Diets

[HKCHEF]

After reading the juice thread I wanted to see what the consensus was on diets with the forum.

What diets do you think work and why?

I have some experience with helping people eat healthy and finding diets that work for them so here are my opinions.

If you are over weight and not suffering from diabetes or any other dietary restricting aliment here is how you lose weight..........count calories.

Total calories in and total burned off is all that matters when trying to drop pounds. Everyone should take the time to accurately count how many calories they actually eat in a typical day. Most are usually surprised due to total disillusion to appropriate portion sizes.

Lo-carb, tonics, juice, raw, etc are not good diets IMO for one simple reason, they are almost certainly temporary. If you can not do it for the rest of your life why bother, do you want to be healthy for a little while or indefinitely.

I have personally gained and lost 50 pounds twice. Both times I gained a bunch of weight due to injury (chainsaw across the knee cap will lay you out) both times I dropped the weight fast with healthy food, portion mindfulness and exercise.

So my advice if you want to lose weight is simply eat smart. If you love fried chicken eat it much less often and in much smaller quantities. Move your ass if you can stay mobile as much as you can and elevate your heart rate. Explore different foods and stay in touch with how your body reacts to what you put in it. Eat smaller meals five to six a day and never starve your self or binge. Cheat days can easily ruin a entire weeks worth of eating healthy.

I personally find low fat, low sodium, high carb, high fiber, nutrient rich food works for me. Here is a small list of foods I surround myself with and eat all day everyday.

Tons of rice, partial to Basmati
Tons of dried fruit (prunes, apricots, cranberry's, dates)
Tons of fresh fruit (bananas, oranges, grapefruits, blueberry's, strawberry's, Blackberry's, apples, tomato's, cherry's)
Tons of lean protein (chicken, beef, tuna, scallops, ocean fish)
Tons of whole grains (multi grain cereal, wheat pita, wheat bread, wheat pasta)
Tons of diary (yogurt, milk, low-fat cottage cheese)
Tons of veg (spinach, broccoli, asparagus, green beans, carrots, pepper's)
Tons of beans (black, pinto, kidney, butter, garbanzo)

other good stuff (wheat germ, cinnamon, honey, cayenne, hot sauce, salsas, garlic, whey protein......etc etc etc

 

[1mathom1]

Gimmick diets are just that....gimmick. Most will work short term. Docs even use some specialized diets to get a patient to drop weight fast for various reasons. The best, healthiest diet doesn't deprive the body of any one particular thing they just recommend the right balances for a particular body type. My body does better with a higher protein, lower carb ratio. More calories burned than taken in is the key....just as you said. My diet is the gym. 5 days a week with more emphasis on weights than the treadmill. That and cutting back on the amount I eat.

 

[bulbboy]

I've lost 30 lbs just this summer. I started in a running group last august but as of early June I had gained 2 lbs. So I started counting my calories (app on my phone) and boom - the pounds just started dropping. I had never changed my eating habits before then. I have 17 more to go!

 

[BadgerLB]

Get myfitnesspal on your ipod/iphone etc.. or just use the website... I find out today how much I've lost since I started counting and walking around 4 miles a day... If you stick with it it works very well, it will help you set attainable and realistic goals (no I didn't write the app and no they aren't paying me).

 

[bulbboy]

That's the app I use. Highly recommend it

 

[HMFIC]

Here is a small list of foods I surround myself with and eat all day everyday.

Tons of rice, partial to Basmati
Tons of dried fruit (prunes, apricots, cranberry's, dates)
Tons of fresh fruit (bananas, oranges, grapefruits, blueberry's, strawberry's, Blackberry's, apples, tomato's, cherry's)
Tons of lean protein (chicken, beef, tuna, scallops, ocean fish)
Tons of whole grains (multi grain cereal, wheat pita, wheat bread, wheat pasta)
Tons of diary (yogurt, milk, low-fat cottage cheese)
Tons of veg (spinach, broccoli, asparagus, green beans, carrots, pepper's)
Tons of beans (black, pinto, kidney, butter, garbanzo)

other good stuff (wheat germ, cinnamon, honey, cayenne, hot sauce, salsas, garlic, whey protein......etc etc etc

I might not be an expert at this but I just counted over 8 tons of food you "eat all day everyday".

Therefore, I suppose the best diet must be to acquire the brontosaurus sized tapeworm that inhabits your body.

I just pictured what a ton of cottage cheese looked like too and now I have to throw up, 'scuze me... back later.

 

[Keyser328]

I started an atkins style low carb diet back in February and was quite successful on it. Long before I did the "fad" diet, I did a bunch of research into why it works, etc. I lost about 25 lbs in the first six weeks, then tapered off, as expected. Also in my research, I found and through experience confirmed, that the low carb diets are not meant to be long term solutions. The goal is to help you shed off extra weight up front, get to feeling better, then move toward a balanced diet. If I had to guess, the low carb bit is to break the psychological desire to consume hollow calories all the time. I will also agree that at the end of the day, the single thing that matters for weight control is calories. Fuel in versus fuel spent, period.

I'm still working on losing more, and since I've been back from vacation I've fallen off the wagon a little, but I'm already picking it up again and being cognizant of what I'm eating. Thus far, I haven't started an exercise regiment yet, with my current weight loss being derived directly from dietary control.

As with many things, the crux of it all is knowledge and discipline - kinda like trigger control.

 

[onearmedman]

This is from another board. I haven't tried it yet, but the info does tie into a lot of other things I've been reading regarding metabolism and the crap we are eating.

You see to make money in the weight loss industry you have to have a proprietary system. A system that belongs to the originator that is unique from the other systems such as Weight Watchers, NutriSystem, Lean Cuisine, HerbaLife, or any of the myriad of different plans, pills, shakes, drinks, etc. on the market. I'll be the first to tell you most of these programs all work to some degree. Some faster than others. However, there is one huge problem....the minute you stop buying the proprietary system and try to go-it-alone eating real food all the weight slowly creeps back on. These programs simply aren't sustainable long term. This is a huge point I missed for 40 years.

So, caveat, key point, secret #1 - forget about proprietary weight loss systems

Now that we have that out of the way. The next thing I need you to understand is I am not a doctor or nutritionist. I am simply a person who has struggled with weight issues all my life. I lost my first 30 pounds when I was 10 years old. So I have over 40 years experience dealing with this problem. I do know there is an extreme amount of confusion out there and I simply want to share what I know and what it's done for me.

I want to address another issue before I get into specifics about this system.

While you and I have been on the work-a-day-slave-tread-mill to keep our bills paid there has been a quiet paradigm shift in the way processed food is manufactured in this country. You see huge corporations have quietly hired armies of research and development scientists, chemists, marketing groups, tasters, controlled studies, etc. to cater to our insatiable appetite for sugar and extreme amounts and of sodium (salt). However, they've gone way further by adding drugs to the food called excito-toxins, like MSG, to actually get you hooked on their particular brand. They know exactly how the average person will respond to this high sugar, sodium, and drugged foods because they were able to study the mice who were fed a steady diet of this "food". Does this disgust you? Here's the problem...your health and ability to maintain a normal body weight was not the end goal, profit was their goal. The bottom line. These people simply do not have your best interest at heart. They have their own interest at heart.

I've done a lot of research into how food processing actually started in the 1700s until today and here's one very interesting point I want to make. In the early 1700s before food processing and canning in glass jars started the general consensus was: if the food wasn't fresh it posed a danger to your health. When I read that it stuck in my mind for days. It finally occurred to me that in almost 300 years we've come full circle back to the same problem. Today we have the exact same situation, if your food isn't fresh, it poses a danger to your health.

Processed food has become a cesspool of sugar, high fructose corn syrup, corn syrup, genetically modified corn and soy products in 95% of the products in the grocery store, chemicals to enhance presentation, extreme amounts of sodium to extend shelf life, dangerous food colors, and even excito-toxin drugs designed to trick your brain into believing the food is the best thing you've ever eaten, etc to the point where the majority of the food sold in supermarkets is tainted and dangerous to your long term health.

This is the problem folks. Plain and simple, in 300 years we've come full circle to if it's not fresh it poses a danger to your health. Bottom line you have to stop eating heavily processed food that comes in a box, can, bag, or frozen container with just a very few exceptions.

So caveat, key point and secret #2 - If it's not fresh it poses a danger to your health...if you want to lose weight and be healthy you have to stop buying processed food.

 

[onearmedman]

During the weight loss phase this program, like your average American diet, will not provide all the needed Omega 3-6-9 Essential Fatty Acids (EFA).

EFAs mainly come from deep cold water fatty fish, nuts (both limited or not allowed), borage oil, flaxseed, cod liver oil, etc. EFAs must be ingested because the body can't make them.

The cheapest way to get them is via softgel pills, normally two a day. Other options are oils and liquids you can get at the health food store in the refridgerated section. The oils can be added to food or salad dressings.

The benefits of EFAs are enormous:

Controls Blood Pressure
Lower Cholesterol
Speed Up Metabolism
Emulsify Fat for easy digestion and elimination
Prevent Gallstones (something to consider when losing weight)
Prevent Hair Loss, Dry Skin, and Nails
Prevent Arthritis and visual disorders
Aids in regularity
Eliminates Fat (Cellulite) buildup
Aids in normal brain function
Transport of vitamins A, D, E, and K
Helps reduce coronary disease
No medical restrictions, anyone can take them


Best if taken after a meal.

Key Point & Secret - Weight Loss is dependant on Essential Fatty Acids. I recommend 2,000 mg of Omega 3 and at least 1,000 mg of Omega 6 and 1,000 mg of Omega 9.

Key Point & Secret: Excessive sodium will sabatage even the healthiest eating plan. Limit sodium intake to less than 2,000 mg a day and you will lose weight. Limit sodium to 1,000 mg a day and you will lose weight fast.

Adequate water is absolutely essential to the weight loss process. This is especially true with this particular system of eating. You will be dumping excessive fluid filled with toxins from every fat cell in your body. You need to assist your liver and kidneys to filter this crap out of your blood and body by drinking 64 to 80 ounces of the cleanest water you can afford to filter yourself. Forget about most bottled water as it has been found to be more polluted than plain tap water. This is partially due to the chemicals that leach out of the plastic into the water.

I recommend filtering your own tap water with the best filter you can afford. I even highly recommend filtering the fluoride out of your water. Try it. After a week or so of cooking and drinking fluoride free water your mind will start working like it’s on a ginseng buzz.

Forget about all the hype and propaganda about fluoride being good for the teeth of children under 10 years old. That’s a complete lie. Hitler was the first to medicate water supplies with fluoride in the prisoner of war camps to keep the prisoners docile and compliant. Does anyone really believe Hitler was concerned about prisoner’s teeth? Do yourself a favor and get rid of the fluoride zombie shuffle. Do the research yourself, don't take my word for it. Hundreds of years ago in Europe someone asked the question, "why does this whole group of people seem to be docile and not care what their government does, while this other group over here is militant and riots in the street every time their government gets out of line?" The answer was the docile zombie-like population had naturally fluoridated water. The alert non-zombie crowd were not drinking naturally fluoridated water.

When you get the fluoride out of your drinking and cooking water you'll experience an ability to think so clearly and quickly it's like being on a ginseng buzz. You won't be able to talk as fast as your mind will formulate thoughts and words. If you have school age children, by all means get the fluoride out of their water. They'll be like geniuses competing with retarded children. It makes a huge difference. Leave it in their water and you're handicapping them. Ingesting fluoride for tooth health is as foolish as telling someone if they swallow a condom on Thursday they won't have to worry about getting their date pregnant on Friday. It's ridiculous folks.

What would you do if the government decided to medicate the water supply with Zoloft to take the edge off of life for women over 40. Or they were going to add Viagra for men who needed help in that department. It's that foolish to tell us they're medicating an entire water supply supposedly because it will benefit children under the age of 10.

Key Point & Secret: Drink a minimum of 64 to 80 ounces of water a day of the cleanest water you can afford to filter yourself. Fail here and you will not lose a pound a day. Weight loss is dependant on adequate hydration.

 

[BadgerLB]

I might not be an expert at this but I just counted over 8 tons of food you "eat all day everyday".

Therefore, I suppose the best diet must be to acquire the brontosaurus sized tapeworm that inhabits your body.

I just pictured what a ton of cottage cheese looked like too and now I have to throw up, 'scuze me... back later.

I lmao...