I’m ADHD too, but fortunately I find myself more easily distracted from remembering I’m hungry than being distracted by hunger.
If ADD is part of the problem, it does make me wonder something, though. One of the most commonly reported side-effects of Ritalin is loss of appetite. Why don’t more doctors who have obese+ADD patients try prescribing it to them? Seems like it has a likelihood for killing two birds with one stone.
The BBC did a story/study on the Atkins diet. while not 100% conclusive one thing they really did pin down was that the high protein part of the diet was responsible for the lowered appetite.
this was based on actual science for a change and probably worth watching.
BBC Horizon is the show.
I found this article today that addresses some of the claims made in the book. I’m reserving judgment until after I’ve read it, but I feel it’s important to put multiple perspectives out there.
ETA: If anything, the fact that there ARE so many perspectives just goes to show what an incredibly complicated issue weight loss can be.
The point made in the article about protein stimulating insulin is taken into account by some LC plans and protein is limited to a certain daily percentage (I kinda “eyeball” it and just make sure my fat ratio is a little higher than my protein ratio and certainly much higher than my carb intake). IMO low carb is properly done as a high fat, not high protein diet. BTW, if anyone thinks Atkins is a high-fat plan, there’s some others out there that’ll blow your nutritionist’s socks off (and which are very very successful and healthy).
Same point. Fat’s a lot more satiating than protein.
Here’s a relatively recent LA times article on more recent thinking on the issue by “top nutritional scientists”. Apologies if this was posted before.
I fear you are setting yourself up for disappointment. You know it isn’t going to be easy, you know you have difficulty sticking strictly to a program, and yet you hope to see quick solid results?
Doing the minimums and expecting maximum results is a path to disappointment in most cases.
Absolutely. “I’m starving/I desperately need to pee/My coffee is ready…I’ll get to it in a second… in a minute, in an hour…”
That would be one of the major things I referred to when I said I lost a fair chunk of weight five years ago. I was diagnosed and went on speed! The weight melted off because I was starving because I had almost no appetite at all. But that passes.
Speed has long been known to be an excellent appetite suppressant, temporarily. The body adjusts. My appetite returned completely within a year of beginning the drugs.
“for a change” referring to what or which?
I like this line, a very compact summary:
You’ve made a monumental leap by conflating my knowledge that I will be challenged to remain on course and concurrent desire to see success from doing so with planning to apply minimum effort and anticipating maximum results. These are not the same thing at all.
Let me restate:
“I know it won’t be easy, so I hope I get encouraging results to help me manage the discomfort of doing it. And I hope that as I go along and test various foods and ways of eating carbs I am lucky enough to be able to lose or maintain with less than the most severe level of carbohydrate restriction, as some are able to do, because that will make it easier to stay on the program over a lifetime.”
Because what I learned from THIS book, which is science, vs. a diet to sell, is how the human body works in terms of nutrition and energy, and why I personally am fat. And that knowledge includes the knowledge that managing carbohydrate intake to maintain good health and a healthier weight can be done in a wide variety of ways; it depends on the individual. Some people merely need to eat carbs with a low glycemic load, basically cutting out the whites and sugars, and that’s enough. Others can eat some small amounts of high fiber carbs, lots of middlin’ veges (onions), and have an occasional splurge, some can do one carby meal a day if it’s balanced, some have to swear off more than a handful of carbohydrates for the rest of their lives because, like an alcoholic, one drink is both not enough AND too many.
I was never able to properly assess where I fall on that spectrum when I did low-carb before because I never really trusted that it was genuinely healthy for the long term. I was fighting so much noise to the contrary. So it was a “diet” as opposed to a genuine alternative lifestyle change for me, and therefore temporary.
It’s also been many years, my body has changed, I’ve changed, I’ve gone through menopause and that’s huge: I’m now extremely aware that at 52 I’ve “crossed over”, so to speak, to the Dying Half of Life. This has gotten my attention. When I was younger I was always aware of being younger and knowing I could get away with a hell of a lot more in terms of bad habits. I knew I couldn’t and wouldn’t smoke for the rest of my life unless I was resigned to dying young, and that’s why I quit eleven years ago. (2+ packs a day! ON TOP of the 340 pounds! Can you imagine? Yikes.) The obesity was always going to be a bigger deal and I knew it would have to be brought under some control at this point in my life because I would and am aware of how much it is undermining my health. For the first time in my life my blood pressure has gone up; I always had normal to LOW blood pressure, in spite of the obesity and smoking, remarkably.
All of this to say: I HAVE to do something, I HAVE to address it seriously now if I don’t want to die too soon or simply be physically miserable and incapacitated, so my intention and desire to commit is more powerful than it was when I was motivated by vanity.
And for the first time in a VERY long time I feel hopeful, because I feel like I have the truth at last about what’s going on. Going back to the way this thread started: I know myself and my personal limits, and I know in my heart that I can’t commit to a life of semi-starvation. I just can’t. I can try, but I’ll fail at some point to some degree. And I knew that’s what it would take, without any rigorous recording of every calorie, because I know what I eat, what I don’t eat, and how I feel. I know I’m almost 300 pounds on VERY LITTLE food. Yes, I’ve had my moments, my binges, but day to day? No. So even thinking about getting my weight down significantly by “Eating less and exercising more” looked like the ultimate in Sisyphean tasks.
And what I also know, now that I know the truth, is a lot more about the “moments” and the “binges” themselves! I have a lot of lifelong habits and ways of being around food that I don’t think will miraculously disappear, but I now really understand the degree to which my own body’s chemistry has genuinely driven my behavior, and having that knowledge is having a lot more power to manage it.
I intend to read more carefully later, but the first page demonstrates some fundamental misunderstanding right off the bat, and that undermines the points he’s making.
I’ll read the rest later.
Stoid, just a question… you described yourself in your first post as sedentary. Have you ever considered how much a part of the problem this may be, and trying to be more active? Note, I’m not talking about a structured exercise program or anything strenuous, I’m just talking about being up and moving more.
If your BMR is around 1500 due to being sedentary, then you’re going to feel a cut of 300 calories a lot more sharply than if you had the BMR of a moderately active person.
I know that when my wife was ill for a month or so and I did all the domestic chorse, I lost weight eating exactly what I’d been eating before… I was simply on my feet and active for 1-2 hours more per day than I had been.
For another perspective, here is researcher George Bray’s critique of Good Calories, Bad Calories.
That’s not the only place where I’ve read that overweight people tend to underestimate the caloric value of their food by about 30% while underweight people tend to overestimate by 15% or so…to combat this I try to to keep my calories to 1400 when I should be eating 1600 or so. Lost five pounds last month. Not a lot, but it’s something anyway.
Being active is a tremendously important part of being healthy. It improves pretty much everything imaginable.
But as a tool for weight loss, it’s negligible at best.
Let me amend that:
If you’re an athlete or other intensely physically active person who is moving significantly for hours almost every day, you can and should eat a lot more than most people because you need more energy to fuel those hours of heavy activity. (Hello Michael Phelps)
If you’re a middle aged broad like me who manages to haul her ass outta the chair for a brisk 30 minute walk 5 days a week and maybe a couple of hard swims, you’ll do your heart and your muscles and your sense of well-being a great deal of good, but you won’t make any meaningful difference in your energy balance, especially since you are almost guaranteed to find yourself eating more to compensate.
I totally disagree. You just have to have the correct mindset. I find if I diet without exercising, I will lose weight, no question. However, my weight loss speeds up if I add exercise. Part of it is expending more calories, and part is not wanting to undo the benefit of exercising (which, BTW, I don’t particularly enjoy) by scarfing down pie. If you treat moderate exercise as a licence to overeat, of course you’re not going to lose weight. If you exercise in conjunction with dieting, and are mindful of your eating, you will lose more weight.
Also, for some people such as myself, exercise and physical activity suppresses the appetite. Especially if you’re doing a lot of it. Time spent moving is less time devoted to snacking or thinking about food, at the very least.
I’m wary of all generalizations about diet and weight loss. I’m in my mid-30s and eat carbs without ever having a second thought. Just within moderation as with everything. And I’ve never had a weight problem. Then again, I’m also moderately active. Perhaps my habits wouldn’t work for someone else, but at the same time I’m all rolly-eyes when someone tells me that physical activity won’t help you lose weight. It will if you do enough of it…and it will absolutely help you keep it off.
Walking briskly 30 minutes every other day won’t help you lose much weight at a rapid rate. But walking briskly an hour or two a day, every single day, will.
A healthy lifestyle is hard to maintain, yes. But recognizing a healthy lifestyle in the 21st century is NOT rocket scientist.
Also, (and I know this is a cliche, but it’s true) exercise really helps to alleviate stress. While stress doesn’t trigger me to overeat, I know it does for many people who have weight problems, so it’s something to think about. (Stress is associated with cortisolsecretion, which promotes fat deposition in the belly and also increased appetite.)
Case in point: over the past few weeks, I’ve been seriously slacking off in my exercise routine because of work and travel demands. And I’ve felt very stressed out. Like, so bad that I got a little worried about my mental health. Then I started going back to the gym and amazingly, the stress seemed to burn away. A couple of days of running on the treadmill for 30 min returned me back to my normal self, even though all the things that brought on the stress attack haven’t gone away. The worries about my present and future are still there, but my internal response to them have improved.
Now this might have just been coincidence. That doesn’t shake my belief that there is a clear linkage between my ability to cope and my exercise level.
Do not listen to naysayers who dismiss the power of exercise in weight loss and maintenance. There’s more to it than just the number of calories you’re burning while you’re doing it. If you’re going to make the committment to lose weight, don’t half ass it by only focusing on diet. Get yourself moving. Odds are it will help you, not hurt. Walking does wonders.and is not too hard.
And, by the same token, it helps with anxiety for me. I think because it’s something I can control. I’m currently trying to exercise every day, at least 30 minutes. I’ve exercised 51 of the last 53 days. It’s become habit, like showering or brushing my teeth, and just as important a part of my daily ritual.
It’s not too much insulin its too much sugar. Type 1’s can and do put on weight.
I meant a person with Type 1 diabetes (no insulin available) will not typically gain weight without insulin shots, even after eating vast amounts of food. Unexplained weight loss is one of the early symptoms. The more intensive the insulin therapy, the more weight they gain. Diabetic girls reportedly will skip insulin shots to help lose weight.
Me too, but mostly because a lot of physical activity (45 minutes or more of whatever) tends to slightly upset my stomach. It’s hard to eat when the thought of it makes you wonder if doing so will make you throw up!
This is something I would suggest talking to a doctor about. Exercise really shouldn’t upset your stomache. (of course, exercise makes me stupid and sometimes gives me a headache, and of course I haven’t talked to my doctor about this, so feel free to call me a kettle)