Back from being lost at sea (long report)

Hi, people. It's been a while since I posted - since May 26th when I set out
for my one month trip to the U.S to be exact. Since then I have been having
terrible problems sticking to just about any diet and have been pretty lost
at sea.

I think I may have finally found my sea legs, though, so thought I'd drop a
line and say hello. It has been a topsy-turvy three-and-a-half months.

May 26th
--------
After several weeks of "low cal, lower carb" dieting I am down to 109 kg and
looking forward, with some trepidation, to a month's family and business
trip to the U.S. - Boston, Columbia (MO) and New Orleans. I am wavering
between whether to try to follow low cal or low carb during the trip and
eventually opt for low carb because it seemed like less psychological
pressure.

May 26th - June 26th
--------------------
While I didn't have access to a scale for the entire month, I stayed on my
diet surprisingly well. I was especially proud of myself when I was by
myself, living in my Missouri house for two weeks, packing it up so I could
rent it to neighbors. I shopped at the supermarket and ate only healthy
foods, low-carb tortillas, simple things, an occasional all-you-can-eat
place - but only low carb choices. I did have popcorn once at the movies
though. But basically really good all month. Even in New Orleans for the
week at a conference I was very good, occassionally doing the salad bar at
nearby Hurrahs, but again choosing only the simplest, low carb foods with no
sauces, etc.

Note: I was surprised by two things while shopping for low-carb foods in the
U.S. (1) Since last September, when I was last there, there seems to an
*explosion* in the availability of low-carb food choices and (2) almost all
the special low-carb foods are practically inedible! Really! They are mostly
junk! The exception are those foods that are naturally low-carb by adding
fiber, like low-carb tortillas. Those are actually pretty good.

When I got back to Tokyo at the end of June I anxiously weighed myself. I
was 112.5 kg.

OK. I put on 3.5 kg over a month of traveling in the U.S. Not so bad I
thought. It certainly could have been worse.

Then, after being good while on travel for a month, I completely fell off
the wagon! Agh!

After that my journal is crazy.

First week - ate lots of really bad stuff - donuts, fried foods. In less
than a week I was up to 115 kg!

2nd week - tried to go back on Atkins induction. Got back to 113 kg really
quickly. Then I lost my will power and those fried donuts (really good!)
beckoned to me again. Since I did them in I figured why not eat everything
else in sight? Soon I was up to 116 kg!

3rd week - Get ahold of yourself, Doug! Maybe it's time to count calories
again. Tried this for a few days and got down to 114 kg. But I was hungry
all the time, and had upset stomachs. So I went off my diet again and zoomed
up to 117 kg! You can see the (dangerous) roller coaster pattern I was on by
now.

4th week - OK, I said to myself, obviously my body just cannot tolerate all
those carbs. Better to stabalize blood sugar, etc., first and stick with
Atkins. Went back on and dropped down to 113 again. Then, without going off
low-carb, I started to creep up again... 114, 114.5, 115, 115.5,
116....Feeling depressed I went off my diet again and zoomed up to 117.5 kg.

5th week - Agh! OK, I said to myself, as much as I like low-carb eating I am
just eating TOO MUCH. I can't violate conservation of energy. Better try
low-cal again. Got down to 115 kg before losing will power again and zoomed
up to 118 kg.

6th week - Now I am completely convinced, again, that low-cal just doesn't
work for me and I have to go back to low-carb.

In the meantime, I am starting to notice joint pains I never had before -
particular when I stand up and start walking again. Am I getting arthritis
at 48?

Anyway, this goes back and forth and back and forth and back and forth over
the ensuing weeks. One week I'm convinced that low-cal is the only possible
way of losing weight. The next week I'm convinced I can't stay on any diet
but low-carb. Then I go off either and start gorging myself again.

Finally, about 10 days ago, I reached the psychologically devastating weight
of 119.5 kg - a full 10.5 kg more than what I weighed when I left for my
trip and just a scale's tick away from 120 kg, which I definitely do not
want to see again!

My "diet cycles" over the last few months told me several things, but among
them was that while low-carb dieting helps control my appetite to some
extent, it eventually always brings me back to the 116-117 kg level. Granted
that is better than my weight before starting to diet a year ago March - I
was 131 kg then - it just isn't the way to go for the long run. Not if I
really want to someday get to goal. My experience seems to be very common
from what I read lately - low-carbing helps for about 6 months, but then it
doesn't necessarily help in the long run.

So I recommitted myself to low-calorie dieting 10 days ago. I decided to
take it nice and slow and stick to an average of 2000 calories per day.
Previously I had tried either 1800 or 1500 and just found it too confining.

I also tried to think long and hard about which individual foods were giving
me problems, without considering their carb contents per se. I discovered,
to my surprise (and disappointment), that tofu seemed to be giving me
digestive problems, so I dropped eating tofu, tofu milk, soybeans and other
soybean-based products and have had no stomach problems since.

The first 4 days of low-cal dieting were very hard. But then I noticed that
appetite suppression kicked in, much like it does after 4 days of Atkins. In
other words, I'm not really finding huge cravings right now even after
eating something high carb, like an ear of corn.

To "fill me up" when I get hungry I've stocked up on low-calorie soups and
microwavable dishes in the 100-250 calorie range (yes, this includes rice
and pasta dishes).

My feeling is that at the end of the day I truly do believe in conservation
of energy. I just *know* that if I can stick with low-calorie eating that I
*must* eventually lose weight.

The first 7 days I lost 4.5 kg = almost 10 lb. I was amazed. That was
actually the largest first week weight loss I've ever experienced on any
diet. Sure - it must have been a lot of water bloat. But it proves that you
can also get dramatic initial weight losses by just counting calories and
ignoring carbs completely.

I'm down to 115 kg now. Still higher than when I got back, but safely pulled
away from that dangerous 120 kg mark.

And over the past week my joint pain has greatly abated. Last night, when
walking Tao, I actually - couldn't believe it myself - *jogged* part of the
course. It was just a short distance, but I felt like moving faster and
running. Maybe I'll get some good running shoes. Who knows?

I also, to be honest, feel less lethargic than when just on low-carb. Less
brain fog too. I think, maybe, that healthy carbs are maybe not so bad for
the body after all. They might be good for you! I'm not eating sweet things
at all at any rate - mostly because they are too high in calorie, not
because they are high in carbs. In other words, a low-calorie diet also
seems to naturally control carbs to some degree. (The reverse isn't true
though - when you just count carbs it is *easy* to eat way too many
calories! That's the exact same problem that a low-fat diet has.)

Anyway, that's where I am right now. These last 10 days are the first time
since I've been back where I finally feel like I have things under some sort
of control again. My food basket at the supermarket even looks healthy:
vegies, sometimes fruits, fish, cottage cheese, tomato juice (for homemade
sauce), low cal heat-up packages... No saturated-fat filled packages of
bacon or chicken skin or Camembert cheese or all those things I would snack
on while low-carbing.

The variety is actually thrilling. I even ate at Wendy's last week with a
friend and had a spicy chicken filet sandwich (317 calories) and a Caesers
salad (137 calories), all dutifully recorded.

Yes, it's too early to predict what will happen now. But you have to keep on
trying, right? And I'm just happy I stopped myself from gaining all my
weight back!

Doug

Ignoramus13229 wrote:
|| Doug, it is always interesting to see these human stories of struggle
|| with weight. Just two things that I want to say, one, low carb and
|| low cal are not incompatible -- one could eat low calorie while at
|| the
|| same time eating low carb,

As far as most people are concerned, the two, imo, are the same for weight
loss.

and two, bacon contains only 1/3 of its
|| fat as saturated, 2/3 of bacon fat is not saturated.
||
|| Also, you mentioned stable blood sugars in passing. If you are really
|| a diabetic or a pre-diabetic, keeping blood sugar stable is very
|| important, because unstable blood sugar causes terrible
|| complications. So, I would give this issue more than a passing
|| reference.

Yes, a low-calorie high carb diet might be trouble. It depends.

Thanks for your reply!

Yes - I know that low carb and low cal are not necessarily incompatible.
Well, at least low cal and *lower* carb are not. I think it would be very
hard to eat low cal and keep carbs at, say, under 30 gm per day!

I didn't realize that about bacon fat. Interesting.

About blood sugar - I am a bit worried about that. A year ago March I
started Atkins after a diabetes scare - symptoms, blood sugar over 200, A1C
of 10.6. After a time on low carb it came under control - blood sugar about
100, AIC of just 4.6, etc.

I wish I had something to measure my blood sugar without running over to the
hospital all the time. That is the only thing I am worried about.

Surely, though, I can get the blood sugar control benefits of low carb by
just sticking to low glycemic index foods, rather than low carb foods, can't
I?

Thanks,

doug


On 9/14/04 7:32 PM, in article , "Ignoramus13229"
wrote:

Doug, it is always interesting to see these human stories of struggle
with weight. Just two things that I want to say, one, low carb and low
cal are not incompatible -- one could eat low calorie while at the
same time eating low carb, and two, bacon contains only 1/3 of its fat
as saturated, 2/3 of bacon fat is not saturated.

Also, you mentioned stable blood sugars in passing. If you are really
a diabetic or a pre-diabetic, keeping blood sugar stable is very
important, because unstable blood sugar causes terrible
complications. So, I would give this issue more than a passing reference.

i

Doug Lerner wrote:
Hi, people. It's been a while since I posted - since May 26th when I
set out for my one month trip to the U.S to be exact. Since then I
have been having terrible problems sticking to just about any diet
and have been pretty lost at sea.

[snipped remainder]

Good luck to you, Doug - I hope you find a path that works for you. I would
naively think that low-cal and (relatively) high carb would be a fairly easy
diet to follow in Japan. At any rate, I lost a bunch of weight in law
school on a low-cal high-carb way of eating - I was doing weight watchers,
and I would save points for carby study snacks every night - it wasn't an
impossible way to live and worked until I went off plan. Good luck figuring
it all out.

--
carla
http://geekofalltrades.typepad.com/geek

Doug Lerner wrote:

|| I
|| think it would be very hard to eat low cal and keep carbs at, say,
|| under 30 gm per day!
||

Why?

Doug Lerner wrote:

|| I
|| think it would be very hard to eat low cal and keep carbs at, say,
|| under 30 gm per day!
||

Why?

"Doug Lerner" ha scritto nel messaggio
...
Hi, people. It's been a while since I posted - since May 26th when I set
out
for my one month trip to the U.S to be exact.

Hi Doug, welcome back!

The first 7 days I lost 4.5 kg = almost 10 lb.

Congrats, that's quite an initial weight loss!

when you just count carbs it is *easy* to eat way too many
calories!

It's just the opposite for me! I'm mainly (moderately) low-carbing, and if I
want to stick to my desired daily carb intake (in the range or 40-50 grams
of carbs a day), my calorie intake is always low (in the 1200ies). Then I
try to up the caloric intake a bit and always get above my carb budget. I'm
still (re-) learning to balance that.
Another confirmation that different things work for different people, I
guess


And I'm just happy I stopped myself from gaining all my
weight back!

That certainly deserves a big pat on the back (I never managed to do that,
personally. I somehow never realize that I'm not only +2 kg above my goal
weight, but much, much more

WTG for realizing what the problem was and fixing it straight away!

Elly

"Doug Lerner" ha scritto nel messaggio
...
I wish I had something to measure my blood sugar without running over to
the
hospital all the time. That is the only thing I am worried about.

What you can do is buy those urine sticks (like keto-sticks) that check for
glucose in the urine. The bottle usually has the chart so you can tell
easily (by comparing the stick to the chart/color on the box) if your
*urine* glucose level is elevated. If it is, that's a good time to go to the
hospital and have your *blood* sugar levels
controlled.
Here (Italy) we buy those urine sticks in the pharmacy, I'm sure you can get
them without the prescription where you are as well.

Elly

"Doug Lerner" ha scritto nel messaggio
...
I wish I had something to measure my blood sugar without running over to
the
hospital all the time. That is the only thing I am worried about.

What you can do is buy those urine sticks (like keto-sticks) that check for
glucose in the urine. The bottle usually has the chart so you can tell
easily (by comparing the stick to the chart/color on the box) if your
*urine* glucose level is elevated. If it is, that's a good time to go to the
hospital and have your *blood* sugar levels
controlled.
Here (Italy) we buy those urine sticks in the pharmacy, I'm sure you can get
them without the prescription where you are as well.

Elly

if your suffering from joint pain (would it be gout?) then a low carb
way of dieting i find tends to aggravate that condition. it may just be
that my protein intake was way very high but it was definately the low
carb diet i went on that triggered severe gout in me a few years back.