Recomendations for diet and exercise.

[NumberSix]

I'm trying to get back in shape and would appreciate any advice and recommendations (websites, youTube, books, etc.). 

[Jinr0h]

I'm trying to get back in shape and would appreciate any advice and recommendations (websites, youTube, books, etc.). 

Hi #6, I have some experience in this. What I found helped me was picking a sport, having a leafy green juice in the morning, being ruthless with carbs ( which all break down into sugar which has been said to lead to inflammation and a number of other complications least of all gut biome changes which can alter your body's ability to create tryptophan [important] ) and most of all being honest with myself. Awareness, acceptance then action.

 

If you accept that you have an issue that you have become aware of it is harder to fool yourself into thinking its ok to start your new diet tomorrow or just have one slice of pizza.

What you need really is a lifestyle change and as with many unhealthy lifestyles it can be difficult to break without introspection and the 3 "A's". I hope that helped, FYI I lost 9 stone and still suffer from knee issues due to being fat growing up so act now.

[fractional slacker]

https://board.freedomainradio.com/topic/38301-physical-exercise-and-its-benefits/?hl=exercise

 

Exercise and diet. Yeah, that stuff is hard. The sociology alternative to working out.
Study feminism, body positive movement, and ableism, so you can instantly shame anyone who suggests you are not perfect the way you are.
Say goodbye to diets, exercise, and society's unrealistic beauty/health expectations. Say hello to you being you, yo!

[Alan C.]

https://www.youtube.com/user/scooby1961

[Bouncelot]

Hi #6, I have some experience in this. What I found helped me was picking a sport, having a leafy green juice in the morning, being ruthless with carbs ( which all break down into sugar which has been said to lead to inflammation and a number of other complications least of all gut biome changes which can alter your body's ability to create tryptophan [important] ) and most of all being honest with myself. Awareness, acceptance then action.

 

If you accept that you have an issue that you have become aware of it is harder to fool yourself into thinking its ok to start your new diet tomorrow or just have one slice of pizza.

What you need really is a lifestyle change and as with many unhealthy lifestyles it can be difficult to break without introspection and the 3 "A's". I hope that helped, FYI I lost 9 stone and still suffer from knee issues due to being fat growing up so act now.

This.

 

Stay away from fad diets, nothing works better then consistent diet and exercise. Not sure where you are, but the Canadian government actually has a very accurate info. http://healthycanadians.gc.ca/recall-alert-rappel-avis/hc-sc/2015/43417a-eng.php

 

A life change is necessary, however don't go overboard, ease into it. Often people get that "high" I am going to re-invent my life! They change too much too fast and either hurt themselves, or rubber-band and claim it is "too hard". Start with consistent exercise that does not push you to any extreme, adjust your eating slightly. Do this daily, and as your comfort grows, move closer and closer to your ideal. It will eventually just become part of who you are.

[Susana]

What does your lifestyle and diet look like right now? And why? is it convenience? habit?

[shirgall]

Gary Taubes http://www.amazon.com/Why-We-Get-Fat-About-ebook/dp/B003WUYOQ6/

 

That being said, if you pick something, pick something you can stick with for a long time without getting discouraged or bored.

[NumberSix]

What does your lifestyle and diet look like right now? And why? is it convenience? habit?

The past 2 years I haven’t worked out much due to lack of time, and my eating habits were, bad.  I was under a lot of stress and ate comfort food.  But now, I’m taking time out and going to get in shape.

[LovePrevails]

[wdiaz03]

The past 2 years I haven’t worked out much due to lack of time, and my eating habits were, bad.  I was under a lot of stress and ate comfort food.  But now, I’m taking time out and going to get in shape.

 

Be aware of passive talk, "lack of time" almost seems like you had less than 24h in a day. Is it more like you chose to spend that time on other things? Did the stress force you into comfort food?

 

You had choices, I say this with all sympathy. but work on the psychology of these choices first and the exercise and dieting will be easier to adopt and sustain. 

 

Best of luck

[Hamish]

I've been interested in nutrition for a few years now (since early 2011) and have found a lot of success with the "ancestral diet" mentality. Its more of a way of thinking than any particular diet. The more popular name for this sort of thing is "Paleo" but in general I avoid that term simply because its a confusing term which often leads to arguments about what paleolithic man did or did not do...

 

Anyway, this guy: http://chriskresser.com/ is pretty awesome to follow. He does a regular podcast about various health issues and runs his own practice (in the bay area in CA). But in general there are loads of great people to follow in this area.

 

I'd actually love to hear Stef and Chris chat together - I suspect there is a decent overlap between audiences.

[Dragomira]

Hey #6,

 

I have been getting serious about my exercise recently and have found body weight exercises to be extremely helpfull. These are simple exercises you can do with little to no equipment anywhere at any time.

A few sources of information I have found:

http://www.startbodyweight.com/

He covers the basics of body weight exercise and some simple progressions. You can start at any fitness level and work your way up (even if you have never done it before).

 

http://www.12minuteathlete.com/

If you are short on time, this might be usefull to you as well. You can do these exercise programs in 12 minutes and be done for the day.

 

I have found the key of good exercise to be consistency: doing it every week or even every day. Once you make a commitment, stick to it (make sure your commitment is realistic, though).

Also, it becomes really easy to exercise if you make yourself want to do it. Not just because it is good for you, but because you want to be healthy and fit more than that extra piece of candy or whatever.

For tips on setting goals, motivating yourself and the self-discipline to execute on your commitments I find http://www.actualized.org/ to be really helpfull.

Hopefully this helps. I wish you the best of luck with your own health and fitness goals.

[VicLo]

Great responses all. I would say in general before giving advice to someone one would need to know what that person's goals are. #6 I am trying to get into shape is a vague goal. For instance this could mean losing weight, building muscle, preparing for a specific sport or any variety thereof. The amount of free information out there for all fitness goals is staggering. It seems even here in

this thread there is a lot of good info.

For general advice I would add find something you don't mind doing. Experiment if you have to. And take it slow as in don't go from out of shape to seven days a week. This seems obvious but the post p90 era encourages people to go hardcore very quickly and then burn out just as fast.

[Eternal Growth]

A lot of people attracted to the ideas of FDR have also, in my experience, been attracted to the paleo diet. The paleo diet people make some good arguments that are grounded in scientific fact and generally not talked about very much by other groups (e.g. about anti-nutrients that are present in grains and legumes) and their analyses of fatty acids and omega 3/6 ratios are very good and important to read for anyone interested in a scientific approach to nutrition, particularly when choosing which sources of fat to include in your diet (and absolutely, absolutely include sources of fat in your diet. Artificially "low fat" or "fat free" foods contribute enormously to obesity, diabetes and other health and well-being problems). As a whole, however, the idea that the way in which people historically ate (which wasn't even a specific diet, but varied enormously between regions and tribes) is somehow automatically better than anything that modern technology can produce or inform us about is fallacious and I have seen a lot of bad thinking coming out of that community next to the good points that are raised.

 

My favourite website on nutrition is http://www.whfoods.com/ - they justify all of their claims with scientific research, and promote a varied, balanced diet of whole foods without falling into either the veg(etari)an dogma of "avoid all animal products" or the paleo dogma of "avoid all grains/legumes". There is also http://nutritionfacts.org/ which contains a lot of well-substantiated nutritional advice.

[BaylorPRSer]

Eat plants and animals. Develop discipline with your cravings and eat sugar as little as possible. Cutting down on cabs has also been linked to improved immune system/mental function. Exercise, all I can say is establish your goals first. If you want to put up big numbers, research strength programs and get on one. If your goals are purely cosmetic, then get on a body building program. If you're exercising purely for immune system/mental function, then there are other health experts with insight about that.

Carbs*.

[NumberSix]

My # 1 goal is losing weight.  I used to play rugby, and have the typical rugby player physique, except its covered in fat :-(  I'm already very muscular, except for my biceps because I never hit the weights that hard.

[Susana]

1. EAT organic and Fresh! basically get used to stuffing your face with dark leafy greens. Easiest way to do this is go to the farmers market and spend $20-@30 on Kale or something leafy green you like. This will be a HUGE amount, and your fridge will be full. Cook it up with an easy saute receipe and personally garlic is great! so saute aka fire on medium~high no teflon,aka (Olive Oil or better coconut oil or anything even olive oil and butter)  or anything you look up online and eat this for a few days/meals in a row. (Also a good cooking trick is after a quick saute to add water/chicken stock and put on the top for 5 mins to Steam it) Eat the leafy greens for just one meal you will feel the energy right away of being so filled with nutrients its interesting to actuall feel nourished you start to crave nutrition versus the poisen being served nowdays with a side of stress. But anyways fill a big huge mixing bowl or even just the pot you used! ahha and Forks or Chopsticks. Yum

 

Recommendations: 

           Food Babe [.]com website.

           John cousdljf(sp) Growing your Greens videos on youtube. 

          NaturalNews.com

          Global Healing Center blog

          Youtube videos: Health Ranger, Dr. Group, 

Working out search for food you want to eat and follow those trainers. Like "homemade protein bar" or whatever it is you like to eat. I also have a playlist I made of gardening and yummy vegan recipes. https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLgWTUfR9Yg88EqaLYXdQGnP5Oi5-owiZT

 

I dident get a chance to finish my response when I first saw this but this is what I would say!

 

1. Start growing! Its summertime so it will be so easy. A huge bag of organic potting mix at home depot is $10-15 and thats all you need to start! Then either plant a seed, etsy has tons of organic heirloom etc for just a few dollars for seeds. OR just look online how to plant something you happen to have left over from eating that you like. Or

just get a little potted plant and use the dirt to replant in a larger pot for container gardening! a quick start, Dont forget to water it after a replant. Also if "you dont have a green thumb" get an Aerogaren, super cute and sign up they always have specials on the prices and its 0 0 0 work, and it grows so much food so well. 

 

 

 

Anyways good luck! oh and Definitely you should do cleanses of your body to feel lighter and loose weight rapidly and healthly cuz the toxins and crap goes first. The best are Dr. Group Global Healing Center with OxygenCleaningPowderPills and the rest of the cleaneses. But without doing that since the start of time people have know that fasting is needed and cleanses the body soul etc. So........This includes all exercise, yoga, walking, swimming, stretching but mostly its drinking pure water

so distilled water gallons from the store $1 plus organic (likes to Bragg about it) Apple cider Vinegar $9 all week. Citrus is the best for the AM, fresh oranges from a tree and other trees. Then dark leafy greens and organic beans and nuts/fruit trees or better yet a garden or greenhouse

Or eat whatever you want

[J. D. Stembal]

Abel James in the best podcaster in the business as of late.His guests cover a wide variety of areas of health, wellness, and fitness.

 

He's too fucking pretty, though. I want to get into an underground bare-knuckle boxing match with him.

 

[fractional slacker]

This mini-fasting strategy is something I have practiced for decades.  It's been good to me.  I abhor the idea of dietary restrictions and eat lots of "junk food." My weight has remained stable.

http://www.healthline.com/health-news/changing-when-you-eat-could-help-you-lose-weight-120214#4

[NumberSix]

Hello, to update, I've lost 17 pounds so far.  For my diet, I'm mainly cutting back on eating and avoiding carbs and sugar. For exercise mostly walking with some running and weight lifting.  Still haven't figured out what to do long term.  Thanks for the support everyone. I hope to have a non-philosophical six pack one day. 

[shirgall]

Hello, to update, I've lost 17 pounds so far.  For my diet, I'm mainly cutting back on eating and avoiding carbs and sugar. For exercise mostly walking with some running and weight lifting.  Still haven't figured out what to do long term.  Thanks for the support everyone. I hope to have a non-philosophical six pack one day. 

 

Great job!

[MagnumPI]

I always found good results going through 'popworkouts.com' and the like. Routines that have a proven and observable record, on celebrities. Or even just to pick things from fit people's routines. Like Bruce Lee got mad forearms lats, The Rock is big, etc. And they're usually more structured than a lot of what's out there coming direct from trainers and fitness professionals because they just have to work, now.

[cobra2411]

Just remember that you can't outrun a bad diet... 

 

You do not need exercise to loose weight, although it does have many benefits. I am a fan of interval type training and for running one of my favorites to get back in shape is couch to 5k simply known as C25K.

[BD91]

The Rock is big, etc.

 

Understatement of the century. The Rocks' traps look like they're trying to tell his ears a secret.

[Guest Gee]

Portion size.

But introduce richer foods and flavours, you'll naturally eat less whilst enjoying the food more.

 

Consistancy.

But don't build everything into a do or die drama, you need to be consistantly good not sparadically perfect.

 

Try to raise the value of the exersize (not sure how to put this).

If you have a family and socal circile etc maybe make this all about you, something you do alone to be alone.

Else if not for sure consider a group/club enviroment.

Else consider picking an event based goal and turning the exersize into training.

 

Oh yeah, maybe start a thread in user projects where you talk about whats going on, write down some goals and your projess/update/journal as you progress and some of the stuff you've picked up on the way etc.

That way you can make it more, i guess real, but also accountable, but in a good way because you know the people here will be supportive of your goals and encourage you to suceceed, not to mention help you stay on the wagon if things get rough for a while.

 

Congrats on the 17lb!

[cobra2411]

Portion size.

But introduce richer foods and flavours, you'll naturally eat less whilst enjoying the food more.

 

 

Bah, portion size, calories in - calories out, eat less - exercise more, and all those other similar memes have no basis in science. A calorie is simply how much heat is expended when you burn said item. It has never been shown to be the same in the body. Lastly, the average person gains 50 lbs between 25 and 50, or about 2lbs a year. That's overeating by about 3 potato chips per day. There is no way to control energy intake to that degree. In other words calories in - calories out is so oversimplified it fails. It has also been shown there is no correlation between exercise and weight loss. 

 

Hello, to update, I've lost 17 pounds so far.  For my diet, I'm mainly cutting back on eating and avoiding carbs and sugar. For exercise mostly walking with some running and weight lifting.  Still haven't figured out what to do long term.  Thanks for the support everyone. I hope to have a non-philosophical six pack one day. 

 

That is the key. Get rid of the refined and processed foods. Not cut back, get rid of. At least for best results. 

 

 

1. EAT organic and Fresh! basically get used to stuffing your face with dark leafy greens. 

I let cows transform those dark, leafy greens into something wonderful to eat... Steak

 

Ok, jokes aside, humans have more in common digestively with carnivores than we do herbivores. A shorter, more acidic digestive tract, lack of ability to ferment cellulosic foods, mouths and teeth designed to cut and rip vs grind our food, the list goes on. There are no essential carbohydrates, but without fat and protein we'd be dead.

 

As for organic and all that nonsense it's nothing but marketing BS. There is no evidence that organic foods are better than their conventionally grown counterparts. Pesticides are still used for example, but unlike the synthetic ones that are used on conventional foods, organic foods use "natural" pesticides that haven't been studied nearly as much as the synthetic ones. 

 

A lot of people attracted to the ideas of FDR have also, in my experience, been attracted to the paleo diet. The paleo diet people make some good arguments that are grounded in scientific fact and generally not talked about very much by other groups (e.g. about anti-nutrients that are present in grains and legumes) and their analyses of fatty acids and omega 3/6 ratios are very good and important to read for anyone interested in a scientific approach to nutrition, particularly when choosing which sources of fat to include in your diet (and absolutely, absolutely include sources of fat in your diet. Artificially "low fat" or "fat free" foods contribute enormously to obesity, diabetes and other health and well-being problems). As a whole, however, the idea that the way in which people historically ate (which wasn't even a specific diet, but varied enormously between regions and tribes) is somehow automatically better than anything that modern technology can produce or inform us about is fallacious and I have seen a lot of bad thinking coming out of that community next to the good points that are raised.

 

My favourite website on nutrition is http://www.whfoods.com/ - they justify all of their claims with scientific research, and promote a varied, balanced diet of whole foods without falling into either the veg(etari)an dogma of "avoid all animal products" or the paleo dogma of "avoid all grains/legumes". There is also http://nutritionfacts.org/ which contains a lot of well-substantiated nutritional advice.

Paleo in its most general sense is a move away from the processed, refined foods that exist now. Those artificially low fat / fat free foods are typically enhanced with sugar or similar to improve taste. Also, many boxed foods are short on fiber which slows down the absorption of sugar because your body has to digest around the fiber to release the sugar. 

 

Be careful when you read those studies, many have an agenda and it's easy to get swept up in "the study says". As an example, many vegetarian studies only study vegetarian vs non-vegetarian. Vegetarians, by virtue of eliminating a whole group of foods that they deem unhealthy are eating a health conscious diet. The non-vegetarians include those that think twinkies and ho-ho's are valid nutritional sources. In one recent study I saw the rate of type 2 diabetes among the non-vegetarian group was 50%. I firmly believe that overindulgence in insulinogenic foods leads to most cases of type 2 diabetes. With no mention of what they ate other than "non-vegetarian" the conclusion drawn wasn't that vegetarians were healthier, but that those eating a health conscious diet were healthier. Also, it was a study on heart disease and the vegetarian group was in a younger age bracket than the non-vegetarian group, but no age adjustment was done. Statistically the older group is almost 100% more likely to have a coronary event than the younger group simply because of their age. The non-vegetarian group's risk for CHD was only 36% greater, much lower than what their age would suggest it should be. But it was circulated as yet more proof that a vegetarian diet is the way to go... When studies are done that compare two healthy eating styles, say paleo and vegetarianism, the outcomes of both groups are similar.  

 

My advice? Eat meat, drink water. If it's from the animal kingdom it's fair game. Eat when you're hungry, stop when you're full. Drink water when thirsty, stop when satisfied. We're still having issues with macro-nutrients, there's no need to worry about fine tuning micro-nutrients IMO. Milks and cheeses should be limited, but can be eaten and anything plant based should be avoided.

 

Exercise if you want to. There are plenty of health benefits to exercise, but weight loss isn't one of them. I lost 30+ pounds sitting on the couch watching Dr Who reruns. Of course after I lost the weight I wanted to move and started running. 

 

Don't want to eat meat? Fine, eat foods that have the lowest impact on your blood sugar. I'd also recommend eating eggs because they're packed full of nutrition. Vegans, and to some degree vegetarians who don't supplement have nutritional deficiencies. If you eat food that is full of nutrients your body will be able to take what it needs and eliminate the rest. 

[thebeardslastcall]

It has also been shown there is no correlation between exercise and weight loss. 

 

I lost my excess fat weight when I was doing little to no exercise while eating a high carbohydrate diet and then when I started exercising again I added weight (muscle) and now that I exercise regularly and continue to eat lots my weight is fairly steady. I agree that it isn't simply about calories in and out. What you eat matters a great deal as fat and excess water in the body are generally diluting agents for toxins in the food as opposed to simply due to excessive calories, including excess salt (water retention), that the body isn't able to eliminate yet (usually because you keep eating more toxins).

 

I would also like to add that telling people to avoid carbohydrates and sugars is very imprecise and generally bad advice because it fails to make the critical distinction between refined and unrefined sugars. Eating 100g of carbs/sugar in whole fruit and eating 100g of sugars in a glazed donut are totally different. Fruits have lots of healthy nutrients and their sugars are healthy compared to unhealthy refined sugars and other refined food products that create tons of health problems. Many studies cited by news articles fail to make this distinction and are very misleading.

[BD91]

I lost my excess fat weight when I was doing little to no exercise while eating a high carbohydrate diet and then when I started exercising again I added weight (muscle) and now that I exercise regularly and continue to eat lots my weight is fairly steady. I agree that it isn't simply about calories in and out. What you eat matters a great deal as fat and excess water in the body are generally diluting agents for toxins in the food as opposed to simply due to excessive calories, including excess salt (water retention), that the body isn't able to eliminate yet (usually because you keep eating more toxins).

 

I would also like to add that telling people to avoid carbohydrates and sugars is very imprecise and generally bad advice because it fails to make the critical distinction between refined and unrefined sugars. Eating 100g of carbs/sugar in whole fruit and eating 100g of sugars in a glazed donut are totally different. Fruits have lots of healthy nutrients and their sugars are healthy compared to unhealthy refined sugars and other refined food products that create tons of health problems. Many studies cited by news articles fail to make this distinction and are very misleading.

 

This, and not to mention that fruits have naturally occurring fibers that prevent a complete uptake of all the sugars in the fruit.

[cobra2411]

 including excess salt (water retention), 

 

I would also like to add that telling people to avoid carbohydrates and sugars is very imprecise and generally bad advice because it fails to make the critical distinction between refined and unrefined sugars. Eating 100g of carbs/sugar in whole fruit and eating 100g of sugars in a glazed donut are totally different. Fruits have lots of healthy nutrients and their sugars are healthy compared to unhealthy refined sugars and other refined food products that create tons of health problems. Many studies cited by news articles fail to make this distinction and are very misleading.

 

Will the salt myth ever die? Salt is bad for you usually stems from the DASH study which reduced salt AND sugar/fructose consumption. Salt, or more speficically sodium, is an essential electrolyte that regulates among other things fluid into and out of sells. If your serum sodium levels get too low, fluid will move out of your bloodstream into tissue and cause edema. 

 

Glycogen, a storage of glucose, requires 3-4 times its volume of water to support healthy function in the body. As your body stores glycogen it is normal and healthy for it to retain more fluid. This is part of the reason behind the rapid weight loss that low carb dieters enjoy. Stop eating carbs and your body consumes all the stored glycogen and thus doesn't need to maintain as much fluid. This also explains weight gain when stopping a low carb diet. All totally normal responses. 

 

When I speak of diet I usually come from the angle of dealing with problems. Humans have the ability to eat an incredible diversity of foods, but some foods are abusive. Eaten occasionally our bodies can handle it. Eaten repetitively they can't. It just may take years to show symptoms of that abuse and by then nobody is looking at what you've eaten for the last 10 years, they want to know what's changed recently. I view obesity as a symptom of an underlying metabolic disease. 

 

So... Back to the good carbs / bad carbs argument. Since there are no essential carbohydrates, and they all digest as glucose in the body, I say there are no good carbohydrates. Fruits and sugar are especially bad because they also contain fructose which is digested along similar pathways to alcohol and can be abusive to the liver. Alcohol has a nice way of telling you that you're overdoing it - you fall down... Fructose doesn't have that and with juices and other refined products that remove fiber there's not even any buffer.

 

I agree with you that many studies fail to mention some key piece of information and thus become very misleading. Take the refined grains vs whole grains. Avoidance of grains was never studied and in my opinion would show a vast improvement in health over either of the grains. Yet people are left feeling that they've done something healthy when they order a sandwich on whole wheat.  

 

[thebeardslastcall]

Will the salt myth ever die? Salt is bad for you usually stems from the DASH study which reduced salt AND sugar/fructose consumption. Salt, or more speficically sodium, is an essential electrolyte that regulates among other things fluid into and out of sells. If your serum sodium levels get too low, fluid will move out of your bloodstream into tissue and cause edema. 

 

Glycogen, a storage of glucose, requires 3-4 times its volume of water to support healthy function in the body. As your body stores glycogen it is normal and healthy for it to retain more fluid. This is part of the reason behind the rapid weight loss that low carb dieters enjoy. Stop eating carbs and your body consumes all the stored glycogen and thus doesn't need to maintain as much fluid. This also explains weight gain when stopping a low carb diet. All totally normal responses. 

 

I'm not sure how saying sodium is essential has anything to do with consuming excess salt by eating added refined salt outside of whole foods. Are you suggesting we should all be pouring (lots of?) salt on all of our foods? I'm not sure what you're talking about or suggesting. Of course you need to eat foods with a sufficient level of sodium to be healthy. Are you saying all whole foods are deficient in sodium and eating refined salt as an additive is necessary to have sufficient levels or that there isn't a significant risk of over-consumption of salt when using it as an additive?

 

I don't see what it has to do with what I said. Excess water retention for toxin dilution doesn't mean your body doesn't need lots of water in general and won't store it for standard purposes. You also make it sound like you use up all your glycogen storage simply by not eating carbs and that it remains depleted.

 

So... Back to the good carbs / bad carbs argument. Since there are no essential carbohydrates, and they all digest as glucose in the body, I say there are no good carbohydrates. Fruits and sugar are especially bad because they also contain fructose which is digested along similar pathways to alcohol and can be abusive to the liver. 

 

Sounds like you're saying carbs are needed for glycogen storage and carbs are bad, so no glycogen storage is a good thing to you? You talk about glycogen like it's a toxin that is diluted resulted in weight gain when you eat carbs and weight loss when you don't eat carbs. Do you think glycogen is a toxin and is bad? Have you ever run a race with depleted glycogen levels before? What do you think your brain runs on? You think people who eat a lot of fruit are damaging their livers without realizing it? I don't know what you are talking about as I've studied nutrition and you aren't making much sense to me, please explain.

 

I agree with you that many studies fail to mention some key piece of information and thus become very misleading. Take the refined grains vs whole grains. Avoidance of grains was never studied and in my opinion would show a vast improvement in health over either of the grains. Yet people are left feeling that they've done something healthy when they order a sandwich on whole wheat.  

 

 

Yeah one of the big problems with most studies is they have no useful baseline or control. They almost always use a really unhealthy baseline for comparison, which makes the study rather worthless to someone who wants to eat healthy. Toxin B being worse than Toxin A then has them recommending Toxin A and tells you nothing of what isn't a toxin as is good to eat or they may do the "Everyone in our diet eats Toxin B,Product C dilutes Toxin B, so people who consume more C are healthier and C is good for you!" except that on a healthy diet without Toxin B, C would be bad for you.

[NotDarkYet]

The Bible of health for me:

 

 

1. Diet is WAY more important than exercise to your weight.  

2. Low-ish carb.

3. High-ish protein

4. Get your heart rate past 150 three times a week to FEEL happy.

[shirgall]

Having a plan is better than no plan. Therefore, the answer to "recommendations for diet and exercise" is "yes, have both."

[cobra2411]

I don't know what you are talking about as I've studied nutrition and you aren't making much sense to me, please explain.

 

**Your quotes are in bold/italics with my responses below.**

 

" including excess salt (water retention)"

 

That's a vague description and I assumed you were following the salt is bad meme. There is no scientific evidence that supports the idea that a person is healthier by restricting salt or that excess salt causes fluid retention. However, it has been shown that excessive restriction of salt is bad for you. I'm sure there is some amount of salt that could be consumed to cause fluid retention, but in studies where the consumption was as much as 2 to 4 times the recommended amount, fluid retention wasn't seen. Too little salt however can cause edema as fluid moves out of the bloodstream into tissue. 

 

"Are you suggesting we should all be pouring (lots of?) salt on all of our foods?"

 

No, just that salt doesn't lead to fluid retention and should not be avoided. There is also no reason to consume an excess of salt. The current guidelines are not medically sound and were based on a flawed study. Salt to taste and enjoy. 

 

"You also make it sound like you use up all your glycogen storage simply by not eating carbs and that it remains depleted."

 

Yes, it does as long as you continue to not eat carbs. Once you cease eating carbs it takes about 3 days to deplete all glycogen stores. It takes 1-3 weeks to sufficiently adapt to using fat vs carbs, so there is a little time where you are run down and feel like crap. After that adaption your body will make all the glucose you need and muscles will feed directly off of fat stores. 

 

"Sounds like you're saying carbs are needed for glycogen storage"

 

When you eat carbs your body burns what it can, refills glycogen storage and converts the rest to fat. That's normal for a carb based diet. Without carbs, glycogen gets depleted and the body converts to run directly off fat.

 

"Have you ever run a race with depleted glycogen levels before?"

 

Yes. In fact, studies have been done showing that fat oxidation levels in no carb runners are almost twice what they are for carb fueled runners. Just don't try it while you're adapting. 

 

"You talk about glycogen like it's a toxin that is diluted resulted in weight gain when you eat carbs and weight loss when you don't eat carbs. Do you think glycogen is a toxin and is bad?"

 

Not glycogen exactly, glucose. Do I think it's toxic in itself? No, but the food that we eat can be toxic, even if we don't immediately see the damage. High levels of glucose in the blood is bad.  High levels of insulin is also bad. When glucose is released into the bloodstream via digestion the body releases insulin to control it. The more glucose the body has to deal with, the more insulin is released. After a while your body will develop a tolerance and require more insulin to achieve the same result. You may even reach the point that you can not produce enough insulin and blood sugar levels become elevated - type 2 diabetes. 

 

Insulin, among other things, is a fat storage hormone. Higher levels of insulin typically result in higher levels of stored fat, but not always. There are thin people who suffer from metabolic disorders like insulin resistance. High blood sugar kills you today, so insulin is a good thing in a way. High insulin levels kill you later. Biologically we just need to survive long enough to reproduce and raise our offspring to be self sufficient. High insulin levels will allow us to do that although we might not live to see grandkids. High carb diets can be tolerated for years, and for some they never have problems. For others problems will appear later on in life and I feel high carb diets lead to heart disease, cancer, and other diseases. 

The latest studies on coronary artery disease; studies which I agree with, show that thickening of the arteries is the most likely leading cause for plaque buildup and blockages. As the arteries thicken they can't oxygenate and will go through neovascularization and create new capillaries in the arterial wall. These are easily damaged. Cholesterol is used like a scab to protect them, but it cuts off the flow of oxygen once again and new capillaries have to be formed. Wash, rinse and repeat till the artery is blocked. Studies as far back as the 60's on insulin showed that, in animals at least, insulin caused the arteries to thicken. 

 

Elevated insulin leads to thickening arteries leads to neovascularization leads to plaque buildup leads to heart disease. What causes elevated insulin levels? A diet rich in insulinogenic foods. That's mostly refined carbs. Since you don't need carbs, if you are suffering from insulin resistance or any similar metabolic disease I feel it's best to simply avoid them all together. Also, I view obesity as a symptom of a metabolic disease, not as a separate disease. 

 

"What do you think your brain runs on?"

 

Current science says that our brain needs a small amount of glucose. I'm not sure I buy that completely, but I don't have enough to refute it. Either way our bodies are quite capable of synthesising the needed glucose absent dietary glucose. There is no need to eat carbs to fuel the brain. I have gone months eating absolutely no carbs with no problems and I know people who have gone years. One person I know of ate no carbs for over 50 years with no ill effects. Your brain needing carbs is just more bunk science. 

 

"You think people who eat a lot of fruit are damaging their livers without realizing it?"

 

I specifically stated that fructose can be abusive to the liver, not that fruit is abusive to the liver. Sugar is 50/50 glucose/fructose and high fructose corn syrup is 55% fructose. Fruit juices remove the buffer that actual fruit has - fiber, and thus they digest more rapidly. It is very easy to consume excess fructose and damage your liver over time. I know that personally as I once suffered from non-alcoholic fatty liver due to a diet of excess fructose, among other things. 

 

 

My point behind all this is that the human body is incredibly adapted at eating less than perfect diets. For many people eating carbs isn't a problem. My personal belief, based on studying diet and nutrition for the past 7 years to fix my own problems, is that we don't need carbs. If you are suffering from any metabolic disease, including insulin resistance, then you should not continue to eat carbs. I view obesity as a symptom of metabolic disease and believe carbs should be eliminated to address the most likely cause of the metabolic disease. I disagree that there are any carbs you should eat for their benefits as I believe that the harm they do outweighs any possible benefit.

[shirgall]

You have to short yourself 7,000 calories to lose a pound, not 3500...

 

http://www.runnersworld.com/weight-loss/biggest-weight-loss-myth-revealed

[Pelafina]

My advice is to listen to Cobra.  He knows what he's talking about.  I've been doing the ketogenic diet for 6 months now and have had amazing results with weigh loss and energy levels.  Body pains and inflammation is completely gone too.