Low Carbs, No Fats... Is It Really Healthy?

[Gangrell]

Originally posted by Rataxes: Gangrell, without involving the precise mathematics, let me just say that for any normally overweight person, it is impossible to burn 20 pounds of fat in two or even three weeks, let alone with as little exercise as a 30 minute walk per day. You sure you didn't also greatly decrease your calorie intake as well during that period? Walking for 210 minutes would barely burn half a pound. Now I'm guessing that you had probably stuffed a lot of food and/or liquid in you before weighing yourself the first time. It's not unreasonable to measure a difference of 20 pounds within two weeks time, but I'd be willing to bet that at least 80% of those 20 pounds consisted of water, glycogen, half digested food and muscle tissue.

Rataxes, calm down will you? Maybe it is impossible, maybe I am pushing the boundaries of weight loss as we very well know it! But I lost the weight, so I don't care

Let me clear up some things for you my good friend. You're saying all this doesn't add up, because you're adding it for how much weight a skinny person would lose, I am big, therefore it is a lot easier to shed a few pounds. If you put yourself in a room where the air conditioning is cut off, it's over 80 degrees already, trust me, you're going to lose some poundage even if you only do it for 30 minutes. Also, when you get off, it is always a good idea to eat afterwards, because when you do, your metabolism is up and burns the fat in the food a lot quicker.

I ate only fruits, vegetables, tuna, turkey, and a few other things during that summer when I dieted. Hell, I even ate my own special recipe for tacos, homemade. No grease in the meat, and the only real source of sugar was in the cheese I put on it. Still not adding up?

Too bad! [img]tongue.gif[/img]

P.s.- I corrected myself and said three weeks, not two.

[Ilander]

lol at the correction...I lost about twenty pounds a two years ago (over the course of about five weeks, I think), by riding my bike for an hour every day, but, then again, I think I have gained most of it back from poor eating since, plus the fact that I haven't been riding my bike at all this summer...but what the hey, I think I'll start as soon as I get my bike up to where I live now...

[Rataxes]

Sure it can add up. It is like I said not impossible that you could lose 20 pounds in three weeks, although still quite doubtful. All I'm saying is that the actual loss of fat couldn't have been more than 4-5 pounds. What I reacted to was how you said losing 20 pounds of your body weight in 2 weeks was somehow better than losing 50 pounds of mostly fat in 9 months, it isn't. I'd say striving to lose weight rather than fat isn't a very sensible goal, and it is the fixation on weight that has caused so many people who really don't know anything about how our bodies work to go on suicidal starvation diets with disastrous results.

Let me clear up some things for you my good friend. You're saying all this doesn't add up, because you're adding it for how much weight a skinny person would lose, I am big, therefore it is a lot easier to shed a few pounds. If you put yourself in a room where the air conditioning is cut off, it's over 80 degrees already, trust me, you're going to lose some poundage even if you only do it for 30 minutes. Also, when you get off, it is always a good idea to eat afterwards, because when you do, your metabolism is up and burns the fat in the food a lot quicker.

Absolutely, I did say that the more you weigh, the more you can lose, but I still have trouble believing that you lost 20 pounds from 30 minutes of walking per day alone, if you started off with a break even calorie intake. Don't know what you're trying to say with the air conditioning stuff, a high temperature does not increase your metabolism, more like the other way around actually.

[ 07-10-2004, 07:41 PM: Message edited by: Rataxes ]

[Gangrell]

Originally posted by Rataxes: Don't know what you're trying to say with the air conditioning stuff, a high temperature does not increase your metabolism, more like the other way around actually.

*Smacks forehead*

Rataxes, think about it. It's over eighty degrees in a room, the hotter is it, the more you sweat, therefore the more toxins and salts that are going to come out of your body and cause more fat loss.

[sageridder]

Rataxes, think about it. It's over eighty degrees in a room, the hotter is it, the more you sweat, therefore the more toxins and salts that are going to come out of your body and cause more fat loss.

That's a common misconception.What your mostly loseing is water weight.I've competively wrestled for about 20 years, so to make weight in's I have personaly lost 2,3,4 lbs in a matter of just 2-3 hours.Once I made the weight in after just a couple more hours eating oranges drinking water and eating melon it's easy to shift an other 4-5 lbs over.Look at any boxing match, they will be at say 155 for weight in and by fight time be 160.As far as toxins go, sure sweating expells them but you will reach a point where you're just sweating water.

[Aerich]

I second sageridder. Sweating out salts and toxins does not result in significant fat loss. The benefit is in increased metabolic rate and the burning of fat as a fuel source (if daily output is more than caloric input). Most of the weight loss noticable immediately after exercise is water, and your body will be dehydrated.

I trained in karate for quite a few years, and also fought competitively. It was not uncommon for me to lose 3-6 pounds of water in a 1.5 hour session in summer, even with reasonable access to water fountains. It was also not uncommon for me to drop 10-12 pounds in a week to get into my target weight category (done by temporarily cutting carbs and fats, increasing cardio work, and barely drinking the day before the weigh-in).

But you can also lose a fair bit of weight in other ways. I'm normally about 165-170 lbs, and last summer I had my wisdom teeth out and lost about 8 pounds. I got a new job that went from 2-10 pm. Supper is usually my big meal of the day, but it couldn't be with the length of my lunch break. I started walking home 3 days a week as well (about 45 minutes), and my weight dropped right down to 150.

If you cut your calorie intake significantly and increase exercise levels, it's quite possible to quickly lose quite a bit of weight.

[Gangrell]

Water weight, I figured that. I went back on the internet, and I guess it's an accurate assumption when they say when exercising or going on a diet, the last thing you lose is actual fat.

[ 07-12-2004, 08:42 AM: Message edited by: Gangrell ]

[Epona]

No it isn't healthy.

The only healthy way to lose weight is to eat less fats and sugars, and exercise more. Eating less carbs will leave you low on energy, with higher cholestorol, and bad breath.

There is no shortcut - you need to adjust your lifestyle to be more healthy over a period of time.

Play the "Fatkins Diet" cartoon....

[Aerich]

Eating less carbs isn't necessarily a bad way to diet. Most "excess" calories (e.g. the ones that get turned into fat) come in the form of sugars and starches. If you start dieting by cutting out extra sweets and the unneeded 3rd serving of potatoes, that will do a lot to trim your excess calories.

But I agree that cutting out carbs altogether is unhealthy.

[Memnoch]

Lo-Carb doesn't mean No-Carb...