Low Carb vs. Low Fat - Which Way To Go

Mainstream society, most doctors, nutritionists, health care workers, the food industry, heck even your own government, will tell you.. If you want to lose weight, you have to follow a sensible diet that is low in calories and low in fat, right? Anyone that says otherwise is a hack and a fraud espousing some latest version of a fad diet, in order to make themselves rich, right?

Sigh..........

I guess that's just human nature.. Take a position, and then fight to the death defending it, defeat an opposing position by not only finding any possible flaw you can with that position, but denigrate and decry the credibility of the protagonist of the opposing positon. I'm sure I will take a lot of flak for even daring to espouse my own opinion on the matter. After all, I'm just a lay person, not a qualified doctor or nutritionist... Still, if I can do this, make it work, and be healthy after I have done it, then maybe my experience should count for something.

At the end of the day, you can lose weight wether you follow a low carb diet or a low fat diet, the common feature among both is that you must consume less calories than you expend.

Losing weight is hard, isn't it? You know that already because like me, you've tried many times. But why is losing weight so hard? I guess there are many reasons... But there is one universal physiological reponse to 'dieting' that stands out first and foremost as to why diets fail.... Hunger! Who in the world wants to be hungry, who in the world enjoys being hungry! Most people can stand being hungry for a day or two, or if you have an extra strong will power, maybe a week or two. But very few people have the iron clad will it takes to go hungry for weeks on end while you try to diet and lose weight. Sure, you can swallow doctor prescribed appetite suppressant drugs that will help. I've tried them. blechh! The side effects of those things suck!

There are many reasons why I want to follow a low carb approach to losing weight, but one of the things I love about losing weight the low carb way, is that if done right, your body will itself naturally suppress your appetite, no drugs and their side effects needed. The low carb approach is quite simply, easier to follow than the low fat approach, while being no less sensible or nutritional, if done right.

From all of my reading, and research, and from my own experience, I've seen that it is possible to follow a healthy, sensible, low calorie, low carbohydrate diet. I'm going to present to you over the coming weeks and months, summaries of all that research and reading I've done.

Even better than that, I'm going to describe my own experiences as I try once again to lose the weight I've been burdened with my whole life. I'm going to chart the progress not only of my weight loss, but my other important weight related stats such as my blood pressure and cholesterol levels.

Wish me luck!

P.S. weighed in

Are you overweight? Its not (really) your fault!

I guess the first thing I want to tell anyone who reads this blog (is anybody reading this blog?) is that if you are overweight, it is not really your fault, especially if you live in the one of the countries of the western world.

How can I say this?

If you happen to live in the Far East, or South East Asia, it's less likely that you would be fat. People here (i'm living in the Philippines at the moment) are generally slimmer than their western counterparts (that's you and me). Why is that? Simple.. Our western society has long since foregone the idea of well prepared, delicious and nutritious food (generally speaking, of course). Now, our food is very much like our society... fast, quick and convenient.

When you're young, you don't think about the long term consequences of the constantly eating the delicious, but high fat and/or sugar and salt laden foods you learn to love. In effect you condition yourself to eating those foods, and set yourself up for a lifetime of (relatively speaking) unhealthy dietary habits. It doesn't help either if (like me) you happened to have had parents who insisted that you eat everything on your plate, whether you were full or not, "because there are starving children in Africa" (what was that really supposed to mean anyway? become a glutton because some poor kid can't eat? I never understood that).

Think about it..., what was your favourite food in school? Mine was (salty, oily, nutrionally suspect) fish and chips, with a huge siding of baked beans. My favourite desert was sponge cake with custard. On the way home from school I HAD to stop in the local sweet shop to buy a packet of crisps (that's potato chips to you yankees), and a chocolate (candy) bar. My go to place on the weekend was MacDonalds... To think about it, breakfast was commonly some variant of sugar coated or (subsequently) sugar laden breakfast cereal with a good dash of cow milk.

Growing up with that kind of diet, how could I NOT be fat!? Some people are genetically predisposed to be overweight too.. If you are african or asian in origin it's more likely that kind of western diet will eventually take it's toll.

The real problem is, as you grow older, regularly eating those sorts of foods, you kind of become addicted to them.. Or should I say, addicted to the refined unhealthy carbohydrate in them!! Nobody ever became addicted to steak (protein) or butter (fat), but plenty of people, definately me, and probably you, are addicted to bread or chocolate or cake or candy or rice (especially white) or potatoes (in some form or other) or ice cream, or some other unhealthy variant thereof.

What's your addiction? If you're reading this blog, and if you're overweight, chances are you are addicted to one of those foods.

When I say addicted, I don't mean that you have to constantly stuff your face with those foods.. But try giving up your most favourite carb (bread/rice/potatoes/sugar) for 2 weeks, or if you have a slightly stronger will, a month.

I've been living in South East Asia for six years now. When I recently returned to the UK for a visit, I was shocked to see how much bigger/fatter our youngsters are now compared to just a few years ago. The problem is getting worse. The obesity and diabetes and heart disease bomb is ticking!!

I was shocked and disheartened to hear that my 15 year old daughter is being recommended by her doctor to take metformin, a diabetic medication. Truly shocked!!!!

I guess that's what spurred me to start this blog.. I've been thinking of doing this for years. My thinking is that if even just a few people read this, and obtain some inspiration and/or knowledge from my own struggle and my own extensive research, then I guess it will have been worth it!

So, to sum up.. If you are overweight, don't feel guilty!! Just be determined to lose it and get back to a healthier state of living, for yourself, and for the people you love.. Don't mind those people who tell you you're fat because you have no will power, or because you love to stuff your face with junk foods, or who tell you that losing weight is simple, just eat less! You probably have a genetic predisposition to obesity, you most certainly have a societal predisposition to obesity, and you most probably are a carbohydrate addict as a result of years of eating the wrong foodstuffs. I'm going to try to help you (and myself) overcome that by imparting lots of useful hints and tips, facts and figures & advice. If I can do it (after years of trying and failing), YOU CAN TOO!

P.S. Having said all these (hopefully) inspirational words; Damnit.. I succumbed to my own addiction recently. CHOCOLATE! My sister (or ate, prenounced ateh here in the Philippines), recently came back from Singapore with a ton of delicious chocolate!! :-(, then I found out my wife had actually asked her to bring it back!!:-( ). So in a fit of 'spiting my face by cutting off my nose', I helped my family to consume a good portion of it. So now I've gained back 8 of the 10 pounds I recently lost. I'm now a hefty 166kgs (365lbs):-(, So... here we go again!! :-(:-(. I never said this was going to be easy. But I (and probably you) have to do it!

Being Me! Being Fat!

Yes I am fat, very fat! Fatter than most people who ever read this blog will ever be. 162kgs (357lbs) at the time of writing this (i'm 6'4" so I can carry it a bit, but not as well as I used to :-). The thing is, I know how to lose weight.. What I mean is that everyone knows that to lose weight you have to eat less calories than you expend.. but most people, especially people in their 40's (like me), know that in practice it isn't really that simple. I have a fascination with all things to do with health and diet, i have read hundreds of articles and books and I've tried every diet out there. The thing is.. I think I have the answer, I think I have the key, but still putting my knowledge into practice is still darned hard. Anyway, the purpose of this blog is two-fold. One is to chronicle my daily struggle in my attempt to lose weight (and invite others to do the same, maybe we can support each other:-), the second is to impart some of the extremely interesting, useful and informative facts I have learnt along the way about why it is so tough to shed those pounds!