Words of advice from an "expert" who demolishes CICO

Note:  Regular bolding is the original author's emphasis, red or blue bolding is my own added emphasis.   I also believe the ******* are Fitday or somesuch online logger the host site must auto-edit out of posts there.

Written 7 years ago to the day:

I've been low carbing for over 4 years, and in that time I've done different things.

To lose most of the weight, before I reallly felt comfortable enough to experiment with different things, I stuck with basic Atkins induction, I followed it exactly, never cheating, and the weight just melted off. I was never hungry, and it just happened. Early on, I wouldn't even eat tomatoes or onions because I was afraid they were too sweet. The only side effects I had was that I was often tired and I would have heart palpitations... but I think that's pretty normal considering how fast I was losing weight and how I wasn't eating much (as a result of losing weight / fat so fast).

When I got around 200#s the weight loss naturally began to slow (as I became less severely obese)... and around this time I started experimenting with raising carbs and eating more foods (this was around the holidays of 2003). I was eating about 40 carbs by now, which helped reduce the symptoms I felt earlier. Calories were restricted, but it was more by a natural process (I had more of an appetite than I did when I was really fat, but it was still quite low, not high enough to maintain weight).

As I reached the end of weight loss, I started using conscious calorie restriction, so I could lose at an optimal rate. Hunger started to come back more as I got thinner, but it wasn't so bad, because I was still low carbing.

I reached 150 in a year almost exactly (150 is normal weight).

Today, I maintain my weight very simply, as stated to the left: 1650 cals, 60 carbs. My body just naturally asks for this much on average... 

Here is my ****** average intake from new year to yesterday. As you can see, it averages to 60 carb 1650 cal... fat 50%, protein 30%. It *always* works like this on average. Weird, how when we actually trust our bodies, they don't over eat on us . Every day I eat a bunch of meat or nuts is compensated by a day w here I eat less. 

As you can also see my weight is pretty much stable, hovering in that 5 lb area. 

Originally it was easy to gain weight (when I was underweight and borderline underweight)... but, DUH, that's because I was underweight. Now that I am at a more appropriate weight for my body it is not nearly as easy to gain. Don't get me wrong I could gain more weight, but it would be a little harder (because when I start to put on weight now, my hunger goes down and my energy goes up making it easier to restrict and keep weight stable.)

I do not fear food. I went through a long process of being all neurotic about food and weight. I ENJOY food and love eating it. I make all kinds of goodies, I'm not all anal about "natural" or "frankenfoods"... but I AM strict about the carb count and I keep an eye on calories. In other words, I don't eat something loaded with maltitol and lie to myself pretending it's low carb .

Most important about food? Portion size. I always take small portions. For example, I eat fiber one cereal, but never a full portion - I mix it with nuts, because the cereal alone is way too low in fat and too high in carb. So, I pretty much eat everything, brownies, cookies, but the key is ALWAYS low carb, and ALWAYS a small portion. I find, large portions just aren't as satisfying as small portions anyway - the more food on my plate, the more the game becomes just to stuff myself (vs actually enjoying the food).

Another major important thing: I document everything I eat in ****** (for me, this has helped me to obsess *less* not more, it makes me feel safe and secure, and I am sure I am never eating too much or too little). When I was crazy obsessed, starting to be MORE strict with monitoring my food intake and weight actually helped coax me to a more moderate place in behavior. Having that token bit of awareness made the "fear" of losing contorl more managable.

I don't need to weigh (my body) as much anymore... I do it every couple of days, or, if I feel like things *might* be getting out of hand. I still, however, write everything down I eat (even if I pig out at the buffet) and document it in ******. When I make a meal, I jot it down shorthand on a piece of scrap paper. I also weigh everything I eat, even to this day. 

My family makes fun of me for it, but guess what? I'm the one controlling morbid obesity. It might seem irrational or excessive, but I do it because I have to. I consider obesity a disease like diabetes, and it is my responsibility to take it seriously.

I have been able to maintain my weight without writing everything down or weighing my food (relying on a "rough estimate" system instead)... but, this is actually easier for me, because having absolute knowledge of HOW MUCH helps me to deal with any fears or doubts I have (and again,t his was crucial for me to be truly balanced and happy).

Most of my advice is really more appropriate for maintenance... sorry I can't help more with weight loss, it's been a quite long time since then.

The best advice I can give someone losing weight is to absolutely FOCUS on losing weight, make every food choice with this in mind... however, at the same time, focus on learning how to make this a livable, comfortable, completely satisfying lifestyle. If you are trying not to eat any artificial sweeteners, for example, but you have a major sweet tooth, odds are you won't be ablet o do that for life. Learn how to cook and how to eat the foods you want to eat now. If you save learning all of that for some vague "when I get to maintenence" stage you are setting yourself up with problems.

Also, don't get too obsessed with keeping cals low, or reaching meaningless goals. I am a firm believer that for some people, calorie restriction really screws brain chemistry and triggers obsessions and disordered eating. I went through a little phase of it, and it was NOT fun.

 

Keep sight of the big goal. The big goal is to eat low carb every day. That's all. As long as you are doing that, you WILL succeed... you WILL be a success.

Which brings me to a final point... always eat low carb. Don't fool yourself into believing that you can have pasta "sometimes" or that at goal you will "add back in x y and z". The magic that allows this metabolic change to occur is in keeping insulin low, and appropriately balanced. This is only possible when carbs are low.

Do not buy into the popular myth that "natural" food is good, even if it has a lot of carbs. "Natural" oranges messes up blood sugar just as well, if not *better*, than a cookie (the cookie at least has fat from nuts and butter). 

Processed food is sometimes less healthy, but it isn't automatically okay to eat if you have a weight problem. Think of your obesity in terms of a disease: for example, someone with a peanut allergy cannot eat peanuts, even though peanuts are a healthy "natural" food. Carbs are like that for us with obesity. When it comes to weight, don't make it more difficult than it has to be: it's all about keeping carbs low; carbs dictate metabolism which controls long term food intake and body fat storage.

Don't restrict food more than you have to.

Enjoy food, enjoy life, and always focus on eating low carb no matter what, even at restaurants, even on holidays... and the rest follows.

A follow-up:

I did not really exercise although I went through bouts of running to speed up weight loss... and, I did and still do walk regularly (a few hours a week). I do not really depend on exercise to maintain weight, it's more just a little "extra" ... like buying a reduced fat product or something. I also walk more for enjoyment than I do weight control.

I have really baggy skin. Just didn't get lucky there, either. My skin looks firm but that's only because I'm at a pretty low weight. You can see the arm skin and the looseness of my belly/back in the 2007 pics :/

I am going to have a lower body lift this month, as a matter of fact (and in the future I fully intend to do my bat wings and get breast implants). 

Keep up the good work. You can definitely make that goal if you stick to acheiving it.

---

This "expert" was recently quoted sharing this sage wisdom:

So, when [the CICO advocates] for years and years and *years* keep writing mind numbingly stupid shit like this:

‘We again are asked to ignore the obvious — that Americans are definitely eating more, on average, with no concurrent need for those calories, and likely moving a bit less as well.’ 

I just don’t know what to think anymore. Are they morons?

That "CICO advocate", aka someone who acknowledges that calories ALWAYS count whether or not you have to count them, as a matter of physical scientific law, is yours truly.

In his opening salvo for "the hypothesis", Gary Taubes erroneously stated that the obese eat no more than the lean.  This is not true.  It is not true at the population level or at the individual level.  As Americans we are eating more -- somewhere in the 300-600 cal/day range on average since 1970.  As individuals, when we eat more (calories) we gain weight, and when we eat less, we lose it.  Everything in the above commentary can be explained by this person's low carb diet allowing them to eat less either spontaneously or consciously with reduced hunger vs. your standard relatively low protein reducing CRD.

The "expert" is, in case you didn't recognize her somewhat more sane prose, ItstheWooo.   And nothing's really changed except that she reports eating a few more calories these days, and ... weighs more.  Except when she's dieting and/or exercising and/or sitting in cold water because she complains she's gotten too fat from being a protein glutton or whatever it is these days.   In other words, she's a perfect example of CICO in action.  

I'm also going to add something:  Heart palpitations are not innocuous side effects. Neither is the insomnia so many low carbers report suffering from.  Nor the thyroid dysfunction, nor any of the other metabolic derangements so, SO, many report suffering from years, and even decades after adopting their so-called healthy diets.  Time for a reality check ... or we can just keep promoting an unproven diet that no human culture ever ate.   Many end up taking years to recuperate from the metabolic damage these diets can cause, if they ever do.  

There are rare endocrine conditions that do predispose towards obesity.  There are more of these naturally or that can be produced in rodents.  Every single one abides by CICO.  Every single one.  This does not make these people (or rodents) gluttons and/or sloths or impart moral judgment on anyone.  REPEAT:  CICO is not a moral judgment.  PERIOD.  That is what the denialists want you to believe.   But these conditions are also rare, and absolutely cannot explain the obesity epidemic as insulin and carbs have been around since waaaaaaaaaaaaaaay before 1970.  It's time to ditch the gimmicks.  The obesity epidemic was not caused by Americans replacing fat calories with carb calories, jacking up insulin and initiating a hormonally driven horizontal growth disorder.  We didn't cut fat, we simply added more carb than any other macro to our diets.  Fact.