How Can I Lose Weight?

[Johnny Storm]

You do not need carbs. The things you need are:

Carbohydrates are in no way essential.

So you are going to live just on fat and protein then. This is Atkins, which can cause kidney problems and stinky breath. Good for losing weight rapidly, but not a long term healthy eating plan.

Lets not forget vegetables are carbs, fibre tends to be from carbs too.

[deadman]

Lots and lots of great advice lads.

I'd still just rather eat a balanced diet and work out regularly though.

[Guest Skinty]

I used to have an alcohol and chocolate diet as a student who didn't know any better. Not deliberately, it's just something I used to live on and as a consequence I became underweight (BMI less than 18) Eat white bread and refined cereals to bulk out your stomach when you get hunger pangs and to help you poo. Vitamin tablets to stop depression and to make up for any deficiencies. The chocolate helps perk you up if you are feeling down, getting tired or are suffering from hypoglycemia.

Don't drink beer as that puts weight on, drink something like vodka, alcopops or whisky. Fizzy is good as it expands your stomach. After a while you will find that you can no longer get drunk.

Not that I recommend it in any way, shape or form.

[cells]

Be wary of taking vitamin pills.

You can get too much of a vitamin which will result in vitamin poisoning.

If you live in the uk, unless you have a very very poor diet there is no need to take vitamin pills and you could be overdoing it.

[cells]

A very low carb diet which gets you into Ketosis can cause stinky breath I am not sure about the kideny problems or any long term problems associated with a ketonic diet though.

You actually can live quite a healthy life without any carb nourishment whatsoever. There are many case studies of groups that have lived with zero carbs eg Inuits, Eskimos etc. There are also case studies on what ahppened to these groups when they were introduced to a high carb diet.

There are quiet a few people now on a zero carb diets as in they only eat meat and drink water and thats it.

You learn something new everyday.

Seems low carb puts your liver into overdrive.

If the diet is changed from a highly glycemic diet to a diet that does not provide sufficient carbohydrate to replenish glycogen stores, the body goes through a set of stages to enter ketosis. During the initial stages of this process the adult brain does not burn ketones, however the brain makes immediate use of this important substrate for lipid synthesis in the brain. After about 48 hours of this process, the brain starts burning ketones in order to more directly utilize the energy from the fat stores that are being depended upon, and to reserve the glucose only for its absolute needs, thus avoiding the depletion of the body's protein store in the muscles.

Whether ketosis takes place can be checked by using special urine test strips such as Ketostix.

[cells]

Dont know about the overdrive bit.

Well it seems to be doing a lot more than usual.

Ketone bodies, from the breakdown of fatty acids to acetyl groups, are also produced during this state, and are burned throughout the body. Excess ketone bodies will slowly decarboxylate into acetone. That molecule is excreted in the breath and urine. When glycogen stores are not available in the cells (glycogen is primarily created when carbohydrates such as starch and sugar are consumed in the diet), fat (triacylglycerol) is cleaved to give 3 fatty acid chains and 1 glycerol molecule in a process called lipolysis. Most of the body is able to utilize fatty acids as an alternative source of energy in a process where fatty acid chains are cleaved to form acetyl-CoA, which can then be fed into the Krebs Cycle. It is important to note that acetyl-CoA can only enter the Krebs Cycle bound to oxaloacetate. When carbohydrate supplies are inadequate, however, the liver naturally converts oxaloacetate to glucose via gluconeogenesis for use by the brain and other tissues. When acetyl CoA does not bind with oxaloacetate, the liver converts it to ketones (or ketone bodies), leading to a state of ketosis. During this process a high concentration of glucagon is present in the serum and this inactivates hexokinase and phosphofructokinase-1 (regulators of glycolysis) indirectly, causing most cells in the body to use fatty acids as their primary energy source. At the same time, glucose is synthesized in the liver from lactic acid, glucogenic amino acids, and glycerol, in a process called gluconeogenesis. This glucose is used exclusively[clarification needed] for energy by cells such as neurons and red blood cells.

[montesquieu]

Don't worry about being obese. What they don't tell you is - drink enough beer and eat enough chips and pizza with cheese injected into the crust, and you get a free mobility car as well as a ride in the buggy whenever you go to the airport.

Comes with all sorts of other benefits like a blue badge so you can park anywhere. (Though if you are any kind of self-respecting chav you do that anyway especially at Tesco).

Being a fat B***RD has its advantages you know.

[CrashedOutAndBurned]

There are loads of options.

1. Gluten-free vegan.

2. Paleo diet.

3. Low carb (but fruits and veg are fine) but wholefoods-based not Akins fry-ups.

All the diets that work are based on real whole foods and limit/exclude 'beige foods' -chips, potato, bread, crisps, etc.

Grains and other starches were only introduced as a form of 'mass feeding' in slave societies for very short period of human evolution so we don't cope with them well and they get pushed to the margins of our bodies as flab.

[ong]

On the exercise front - go to a Salsa dance class.

You get a huge amount of exercise but don't notice the effort cos its great fun.

Good mental stimulation to learn and follow the routines.

You also get to meet lots of nice ladies.!

[HAIR BEAR CRUNCH]

Stop eating burgers. bla bla.

Interested to hear from people who really have been successful at losing weight and keeping it off, how they did it. Or even those who have friends or family who have done the same.

Need to lose 15 to 20 kilos!

EAT NOTHING BUT WATERMELON DURING THE MORNING, THEN MISO SOUP WITH SEAWEED IN THE AFTERNOON FOR A WEEK SEE HOW U GET ON. STOMACH WILL SHRINK THEN CHECK BACK WITH ME

[hedgefunded]

I'm not fatty but I lost 1.5 stones in 4 months.

I was 13 stones and now I'm 11.5

Nothing complicated, just gave up alcohol, stopped eating crap and a trip to the gym five days per week.

[Doom Lord]

A very low carb diet which gets you into Ketosis can cause stinky breath I am not sure about the kideny problems or any long term problems associated with a ketonic diet though.

You actually can live quite a healthy life without any carb nourishment whatsoever. There are many case studies of groups that have lived with zero carbs eg Inuits, Eskimos etc. There are also case studies on what ahppened to these groups when they were introduced to a high carb diet.

What they found with the Inuits is that the nutrients needed to balance out the diet come from all the bits of the animals that we don't tradiionally eat in west I.E the offal.

This is the diet our bodies spent millions of years evolving with where as the high card diet has only been with us for around 40,000 years and some of the new stuff that is being put into our foods 60 years.

[profitofdoom]

Thats not strictly true. All calories are not equal and it has been shown that people who eat less refined carbs and more protein lose more weight than someone having the exact same number of calories of refined carbs.

I think it is as complicated as rocket science, I mean if it was so simple why do we have a population getting fatter and fatter?

I agree with you on the "dont call it a diet" bit though, its best to think of it as long term healthy eating plan.

This idea of the nation getting fatter and fatter is IMHO a misleading one.To begin with I think you can divide the population into those with a potential weight problem and those without.My father and Mrs P both scoff whatever they want and don't put on any weight at all.I think that this fast burn metabolism probably means that maybe a third of the population will never get fat.

As for the rest of us we divide into those who care and those who don't.Those of us who care are constantly looking for ways to keep our weight down and stay fit have mixed success.In my case I won't become obese because (And I know you say I am on the cusp here) whenever I get breathless walking up a long hill I think "Time to lose half a stone". I just won't allow my weight to go above 100kg on a permanent basis.It might foir example over christmas but then I sort it.

If I had the Full English every day,ate chocolate,cheese and chips several times a week I could probably go to 150kg but I have the will power to prevent that happening.Similarly if I sat down after my evening meal and though I will watch telly instead of going for a 4 mile walk my weight would go up.It depends on your motivation and your desire not to be obese.

[cells]

Rest assured and as mentioned in the article it is a completely natural process. Modern naturopaths and quacksget a bit funny about it but it is completely natural.

Not to be confused with ketoacidosis which is not a good state to be in.

Dont forget we have only been eatiing high carbs for a relatively recent and very short period in our evolutionary duration some say as little as 1%. Low carb is what we evolved with.

Well a low/no carb diet would basically be pure meat.

I cant see that being healthy.

If you want to talk evolution, I would presume our very old ancestors were mostly plant eaters. After all we have molars and not carnassials teeth like pure meat eaters.

So you could say we have been eating forms of carbs for far longer than meat and have been eating meat longer than farmed grains. Overall it would suggest carbs are more natural than meat.

I would say you should look at the diets of wild monkeys. They do eat meat but they eat a lot of carbs in the form of fruits, vegs, nuts, plants.

[cells]

Why not ?

I don’t know, just the thought of eating nothing but meat is off-putting.

But as I said, we have molars unlike pure meat eaters, which have carnassials teeth suggesting we have been eating plants for a very long time.

[Moo]

Interested to hear from people who really have been successful at losing weight and keeping it off, how they did it. Or even those who have friends or family who have done the same.

Crass as it sounds, but "eat less and do more exercise" is pretty much it. Unless you happen to be one of those jammy buggers who's pretty much immune to excess blubber* regardless of lifestyle, it really is a case of just doing the obvious. As far as keeping it off is concerned, it's the rather boring "keep doing the obvious". Don't bother with anything faddish as you'll almost certainly not be able to stick to it. Also, don't rush it. If the weight's coming off slowly and your life isn't being messed up, just try and keep it that way.

Personally I'd advocate the "eat less" bit first, as that's generally very easy to do, especially if you're the type who can put up with being a hungry for a bit. If that ain't shifting it (and give it a few weeks to kick in), then you may have to resort to "more exercise", which is often easier said than done. Okay, that's very much a case of what works for me, more out of necessity than the quest for a perfect solution, as I'm rather limited in the exercise I can do... thanks to me killing my knees off as a teenager by taking (as it turned out) far too much exercise.

* Have shared a flat with two of them over the years, so nothing's ever going to convince there isn't a genetic element to this. In one case, had I lived said person's lifestyle, I would now be about the size of a Fiat Panda.

[King Stromba]

So you are going to live just on fat and protein then. This is Atkins, which can cause kidney problems and stinky breath. Good for losing weight rapidly, but not a long term healthy eating plan.

Lets not forget vegetables are carbs, fibre tends to be from carbs too.

Please show me the evidence that eating no carbohydrates causes kidney problems in healthy individuals.

Please show me the evidence that eating vegetables improves health.

[King Stromba]

People often confuse:

Ketoacidosis - a serious condition of extremely high levels of ketone bodies in diabetics that causes the blood pH to drop to damgerous levels.

And

Ketosis - a perfectly natural condition that has no proven health complications.

The levels of ketone bodies under normal low carb diets in healthy people are natural and physiologically normal. The body can maintain homeostsis indefinately in ketosis (but not ketoacidosis).

[Johnny Storm]

Please show me the evidence that eating no carbohydrates causes kidney problems in healthy individuals.

Please show me the evidence that eating vegetables improves health.

What am I, Google? I'll humour you this time.

http://www.atkinsexposed.org/atkins/41/Kidney_Scarring.htm

Chair of Medical Affairs, Paul W. Crawford, M.D., wrote, "We have long suspected that high-protein weight loss diets could have a negative impact on the kidneys, and now we have research to support our suspicions."

http://www.atkinsexposed.org/atkins/40/Cancer.htm

The most comprehensive report on diet and cancer in history was published in 1997. It took over four years to complete, reviewing 4500 studies from thousands of researchers across the globe--a landmark scientific consensus document written by the top cancer researchers in the world. After all that work, what was their number one recommendation? "Choose a diet that is predominantly plant based, rich in a variety of fruits, vegetables, nuts, and beans with minimally processed starchy foods."[491] In other words, essentially the opposite of the Atkins Diet.

Im sure you can equally find links disproving these, but thats what the internet is like.

As I said, it can work as a short term way to lose weight. However, its not a long term healthy eating plan. Any diet that focuses on just one food group or type of food is an unhealthy fad diet.

[pathfinder]

On the exercise front - go to a Salsa dance class.

You get a huge amount of exercise but don't notice the effort cos its great fun.

Good mental stimulation to learn and follow the routines.

You also get to meet lots of nice ladies.!

I agree, I took up Balboa 2 years back brill fun. Plenty of jazz/band and beer festivals going on (okay beer may not help ). That skill opened up dancing to any band in sight (not rubber). That took the fat off. Quite important fact about balboa you can dance to blues, rock n roll upto jigs (did 300 bpm once frikin nackard but got an applause lol). Also there are lots of great, happy, cheerful women to dance with. If your lady/other half isnt drag them along, they will be!

Then I took up cycling thats starting to finish the job. So now i can do a 30 mile cycle round trip in the countryside with my partner and my mate, get hammered on ESB sober up eating dinner. Bust a gut dancing for 3 1/2 hours in a pub and enjoy a fast cycle home on empty roads at 11:30 at night. Did that saturday in fact pure bliss, beats watching the tv, playing games, cinema.

Home cooking from scratch is probably the only other thing i can think off. Lots of naughties even in the pre made sauces.

[AteMoose]

eat smaller portions and go for walks in the countryside/take up a new hobby (rock climbing, dancing, other sport)

[Imminent_plunge]

As a long-term aim, no matter which advice you take and how you intend to lose it, please accept that like house price inflation, putting on one or two lbs in a week is not 'green shoots' for your weight. If, you're determined, the long-term trend is downwards.

IT'S NOT A WEIGHT RECOVERAH!

[cells]

Give blood?

Probably even more effective just after a big meal. Transfer the calories to the receiving party.

[King Stromba]

What am I, Google? I'll humour you this time.

http://www.atkinsexposed.org/atkins/41/Kidney_Scarring.htm

http://www.atkinsexposed.org/atkins/40/Cancer.htm

Im sure you can equally find links disproving these, but thats what the internet is like.

As I said, it can work as a short term way to lose weight. However, its not a long term healthy eating plan. Any diet that focuses on just one food group or type of food is an unhealthy fad diet.

I asked for evidence and you have told me the opinion of some medical guy and a study that does not conclude that vegetables are good for the health. How do we know that the sort of people who eat vegetables are not also they type of people to exercise more, or practice yoga etc? Why does an almost total lack of vegetable matter in the Innuit diet provide them with a very healthy lifestyle?

The main problem with the Atkins diet is that doctors and the nutritional pseudoscientists dont like the fact that it suggests all their low carb diet mumbo jumbo to be total rubbish in the eyes of the people they love to baffle and control with big words. It upsets the big corporate modern scientific gravy train you see.

[cells]

I asked for evidence and you have told me the opinion of some medical guy and a study that does not conclude that vegetables are good for the health. How do we know that the sort of people who eat vegetables are not also they type of people to exercise more, or practice yoga etc? Why does an almost total lack of vegetable matter in the Innuit diet provide them with a very healthy lifestyle?

The main problem with the Atkins diet is that doctors and the nutritional pseudoscientists dont like the fact that it suggests all their low carb diet mumbo jumbo to be total rubbish in the eyes of the people they love to baffle and control with big words. It upsets the big corporate modern scientific gravy train you see.

It is quite interesting. Would a diabetic be diabetic if they eat no carbs and only meat so the body goes into Ketosis?