I’m not fucking working backwards. I’m saying how much protein you’d consume if your actual goal was 40% protein. I’m saying it’s wild and impractical and serves no benefit. You don’t eat protein for energy. You don’t need protein beyond what’s needed to maintain your system. You shouldn’t keep trying to stack protein in ratios that don’t actually exist even in healthy food, there’s no benefit to it. 40/40/20 is absurd and unrealistic and even if it were attainable wouldn’t be beneficial anyway.
Whatever it is you think you’re arguing, it’s wrong and has nothing to do with anything I’ve said.
You know, I’ve recently lost about half the fat that I carried. I didn’t diet, didn’t exercise, nothing like that. I just quit taking a couple of the pills that were prescribed for me, and the weight came off. I originally quit taking the pills because I didn’t think they were doing me as much good as they should, and because I suspected them of aggravating my IBS. And I stopped the meds with my doctor’s knowledge. He wasn’t happy with my decision, but he did supervise it.
And the weight melted off, without me having to do anything else.
There’s also a very, very easy way for insulin dependent diabetics to lose weight, just don’t take insulin, or don’t take as much of it. The sugar will stay in the blood, to be pissed away. Of course this will cause permanent damage, but hey, in the short run it’s an easy way to lose weight.
When I was growing up, amphetamines were routinely prescribed for people who needed to lose weight. Over the years, I’ve read about this pill and that pill and the other method of quick, easy weight loss. I’ve read about various diets. The thing is, there are a gazillion ways to lose weight IN THE SHORT RUN, if you don’t care about long term consequences.
The OP admits that his weight loss was comparatively small, and also that he hasn’t kept it off for any significant period of time. I predict that he will gain this weight back, plus 20% more, in the next 18 months. If he has any moderate illness, or if he gets prescribed certain meds for any reason (especially steroids) it’ll be quicker.
You know, I’m usually against these “boo fatties” threads, but at least the OP has real, helpful advice instead of the condescending bullshit “eat less, exercise more” (That was saved for posts 2,3,4,5, and 6 :rolleyes:) (I didn’t actually check post numbers. If you slipped a reasonable post in there, sorry to lump you in.) It doesn’t cover people with mindless or emotional eating problems, but it was good advice for those without those issues.
@SenorBeef everything I’ve read suggests 1.5-2g protein per kg if you are lifting weights like Cort suggests. It still doesn’t get to 40%, so your point stands.
Indeed there would be some weight loss. Someone more significantly overweight would run into the fact that their BMR would change in response to the weight loss but that is a resolvable issue. And I won’t quibble over the specifics.
But let me ask you you something - are you committed to having six measured and weighed preplanned meals every day for the rest of your life? Is this a lifestyle that you can stick with forever? Maybe you are, could and will, but fairly few others would.
Individuals are parts of social systems. They have families and friends and lives that are not entirely devoted to the issue of weight control. Some attempt a plan that fits with another individual’s personality, strengths and weakness, and social systems and find it does not work for who they are and who they live and socialize with. Many could and do various diets and plans for months at a time and lose weight only to then rejoice at having reached their goal and gradually fall back into old habits. If they had managed to hang in past the inevitable plateau during which they keep doing the same right things but they have weeks or more of no attaboy from the scale, that is.
It is doable. But real success, long term success, success that actually reduces a person’s long term risks of death and disease from fat related illnesses, is much more than any simple plan or diet. It is finding ways to make the lasting changes to lifestyles and personal environments. Lasting success is measured less by the scale, which can sometimes be fickle, but by the day in and day out commitment to a different way of living that is sustainable, to the healthy behaviors for their own sake.
Research is pretty clear by now - for the seriously obese losing all the weight is not a reasonable goal, it is not a helpful goal, and it is not necessary goal. Setting that up as the goal is setting people up for failure and thus for giving up. Telling people how easy it is, is just not knowing how big of a challenge it is and diminishes the value of success when achieved. Losing 5-10% of a body mass coupled with healthier eating and activity habits and having both that weight loss and the new habits actually last will gain the vast majority of the health benefits and is doable for a greater number of people. And even that requires a plan for having the support of those who love and who surround you.
Seems to me that the OP was more about having to listen to a group of people whine practically continually about an issue they all have at least some control over but would prefer to complain instead of taking action. This (no matter what the topic is) would also drive me nuts. I don’t see why the thread derailed into “my diet’s better than yours!” and “you hate fat people!” That’s the stuff that gets old quickly around here.
Women who bemoan publicly the fact that they have “let themselves go” are emotionally needy and looking for reassurance–not that any amount would ever be enough. He’s right to want to distance himself from this mess, IMO. That said, they’re just coworkers and surely he can get busy doing something else or bring his iPod into work or something? Because I can tell you that these women will NEVER stop talking about this.
Just wait until one of them actually has some success in losing weight…
God, people are special. :rolleyes:
Then they will ostracize her and talk about her endlessly behind her back. Yeah, the problem is people who just can’t friggin’ shut up about a boring topic, not fat people.
Weight loss is not necessarily simple or easy. Incessant whining, no matter what it’s about, is ubiquitous, especially in the pit. Get over it. You may think you can lay this thread to rest, but next month, it will rise again…
You’re wrong, actually. The body is perfectly able to use protein as en energy-generating fuel, and that’s exactly what it does with most of it. Yes, some of the protein consumed will be used by the body to build structural elements; the rest will be broken down (into carbohydrates, ironically) and burned for energy. That figure you keep citing is the MINIMUM amount of protein the body needs for maintenance purposes, to build and maintain essential structural elements; there’s absolutely no harm whatsoever in incorporating considerably more protein in the diet than that minimum. Protein makes a perfectly fine cellular fuel, with almost exactly the same caloric yield per gram as carbohydrate (4 calories/gram).
There’s no reason to go beyond the minimum protein requirements to try to get almost half of your caloric intake from protein. It’s easier just to eat the carbs and all that excess protein goes that way anyway. You’d have to eat a very strange, restrictive diet to get that much protein and the end result wouldn’t be much different from eating a more conventional diet that was a lot easier to adhere to.
I could barely hit 40% protein on a low carb diet where everything I ate was laden with protein. Maintaining 40% protein while eating only 20% fat (and they usually come together) would be crazy difficult, and for no reason.
There’s no reason to opt for a high-protein diet IF you don’t have an underlying metabolic derangement in your carbohydrate metabolism. Many people do have such a derangement - insulin resistance - and they can benefit from decreasing the levels of carbohydrate they eat, which of necessity means increasing the percentage of either protein or fat they consume. I suspect most opt for increasing the percentage of fat, for the reasons you noted. Choosing to increase the percentage of protein instead wouldn’t be harmful, though, just very difficult to stick with.
Not true if you have healthy kidneys. Of course, not everyone does have healthy, perfectly functioning kidneys, which is why the advice to avoid too much protein is given. But eating a high protein diet in and of itself won’t lead to renal failure; it just exposes any underlying renal insufficiency which already exists.
