Calorie Counting

[mudskipper]

I switched lunch with pudding to soup and fruit and avoided the choccies and biccies. Worked for me.

Alcohol calories are the killer - if you're drinking a bottle of wine a night, that's 1lb a week.

[Scrag Meister]

So did I 40 odd years ago.

I'm seriously thinking of cutting down on the fava beans.

It's the chianti that is fattening though.

[NigelJK]

Read the original Dr. Atkins Diet book, it a real eye opener.
Did you know that [at the time it was written] there had been precisely 1 scientific study done on Nutrition (in an era when we were/are being bombarded with the food industries obsession with Low fat diets). This was done for HMG on the outbreak of WW2 when it was realised that rationing would need to be introduced. The results were startling.

The question you have to ask yourself is 'Who has most to gain from this Diet?'

Dr. Atkins came up with his Diet because he was a Cardiac Surgeon who could not operate of some of this most critical patients as they were too obese and would most likely die on the table. When he investigated he found the above study and applied its findings. All of the other 'Low Carb' Diets work (and they do work but you have to remember that you are changing the way you eat for the rest of your life) the same way.

It's interesting to note that the good Dr. met huge resistance to his Diet from the food industry, but the statistics are out there now. The FI bulks out all for it's processed foods with refined Carbohydrates as they are cheap, your poor old body, being around 40,000 years old physiologically speaking, gets hooked on them as they are instant energy, but it was designed to break down proteins and fat for energy. Once your body relearns this fact your metabolism stabilises and lots of side issues disappear (like obesity).

The LC Diet has one major flaw (the fact is doesn't actually work isn't it), it's built on the presumption that your body 'burns' your food intake and so the 'burn value' (or Calories as they are known) is important. This is rubbish as any 'O' level biology student will tell you. Without spending all day on this reply just one fact should be illuminating. The Body stores excess energy reserves as fat so that it can break it down to Fatty acids and Carbohydrates. If you don't eat the carbohydrates, then you body breaks down the fat ingested, and if that is not enough then it will start on the reserves.

[NotAllThere]

My normal diet keeps my weight constant - eating when and what I like. The problem comes when I change my normal routine - then I put on weight. To shift that weight, I go low carb for a few months.

Instead of choco-squares for breakfast - have a boiled egg or 2. 78 Calories each and quite filling. Also - cut out sugar in your daily beverages. it doesn't take long to get used to it.

British research showed that is is sugar that has caused the obesity epidemic. This was swamped by US research, sponsored by the food industry, that incorrectly demonised fat. Low fat food = high sugar.

[expat]

One interesting illustration of the fallacy of calorie counting is found in the strain of lab rats called "obese rats". They are genetically obese. If you cut their food supply, they starve to death - while remaining obese.

Yes, calories in = calories out (in all forms), but that's a tautological equality, not a diet plan. Or to put it another way, you don't get fat because you eat too much; you eat too much because your body has decided to get fat.

[RedSauce]

I am 5'10 and currently sitting at my heaviest weight of my life (13st5lb).

Nearly 4 years ago i stopped smoking by reading Allen Carr's book, because i successfully managed to stop smoking with this, i thought i would give his losing weight book a go. He talks about not eating any processed food. I followed this for about 2 months and got down to 11st 7lb. I had never heard of Paleo before, but it sounds similar to what i did before.

Is it worth buying the book or is it as simple as only eating food that you could have hunted or gathered yourself?

[SueEllen]

My normal diet keeps my weight constant - eating when and what I like. The problem comes when I change my normal routine - then I put on weight. To shift that weight, I go low carb for a few months.

Instead of choco-squares for breakfast - have a boiled egg or 2. 78 Calories each and quite filling. Also - cut out sugar in your daily beverages. it doesn't take long to get used to it.

British research showed that is is sugar that has caused the obesity epidemic. This was swamped by US research, sponsored by the food industry, that incorrectly demonised fat. Low fat food = high sugar.

Just to scare you all more the EU is considering allowing food manufacturers to put fructose in foods and allow them to have the low fat label. Linky

Sugar is bad but fructose is what has made Americans obese.

[expat]

Just to scare you all more the EU is considering allowing food manufacturers to put fructose in foods and allow them to have the low fat label. Linky

Sugar is bad but fructose is what has made Americans obese.

Does anyone need more evidence that governments' recommendations should be taken with a pinch of .... well, you know what I mean.

The EU is going to allow food manufacturers to label products as "healthy" if they replace at least 30% of the sugar content with fructose. It is supposedly healthier because it has a lower Glycaemic Index.

Well, in short the GI measures glucose, and fructose has a lower GI because it isn't glucose, it's fructose, duh! (And it is worse than glucose by a long way).

It's a bit like saying that smoking is healthier than tight shoes because smoking doesn't give you blisters on your toes.

[cailin maith]

Slimming World is good. Cooking from scratch with as little in the way of processed stuff is the way to go.

Not sure starting the day with a big bowl of anything "choco" flavoured is a good thing. You might be better with something like Weetabix or All Bran or if you have the time etc something like scrambled eggs.

[RedSauce]

Slimming World is good. Cooking from scratch with as little in the way of processed stuff is the way to go.

Not sure starting the day with a big bowl of anything "choco" flavoured is a good thing. You might be better with something like Weetabix or All Bran or if you have the time etc something like scrambled eggs.

Or fruit, seeds and yoghurt which i am still working out if i can have under Paleo