YES! I'm quite pleased overall. Tripledigitloserville

I understand completely. Since I wasn't LC-ing in '07, I had to look up the whole controversy to see what was going on. I saw that he did make a big apology here:

http://livinlavidalocarb.blogspot.c...t-im-sorry.html

I recognize that people do make mistakes, sometimes BIG ones in this case, but if they're willing to be humble and sincerely apologize then I'm open to giving them another chance.

His experience along with how it affected many unsuspecting dieters is a screaming reminder of how we all need to do our own research and not just blindly trust. Question, question, and question some more. Never stop asking. What happened in 2007 could happen again, but with another low-carber that the community puts their trust in.

short+fat: Here's that talk minus Jimmy

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ok3g...&feature=relmfu

Brinery - thanks for digging out that post by Jimmy. His generosity and sincerity shine through, as usual.

Short and Fat,

Jimmy too has had many serious trials and tribulations throughout the last decade, and he managed to stay on track, keeping off about 100lbs of his lost weight, which in itself is a colossal achievement. He has a very outgoing, zany personality, and in ten years of low-carbing has injected a lot of enthusiasm and hope into the journey. Perhaps you don't realise how many trolls and downright unpleasant people he has to deal with on a daily basis, who seem to think that they have a right to stand in judgement having achieved absolutely nothing of a similar nature, or offered anything similarly valuable. You might find his personal style irritating, but others might find it fresh and upbeat. Incidentally, I have listened to his podcasts for years and followed his food journal until he wrapped it up, and never saw any of these "infamous rants". He's outgoing, friendly, encouraging, enthusiastic and many of his high-achieving podcast guests engage with him respectfully and with enormous affection.

As far as Kimkims goes, plenty of people tried it because it's generally low-carb, just as plenty of low-carbers are now trying intermittent fasting or switching to Paleo, in keeping with the current trend. A handful are now trying the Stillman diet, which could also be seen as drastic and possibly not safe. One of the most valuable long-term maintainers on this forum lost her weight on a "shake" based diet, after being unable to reach her goal with a standard low-carb diet. With the odd exception, people find it very challenging to reach their goal and maintain in the long-term, and Jimmy has won the respect of many people because he has successfully kept off so much weight in his decade of low-carbing.

Barry Groves himself wrote a long 5* review of Jimmy's latest book on Amazon and he ended it by saying :


21 Life Lessons is certainly different from any other 'diet' book I've ever read. As an inspirational, motivational book, it couldn't have a better subject or be better written. I loved it.



http://www.amazon.co.uk/review/R2KP...239&store=books


Incidentally, Barry Groves' blog is great! He has such a readable style and is so informative. Here's the link:

http://barrygroves.blogspot.co.uk/

There's a really good post on breakfast cereals and their packaging here:

http://barrygroves.blogspot.co.uk/2...to-eat-for.html

I had never heard of Kimkins until a couple of days ago, but it does sound like low-fat low-carb which sounds like Dukan which sounds like Stillman, and Dr. Stillman probably lifted his diet in the 1970s from something even older.

I don't know about Stillman's being not safe, the research is showing more and more that calorie restriction really is the way to go, and Stillman has that in spades. It has the added attraction of keeping one in ketosis so that it's simply easier to maintain caloric restriction over the term long. I believe Dukan does this as well at least in 1-2 "phases," and possibly Kimkins.

Every body is different, and life and physiologic circumstances change. I couldn't lose on Atkins anymore after hitting menopause, and Stillman works great for me because I'm still not hungry, in fact I have much better appetite control than I did on Atkins.

The weight loss/health/diet journey is like the life journey, all of us take different paths and veer off and back on those paths as our situations dictate. I used to think the only exercise I could ever or would ever do was marathon running, and now that I'm in my 50s, that's the last thing I think would be good for my body!

You don't have to like Jimmy Moore but it speaks to his standing in the LC community that he can pull in all these great professionals and researchers in the field for his podcasts and interviews. His collection of podcasts is a gold mine. Well said Kirsteen.

Femur wrote:



What a great post you have written there - full of wisdom.

I absolutely love Jimmy's podcasts, and consider them to be a wonderful gift to our community. They have helped me to stay on course and have provided me with a lot of motivation. I also greatly admire Jimmy and see him as a wonderful example of courage, grace, strength and determination. He's only human, like the rest of us, but I love his Southern hospitality and warmth.

Thanks for your insights.

I love eating fat. That's how I got in this shape in the first place! LOL

Are you sure that fat was the problem? Or was it a lot of carbohydrate mixed with a moderate amount of fat?

The last thing you want to do on Atkins is skimp on fat. Fat will help get your body adapt faster and keep you satiated. It will also help facilitate ketosis.

I eat a high-fat diet and reached my goal, but I cut out carbohydrate drastically. High-carb+moderate fat = disaster.

That is absolutely what works for me. The lower my carbs, the better I feel; and this is with a LOT of fat and 1800-2000 calories a day.

In fact, in Dr. Atkins books, the Fat Fast is for stubborn metabolisms, it's 90% fat. This can correct extreme insulin resistance.

Nothing wrong with good fats!

I have so many different people/groups to thank for driving home this message that (for most people) it is not only helpful, but necessary to eat a lot of fat on a low-carb woe. I think I first heard it from Thomas on this forum, and then from a couple ebooks I saw on ketogenic dieting, and finally, from Dr. Eades on Tips and Tricks part I. That last one was highly important to me because I was always under the impression that they recommended more low to moderate fat intake. Nope! When Mike recommended to eat the rib steak from the "outside in," it was such a nice surprise. I don't think I ever heard a low-carb clinician/expert mutter words such as those. I mean sure, Atkins did talk about the fat fast, but my biggest wish had always been for him to be more direct on how much fat his patients and readers should be eat eating. At least a range of intake, maybe. If it hadn't been for the low-fat culture we live in, this directness might not be necessary. But society has been so scared off by fat that such directness is crucial for success on this plan.

A lot of people talks about % of macronutrients but for me after listening to Dr Rosedale on Jimmy's podcast, and even Dr Phinney talk about it on the most recent podcast is the thing you need to care about is the real amount of the macronutrient. Keep carb to minimum, protein to only what you need (as the img below) and fat, enough for your need - not hungry. There is no point stuffing yourself with fat more then you need, just to achieve that 70%-90% whatever range. Keep it at minimum possible so your body have the chance to burn your storage.



*img is from Atkins book

What do you guys/gals think?

I would be interested to see how he came up with these values. I would also like to know why he's down on IF. I mean, how did we as a species deal with periods of starvation. Animals in the wild deal with it all the time.

Werebear and I seemed to do well on high-fat. For me, I looked at caloric intake and macro percentages. I spread my meals out over either 2 or 3 meals and took the advice of not snacking, which has worked really well. Sometimes my percentages aren't in the 70% range. For instance, I just ate a piece of salmon at around 37 grams of protein. I'm sure Dr. Rosedale would be pleased with that. Anyway, I don't over-obsess about percentages. I just have a feel for what the optimal ratio and caloric intake is for me.

I'm not sure if you're equating high-fat with high-calorie, but I would just like to say that they are NOT the same thing.

My diet is typically 65-75% fat. But my daily calories are typically 1,200-1,600. I'm not actively trying to limit calories but, of course, my daily carb intake is limited to 1 cup of veggies + 2 cups of salad veggies, per Atkins induction. And my trainer has me eating only 15-20g of protein per meal. So I have 5-6 meals per day, centered around 3-4oz of protein so, at the end of the day, I'm never hungry but my calories aren't very high.

My trainer told me to eat this way so that my body will use fat as its primary fuel, and not be given more protein than it can handle at one serving. More protein than the body needs for maintenance and repair would cause the body to convert excess protein into glucose. This may also be his way of forcing me to exercise portion control and calorie limits, but he claims this is done to keep my body in fat-burning mode. My trainer even had me read The Art and Science of Low Carb Performance to better understand keto-adapted performance and the difference between muscles using ketones for fuel and muscles directly using fatty acids.

I'm still not 100% clear on what this distinction between ketones versus fatty acids truly means to me -- the book makes a strong case for why endurance athletes would want this... I'm just not 100% sure what that difference means to ME. But the idea that it takes a month for the body to fully switch over its systems when changing from sugar-burning mode to fat-burning mode has kept me from having a single french fry or even a tiny bite of a corn dog this summer. After all of the days I've devoted to this, I would be just BEYOND annoyed to see a whole month go to waste over a french fry.

Thus far, my weight loss has been steady and this has been an easy program to stick with because I'm never hungry and because I have some really tasty recipes that I look forward to eating. So, even if some of what I'm told to do sounds a bit gimmicky to me, I'm just doing what I'm told unless/until I have a concrete reason not to.

I just have to add something about Jimmy Moore, which is that he has been an energetic fan of the movement and has contributed greatly in getting the word out.

Now, his style might not be everyone's cup of tea; he is what we call a "character" and what some people see as attractive enthusiasm others might see as off-putting and nutty. But he has a way of engaging people with that folksy style who would not be attracted to the cold science approach. His fans see him as "just folks" and flood him with emails which he tries to address online and personally; the man truly cares about what he does.

But I don't have a problem with his professional blogging, because look around; who else is going to do it? It takes a lot of time and money to organize so many words every week, to track people down and do podcasts and monitor the whole low carb community as Jimmy does. A lot of time; and bandwidth costs money. The more popular the site, the more you pay.

Under the circumstances, I think he does pretty well. Ads can pay for all that, but it's hard to win with them; Google seems to delight in putting up ads that are the opposite of what you are blogging about, as seen here on this site. Targeting ads are more controlled, but then it looks more like a personal endorsement.

I see a lot of "I didn't know if I could trust that person because they are selling something," but do consider the fact that the hobby blogger rarely gets seen or read and usually bails in the first six weeks because they underestimated the time and effort involved. It's right to be cautious of those sites which seem to exist only to sell you some arcane weight loss formula. It doesn't make sense to criticize a huge, and hugely popular, site for running ads they need to keep the doors open.

Hey, if you donate, he won't have to run so many, right? But most people will rather put up with the ads, don't they?

Like Jimmy's style or not, he's an important contributor to making low carb as accepted and available as it is now.

Well said, Were Bear.