If cutting your calories on a low fat WOE were that simple. Of course nobody would be overweight. But that insatiable hunger caused by insulin and other hormones is just too much for a lot of us (of course the mass produced food products marketed to us everyday have his effect. Why? Bigger customers = more product bought = more profit. Supersize me for 0.25cents more baby!)
That's part of the great thing about this WOE. I am actually eating less calories without starving!

The reason for low carb is health as much as diet. I cured myself od Syndrome X (prediabetes, very high BP). I was very sick and a low fat diet and exercise suggested by the MD made it worse. I had high triglycerides and C-reactive protein and they couldn't help me with a host of drugs.

Low carb cured me in 6 months.


In addition low carb improved my skin and decreased wrinkles dramatically abd
I have long thin legs on other diets I looked like a lollipop on 2 sticks on this diet my legs became more curvy and I gained muscle tone.

Low carb literally saved my life it may or may not be for everyone but for most it is a godsend.

A few quick thoughts on this aspect of things:

I have heard over the long years associated with Atkins just about anything anyone here has brought up. [Just the consequences of knowing of the diet since early '70's back when they ALL thought I was crazy!]

From my vantage point, some people have "hollow legs" and can eat anything, well almost anything/everything. However, time eventually catches up with all of them.

I was an unusually thin 7-year old and diagnosed with some anemia correctable by an OTC iron supplement. I wasn't a great eater, but didn't have a problem with any particular food, just apparently not enough [likely more protein than anything else needed to increase intake].

Unfortunately, my parents, as ignorant as anyone else for that time, tried various "incentives" to get me to eat, but invariably, this became the beginning of bad habits family-wide. In essence, I was mentally "rewarded" for making a game out of eating carbs [notice how many hi-carb snacks begin with the letter P? Pretzels, Potato Chips, Popcorn, Peanuts with honey-covering]. Since my parents worked fairly vigourously [family business included both parents, and everyone doing a fair amount of physical work carrying heavy loads at times; I still have fairly developed shoulders, etc.] and I did my share even as a 7-year-old [playing, but encouraged, and marginally more helpful than harmful :-) ], we weren't very obese, etc.

But eventually, all of us became heavy because this is a long-term battle that I believe everyone will lose eventually. Our bodies are simply not designed for long-term carb abuse, but it's an insidious problem.

So, for all thse people who live for the now, and have all their hypocritical remarks, they are setting themselves up for a great fall eventually.

Maybe today they can snack on hi-carb crap and even get sugar-high short-term energy, and can accuse you of obviously being a fat slob who deserves the outcome because obviously you just "eat too much", but eventually, if you are doing something about the problem, they and you are going in opposite directions. Time will tell!

Some have mentioned that this diet "isn't for everyone". I suppose there are a statistical amount of people with unusual metabolic disorders for which this diet cannot be started without potential danger. If this is true, clearly some radical and likely heavly-monitored regimen is needed to get them close enough to "normal" to allow them to partake in at least the induction phase. Merely being insulin-resistant isn't "abnormal" enough, and we all know that some IR people can still be started on the diet, but might need a supervised fast or other semi-radical starting treatment worst case. But this is still NOT someone with such a level of metabolic disorder that the diet is permanently off-limits for them, etc.

Thus, there is really a quite small number of people who can actually justify not doing this. But, it would seem that there is a much larger number of reported "exceptions".

IMHO, all we are seeing is a lack of mental discipline.

I know I have that problem. I have NEVER been able to pursue a low-fat diet and I know I never will. [Actually, that's not quite true: When I was 17, I was prescribed amphetamines by a doctor trying the then-current fad of dexadrine "spansules" which were being taughted as the latest "wonder drug" and should be given to all children to make them "geniuses" etc. I can tell you it does amazing things, or at least in the short-term: Total lack of interest in food, low-fat or whatever; in ignorance I guess I was given what amounted to low-fat, but was merely a matter of low food intake due to no hunger whatsoever; I had to be commanded to eat! Tremendous mental and physical energy, no desire to even sleep much, truly what the definition of an "upper" came to be! I lost so much weight, that at the end, I was able, as a 17-year-old, to fit into pants when I was 11, back when I was first turning into a little Cartman.]

So, I can certainly understand the fear of food discipline, especially in a permissive society which we moreso live in today than when I was that young.

But, I believe that most of these people fall into a clear bunch of whining categories:

1) I tried the diet, and it didn't work! [No instant gratification for someone who is manipulated into believing that life consists of nothing but quick fixes.]

1a) I tried the diet, and it didn't work! [for about two days total!]

1b) I tried the diet, and it didn't work! [I work and diet all week; on weekends I have fun so I eat what I want.]

1c) I tried the diet, and it didn't work! [I pictured myself eating all that FAT food and that couldn't work for me. I can't tell the difference between pondering and doing.]

1d) I tried the diet, and it didn't work! [My friends told me about some Atkins wacko, and I didn't want to look stupid to them.]

1e) I tried the diet, and it didn't work! [I actually know someone who is getting much better apparently on the Atkins diet, or so they tell me. I'm so jealous, I have convinced myself they must be lying and are secretly at some spa and starving themselves.]

1f) I tried the diet, and it didn't work! [I've tried many diets, and they all don't work. Besides, I ate a whole lot of things that said DIET on them.]

1g) I tried the diet, and it didn't work! [I ate a whole lot of things that say Atkins on the labels, or Atkins-friendly, or only ate at restaurants with low-carb menus, of course with unlimited salad-bar added; I love that chocolate pudding desert there!]

1h) I tried the diet, and it didn't work! [After all, shouldn't it work if I really have Atkins meals? It really shouldn't matter what snack foods I have, after all that's NOT eating!]

1i) I tried the diet, and it didn't work! [I saw all the scientific proof in the media and I'm glad I listened to them, since now I KNOW it doesn't work.]


Overall, I think people eating high-carbs are eventually going to turn into diabetics, or at least some subset of that disease that can take 50 years to progress. Unless high-carbs are stopped, diabetes eventually wins. But bad habits happen because anyone in an early stage believes they are "normal".

Isn't even a "normal" rating on a GTT showing an abnormal reaction to too-much sugar intake, just showing statistically what the disease looks like before it has more obvious characteristics? [Meaning, that in time, the sugar-induced blip gets worse, possibly undershooting as a hypoglycemic, then becoming clearly diabetic. Thus, "normal" is just saying you are a being that can be damaged by years of sugar abuse, but at the moment you haven't yet started on that journey particularly much.]

cjl

This just reminded me of the Book of Job. After many disasters befall Job, his supposed friends all hover around and ask what sins he must have committed to deserve these calamities. They said "Surely God would never strike down a righteous man." As this is Wisdom Literature we are expected to learn a few things from the story, for instance: Sometimes bad things happen to perfectly good people and it is not a punishment for wrong-doing. The other piece of wisdom I got from it is: Some people enjoy being self-righteous and enjoy looking down on even their "friends."

My point exactly! I have never liked/eaten sweets, even as a child. Same thing with sodas--never, ever liked them! I had someone once suggest that my diet would go better if I drank diet sodas--it would help me fill up! Why would I add some horribly processed, chemical laden junk drink to my body that I don't even like! I liked French fries and BBQ potato chips as a young person (never had them when I was a kid) but lost my taste for them years ago. My most hated foods, in order, are (1.) Chocolate (get sick, even smelling it), (2.) rice, (3.) desserts, especially cake (4.) anything fat and greasy, so why am I considerably obese? I love fruit, veggies and grains and only marginally like meat. Same question! It ain't fair I tell you! I am fat because of all the "so-called" healthy things that I like and my intolerance for high carbs! Do you know what my binge food was? Baby carrots! I couldn't stop until the whole bag was gone! I still have to avert my eyes when I pass them in the store. I've had to work hard to change my mind-set about not liking meat and fat, but it is working!

Sunny!
296/220/150 on no-cheat Atkins

This reminds me of when they are taking a medical history and ask about smoking and drinking. I have NEVER tasted alcohol and I had a cigarette stuck in my mouth at least 40 years ago and I tried a puff, but hated it, but when you read the medical records, it always states "denies" alcohol and tobacco use/abuse, like I am lying. Once there was a note to the side that basically said they thought I was lying. People just think that everyone out there has to be eating and drinking too much; that we couldn't possibly be just eating the wrong foods (the ones THEY deem healthy) and not too much.

Sunny!

Of course we eat less....we eat less carbs.

Oh. My. God.

I love chocolate. I love anything that has any remote relationship with chocolate. (Except candy coated bugs. Yikes.) I love the way a hersey bar smells, especially when stacked between two gram crackers, topped with a gooey marshmellow and is melting all over your fingers...

Ahhh..


At least I can get unsweetened chocolate (which still smells great) and make stuff out of it. There is just something about a hersey bar that makes my day. (No, the SF ones suck!)

Glad to hear I am not the only one...

I tried the eat less exercise more, all I ended up with was a hungry belly and no energy. Blah, how can you exercise like that??? Now, doing the LC I have a full belly, energy to spare, I am working out like a pro, and have gone from 175 (couple months ago) to 161 (this morning). My muscle mass is building and I'm getting close to where I want to be, 150. Its just important to find something that works for your body type, for me the other diets just didnt work, but LC is a lifestyle change I am making and happy to do it!!!

Well, ya know, it kind of interferes with my workout when I'm shaking from hypoglycemia and can't even stand up. In order to power the machine, you don't dump in crappy fuel and less of it on TOP of that.
Yeeesh!

They wouldn't like the hungrier, meaner person I become if I cut calories. Low carbing is the only program that has ever worked consistently for me. I can go hours with out giving food a thought. I think the attitude that all you have to do is cut food consumption and exercise more comes mostly from misinformation and ignorance. I tend to blow people off when they say stupid things like that. Judy

thing that always strikes me about that statement is...have you ever seen a thin person in action, do they always eat just good healthy food? do they always eat appropriate portions? hmmm not from what I have seen, I get so so tired of getting dirty looks from a thin person that is walking around with a candy bar and soda bleh, and I know thin people that couldn't exercise if their lives depended on it, heck they park as close as they can to the door of the mall...and the one that ticks me the most is when someone looks at me and says..you could really stand to lose a few pounds....

Luckily, I've been married to a naturally thin man for 14 years. Might sound like an odd statement, but it of course means that he has been married to me as well - and thus has seen for himself that I do not "pig out" or eat more than other people, including him. Although when we were talking about this the other day, he did mention that "I did always notice that you have a tendency to eat much more bread and pasta than I do." It's true. He doesn't eat much bread at all (although he does eat cookies every single evening) and he hates pasta and isn't much of a rice guy except when he goes out for Chinese. His "white carbs" tend to be limited to perhaps one/two slices of bread a day (if that) and two or three boiled potatoes with dinner. That was the way he was brought up, and combined with his metabolism, has meant that at age 51 he is the same size he was at age 19 (six feet tall, about 165/170 lbs). The lucky part for me is that A) he doesn't give me any holier-than-thou crap and B) is completely supportive of me doing Atkins because he loves me fat or thin but would like to love me for as long as possible and my diabetes was making a long life look hard to achieve. Then I discovered low-carb/Atkins.

In nine days, I lost nine pounds. More importantly, I cut my total daily insulin dose from 70 units to 10. Ten. Total. The final straw for me came when I was diagnosed with mild retinopathy and got "scared straight." Started eating according to the diabetes nurse's recommendations, upped my insulin to bring my BG under control...and gained 10 pounds in a month.

I started looking for answers and I found them. Started finding more and more connections between the high-carb/low fat dogma and uncontrolled diabetes that could only be controlled with more insulin...and castigations of patients who were suspected of being "non-compliant." And then I stumbled on pro-LC articles - and this forum - and I read every study I could find on the subject. Luckily, I was able to find a few Swedish studies supporting LC for diabetes management that I could refer my nurse to, to forestall her objections. However, those objections were pretty mild, because even she could not object to better BG control in nine days with a radical reduction in insulin.

Anyway, long story short, having a "naturally thin" person in the family can be a good thing if that person is also intelligent, observant and supportive.

Rosemary

100% with u on this Jenn! I was really annoyed earlier, was talking to my friend about how I was on atkins, and she goes "you don't need to diet, just exercise".

UM I DO EXERCISE THANK YOU VERY MUCH! lol She just assumed that I didn't.

Like you, I have to be under 1500 and working out to maintain. Losing weight -- not a chance. If it was that easy to just eat less and exercise more then I'd be slim in no time because I rarely ate junk food.


The thing is it annoys me when someone says a diet doesn't work because they're hungry and couldn't stick to it. Okay, it may not have worked to cure their hunger, but if they still lose weight then the diet DOES work (it's done it's job) and it's ridiculous to say it doesn't just because you can't hack it.

I've gone lower than 1500 and people say to me (ie on the fitness boards) "you're not eating enough for a small girl" and "an ethiopian child eats more than you!" And I try and drill it into them that anymore than that and I will put on weight and they just refuse to listen. What, they think I'm going low calorie because it's fun?? I have to go extremes to get ANY kind of result!

The thing also when they recommend 1-2 lbs of loss a week...we all now about weight fluctuations, so what help is that? Okay I guess you could check it after a month but why would you want to stay on something a month if it's not giving you significant results?

I know it'll slow down but I've lost half a stone in a week...I'm happy with low carb!

This is one of the biggest failure reason, IMO. Way too high expectations. At least for people with less than 50lbs to lose.

I am a man and my only goal is to weight less and less - each month. I don't mind slowly, and it is probably best for me.

I maintain a quarter chart (3mo) and the target loss rate is 0.75lbs a week. Women should be less than that I guess.

It is easy to achieve for me because it is no longer an obsession. My habits have really changed for a few years.