When ALL the bloggers I WANT to read don't post often, I have to go fishing for interesting articles elsewhere while I drink my morning coffee. I may not get much out of them, but they often provide plenty of ideas as grist for MY mill. :-)
Don't get too hungry, writes a certain "expert" in a respected publication -- it makes you want to eat! Oi.... After an overnight fast, looking at the reward circuits of dieters, their little brains lit up looking at pictures of yummy food.
WHAT THE HELL does she want them to do, wake up every three hours and prepare themselves a nice balanced snack? People who want and need to lose weight, these days, so often have sleep problems already. [sigh]
Step one, to combat this "problem" -- turn the dieters into fat-burners through a nice old-fashioned Atkins induction.
Step two, make sure they take a WELL-MADE vitamin/mineral supplement -- not some damned thing like Centrum, which may not even dissolve in time for absorption in the right area of the digestive system.
If you're hungry, it isn't an empty-stomach phenomenon -- I think we've established that beyond doubt! If you experience physical symptoms of NEEDING food, which is a decent definition of hunger as opposed to mere appetite, your body is calling either for nutrients or energy. If you can access your own stores of fat, that latter requirement has been met to a large degree. If you're getting all the vitamins and minerals you need, your chance of having chocolate cravings diminish SIGNIFICANTLY.
To us, the low-carb-committed, it seems so easy and straightforward! To people still trapped in the low-calorie paradigm, to people who had success in their twenties with Weight Watchers, to people who "did low-carb wrong*" ... the points I made above are lost in the trees of the weight-loss forest.
Until people start thinking for themselves -- i.e., not believing all the bullshit promoted by people wanting to sell you the latest miracle supplement or superfood or exercise gimmick -- they're not going to make any progress whatsoever. The most helpful advice isn't hidden. STOP LISTENING TO THE FAILURES. Stop listening to the people who are as alike to you as chalk to cheese.
Just as the brain is the premier sex-organ, it's also the source of all your other successes in life. Use it.
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* [evil grin] i'm becoming very fond of this phrase, because of all the indignation it receives among the average facebooker. i'm blaming the victim! yep, they did it wrong. WHY did they do it wrong? because they didn't do their due diligence! because they believed in SOMEBODY ELSE'S n=1 instead of looking into Atkins' or Eades' n=thousands. young people who've never dieted before I can understand, but other middle-aged women? through the decades, we've been on EVERY DIET UNDER THE SUN. we USED to be able to lose weight much more easily than we can now. fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice....
"STOP LISTENING TO THE FAILURES." Heh heh, got anyone in mind?
ReplyDeletewell ... uh ... maybe .... ;-)
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DeleteWrong blogger.
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DeleteSometimes reading about somebody's super success story about loosing effortlessly 100 lb in 6 months could be annoying as hell - it paints a very unrealistic picture of a typical weight loss, LC or no LC.
ReplyDeletei'm happy for them, but the words "results not typical" spring to mind!
DeleteI thought the idea that hunger/cravings were due to a specific nutrient deficiency had been debunked. (I vaguely remember a study on people who craved chocolate, given either placebo or chocolate through a naso-gastric tube, and it had no effect on hunger/cravings ... or something like that.) Is this something you have observed on yourself? Or is there hard data behing that? Maybe I should look into the possibility that I have a nutrient deficiency, since low-carb doesn't do anything for my hunger. (I guess I am one of those doing it wrong. ;P)
ReplyDeleteI have never looked into what make a good vs a bad supplement. Where do you start? Do you know of some good resource? (Slogging through pubmed for every possible nutrient compound seems hopeless.)
Valerie, some people can't seem to lose the hunger ... and they have my deepest sympathy! do you read the Philosophy of Weight Management blog? Fred has explored this topic extensively. if you've never read J Stanton's series about hunger, i strongly recommend that, too.
Deletei see in myself -- so it's only an n=1 -- that the better-nourished i am with micronutrients, the less hunger i feel. i HAVE to believe my own experiences, even if certain "gold-standard RCTs" don't concur....
different vitamins and minerals compete for absorption, and others work synergistically. thus, it's a big mistake to compile ALL of them in a single one-per-day dose. also, solid pills/caplets often have fillers and waxes holding them together which may inhibit break-down of them in time for them to be absorbed in the right parts of the digestive system. capsules full of a powder or oil make some nutrients more available for absorption, as well as powders, but i understand that buying some in liquid form encourages them to interact and break down before they even get in your system.
i believe there are a number of different brands of vitamin/mineral supplement which can do the job better than the one-a-day and centrum types; i use Nutreince myself.
Hi Tess,
DeleteI have read Fred's blog. I don't relate much to his hunger categories. I live alone (no food pushers), I don't have a TV (no food publicity) and I don't struggle with cravings (if I carefully avoid a food for a while, I lose the desire to eat it completely). I find it easy to limit the type of food I eat, but I struggle with the quantity. If I limit quantity, I get hungry (surprise!), and I eventually become obsessed with food.
I also read J. Stanton's series. I found the ideas and the research very interesting, but it doesn't work in real life. Avoiding snack/junk food will not cure obesity (at least not for everyone). It has been tried, and it fails (for me and for many others). Plus, obesity existed way before the arrival of cheap/hyperpalatable/available/junk food.
I'm all for personal experience. I never found any benefit from the supplements I tried, but I am sure many people do see real improvements (even if RCTs tend to be negative). It's just so darn difficult to know in advance who can benefit from what.
I am somewhat aware that some supplements help each other (vitamin C improves iron absorption for instance), or compete, or are plain unabsorbable. But I don't know enough to be able to spot the good supplements from the bad ones. I saw your post about Nutrience the other day. I was hoping that you had some source of independent information. I wouldn't want to end up "believing all the bullshit promoted by people wanting to sell me the latest miracle." :)
it isn't easy, it can be expensive, and it's very time-consuming to ferret out what's going to work for you and what won't! people who have busy lives don't often have the leisure for it, either. I was lucky -- my husband was working out-of-town a lot and I could play with different foods and timing without having to worry about distractions! I was reading twelve to fourteen hours a day there for awhile!
Deleteyou're certainly right -- obesity DID exist before the twentieth century, it was just less common. have you read Banting's "Letter on Corpulence"? that and some of the other "historic" discussions may bring you some helpful insights.
I wish you the best of luck in dealing with your dilemma! if there are no excellent-quality trials of vitamins, the best thing one can do is search for a LOT of n=1's to see what most users do and don't like about them. not truly scientific, I know, but it's just what we have to do in finding a good electrician or mechanic, when we're new in a town and don't really know people whose recommendations we can count on.
Re: vitamin needs, you could start with deficiency symptoms. In my case, I had bad skin (acne, chapped lips) and so I got GNC Hair, Skin & Nails. I'm very happy with it.
DeleteI know doing a comprehensive study of all vitamins and minerals sounds daunting, but there's a limited number of them we need in any significant amount.
I think the "eat every two to three hours to keep that metabolism burning!!!" Is probably one of the most pernicious advice out there. Elevated insulin levels... All day long. Add that to the pious 100 calorie snack packs and it's no wonder people can't lose the weight!
ReplyDeletePerfect example of not understanding the science!
DeleteThis morning when I looked in the mirror I jumped for joy! I look twenty pounds lighter but I've only actually lost seven. I can't thank you guys enough! I have a quarter cup of whipping cream with coffee for breakfast. For lunch I have cream cheese with almonds (I can't afford macadamia nuts) and for dinner I have pork fat, which I cut away the meat and just eat pure fat. For a snack between meals I have found a swig of olive oil kills any hunger for a while. I'm so excited about this new phase of my challenge to lose fifty more pounds. I couldn't have done it without you. I feel great. Yesterday I worked all day in the scorching hot South Georgia sun and had great energy all day. I'm looking for other foods to incorporate into my intake. I still want to avoid dairy, no cheese like fat fast recommends. Cream cheese dose not seem to bother my gut at all but I know sour cream and hard cheese is off my menu. I'm thinking of adding in a little bacon but am really trying to avoid all protein. Pork rinds and cream cheese is a good snack too. I only eat dark chocolate in emergency situations, like my wife is eating a box of cookies in front of me (while complaining about being fat) She has really become upset about this latest success of mine. I don't know how much longer she can hold out going on some kind of diet, but she has. She still eats ANYTHING she wants. I know a lot of people say this is a dangerous way to eat but I feel great and have very high stamina and focus and clarity of mind. If I'm doing something bad for my body won't it let me know? Thanks again Tess!
DeleteRick, I'm really happy for you. I know how frustrating it is to feel like you're doing everything right but still not getting results.
DeleteDo be careful about not eating enough protein. The fat fast is a *temporary* measure. Without sufficient protein in your diet, your body will cannibalize its own muscle, including heart muscle. (This is how anorexia killed Karen Carpenter.) You might go back to the protein calculator I linked to about a week ago and see what your minimum protein intake should be.
There might be some nutrients missing from eating nearly all fat--a magnesium pill and a multivitamin is a good idea. You could also have liver once a week: it's Mother Nature's multivitamin and it's inexpensive. Just don't eat it all the time. It has too much vitamin A for that. Kale chips would be good, too--they're light and crunchy and easy to make in the oven, and chock full of nutrients.
If you do want to do a fat fast any kind of fast for an extended time, you should do it under a doctor's care.
you're welcome, Rick -- I, and the readers who have suggested things that are actually helpful, just love to see others' success!
Deletehave patience with your wife -- she's been bombarded for a long time with bad information about weight loss! :-) sometimes, spouses see their partners having success, and feel threatened.
Sounds like you're doing great, Rick! I am happy just reading your comment. :)
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ReplyDelete"Until people start thinking for themselves -- i.e., not believing all the bullshit promoted by people wanting to sell you the latest miracle supplement or superfood or exercise gimmick -- they're not going to make any progress whatsoever. The most helpful advice isn't hidden. STOP LISTENING TO THE FAILURES. Stop listening to the people who are as alike to you as chalk to cheese."
ReplyDeleteI agree 100%, I look back and laugh when I remember morbidly obese medics and well known US bloggers, also morbidly obese, telling me my low carb high fat diet was all wrong.
What larks eh.
Kind regards Eddie
larks, indeed! when we remember that psychological differences are AT LEAST as numerous as physiological ones, it can become a GAME, an amusement, to try to figure out WHY they're saying something that's just plain wrong. :-)
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