Refuse to Regain : Pre-Maintenance & Maintenance Forum : Active Low-Carber Forums

#301 ^

Thu, Dec-06-12, 12:57

Demi

Strong Girls Rock!

Posts: 26,753

Plan: Muscle Centric
Stats: 238/153/160 Female 5'10"

BF:
Progress: 109%

Location: UK

Quote:

November 30, 2012

The Calm Before the Serious Holiday Storm

by Barbara Berkeley, MD

We are in the lull between Thanksgiving and the start of serious holiday partying. Use this interval to get your weight back down below Scream. Time, too, to make your plans for December. Are you serious about wanting to avoid regain during this period? Is your goal a stable weight on January 2nd? If so, you had better start designing some behavioral rules and absolute cut-offs for the coming campaign.

Things to notice this week:

Holiday smells have returned, along with the holiday visuals that prompt us to celebrate with food. Outside my supermarket, there are stacks of cinammon scented pine cones. Candles that smell like vanilla, chocolate and mint are burning in every store. Starbucks has got the caramel brulee latte and the peppermint mocha back on the menu. It's possible to enjoy the smells for their olofactory character alone, so try to distinguish that pleasure from their connection with treats.

The temperature is dropping (at least in the northern part of the US). The donning of scarves, boots and hats triggers the comfort food urge. Can you enjoy a mug of steaming hot soup or mint tea just as much as a bowl of mashed potatoes? Try it. Alot of these things have to do with habit. Vow to try some new habits this year.

Thanksgiving may have thrown you off. So, you ate a little more than you intended. But you were sure it would come off right away. Now...it's not! Maintainers need to remind themselves that weight loss is not automatic and not easy. If you want to get off the extra weight you put on, you've got to return to a number of consistent and tough days of calorie restriction. Don't fool yourself into thinking that a couple of extra sessions on the treadmill will take care of it. Forge ahead! You can do it!

You are feeling more and more in the holiday mood. All of the memories of past holidays, including all of the great foods you associate with this time, are forefront in your mind. How about trying to divert that energy by spending more time on the charitable aspects of the season. Do that thing for someone that you've put off and affirm yourself in a way that isn't related to the comfort of a cookie.

Remember, we're all in this together. We'll talk again soon.

http://www.refusetoregain.com/2012/...iday-storm.html

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#302 ^

Sun, Dec-09-12, 08:19

Demi

Strong Girls Rock!

Posts: 26,753

Plan: Muscle Centric
Stats: 238/153/160 Female 5'10"

BF:
Progress: 109%

Location: UK

Quote:

December 08, 2012

Drop and Give Me Fifty!

by Barbara Berkeley, MD

It's December 8th. How are you doing so far holiday maintainers??? Don't forget, I'm with you and there are thousands of us trying to do the same thing: avoid regain between now and January 2.

The biggest threat to our best intentions in December is Food Creep. This is the tendency for small amounts of trigger foods to wind up in our mouths almost without our knowing it....and certainly without our explicit permission.

December is the most important month to remember that it's all about insulin. Insulin sends the body's strongest signal to prevent fat breakdown. If you are making insulin, you are in storage mode AND you can't be losing fat. You are making insulin if you are eating little bites of cookie dough, a few of those festively wrapped Hershey kisses, or if you are drinking a caramel brulee latte. In addition, trigger foods which are so ubiquitous at this time of year set off the body's addiction pathways. Sugar gets into your system and it stages a take over. Before you know it, there's been a coup and you are no longer in control of your eating, sugar is.

You know how drill sergants handle behavior that's out of line. They have the offender drop and give them fifty pushups. If your eating plan has gone AWOL it's time for you to take the drill sergeant role.

Your insulin levels will plummet if you bring your carb consumption down to 50 grams per day for a brief period of correction (a day or two). To do this, you need to be aware of which foods are carbs. For the purposes of this exercise, you do NOT need to count:

1. Any animal product except milk (milk does have carbs). 2. Any green vegetable. 3. Any lettuce and any raw vegetable (but remember that legumes like peas, beans, chickpeas and lentils which are often found on salad bars are starches and do need to be counted).

To drop to fifty, you will have to avoid cereals, grains, baked goods, added sugars, dried fruit, pasta, and any sweets that have found their way back in. You should also be aware of the carb counts in fruit, especially the sweet fruits like banana and pineapple.

Buy yourself a small carbohydrate counter book, or use the internet to check out the amount of carbs in the other foods you are eating. Create a day's worth of food that keeps carbs below 50g. I often advocate the use of protein shakes or low carb bars as meal replacements on days like this. I realize that these foods are not "natural" foods, but they have a place because they limit food stimulation and take away choice.

Try dropping to fifty as a way to get yourself back on track or to shake the carb controllers out of your brain.

Keep the faith! You can have fun over the holidays without kicking yourself in January. Enjoy the smells, the lights, the presents and the excitement. They have no carbs.

http://www.refusetoregain.com/2012/...e-me-fifty.html

#303 ^

Sun, Dec-16-12, 02:41

Demi

Strong Girls Rock!

Posts: 26,753

Plan: Muscle Centric
Stats: 238/153/160 Female 5'10"

BF:
Progress: 109%

Location: UK

Quote:

December 15, 2012

Food, Violence and How We Fool Ourselves: Just My Opinion

by Barbara Berkeley, MD

This week's unfathomable massacre in Newtown Connecticut and all of its recent violent predecessors started me thinking about the ways in which I believe we humans are clueless. It seems to me that our greatest liability is our inflated sense of ourselves; the perception that we somehow exist outside of the laws of nature and therefore operate by a different set of rules. It seems so incredibly naïve.

We take the fact that we are omnivorous to mean that we can eat whatever we want. We say that there is nothing wrong with a constant exposure to enormously overstimulating foods because the fact that we are rational humans makes us able to “handle it”. We act as if we do not understand the fact that overconsuming food causes illness and even death. If we grow overfat and terribly sick, we often believe that we have gotten that way because of something wrong with our metabolism rather than something wrong with our fundamental reasoning. We believe that because we are human, we should be able to eat with abandon and that there is no price for this eating, simply because we are such flexible, self-repairing organisms. But, of course, there is a price. We were never meant to swim in a sea of constantly available food, and we are drowning in it.

We take the fact that we live in an industrial society to mean that we can pollute our air and water without significant consequence. If we develop increasing levels of cancer or see dramatic shifts in climate, we can point to many other possible causes. We believe that because we are human and because our earth is such a flexible, self-repairing organism, we have no reason to fear the changes we are making to our environment. But increasingly we are coming face to face with evidence that suggests that overconsumption of fuels, toxins, pesticides and the like are threatening everything that surrounds and supports us. We are inextricably bound to everything else on the earth, but we don't like to believe it.

We take the fact that we have rational minds to mean that we can expose those minds to any kind of stimulus. Because we can separate right from wrong and real from fake, we believe that spending endless hours in the consumption of violent images---even acting out violence in increasingly realistic gaming scenarios---has no lasting effect on us. Yet people who are exposed to actual violence suffer permanent mental scars. Doesn't it seem foolish to believe that no mark is left on us by the simulated violence that is increasingly gruesome and ubiquitous, particularly if one is less mentally stable or is younger and more impressionable?

Preserving the image of ourselves as above nature allows us to indulge in all the kinds of overconsumption that produce comfort, pleasure and release. But while our range as humans makes us seem capable of almost anything, the truth is that we live in a small space of acceptability. Our range only seems to be broad. The balancing systems that restore us from deviations whether they be in sodium, sugar, body temperature, or traumatic images and events are incredible but limited. We need only exceed the body or mind's ability for rebalancing to find ourselves in a fatal spiral.

Rather than indulging the belief that we can tolerate a world that tolerates just about anything, might it not be better to take an honest look at our frailties and vulnerabilities? The human body, the human mind, the planet on which we live: these are masterworks beyond all reason. We should care for them with reverence and with an understanding of the fact that each of them has its limits. None is perfect, immutable or immune from harm. We need to take a good look at the harm we do while continuing to believe that there is always time to repair ourselves and our world.

http://www.refusetoregain.com/2012/...my-opinion.html

#304 ^

Wed, Jan-16-13, 13:45

Demi

Strong Girls Rock!

Posts: 26,753

Plan: Muscle Centric
Stats: 238/153/160 Female 5'10"

BF:
Progress: 109%

Location: UK

Quote:

January 15, 2013

Primal Diet, Primarian Variants and Weight Maintenance 2013

by Barbara Berkeley, MD

As each year begins, I try to reclarify my own position on healthy diet. I encourage you to do the same.

We are all experts when it comes to our own bodies, yet we often cede responsibility to others: nutritionists, food bloggers, even doctors like me. The most important advice I can give you is to remind you that there is likely no one dietary truth. For those of us with an interest in how eating dovetails with health, learning is an ongoing process. We should read with curiosity and "try on" different ideas to see if they fit. What I believe may be diametrically opposed to what another "expert" espouses. Your choice of belief is up to you.

As 2013 begins, I am still firmly in the Primarian camp. For those of you who are new to this blog, let me briefly explain that Primarian diet (my particular take on a Primal eating style) is a slightly more permissive form of Paleo diet. It includes low fat dairy (if tolerated) and also advises the consumption of lean animal protein rather than fatty meats. Primarian eating, as laid out in my book Refuse to Regain, is a default diet that should be practiced 90% of the time. In not requiring or expecting perfection, I may be seen as less fervent than many Primal eating advocates.

I am not a dietary purist. There are three basic reasons for this.

1. All protestations to the contrary, no one knows for sure what constitutes the healthiest human diet. There may be many possible variants. I suggest that you look with suspicion on those who claim to have an absolute corner on the truth (that would include me in my more strident moments).

2. There are realities involved in eating in the modern world. While extremely devoted paleo practitioners may never deviate from plan, I have found the most people are unable to be so perfectly consistent. It seems far easier to become a vegetarian, which still allows the consumption of lots of carbs, then to become a Primal practitioner, giving up sugars, legumes, grains and milk.

3. We need to figure out what we want from a diet. No diet is able to deliver perfect health, a guarantee of longevity, or freedom from ever developing a cancer. So we should focus on what diet can do: keep weight stable, create healthy levels of cholesterol and lipids, reduce blood pressure and prevent high blood pressure. On a more global level,diet can make us feel healthy and give us a sense of well being.

Every human being is slightly different and what may work for one dietarily may be completely ineffective for another. Each of us will find that we are able to make tweaks around the outlines of the dietary worldview we choose, but we can only do this if we approach diet with a keen sense of self-observation and purpose. A complete failure to look at diet criticially is, in my view, responsible for many of the modern ills of the late 20th century.

So where do I, just one person...one voice, stand today? Here is where I am and why.

1. I believe in returning to largely unprocessed, more primal foods.

My reasons: It is probably true that humans can eat foods other than those in the original human diet. We may have become adapted to many new foods in the 10,000 or so years since we discovered agriculture. Nevertheless, we are going through a period where food and eating habits have begun to create disease. We can't be sure which elements are causing the problem. As a result, retreating to an approximation of the original human diet would seem to make sense. In practice, those I treat do better with weight loss and weight maintenance when they adapt more primal eating styles. I personally believe this is due to the elimination of the excessive carb burden in the SAD (standard Amercian diet). It may also be due to cutting back on fats, boosting protein intake, removing high fructose corn syrup and other additives, and/or increasing vegetable consumption.

2. I believe in diets that allow for compliance.

In my particular world, primal variants (Primarian diet) work well. I take note of the fact that a great many of the people on primal websites are young, athletic and highly motivated. It is not coincidental that Paleo diets have become associated with physical conditioning programs like Crossfit. It is appropriate and expected that young people lead the charge, introducing new ideas and practices. In the subculture of obesity medicine, however, we must deal with different realities. People who gain weight easily have generally been exposed to many highly restrictive diets. If they are to maintain weight permanently, it is crucial to identify a way of eating that can be practiced over the long term...among friends and family who will inevitably be eating quite differently. The additon of low fat dairy items, the acceptance of 90% compliance, and the advice to add back (with great caution!) small amounts of non-triggering carbohydrates, do not appear to adversely affect maintenance success. Indeed, these accommodations may make it more likely. And success, after all, is what we are about.

Having said all of this, I must reiterate that one of the major themes of my book, Refuse to Regain, is that maintainers should be "tough and not moderate". By this I mean that once someone has identified the diet that keeps them at optimal weight, staves off modern ills, and gives them a sense of general well-being, they should practice it religiously and defend it against all challenges. What is that diet for you? I suggest you start with a primal or paleo diet and work forward...slowly and deliberately. That is a project for 2013 and also for a lifetime.

To see more posts on Primal diet, select Primarian/Primal Diet under the "Categories" list in the bottom left margin of this page.

http://www.refusetoregain.com/2013/...nance-2013.html

#305 ^

Wed, Jan-16-13, 21:17

cnmLisa

Every day is day one

Posts: 7,776

Plan: AtkinsMaintenance/IF
Stats: 185/145/155 Female 5'5

BF:
Progress: 133%

Location: Oregon Coast

As usual great insight.

Quote:

...is that maintainers should be "tough and not moderate". By this I mean that once someone has identified the diet that keeps them at optimal weight, staves off modern ills, and gives them a sense of general well-being, they should practice it religiously and defend it against
all challenges...

It's the moderate that always comes around to bite you in the ass.

#306 ^

Thu, Jan-17-13, 13:57

Demi

Strong Girls Rock!

Posts: 26,753

Plan: Muscle Centric
Stats: 238/153/160 Female 5'10"

BF:
Progress: 109%

Location: UK

Quote:

January 16, 2013

Coca Cola Gets Concerned About Obesity....Hmmmmm

by Barbara Berkeley, MD

So Coca Cola has taken to running a TV ad that waxes eloquent about their corporate concern with obesity and lets us in on all that they have done to combat the problem.

Enough said.

When voices who have been truly and consistently concerned responded to the ad, Forbes Magazine published a piece called, The Obesity Police Turn a Solvable Problem into a Needless War. In this way, the battle was joined yet again.

If you follow the Forbes link, you can also view the commercial which is embedded. It is a well produced marketing piece. Good for getting your heart rate up and your blood flowing at least.

Here is my reponse to the Forbes article, which can be found in the comments section:

"Characterizing those who want to seriously approach the obesity problem as “obesity police” sets up just as much of a battle zone as the comments you decry. Let’s look at some of the issues you raised with a critical eye rather than a confrontational one.

First: In reference to the Coca Cola ad, you say: ” The actual language of the ad is scientifically accurate and encourages healthy dialogue. It points out that obesity is caused by consuming more calories than we burn, and that calories come from many sources, including Coca-Cola.” As a physician who has specialized in obesity for over 20 years, I would take issue with this interpretation. Many of us who deal with obese patients believe that calories are NOT all alike, and that the issue for overweight and obese people is more closely related to the type of calories they consume rather than the amount. Over 40% of adult Americans have either pre-diabetes or diabetes. This means they are “ sugar-sick”, or have developed an intolerance to sugar. Sweetened beverages are composed only of sugar and have no other redeeming value. One might as well eat sugar directly from the bowl. To give you an example: the normal level of blood sugar in the 5 quarts of blood currently circulating in your body is 1 teaspoon. The amount of sugar in a 12 oz can of Coke is 8 teaspoons and is immediately absorbed. Those with sugar intolerance quickly turn sugar into fat, a fact that is not true for other types of foods.

Second: Like many who comment on the obesity epidemic, you assume that we have free will and can choose healthy diets if we want to. As you say, ” Food and soda companies are at all times the villain, while people, adults and children alike, are mindless zombies unable to withstand the lure of a Super Bowl halftime show.” However, I can tell you that the countless people I’ve treated over 20 years all reiterate the fact that….despite every good intention….they are unable to resist the continued marketing, ubiquitous presence of food, and the types of hyper stimulatory foods that are produced by major food manufacturers. I suspect that if you look at your own experience with food honestly, you will probably see that this is so. This is a sea we all swim in, and resisting the tide is not the simple choice you propose.

It is true that we need a civil dialogue about obesity. But that must include a willingness to jettison old beliefs and consider new views of the problem."

It is perhaps worth noting that the comment that follows mine says this:

"Only Forbes still has the courage to speak when it comes to regressive, inane, and irresponsible conspiracy trash."

I am still agog at the anger and hatefulness that discussions about food can generate. Food!!!! Not nuclear weapons, world religion, or territorial sovereignty. If we needed a greater demonstration of the power that those little molecules of protein, carbohydrate and fat exert on our brain, we would be hard put to find it.

http://www.refusetoregain.com/

#307 ^

Mon, Jan-21-13, 14:21

Demi

Strong Girls Rock!

Posts: 26,753

Plan: Muscle Centric
Stats: 238/153/160 Female 5'10"

BF:
Progress: 109%

Location: UK

Quote:

January 20, 2013

Practical Weight Guidance for the Menopausally Challenged

by Barbara Berkeley, MD

Whenever I see a new patient, I take a history of his or her weight gain. With rare exceptions, the story is almost always the same. At a certain point, the patient started to become susceptible to weight gain. Once this turning point occurred, weight escalated over time--reversing occassionally during periods of dieting---but quickly reaccumulating.

Yet, when I ask patients to tell me when their weight loss began, they usually will refer to a bookmark in their life. Common answers:

"It started after my first pregnancy."

"It began after I got married."

"It started when I changed to a sedentary job."

"It was that gosh darn menopause!!"

The truth is that the tendency to gain weight usually begins subtly and increases with age. Some people have been overweight since childhood, but for a great many the weight just comes on over time. At some point, it reaches a critical level and we become uncomfortable with it.

By far, the most searches to my blog involve weight and menopause. This tells me that we have been conditioned to believe that menopause CAUSES weight gain. It also tells me that there is a feeling of desperation out there because we believe that there is something irreversible and unique about weight gain after 50. I simply don't believe that desperation is warranted.

Both men and women become more susceptible to weight gain as they age. As I've written in my other posts about menopause, this is because of a simple bodily truth. The rate at whch we burn calories (our metabolism) is dependent upon our size, our sex, and our age. Calories are burned at rest by our muscle tissue, and (if we let it happen) muscles are replaced by fatty tissue as we get older. There is metabolic slowing with time.

Thus, men who were lean and athletic in their twenties now have big bellies that overhang their belts in their 50s. They don't blame this on menopause. If you ask them, they generally blame it on beer, nachos and inactivity. For women, the problem tends to run more toward wine, sweets, and inactivity. But lack of estrogen does not mean inevitable and permanent weight gain and we do ourselves a disservice when we believe that.

Regardless of age, I give the same advice to each person who wants to be permanently lean. Take on your goal as a serious, long term project. I also say this: learning to be healthy is a life's work.. What I mean by this is that short weight reduction diets are meaningless. If you truly want to work on getting to a good weight and staying there, health has to become a passionate interest for you. When you are working on a long term project, little set backs are nothing more than opportunities to reassess strategy and keep going. People who want to lose weight for a class reunion next month are not looking at longterm results...and they won't get them.

What's different about weight control after 50 is that the slowing of metabolism and the tendency of the body to lose muscle means that we have to be more devoted to our project than we might have needed to be in our 30s. But that just makes it a more fascinating exercise and a more rewarding one. The worst thing that any of us can do is to give in to the belief that we are doomed to a life of flab and ill health. We're not.

So how can you begin a serious project to reclaim your 50 plus body?

1. Start by cutting all carbs other than vegetables and low sugar fruits (non tropical fruits) from your diet. Remove all grains and things that come from grains and flour (that would be cereal, pasta, bread and baked goods) and also cut out potatoes. For more detailed information on the foods to avoid, you can view other posts on this site or check the diet in my book (Refuse to Regain:12 Tough Rules to Maintain the Body You've Earned). By the way, I'm fine with any permanent eating plan that works to keep you at a healthy weight. If you can get the same result with another eating style, by all means go ahead. I just find that this particular one, a variant of Primal eating, makes the most sense to me and has been most effective with those I counsel.

2. Spend time considering how you can become an athlete. I know. This always makes people cringe. But everyone has a path toward becoming physically adept. Everything that you do regarding your Reclamation Project shoud be goal oriented, challenging and interesting. What does it mean to be an athlete? For purposes of your life project, it means that you have established a real rythm with at least one particular sport or activity. Think of the analogy of becoming fluent in a foreign language. You shold aim for fluency is your particular activity. Becoming an athlete doesn't mean that you are a star. It doesn't even have to mean that you're great at what you do. It just means that you're fluent. Here's an example: I am fluent in aerobics and tennis. I'm better at aerobics than tennis (I'm no star at either!) but I'm very comfortable with both. I know the rules, I have set schedules to practice them, I have the right equipment and clothes and they are part of the identity that I have established.

(To digress: this is me in the picture. I'm about to turn 65 next month. I eat no bread, pasta, rice, potatoes or grains and very few sweets....or let's say, I eat those things extremely rarely. I am 90% Primarian, eating few processed foods and making only occasional exceptions. I exercise about 5 days/week. I'm here to tell you, I never feel deprived or that anything I do has made my life anything but more enjoyable.)

If people identify you as a daily walker, as someone who goes faithfully to Tai Chi, stretching class, chair yoga...whatever...you are an athlete. One other thing that I can not overstress is the imprtance of keeping physically fit as you pass 60. Loss of muscle and decrease in balance lead to the falls that are so common in people over 80. Twenty years ago, I was 45, the age of most of my current tennis friends. It was a MOMENT ago, so I'm not foolish enough to think that 85 is far off. I'm paying my dues now to stay active and strong. And fitness isn't just an investment in my future, it makes me feel wonderful today and every day.

3. Work on keeping records for six months to a year. I don't feel that it's necessary to document dietary components like grams of fat, protein or carbs. I don't even think it's important to track calories. What I would prefer that you do is keep detailed notes about the way your body (and the scale) responds to the addition of carbs and salt. As long as you keep both of these minimal, your body weight will be stable. But this is the biggest challenge, because we live in a world of carbs and salt and they will inevitably creep back into your diet. Make a vow right now that you will take note of what you are eating each day, whether it makes you hungry or makes you feel addicted, and whether the scale jumped up. In this way, you can figure out what Atkins called your CCL or Critical Carb Level. There will be a certain amount and type of these foods that you won't be able to exceed and that amount tends to vary. Explore this scientifically by watching and observing. And if you find weight coming back, remind yourself that your project is to achieve long term control. Quickly put the kabosh on those foods that have found their way into your brain and onto your hips.

4. There are some things that we have to accept about ourselves. But there are many things that we can actively work on changing. I would advise not falling prey to the "just accept yourself" movement, particularly as it applies to menopause. Creating change makes for a far more interesting life, so I suggest you start each day with a mantra that reminds you where you want to go with your life and why.

5. Finally, I can only offer my own beliefs about weight control and the modern world. For me, it boils down to this: there are multiple reasons why our current environment causes weight gain. They may include ingested chemicals and exposures, changes in our gut microbes, additives in food, and numerous other factors in addition to the usual suspects (eating too much and being too inactive). Having a hormonal change, like the menopause is just one more factor. However, and it'a a BIG however, the mechanism that causes weight gain and blocks weight loss runs through the insulin system. Decreasing the amount of insulin we make, by decreasing our starch and sugars to very minimal levels WORKS. Rather than trying to parse out every causative factor, go for the fix.

As always, feel free to let me know how it goes.

For more posts on menopause and weight click here.

http://www.refusetoregain.com/2013/...challenged.html

#308 ^

Mon, Jan-21-13, 15:15

wheeler

Senior Member

Posts: 829

Plan: High protein/HIIT
Stats: 234/197/174 Female 5'9"

BF:
Progress: 62%

Location: Alaska

Thanks for posting Demi. Really enjoyed this one. I feel as if I have turned back the clock this last year of LC. My goal is to keep the clock spinning backwards. Just yesterday my husband and daughter were commenting on how much less gray hair I have now, and they are right. I fully believe in the benefits of regular exercise, both for weight maintenance and feeling good on a daily basis.

#309 ^

Mon, Jan-21-13, 18:58

freckles

Senior Member

Posts: 8,730

Plan: Atkins Maintenance
Stats: 213/141/150 Female 5'4 1/2"

BF:
Progress: 114%

Location: Dallas, TX

This is really timely for me. I've been having little things here and there that are making me think I'm getting close to at least peri-menopause. Due to the fact that I can't take hormones (have a genetic disorder that precludes them) I've been a bit concerned how menopause will factor into weight control. This really stands out to me:

Quote:

When you are working on a long term project, little set backs are nothing more than opportunities to reassess strategy and keep going.

That is EXACTLY what I do. I weigh every single day and that fraction of a moment of my time has been SO helpful to me in reassessing what I'm doing. Small gains no longer freak me out, but instead alert me to examine what may have caused them (like the aforementioned food additives). I'm aware, can figure out the culprit and make changes. Golden.

I still need to work on exercise.

I'm not going to beat up on myself after all my health probs this past year, though. Onward...

As always, thank you for the encouraging post, Demi.

#310 ^

Mon, Jan-21-13, 21:28

Aeryn

Paper beats rock?!?

Posts: 828

Plan: Atkins! (Maintenance)
Stats: 178/147.6/145 Female 5'8"

BF:
Progress: 92%

Just want to say I love this thread and find the posts you share here so helpful, Demi! I'm going to go explore that blog now!

#311 ^

Tue, Jan-29-13, 09:55

JEY100 JEY100 is online now

To Good Health!

Posts: 13,440

Plan: P:E/DDF
Stats: 225/150/169 Female 5' 9"

BF:45%/28%/25%
Progress: 134%

Location: NC

Quote:

Originally Posted by Aeryn

Just want to say I love this thread and find the posts you share here so helpful, Demi! I'm going to go explore that blog now!

Same here..thanks for posting Demi. I have read a few of her blog posts in the past, but now I am going to add her to my RSS low carb feed so I don't miss any of her good insights. I definitely should have read the one about holiday food creep before December...it really would have been much easier not to have spent January undoing the damage.

#312 ^

Thu, May-02-13, 08:57

Judynyc

Attitude is a Choice

Posts: 30,111

Plan: No sugar, flour, wheat
Stats: 228.4/209.0/170 Female 5'6"

BF:stl/too/mch
Progress: 33%

Location: NYC

From the Refuse to Regain Blog:

http://www.refusetoregain.com/2013/...17eeac233f2970d

Quote:

May 02, 2013
Sweet 100: Counting Carbs for Weight Loss
by Barbara Berkeley, MD

Since my world view revolves around insulin, I believe that the final common pathway for weight gain and weight loss is carbohydrate consumption. Carbohydrates trigger the release of insulin and cause fat storage in those who are so pre-disposed. Eliminating carbohydrates stops any significant insulin release and allows fat to be burned as fuel.

An insulin-centric world view in no way denies the myriad other contributors to weight gain. There is no doubt whatsoever that neurotransmitters, food additives, endocrine disruptors, gut micro-organisms and a whole host of other factors are involved in the perfect storm that creates fat. But I believe that everything has to channel through insulin ultimately. Control insulin and you control your fat destiny. At least that's how it appears to me as of this writing.

With this in mind, keeping carbohydrate consumption low is vital to successful weight loss. Last December I blogged about dropping carb consumption to 50 grams to reverse holiday weight gain. Now I want to share the success that one of my patients is achieving by assiduously counting carbohydrate grams and keeping the total below 100.

Miss B. is a 240 pound woman who has had lots of problems losing weight and whose issues are compounded by the need to take several weight promoting medications. She was not doing particularly well on our standard diet, which combines meal replacements with a Primarian dinner meal. Because of issues with insomnia, Miss B was feeling hungry at night and was often choosing to depart from the diet. Several months ago, I presented Miss B with the option of going on a full food diet that counted carbohydrates. We generally get good weight loss with about 100 grams of carbs per day, so that was the figure we picked. Miss B is facile with the internet and likes tracking things. She became quite good at figuring out her daily carb count and this enterprise became something of a motivating game for her. She has done extremely well achieving weight losses of between 2 to 3 pounds per week using this strategy. In addition, Miss B has encouraged several of her friends to go on the same plan. All appear to be losing weight.

While I mostly discourage counting things as a long term weight maintenance strategy, keeping track certainly has its place. First, there are some people who simply feel more in control when they count. Second, counting allows the dieter to reach a specific goal each day and this can provide daily motivation. Third, counting is a learning tool. Within a short period of time most dieters will have internalized the counts of foods they commonly eat. At that point, they will know what to do without calculation and this kind of knowledge is necessary for long term success.

If you would like to try the hundred carb count (C100), simply carry a small notebook or scrap of paper with you throughout the day. Make sure you have access to a counting book (like the one made by Calorie King) or website (My Daily Plate, Calorie King). Alternatively, you can just google your food by entering something like "number of carbs in one slice of bread". Look up any food that you are not sure of. For example, a grande skim latte has 16 ounces of fat free milk, but that adds up to 24 grams of carbohydrate, something that may not be intuitively obvous.

Here are a few additional suggestions:

1. Don't bother counting non starchy vegetables (DO count the carbs in peas, cooked carrots, corn and potatoes)

2. Make use of foods that are already labeled. It saves time and makes your count more accurate. You will already know, for example, that one of the OPTIFAST bars we use in our practice has 20 grams of carbs or that a an Oikos pineapple yogurt has 19 grams. For diet products, I prefer that you use the total carb count rather than the one labeled "net" carbs. Err on the side of the larger number.

3. Don't use salt and avoid foods that are salty in restaurants.

4. Don't forget to count carbs in salad dressings and don't use restaurant dressings unless you know the count.

If anyone out there decides to do a couple of weeks (or more) on 100C, please be kind enough to send me some feedback. I would like to see if this is an effective strategy for weight loss in the general population (in other words, for those who are not seeing a doctor or dietitian or are in an organized diet program). I would be interested in knowing about ease of use, hunger levels, degree of weight loss and anything else on which you'd like to comment. Good luck!

I'm an Optifast failure so this post really meant something to me in that this MD saw this poor girl struggling and gave her an option to eat solid food.

#313 ^

Sat, Sep-07-13, 02:57

Demi

Strong Girls Rock!

Posts: 26,753

Plan: Muscle Centric
Stats: 238/153/160 Female 5'10"

BF:
Progress: 109%

Location: UK

Quote:

September 06, 2013

The Day On, Day Off Diet: A Poor Choice?

By Barbara Berkeley, MD

New weight maintainers frequently propose using a favorite strategy: eating at will on some days (usually the weekends) while sticking to a healthier plan during the rest of the week. It sounds good, but in my experience, it's a losing proposition for most. Why?

As my blog and facebook readers know, I am increasingly fascinated by the suggestion that our gut micro-organisms (the microbiome) might dictate our size and metabolic health. New data to support this theory is being generated daily. Here is one example, a study that transplants the microflora of lean humans into obese mice and generates weight loss. For more on gut bacteria and fecal transplants, see this earlier post. While most of would cringe at the idea of ingesting or receiving an enema full of someone else's bacteria, we should think about the larger concept at play. It seems very possible that what we eat dictates the type of bacteria we develop. After years of ingesting the SAD, we have some pretty pathetic bacteria; perhaps a slew of micro-organisms which process way too much of what we eat and generate metabolic illness.

There are many reasons why on and off eating plans don't work for long term maintenance, but I would suggest that one of them may be that we never give our microbiome a chance to remodel. Such a biological turn-around may be crucial for cementing a new weight.

On and off diets are the quintissential expression of wishful thinking. They represent a longing for the SAD and an inability to separate from it. But the SAD (standard American diet) is addictive and is thus almost impossible to manage episodically. In addition, the metabolic state of those who have recently lost weight is such that their bodies are looking for weight regain. Weekly deviations can quickly overwhelm any attempts at being "good" the rest of the time because of the rapidity of regain on uncontrolled days.

As I always say, strategies that work for you as an individual are good strategies. I realize that there are some people reading this who probably have success with on and off plans. But I am willing to bet that the majority of you have failed with this technique.

When I was a kid, most people ate SAD and processed foods in lesser amounts than we do today, and they did just fine. Why can't we just cut back and do that now? I'm not sure. But it's my current belief that we have undergone some kind of metabolic change that makes this impossible. Whether this is the fatigue of our insulin systems after years of consuming sugars and starches, some essential change in our gut flora, or the influence of environmental toxins remains unknown and unproven. Only the observable facts remain. It seems to me inescapable that POWs (previously overweight people) must create brand new lifestyles that exist outside of the SAD. In order to learn to prefer these eating styles, they must be faithful to them 90 percent of the time---meaning with only occasional deviation.

Let me know your thoughts.

http://www.refusetoregain.com/2013/...oor-choice.html

#314 ^

Sun, Sep-08-13, 04:25

Sagehill

Senior Member

Posts: 14,561

Plan: My own
Stats: 250/161.4/130 Female 5'3"

BF:
Progress: 74%

Location: Central FL

I agree with this. Although some people apparently lose well on JUDDD, it has never worked for me after the first week. And it does seem to work okay for maintaining, I'd rather maintain another way.

Quote:

When I was a kid, most people ate SAD and processed foods in lesser amounts than we do today, and they did just fine. Why can't we just cut back and do that now? I'm not sure. But it's my current belief that we have undergone some kind of metabolic change that makes this impossible. Whether this is the fatigue of our insulin systems after years of consuming sugars and starches, some essential change in our gut flora, or the influence of environmental toxins remains unknown and unproven. Only the observable facts remain. It seems to me inescapable that POWs (previously overweight people) must create brand new lifestyles that exist outside of the SAD. In order to learn to prefer these eating styles, they must be faithful to them 90 percent of the time---meaning with only occasional deviation.

This is the very hardest for most people to accept. It took me over six years to finally accept it... fully.

#315 ^

Thu, Jan-02-14, 08:10

Demi

Strong Girls Rock!

Posts: 26,753

Plan: Muscle Centric
Stats: 238/153/160 Female 5'10"

BF:
Progress: 109%

Location: UK

Quote:

December 31, 2013

Happy New Year from Me

by Barbara Berkeley, MD

Dear Readers,

The New Year reminds us that life is cyclical and that the earth is constantly turning a page. With each year, we advance further and further into the book....nevertheless, the page is new.

I've never been a fan of resolutions at this time of year, simply because none of us take them seriously. Yet the idea of resolving to change is an important one since it reminds us that we can make major alterations in our life if we want to badly enough.

This week, I saw many patients who had lost 30, 40, 60 and even 100 pounds. When I looked at them with fresh eyes, I realized that they had also gone back in time. They now looked significantly younger. They walked and moved as if they had taken 10 or 20 years off the clock. They had a sparkle in their personality and optimism in their speech. To each of them, I said this:

"You have given yourself the gift of re-setting the clock. In a very real way, you have the opportunity to go back ten or twenty years and live that period of your life over again. Knowing that, what would you do differently this time? Make sure you do it! And don't let history repeat itself because this gift is a special miracle that you have created and it may not come again."

If you are just beginning to consider a new approach to your health and body, please spend 2014 in a campaign to win this prize. Block out everything that seduces you to eat the standard diet, create your own strong rules, re-connect with your body by moving it joyfully every single day. Let the effort make you high rather than drag you down. Detox from modern life and laugh at it. Regain time.

If you have lost weight and unwrapped the gift this year, enjoy and revel in it. Remember that being smaller is just a tiny part of your project. You cleaned up your room this year, but now you've got to maintain it as the pristine thing it has become. Do this by continuing to explore ways to be strong and healthy and by refusing to allow the modern diet and the habits of modern life to corrupt your resolve. Stay proud, view the ongoing battle with humor, and value the way your live so that you can defend it to others.

In short readers, be tough and hold onto your purpose.

Our years on this earth are few. My goodness, it is already 2014. Let's all resolve to write a chapter of health, happiness, youth, strength and gratitude on this year's page.

I value and appreciate each and every one of you. Thank you so much for following me and I wish you the very best in this New Year.

Barbara

http://www.refusetoregain.com/2013/...ar-from-me.html