Sorry, no actual Fat Head post tonight.  I’m in the process of creating the video tutorials for a software package I developed, and getting the technical flow of it right wasn’t fun.  I use Camtasia Studio to record demonstrations of how to use the software, and while the video captures are crystal-clear, Camtasia is a mediocre video editor at best … and for some reason the final videos it produces are way fatter than they need to be.  But I still need to do some editing in Camtasia to add arrows and text callouts so my users know which part of the screen to watch.

Premiere Pro is a terrific video editor but doesn’t doesn’t capture computer screens, and while Demo Builder produces nicely compressed video with the navigation controls and interactive buttons I need, it’s beyond horrible as a video editor.  In short, to produce what I want, I have to use all three programs at various points in the process, plus Adobe Audition to record my voice-overs.

Getting a clean-looking video from one, to another, to yet another, then back again required about 14 hours’ worth of experimentation with frame rates, aspect ratios, compression codecs and all kinds of other technical nonsense.  Fortunately, I finally figured it all out.   If anyone ever creates a tutorial-making program that does everything well, from capture to editing to output, I’ll be the first in line to buy it.

So I’m too mentally wiped out to write.  Time to go take a long walk in the night air and listen to a book.  I’ll get back to being a smarty pants on Monday.  (Or, as a Swedish friend of mine once put it, “A pair of smarty pants.”)

A little over two years ago, I began uploading sample clips from Fat Head to YouTube. Since then, I’ve received some valuable information from people who disagree with my views on food choices and personal responsibility. For example, until quite recently I was unaware that I’m a chubby, balding, self-impressed idiot who is most definitely not funny. I’ve also learned that I have no @#$%ing idea what I’m talking about, that I need to get a life, and that I’m a @#$%ing moron.

But by far the most valuable insight I’ve picked up in online debates is that THOSE PEOPLE are incapable of making intelligent food choices and need help — preferably in the form of government regulations. That insight came as the result of exchanges along these lines:

Fine, smart guy, we all know nobody drags anybody into McDonald’s, but when they’re spending $4 billion per year on advertising, you can’t tell me it’s just a personal choice, especially since the food is addicting.

I’m sorry to hear about your addiction to McDonald’s food. How often do you find yourself eating at McDonald’s against your better judgment, unable to resist the power of their advertising?

I’m not talking about me! I know better than to eat that crap.

I see … so you’re talking about all those people who lack your superior intelligence and ability to resist persuasion?

@#$% you!

Or …

What’s the big deal with making restaurants put calorie counts on the menu boards? How are people supposed to lose weight if they don’t know how many calories are in the food?

So you’re telling me you’re incapable of turning over the placemat to read the calorie counts? Or checking them online? And by the way, do you actually need to see a calorie count to know that a Big Mac, large order of fries and a large coke is a fattening meal?

Not everyone is as well educated as I am. A lot of people are uninformed and need our help to make better decisions.

I’m sure they’ll be grateful that you’re willing to use your superior education to help them make better decisions.

@#$% you!

Even when Fat Head was still in production, my wife had a debate with a friend who was in favor of the lawsuit filed against McDonald’s by those two obese teenage girls. The friend agreed that most high-school kids are capable of figuring out that eating a full meal at McDonald’s between lunch and dinner can cause weight gain. She even agreed that when the girls started getting fat, their parents should have looked into the matter … but then to my wife’s astonishment, the friend went on to explain that she had been a teacher in the public schools, and a lot of “those people” don’t know any better.

I’ve never been sure who those people are, but since the do-gooders in society file so many lawsuits and enact so many regulations to protect those people, I figured someone should talk to those people and inquire how they feel about all the efforts being made on their behalf. The trouble is, those people are difficult to find.

While filming Fat Head, I conducted street interviews with whites, blacks, Latinos, Asians, old people, young people, native-born Americans, recent immigrants, and even some foreigners on vacation. (Natasha from Russia comes to mind.) None of them were those people. Even the obese people I interviewed weren’t those people — they all knew sodas and french fries are fattening, but told me they don’t really care.

Desperate to meet those people, I finally came up with a solution: I bought a huge email list and blasted out an email explaining that I’m a former high official in the Zimbabwean government who was recently targeted for imprisonment and certain death by president Robert Mugabe and therefore need to escape the country with the $22 million I have saved but can only transfer the money to an existing account in an American bank, the use of which is so valuable to me that I’ll happily pay a 10% commission. Sure enough, I was soon in touch with those people and able to conduct an interview:

Fat Head: I’d like to start by making sure you’ll put the 10% commission to good use.

Those People: Believe me, sir, the $22,000 won’t go to waste. First thing I’m going to do is–

Fat Head: Actually, 10% of $22 million is $2.2 million.

Those People: So … is that more?

Fat Head: A lot more.

Those People: Sorry. I’m incredibly stupid, especially at math. That’s why I’m always telling people, “Man, I wish someone would come up with some way to tell me what to eat where I only have to look at one number.”

Fat Head: I believe that’s coming soon to a Kroger near you.

Those People: Awesome.

Fat Head: Speaking of eating, that’s partly what I mean by “putting it to good use.” Now that money will no longer be an issue, will you finally start eating vegetables?

Those People: Absolutely. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve put carrots, spinach and broccoli into my grocery cart, then realized I could get a big bag of ranch-flavored potato chips, a half-dozen Little Debbie cupcakes, and a bottle of orange soda for a nickel or two less.

Fat Head: I see. So, let’s just say hypothetically the 10% commission takes some time to process. In the meantime, if your government raised the price of chips and soda and made it cheaper to eat broccoli, would that affect your dietary choices?

Those People: Yes, definitely. I don’t really consider taste when I’m choosing foods.  I go strictly by the cost.

Fat Head: And you’re not concerned about eating food that’s bad for you?

Those People: Say what?

Fat Head: Potato chips. Sodas. Cupcakes. Those are bad for you.

Those People: You’re kidding me. They’re not the same as broccoli and carrots?

Fat Head: No, what with all the sugar, and the hydrogenated oils, and-

Those People: Why the hell didn’t anyone ever tell me?!

Fat Head: Well…

Those People: I see that stuff advertised on TV all the time, and nobody ever said it was bad! They even showed people saying, “Mmm!  That’s good!”

Fat Head:  Tastes good, yes, but not good for you.

Those People:  I don’t get it.  How are those two any different?

Fat Head: Just out of curiosity, how much do you weigh?

Those People: A little over 350.

Fat Head: Can you put a more precise number on that?

Those People: No, my scale stops at 350.

Fat Head: I see. And are you male or female?

Those People: I can’t tell anymore. My boobs are more wide than long, if that helps.

Fat Head: Not really. But if you don’t mind me asking, do you mind being so overweight?

Those People: Are you nuts? I hate it. I keep getting bigger and bigger and bigger, and I have no idea why.

Fat Head: Well, let’s work on that. Suppose you spend some of that commission money eating out more often. You’ve got two choices in front of you: a grilled chicken salad or a deep-fried pizza. Which one should you order if you’re trying to lose weight?

Those People: Does the pizza have spinach on it?

Fat Head: It could.

Those People: Then I’m going with the pizza.

Fat Head: But the chicken salad is only 400 calories, and the pizza is more like 2,000 calories and a whole lot of starch.

Those People: Why didn’t you tell me that from the start?

Fat Head: You couldn’t guess just by looking at them?

Those People: Well, maybe if the fried pizza had a big label on it that said something like EATING THIS COULD MAKE YOU FAT.

Fat Head: I see your point. Speaking of labels, the FDA in your country has announced plans to force food manufacturers to start putting their nutrition labels on the front of the package. Will that make you more likely to pay attention to it? Is it really that difficult for Americans to pick up the package and read the label on the back?

Those People: There are nutrition labels on the back on the package?

Fat Head: Well, some of them are on the side, but–

Those People: For Pete’s sake, I can’t be turning boxes around and around every which way to find the labels. No wonder I didn’t know about the cupcakes.

Fat Head: So if the label is right there in your face when you go shopping, you’ll start choosing lower-calorie foods and lose weight?

Those People: I most definitely will, sir. But what’s this got to do with my commission for helping you escape Zimbabwe?

Fat Head: Uh … I’m trying to get a sense of my future countrymen.

Those People: Just because they’re more wide than long, I don’t think you can assume–

Fat Head: Future fellow citizens, then. Anyway, the research on low-calorie diets is quite clear: 98% of the people who try them fail to lose weight and keep it off. And those are people who made a conscious decision to restrict their calories. So why do you believe having the calorie count held up in front of your face when you’re shopping for food or ordering at a restaurant will inspire you to lose weight?

Those People: You lost me.

Fat Head: At what point?

Those People: Back there at “conscious decision.” I never took Latin.

Fat Head: Okay, I’ll try again. People have tried very hard to lose weight by cutting calories. They read labels, even if they have to turn the package around to find it. They check the nutrition menus in fast-food restaurants. They look up information online. They limit their calories on purpose. And yet 98% of them don’t become any thinner.

Those People: Man, that sucks.

Fat Head: Indeed. So what I’m asking is, if the vast majority of people who want to lose weight can’t do it by counting calories on purpose, do you really believe you’ll change your eating habits and lose weight permanently just because your government makes sure you see the calorie counts almost by accident?

Those People: Yes, absolutely.

Fat Head: But that makes no sense whatsoever.

Those People: I warned you: I’m incredibly stupid.

Fat Head: Fair enough. By the way, you never finished telling me what you plan to do with the $22,000.

Those People: I’m going to build a shed out back and stock it with Little Debbie cupcakes.

Fat Head: I thought I just explained that those are bad for you.

Those People: Yeah, but while we were talking, I saw a commercial on TV that said they’re really good. I believe everything I see on TV.

Fat Head: Then you probably believe Crestor can save you from having a heart attack.

Those People: That’s right.

Fat Head: Enjoy your cupcakes.

I figured in the age of YouTube, it would only be a matter of days before footage of the recent flood would be available online. These are videos taken here in Franklin.  Some areas in Nashville were flooded much worse than this … a friend of a friend ended up with five feet of water in his house.

You can see why I feel so fortunate our house wasn’t flooded.

I frequently receive emails or comments from people who’ve seen Fat Head, asking me to provide information which, as it so happens, is often already available on this blog. I’m not complaining, mind you; I don’t click every link on every blog I visit either. But since these are common questions, I thought I’d answer them here and point out some links many readers may not have noticed.

I’d like to see the food log from your fast-food diet.  Is it available?

If I had a top-ten questions list, this would definitely be number one. Yes, my food log is available. It’s been over there in the Helpful Links section since day one. Unlike certain other documentary filmmakers (ahem, ahem), I’m not afraid to show you what I actually ate.

At the end of Fat Head, you went on a saturated-fat pigout diet for a month, but you didn’t say if you lost any weight. Did you gain or lose?

My bad. The purpose of that month was to see what effect pigging out on saturated fat while eliminating sugar and starch would have on my cholesterol. It was a sort of challenge put to me by Dr. Mike Eades, who told me off-camera I could prove for myself that the Lipid Hypothesis was wrong. I ate a lot of food, didn’t count calories, and didn’t exercise much at all because I was traveling quite a bit for business. But to answer the question, I lost another two pounds. I didn’t mention that in the film because it was the cholesterol score that mattered, at least to me. (If you haven’t seen the film — and why the heck not?! — my total cholesterol and LDL dropped, while my HDL went up. Just what Dr. Mike predicted.)

Have you kept the weight off that you lost while filming Fat Head?

Nope. I’ve kept the fat off. There’s a difference. I went down to 194 lbs. on the fast-food diet, then down to 192 after the saturated-fat pigout diet. Once I started lifting weights using Fred Hahn’s Slow Burn method, I went back up over 200 even as my pants got a little looser. At the end of the 6-Week Cure diet, I weighed 195. Now I’m at 200, but my waist is the same size as when I weighed 195 in November. As long as I keep lifting weights and watching my diet, I’m not really concerned with reaching some magical number on the scale.

Do you have any sources for your claim that there’s no real scientific proof saturated fat and cholesterol cause heart disease? (I get that one a lot, sometimes phrased in not-very-polite terms that involve references to bovine droppings.)

Naw, I made it up. Seemed like a cool idea for a film. Yes, yes, yes, there’s a ton of literature out there supporting the claim. If you’re not up to reading Good Calories, Bad Calories, you can at least check the Recommended Reading links over there in the sidebar. A few of my favorites are:

Gary Taubes: The Soft Science of Dietary Fat
Gary Taubes: What If It’s All Been A Big Fat Lie?
Dr. Malcolm Kendrick on the Cholesterol Myths
What if “bad” fat is really good for you?

Those are some of the articles I stumbled across when I first started doing research for the film. Up until then, I hadn’t really planned for Fat Head to delve into what’s wrong with the standard nutrition advice. After reading the articles, I went a little nuts ordering books and downloading articles.

Where do you find low-carb recipes? Why don’t you post recipes?

I’m not really a recipe guy. I’m a seat-of-the-pants cook. I cook, taste, and add flavors as I go. (So does my five-year-old. She recently tasted some homemade soup and informed my wife it needed a bit more salt and some cumin.)

But there are good recipes on other sites I have linked:

NZ Low Carb Info and Recipes
Low-Carb Cooking (New Zealand)
Well Done Chef!

If anyone out there knows of other sites with good low-carb recipes, do tell. I don’t have them linked, but I’d also highly recommend a couple of low-carb cookbooks that my wife uses frequently. The biggest complaint I hear about low-carb diets is the lack of variety. Well, sure, if you do nothing but rotate eggs, steaks and cheeseburgers, it’s going to get boring. So don’t. Get these books and go to town.

Carb Wars, by Judy Barnes Baker (The moussaka is awesome.)

1001 Low-Carb Recipes, by Dana Carpender (Two words: barbeque sauce! Seriously, if you can’t find something you like in a book that contains a thousand recipes, it’s time to just give up and go back to killing yourself with sugar.)

How did you manage to marry that woman? (Yes, people have actually emailed to ask me that question. Maybe I should feel insulted …)

The short answer: no idea. But a friend and former co-worker named Amy once offered an explanation:  Amy knew me when I was engaged to another woman I’ll call Melanie. To put it mildly, the engagement didn’t work out well … mostly because just about the time I thought I was finished dealing with all the baggage Melanie was carrying around from childhood, it turned out she owned an entire storage facility I knew nothing about. So when I met my wife a couple of years later and wondered how I got so lucky, Amy said, “I think it’s God apologizing for Melanie.”

That’s as good an explanation as any other.

Instead of writing a post today, I’ll be catching up on the work I had planned for the weekend.  As you may have seen on the news, this part of Tennessee experienced near-biblical levels of rainfall – up to 15 inches in downtown Nashville.  

The thunderstorms began early Saturday morning and didn’t stop until Sunday evening.  I haven’t seen so much rain since the 1998 El Nino storms in Los Angeles.  I shut down all the computers as lightning struck the area over and over, and even when the computers were on, I was a bit too distracted to get any work done.

As if the rain weren’t enough, a few twisters touched down in the area.  The tornado alarms sounded twice here in Franklin on Saturday.  We cleared out a closet in the center of the house as our go-to place, just in case.  By Sunday, people were forced to flee the rising waters in some parts of town. 

These are photos of the flood in Franklin.  Fortunately, our subdivision is on a hill so the waters didn’t reach us, although the playground at a nearby grade school was overrun by the Harpeth river. 

Pinkerton Park, where my girls like to play.

As bad as it was in Franklin, some areas had it far worse.  This last photo is from an area north of Nashville.