Rsalazar,
There’s a lot of nonsense about fat and carbohydrate. First the fat. Fat is good. Eating fat does not in itself make you fat. More on this later. One should eat a variety of good fats. Good fats come from butter, meat, fish, and non-grain vegetable oils. Bad fats are from industrial processes used to harden oils into shortening or margarine. These contain the trans fatty acids that have been linked to serious health problems. When your body metabolizes fats for energy, good things happen to your blood chemistry and adipose tissue. Your bad blood lipids and cholesterols drop. Your excess body fat will also reduce.
The key is carbohydrates and the metabolic traffic cop insulin. Insulin processes carbohydrate first and fats second. This means that when you eat sugar and fat, e.g. chocolate, insulin directs your body to use the sugar for energy first. The sugar that doesn’t get used is stored as fat. The fat doesn’t get used for energy and gets stored away as fat. This causes fats and cholesterols to back up in the blood stream with the attendant health issues. Lowering your carbohydrate consumption to a bare minimum can force your body to start using fats, and proteins, for energy. At that point, the fat stored in adipose tissue starts to burn along with the fats you consume.
Insulin is the key. Cutting back on the carb is the only way to force your insulin to bring the fats on line as the energy source. However, there’s more to the story. Years of over consumption of carbohydrates can cause condition called insulin resistance. The excess levels of carbohydrate cause an overload of insulin that tries to keep pace with the carb. The receptor sites in the cell membranes eventually become less receptive to the insulin. This ups the insulin levels even more. At some point, the whole system starts to collapse and you become a type II diabetic. Worse still, chronically high insulin levels are destructive to your vascular system as well as other systems.
If you want to lose weight and keep it off you need to make some major changes to your life. Here are a few:
1. Eliminate all sugar in any form from your diet. This will turn you into a compulsive label reader. This is good. Don’t worry about what other cyclists will tell you about energy and bonking, etc. Your metabolism does not follow those rules. Worry about those things when you are in shape to race.
2. Eliminate grains in any form from your diet. This means wheat flour, oats, corn, etc. The starches from these foods affect you insulin levels in the same way sugar does.
3. Eliminate root vegetables from your diet for the same reason in item 2.
4. Eat green leafy vegetables and other low glycemic vegetables.
5. Berries are the only fruits you should eat. All others contain too much sugar.
6. Eliminate fruit juices. They are of negligible nutritional value and contain as much sugar as soft drinks.
7. Eliminate milk from your diet. A glass of milk has 14 grams of lactose, i.e. sugar.
8. Center your meals on protein sources such as beef, pork, poultry, fish, eggs, cheese, etc. Soy protein is problematical. It comes with some metabolic baggage. Soy and other legumes should be taken in small quantities. Nuts have good fats and protein, but are a little high in carbs. Include some good vegetable matter with lunch and dinner.
9. Be prepared to need extra fiber in your diet. Psyllium husk is great for this. Many other fiber products contain sugar. Read the labels.
10. Limit your total carb consumption to about 40 to 50 grams per day until you reach your desired weight. For this you will have to search for a table that shows the level of carbs in different foods so you can keep track.
11. Don’t starve yourself. If you fight hunger, you will lose every time. If you’re hungry, eat something from the list. Eventually you will learn to self regulate your eating habits. Meals will be more satisfying because of the nutrient density and abundance of protein and good fats. You will be less likely to over eat because you won’t be hungry.
12. Don’t worry about calories. Calories are a measure of heat. They don’t tell you squat about the metabolic processes at work. Diets that require you to count calories are based on starving you to lose weight. That’s why they fail. Hunger always trumps reason.
13. Be careful when you’re in restaurants and dinner parties. Ask to have the high carb items removed from your meal. Stay away from the chips and snacks.
14. When you reach your target weight, you can start to include other low glycemic foods and bump up your daily carb budget in small increments. Keep an eye on the scales and be ready to back off to maintain your weight.
15. Keep exercising. It takes both diet and exercise to stay fit.
16. Every day drink the same number of ounces of water as the number of pounds you need to lose. Hydration is critically important.
17. Expect to be on this program for the rest of your life. You have to be honest with yourself and answer the difficult questions.
This may sound familiar. It’s the Atkins program. It works. It’s based on sound scientific research. The Food Pyramid and diets based on restricting inputs are based on marketing. They make money for the promoters but they ultimately fail. I’ve given you some of the highlights. Read his latest book and go to the chat room
http://www.atkinsfriends.com/chat/java.shtml
There you’ll find answers to every question you can think of and lots of kind support. I’ve been on the program for over a year and I’ve reached my goal of losing 30 pounds and keeping it off.
