I'm having a moment, people. I'm on the verge of acknowledging some shit I've been secretly thinking(hoping?) for a long long time and now it seems I'm allowed to believe it. The pictures above are Gary Taubes books that basically debunk the current theories about 'calories in calories out', the food pyramid, and what specifically (chemically, physiologically inside you, NOT the food you eat) makes you fat.
I am almost done with Good Calories, Bad Calories which was published in 2007. In his lectures, Taubes points out that the newer book 'Why We Get Fat' (2011) is essentially the same message but with less scientific stuff-more along the lines of 'airplane reading'. I'll admit I had to either re-read or skim here and there while reading GCBC, but it's been worth the slog. Check out the lecture he did last year at the University of Texas if you prefer watching/listening to reading: http://garytaubes.com/lectures/
So why am I so fired up? Well, even more so than last weekend when I read Wheat Belly by Dr. William Davis (who says wheat is 'as addictive as crack'- holla), I'm experiencing some Will Hunting/Robin Williams bear-hugging-it's-not-your-fault emotions.
Specifically, the chapter on fat metabolism (about halfway through the book) from Good Calories, Bad Calories really resonated with me this morning. I was aware of the fact that some overweight people can eat the same number of calories a 'thin' person eats yet the big person stays the same or even gains pounds, I was aware that simple carbs stimulate insulin production that stimulates hunger, but the idea that overweight people actually have something wrong, on the inside/cellular level that causes us to hold on to fat and metabolize food in different ways was huge for me. Further, the idea that we can release fat not simply by 'calories in calories out' by basically making our bodies do it for us (ie starving it not of calories but of carbohydrates which then allow fat cells to break up and release fatty acids back into our system to be used/released) with diet choice rather than restriction is fucking brilliant.
I could go on and on about how Taubes proves his points, but it would honestly take too long. I'll say (I think for the last time here) that yes you 'can' lose weight using calorie counting, and you can lose weight while on Weight Watchers or any other diet while joyfully eating simple carbs, but I'm convinced more so than ever that for most of us, this is a Sisyphean effort. I look forward to being a case study for the positive effects of cutting sugar and grain, eating more fat and more protein, and losing weight without hunger.
On the weight loss front, I've been hopping on the scale this week and now I'm about 6 lbs away from my previous lowest weight (the 23 down on WW in the late fall) so I'm really hoping to get there next Saturday so I can start posting losses again. In the last 7 days I'm down almost 8 lbs and still feeling either not hungry at all or pleasantly full most of the day. Now that I'm officially starting Week 2 of high fat/high protein, I'm ready to go to the gym and I'm heading there now.
Wow - this was really interesting and I think I'm going to read at least one if not both of these books. I see a lot of people talking about how terrible low-carb diets are - but I have PCOS - that right there means my entire body reacts differently to food than most women's and for me low-carb is actually the better way to go, for how my metabolism works. Good stuff.
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