Hello!!!



Wa'il, Jenny's journal with hits number rapidly approaching 4000 is not a place where this post of mine would've been easily lost

I have no problems with marketing strategies publishing houses or the authors of the dieting books use. so I do not really feel like participating in that line of discussion. besides, people who publish books are just people, even gods are biased. I do not see any problem with 'inflammatory' or warning statements if they spark curiosity and further research, the problem is when they ignite wars. people are born with tendency to confirmatory bias (seeking facts that confirm their beliefs and dismissing other facts), we cannot forget about it when we read books and posts on the board like this one.

I cannot speak for dr.sears. where in his books or public statements does he state that increased protein intake leads to the muscle mass loss? high protein diets do cause initial water loss, because of increased urination, as the body tries to get rid of the excess of the ketone bodies. since you haven't provided references to this statement of dr. sears's I do not know if he indeed referred to the initial water weight loss or was unwise enough to say that all loss on ketogenic diets is due to reduction in bodywater %.

ketosis is normal body reaction to abnormal health status (e.g. the one that arises in diabetes) or to abnormal nutrition ( extremely low carbs, either intentionally or not intentionally achieved by the individual), you know that. that's the meaning of the 'abnormal' in dr.sears's statement.

dr. sears indeed states in one or more of his books that one cannot lose more than 1-1.5lbs of bodyfat per week. I do not know the meaning of the word 'cannot' here, however, or the scope of that statement (to which portion of the general population he was referring). there are published records, medical and of other kind that this feat (losing more that 1.5lbs of fat per week) is indeed possible.

as a side note, why be so hot about 'clinical and scientific proof'? science doesn't prove anything, the way it works is by discovering new phenomena, by refining the detail, and by rejecting false hypotheses. it is not possible to prove anything by scientific means, that 'fact' scientists themselves, philosophers, and methodologists of science have discovered long time ago. rejecting false hypotheses doesn't prove alternative hypotheses either, just gives them somewhat more weight.

TeriDoodle, I am happy to hear that you are taking care of your liver! way to go!!! ... I must confess that I belong to that 'not everyone' that you mentioned group of people. I care about poundage loss dearly, lol. it's number one on my list

Nat, I can support something I do not currently believe in, maybe not by cheering them, but at least by staying silent and/or neutral, sometimes by encouraging them in very general terms, exploration is good. we all can, if we remind ourselves that what others are doing dietwise is not a threat to us and that what we are doing may be a threat to them.

I see you point in bringing up the issue of definition. what exactly is lowcarb? what is a lowcarb way of life? why can't lowcarb be used as a quick fix, if once it cures the disease, moderate to higher carbs can be easily handled by the body? again, in discovery, definitions are not useful at all. they are always operational. rhetoric/arguments from definition (e.g. did Prez Clinton really have sex when he had oral sex) again aim at proving some point, not at discovery.

Mila