d3vious.g3nius wrote:As long as you do not have any "medical" reason for not being able to lose weight and... foregoing any specialized diets,
it's simply a matter of calories in~calories out.
So, being trained in the hard sciences, I used think this was the whole story. But it's wrapped in a layer of biology that complicates matters.
One has to ask the question: If "eat less, exercise more" was such good advice, why are there so many people (30% of the US, now) who are overweight? Are all 100 million people just gluttonous and lazy?
What makes a person hungry? And, if said person is hungry,
Louis2008 wrote:I don't actually eat a lot, but I don't diet at all. it's so difficult for me to skip any single meals....
then is it even possible to reduce one's intake?
On the other side of the equation, why is it so hard to exercise?
So, there's now a lot of evidence that says that excess carbohydrate intake
both makes one hungry
and makes one too tired to exercise. This comes from the elevated insulin levels that arise from ingesting carbs. Elevated insulin, at the very least, does two things: First, it blocks the hormone leptin which tells the brain that it is satiated. If the brain thinks it is starving, it
will drive one to eat. This makes dieting nearly impossible. Second, it tells the brain that, thinking it is in a calorie deficit, it should conserve energy and not expend it. This makes exercise difficult if not impossible.
It doesn't help that insulin also tells the body to store fat and not break it down for fuel.
I've been on this ride, and it's no fun. A calorie is
not a calorie. A calorie of fat is small, but relatively harmless. A calorie of protein is somewhat harmless but necessary for maintaining good health. A calorie of carbohydrate (but probably not fiber) tells the body to do a lot of things that might be harmful and, if done in excess, can eventually lead to insulin resistance and metabolic syndrome.
This is why Atkins and Keto have worked for so many people. The hard part is giving up the carbs. They are everywhere and it is socially difficult to not eat bread/pasta/pizza/cookies/cake/soda when everyone around you is doing so. But it is worth the effort to try it for three months and see what happens when skipping meals and running two or three miles is next to impossible.
Ok, I didn't mean to write a novel---or hijack the thread---but I am very passionate about this topic now that I've been studying it for over a year. I think anyone who has been struggling with weight loss (at the very least), should look into this.