<p>silly me…all that posting about extreme dieting prompted me to post something I would NEVER do. I think I might gag on an egg mcmuffin…lol. My son likes them though! </p>
<p>Anyway, is it true that eating grapefruit or celery causes you to burn more calories than you ingest? I could use some food like that :)</p>
<p>Do what longprime suggests. Blackberries, figs and prunes are chock full of fiber. Any weight loss diet should include about 40 grams of fiber per day. This allows you to eat a few more calories.</p>
<p>why thankyou, Hmom5. However the diet I mentioned was over a two hour span. Not recommended unless you have a scheduled “once every five year exam.” or prior to weigh in’s.</p>
<p>The summer I swam a 1/2 mile every day I felt like I was eating like football player during training season. Breakfast & lunch were more or less normal, but I think I ate two dinners. :D</p>
<p>It is so sad that a meat/fish serving the size of a deck of cards is now considered appropriate. I can easily eat 4 times that amount (and I’m a small woman, except for my stomach). Now that I’m 50 though, I have to cut down on eating (my favorite form of exercise). It’s kind of amazing how little food I actually need to maintain my weight. If only I had the discipline, I would save tons of $$.</p>
<p>As for exercise, I’m a newly devoted fan of the elliptical trainer. It seems to be the most efficient machine in the gym for calorie burning. Also, it doesn’t hurt my knees like the treadmill. I’ve only been doing it for 20-30 minute stretches though. Based on this thread, it sounds like I need to up that to at least an hour. Ugh.</p>
<p>There’s a book currently on the bestseller lists called The End Of Overeating by a former head of the FDA. It discusses the science behind why we overeat and the need to change brain chemistry to effectively stop doing so.</p>
<p>As mousegray said, 4 oz. of meat looks obscenely small to most of us. That’s because we go to restaurants where they often slap a pound of meat on the plate. The book talks about the restaurant Chili’s and their 800 calorie appetizers and 1200 calorie burger platters.</p>
<p>I had to change the way I ate after an injury that prevented exercise. True to what the book says, it was painful for a few weeks, but then the brain chemistry changes and it became no problem.</p>
<p>I just ordered Good Calorie, Bad Calorie by Gary Taubes. Saw him on Larry King. He says that SOME folks are not able to eat carbohydrates w/o getting fat due to a genetically driven biochemical makeup. Not sure I agree with everything he says but he does back it up with science. I’ll wait till I read the book. Here are his key points: </p>
<ul>
<li>Obesity is primarily caused by an genetically influenced hormonal defect
<ul>
<li>Exercise does not lead to clinically significant weight loss — it leads to hunger</li>
<li>Heart disease is not caused by excess fat consumption, it is caused by excess consumption of carbohydrates and elevated levels of insulin</li>
<li>The body is a complex homeostatic machine that will adapt to changes in the input. If you eat less, your metabolism slows down. If you eat more, it speeds up. You can no more grow fatter by overeating than you can grow taller — both items are controlled by hormones</li>
<li>Cause and effect have been confused by researchers: lethargy and overeating are not causes of obesity, they are symptoms of it (at the cellular level obese people are physically starving — the calories them consume get shunted away into fat cells before other cells can make use of the energy)</li>
</ul></li>
</ul>
<p>toneranger, you make it sound so hopeless. It sounds like this fellow is saying that there’s nothing you can do; it’s pre-ordained; just suck it up.</p>
<p>Yeah, I think he might be a bit extreme. I’ll wait to see the details in the book.
But from what he said on Larry King, it’s more that some people (not all) are genetically predisposed to have insulin problems when they eat carbs – especially refined carbs like white rice, bagels, cookies. This leads to metabolic syndrome, which then leads usually to diabetes.
His point is the only way to short circuit this is to avoid junky carbs…eat mostly fish, meats, veggies. Forget the low fat cookies. A tall order for most.
All I can say is that SOMETHING is wrong given the rising levels of obesity in this country. Maybe it is that folks are eating more but it may be that they’re eating more cause the food is junk…and isn’t satisfying them.</p>
<p>veryhappy,
I do not care much for meat / chicken at all, I have it few times a month. I wish I can stick to chocholate bar the size proposed for meat. That would work for me. Oh, well…</p>
<p>Fascinating subject…scientists are learning more and more about these complexities. I heard one theory that fat-loving bacteria in our gut release chemicals that drive us to crave fatty foods. Sort of tiny intelligent (and evil) parasites. :D</p>
<p>Another story on the radio mentioned people aren’t cooking for themselves anymore. They’re either eating out or eating frozen dinners from the grocery store.</p>
<p>So we’re basically eating what corporations want us to eat…beef fattened on corn, bread from white wheat flour, and soybeans, high fructose corn syrup, and oil. And lots of salt.</p>
<p>yeah mommusic…that’s michael pollan…author of In Defense of Food. He wrote on article on the subject in the NYT. I agree with him but it IS very hard to find time to cook. Requires lots of discipline especially in families where both spouses work. </p>
<p>Anyway, I am fascinated too by this whole debate. I count myself among those who sometimes frown on the obese folks I see, thinking they’re lazy or undisciplined. How could they live like that?? But the more I read, the more sympathetic I am…especially since I’ve had a hard time lately with weight creep…and I’m no slouch! </p>
<p>Twin studies for example are very enlightening. Here’s an excerpt form the NIH:</p>
<p>A large number of twin, adoption, and family studies have explored the level of heritability of obesity; that is, the fraction of the population variation in a trait (e.g., BMI) that can be explained by genetic transmission. Recent studies of individuals with a illustration of double helixwide range of BMIs, together with information obtained on their parents, siblings, and spouses, suggest that about 25 to 40 percent of the individual differences in body mass or body fat may depend on genetic factors (329-331). However, studies with identical twins reared apart suggest that the genetic contribution to BMI may be higher, i.e., about 70 percent (332).</p>
<p>Yes, I am eating what Belgium corporations want me to eat - Belgium chocholate, Costco corporation and Meijer corporation. The rest of my diet is whatever I can buy at Costco, that relatevely cheap and does not need preparation, hummus, salsa, falafel, smoked salmon, plain yougurt, cottage cheese and sometime rotisserie chicken. Fruits and vegies come from Meijer. Frozen food/dinners and most restaurants taste nasty, you got to get used to them before going on a regular basis. And both are so expensive, people are very rich out there.</p>
<p>costco isn’t that cheap- unless you live in an area with very expensive grocery stores.
fresher food tastes better although I am a big fan of Trader Joes frozen food that I doctor with with fresh veggies, herbs and protein.
Many cultures use meat as a flavoring or not at all- while I understand that eating high glycemic index foods messes with blood sugar, I also think that we( in US) eat more protein than we need or is good for us.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>But there’s a big difference between “weight creep” and obesity. I too am very scornful of obese people – perhaps I shouldn’t be, but it seems to me it takes a lot of dedication and hard work just to consume enough calories to maintain a huge weight. Seriously – if someone weighs, say, 350 pounds, they have to consume something on the order of 3500 calories every day to maintain that. To me, that’s a lot of calories. Therefore, a lot of work.</p>
<p>VH…I don’t know. I don’t think anyone WANTS to be obese. It must feel awful. But it seems they get into a downward spiral…craving unhealthy fatty, salty and sugary foods in high quantities. Getting so heavy that it hurts to move, much less exercise. Hating themselves and engaging in even more destructive behavior. It’s really very sad…
We seem to have sympathy for those with anorexia…but not for those with the opposite disorder. And I do think obesity is probably linked to some kind of disorder. </p>
<p>I’m also convinced there is a genetic component and the scientific studies support that thought.</p>
<p>I don’t think finding time to cook is that hard. Bittman has a new 20 minute cookbook out. If you haven’t got 20 minutes I think you need to reconsider your priorities.</p>
<p>“… craving unhealthy fatty, salty and sugary foods in high quantities.”</p>
<p>Been there. Before shipping out to SE Asia I got two weeks leave. My Mom cooked and baked, I ate … gained thirty pounds.</p>
<p>I don’t think people who’ve always been “normal weight” appreciate how powerful food cravings can be (supported by adverse psychological factors obviously). That’s one reason I exercise … to alter my cravings from sweet-n-salty to fruit-n-water.</p>
<p>I do feel badly for the morbidly obese … a generally unloved population in this country. But health really is a personal decision, and it’s hard not to think “I lost fifty pounds in the name of better health, why can’t they?”</p>
<p>It takes just a few minutes of my time to grill fish, and just a few minutes longer to grill chicken. There are plenty of recipes and cooking methods that yield yummy, nutritious food in 20 minutes! I agree - if 20 minutes is more than you can devote to cooking, it is time to give up your commercial kitchen with granite countertops.</p>