01 May 2009
Waisting Away
Well, sixteen weeks since I had the low-carb chip implanted in my skull and began the morning ritual of singing the Low-Carb Loyalty Song ("protein protein/ lipid lipid/ save us from/ ornish insipid ...."), I am enjoying a surprising but entirely welcome visit from my old friend Mr. 36" Waist Trousers. I was happy enough to get from 40->38 fairly quickly and didn't much think about when 38s would become too big. It's been many years. So many that I don't think I have a suitable stash of trousers this size anymore. Sheesh, this low-carbing is going to get expensive.
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7 comments:
I have lost about 15 pounds in less than a month since I started the low-carb thing. Less exercise than I usually do this time of year too. Do you think that is too much too fast? The first two weeks I wasn't even serious about it (until I saw the Taubes lecture), and still it is not as if I am hardcore now. Just gave up sugar, potatoes, bread, pasta, beer, and other hi-gli stuff, that's all. I eat like a pig now. 2 filets mignons wrapped in bacon the other night, plus a big salad with lots of olives and doused in blue cheese.
I think a lot of the weight loss was water (as Traube's book mentions), because I pissed more than I ever have that first week or two.
My ketone strips show "moderate" all day everyday, even after drinking a little too much whiskey.
I still think there is some personal responsibility with all this (like we talked about before). Beer and desserts and yogurt and especially bread are very hard to leave behind. I intend to add them back in in moderation once I get below my goal. I think I'll try to use the ketone strips to see where I hit equilibrium.
Nice! Very cool. Sounds like good results. I wouldn't worry about losing weight "too fast" if you're feeling fine.
I agree that there is a measure of personal responsibility, especially in the choice of what one eats, but still want to defer that topic for now, and get to it later. Imagine if heroin addicts were told that the "healthy choice" for them would be to eat more demorol and codeine instead of heroin. That's about how I see governmental nutritional advice to the obese.
I would think most of the water weight was lost in the first week. I binged on sugar one day while making a birthday cake, gained 4 pounds, lost it over the next two days, had to have been all water. I also notice things like waist size and how clothes fit and how I look in the mirror. Water doesn't congregate in a band around my middle, does it? :-)
I am having difficulty eating hamburgers with ice burg lettuce as "buns", especially when traveling on business. Wendy's burgers are "ok" but their ice burg lettuce is served "wet" and that makes for a messy bun.
I've worked with hard core Atkins disciples, and I cannot become one. The science makes sense, and the personal results are good, but everything in moderation.
Bread is tough to give up. I think when I reach my weight goal I will add 2 slices per day back in and see how that goes. I love sandwiches and I love just bread and butter or just bread and cheese.
I now eat cheesburgers in hardy multi-leaves of lettuce or I eat it with a knife and fork. Last night I ordered a steak sandwich without the bun - cheaper than ordering a steak and it came with cheese, mushrooms and onions too.
I eat stuff like 1/2 pound cheeseburger with bacon and peanut butter on it and I lose 5 lbs/week. Used to be when I backcountry ski and snow camp I burn 6000 calories in a day and I couldn't drop any weight. I'd go to the gym and get on the stairmaster 3x per week for an hour - approx. 900 calories, and also lift weights 2-3x per week and I gained weight.
Exercising and/or low fat and/or low-calorie diets never worked for me more than losing 5 or 10 pounds with a lot of time, effort and suffering. I have gained weight very gradually over the years from <180lbs in 1988 at age 21 to 230 lbs 1-2 months ago. I am back below 210 already and on the last hole in my belt while only hitting the gym or the hills a couple times per week and eating like a pig. I also have a couple drinks (bourbon or wine) every night. I also still consume more carbs than the Adkins Diet recommends, so I could call this "moderation" now. Hopefully I can add low-gli carbs back in when I get below 195 and find an equilibrium.
I don't qualify as an Atkins disciple, since I've not bought or read any of his books, but from what I gather, he recommended that after you get to your goal weight you start adding carbs back in to your life, starting with what we'd call low-GI foods and working up from their to see what your own personal tolerance level is. Which seems sensible, no? Does not seem incompatible with hardcore "moderation" disciples.
Joe, be sure you indulge in moderation in moderation as well.
Ron, you sound like a disciple of the Liberal Party (UK, natch).
I may be the founder of the Stark Raving Sleepy Party.
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