Maybe South Beach Is Onto Something…
I’ve noticed that the BFD readers I know who have lost a lot of weight without surgery (such as Pasta Queen) and kept it off have done it on the South Beach diet. Passed along by Kari, this New York Times article reviews the new book Good Calories, Bad Calories, theorizing that carbs, not fat, may be the enemy after all.
Mr. Taubes argues that the low-fat recommendations, besides being unjustified, may well have harmed Americans by encouraging them to switch to carbohydrates, which he believes cause obesity and disease. He acknowledges that that hypothesis is unproved, and that the low-carb diet fad could turn out to be another mistaken cascade. The problem, he says, is that the low-carb hypothesis hasn’t been seriously studied because it couldn’t be reconciled with the low-fat dogma.
Note the “unproved hypothesis” part. Still, anecdotal evidence seems to back him up on the weight loss part; what if he’s right about the health part, too? Which suddenly makes me feel guilty about the Starbucks yogurt and granola parfait that I’ve been addicted to lately. Damn! And I thought I’d hit on the perfect breakfast!
Then again, there’s this other hypothesis (thanks to Laurie for the tip) about “hedonic hunger”:
Lowe states that there are two types of hunger we experience. There is actual hunger felt after not eating for several hours and there is, what he calls, “hedonic hunger,” which is a hunger that is driven by pleasure in the absence of physical need. The study sees this hedonic hunger as an evolutionary trait that “…goes back to the hunter-gatherer days…” [t]he body adapted to the rare occasion of the consumption of better-tasting food by eating a lot of it. Having this inherent trigger in the brain, he says, makes it difficult to not want to eat constantly given our current food culture.
There is not one specific macronutrient (protein, carbohydrates or fat) that Lowe sees as the culprit for over-indulgence, seeing as different people will find different types of food more desirable. However, he makes it clear that fats lend food to be highly palatable. One reason fat-laden foods taste good is that their higher fat content contributes to a higher concentration of calories – a trait in food that allows us to feel satisfied.
From this research, Lowe hopes to start a new position on the discussion of obesity. Whether the food itself is addictive or not is still debatable, but this new information demonstrates how food can have an addiction-like response in people.
Maybe this would explain why I had that damn yogurt parfait for both breakfast and lunch the other day. It’s an addiction-like response!
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Filed under: Food, Health, Science, Weight Loss
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Full disclosure: I loathe the low-carb rubric. Every christmas, the same collection of people come to the dinner table claiming they are discarding their no-carb/low-carb diets for the day. Not a single one of those folks’ bodies looks different than it did the Christmas before.
Time Magazine did an article a few months back about the science of appetite. Verdict: it’s really, really mysterious and our brains might still be hardwired to respond to food the way we did when there wasn’t the promise of easy gorging around every corner.
I’m working really hard to train myself away from giving food magical power. It’s all calories. I’m stepping away from the good food/bad food mythology in hopes of learning to eat intuitively. Yesterday, I had chicken, veggie and fruits for two meals. I also took down some chocolate chip cookie-age. I felt pretty satisfied. When I do any kind of deprivation, I obsess endlessly about that which has become taboo.
I’m thinking that the human appetite is probably more complex than any of us know.
I politely and respectfully disagree with using the word “enemy” to talk about food.
Heh. I was on my way to work this morning and thinking about this post (because I am a nerd who ponders my blog posts) and I actually thought, “Shit, I think I used the word ‘enemy’ in reference to food. I should change that before it posts.” But it was scheduled to post before I got to work! So there it is. I definitely meant it tongue-in-cheek but I realize that doesn’t at all come across.
I don’t know about the science behind it, but I sure as hell do experience hedonic hunger. It manifests itself as pictures of cakes, cookies and pies in my thought balloons all day long.
Are you a Sim? Hee.
I remember some article with the title (more or less): ‘Cranky, is it that time of the month? No, she’s on Atkins’. Meaning: a low-carbohydrate diet can turn a woman into a murderous bitch. Check out the web for “PMS” and “carbs”, and you’ll see what I mean. Ladies, we need carbs! If my bloodsugar levels are as consistent as possible, I have less mood swings, less depressed feelings, etcetera (well, at least that’s how it works for me, I hope this goes for more people). Maybe that’s because of this: the brain functions on glucose alone. Yes, glucose, the most simple carb around.
South Beach? I haven’t been on it, so I had to look up what it entailed. Within a couple of sentences into the explanation, I noticed the “low-carb” take, and then I stumbled across “bad” and “good” in relationship to food. Please, give me a break.
Man, I’ve tried the South beach and the 6 week body makeover. And you know what. I was dizzy on the South beach. Your body NEEDS carbs. it needs it. like 120 mg or whatever a day. as told by a dietician. The only thing that has ever worked for me, and is working for me currently, is eating moderate and balanced foods 5 or 6 times a day and exercising. That’s it. seriously. I still eat ice cream, and bread and eggs and milk and all the things I want to, and some things I don’t (bleck veggies) just kidding.
Yeah. This is my mom’s newest diet. It sounds like the first phase of it is crazy (too few carbs), and the maintenence part is probably fairly healthy. It’s not as crazy as Atkins or the “cut of all the fat” fad that came before. I remember seeing an interview with the doctor who came up with it where he was actually fairly pro-size acceptance – or at least anti-weight loss at any cost.
The reason why there are successful South Beach Dieters out there right now? Because it’s fairly new, and they haven’t all gained the weight back yet. That’s just my take on it.
I noticed you quoted the John Tierney article in your post. You should also note that Gina Kolata, another NY Times science writer (whose recent book on weight has been discussed on this blog), reviewed Taubes book in the Sunday Book Review. http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9C00E3D71139F934A35753C1A9619C8B63 She noted that while Taubes makes good points about the low-fat theory, he also ignores some other studies to make his point. I think the take away lesson from this is to be skeptical of whatever study is being sold as definitive. It seems there are some consistent things that hold up over time: eating fruit and vegetables seems healthy or at least not harmful, eating moderate portions of food seems to be key although easier said than done (at least for me), whole grains seem to be better than refined but a chocolate chip cookie now and then won’t kill you.
The South Beach diet specifically makes some sense in that it promotes eating lots of fruits and vegetables, lean proteins and whole grains. That said, Dr, Agaston has revised his views on a number of the so-called taboo foods in Phase One–for example he now allows yogurt. http://weightloss.about.com/cs/southbeachdiet/a/aa042904a.htm He was also wrong about the maltose content of beer. http://www.forbes.com/business/commerce/newswire/2004/04/22/rtr1344107.html. Recent research also suggests that the gylcemic index (what the diet is based on) is much more complicated than originally suggested–see, e.g. http://www.news-medical.net/?id=30444 (showing the glycemic values of the same types of food varying widely).
Instead of piling on the South Beach diet, which frankly seems relatively benigh in the world of fad diets, I am much more concerned about things like the Fat Smash diet. Has anyone looked at this–the diet supposedly used on the show “Celebrity Fit Club?” This thing is seems to be a complete crock. Would be interested to hear others views on this.
I have Diabetes Type 2. At one point I did the low carb “way of eating” for over a year. I found it much easier to control my blood sugar and lost a small amount of weight. I found that the first two weeks were physically uncomfortable as I was warned but after that I had more energy and was less hungry. So why don’t I follow a strict low carb diet now? The answer is that it’s too restrictive for me. When I have to do without something I feel deprived. What I did learn was that, for me, I don’t need carbs with every meal and so I only eat the ones I want. Good carbs are the ones that are delicious. Homemade cookies or cake, Ben & Jerry’s ice cream, artisan breads, basamati rice. Bad carbs are the dull ones. Puffy bread, tasteless rice, instant mashed potatoes, sugared sodas, cookies or cake or ice cream that are only sweet.
I find that even though I am no longer a strict low carber that I did reap benefits from that year. I eat a lot more vegetables than I did before because I like them. I discovered that if I don’t overload my tastebuds with sweet that fruits taste almost sugary sweet. This helps me control my blood sugar.
Of course, I regained all the weight I lost including the 20 pounds I “mysteriously” lost the year before I was diagnosed with Diabetes. The people I know who have lost weight with Atkins, Protein Power, or South Beach don’t seem to have kept weight off any more than people who low-fat or count calories. Dieting for weight loss just doesn’t work for 95% of us.
i’ve never tried south beach but i have been on weight watchers for the past 5 months and it is the easiest diet ive ever done. in the past ive tried new diets for two weeks and then ditched them because they were so restrictive. but with ww’s you can eat whatever you want as long as you stay in the points for the day. im a chocoholic and i could eat 4 hersheys bars a day if i wanted to, just nothing else.
anyway, i just stumbled across this group today and was reading all of your previous posts and wanted to throw my two cents in.
oh yeah, and ive lost 30 lbs too. what really motivated me to do it was reading a magazine with jenny mcarthy where she was talking about her ww experience and how she lost 70 lbs after she had her son.
Meaning: a low-carbohydrate diet can turn a woman into a murderous bitch. Check out the web for “PMS” and “carbs”, and you’ll see what I mean. Ladies, we need carbs!
I’m not here to prosyletize, but it distresses me to see misinformation masquerading as fact. Fact: I’ve been on Atkins for over six months now. Fact: I’ve never eaten more in my life, anywhere from 1900 – 2200 calories daily. Fact: I’ve never felt better in my life, never had better cholesterol results, never had lower blood pressure. Fact: I’ve never had more stable moods, or more energy — even when I was a teenager. For the first time in my life, I look forward to going to the gym — and am able to do more than three things in one day. I kid you not, at one point I thought I might have Chronic Fatigue Syndrome; now I’m one of those people I used to find so bizarre — the sort who’s up at 6:20AM and still going strong at 9PM.
Low carb diets are NOT for everyone. But I think numerous studies increasingly suggest that they are for MOST people. if you’re one of those people who feels like she’s always hungry, never rested enough, often exhausted in the afternoon, constantly moody, too lazy or ennervated to exercise, and prone to binges on high-carb food — well, then I suggest you check out the science behind low-carb plans, and Taubes’s book is an excellent place to start. It’s EXTREMELY well-documented (the bibliography alone is over 70 pages), to the extent that I think saying his hypothesis is unproven is a bit misleading. And one thing that the science does NOT leave any room for doubt on: we don’t “need” at least 120g of carbs a day. We don’t need any at all, actually: human beings EVOLVED eating very low carb levels, and our physiology is actually designed to derive glucose (for the brain) from protein when fructose (ie seasonal fruit) is not available.
I guess all I want to say is this: there’s real, credible science behind why I feel (and physically AM) so transformed by this way of eating. If you’re at all curious, I really urge you to give the book a try. Taubes is not pushing any particular low-carb plan, and he’s got no financial investment in any of the big-name plans, so he’s a pretty objective source. And the thought that somebody out there might be denied the energy and health low-carb has given me because they happened to listen to old, debunked “truths” about low-carb is just upsetting to me!
Well… I’ve never done South Beach, or a diet that was designed specifically to be low-carb, but I can attest to the fact that if I eat protein for breakfast, I don’t want to start gnawing the edge of my desk by 11am. If I run out of yoghurt and don’t get my shot of protein at breakfast, it’s a different story.
It isn’t about weightloss per se, but the desire not to end up eating things that aren’t worth it because I’m hungry and they’re available. I’d rather plan ahead and not be hungry.
I don’t think carbs are evil, but I have noticed that they’re moreish in a way no other food is… if I go without eating chocolate for a while, I won’t really think about it or want it. But if I eat it regularly, I will. Same with bread; not that either of these is a bad food in moderation, but if I eat very much chocolate I’ll be nauseated, and if I eat more than a little bread I’ll have indigestion. Good enough reasons to avoid, for me.
I’ve been eating lowish carb to some degree or another from shortly after getting a diabetes diagnosis several years ago. Even though I could still control my blood sugar with a little more carb than I eat now, I have found that I feel better with less. At one point my DH thought I was losing weight too fast (wasn’t even trying.) I started eating small amounts of things I hadn’t been eating for a while so that I was eating closer to the recommended amount of carb. I really started feeling like crap again so I cut that stuff out. It doesn’t matter to me if I lose more weight or not (as far as the way I eat, anyway.) It never occurred to me I would lose weight in the first place because I wasn’t hungry like I had been when I tried to diet for weight loss in the distant past.
I’m sure there are people that need carbs to function, but I don’t seem to be one of them. I am carbohydrate intolerant, the extra glucose seems to go into storage and sap my energy instead of giving me more. My blood sugar seems to stay much more stable without it, too. I suspect a lot of people with signs of ‘metabolic syndrome’ may be similar.
My suspicion is that in the far future, when Science Knows All There Is To Know About Diet, it will be generally accepted that bodies are different and that some people do well on lots of meat and veggies, others do well on a low-fat vegetarian diet with lots of legumes, and others on still different foods. And we’ll have less of the diet-of-the-month syndrome, and less one-size-fits-all ukases from dieticians and doctors.
(I myself seem to do well on low-carb – “do well” meaning I feel good, energy levels high. I’ve also had some weight loss but nothing tremendously dramatic. But I have friends who thrive eating lots of grains, beans, and rice; I’d fall over and die of energy loss if I ate like that, but it works for them.)
i am addicted to carbs, i am a bread rice pasta biscuit fiend, i even seek them in my sleep. I cannot have biscuits in my house, but i stayed at my moms last night, hee hee, i woke up this morning and came down stairs and my mum asked me what was all over my pyjamas, i didn’t know, it was like white powder, it smelt like powdered milk, apon further investigation i found biscuits, one whole, the other completely crushed all through the bed, i hadn’t eaten them, just woke in the night, went to the kitchen, took them andslept with them and no i have no recollection. Funny as i know, at least im not as bad as my sister who’s husband wakes up with pineapple lollies stuck on his u know what in the morning from her midnight trips to the lolly jar which she also has no memory of. I like the idea of my primevil genetic irish bog woman desire for potatoes and the like being the excuse for my uncontrolable urge to eat carbs. No matter how hard i try to be good during the day, i can’t control her at night. lol
The reason why there are successful South Beach Dieters out there right now? Because it’s fairly new, and they haven’t all gained the weight back yet. That’s just my take on it.
LOL! There are some of us out here! I’ve maintained a 90 pound loss for nearly five years now on the Beach and I believe it’s a very healthy way to eat for long-term health and weight maintenance.
I agree with jaed that everyone’s needs for carbs varies depending on their metabolism and exercise regime. I definitely need some “good” carbs to fuel my workouts – it takes some trial and error to figure out what works best for you.
“…our brains might still be hardwired to respond to food the way we did when there wasn’t the promise of easy gorging around every corner.” Our brains certainly are hardwired.
Before humans found a way to preserve food, they practised, of necessity, starve-and-stuff.
Now, if we could just harness that response, — put it to work for us, hoodwink the body, so to speak — so we wouldn’t gain weight. Or maybe even to help us lose weight…
I followed low carb for about a year but found it so restrictive that I would end up eating low carb fatty breakfast and lunch but cheat by dinner or snack time…over the course of a year I ended up with high cholesterol and high triglycerides. I transitioned to South Beach and my cholesterol and triglycerides dropped like a rock but long term, I couldn’t stay with it. I’ve finally said screw it to the whole word DIET and adopted a lifestyle. So far so good. The weight is coming off very slowly but I don’t feel deprived and I can see myself eating like this forever, something I could never see with SBD or low carb. I honestly believe the long term success has everything to do with a persons ability to adopt a plan as a lifestyle.
Hmm. I’ve always thought that South Beach – and it does work, if you follow it well – worked for a very simple reason. If you’re on it faithfully, you have to think about what you’re eating.
Yup, that’s it. No more mindless snacking – its at least mindful snacking. When I lost most of my weight, that made a huge difference for me… I didn’t do any of the restrictive diets, but every time I went for a bite between meals. I’d stop and think about how much it would cost me in miles of walking. 30 minutes of exercise for a mini-kit-kat? Nah. Or if I still wanted it, I ate it… but it wasn’t “automatic” any more.
I also ended up with a much better idea of exactly how much food I was eating, simply by paying attention to it. Nothing was forbidden, but my overall intake still went down quite a bit just from doing that… which everyone who follows any of the strict plans has to do as well.
Note – another benefit to SB et al is that most of the “free food” you see – unmetered access to chips, tortillas, breadsticks, and rolls – is heavy carb. Adopting a strict “no food before my entree” policy was another big winner for me, and SBers get this one for free as well.
Caprice, I LOVE your good carb/bad carb philosophy. I think you are so right (though of course I am not qualified to pass judgment on what “works” for any individual person with diabetes or other dietary restrictions). Eating foods you love and truly desire and feel nourished and energized by is such a great way to live. I think both extremes (eating only “healthy” food like you would on a strict very low fat or very low carb diet, vs. eating lots of low-quality junk that you don’t even enjoy that much) are unpleasant ways to eat and do not contribute to overall health and well-being. Of course each individual person has to find those foods that nourish them and it probably won’t be the same for everyone.
Word to the “enemy” posts. No food is our enemy (though I might make an exception for Little Debbies and McDonald’s, it’s still the corporation that’s the enemy and not the food, widely thought to be nonsentient.)
On the parfait, though…a reasonable, cheap, and convenient facsimile can be compiled at home from good frozen fruit (cherries, raspberries, whatever, not the cheap nasty crap), plain lowfat yogurt, and Grape-Nuts (granola can be pretty sugary.) The fruit sweetens it all just enough.
On South Beach, what Richard said applies to any diet; most of them will work (up to a point, and for a certain amount of time) if followed with care. But mindfulness is always key; sometimes I think the hardest thing to give up on any diet is oblivion. Carelessness. Following the impulse. I’ve never had a diet on which I wasn’t hungry at least some of the time. I don’t like that, but it was worth it–for a while–to get to a reasonable (not “ideal,” but reasonable) weight. However, it’s not my idea of a lifestyle. Moderate quantities of all kinds of foods work better for me in terms of maintenance. And they can have my multigrain bread when they pry it out of my stiff, dead fingers.
I don’t know what the science behind the South Beach Diet is in particular, but my biggest problem with the low carb phenom (and anything like that, really- low fat, etc) is that people tend to think they can gorge on things that are ‘green light’ foods on the diet. For example, my MIL is on the South Beach diet, and when she goes out to eat- at a CHINESE BUFFET (real healthy, eh?) she gorges on this broccoli/spinach “pie” stuff that’s all cheese & heavy cream with some veggies thrown in and baked.
Way more unhealthy than what I’m trying to do.
I thought I should just chip in here with some words of support for low carb dieting. I’ve lost many pounds on it and believe me, if followed to the book, it really does work. It sounds crazy but even Atkins which sounds too extreme involves eating many more vegetables and fresh foods than most Americans’ diets. I found myself cooking much more and eating far less processed food.
I’ve just bought Gary Taubes book and plan to read it soon. Any of you who feel that people on low carb diets have approximately the same results as those on low fat diets should go to any low carb dieting site(such as forum.lowcarber.org), keep and open mind and compare results with people on a low fat diet board such as Weight Watchers. There are soooo many very overweight people who have come to normal weight on Atkins, South Beach etc. I know this is only anecdotal evidence, but there has never been any study conclusively linking either fat or cholesterol in the diet with obesity. Any time there has been any comparison of a low fat diet and a low carb diet the low carb diet has performed better.
The truth is the diet industry has a lot invested in having people continue to believe that low fat is the way to go — just look at the shelves of your local supermarket. I know that low carbers can sound evangelical and irritating but maybe, just maybe, there’s some truth there. Just keep an open mind :-)
@Cindy — please don’t loathe something which you haven’t given a fair chance. The nice thing about any sufficiently strict low-carb plan (South Beach really doesn’t cut it for me) is that you insulin levels start to stabilize when you aren’t giving yourself a carb dose every few hours and after the first three or four days (which I’ll admit can be painful) you stop feeling the kind of hunger pangs I’ve had on every other diet.
@Dutchy — your blood sugar levels actually go up and down when you eat carbs every few hours, not on a low carb diet. This is because your body usually produces more insulin than needed to mop up the carbs in a single meal and then your blood sugar levels go lower than the desired level. It is also a myth that your brain can’t function without glucose — it functions perfectly well on ketones, a product of the fat depletion that occurs when you lower the levels of carbs on your diet. (please don’t confuse ketosis with ketoacidosis.) I know it sounds scary to attach labels like “bad” and “good” to food. But would you really disagree that there’s a qualitative difference between a Little Debbie cherry pie and a nice homemade chicken salad? Your body is complicated and the whole a calorie is a calorie is a calorie thing doesn’t really work.
@Lauren I’ve never tried SB so can’t comment, but while the first few days on Atkins aren’t much fun it gets better quickly.
@Jenn: Taubes actually criticizes some of Tierney’s articles in his book so they’re not exactly bosom buddies. I’m planning to read the book and decide on the basis of the scientific papers themselves.
@Caprice — yup keeping that weight loss off can be a bitch. I’m at present trying to find a way of eating that I can stick with for life. What I have found though is that any time I up the carbs and go to a more “normal” way of eating I put on weight. So whatever way I finally find, it will probably be as low carb as I can manage on a day-to-day basis.
@Fatgirl — There is the tendency to gorge on “free foods” but how much steak and sausage and eggs can you eat anyway? I find that such foods are self-limiting in a way that ice-cream, pizza and cookies just aren’t. People make a lot of fuss about people being allowed to eat as much fat as they want on Atkins but truth is, without those crackers to eat them on, cheese per se isn’t something I can really gorge on.
Just my two cents.
@Dutchy — small amendment — there is a small part of your brain — the brain stem that does use only glucose, AFAIK. However, fat and protein can be converted to glucose, no problem.
At the risk of belaboring this point — I just found this paper at PubMed — http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?artid=1867088
that found that a ketogenic diet was actually good for the brain!
I was put on the SB diet when I got pregnant with my son. It lasted about 2 weeks. I was vegetarian at the time, so my food choices had already been restricted, and I just hated the SB diet.
Now that I have taken some nutrition courses, I would never go on either SB or Atkins. Both work fine for losing weight, but they are actually very unhealthy in terms of lifestyle. Atkins is worse than SB, since you can easily end up with serious heart disease and major osteoporosis (just check out the coroner’s report on Dr. Atkins), but SB is too carb restrictive. In order for the body to function properly, the majority of our energy (calories) should come from carbs. Of course, some carbs are better than others (a slice of whole grain bread vs. a frosted doughnut for example), but we still need carbs.
Kumquat –
You’re making an awfully big assumption there. I say this respectfully: no one on this blog knows what I’ve *tried* because I deliberately don’t talk about it. All I will say about my diet is that I strive for moderation.
I know what works for me. Eliminating “all” of any kind of food for even a week trips every compulsive wire in my brain. I’m glad the SB/LC works for some people. It does not work for me. At all. Be assured, I eat far fewer carbs when I don’t make a point of avoiding them. Were I to avoid all carbs, even for the two-week introduction period, I would go absolutely apesh*t and gorge on them. If I turn carbs into something immoral or bad, I will be endlessly obessed by eating them.
This leads me to the conclusion that the low-carb deal is definitely not in my best interest.
I happen to know some Weight Watchers lifetimers who have maintained 100-plus-pound losses without avoiding carbs. Everyone has to do what’s most sane for them.
At the risk of belabouring the point, I think ultimately people have to find what works for them–not just diet (in the clinical sense), but your whole lifestyle, size, personal preferences, self-image, and comfort level.
@SassyTeffie — Please show me the published papers that show that low carb diets are unhealthy. I’ve taken more than my share of biochemistry courses and I really can’t see any reason why they should be. Most nutritionists I have spoken too have been very against the Atkins diet too, so I’m not surprised that you are, but none of them have been able to give me compelling evidence against it, while I have plenty of evidence that such diets work and are healthy. And have you really looked at the coroner’s report on Atkins death? I get really tired of all the misinformation floating around about that. Please read this for more information on the actual circumstances surrounding his death: http://lowcarbdiets.about.com/od/atkinsdiet/a/dratkinsdeath.htm
@Cindy and Mander: Of course I agree that everyone needs to find a diet that works for them. YMMV. I just wanted to clarify a few points. I don’t like to hear low carb diets being dismissed as not a realistic option when I personally know of so many people both in real life and online who have benefitted from them.
late to the discussion, but I’d like to introduce myself/weigh in here…
I’m a big reader of fat acceptance blogs, but am wary of posting on most of them because I have lost weight and kept it off and I’d say my interest lies equally in trying to change society’s stigmatization of the fat *and* in nutrition and low-carb health, and I know that some of the sites don’t want to hear anything about diet – a position I respect, of course. It was good to read though that this is also a site for people losing weight, so I feel I can contribute some of my experiences here.
I would highly recommend Taubes’ book; some of it I expected as I’m already a supporter of low-carb and have read much on it, some of it was eye-opening even for me.
The thing is, while I support HEAS, for me health is low-carb. I’ve been low-carbing for six years, lost nearly 100 pounds over the first 3 years of that, and have maintained that lost, plus or minus 8 pounds up and down, for the past 3 years.
Quite simply, I now know what hunger *is* – my insulin levels were so up with all the carbs I ate that I was never satisfied, always hungry, and always overeating. So for me – and yes, everyone is different – eating low-carb gave me control and freedom as opposed to restriction. It has become my default way of eating but I really don’t feel like I’m on a diet, because I’m never hungry, and the only time I feel deprived is when I’m in the company of lots of people eating food I used to eat a lot – and even then it’s only sometimes difficult for me. It’s amazing what happens when your blood sugars level out, which is what happens when you low-carb. And I do take those special occasions and eat carbs sometimes, but I try and stay away from them most of the time because they actually now make me feel ill – sweets make me feel sick and complex carbs make me feel bloated and uncomfortable.
I will freely admit that six years ago when I started low-carbing it was a last ditch attempt because I was so miserable about the way I looked – I wish I could be fat accepting of myself, that’s for sure – and health was the furthest thing from my mind. It was all about appearance and society’s judgment of me. I did not have the healthy defiance exhibited by fat acceptance advocates! But six years later, the health aspect has come to the fore for me, and I remain fascinated by what various foods do to our bodies. My bloodwork is perfect, my triglycerides went down from the 180s to the 50s, everything else is spot on, and also, tellingly, my menstrual cycle went back to normal after being very irregular for a number of years. And it did that as *soon* as I started cutting the carbs, *not* after I lost the weight.
I now try and focus my eating because it’s the healthy way to eat, not because I want to remain this size (I’m in the 150s, and not likely to get any lower – I’m not tall, so according to the BMI I’m still officially ‘overweight’, even though we all know how arbitrary that measure is.
I agree that low carb won’t be for everyone because it does take a lot of commitment and preparation and you are out of the social ‘norm’ and you just may not want to give up your favourite foods. But in terms of health, I actually do believe it is the healthiest way to eat for the vast majority of people.
My husband is skinny – similar weight to me but over six foot – and he is now restricting his sugar and only eating brown rice and wholegrain bread because of what I read in Taubes’ book.
I would have stayed on the yo-yo diet cycle forever, gaining and losing and being hungry and feeling out of control, if I hadn’t found low carb. It has literally changed my life; it’s been the miracle so many of us wished for when we were miserable in our fat and wishing for a different life.
Oh for pity sake!! All this obsessing about making women perfectly skinny and meanwhile how many women and children in poor countries are dying of starvation? Hello! Starvation is not good! And why not direct our energy and our funds towards ending world hunger rather then focusing on Making Perfect Women in the wealthy countries? We’ve exchanged the moral obligations of caring for the Widow and the Poor for the self-serving ritualized starvation in order to “look good.” How come we wrinkle our noses in disgust when we see a starved woman or child in a mud hut but we go gah-gah over a starved Starlette in fashionable clothes on the red carpets?? It makes me so sick!!!