Why am I somehow unable to lose weight?

Haven't read any of the thread because IDGAF.

But if you're actually eating at a caloric deficit the only problem might be a thyroid disorder.

That, or more likely, you're not actually eating less than you should and maintaining a caloric deficit. You should be hungry when you go to sleep every night, or at least feel like you could be hungry soon if you had just recently eaten.

Try harder.

really?????? wrote:

If Atkins works so well then why did Robert Atkins himself die from heart attack? By the way he was 258 lbs. That doesn't sound like it worked.

MORON.

Atkins died after he slipped on ice and fell on his head.

"MORON.

Atkins died after he slipped on ice and fell on his head.[/quote]"

My apologies. When I saw that he had a heart attack I supposed that he'd died. Don't forget that he was overweight with heart disease.

bumbojumbo wrote:

My apologies. When I saw that he had a heart attack I supposed that he'd died. Don't forget that he was overweight with heart disease.

No worries. Do you have a source for that overweight claim? I think that's an urban myth, too.

You can't lose weight because you're a) eating more calories than you burn or b) aren't eating enough and your body is in starvation mode and holding onto every calorie it can. Enjoy the anorexia your developing.

shazzy mcnazzty wrote:

You can't lose weight because you're a) eating more calories than you burn or b) aren't eating enough and your body is in starvation mode and holding onto every calorie it can. Enjoy the anorexia your developing.

Sadly, calories in/calories out isn't the whole equation. It is, of course, most of it for the morbidly obese, but not for the active who, by all rights, should be as lean as their fellows who are, on the surface, eating and exercising the same.

Insulin does weird things to calories. Our bodies have ways of dealing with modest surpluses of fat and protein cals besides storing them (increased NEAT and thermogenesis). Carbs are simply stored - as glycogen first, then fat. This makes evolutionary sense (we live in an era of evolutionary mismatch) when paleolithic sources of carbs for humans wee a feast/famine thing - carbs (in the form of fruit) were abundant in a brief season, then gone.

"1 cup Kashi cereal (high protein, low sugar; 200cal)"

"Protein bar (170cal)"

Counting protein by the gram, especially in vegetable or "protein bar" form doesn't tell the whole amino acid story. Avoid protein bars made with soy (men shouldn't eat soy at all, except maybe fermented - an effective way of dealing with some of the adverse chemicals in both wheat and soy). A "high protein" cereal has a mediocre amino acid profile and many protein bars are mostly soy. Soy is a raw material plant foist on us by the USADA and the food industry for which the advocate.

It is a really tragic fact that the optimal health of humans (and other animals) is generally contingent on the suffering and death of others. It would be surprising if what was good for us was also good in itself.

Your diet is very carb heavy and protein/fat light. DO you get 100g of good protein a day? (1.4g/kilo is the low end of protein requirement for athletes). Your breakfast is almost entirely carbohydrates (I wouldn't eat a meal or snack without 25g of protein).

You are eating a diet that regularly subjects you to insulin - running tends to pre-select for the 30% of the population who are ectomorphs with relatively good adaptation to higher carb diets, that is, a robust response to insulin - running is the selective effect as well as the cause.

Not enough calories. I eat around 4000 per day and I am 170 pounds and I don't run a lot of mileage in winter.

I think you need 2000-3000kcals/day to train hard.

Nutella1 wrote:

MORON.

Atkins died after he slipped on ice and fell on his head.

No. That was Arnold Ehret.

Ehret, aged 56, fell, sustaining a fatal blow to his skull. According to Ehret’s business partner and publisher, Fred S. Hirsch D.N.S., he was walking briskly on a wet, oil-soaked street during foggy conditions when he slipped on the curb and fell backward onto his head.

Atkins had high cholesterol, was in very poor health due to his diet, and died for that reason, nothing else.

J.R. wrote:

Atkins had high cholesterol, was in very poor health due to his diet, and died for that reason, nothing else.

"On April 8, 2003, at age 72, a day after a major snowstorm in New York, Atkins slipped on an icy pavement, suffering severe head trauma. He spent nine days in intensive care before dying on April 17, 2003, from complications from his head injury"

Please find a source for your claims.

I am not advocating a low carb or no carb diet. I am advocating a "right carb" diet. Endurance athletes definitely need carbs as about 50% of a run is fueled from glycogen. Non-exercise activity, though, isn't much reliant on glycogen. GLycogen kicks in when fat can't supply the RATE of energy demand (that is, cals/minute).

If you are super lean on a high carb diet, then why change it - you are one of the favored folks who is well adapted to agriculture. Others aren't so lucky and they follow the rules that work for others mistakenly.

More complete BS from you. Are you going to answer my question or not: what makes so qualified to speak so confidently and absolutely on the topic of nutrition? I am waiting.........

And what is the reason why the "active....aren't as lean lean as their fellows who are..... eating and exercising the same" ??

1) Insulin is an essential hormone for energy balance and very important for building muscle and storing glycogen, which are not "weird things". Don't demonize insulin.

2) do you know what REALLY does "weird things" to our calories and bodies? Not insulin, but insulin RESISTANCE. What is the main cause of insulin resistance? Not too many carbs and thus too much insulin production, but excess calories, sedentary lifestyles, and excess fat and definitely excess sat fat. Diabetes is not mainly due to too much carb intake, it simply is not.

3) Protein raises insulin, sometimes as much as carbs. Are you going to cut way back on your protein now?

Excess fat calories do not promote thermogenesis. Excess dietary fat calories get turned to body fat more efficiently than do excess carb calories. So modest surpluses of carbs beyond immediate energy and metabolism needs are not stored as fat, but as glycogen, but even modest surpluses of dietary fat will mostly be stored as body fat.

If eating lots of carbs as grains were so likely to lead to becoming fat, why did take it take 10,000 years of grain consumption to finally lead to obesity? People have been eating grains and high carb diets for a loooong time, but it has only been the last 30 years that the Obesity epidemic has struck, and that is mostly due to excess calories, excess fat, and sedentary lifestyles. The paleolithic evolutionary diet concept is looking at the very recent obesity epidemic and acting like it has coincided with consumption of grains and milk to make their argument. It has not. What has coincided with obesity is the very recent modern western lifestyle: sedentary living and a diet full of fast food filled with calorically dense, nutritionally low foods: high fat hamburgers topped with high fat bacon and high fat cheese, incased in refined grain bread, and topped off with high fat french fries and a super sized gallon of pure refined sugar in the form of soda. Your correlation of the timing of agricultural revolution and obesity is only about 100 centuries off.

"I already provided a source, and I'm not going to argue with an idiot."

J.R. wrote:

"I already provided a source, and I'm not going to argue with an idiot."

Did it ever occur to you that there could have been TWO men who died after slipping on ice. Atkins did. It is well documented.

Atkins had a heart attack two years earlier but he didn't die because of it.

MORON.

%$# wrote:

Dinner=~550 cal

Stir-fry: 4oz salmon (100cal) + 2 cups mixed

veggies(60cal) + 1tbsp olive oil (120cal) + 1tbsp

stir-fry sauce (20cal)

Banana (~100cal) + peanut butter (1/2 of one of those

JIF to-go peanut butter cup things= ~150cal)

4oz of salmon is significantly more than 100 cal. I'd recommend getting a food scale to get more accurate counts. You can get a good one for like $25. Also here is the best website I've found for getting calorie information:

http://nutritiondata.self.com/

The nutrition facts on the packaging said it was 100cal per serving, which was one 4oz filet. There could be a light chance I'm remembering wrong and it was actually like a 2oz filet or something, but the serving I ate was definitely 100cal according to the food label.

As to the whole low/no carb versus high carb thing, obviously there's a lot of controversy over that and I really am not that interested into getting too bogged down in that whole debate. I'm not an expert on that stuff and with all the different opinions out there I'll probably just have to experiment with it myself to see what works. For now I'm just going to try to keep it simple and take a middle road by just using moderation in everything, focusing on simply eating whole, natural healthy food with lots of fruits and veggies rather than worrying about whether it a lot of carbs or protein, and try to have discipline in limiting the portion sizes of what I do eat. When I do eat carbs, I will try to make them come from good sources like potatoes, brown rice, whole wheat bread or pasta, and of course fruits and veggies. Thanks for all the advice/opinions even if they are conflicting; still lots of interesting info to take into consideration!

"I see, he had a heart attack but was in the peak of conditioning."

That is convenient of you to keep signing your name to your posts.

Don't be fooled by the notion that running takes care of it all. Eat pie and cke and look just how fast you will gain fat. Even if you run avg 10 miles per day a surplus of 3500 cals= 1 lb of fat. That's easy to gain and very hard to lose.

I had a hard time at 170 so went to a nutrition wight loss center for help. Started weighing in every AM, keep a food diary and look at my two week average. Eat 5 mini meals( whey and banana, or berries+ a regular meal at dinner + supplements. Got to 146 and have been up over the past no of months to mid 150s due to low activity and injury.

I keep a spreadsheet to gauge my performance. Yes cal in vs cal out. Eat regular and maintain a discipline to it even after the weight loss. It is part of training and a very big factor.

Be sure to consume more carbs on tempo or workout days else consume 40-60 carb protein. Be sure not to get too lean else injury and or overtraining will be a factor.

I am 156 going to 146 to race at 700 cal per day. That equals 50 days till goal weight. at 1800 cal for no exercise to 100 cal per mile( walk and or run) run will be greater overall. It's remarkable just how accurate I have this down. e.g. 10 mile day =2800 cal and so no > 2100 cal for the goal loss rate. More than that is overly compromising to my sense of well being. More than that, I'm fooling myself.

Don't yo yo by thinking of weight loss only. Maintain the same discipline during the season and do it with reason and control. After the season allow for some weight gain so as not to be too low percentage body fat. ( this is for my body, yours may be different.)remember 2 sec per mile > 1 lb > than ideal and is exponential beyond 5-10 pounds.

Cordain is on the money with all of his posts. Why are you spouting incomplete crap?

If you gleaned nothing else from this thread, you should know that you should not be eating whole wheat bread or pasta. Research the effects of gliadin found in wheat on appetite and food consumption. Also research the anti-nutrient properties of unsprouted wheat via phytates.

Below is an excellent article regarding wheat.

http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2004/12/04/grains.aspx