Low Carb Fairy Tales

Obesity is a complex problem. But, as is human tendency, we want a simple answer to a complex problem. And low carb is a simple answer. Yes, you can lose weight, but this is almost by accident, as when you go low carb, you cut out wheat and sugar, two very problematic things.

Low carb proponents tell the obese exactly what they want to hear:

1) It's not my fault I am fat; my metabolism is broken.
2) I can eat all the fat and protein I want and still lose weight, because low carb gives me a metabolic advantage.
3) Calories don't count, only carbs matter, since all carbs are fattening.
4) Exercise doesn't matter.
5) Carbs increase insulin, which increases fat storage. Cut the carbs and burn fat.
6) Add yummy fat to your diet to be even more healthy and speed up weight loss.

Isn't that nice? Only it's not true: it's merely a fairy tale, with very little empirical science to back it up.

But it is one heck of a persuasive argument to tell an obese person. It shifts the blame from your willpower to something you can't control: an out of whack metabolism. And it worked! At least at first. Then it stalled as it always does after 17-20% weight loss and I got wiser.

It was like learning that Santa Claus is not real: low carb is not the magic weight loss bullet I thought it was.

What I really wanted was a simple solution to what I now know is a complex problem. I didn't want my being fat to be blamed on my sloth and gluttony, I wanted another explanation (broken metabolism, fattening carbs!). I didn't want to exercise and I didn't want to count calories. I wanted to eat until I was full and lose weight. Nice, neat, simple, compelling, and wrong.

I am currently following the Perfect Health Diet, a scientifically developed Paleo diet that is not based on fairy tales and which encourages exercise and calorie counting, is already high fat (you don't have to add any more), and complex. But that is okay, because I no longer believe in Santa Claus.

Silence Explained

I take students abroad for my day job and have been in Europe for the past few weeks, working 12-15 hour days. It hasn't left a lot of time for blogging, so I hope that explains my silence. Here are some photos I took from recent travels to Belgium, France, Ireland, Northern Ireland, and Scotland (plus a gratuitous link to my other, neglected study abroad blog).

So a few links: Paul Jaminet responds to various comments about safe starches. The man is a class act and I respect him more now than ever before. Not only has he taught me about how to do low carb safely and correctly, he has taught me how to be a gentleman as well.

I some times despair at finding wisdom in the low carb blogosphere; everyone thinks carbs are fattening and that all we have to do is cut carbs to lose weight. This is not true. But occasionally, I do stumble upon low carb wisdom. Here is one such post. Finding low carb wisdom is the reason I started this blog.

There has been a lot of activity about the book Wheat Belly by Dr. William Davis. I even wrote a review of the book. But Chris Masterjohn, another superb example of a human being, wrote a very decent review of the book that captures the best and the worst aspects of the book. You can tell it is a compelling review by reading Dr. Davis' response to Masterjohn's blog.

Doubling My Carbs

In the past six months, I guess it would be fair to say I have become a bit "carbophobic." In fact, I have been following a "very low carb" way of eating. Why? I can't really say for sure.  I have type II diabetes and this low carb lifestyle has effectively put my type II diabetes into remission. It makes sense: carbs drive blood sugar responses, so cut back on the carbs. That is also the key to weight loss.

But why very low carb? I honestly don't know. I came to the realization that I was carbophobic a while back and decided it wasn't rational. I had been consuming, on average, 20-25 grams of carbs per day, mostly in the form of green, leafy vegetables and the small number of carbs found naturally in eggs. The theory is, to stay in ketosis, you need to consume 50 or fewer grams of carbs per day. That helps the most with weight loss. So if that is true, why was I trying to stay below 25? Why not simply stay below 50?

So in recent weeks, I have roughly doubled my carb count. I am still below 50 net carbs (after subtracting out grams of fiber), but it has made a huge difference in the types of foods I can eat. For example, the other night, I made ice cream from the recipe in Sally Fallon's book, Nourishing Traditions. In half a cup, there were about 300 calories and 16 grams of carbs. I keep my calorie total below the threshold needed to lose weight for a person my size and height, and my total carbs for the day were under 50. I also monitored my blood glucose levels and there was no blood sugar effect to doubling my carbs at all. And the homemade ice cream sure did taste good and add enjoyment to the meal. I am also hopeful that doubling my carbs will help shake things up and get me through this current stall (I will know on Monday when I weigh myself).

This is all part of my new approach to the low carb way of eating. I am challenging many of the assumptions I have made about losing weight by low carbing, as many of the posts in this blog detail. Next up: exercise. Gary Taubes tells us it doesn't help with weight loss. Is that true? Or just another Internet myth...