Overweight? This IS the miracle cure you've been searching for.

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

I’ve mentioned this on other threads, but at this point I have to give it one of its own.

I have been on the Carbohydrate Addict’s Lifespan Program for 16 days. I’ve lost 8 pounds, which is great, but that’s not what the miracle is.

The miracle is that by working the program to the letter, it has set me free. Unlike any other diet I have ever been on in my life, this one doesn’t feel like a daily grit-my-teeth, white knuckle experience that seems unimaginably difficult to sustain long enough to actually take the weight off. (I have about 140 pounds to lose) In fact, what I actually feel like is a normal human being, one who doesn’t think about food all day. One who only eats because she is hungry, and doesn’t focus obsessively on what, when, and how much she’ll be eating.

I’m telling you, if you have had compulsive eating issues in your life, if you are seriously overweight, if you have felt like it was hopeless, check this program out.

Stoid

2

As long as you’re getting the requisite amounts of vitamins/minerals etc, i hope it works well for you. Long term, i suspect it could be dangerous. Please be careful.

3

Appreciate your concern, but…why in the world would there be anything in the world dangerous about protein (any kind) and a mountain or two of vegetables daily, plus whatever carbohydrates I want once a day?

Sure beats the hell out of the crap I was eating before, which mostly consisted of carbs in the form of toast.

Please don’t mistake the program for Atkins’ “Meat-O-Rama” program. They are nothing alike, apart from both of them operating on the theory that excess insulin causes excess cravings and fat.

Stoid…annoid

4

Stoid,
Great job doing this plan. I have followed several “carb limiting” plans myself, but because I have trouble with my blood sugar and it helps me manage it. As a nice side effect, I lost weight, too. Congrats on your 8lbs!
Zette

5

Congratulations Stiod, but if I may add my .02 cents:

As with any diet, exersise should account for at least 50 percent of your program. This helps the body to stay strong and healthy as well as toned. Those who lose a large amount of weight without exersise have to contend with sagging skin.

>^,^<
KITTEN
Please tell your pants it’s not polite to point.

6

Started exercising before I started the eating program. I swim almost daily, now up to about 45 laps in my pool, and I work out on my new home gym every other day.

I’m sure that’s helping my excellent rate of loss.

H

7

Although, it is important to note, that I di dnot begin losing weight until I went on the eating program.

That has been my frustration and sorrow for many years now, that while I was largely over being a total compulsive eater, my weight would not budge with anything resembling conventional weight loss strategies. I could cut my intake down to 1000 calories daily and nothing. Which is why I BELIEVE in the insulin theories. I am living, breathing proof.

8

I was on a diet that restricted my carb intake. I went from 137 to 119 in about 3 or 4 months. Still, I felt that the diet restricted my carb a little TOO much, and I cheated quite often. Carbs are a necessary part of any diet. Too much protien has been known to cause health problems in pets later in life, and there have been studies to indicate that this could be true for people as well. I think moderation is the key to any good diet. I eventually went off my diet plan because I hate all kinds of seafood and most kinds of veggies, so I was quick to get bored. I have gained about 7 pounds back (over the course of a year and a half or so), but I attribute that more to the fact that I had also stopped working out. I am thinking of going back on the diet (with my cheating and adding some extra carbs) because I really did feel a lot better while I was dieting.

9

Sigh…

Well, that’s why I call it an “eating plan”, not a diet. It’s not a temporary thing.

And it is not so much carb-restricted as it is “controlled carbohydrate nutrition”. I DO eat carbs. I jsut eat them at a certain time, in certian combinations with other foods.

i’m on an listserv of people doing this eating plan, and the reports of health improvement are astonishing. People who have had their cholesterol drop by hundreds of points, able to go off all kinds of medications, had their blood sugar and blood pressure normal for the first time in years, on and on.

And it isn’t jsut because of weight loss. Many of these people didn’t have significant weight issues, they had health issues.

There is more and more scientific research supporting the idea that insulin is the culprit responsible for alot of the things we always blamed on fat. And these folks are living the proof of it. People who had no success with low-fat dieting, medications, anything. Put 'em on meat and vegetables with carbs once a day and voila! Beaming good health.

10

I looked into the Atkins meatfest pretty seriously, but it just didn’t seem worth the risks, since my health is already pretty crummy.

Congratulations on your weight loss, Stoidela – I’m doing very well myself with just calorie-counting (15 pounds in a month) but I know that will slow down soon, since it always does :frowning:

Off to Amazon to check out “Carbohydrate Addict” …

Catrandom

11

Congratulations on the weight loss. You are correct in focusing on an “eating plan” rather than a diet. When a person goes off a “diet” and back to their normal eating habits, the weight invariably comes back.

I’m glad you are exercising. Way too many people discount the necessity of exercise (especially aerobic) to increase metabolism and fat-burning.

Your experience of cutting back to 1000 calories and still not losing weight is a common one. Without exercise, your body just resets the metabolism to a lower level to account for the decreased caloric input. Not only do you not lose weight, but when you go back to 2500 calories, your body is still burning at a lower level! Double whammy.

It takes at least 3 weeks, and sometimes as much as two months to win the battle with your body’s metabolism, and then it is a continuous effort. For example, when I entered Basic Training, I was about 40 pounds overweight (flab). I was put on the “fat-boy” program which limited fats, sweets, and calories in general. With all the marching, running, running, running, push-ups, (and did I mention running?), I lost a grand total of four punds the first month. I was battling my body’s metabolic set point. The second month, I lost over 30 pounds. I had won the battle.

Unfortunatley, most people give up before they can get thir metabolism readusted. But it is worth it, especially for people who love food. When I consistently run 4 miles a day, I can eat anything. Double bacon cheeseburgers with cheese fries with blue cheese dressing, etc… No weight gain. And this is from someone whose parents are obese (especially father) and who passed all their fat genes down to me.

12

Eating plan…diet…its semantics. Fact is, for me, I am a picky picky picky eater and that is what makes it hard for me to be on a healthy “eating plan” if you prefer. I know what foods are healthy and what foods are not. But I hate almost everything. It is much easier to eat well if you are open to eating lots of different kinds of food. That way you don’t get bored. I could only eat chicken and broccoli so many times before I got sick of it.

Anyhow,as far as the whole carb controversy…if you ask 10 different doctors and nutritionists about this you will probably get 10 different answers. Carb “restricting”, Carb "controlling…again…splitting hairs over the meaning of words. The plan I was on didn’t totally cut carbs out of my diet either, I still ate carbs just as you do now…in certain amounts, at certain times, and in conjunction with certain foods. And as I mentioned, I had success with this plan. I just felt that the “controls” were set a little too low. I started cheating out of boredom probably a month into my new eating plan. And I still lost weight because my eating plan had me more conscious of what I was putting into my body in general. It didn’t blow the whole plan if I ate an exrta serving of carbs every day. This made it seem to me, that it was more a matter of eating healthier in general, rather than focusing so much on one thing. That is the only thing I dislike about specific eating plans, when they single out certain things. Now, I am not going to discount the validity of the Carb Addict Plan because I know nothing about that plan specifically, and I am no expert nutritionist. I just have my own opinions (based on my experiences and research) which lean towards a more holistic approach to eating. If I could only practice what I preach I would be in really good shape. ::sigh::

13

Stoidela, congrats on finding something that works for you! Seems to me that anyone who successfully loses weight usually does it on a plan they enjoy, not a plan that makes them feel like they’re constantly deprived. Low carb may not be for everyone (but nothing is!) but it sure seems to help a lot of people who have had trouble losing weight. Good for you!

14

Well, as I’ve said, I think it’s a 2-part thing with me (and most obese people). Our metabolisms are shot all to hell to begin with from binging and dieting, and we can’t cope with insulin.

By the way, the most effective way to change the RMR (resting metabolic rate) is by building muscle. Muscle is biologically active, and fat is inert. 10 lbs of additional muscle can cause the body to burn up to 900 additional calories daily.

I do the swimming for heart, lungs, and endurance.

H

15

Yeah for you Stoid!

I grew up thinking that potatoes, bread and more bread were the way to eat.Potato chips were just a chaser to the meal. Veggies and salads were always there, but it was the above that were practically IV’d to me. How I grew up and not managed to be 250 pounds amazes my husband. ( If I can say no to my “food pusher” mother, I can say no to a drug dealer or, worse, telemarketer.)

I’ve never been more than 10 pounds off what I consider MY ideal weight ( once real life settled in.) ( If I listened to the idiots who design the weight chart for your height and bone structure, I should be about 115. Yeah, right. Until I hit 125, I always had alot of colds.)When the foundation settled, as I like to say, I have had maybe two colds since then. I consider my ideal weight 130-ish.Emphasizing on the ISH part. It’s just a number.

Anyways, when I had my son, I had 40 pounds to lose but did not worry about it because I was more concerned with breastfeeding him and killing my new and extraodinarily rude (read:Noisy) neighbors. I got back to my prepreggo weight of 140 within 3 months without doing anything other than eating like a horse and breast feeding.However, the molecular structure of the body shifted dramatically and that was a bit annoying, to say the least.I can live with a jiggly belly, but I’d like my tits back where they started, please. I knew after I finished breast feeding,I could not eat like that ( breads breads, pasta and more bread and nachos) all day long. So, I looked into a lower carb program. I’ve never dieted in my life. I read the entire book cover to cover (It’s not Atkins or Carb-busters, it’s…crap, I loaned it (permanently, it seems)…one of the authors is named Mary Dan Something.Sorry, I hate being vague.

I cut down on carbs ( only one sandwich a day ) and ate lots of veggies and meat. I lost an additional ten pounds within two months. Hubby, who is a major carb addict, cut back on regular coke and switched to diet coke and dropped about 8 pounds alone from that. After Baby X arrives and the breastfeeding is over with, I will go back to it. I take an excellent vitamin and drink tons of water everyday, so no need to worry about that department.

Stoid, bravo on the swimming. I love swimming. It is so invigorating.It exhausts you and revitalizes you at the same time.

Since the pool opened in our area, I bought a lap swim pass (about three weeks ago) but with limited energy due to gestating AND having a toddler suck the energy out of me, I haven’t utilized it yet. Tomorrow, toddler free, I am hitting the water for the first time in 6.5 years, then afterwards, I’m sure I’ll go home for a 30000 billion carb meal ( I have a tape worm inside of me called Baby X )and promptly pass out for a nap.