Dude, Cut Calories And Increase Exercise Because You’re ‘Just Plain Fat’

I have no idea why you can’t lose with all of that exercise. I started a low carb diet 3 days ago and have the bliss of that first 4 pounds off – probably water weight but it feels good! The diet I’m going to be following after week one of 20 carbs or less a day makes each day a different amount of carbs so the old body doesn’t adapt to low carbs. For example, there is low carb day of 40 grams or less, baseline of 60-70 and carb up day that is more than 80 grams of carbs but less than 100. It’s supposed to keep your body wondering and supposedly burning more?! Let’s hope so!

A recent doctor’s visit really opened my eyes.

I am overweight and need to lose weight, so I knew that was going to be addressed. My doctor says that I need to eat more fruits and vegetables and concentrate on getting most of my calories from whole grains. I then informed him that I was a fairly strict vegetarian for 6 mos that ate lots of whole grain bread and vegetables and I ended up gaining weight and feeling horrible all of the time.

His response was that I must have been eating too many calories. I told him I ate 1500 calories a day, which is quite low for someone of my size. He then told me I obviously needed to exercise if a plant based diet didn’t do it alone. I told him I lifted weights and walked at least 30 minutes a day, which is more than I had been doing, and still hadn’t lost an ounce. At this point, he thought I was lying.

The same thing, again and again. The same old dogma of eating rice, bread, vegetables and fruits and abstaining from meat or fat is still going strong.

My grandma suffered from a heart attack recently and was given a list of “acceptable foods” by her cardiologist. They recommended substituting margarine for butter. Are you kidding me? The justification is that the fat is from plants and not animals… nevermind the trans fat.

Low fat diets are good for you? Look at the Mediterranean, where liberal use of olive oil (monounsaturated fat) actually decreases heart disease risk.

Seems like most doctors and nutritionists are working with really outdated information…

This person’s thinking is typical of weight loss. I did “this” and lost weight, if you’re not losing weight, you’re not doing it “right”. Just do what I did and you will succeed…

People are different and respond differently to both diet and exercise. Your struggles lately have been proof of that. I wonder how many other low carbers are sensitive to the artificial sweeteners like you’ve found you are. I have always learned a lot from you, and hope you don’t let the aggressive rudeness of some discourage you. Your research is helping us all learn. Keep it up Jimmy, thanks for sharing your journey so honestly.

What started out as some well meaning advice turns into a battle of egos.

This isn’t too surprising in the blogosphere.

All we have to do is look at tomorrow’s election to see people who have invested so much of their ego in a political ideology, that they actually believe that Barack Obama is a Muslim terrorist.

I think your reader finds himself in the same situation.

In response to his questions / comments, you provided a whole host of reasons why you believe that your weight loss is not simply a factor of calories in and calories out.

Apart from the fact that his responses were just slight modifications of the calories in / calories out argument, I felt that his need to respond and convince you of his beliefs was becoming waaayyyy too important to him.

His ego wouldn’t let him back down and ALLOW you to win the debate.

Like you, on my blog, I welcome debate. I have certain beliefs about health, nutrition, exercise, etc…

However, I still try to actually listen to an opposing argument, think about it, ask questions about the theory behind it and then, decide to accept or reject it.

When someone shows me that I belief I held to be true is actually false, he/she is doing me a favor.

I thought you were doing your reader a favor.

Poor Jimmy, you really do put up with a lot of garbage from your so-called fans. You’re much more patient and tolerant than I would be in your position.

I know far too many people who have had your exact experience (that is, a whole lot less of calorie intake and a whole lot more of exercise, only to either stay the same or even gain weight). If everyone who experienced that was actually too stupid to figure out what it really means to “eat less move more,” I think the rest of us would notice the large increase in the number of mentally handicapped people in the world around us. In fact, just about anything related to human health is so complicated that even doctors can’t always figure it out. A cancer treatment that works remarkable well for one patient may have almost no effect on another. Who can explain that? As you said in your article, if only weight loss were that easy.

I’m so grateful that you are willing to share your experiences, whether good, bad, or indifferent. It is very helpful to know that someone else is trying to work the LC plan but often having different results. Don’t get discouraged. There are far more of us who appreciate you than there are who feel they need to adopt you as their new project. (I wonder what it would be like to know everything? I’m sure my life would be much better if I was as knowledgable as your e-mail friend believes himself to be.)

Hey Jimmy,

I am new to your blog and am really loving it. I think you are on the right track with the sweet free approach. My Dad was stalled in his weight loss and pushed past it by cutting the fake sugar treats, wine and excess fruits. If you insulin is up all the low calorie intake and exercise will do you no good but make you hungrier. Good luck and I look forward to hearing about your progress.

jeff

FYI: to this person who thinks he/she is being helpful. There is something called free radicals, which flourish like crazy when one over-exercises. You end up exhausted, injured, your body produces cortisol (which makes you gain weight among other nasty side-effects). That is why there was the whole phenomenon of “in shape” runners dropping dead years ago.

I love exercise. Can’t get enough. But doing in excess will not make a body healthy.

Also, when you mention someone’s “fat ass” it is derogatory, disrespectful, and tends to make whatever comments of value you may have fly out the door with your credibility.

You might think about posting this on your forehead: You catch more flies with honey. (Not cruelty.)

Jimmy, I’m amazed at the patience and civility you have with your critics. You are an example to all of us with your gentleman-like response. Thank you for all you do for the low-carb community. Ron, aka The Former Donut Junkie.

WOW.. What a way to make a point; call some one a fat ass and demand that he follow what you do…. totally not the way to be helpful Rude Dude. Some people just do not get it. What works for you may not work for me and vice versa. Everyone is entitled to his or her own opinion, but that doesn’t mean you can force it on others. WOW.. I am still in shock that someone could be so rude. I think you handled that much better than I would Jimmy! Kudos to you!

Jimmy, You lost 7 lbs on your first sweets-free week? That is SO FANTASTIC!!!!!!! What a marvelous effort! Thank you so much for trying this. I just told my daughter and she said,”See Mom, now we should give it a try.” I’m still trying to psych myself up for it.

Jimmy:

I can’t believe you allowed some loser to waste your time. Quite of few of your regular readers don’t agree with you on a number of things, but we at least take the time to read the information you’ve given about yourself, your beliefs about LC’ing, and your diet before offering well-considered opinions.

In short, anybody who’d use this kind of language is just trying to jerk your chain.

We certainly can’t learn anything new if we already “know” all the answers, can we? This guy, and everyone who dispenses dietary advice, needs to SHUT THEIR MOUTH until they have read Good Calories Bad Calories several times over until they get it. The factors that regulate our weight are so much more complex than most of us understand, but unfortunately, in a culture where one’s personal opinion is assumed to be the Sovereign Truth, very few are interested in admitting that there might be more to learn than what they think they know. I really sympathize with your recent weight gain and struggle to lose–it’s frustrating to know that you are doing everything right, and doing what worked before, only this time it’s not working. I admire your persistence in not giving up. If this sweetener-free adventure works for you, then I think I know what I will be giving up for Lent come February!

If this guy thinks Pilates is not an intense workout, then he’s obviously doing it wrong.

Shock the body! I don’t know if it works, and it’s not advice. I’ve just been giving it a lot of thought lately.

I did low-carb successfully and dropped from 330 pounds to about 260. I got tired of having no carbs and ballooned up to 360 lbs. I tried to start/restart low-carb dieting, but it just was not having the same effect on my body.

I’ve been able to shed 65.5 pounds since June 15th, but I am wondering if my body is getting used to the new plan and not reacting the same as when I started. In other words, I’m at about 1500 calories per day and exercising at least 180 minutes per week. Has my body accepted the new lifestyle and adjusting to it in terms of metabolism, energy, etc? I don’t know.

No matter what you do, somebody else is going to think they have it all figured out. We’re all individuals. Our bodies are different. People should just feel great about sharing what worked for you, but let others figure out what works for them.

Good luck, Jimmy. Sorry to hear about your brother.

Hey Jimmy — I’m sorry I have kind of been out of the loop – I’m so sorry to hear about Kevin. I’m sorry I couldn’t have helped out more. Your work here will hopefully save other lives from a similar fate. Keep up the great work.

I just figured I’d kind of weigh in here… there are so many different ways to lose weight, and I think Jimmy’s always good about being open to different methods.

I’d suggest that Jimmy’s new eating plan is lower in calories than before…I haven’t gone back to all his prior menus, but I’d guess he was in the 3000-3500 calorie range when his weight wasn’t really going in the right direction. So there is a bit of truth to the “eat less” mentality if you were to really compare. I think now Jimmy’s going between 2000-2400 calories, which definitely should be helping if it’s about 1000 less on average than before…AND there’s no doubt that he’s burning more calories with a much more consistent exercise plan (I think may this was post Fit-Camp? I haven’t been following it in a great amount of detail). The fact that he’s now tracking calorie intake is of great significance too, because most of the time people eat more when they aren’t tracking at all.

In the end, sometimes we attribute weight loss to something very specific, some particular type of food…but to look at the bigger picture I think there are a lot of changes at play here…and they are resulting in a cumulative effect. I think it’s great that it is working!

I would also suggest, that while it might not be your aim, that substituting just your sour cream for 2% Fage (greek) yogurt will save you about 60% of the calories from the sour cream and you won’t notice a difference…and while some don’t believe calories matter, I do think that it all matters…so over the course of a day if you can save 100-200 calories by switching that out…after 7 days that’s up to 1400 calories saved, which will contribute IMO! So while we all have different eating strategies, cutting some of the calories in small ways makes more difference than people think!

Just my 2 cents!

-Steve

Hey Jimmy, I don’t know if you watch the Biggest Loser, but one of the trainers a couple of weeks ago said that one of the guys had to eat every 4 hours to keep his body running efficiently, like a well tuned machine. I wonder if you ate “mini-meals” would help? The guy only had a 3 pound loss the previous week and said he wasn’t eating because he wasn’t hungry. I guess we do sabotage our weight loss efforts without realizing it, by not eating right, or drinking enough water or exercising right or enough. I hope you find your groove again. Keep up the good work and tell Christine Hello!

Well then why did he lose 18 pounds the next week?

Dr. Atkins did write about people who simply could not loose weight no matter what, like Jimmie. He recommended that they try a Fat Fast, and eat nothing but fat for a couple of weeks, like the Eskimos. I don’t think Jimmie has tried that, yet. Personally, I don’t think I could do that.

Re; biggest loser. He wasn’t eating much, and he wasn’t hungry… I’d say he lost weight the next week because he was retaining water or something. My dad went on a juice fast years ago, and failed to lose appreciable amounts of weight over an extended period. But for sure he shed calories, either fat or lean. Metabolisms can slow down, but there’s a limit.