Worth Reading...cause Calories Do Count!

In Defence of the Calories

He takes on several of the "arguments" against counting calories for weight loss.

excerpt:

Anti-Calorie argument #3: Fat people eat no more than skinny people

For years this was simply assumed based on observation, anecdote and poor science. We’ve all seen and heard the lamentations of those who “barely eat” and can’t lose an ounce while their skinny friend eats baconators for breakfast and never gains. Studies appeared to substantiate our observations when subjects were asked to record their food intake…that is until they actually decided to see for themselves and monitor them more closely. And guess what? Overweight people are prone to underreporting food intake – to the tune of up to 47% in some studies!

So for someone claiming to eat 2000 calories was actually consuming almost 3000 calories. At the risk of sounding obvious – that’s a pretty big difference.

Again this plays into the “it’s not your fault” warmth and fuzziness that Gary Taubes and others are so fond of. To quote my friend and colleague Leigh Peele – you WANT it to be your “fault”. It doesn’t mean dwell on it, beat yourself up over it… it means you are in control and can do something about it.

Absorbed and Forgot to Eat, but I Just Made Myself Eat NOW! And Is FAT INCURABLE? I'll hang on to hope...that I can be cured. :D

I looked up from some stuff I was doing--some researching, some writing--and lo and behold, it was 11:30 and I had not had but one meal, breakfast. Some eggs, papaya, boiled yuca (cassava), and coffee. That was it. Maybe 600 calories. Under 25 grams of protein, most likely.

I didn't want to end the day without enough protein (and yeah, still not really hungry), so I have a spinach-cranberry-almond-cheese salad , a protein shake (Swanson protein 17 g with some lowfat organic milk) and drank some beef Gelatin powder in water for more protein. Maybe 500 cals. I should end the day at a not too bad 1100.

I really think it's dangerous not to get enough protein and not to eat enough, period, in terms of holding on to lean mass and not making some bonkers hormonal reactions.

So, while I'm chewing, I decided to type. Cause I was still pondering an article I read a couple days ago, the one you ALL must have seen, read, and read people respond to. It was rather dire. You know which one I mean?

It was by David Wong over at Cracked.com with the title: Fat is Officially Incurable (According to Science).

You should read it if you have lost weight, are losing weight, or WANT to lose weight. It's not really saying something very different than what those of us who have kept up with the research over the years ALREADY know.  I remember reading something very similar--diets fail, nearly all the time--by a bariatric specialist when I was early in my weight loss blogging. It scared me, but it made me want to be one of the few freaks who keep it off. The minority.

I'd blogged before about how it's the few, very few, who lose a lot and keep it off, barring those who have bariatric bypass, since they have much greater chances of keeping it off, but might suffer complications that are hard to live with later. (And we've all seen famous bypassers regain, like Carnie Wilson. We've seen fellow bloggers with some form of surgical intervention regain partly, sometimes back into obesity. It's not a guarantee, but it does have better stats.)

This was also one of the reasons I never aimed for THIN. Thin, I knew, just knew, was beyond me. I aimed for NOT OBESE. That's all. Just not obese. Just overweight.

And I'm here now. Not obese. Not Thin. Just overweight.

I have no idea if I'll be one of the very few who stay not obese. I want to be, but I'm not gifted with future-vision.

All I can do is remember that it's EASY to regain. What will happen if I get the wild hunger so many "losers" report after hitting target or near-target weight. The mad urge to eat that is verified by science--studies that show hunger hormones elevated in those who dieted, lost weight. Even a year later, amazingly, a year after not being on the tight caloric regimen, hunger hormones remain HIGH, and need for calories LOW. (Lower than never-fat folks at same weight.)

It's scary. Really scary.

It's unjust. Sure. We say that.

It's reality.

But don't despair. Do read this balanced response over at 180 Degree Health by Rob Archangel, and just assess where you are and where you can be and how you can improve in the various health areas.

Sometimes, we damage ourselves trying to get to a perfect weight, or an ideal weight, when what we need is just to be at a healthy place, and that healthy place might be at an overweight or even mildly obese place. (I cannot be convinced that serious obesity/morbid obesity can be a healthful place.)

I lost 3.4 lbs this past week in a not healthy way. It was effortless, but it was not WELLNESS.

Some would say, "Shut up, take your losses and celebrate."

I would, except that I want to be WELL, not thin. HEALTHY, not skinny. FULL OF ENERGY AND STRONG, not a size 6.

I'm a size 12/14/16 depending on who/the cut/the style. And I'm okay being here as long as I'm here with good habits--sound food and good movement--and not here doing weird stuff or stressing out or having disordered eating or just laying around and turning to skinny mush.

Rob Archangel is right. We want health. Let's do what is good for health, and not be yo-yo dieters or obsessive over-exercisers, destroying our joints, or life stifling food perfectionists, trapped in orthorexia and unable to even enjoy a dinner out with friends or a holiday celebration.

This isn't just a scale thing. This is a quality of life thing.

If we can't focus on anything else once a good amount of weight is gone, if we can't learn to eat in a sane way and maintain that sane way of eating and moving, then there's something wrong with whatever plan we have.  If the weight is bouncing up and down and up and down, then it might be doing more damage than just working on other issues until the weight can be addressed with more calmness and strategy.

Just jumping into a fad diet out of despair at not fitting into a fave outfit might mess you up.

Weight loss requires a lot of work and planning and discipline, and it requires MORE to keep it off. Be aware, you newbies. Take time to learn.

Yes, you, if you're just starting your journey to a healthier weight, please remember the odds are bleak, but YOU can be one of the few successful ones. Do it right. Eat well of real food, move without hurting yourself, rest, meditate/pray, have supportive people around you (online and off), and accept that it's a lifelong vigilance, lifelong good habits that increase our odds of making it into the minority that KEEPS weight off.

Now, with hope, we move on....to be well.

Goodnight.

BMI, average US Woman's stats, another milestone number to aim for, and "Hi" to all my future co-challengers in the next weight loss bloggy event for moi--Christmas Dress Countdown Challenge!

Tanita-san: 182.4

I loved seeing another half-pound down. I want to be in the 170s so badly. Another milestone will be hitting 172. For two reasons. It's the last weight at which I remember feeling truly sexy and good and flexible and well. Before the big illness hit and made me an invalid at 30, with miserable years thereafter soaked in black goo of depression and doctor visits, etc.

172 . I remember doing aerobics in my white shorts and white tank and feeling young and strong. 172. Milestone number in my brain. I wanna hit it.

Out of curiosity, I put 182 lbs (me now) and "172 lbs" (future me) in the BMI calculator to see what percentile that would put me in.

182 = 58th percentile
172 = 50th percentile (smack in the middle)

I then entered my goal weight to see where that would put me:

160 = 38th percentile (a much better place to be on that curve)

(I did hubby's stats on the calculator,  too, the man who's leaned out like mad on our lacto-primal-ish eating, and he's in the 11th percentile. Go, long and lean prince o' mine!)

I found this from the CDC about the average American woman's measurements:

Women:
Height (inches):   63.8
Weight (pounds):  164.7
Waist circumference (inches):   37.0

Nice to have a below average waist, when I'm above average in height (by 2 measly inches, though).  Not nice to see the average US woman is overweight. Unless she's an athlete, full of heavy bones and muscle, 5'4" and 165 lbs is hardly lean.

I make myself this promise: I will get BELOW average weight. Yeah, baby!

 Hello to the gals joining me in the Christmas Dress Countdown Challenge (henceforth, CDCC). As I mentioned in the comments section of in the rules post over at the CDCC blog, having a dress or outfit serves another purpose.

Ever have that week--those weeks--when the scale won't move but the body changes some, so you FIT BETTER in your clothes? Well, having a dress/outfit/coat/grass skirt/etc that you use for motivation is also having a tool to get you through the stalls. Cause if you are exercising, your body can still improve when the scale stalls. A dress can fit a little more even when the number stays the same on your home scale.

This is why it's a good tool. Visual. Tactile. And...a non-scale measure. Worth the investment. Motivation for less than 100 bucks. You can't get a life coach for that.

If you aren't already in a challenge and want some motivation-mojo to get through (most) of the year, go read the rules (see previous link for challenge blog) and see if it's the kind of challenge you CAN do and WILL do and are ready to do.

The blogroll on the right sidebar of the challenge blog is the roster of ladies already IN the ready-to-self-challenge for 14 weeks come September 11. View it here.

Fewer than 20% of Americans Get Recommended Exercise Levels...and where does the cycle start? Do YOU exercise?

Sitting here watching the ABC Evening News. There's a report on a study on exercise/obesity.

34% of us are obese. (I am. Severely obese. need to lose 7 pounds to just be plain "obese".)

Less than 20% get recommended exercise.

Of course, the states with least exercise are among those with the highest rates of obesity and diabetes. The ABC report is online now (just checked):

Regionally, the problems are even more pronounced. Inactivity runs rampant across the U.S. South and Appalachia, where nearly 30 percent of people reported that they do not get any physical exercise -- not even light activities such as golfing or gardening.

"That's probably even an underestimate of the real problem," said Dr. Antronette Yancey, a professor at UCLA who serves on a board that supports first lady Michelle Obama's "Let's Move" campaign. Yancey said that in self-reported data, participants often vastly overstate their actual activity.

Studies show that people  underestimate the calories they eat and overestimate their activity. So...we eat way too much and we move way too little. Not surprising, right?


What they don't correlate is: Which came first?

Do those of us who are obese stop moving cause we got fat from eating too much/too much crap? Or are they fat cause they stopped moving and are eating crap?

I use to exercise when I was normal weight and when I was "just overweight", dance a lot, bike, swim, etc...when I had the energy. As I got fatter and made poorer food choices, moving became HARD. Energy plummeted (especially as my hypothyroidism worsened). The fatter I got, the more painful/difficult it was to be on my feet, move. And the more self-conscious I got, the less I wanted to move.

I had to force myself against a huge wall of lethargy to start Pilates in 2008. It was defying my inertia, and it was hard, and some days the energy was so low, just getting going was an ordeal. I did little else...at home or weekends. It wasn't until I addressed my macronutrients in the summer of 2010 that I felt my energy change. A change in thyroid meds helped, too. (Not more, just a different combo). Energy began to increase.

For me, fixing the FOOD began to fix not just the weight but the ENERGY issue. I wanted to move suddenly. Not like a fidgety hyper person. Like a more NORMAL perosn.

So, they really need to LOOK into this.

Gary Taubes in WHY WE GET FAT puts the cause and effect the other way around. People get fat and stop moving, not that they don't move and get fat. He tags the obesity on a bad diet, which leads to low energy (he gives the science case studies where this happens in experimental animals....it's interesting stuff) and conservation of energy by not moving.  One review of the book notes this:

Taubes makes the very interesting point that obese people are sedentary not because they are lazy, but because their energy stores are locked up (insulin traps fat energy and makes it inaccessible).  They simply don't have enough energy to exercise and therefore don't want to.  I agree with this.  Our patients who lose weight become much more interested in moving. You only need to read a few weight loss blogs to see how frequently obese, sedentary people turn into avid exercisers, even marathoners. 

I noticed this. As I ate better and lost weight by dieting, I felt more energy and WANTED to do more.  It was changing the diet that was key to the energy that then led me to be able to pump up my activities.

It may just be a double-arrowed trend--goes both ways. BUT...I think people need to consider that moving less, doing less, sitting still may come about BECAUSE one got fat.....and then that feeds into more fatness cause the diet is out of whack and what we eat is just plain BAD for us (not just too much, but unhealthful).

If you wanna see the CDC report, HERE.

Well, just some thoughts....

If you have not incorporated regular (daily?) exercise into your weight loss/heath plan, why not?  What is your roadblock?

Mine was low energy. Totally no motivation due to lethargy. Pain in feet and knees (now hips) were a factor. For a while, my muscles were  a mess due to statins (pain ALL THE DAMN TIME). Off the statins, no chronic muscle pain, but my joints are kinda a mess from decades of obesity.

What prevents you from moving/sweating/walking/jogging/dancing/Pilates-ing/Yoga-ing/weight-lifting/surfboadring/biking?

And please look at yesterday's post to give feedback on what type of item you 'd like to see in a giveaway. So far, one person said "exercise or fitness item" and one said "gift certificate to Amazon." THANKS. :)

Considering WLS? Read this...

Here ya go.

What Successful "Losers" Do (no surprise, really)

Conclusion from a Brown Medical School study of people who have lost from 30 to 300 lbs and kept it off successfully (ie National Weight Control Registry cases):

DISCUSSION: The macronutrient composition of the diet of NWCR members has shifted over the past decade. Still, only a minority consumes a low-carbohydrate diet. Despite changes in the diet over time, the variables associated with long-term maintenance of weight loss were the same: continued consumption of a low-calorie diet with moderate fat intake, limited fast food, and high levels of physical activity.

I paid $149 to find out if I do better on low carb, low fat, or "balanced" type diet for weight loss!

Yep. I just sprang for a genetic test from INHERENT HEALTH.

I should have it in a week or so.

I should have results a couple weeks AFTER I send in my swab.

So, let's say 3 weeks or so until I know where I fall in the "best eating plan" continuum.

I had read reports earlier this year--what weight loss blogger didn't given how much it was reported in the media--of how a study on a number of women showed that there is a genetic basis for individuals doing better on a particular diet (low carb, low fat, balanced). Even Dr. Oz featured it.

If I had to guess, I'd say I'm a mixed/balanced diet gal. I answered a long test over a year ago in some book about metabolic type and I was "mixed." And then I came across this tonight:

Results from the Inherent Health line of genetic tests provide individuals with a clear understanding of their genetic profile as it relates to a particular health concern, a summary of the role those genes have on their present health and steps to improve their future health outcomes. Relating to nutrition, the article, "What's Your Diet DNA?--Find out fast and for free," appeared withing a larger article "Dr. Oz's Diet Breakthrough," that appeared in the August 9, 2010 issue of Woman's World (The date refers to how long the magazine is to be kept on news stands). In this article, is a questionnaire with 14 questions.

The people with apple shapes, flat derrieres, those who hate skipping meals, those struggling to not overeat sweets, those getting bloated or gassy from eating carbs, those with high blood pressure, diabetes, or heart disease in their families, those with a family history of high triglycerides (above 150) are classified in the article as needing to be on a low-carb diet.

Those classified as needing to be on a low-fat diet check off questions in the article as having a clear "pear body shape." The pear body shapes who need a low-fat diet (not a low-carb diet) check off questions asking whether they "have junk in their trunk," tend to skip meals, then pig out, have a struggle not to overeat high-fat foods such as bread and butter, chips with dips, pasta, and cream sauce.

My apple shape and flattish derriere says I should be "low carb", but I have a waist, too. I have HBP and flirted with diabetes. I HATE skipping meals, and like having my three regular ones and sometimes snacks. (I am snacking to keep protein up. If I didn't do that consciously, I'd skip snacks and have the "three round meals" of tradition.)  I don't get gassy from carbs. I sometimes crave sweet, but I mostly crave salty/cheesy/creamy/rich/savory. But I crave fatty rather than sweet--that list of bread and butter, chips and salsa and cream sauces has my  name on it! So, even with that mini-categorization, I'm mixed.

I've always been able to lose weight if I restrict calories, certainly, but when I did the high-carb/low-fat in the late 80's, I was constantly hungry. So, I think carbs really do open up my appetite, whereas fat and protein satiate me. But I can't imagine life without fruit and pasta. :(

What it comes down to is that I want to know for sure. I mean, I still have 91.8 pounds to go. I'd rather do it the most optimal way for my genetic type.

I will say that since I made a conscious effort to up protein and reduce carbs (without actually BEING lowcarb, as I do get 150+ carbs a day, but don't go over 200) has helped the appetite a lot. I am trying to get protein and carbs in balance, with a lower than some low-carbers do. I am not trying to be in ketosis--at all. Just to take some of the load off my pancreas and insulin-resistant system. :)

I have never seen a fatfighting blogger report using this test--if you know of one, drop me a link!--so I will certainly be reporting on the results here for anyone interested. Then, I'll tweak my eating plan accordingly.

If it makes the tough job of losing weight more targeted and faster and, maybe, easier, hey, it will be worth $149.

So, what type do you think you are? And would you pay that  much to know?

Cinnamon and Magnesium to reduce Inflammation and Insulin Resistance (and lessen diabetes onset risk)

I had written before about my use of cinnamon (and how I was able to avoid taking diabetes meds by making small changes in my diet in 2004, and that even without losing more than 5 lbs, getting sugar back to normal in lab tests after it had gone up to 121).

Well, I also take magnesium. I originally began taking it years ago for my asthma, then continued to take it happily when I read about how it's good for people at risk for diabetes.

If you'd like to read about some of the studies, go here.

While you should research what is best for you and your diet--and there are some conditions that would demand you stay away from certain supplements. Always research and check with your cod. But... I'll describe how I take my supplements. Take good note that I'm not a doctor and this is not a prescription for YOU. It's just how I take mine:

1. I try to add sprinkled cinnamon to something I eat during the day (usually my protein hotcakes at breakfast or sprinkled into of my milk.)

2. I buy Cinnergen (and have for years) and take it before a meal with carbs (like a pasta meal or if I have a sandwich or rice or a dessert.)

3. I take 400 mg of magnesium  glycinate (I buy the KAL brand and Iu sually break it up in two doses).  If I take a calcium supplement with vitamin D (cause I didn't have enough calcium rich foods that day), I'll take the magnesium WITH the calcium. This actually serves a dual purpose. The calcium aids magnesium absorption. And the magnesium can ease the constipation some folks get from calcium supplementation.

And I'm now so in the habit of taking these two, it's automatic. My brain thinks, "Oh, I'm having bread, lemme have some cinnamon. Oh, I'm having milk, lemme take my magnesium."

I keep a bottle of Cinnergen in the fridge next to the milk, so it's quick to grab if I'm making a meal with carbs (we love high fiber pasta here at home and sometimes I cannot resist a nice sauteed potato with eggs or with chopped steak).

I Wanna Be A Member of the "Five Percent Club!"

Quote from JOINING THE THIN CLUB by Judith Lederman:

"...according to the National Institutes of Health, 95 percent of people who lose large amounts of weight tend to regain it within the first three years of losing it. The number is smaller with patients who have lost weight through surgery, but it is still significant."

~~~