Asylum A'surfin Musings ... Show me the belly!


I absolutely cannot recommend more highly AGAINST wasting money on this book.  There's absolutely no new meaningful science in this horribly written book.  It's 3 shakes and a low carb meal for 2 weeks - where you detox your body of every evil chemical (caffeine and alcohol) whilst bathing it in your artificial sweetener of choice.  Then once your toxins have exited your liver and are coarsing through your veins, you go donate 10% of them to your local blood bank lest they just get redeposited in your liver.  What that has to do with losing actual BELLY fat is beyond me.  


After two weeks of this you're supposed to eat fat fatty fat meats for two weeks with veggies.  Sound familiar?  This will also cause you to have so many fatty acids available to burn that you will spontaneously take up the martial arts or some such activity.  After two weeks of this, you're ready for ... get this ... maintenance!

Now when the hard copy version of this came out I really wanted to give it a try.  I was still hopeful that there might be some sort of different solution to my stubborn belly fat.  *sigh* ... live and learn!   

It was a fiasco for me, but in all honesty it worked wonders for my hubby.  He went down a full pants size on 3 weeks of the shakes.  But he did eat low carb wraps too and ... here's the kicker ... he wasn't a low carber!  

This is ultimately a silly crash diet.  Even Dr. Eades essentially called it that.  So anyway, I'm not finding it now but apparently since the Eades haven't had any real patients in a goodly long time, they had to try their nonsense out on friends.  Not a single one of them wanted to "out" themselves - so miraculous were the results!  But in the publication of this book, two little telling things emerge.  They held a contest of sorts to complile some success stories.  To date I've never seen one.

1.  The Eades - long time proponents of low carbohydrate diets them being - and even with Mary Dan paddling about the lake like a mad woman - got guts.  Yep, take off the stupid doctor coats already because you're not administering to anyone any more for quite some time, and they had bellies!  This required a "cure"!

The irony can't just be lost on me!

2.  The Eades supposedly used this "cure" on themselves and felt compelled to share it with the world.  Yay!  The original cover is shown below:


But here's what caught my eye.  Check out the new book cover:

Now - I've gotta ask.  Who is that couple?  Mike and Mary Dan?  Nope!!  Not unless they've had a lot of photoshopping done.   

Why no before and afters for the original test subjects if this is such a simple plan to flatten your belly fast?  



Comments

Tonus said…
I guess the concept of dieting in phases works for some people, but I found that for me, a one-phase diet that begins and ends with "maintenance" was best. Anything else got me into the mindset that I was changing things temporarily, which made it easier to go completely off the rails afterwards.

I think the best approach is to find the diet that works and start it, then adjust as needed or desired. Creating a series of plans that you then go back and forth on just seems like a way to encourage bad eating habits. Aw, did you gain 10 pounds in the past week? To the induction chamber, now!!!

By that same token, if I happen to have a cheat day, I don't try to make it up by creating a bigger deficit the next day. I just go right back to my normal diet. I find that this makes me less likely to justify a cheat meal with "I can make it up tomorrow." I've only been using my new approach for about three months, and so far I've had, let's see... one cheat meal (a big cookies-n-cream ice cream, mmm!). The next day my weight had actually gone down slightly, which really tickled me. :)

At the end of March, my doctor noted a slight uptick in my weight and asked me to lose six pounds by June. Two pounds a month, she felt, was manageable. I'll go back on Monday, some 25 pounds lighter instead. That'll be a fun visit!
I have to admit that I really loved how De Vany is his own advertisement for how his plan works. The guy (while too tanned with the resulting wrinkle-fest) is a sharp looking dude for a senior, eh?

My belly fat is the most stubborn. It's been the last to budge. My thighs and boobs and even upper arms and hips and butt gave way before the belly.
Even when I was 15 and 135 pounds and swam all over, walked all over, and rode bike all summer, I had a poochy belly. It's how I'm built. Mom's body. I got it.

So, I'll never be Mrs. America or Middle age Top Model, but I just want to NOT BE FRICKEN OBESE. Got 10 pounds to go to just be overweight. Then I'll work on finding what's a comfy weight fit...sustainable and mobile. I ain't even dreaming Hollywood Sleek.

And with all the hanging skin from losing a ridiculous amount of fat, I wouldn't be posing for a book cover in a bikini, even if I discovered the great secret to belly fat blasting!

I would like to see the Eades and Taubes and all those who are proponents of a way of eating, because they should be part of the message. If that is the best way to eat and move...then show us your results. I do that on my blog. It ain't always purdy, but I do show and tell.

And I will say that I was helped by Taubes' books, as I have been by Kessler's and De Vany's and Wolf's...I take something and learn from these folks and it has helped a lot...so I ain't dissing them. I just feel that if you believe it's the best way to get to healthy weight and fitness, show us the proof. Wolf and Sisson and Fragoso and De Vany put their bodies out there, so Taubes and the Eades should do show n tell, too. :)
CarbSane said…
Well said both of you!

Tonus: Do tell your doc's surprise! I gotta say, the last time I lost a lot of weight my doc barely batted an eye. I was like HELLO!!! 50 pounds lighter here ... gimme some luv!

Princess I don't really care so much about Taubes - he's kinda late to the "diet" party as GCBC was more of a what's wrong about everybody else's notions book than it was about diet. Even WWGF just basically reprints a diet plan. But Eades has talked often of how he got in the weight loss business b/c his patients noticed his weight loss. He's done experiments with stuff such as IF and doles out weight loss advice. AND lest anyone forget, they co-authored a book with Fred Hahn promising that exercising like 5 seconds a week (OK that's a bit of an exaggeration, LOL) was all you need to be fit as a fiddle.

He marketed this book on the blog and said it worked wonders for them. I think pix are no longer optional.

Or at least don't put some other couple on the cover!
Mirrorball said…
@Tonus
I think most low-carb diets have phases, especially a first phase that is very low in carbs, so that people will lose a lot of water weight in the first few weeks. They'll be impressed and recommend the diet to their friends. But if you prefer a better long-term strategy, phases are bad and I agree with everything you wrote. What's the rationale behind these phases? It's like going to school and enrolling on the advanced courses first, then proceeding to the beginners' ones. Obese people have an easier time losing weight than those who are only 10 lb from their goal weight, so who should be more strict? It explains why so many people go down the carb ladder rather than up (the opposite of what Atkin, Eades etc recommend in their books) as time goes by.
Anonymous said…
Aggghh! When I saw Dr. Eades hawking that leftover supplement of his on his blog, it creeped me out. Reading the comments was an education because I expected a lot more, 'Oh, come on, now!' and less 'Where can I buy this? Please, let me buy this!' The diet game - when is someone going to make the board version of this?
I was one of the "go down on the carb ladder" folks and go from easy to hard phases folks. It's working. I first just cut back to 2300. Then 2200. Then 2000. 1800 calories. All the while, tracking food. I noticed a pattern: When I got under 45% carbs, I lost better those week. It was happenstance. I just happened to notice the ratios on SparkPeople's nutrition tracker. Good results the days right after a Zone type eating. Stalls on high carb weeks.

So, me tweaking carbs came slowly. And me making the diet/eating stricter went through phases, until I decided to stick to current "aim for 1200, limit of 1500". I can lose 1 to 2 pounds a week this way. That's fast enough for middle aged me. I'm all about NOT being hungry, and I'm not.

And I agree, the Eades need to be accountable. I've not read their books (I bought protein power, but never have gotten more than a few pages in), but they should be their best advertisement.

Dr. Oz, whomever may have issue with him, looks the part. He's got vigor, and he's trim, and he looks like he's got energy to spare....He's doing something right for HIS body.

I just don't think all bodies the same. I think some of us are damaged or imbalanced, and we have to take different measures than someone who has a great metabolism and no chronic medical conditions. Just how it goes..unfair...but it is what it is...

I'd love to lose weight eating pasta and bread all day..ain't gonna happen.
Anonymous said…
I know someone in my town who lost 100 pounds eating bsically a diet of pasta, pasta, pasta... go figure.
Margaret said…
Notice how even in the picture on the cover, the woman is hiding her belly behind the man. I have never heard of anyone who has lost that belly bulge in middle age, no matter what diet they went on. And isn't it usually made up of subcutaneous fat that develops over the abdomen, rather than actual visceral fat? Maybe we just put that layer on as a natural protection as we get older? The visceral fat is usually the first to go on any diet but you never lose that extra fold in the middle! I've been relatively skinny most of my life but now at age 52 I can't move that belly bulge, especially after gaining (and then losing) about 10 pounds.
Muata said…
@Tonus - I couldn't agree more ...

Mirrorball said,

"I think most low-carb diets have phases, especially a first phase that is very low in carbs, so that people will lose a lot of water weight in the first few weeks. They'll be impressed and recommend the diet to their friends."

This pretty much sums up how the LC movement gained ground and so quickly. And, the way it's packaged for consumption (pun intended) is almost as bad as all these HIIT infomercials. During induction, you're given free reign on 80% of the foods you'd have to give up going on any other "diet". And, you lose weight (at least the first go round) effortlessly.

To top it off, you're a nutritional rebel; you get to thumb your nose at the nutritional establishment. But, it's all smoke and mirrors because that ego crushing plateau is right around the corner.

I don't see LC diet books moving away from the "phased" dieting template; it's too effective and it highlights what mirrorball said above.
CarbSane said…
@Princess: I checked out your blog. You're doing fantastic! Congrats on your progress so far. You will succeed I believe because you're "doing it backwards". I think carbs pose a difficulty with weight loss because they don't taste so good plain, but they taste oh so yummy with fat.

@Muata: At least the authors of The New Atkins warned of it being a one phase diet for some. And that's certainly the trend in low carb circles - fewer and fewer to zero carbs for all eternity - because veggies are fattening.
CarbSane said…
@Margaret, it's a strange picture for a cover for that book alright.

Maybe the loose skin I have in my belly gives me an excuse to fix mine the easy way ;-)
RRX said…
As a matter of opinion, I think that anyone who has lost weight to the extent that they have loose skin around the waist is absolutely free of anyone's criticism to get a "tummy tuck". They did the work, damn it. Some tighten up and congrats for those people. For the rest, though, that won't be the case. And when it isn't, I say they've earned the social pass to get a tuck without guilt.
I wish the belly fat would migrate to the coccyx area. What's with that bone there? Granted, I'd been morbidly obese for years and years, but what the heck is that BONE there??? It's a pain when doing some Pilates moves and lying flat on my back on a hard surface. Ouchie.

Yes, please body, put the fat over the ouchie bones instead of the belly, body. Are you listening?! ; )
CarbSane said…
LOL Princess! If that fat's supposedly "protective" then yes, do please put it over my ouchie bones!

RRX I agree! With a minor caveat because I do sometimes "fight" with myself and see a fare amount of rationalizing on the internet wrt loose skin. I have it. No doubt. And some stretch marks and all that. I kick myself because I wouldn't had I gotten a handle on this at a younger age, but that is not energy well spent.

Still, I know that certain rolls, or perhaps bulges are a better term, are more than skin. Yet I look occasionally at the B/A pics on cosmetic sites and I'm more than well within the parameters of something a knife can fix at this point!
Tonus said…
@CS: "Do tell your doc's surprise!"

She's got a good game face. =) But she was impressed with the weight loss. She has me pegged at a 21 lb reduction (from 231 to 210) and found that with one exception, my blood markers were all in the normal range. The exception was creatinine, and she asked me to mind my protein intake. It's hard to judge because that blood test was taken just before I made a lot of changes to my diet. But I will call her in a couple of days to get the results of the latest one.

Blood pressure was 110/70 and she agreed to cut my Diovan dose from 160mg to 80mg. A bit of history: I've been seeing this doctor since October of 2009, when my blood pressure was in the 185/125 range and the cause of an almost constant headache. We treated it pretty aggressively at the time, which probably led to my fainting spell some 10 months later (which led to a broken wrist that took 5 months to heal). Anyway, the BP readings were a pleasant surprise for both of us.

I asked about reducing or stopping my statin prescription. I didn't tell her that I have not taken any for the last two months. When she reported my cholesterol, she said it was "great" and mentioned my LDL (60). When I asked about the overall number, she had to check the report to find it. It was 132, and she's pretty happy with that, and agreed to cut my Simvastatin dose from 40 to 20. I, on the other hand, was almost panicked. 132? Ugh. This might come to a head in September when I return for a follow-up. I like her, but she's clearly in the camp that feels that cholesterol cannot get too low. When I dropped it from 243 to 99 a year ago, we were both happy. Since then, I've learned that I was at a far higher risk of death at 99 than I'd ever be at 243. And 132 isn't good either, but I am guessing that by now I should be pretty close to 180, or at least I hope I am!
Debbie Cusick said…
I've actually been a fan of the Eades since their original Protein Power book, but I agree that one should run away, screaming, from the 6-Week Cure. I wrote a review of it on amazon that was less than complimentary - and for a long time was the review marked "most helpful" so it showed up at the top of the reviews, and Eades in his own blog even came right and and blamed my review as a major reason for the poor sales of the book in the US. Now there's fame for you. :-)

Though I check now and see I've been bumped down to number two, with the number one review now being a 5-star rave. So maybe sales are picking up again! But I sure don't think it's worth it. Not to mention those shakes made my bloodsugar skyrocket and it took a long time to gain control again.
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