-25 grams of carbs per day, mostly in the form of green, leafy vegetables and the small number of carbs found naturally in eggs. The theory is, to stay in ketosis, you need to consume 50 or fewer grams of carbs per day. That helps the most with weight loss. So if that is true, why was I trying to stay below 25? Why not simply stay below 50?
So in recent weeks, I have roughly doubled my carb count. I am still below 50 net carbs (after subtracting out grams of fiber), but it has made a huge difference in the types of foods I can eat. For example, the other night, I made ice cream from the recipe in Sally Fallon's book, Nourishing Traditions. In half a cup, there were about 300 calories and 16 grams of carbs. I keep my calorie total below the threshold needed to lose weight for a person my size and height, and my total carbs for the day were under 50. I also monitored my blood glucose levels and there was no blood sugar effect to doubling my carbs at all. And the homemade ice cream sure did taste good and add enjoyment to the meal. I am also hopeful that doubling my carbs will help shake things up and get me through this current stall (I will know on Monday when I weigh myself).
This is all part of my new approach to the low carb way of eating. I am challenging many of the assumptions I have made about losing weight by low carbing, as many of the posts in this blog detail. Next up: exercise. Gary Taubes tells us it doesn't help with weight loss. Is that true? Or just another Internet myth...
Wednesday, August 3, 2011
On Low Carb Willpower and Self Control
When I first discovered the low carb way of eating, I was very excited, because I could lose weight without being hungry. My hunger, I supposed, was what was driving my obesity. And there is some truth to that. But I have seen enough people try low carb, lose some weight, perhaps 20 or 30 or 40 pounds, then abandon it. If you are not hungry, and if you are losing weight, why abandon the way of eating that produced these results?
For me, sticking to the low carb diet is easy, because of a trade off between the low carb way of eating and the ravages possible from my type II diabetes if I fall off the low carb wagon (I have written about this trade off before). But it also boils down to this: willpower and self control.
You need willpower and self control to avoid the siren song of a high carb diet. In talking with people who have fallen off the low carb wagon, it usually boils down to two problems: 1) the necessity of cooking and planning to provide low carb options at mealtime (which can lead to boredom) and 2) the desire to eat favorite carbohydrates (and which are everywhere). Neither one of these problems is a deal breaker, but you have to want to eat this way, or you will eventually abandon it. And you must exert self control in your choices. You can get fat eating low carb foods if you eat too much.
So to successfully lead a low carb lifestyle, you need willpower and self-control. The low carb way of eating is not a magic weight loss bullet. Simply put, yagottawanna live this way.
For me, sticking to the low carb diet is easy, because of a trade off between the low carb way of eating and the ravages possible from my type II diabetes if I fall off the low carb wagon (I have written about this trade off before). But it also boils down to this: willpower and self control.
You need willpower and self control to avoid the siren song of a high carb diet. In talking with people who have fallen off the low carb wagon, it usually boils down to two problems: 1) the necessity of cooking and planning to provide low carb options at mealtime (which can lead to boredom) and 2) the desire to eat favorite carbohydrates (and which are everywhere). Neither one of these problems is a deal breaker, but you have to want to eat this way, or you will eventually abandon it. And you must exert self control in your choices. You can get fat eating low carb foods if you eat too much.
So to successfully lead a low carb lifestyle, you need willpower and self-control. The low carb way of eating is not a magic weight loss bullet. Simply put, yagottawanna live this way.
Tuesday, August 2, 2011
A High Fat Diet--But Don't Overdo It
A low carb diet is really a high fat, moderate protein, low carbohydrate diet. If you cut out carbs, they must be replaced with either protein or fat, and since too much protein can be toxic, that means it is, of necessity, a high fat diet.
I have posted the macro nutrient content of my diet for a couple of days (here and here) and you can clearly see that fat makes up between 2/3 and 3/4 of the calories in my low carb way of eating. So, indeed, it is a high fat diet.
The temptation, on the Internet at least, is to eat more fat to see how it positively impacts your health. Couple this high fat folk belief with the erroneous belief that only carbs matter in weight loss, not calories, and you have a recipe for weight gain. If you add substantial calories in the form of additional fat, you will likely gain weight or stall out your weight loss. I fear that is what has happened to me over the past few weeks. I have been adding butter and heavy whipping cream to many things, and stalled out. Adding 12 tablespoons of fat will lead to weight gain, not increased health (though to be fair, this is the only day where he went overboard by adding 12 tablespoons of additional fat to a meal. The other meals on his blog within a week or two of this one are much more normal).
So this is why I have started this new blog: to add a rational twist to low carbing, instead of following all of the latest fads I see popping up on the Internet. The low carb way of eating is naturally high fat; we don't have to add any more fat to make it high fat! I like the taste of fat, and I guess I so desperately wanted to be able to eat as much of it as I wished to without weight gain that I didn't stop to think about how silly that idea really was.
As an addendum, Volek and Phinney, in their book, The Art and Science of Low Carb Living, show that for maintenance, after you have lost your weight (but not during weight loss!), you must gradually add more fat to your meals, up until you hit the calorie level for your age, weight, and height. This makes sense, as you are no longer burning through your own personal stores of fat, but they very clearly specify calorie levels. As I have mentioned before, calories count.
I have posted the macro nutrient content of my diet for a couple of days (here and here) and you can clearly see that fat makes up between 2/3 and 3/4 of the calories in my low carb way of eating. So, indeed, it is a high fat diet.
The temptation, on the Internet at least, is to eat more fat to see how it positively impacts your health. Couple this high fat folk belief with the erroneous belief that only carbs matter in weight loss, not calories, and you have a recipe for weight gain. If you add substantial calories in the form of additional fat, you will likely gain weight or stall out your weight loss. I fear that is what has happened to me over the past few weeks. I have been adding butter and heavy whipping cream to many things, and stalled out. Adding 12 tablespoons of fat will lead to weight gain, not increased health (though to be fair, this is the only day where he went overboard by adding 12 tablespoons of additional fat to a meal. The other meals on his blog within a week or two of this one are much more normal).
So this is why I have started this new blog: to add a rational twist to low carbing, instead of following all of the latest fads I see popping up on the Internet. The low carb way of eating is naturally high fat; we don't have to add any more fat to make it high fat! I like the taste of fat, and I guess I so desperately wanted to be able to eat as much of it as I wished to without weight gain that I didn't stop to think about how silly that idea really was.
As an addendum, Volek and Phinney, in their book, The Art and Science of Low Carb Living, show that for maintenance, after you have lost your weight (but not during weight loss!), you must gradually add more fat to your meals, up until you hit the calorie level for your age, weight, and height. This makes sense, as you are no longer burning through your own personal stores of fat, but they very clearly specify calorie levels. As I have mentioned before, calories count.
Monday, August 1, 2011
From a Committed Low Carber: Learning From Weight Watchers
I've said some harsh things about Weight Watchers (examples here and here). But let me be honest: I've also learned a lot from Weight Watchers. Not necessarily about nutrition, as I will not be eating low fat again any time soon, but about other aspects of weight loss.
WW celebrates non-scale victories, or NSVs. So you didn't lose weight, but your wedding band fits better. Or you are losing inches, or you are moving more. They invested a lot of time in framing success to include things other than the scales. Now that the low carb diet is stalling for me, I am celebrating a lot of NSVs.
WW celebrates significant milestones, such as a loss of 10% of your body weight, 25 pounds, 50 pounds, 75 pounds, 100 pounds... Achieving these milestones is very difficult, and they are appropriately recognized. I have celebrated on my previous blog my first 10% goal and 50 pound weight loss.
WW provided a "safe" environment, in which everyone can feel comfortable sharing weight loss successes and failures. I think the search for a "safe" environment may be one of the reasons why a lot of low carbers seek out others on the Internet. As a former Weight Watchers leader, I know the weekly pep sessions were very helpful. It's simply people helping other people to succeed.
WW helps prepare for upcoming food events (e.g., Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas) by mental rehearsing, anchoring, empowering beliefs, and other psychological tricks. Since Gary Taubes claimed in Why We Get Fat that obesity has been reframed as an eating disorder, or a psychological proglem, the low carb community tends to avoid psychological tricks. Personally, I find them useful, as weight loss is, for me at least, first and foremost psychological. I have to get my head "in the game," so to speak. Willpower, as I mentioned before, is a crucial low carb success factor. And ultimately, willpower is psychological. Weight Watchers helped a lot in the willpower department.
So even though I do not agree with their weight loss program or share their nutritional beliefs, I am taking the useful things I learned from Weight Watchers and applying them to my low carb lifestyle.
WW celebrates non-scale victories, or NSVs. So you didn't lose weight, but your wedding band fits better. Or you are losing inches, or you are moving more. They invested a lot of time in framing success to include things other than the scales. Now that the low carb diet is stalling for me, I am celebrating a lot of NSVs.
WW celebrates significant milestones, such as a loss of 10% of your body weight, 25 pounds, 50 pounds, 75 pounds, 100 pounds... Achieving these milestones is very difficult, and they are appropriately recognized. I have celebrated on my previous blog my first 10% goal and 50 pound weight loss.
WW provided a "safe" environment, in which everyone can feel comfortable sharing weight loss successes and failures. I think the search for a "safe" environment may be one of the reasons why a lot of low carbers seek out others on the Internet. As a former Weight Watchers leader, I know the weekly pep sessions were very helpful. It's simply people helping other people to succeed.
WW helps prepare for upcoming food events (e.g., Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas) by mental rehearsing, anchoring, empowering beliefs, and other psychological tricks. Since Gary Taubes claimed in Why We Get Fat that obesity has been reframed as an eating disorder, or a psychological proglem, the low carb community tends to avoid psychological tricks. Personally, I find them useful, as weight loss is, for me at least, first and foremost psychological. I have to get my head "in the game," so to speak. Willpower, as I mentioned before, is a crucial low carb success factor. And ultimately, willpower is psychological. Weight Watchers helped a lot in the willpower department.
So even though I do not agree with their weight loss program or share their nutritional beliefs, I am taking the useful things I learned from Weight Watchers and applying them to my low carb lifestyle.
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