The FitDay Experiment
Apart from times when I’ve been tracking Weight Watchers points, I haven’t really been in the habit of tracking my eating. And I found myself becoming curious about exactly what I was eating—how many calories, how many grams of protein, vitamins, etc. So I signed up for a free account on FitDay, a site that my friend Nonk had once mentioned. And it’s totally fascinating.
The first day I did it, I looked at the little pie chart showing what percentage of my calories come from fat, protein, and carbs. And I realized I had no idea what I was looing at! I had 49% carbs, 29% fat, 21% protein… was that good? I asked La Wade, who gave me this very useful information:
The USDA recommendations for protein are that it should be 10-35% of calories, which is probably on the high side given the influence of the meat industry. They say fat should be 20-35% of calories (although again, I think somewhat lower than that is probably totally fine) so 49% of calories from carbohydrates is smack in the middle of USDA guidelines.
After doing it for a while, I can tell you that I eat pretty well, in general—a ton of fruits and veggies, complex carbs, that sort of thing. I also noticed that other than Vitamins D and B-12, I get all my vitamins in every day. One day I got 93 grams of protein without eating any meat at all—I guess between the yogurt, the milk, and the fortified grains, all that protein adds up.
I also made a couple of small changes in my diet. One day, I had 44% of my calories from fat, because I’d had my favorite veggie sandwich from the deli across the street. The thing is, there’s half an avocado on that sandwich. That’s not the problem–it’s that once I put mayo on the sandwich, it skews the entire pie chart all to hell. I’ve been having the same sandwich with mustard only or with balsamic vinegar. The avocado is still creamy and full of fat, so I haven’t really lost anything in terms of flavor—and it makes a big difference in the fat and calorie content of that sandwich! (To clarify this point, I eat a moderate-fat diet to avoid gallbladder issues.)
Also according to the program, I burn 3,200 calories a day, but I eat in the 1,800-2,500 calorie range. That makes me think I really don’t burn 3,200 calories at all, so I don’t know about that statistic. Anyway, a couple of my other friends mentioned that programs like FitDay contribute to an unhealthy obsession with food on their parts. I can see that, for sure. But so far I’ve just found it really interesting. And it’s taken the residual guilt out of a lot of foods that I always thought were “bad,” like that perfectly healthy veggie sandwich. I eat well! I’m doing okay!
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I think this is a very healthy sort of exercise to undertake every once in a while –checking in, so to speak. My only caveat is that I wouldn’t base my nutritional info on the FDA food pyramid, which is heavily influenced by special interests/food lobbies.
Instead, I suggest you take a look at the food pyramid developed by Harvard Med physician Dr. Walter Willett. Much more sensible. You can find it here, with an explanation of why it’s better than the FDA version.
http://www.hsph.harvard.edu/nutritionsource/pyramids.html
I’ve used this off and on ever since I had weight loss surgery. It helps me keep track of what I eat and where all my macronutrients are. I love the little pie chart – mmmmmm, pie!
Hey! This is so timely! I just started tracking my food on dailyplate.com a couple weeks ago. They do the same thing with the pie chart. I kept wondering what the recommendations were because the numbers were so out of context.
Here’s my question for the lovely ladies and gentlemen of this fine site:
Does anyone know what the daily recommendations are for vegetarians? I’m sure it’s similar but I have a feeling not exactly the same. Or maybe it is. Any ideas??
I eat eggs but not meat or other dairy so I try to eat a lot of beans and delicious tofu. Some days I feel like I’m not doing a good job but I think it all pans out ok.
Does anyone have any ideas?
I’m using fitday to track my nutrient intake for a project in my nutrition class. I actually used it before when I was still dieting and it’s great to compare how I ate then with how I eat as a more intuitive eater. I actually have almost identical ratios of fat/carb/protein.
B12 is super important, but you also store it. I think I’ve read that if you’re a meat eater who suddenly stops getting any dietary sources of B12, it will generally take 2-3 years to get through all your stores.
Lemon drop,
Right now, the RDAs are all the same afaik. However, there is some interesting research out there that suggests, for example, non-sedentary veg*ns might need a lot less calcium (animal protein seems to take more calcium from the bones than plant protein does) but we also might need a bit more iron since a lot of the iron we do eat is less bio-available. Mainly, if you’re eating a varied diet, you don’t really need to worry. I just find this stuff fascinating.
You can also check out the vegetarian resource group
http://www.vrg.org/nutrition/
so we—-the royal—-like fitday?
I fear it would make me an OBSESSIVE MizFit.
(ps:
Vegetarians should eat 3 servings per day of non-meat proteins, such as nuts, beans, milk, eggs, cottage cheese, cheese, etc.)
I used Fitday for a few months a few years ago, and my results were really similar to yours – 1800-2500 calories a day, really well balanced, and all the vitamins and minerals I need. I also supposedly need to eat some much larger amount to maintain my weight, but if I actually ate that much, I’d gain. Not that I’d want to eat 3500 calories a day or whatever it was. I eat plenty now. I’m definitely not going hungry.
I have never tried Fitday or anything else like that. But some of my friends at largeplace.com have used it. Although most of them are unsuccessful. But it’s really interesting. I don’t know if I want to use it.
I’m diabetic (T1), so I use a program like this because it takes some of the guesswork out of insulin dosage. I worry sometimes that it will trigger some disordered behavior – but as a diabetic, I feel like I’m always dancing on the brink of that, because I have to account for every damn thing I put in my mouth (and if I don’t, then I have to deal with high blood sugar.) Despite that, I think it has helped me eat in more of a balanced way – I don’t worry about percentages too much, day to day – but if I notice I’ve been really low on protein for a couple of days, I might make chicken or something. So I feel like it does help me make sure I’m getting balance. But especially when it comes to fats – I figure if it’s healthy fats (like avocado! or nuts! or olive oil!) I don’t care if it’s 50% of my nutrients. Anyway, as with everything – I don’t think it’s particularly great or evil in and of itself, but it’s what you make of it.
That makes me think I really don’t burn 3,200 calories at all,
Probably not. That’s an estimate based on your height, weight, gender, and approximate activity level, right? That’s not going to be accurate, because metabolism depends on so many other things – heavily on genetics, but also body composition (muscle burns more calories than fat), food intake (your metabolism generally speeds up or slows down to adjust itself to how many calories you’re taking in) and eating history (long periods of starvation can disrupt your metabolism).
It is the same for vegetarians, though calcium (and I personally suspect zinc) are skewed towards omnis (not that they would admit that). And I’m vegan and just need to supplement with D and B-12. A brazil nut takes care of selenium.
Lots and lots of greens will give you lots of awesomeness.
So I’m confused. It took the guilt out of your veggie sandwich, but it also made you change what you put on the sandwich so that your pie chart would show less fat intake? Is “taking the guilt out” the same as “taking the mayo off”?
i wondered that too, fj.
Count me as another asking that same question, Fillyjonk.
Sounds like Fitday, while perhaps not an obsession for you, has started you thinking about how good it is to restrict your eating so the numbers look “good.”
Which kind of freaks me out when you are relating it to not feeling guilty about food.
I’ve been using fit day off and on for several years off and on and I have to say it drives me cuckoo bananas. I can never find exactly the foods I am looking for in the listings, so I have to custom add almost everything I eat. Then I can never tweak the servings and the percentages quite right and it winds up reading that I did something weird like eat 12 pounds of mashed potatoes for lunch.
Hey, Fillyjonk, The Rotund, lay off her back. She feels good about what she is doing, so who are you to make her feel like she’s being a bad person by doing it? Let her feel awesome; she deserves it.
I started to use FitDay just before my diet turned disordered and then I used it faithfully all throughout my disorder. I’ve used it since recovering, but I find I don’t have the time nor the motivation to keep it up every day. Plus, I’ve already memorized the nutritional information for an inordinate amount of food so I already inherently know this stuff.
I didn’t really know what calories were until my early 20s, so I found FitDay to be very helpful in teaching me about basic nutrition. The fact that I became obsessed with the numbers doesn’t mean that you or anyone else necessarily will also become unhealthily obsessed with it. Still, I found that I had to input a lot of custom foods, because the products I ate didn’t match up to the nutritional information for the food items in FitDay’s database.
I think what Monique means about feeling guilty about foods is that foods we’re led to believe are “sinful” or “bad” really do contain valid nutritional benefits and Fitday helps people to see this. In these cases, I think it actually encourages a dismantling of the whole “good” foods versus “bad” foods rhetoric we’re constantly bombarded with, because we can then see how these “bad” foods really aren’t so bad after all.
Fitday is also recommended as a way of food journaling. For many people who struggle with disordered eating or emotional eating, it can be helpful to keep track of exactly what it is you consume in a day. You can also input notes each day to reflect your feelings on why you ate what you did, etc… Like all things, it has the potential to be abused, but it also has the potential to be constructive – it all depends on the motivations of the person using the software.
Hey, why don’t we just hook up Mo to a guilt detector and see if she’s really feeling guilty?
I refused ti deal with any type of program like fitday. It made me obsessive—just like the scale. While most of my fellow WLSers use it religiously I have just used it sparingly over the past 4 years to make sure I keep my fat intake high enough.
I follow a very high fat, carb restricted, and higher protein intake (70% fat, 100gms protein) way of eating to help keep my brain and body at peak performance.
I’ve recently learned WLSers only absorb 25-50% of the nutrients they consume. So I am probably going to have to start monitoring myself with a program like this. I just hope it doesn’t end up triggering an obsession with it.
As far as these programs go–for a free program fitday is good. But I much prefer Calorie King —-along with their recipe database—they even have a palm program to monitor diabetes.
I was using thedailyplate before I found FA, and I absolutely can not use those kinds of tools; for me it just leads to dangerous places. I would start off leaving the mayo off that sandwich, and soon would abandon the avocado and the bread as well. And then heck, if I’m eating veggies I might as well at them plain and raw and skip breakfast.
Hopefully this isn’t the path that most people go down, but I do think for a lot of people tools like this are just another way to obsess about eating perfectly.
I’m currently reading The Zone, and it’s pretty interesting, with a lot of science backing up the plan. I’m not following their system to the letter (because dear god, it’s incredibly specific and OCD), but one thing has helped me tremendously – putting in a higher percentage of protein. I’m a lot closer to 1/3 each for protein/fat/carb, and I’m functioning a ton better… better energy, more emotional stability, better able to work out.
Not to say that’s what’s right for everyone, because my body chemistry’s pretty wonky (which is why I was looking for alternative eating plans to begin with, to make it so I *didn’t* have to eat every hour to two hours), but I’m finding that for me at least, the “generally accepted” balance of protein/fat/carb isn’t the healthiest for me.
Oh my — this is frustrating! The USDA pyramid and the Harvard pyramid are still recommending tons of grain and little protein or fat. I’m afraid Gary Taubes book has completely ruined me, and I may not even want to keep visiting the site. :(
Just to give you context, I abandoned decades of grain and bean-based low-fat vegtarianism and am eating a tradition diet based on the weston price program. The diet you describe Mo, is exactly what I used to eat.
To modify a sandwich so that it has less fat isn’t healthier according to science. Real mayo (not soy or sugary mayo) is good for you. Please, please don’t do that. You need fat to think, repair nerves, to be healthy.
Oh dear.
FJ, et al, what’s the problem with seeing that you’re getting too much fat in your diet and adjusting accordingly? I can understand if someone has an eating disorder that they might need to be very careful about using tools like this, but at what point do we draw the line between monitoring healthful eating and dangerous obsession (which leads, arguably, to unhealthful eating)?
I’ve used fitday on and off for a long time. But I’ve found that their calorie burning estimates are WAY overestimated.
I mostly use it because I’m fascinated to look up how many actual vitamins and minerals I get each day. I’ve found that in periods of time when I’m getting big numbers on vitamins and minerals and eating lots of fruits and veggies, I crave things less (and feel a lot better). That was an interesting realization, and it’s helped me focus on foods that give plenty of nutrition, no matter where they stand on the calorie count… avocados and nuts are right up there with leafy greens for me now.
To modify a sandwich so that it has less fat isn’t healthier according to science. Real mayo (not soy or sugary mayo) is good for you. Please, please don’t do that. You need fat to think, repair nerves, to be healthy.
Oh dear.
Stacy, excessive hand-wringing isn’t healthy, either.
Mo isn’t huffing butane. She told the deli guy to hold the mayo.
Honestly, even though I enjoyed Taube’s book when I read it, I’m starting to retroactively hate it. So many people are becoming terrified of carbs again.
Taubes, like Pollan, or Andrew Weil, or Joel Fuhrman has built his case in part by selectively choosing the science he quotes and crafting a theory that sounds incredibly convincing even if it has a helluva lot of holes.
And ‘traditional’ diets vary so widely in terms of foods and nutrient balance that I don’t know how anyone could draw some sort of dietary conclusions from them.
I’m against the demonizing of any macronutrient, but I’m for people learning their own bodies well enough to know what balance works best for them.
I mean, if you’ve found a way of eating that makes you feel good, then great. But just keep in mind that what we don’t know about nutrition and metabolism far far far exceeds what we do know especially when it comes to individual variation.
I’ve found FitDay handy from time to time, but I’m a very un-obsessive person. I can see that if you do tend to get caught up in these things, it could be less helpful. I don’t use it all the time simply because I don’t have time to (especially since you have to put in many UK foods manually).
I’m another long-time vegetarian, and I’ve often found when I analyse what I’m eating that while my protein levels are fine, my carbs are at the top end of the range and I don’t get quite enough fat. I think it’s because if you’re vegetarian or vegan, you KNOW you have to be careful to get enough protein… but hardly anyone worries about eating too little fat, do they?
I’ll admit, I do tend to adjust things a little in these circumstances, but anything that says I can eat more cheese or olives is fine with me.
Something similar to Jae’s experience happened to me when I joined SparkPeople – at first I thought it would be a fun and easy and graphic way to track my nutritional stats (especially protein and fiber, which I generally wasn’t getting enough of). I learned, though, that my average daily calorie intake – including things like a Wagon Wheel a day and about six meals – was 1200 calories. Which doesn’t, obviously, leave a lot of room to tweak ‘down’ – yet because of the tracker, I found myself trying to do exactly that. :-(
To answer why fillyjonk and The Rotund might not jump onto the fitday bandwagon: it can be incredibly frustrating (as I’m sure you all know) feeling like you have to justify that you really are eating healthy when you are fat. I know that we all want to take good care of our bodies but a tool like this can turn into another way that the food police get at us.
And I do think their question is a good one to check in on, if you are trying to be an intuitive eater. Are changes you make in your eating due to some external determination about what’s “good” for you or about paying attention to what you are hearing your body say? It’s a question I struggle with all the time.
Is it old fashion to think if you’re eating a balanced diet, you’re active and you feel good…you’re probably healthy?
I’ve never really understood the abstraction and numerical detachment of food like this unless you have a medical condition that requires precise nutrition or maybe an eating disorder (but it seems like numbers breed obsession so I don’t know how that would help a disorder).
I like being organized and making lists, I even enjoy numbers…but things like this sound like they take the fun out of food.
I also used a food tracker for the first time last year. Personally I found that it helped me better understand the relationship between types of food and the way I feel, since I’ve spent most of my adult life eating by a fairly arbitrary set of rules based on a mental list of “good” and “bad” foods. I learned that on days I ate more protein at breakfast, I felt like I had more energy. I also learned I was usually eating much less than the recommended daily amount of fiber, and that eating more fiber-rich carbs significantly improved the way I feel. (I’d probably end up evangelizing about fiber levels if it didn’t involve sharing TMI about my digestive tract and bathroom habits.) I’m now trying to eat intuitively, and I feel like the tracking has helped give me some insight into figuring out what exactly my body is craving.
@Wendy — my “handwringing” is about eliminating healthy fats from one’s diet because of a web algorithm, as opposed to say, how a food makes one feel. If I didn’t think the episode is indicative of a larger trend, I’d be less bothered by it.
@Attrice — I think you misunderstood my post. I wasn’t talking about carbs, in fact, it’s impossible not to eat carbs.
@Attrice — two more quick points: the premise and conclusion of Taubes book is a call for hard science.
If you’ve read it (which is hard for me to believe based on your comment) you’ll know that he doesn’t selectively quote so much as summarize and quote from the exact studies that state the opposite of the conclusion people draw from his book, all the while questioning why certain studies were taken as “evidence” when they were not scientifically followed up on or tested. He isn’t selectively quoting to build a case for anything.
He’s saying: “Here’s where this or that nutritional advice comes from, but see, it doesn’t hold up. It’s entire B.S. Where are our scientists? Why is no one looking into this?”
Taubes book tears down the platitudes and cv, which is an entirely different thing from promoting some kind of health advice or diet advice. Pollan, Weil, etc. Their books claim to have answers.
One more thing: traditional diets ALL included 30-60% healthy saturated fats, and even the few traditional diets that were mostly vegetarian contained a percentage of insects and dried sea creatures. Yes, different things work for different people…but fat is good for you.
I’ve used FitDay for years – regularly when I was on the dieting track, but still occasionally now. The “calories burned” estimates are way off base in my experience – maybe they’re typical for the so-called “normal” person, but they certainly weren’t for me. It claims my basal metabolic rate alone should burn 1581 calories, plus another 1028 (totalling >2600) for “seated work, some movement”, which is accurate, if not an underestimate – I walk at least 30-40 minutes every day. But over my years of dieting I learned through trial and error that my “weight maintenance” range is 1500-1700 calories with working out at the gym (30-45 minutes elliptical, w/ 400-600 cals burned) 2-3 times per week. I would have to eat 3 hours/week to lose weight, and eating within this calorie range (or above) without going to the gym results in weight gain. But that’s just my experience, and I know I have a metabolism on the slower end of the range. I know that famous starvation study showed drastic effects when calories were restricted below 1600, but I rarely eat more than 1600 calories daily even now that I’m eating intuitively, and when I do I usually feel overfull and lethargic.
I have found FitDay incredibly useful, although I use it in spurts and starts. First of all, I’m like mo in that I found the breakdowns fascinating. Like Peggy, it also helped me get a good picture of what I was eating and the ability to compare that to how I was feeling that day, week, whatever — which helped me realize, for example, that cereal for breakfast just doesn’t work for me; I need something more substantial with some protein to kick off the day (I’m a vegetarian.) It also helped me realize where I was coming up short on some vitamins, and make some adjustments. I actually found that the calories eaten vs. calories burned estimates were pretty accurate for me.
I do get a little exasperated with “nutrition trends”: the idea that fat or carbs or protein are all good or all bad as a group. One year I’m supposed to cut down on fat, and the next I’m supposed to avoid carbs. Whatever. I try to eat as low on the food chain as possible (with the exception of some eggs and dairy) and as little processed as possible (whole grains, etc.) All the rest just feels like someone trying to sell me something.
Oh, noes, Random Visitor! I didn’t jump on the approval bandwagon and neither did Fillyjonk! We are obviously out to get Mo!
Mo, I think you are a very smart woman and I respect your opinion. Which is why the disconnect between “no more guilt” and “no more Mayo” is so large and jarring. I am not questioning whether or not you feel guilty about your sandwich (which sounds mad tasty with or without Mayo), just the conflicting messages your post seems to be sending.
And Wendy? I don’t think you have ever directed a comment in my general direction that wasn’t snarky while being a complete refusal to engage on any sort of useful conversational level. I have thought you were awesome since long before I thought about blogging off of Livejournal. I am disappointed as hell that our contact is always so adversarial.
My mental response to Mo’s guilt was that it was health guilt, not fat guilt or body shame. They can be quite different – guilt over not flossing your teeth, for example, or not getting in for a blood pressure check, doesn’t have a lot to do with society’s beauty standard.
I don’t have the patience for the nutritional trackers, and I actually felt a little guilty about *that* for a while. Then I thought for a bit and admitted, I know pretty well where my diet is less than healthy, and where I want it to go, so why am I feeling guilt about it?
But I don’t think, for me anyway, that the desire to measure my nutritional intake is necessarily at all to do with pleasing other people with my diet. It’s a lot more to do with my mortality – I get one body, one shot at life, I want to feel good now, and if that means whole grains and leafy greens, so be it. Likewise, tooth decay goes against the whole “feel good” thing. So I floss even though it’s gross and boring.
I am not into the whole intuitive eating thing. My intuitions involve cheetos, and excess, even when I’m not starving. The Food Police can go to hell, but so can anyone who’s judging me for trying to figure out what’s healthy and using all the resources that work for me.
Uh, I was trying to delete that last paragraph and I accidentally hit submit. I’m sorry. Nobody is judging me for anything. That’s the same paranoia that makes me think someone is going to yell at me for shaving my legs because it’s not feminist enough. I don’t know enough about intuitive eating to talk about it reasonably.
I read Mo’s “mayo guilt” the same way ginger did; she’s trying to eat healthy, took a look at a way to make a favorite food even healthier, and felt good about doing that. I don’t see anything wrong or conflicting about that.
There’s plenty of info out there about the fats in an avocado being “good fats,” and while I’m no authority, I’d say the mayo is more likely to be loaded with “bad fats” (hydrogenated oils, plus the cholesterol from the eggs, not to mention the preservatives, depending on the mayo.) So despite her desire to reduce the size of the “fat calories” triangle in the FitDay pie chart, I guess I just didn’t read it as this big, bad, mixed-messages thing. The FitDay chart gave her an idea, she tried it out and liked the results.
But then, as a lacto-ovo vegetarian, I get a lot of “well, do you eat this, or why do you eat that, isn’t that inconsistent?” kind of stuff, and it gets old. So I’m not going to demand that anyone’s sandwich condiment choices be absolutely consistent with their blog, or their FitDay account, or whatever.
Stacy,
Page 454-455. I’m not sure how else one can interpret Taubes’ conlusions except as a recommendation to eat a higher fat/protein, lower carb diet.
And yes, he does selectively quote and interpret studies. I agree with him that dietary fat has been demonized all out of proportion, but, for example, his treatment of the Framingham Heart study is pretty much all conjecture. Yes, it did show a correlation between high cholesterol and early death, but, as he points out, in Japan low cholesterol is correlated to early death by stroke. However, the type of stroke prevalent in Japan is also related to high sodium diets and smoking (both big things in Japan) which the researchers knew and mentioned, but Taubes doesn’t mention that.
And as for ‘traditional’ diets being all 30-60% saturated fat, it makes my bs meter goes off. Sounds very Weston A. Price which, if it works for you, good, but they don’t have the highest standards when it comes to research. I wouldn’t trust nutritional info coming from them any more than I would coming from the PCRM (vegan group.)
Attrice, I’m just curious: I don’t know much about PCRM, but I do like finding sources for nutrition/health info for vegetarians. Do you find PCRM suspect simply because they advocate a vegan diet, or for other reasons? Not trying to stir a controversy, I haven’t really checked them out at all and I was just wondering if you have specific info about them being not trustworthy.
yeah I didnt read all the comments before me. but I just wanted to say.. I’ve been keeping track of my calories and activity with Fitday since last summer and I’ve lost just over 80 lbs since then (I had a whole heck of weight to lose) I could have used any other site or just journalled myself.. but fitday has it’s perks.
I dont trust the calories burned calculator.. or even really go by the fat/protein/carb percentages because I dont find their food information to accurately reflect what I really eat.. but I love the graphs!
After using fitday for a couple weeks.. recording my loss and activity it started having generated graphs for me to look at. yay graphs!
My problem with PCRM comes from the fact that their entire purpose is to find evidence to support a conclusion rather than making a conclusion from the evidence. In nutrition research, if you’re looking for something, you can probably find it so it’s easy to make it look like a certain diet is the ‘healthiest’. Plus I feel like they’ve tried to hide their financial ties to PETA which is shady.
Not that all their info is wrong or anything. I’ve used them for research at times. I just wouldn’t use them to try to win an argument.
Thanks for replying, attrice. That’s good stuff to know when reading through the site. You make excellent points about their approach — I’ll bear that in mind when/if I get around to checking out their information.
I don’t think that cultivating an awareness of the quality & composition of the food we put into our bodies is ever a bad thing. It’s not the knowledge that’s dangerous–it’s what we do with the knowledge.
Mo seems to me like a very sensible and balanced person when it comes to all of these body image issues. She has always given me the impression of being the exact opposite of “disordered.”
Spins-I think you’re comment about intuitive eating was bang on.
I have been trying to get a handle on attending to my hunger and eating intuitively, but while I was tracking my food on SparkPeople, I found myself looking at the total at the end of the day and thinking-oh, I am 200 calories below the max total, I could go eat something else-even if I wasn’t hungry in the slightest. Plus, I became obsessed with finding something to eat that would make my pie chart (with the ratios for fat/carbs/protein) “right” rather than think about what I really wanted.
That said, nothing works perfectly for everyone, and if some people find it a helpful tool to increase their awareness and make better choices for themselves, more power to them!
Mo’s away from the internet right now and I hate to speak for her but having dined with and cooked for Mo on many occasions, I can confidently attest that when she used the word “guilt”, it was about the health implications of eating too much fat and has nothing to do with calories.
Rotund, so what if our interactions are adversarial? Does that have to mean anything? Is it that bad that sometimes I feel I’ve made my point in a single sentence? I’m purposefully blunt at times, but not for personal reasons, and I’m sorry if it’s ever seemed that way. And congratulations on the book, by the way.
Attrice —
it’s clear we aren’t going to agree, and this is off the original topic anyway…but the fact that Taubes isn’t selling anything and approached this book as a journalist makes me a lot more inclined to accept his take (which is that we need appropriate research testing these fifty and sixty year old hypotheses about why we get fat) than to accept the conventional wisdom inspired by the flawed research he points out.
The pages you mention are part of the epilogue. He says on page 453 that as he concludes his five years of research into this, his own mind has been completely changed, and that certain conclusions seem inescapable to him. The wording is specific that these are what he can’t help but think after looking at the research. He clearly goes on to say there should be a scientific inquiry into the current nutritional platitudes “scientists” take as a given, but that have never actually been demonstrated. His call is for more science.
Here is a talk he gave that illustrates his point (a great intro for anyone who hasn’t read the book):
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=4362041487661765149&q=Gary+Taubes+site%3Avideo.google.com&total=2&start=0&num=10&so=0&type=search&plindex=0
Re Weston A. Price — I can say that the non-profit organization offers much sounder explanations for the nutritional advice they give than anything I’ve read in magazines, fitness books, epidemiological studies, journals, major news papers, etc. That level of clarity and detail is typically missing from the press release-based reporting we get about special interest funded research.
Thanks for giving me permission to do what works for me, but I sincerely believe we’ve been hoodwinked by lazy science and lazy reporting. Until one has explored both sides, how can one make an informed choice about what’s best for them?
I’ve used Fitday from time to time to see what is in the stuff I eat. I think the activity calculations must be some kind of average. If you are staying the same weight you’re obviously burning all the calories you’re eating but when you change what or how much you eat you also change what your body does with what you eat and it happens at the cellular level. No program is going to be able to predict that. Protein and fat can also be used for things like cellular maintenance and repair, building lean body mass, making hormones, etc. Carbs and alcohol can only be burned or stored. Some people seem to be good at burning carbs for energy, I am not one of them. When I eat more than a little carb I store most of it and have very little energy. The Taubes book explained to me why.
When I eat whole grain cereal and fruit for breakfast I will have a blood sugar crash in a couple of hours and have to eat again or be dizzy, shaky and weak until lunchtime. I tried eating larger portions so it would last longer but it never did. I am actually better off skipping breakfast than eating whole grains. My mother always told me that oatmeal would stick to my ribs but it never has worked, I need meat or eggs if I’m going to make it until noon. I didn’t realize it for a long time, it was the sugar and grains that were making me get hungry so often. I cut way back on those and I can last longer between meals, have more energy and not get sleepy after meals. But doing that has made the fat 50-60% of my calories every day. The USDA can KMA :P I feel better now, my kidneys haven’t fallen out and my cholesterol is still below normal even though I eat 2 or 3 dozen eggs every week, including all the yolks.
I would slap the innards of that sandwich, avocado and mayo included, on top of some greens and throw out the bread. I wouldn’t feel guilty about it, either.
I used to feel guilty that I couldn’t stop eating before but now I know it wasn’t my fault, it was my metabolism suffering from the wrong advice (doctor kept saying “eat less fat,”) and I’m angry that so many health experts would still tell me I’m eating wrong and getting too much fat.