High blood sugar may have an effect on muscle building and endurance. All calories may not be the same.
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I wish that my body could be that uncomplicated. If it were as easy as that I’d have attained rail thin decades ago and maintained it.
Now I’m just trying to stay focused on eating healthy (my blood chemistry is enviable, with no meds at all) and not being too fluffy.
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Just as scientists recently discovered a “skinny gene”, you can be sure a fat gene will be identified soon. BMR is an interesting thing, with some people adapting to starvation levels of nutrition with minimal weight loss. Read up on the Pima Indians @Auspicious.
Oh there are fat genes. One summer in college I had a work-study job at a nutrition lab where they had genetically obese rats. Fluffy blobs the size of half a cantaloupe, they could barely move on their own.
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I read the NYT article and the paper abstract (not yet peer reviewed BTW). Entirely consistent with what I said about ‘absent medication conditions’ and indeed the same example of diabetes as I used.
I didn’t say it was easy. I think I said it was simple. grin I think the biggest challenge is training ourselves that “not full” is NOT the same as “hungry.” There are also quality of life issues. I suspect if I stopped drinking alcohol I’d drop twenty pounds pretty fast. I’m okay with a little avoirdupois to enjoy life.
There are cultural imperatives. My wife’s family exemplifies this. https://i.pinimg.com/564x/d0/3c/42/d03c4298cf3588eebe3fe655b1733532.jpg
I did. Same stuff. Sedentary (low calories out), poor diet (high calories in), and what appears to be a genetic predisposition to diabetes. That doesn’t mean being stuck. I know diabetics who through exercise and careful diet keep quite fit.
Just to be clear I am not on some ‘holier than thou’ rant here. I should exercise a lot more. I should drink less. My diet is already pretty good in terms of both content and quantity but I don’t take credit for that. My wife drives the content and I’m fortunate through genetics and/or environment to be satisfied with small portions.
I am now feeling guilty however so I’ll put in some time on our exercise bike today. I don’t think I’ve been on it since January. Wouldn’t want to overdo. grin
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Please stop.
Please don’t imply that at over 50 I havent figured out the difference between satiety and hunger.
In my younger years, I over exercised literally to the point of collapse. I dieted and counted calories/fat/carbs to the point that my hair began to fall out and without going into detail, my body started to go into panic mode. To be really blunt, I was probably one grapefruit from a full blown eating disorder. But I was still curvy in an era when a skeletal Kate Moss was the epitome of beauty.
I still struggle. If it were as simple/uncomplicated/basic/elemental as burning more than you take in I’d be skinny and we wouldnt be having this conversation. Theres an awful lot of medical research to support that it’s not that simple.
I’m happy for you that it works for you. It just doesnt for everyone.
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I have a few thoughts followed by food suggestions:
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Whatever diet you choose to follow, I highly recommend it is one integrated with your lifestyle. Drastic changes that involve a lot of work to maintain will fail-- not because you lack anything, but because they demand resources beyond what you likely have ready to give or find.
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I am happy to advise lower carb, but not the carb elimination since that is not possible for me as a fan of fruits and vegetables and oatmeal. I have, however, reduced drastically my bread and rice intake which has been good for me.
As for foods I like:
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Cauliflower rice as substitute for rice in fried rice dishes. Tofu in these or Quorn (‘chicken’ pieces) tend to be my go-tos for protein. I also have egg in there, so…
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Sweet potato is my favourite base when I’m looking for something starchy but nutritious. I enjoy that with stir-fries or a vegetarian mapo tofu (for ‘meaty’ elements, I can use mushrooms, or Quorn mince). And yes, I do eat a lot of lentils, which I know you want to avoid, but I think making a nice dal that is satisfying and nutritious is a way of bringing in complex carbs (again, though, no interest in ketosis).
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I’m just going to give a shout out to HO for introducing me to cabbage pad Thai which is now one of my favourite things to make. Again, I do mostly veg option (I can’t imagine living without fish sauce) but I can imagine meat being there for others.
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Shakshuka is splendid and one need not have bread with it for it to be delicious.
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Aubergine ‘lasagne’
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I have also made a tuna bake (like tuna noodle casserole) but instead of noodles, I use sweet potato. Sue me, I love it.
Anyway, this is more low-cal, reduced simple carbs on a pescatarian/ ovo-lacto vegetarian diet and certainly not for people wanting to go into ketosis, but I feel good on it and if losing weight is part of your mission, it’s low cal whilst still being filling and nutritious, and that can go a long way. I really recommend doing what feels manageable and not going to extremes that are challenging to maintain or which will add stress in lockdown.
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This. Furthermore, low carb is hardly a fad diet - it is a sustainable way of life that has been promoted in various ways for over 100 years. It is, as far as I know, the only proven way of controlling type II diabetes without medication, and an excellent way of controlling weight, blood sugar levels and triglycerides for those who are predisposed to obesity (and likely type II diabetes, given that those two conditions frequently go hand in hand).
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I am at work, and apparently posting on HO does not fall within the “reasonable use” guidelines, but I wanted to mention that on reviewing the plenary sessions from the Healthy Lives conference there was much use of the phrase “plant based” and “Mediterranean diet”, which probably has other relative perspectives beyond “low carb”. I have not noticed the use of weight loss as a primary measure of outcome, but it is sometimes a secondary one.
Definitely no expert on high vs low carb foods (I just know to reduce the intake of starchy carb foods), but fish or a seafood would be my go to and very feasible since I love the stuff. How about eggs? When I’m too lazy to make fish or meat, but I want to add easy protein it’s always eggs or tofu for me. Are you a seitan fan? That might also be a good alternative; I like it as a substitute protein in many stir fries and I’ve had it more Western style as a sub for barbecue meat.
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It’s actually pretty easy, relatively speaking.
Lentils, nuts and seeds, tofu and soybeans, as well as dairy (like yogurt) are all high protein and low (net) carbs.
Don’t forget that there are vegetables (just about every vegetable) contains some protein, some more than you would think, broccoli, asparagus, brussels sprouts, peas, spinach, corn, mushrooms, etc.
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There’s no real evidence of anything other than “calories in” vs “calories out” making a difference in changing someone’s weight. It is as simple as it sounds, as far as anybody can tell so far, and that’s all we’ve got to work with other than speculation. Not liking it doesn’t make it not true.
But. There is something that’s not simple, that isn’t well understood, and IMO is a big part of the picture. It’s why and how we choose what to eat, in terms of psychology and biology, and in terms of the food supply itself. The Pima may be an outlier example of how changes in the food supply can biologically (and maybe psychologically) set a kind of trap, but I think a lot of other people are in a similar trap. I think a lot of us literally (the real meaning of literally) have no choice but to eat all of the foods we eat even while knowing it isn’t a good idea, because our inherited strategy for survival is even stronger than our respect for the truth, and because there’s no known way of modifying our minds at that survival level.
Cutting off the supply of “bad” food, making it unobtainable at any price, might work biologically but of course it wouldn’t work socially in any way that I can see. The countries and regions with the famous healthy diets get studied for what they eat, but maybe it’s what they don’t eat (and can’t get) that makes them healthy. (i.e. maybe the most important part of the famous “Mediterranean diet” is just that nobody eats at McDonald’s.) North America in particular has a huge industry producing a huge supply of the “wrong” food, and I think a lot of us can quite legitimately say that the mere fact of its availability forces us to eat it, just as surely as if it was being pushed down our throats. It is willpower, in the form of the will to survive, that makes us eat. The willpower to pay attention to facts and logic has very little chance against that will to survive.
There will always be smug people to remind me that we all have a choice. However, they might be wrong about that.
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@Sasha you might find helpful this series of blog posts from someone who lost a lot of weight and kept it off: https://bothsidesofthetable.com/the-quick-email-i-sent-to-people-who-asked-for-all-the-details-503f9fdae90f
A lot of it resonates with what has worked in the past for me and my husband. Right now we are using MyFitnessPal to track food intake and activity. One caution: if you want to keep losing, don’t credit your self back all of your exercise calories burned. Those numbers are rough estimates and it can backfire and cause you to overcompensate with food/drink calories. We find it helpful and convenient to occasionally substitute a low-carb protein shake (in our case Almased with a little vanilla soymilk - helps it emulsify better) for a meal (usually breakfast).
But yeah, tracking everything and how much you eat is both painstaking and incredibly eye-opening. Good luck!
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This is false. The efficacy of low-carb dieting for weight loss (not to mention remission of Type II diabetes and other health benefits) has been proven over and over again.
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Weight has not been a major concern for me, but fasting blood sugar has been, and I don’t calories, but I often estimate the calories I take in in fat, exceeds the calories in a reasonable amount of pasta. Yest my weight and blood sugar have been dropping for more than two years.
I started with a diabetes prevention program with a lot of cohort, coaching and other support, and a lot of exercise, but other than daily weigh ins, I don’t do the program or exercise anymore.
I also know that it’s easier for me than others, and I don’t feel I deserve credit, and wonder how much “healthier” I really am.
I think that explanation is a bit simplistic, and borders on being glib.
Yes, no doubt “calories-in, calories-out” is, at the end, of the day the only metric that ultimately matters whether one weighs 150 or 250, because your body simply will not (biologically) put on weight if you are in a calorie deficit (and vice vera).
But that said, what the “calorie-in, calorie-out” group forgets to mention is the variables that contribute to how many and how easy one consumes those “calories-in”. If one were to adhere to a low-carb diet (as just one example) and ate primarily proteins and fats as their macronutrients – both of which are quite satiating – it would just naturally reduce the “calories” portion of the equation. It’s really hard to eat 10 lb of broccoli (trust me, I know), or for that matter 2000 kcal of protein.
Likewise, if one were to adhere to a high-carb diet with highly process carbs (i.e. white bread, Twinkies, potato chips) as their source of primary macronutrients, the “calories-in” portion will naturally spike.
In other words, while the equation itself may hold true, the inputs and the ease at which those inputs are reached have to be taken in to account. Otherwise, we’re simply assuming human beings are robots, with no desires, cravings, emotions, and what-not, which clearly is not true.
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I know a guy who used to be an engineer and is now a therapist, who has often shared his opinion about the simplicity of calories in and out , while having huge swings in his weight.
I absolutely believe satiety is a key piece. I haven’t done the math, but I will be satiated with three or four pieces of bacon, while others in family prefer a “few” pancakes with syrup. That would fill me up, and not leave room for the bacon! I just don’t get why someone would prefer “ordinary” pancakes (cornmeal pancakes are better), and wonder about the idea that eating certain carbs make you want more.
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This might be true if all calories were created equal and treated the same by your body, but they aren’t. Carbohydrates require insulin for our bodies to process them. Fats and proteins require much less (virtually none, in the case of fat) insulin for our bodies to process them. Insulin is responsible for fat storage and is often also referred to as a “hunger” hormone - the reduction in insulin production (and the resulting increased insulin sensitivity) brought about by low carb diets is the key to their success. Weight lost or gained via different types of nutrients is chemistry, not arithmetic.
This is definitely true, and has everything to do with your body’s insulin response and level of insulin sensitivity.
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They both are.
“Insulin is another hormonal regulator of appetite. Insulin levels increase rapidly after a meal and vary directly with changes in adiposity. Insulin penetrates the blood-brain barrier via a saturatable, receptor-mediated process at levels proportional to the circulating insulin.”
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