Still waiting for the pounds to "melt off" page 4

[Voyageur]

Have you checked out the book "Good Calories, Bad Calories" by Gary Taubes? You might find it interesting.

Please post up the quote where Gary says that the average person can lose weight/fat without a caloric deficit over time. Thanks.

-Voyageur

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[jimhensen]

I think all the people telling you to eat more or less calories are well intended but wrong. Eat when you are hungry. If you are hungry, EAT! As long as you are eating the right foods your body will tell you when it's time.

You do realize that this won't work for everyone...I don't even think it would work for a majority of people. Hunger is somewhat subjective and just "eating when you are hungry" can be a serious recipe for disaster as different people have different levels of hunger.

[Freedish]

True, everyone is different.

I try to think about Grok- he ate when he was hungry. He didn't count calories. He also didn't have 'primal muffins' as a comfort food so he really only ate when he was ACTUALLY hungry (which was probably a lot due to his activity level). A lot of people (maybe not you) don't know what actual hunger is. Some people think they are hungry when really it is a sugar craving.

If you haven't heard of Gary Taubes you might wanna look him up (i think mcbeitz also mentioned him)- the general hypothesis he makes is that when you calorie restrict your body compensates the loss of calories by slowing your metabolism and energy level down. You will lose weight short term but eventually your body will catch up.

Hope this makes sense, it's 1 am and I'm not always good at explaining things

[jammies]

You do realize that this won't work for everyone...I don't even think it would work for a majority of people. Hunger is somewhat subjective and just "eating when you are hungry" can be a serious recipe for disaster as different people have different levels of hunger.

If you find the right ratio of fat and protein in your diet, I believe many people can follow appetite. Once the processed-carb-roller-coaster-blood- sugar- ride is over, it does become very possible trust your body in order to get to a healthy weight. If the goal is to become super lean or fit, this may not be true. That may require a little extra work.

[Paleobird]

What GT said was in reference to people still running on carbs. Restrict calories, metabolism shifts down. Very true, but, for those of us who are long since over carbs, advice like that of Wildwabbit above is the stumbling block keeping many an aspiring Primal from reaching their weight loss goals. "Eat more fat! Yay fat!"

I believed this for a while and waited for the weight to melt off too. Didn't happen. When you have switched over to fat burning mode, your body can burn the fat on your fork or the fat on your rear. If you keep putting too much fat in your system, you will not burn the stored fat no matter how low your carb intake. If you are at a healthy weight there is nothing wrong with fatty brisket but if you are trying to lose weight, try some flank steak instead. I dialed back the fat, increased the protein proportionately and curtailed the overall quantity of food I was eating (all Primal) and 35 pounds melted off.

And I really wish the Primal community would realize that advice like "eat when you're hungry, stop when you're not" is all well and good for someone with a healthy satiety signaling system. For most overweight people, this is the most unhelpful mantra ever chanted.

[Fury]

lol, eating more (other than in very extreme circumstances of low calorie and huge amounts of cardio) is not going to cause someone to lose weight.

I for one am shocked to find such an uninformed comment here of all places. This board is full of people reporting exactly what you claim cannot happen. Eating at a gigantic caloric deficit is very easy when your Obese, especially if trying to follow common dietary wisdom and eat "healthy" (reduce fat, lotsa veggies, less sugar, etc...)

If eating the wrong foods its common to see +300lb dieters (+3000 "maintenance" cals) at deficits in excess of 1000calories without losing the 2lb of bodyfat per week that the simple calories in vs calories out math says they should be at that level of restriction.

A diet of say... 180g of protein, 150g carbs a day with 120g fats would still leave someone my size with a daily deficit of between 800 and 1000 cals depending on activity levels

At such a caloric deficit success is black and white, either your dropping on average 1.5-2.5 pounds a week or your not, and people's uninformed suggestions to "eat less" when already at such a deficit are misguided and unhealthy

[Apex Predator]

Too many nuts and eating too often.

[clintonR71weir]

I guess patience is not one of my virtues- results now!

[Apex Predator]

Also-stop putting that death on your salad.