High Protein Diets

“Biz - I tend to agree with Donman and Birch.

I have lost hundreds of pounds in my life and tried many fad diets. What finally worked for me was a well-balanced daily intake and exercise based on the Weight Watcher's program. Weight Watchers is not a diet actually, it is a wellness program that tries to help you develop a healthy lifestyle you can stick with. I still go to meetings 1 or 2 times/month.

The Atkins (high protein) diet worked for me while I was in college, but many nutritionists believe it is not healthy for your heart as several before me have noted.

You can see my Weight Watchters Page and Phil's Weight Loss Helpful Hints Page.

My final comment is that weight loss and weight control is a personal journey. You have to try things and find what works for you. Everyone is motivated by different things.”

“I have a close friend that finally got rid of 180 pounds of ugly fat.

He divorced her.


All seriousness aside, I agree with the previous posts about a well-balanced diet that includes some meat. It seems the typical American diet is red meat 4x day/8 days per week. Geez -- eating that much broccoli or carrots isn't good for you either! Eat red meat 1-2 times per week and white meat/fish 2-4x, with a good assortment of veggies, grains, dairy products, and fruits, get some regular exercise and you will be fine. Throw in a Twinkie or candy bar occasionally, even beer and pizza -- there's no need to be fanatical about it. Enjoy life!”

“A balanced diet is a good thing, for an average balanced person. If you plan on doing a big workout program, then obvioulsy you'll need more protien and more carbs because you'll actually use them. As part of your Protien and carb diet, you need to add fat. There are very importnat amino acids in fat that you need to build muscle.”

“Report: Diet doctor had heart disease

Weight-loss guru may havebeen obese when he died

MSNBC staff and news service reports

Nutrition expert Dr. Robert Atkins, creator of the high-protein, low-carb "Atkins Diet," may have had heart disease when he died.

Diet guru Dr. Robert Atkins, who died last year after a fall in New York, had a history of heart disease and weighed 258 pounds at the time of his death, a newspaper reported Tuesday. Atkins' popular diet stresses people should eat high-protein meats and cheese over carbohydrates in order to lose weight.

Before his death, he had suffered a heart attack, congestive heart failure and hypertension, The Wall Street Journal reported, citing a report by the city medical examiner.

At 258 pounds, the 6-foot-tall Atkins would have qualified as obese, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s body-mass index calculator.”

“He also puffed out quite a bit from all the fluids taken in while in a coma, I heard. So, who knows what the hell to believe?”

“Remember Ewell Gibbons? (Stalking the Wild Asparagus)

He died from an ulcer.

Hey this whole thing with the diet is the same as Bush and the Bushettes did with the war.

Take whatever you find and put a spin on it to mold it to your point of view.

Why be surprised? It's a political and marketing stategy that has been used for years.”

“That new crustless pizza from Donatoes is pretty good. It is a bit like drinking near-beer though. Just ain't the same.”

“crustless pizza?? shut the heck up! that could be a joke, but it's pretty funny how many restaurants are jumping on the bandwagon...”

“http://www.channelonenews.com/news/2004/02/03/ap_pizza/

In Columbus, Ohio, Donatos Pizzeria has announced it will roll out a pizza with a low-carb crust in its 182 outlets. Spokesman Tom Santor said the pizza dough, made out of soy protein and other ingredients, "tastes fabulous."


In Louisville, Ky., Bearno's Pizza, a small chain, offers a crustless pizza on the usual circular baking pan.


And in Escondido, Calif., John Pontrelli, owner of Pit Stop Pasta, offers what may be a traditionalist's worst nightmare: "pizza in a bucket." It has all the pizza toppings placed in a crock or, for takeout customers, a metal can.”

“Like the Burger King low-carb burger; no bun.
What do they do, just slap a beef patty on your hand and dump some mustard and ketchup on for you?”

“It's pretty much a plate with just the sauce and then toppings. The soy is in the sauce. It ain't hateful. The low carb wrap at Subway is shlt though.”

“mmmm, well if "pizza in a bucket" ain't appetizing, i don't know what is.

i heart carbs! i just got a pizza stone, and i made the best pizza EVER the other day.”

“McDonalds will actually serve you their "burgers" without a bun. You get some strange looks when you ask though.”

“My personal favorite is the KFC commercial where one actor says to the other that KFC is diet food. Pretty funny.

About 6 or 7 years ago I went to lunch with a contractor. The guy ordered a bacon burger without the bun. He really got funny looks. When the waitress came back to ask if anyone wanted dessert he answered, "Yeah, I do, bring me the bun." She thought he was serious.”

“A good low carb pizza is when you use tortillias and make little pizzas. Surprisingly good and it's really easy too.”

“Pizza stones are great, lyra! We use ours all the time and they make the best crust.

MMmmmmmm, crust...”

“LOL @ dayhiker! No doubt. These fad diets always do that. It's like all the fat free stuff that came out, low in fat but loaded down with sugar.

A diet is just like life, it's all about balance and moderation.”

“So whats next,

a MacTaco?”

“The funny thing about that hamburger story is that happened way before Atkins was common knowledge.

My wife and I have done Weight Watchers and it's all about balance.

For lunch we had pita pizzas. Take a pita, drizzle olive oil, minced garlic, slices of roma tomato and a bit of mozzarella. Good stuff. We both lost 30 #'s in late 02/ early 03. When our son went in the hospital in mid '03 we started putting it back on and last week went back on WW. We had put about half the weight back on. She wants to get back to 103 and I want to get back to about 155. I got just under 150 last time, which was a little too little.”

“McD's salads are really good. They don't have that bagged and preserved taste any more and they have all kinds of good greens in them.”

“yeah, the crust was good on my third try, Aero! the first couple times, you needed a chainsaw to cut/bite through it. tee hee!”

“Do you have a bread machine lyra? You can make great dough in bread machines. I just pour the crap in and set the thing and it mixes it and sets it to rise.”

“The Texas Chainsaw Pizza Shop?”

“the red things are really tomatoes, I SWEAR.

you know, i had a bread machine a couple years ago, but i seem to have lost it in one move or another. i like making it the olde-fashioned way, though!
;-)”

“I had a hard boiled egg for lunch. Screw this protein stuff- i want some carbs!”

“I've been doing real good until my boss brought in a plate a iced sugar cookies his wife made for Valentines day. 3 so far today.”

“i guess all the restaurants that are jumping on the low-carb bandwagon are just finding a new way to market their food. might as well make some money off of us!”

“Let's play Follow the Fad!

Why should only clothing and consumer electronics companies have all the fun?”

“Dayhiker 155 lbs.? You lightweight! I haven't seen 155 since grade school. I'm on the enjoy life diet in case you haven't noticed.

I tried a low carb diet once & lost a lot of weight. Felt really great even before I started losing weight. Only problem is I'm a bread whore.”

“I'm in the low 160's now according to my scale. My wife weighs in at WW as part of the maintenance and she says ours is about 5#'s light. I work out at high reps 3x a week, so if I get to 155 or so, I should be in pretty dang good shape. I want to be under 160# for Sipsey so that I can climb those canyons up to the waterfalls all day for 4 days and not slow down. I've been wanting to explore that canyon for 18 months now and want to make the most of it.”

“I haven't weighed 155 lbs since high school. I think if I lost that much weight now I'd look like a death camp victim.”

“Bit, I'm with you. According to the BMI or whatever I should weigh 180 lbs. I would look like death eating a soda cracker.

Dayhiker, I'm lifting 3x a week. Hell I'm even benching over 300 for the first time in 20 years. I bike 4-5 days/week between the exercise bike & my road bike but I still look like the michelin man. Oh well, might as well go have another soda.”

“You're excercising more than me then. Soda, what's that taste like? I got in the habit of drinking water when my wife was preggers. We didn't keep anything with caffeine in the house and the habit stuck. That helps. I do have a slight build anyway.

Do you ever watch American Choppers? They showed the dad working out on an episode. I counted 400#'s on the bench and it showed him do a single rep on it.”

“I was 177 right before I met my wife. If I could get back down to about 185, I'd be pretty happy. Hell, I'd be ecstatic. Under 200 would be good.”

“Weight Watchers was easy for me, but then again my wife planned the meals and cooked the meals. One day some folks from work and I went to lunch. They were asking about the weight loss and what I did. After I told everything Cocoa Williams, who you'll meet at Sipsey, said, "Damn, John, all you gotta do is sit there and eat!" He was correct.”

“That Cocoa's a wisenheimer. If you want me to rough him up next month just let me know.”

“He talked pretty big after AU beat Bama. Once I reminded him who determines his raise he wasn't quite so full of the school spirit. At least not to my face anyway.”

“155? Hell, I'm closer to 155 overweight than 155 itself! LOL! Some wisenhiemer here (and they know who they are) has convenced me to try adventure racing so I'm walking about 3-5 miles a day and keeping a "Fat Log" of what I weigh for the week, what I do for excersise each day and what I eat. Writing down what I eat makes a big difference.

My wife has lost 103 pounds and is hot as hell! I figure I'll lose some now so we don't like like Doug and Carry from King of Queens.”

“Writing down what you eat is pretty humbling.

I'm guessing birch is the guilty party?”

“Well I passed up on the soda & went with water instead but are Cracker Jacks diet food.”

“If you're doing the high carb/low protein variety then the answer is yes.”

“Forget low carb diets, they don't work long term. The key is to Exercise and modify your diet to include lots of complex carbs (cut out as many simple sugars as possible, eating fruit if you must have the sugar) and a healthy ratio of protein and fat (for example, start off at 50-60% carbs, 30% protein and the rest fat--then eventually work up to a higher ratio of carbs). But the low carb thing is not the answer. The reason Atkins and other high protein/fat diets work is because you actually eat less calories. So temporarily you lose weight. But long term this is not the answer because it screws up your metabolism (when you start eating calories again) and a high fat diet is just not good for you. If you don't exercise you are at high risk for heart disease because (gasp!) the heart is a muscle. Like any muscle, it will atrophy from disuse. Combine that with the high fat diet and you are really at risk for developing some heart problems.”

“Re: cracker jacks being 'food.' Uh No.

I would dare to say that more than half of what is passed off as 'food' in the grocery store is not food (in the sense of it providing nutrition). Try to remember this. Think about food in terms of its complexity and ability to provide nutrition.

Complex carbs are things like pasta, rice, lentils, peas, whole wheat bread, etc

In general, the higher the fiber the better it probably is for you. Also fruits and vegetables are excellent for many reasons. And it is important to eat a variety of foods. Ask yourself if there is there nutritional value to eating something that is primarily sugar? Fat? Salt?


btw, I cut soda, simple sugars (except fruit) and dairy (yes, that means cheese too) out of my diet completely, over a month ago, and I don't miss them at all. Why? I feel great. I was not overweight to begin with but I felt bad and had zero energy. Also, I have been running everyday, I feel great and it has made a remarkable difference. It's amazing what impact what you eat has.”

“I read Beyond Backpacking a while back and he says the same thing you do, biz. He talks about how whole wheat bread usually isn't really whole wheat because it doesn't have the bran. He started milling his own grain and the energy level shot through the roof.”

“The wheat bread that ya get at the store is the same as white bread. Most is colored to be brown.

"I'm guessing birch is the guilty party?"

Him that damn Dhutch with her, "You can do it!" attitude!”

“I agree, real whole grains are what's happening. Also pizzaless crust is the bomb. Neer beer tooo!”

“Nigal,
I applaud your wife for doing something, that is awesome. I'm just afraid that once she gets down to a reasonable weight and starts eating 'normally' again she will start gaining weight (remember Oprah?). You cannot sustain the Atkins diet indefinetely, it will kill you (remember that heart disease is the number one killer). It is way too high in fat and not enough fiber. It is only a short term solution which is what makes it a bad 'diet.' You really need to change your lifestyle, eat healthy all the time and stop trying to convince yourself that this stuff called 'food' (which is really only being passed off as food) is really food--I'm talking about fast food and junk food. For severely overweight people, Atkins is a good solution because they are at such high risk anyway it is better than doing nothing. But normal people who need to lose weight should think about another option and that is changing your lifestyle/eating habits. If all else fails, go back to the food pyramid (remember the food pyramid? It is endorsed by the USDA which throws millions of your tax payers' money into researching stuff like this every year) and start there. Start by eating 6-9 grains, 2-3 3-4 oz (yes, a meat serving is Only 3-4 onces), 7-10 fruits/vegetables, etc/day. But above all else, limit your calories and exercise. You need to exercise regardless of whether or not you want to lose weight because your heart is a muscle. If you do not work it out you are at high risk for heart disease. You might say 'who cares' but your quality of life is definetely better the more in shape you are. Also, it doesn't take that much.”

“Exercise to feel great, I mean.


**This message has not been endorsed by a licensed nutritionist, biz is just another yahoo with an opinion like everyone else on this site**

Wheat bread with fiber can be found where I shop. Depends on where you live, I guess. I was recently in the South (Atlanta) and I noticed people there are not as health consciencous as other places--so, harder to find the good stuff. But it is out there. Remember that most Americans eat bad, so what is in the store is not necessarily the best food out there--just what people will eat. Also, corporate America has done a good job of selling 'food' that is not that nutritious, passing it off as healthy when it definetely is Not. (sorry, I cannot spell and I know there are lots of errors in here)”

“you're right biz. The Adkins diet can help you drop some weight in the short term, but it's damaging long term; hard on the kidneys because you dump a lot of water without carbs. Bodybuilders go on a low-carb/high protein deit before competition so they get that "cut" look, but they're faces are all shrunken up.”

“One thing that can happen on a high protein diet is you break bad habits. You learn that you don't have to have a starch with every meal, or dessert every day and you start making it a habit to look for the lower carbohydrate options instead of just automatically scarfing down sugar and white flour. If you are on Atkins or South Beach long enough, if you really understand what you are doing and why, you won't go back to eating as you used to.

Also, FWIW, the strictest parts of Atkins and SB are only at the beginning, to break the addiction to sugar and carbohydrates. Even from day one you eat vegetables (2 cups of salad plus one cup of other vegetables), but as you continue you add more and more carbs, a little at a time, and the recommendation is that you mostly add in vegetables and fruits and nuts. It is also recommended that as you add in more carbs you eat less of the higher fat items.

The idea of eating fat is to not be hungry all the time, so you are more likely to stay on the diet. I've tried the 1200 calorie a day diets. I last about 3 days and then I'm so hungry I can't think about anything else but food. On Atkins I'm simply not hungry and don't miss sugar and white flour a bit. I also don't eat all that much bacon, sausage and cream -- though I do enjoy cheese (provides some dairy). For the most part it's just a basic meat and vegetable diet -- not quite the hazard that some people seem to think.”