And that’s assuming it’s all about the calories. If he eats too much sugar, he probably won’t gain any slower.

It’s like in that commercial for Splenda. They use the 100 calorie example, because Splenda is 0 calories. First of all, it’s assuming you’re eating 100 calories of straight, granulated sugar in the first place. Second of all, what I’ve always found funny, is that they say “…which can HELP you lose UP TO ten pounds in a year”, a.k.a. you can lose ten pounds in a year but there’s a very slight chance.

Lol

I was just wondering, what about the sodium content of your foods. I know fast food has a LOT of sodium. I would’ve thought sodium would have effects on your blood pressure.

Or is this more bologna?

Sodium only seems to raise blood pressure in people whose kidneys are damaged, something like 1/5 of all people with high blood pressure. For the majority of us, it’s not an issue. In clinical studies, cutting sodium intake drastically has reduced blood pressure by just two or three points — hypertensive people with kidney damage being the exception.

Your problem is that you save 100 calories by leaving off the mayo, but then make up for it by eating more of something else. If you don’t count calories, how will you know?

So what YOU need to do is figure out exactly how many calories you are actually eating, and come up with an honest estimate of how many you actually burn. Then make a cut in your consumption, while getting some more exercise. You might find that 100 calories less per day really is enough, but you must be honest with yourself about your caloric intake.

That most normal people don’t have to count calories to maintain a healthy weight is irrelevant to what YOU have to do.

Normal-weight people will lose weight if they eat less. It happens all of the time. Why wouldn’t that apply to fat people?

If insulin-resistant people (most obese folks are insulin-resistant) don’t bring down their insulin levels, they literally can’t burn their body fat for fuel — high insulin blocks the fatty acids from exiting their fat cells. So if they simply eat less, their bodies experience a fuel shortage and react by slowing down their metabolisms. That’s the last thing a fat person needs. Without addressing the insulin problem, pretty much any diet they try will fail.

Normal-weight people usually are NOT insulin-resistant (thus the normal weight), so yes, if they eat less, they lose a little weight. Then they assume if eating less works for them, it should work for their fat friends. But it simply isn’t true.

Anorexics often start out at a normal weight and then lose weight as they take in fewer calories. What wouldn’t that same phenomenon apply to fat people?

If you don’t like eating sandwiches without mayo, then stop eating so many sandwiches. That would be a start. You might try getting some actual exercise while you are at it.

And no, most normal people don’t count calories, but maybe YOU should.

It would be nice if losing weight were that simple. But mountains of research say it ain’t so. In their own scientific journals, obesity researchers admit that the calories-in/calories-out equation simply doesn’t hold true for most fat people. Calorie-restricted diets have about 1% success rate over time. If the insulin imbalance that drove fat accumulation in the first place isn’t addressed, the body will simply adjust to the lower food intake and continue to fight to maintain the fat stores.

It’s pricey but try guanciale. It’s extremely fatty, indulgent and I bet your kids would love it.

I loved your documentary, it was the best thing I’ve watched in ages. Will definitely be recommending it to everyone I can. From a person with a postgraduate chemistry degree, the science aspect was great and very well presented from someone that (I presume) is a relative scientific layperson.

As one of the University orientation events in my first (Freshman) year we were subjected to watch Supersize Me, which I was very critical of at the time (and even more so now). I think half the reason that people grasped so hungrily (pardon the pun) at Supersize Me was that many people hate (for better or worse) big chain corporations, therefore it gave them vindication.

I am 179cm and 63kg (roughly 5″10 and 130-140lbs). I live on a diet heavy in cheese, meat, eggs, butter, milk, oils etc and have done for some time, as well as being reasonably active. I have had annual blood and fitness tests as I believe “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it”. Always had perfect cholesterol and blood sugars so never felt compelled to change. Maybe there’s something more to it than good genetics…

Keep up the good work.

Lovin’ hearing from all these “kiwi converts”! Yes, they also show Super Size Me in high school health classes in the U.S., which just galls me. You’d think at least one teacher would question the math. But I think you’re spot-on; people love having their hatred of large corporations validated.

I am a scientific layperson. But I’m also a software programmer, so at least the math in a scientific paper doesn’t scare me off.

Yup, that is (unfortunately) a common result of those low-fat, high-carb diets. You get insulin spikes, the insulin tells your body to store more fat, and you gain weight, or fail to lose weight despite the restricted calories. I’m amazed that the Diabetes groups still diabetics to eat food that metabolizes into sugar.

kindest regards
Sue

I’m delighted to hear about your results. Dr. Jay Wortman developed type II diabetes in his 40s, cut his carbs down to nearly zero, and was able to give up all the medications. We have a link to his blog in our Links section.

Check the Recommended Reading section if you haven’t already. We list some excellent books there. I chose to turn this topic into a film, but I love books, and a film can only cover a fraction of what a book can.

From February to December last year I followed a low carb eating plan and lost 50kg (well over 100 pounds). One sister lost 40kg, another lost 20-something kg. In my case my fasting glucose also dropped from ‘pre-diabetic’ to ‘normal’.

Everything you said matched my own experience of the past year. Oh, and I also exercised a lot during that time with som pretty intence weight training with no problems whatsoever. In fact it’s only been the last few weeks since I have ‘relaxed’ and allowed more carbs back into my diet that I have struggled with lightheadedness and my body not being able to work as it should during a workout – I guess there’s a lesson there! So I’m back to my low carb plan as of this morning. And even better, husband and daughter are keen to cut their carbs this time too

All the best
Tracey

Glad you liked the film, and congratulations on the impressive weight loss. If you get a chance to see “My Big Fat Diet,” about the native Canadians who lost weight and improved their health after giving up sugar and starch and returning to their native diet — which is full of fatty meat — it’s pretty instructive. One poor woman had tried Jenny Craig, Weight Watchers, etc., and barely lost any weight, despite being hungry all the time. She swears she wasn’t cheating. Then she cut the carbs and lost 60 pounds.

BTW, have you come across any food apps which cater to a low-carb style diet? After watching the film, my wife downloaded a diet tracker for the Mac and when I put 250g of bacon into it, a big red alert came up saying that bacon is verboten because the government says so.

And there is no way I’m giving up bacon.

I’m not aware of any low-carb software applications, but I haven’t looked.

Give up bacon? Never!