Losing Weight

Let me clarify something: Eating a natural diet consisting of fruits, vegetables, and meat is what this website is about. This diet is how we are supposed to eat every day, and it will keep you healthy. On this diet, you will probably lose weight on account of no longer eating starch (fast foods, pizza) and sugar (soda, candy, cookies, cake, and ice cream). However, this diet is not a weight loss program per se.

For weight loss purposes, the author has had personal success--and been an eyewitness to the success of others--in losing weight on the Low-Carb diet.

How does the low carb diet work? Every time you eat carbohydrates, whether it be a potato, a slice of pizza, or a can of soda, the sugar goes directly into your bloodstream and your blood sugar jumps. Your pancreas must produce a hormone called Insulin in order for the body to process these sugars. The more sugar(carbohydrate) you consume, the more Insulin your body must produce. After producing abnormally high levels of Insulin for years, your pancreas finally breaks down and you get Type-two diabetes. This is called adult-onset diabetes, but it is happening to younger people now. It is very important to understand the function of the pancreas and the hormone Insulin, because high amounts of carb consumption leads to high amounts of Insulin levels in the blood which leads to a condition known as Insulin resistance. Now, Insulin resistance is very bad. What it means is that the body's Insulin receptors, from being exposed to abnormally high amounts of Insulin, have hardened and are no longer as capable of receiving and processing the Insulin as they used to be. When this happens, the body must produce MORE Insulin in order to process sugar than it used to, and this makes it MORE likely that your pancreas is going to fail at any time. Do you see why it is extremely crucial to avoid sugar and starch in your diet? Obesity, high blood pressure, heart disease, and all of these modern medical problems we face, exist simply because we don't eat as nature intends. According to Weston A. Price, a dentist who set out to explore the true cause of tooth decay, made a shocking discovery: primitive tribes the world over had great teeth! Modern society teaches that people with bad teeth don't brush their teeth enough, but if you look at people who have seemingly great teeth, you'll find they have had a lot of cavities filled. Why is this? Dr. Price reasoned that since the primitives, who had great teeth, had them without brushing, there had to be a different reason. He found the answer. By eating high amounts of sugar, the body must process these sugars. Since it requires certain minerals in order to process them, and these minerals are not found in a junk food diet, the body must turn to its only other source of minerals: itself. The body will strip the teeth and bones of calcium and magnesium in order to process these ludicrously high amounts of sugar, and the person gets tooth decay and bone decay (osteoporosis). Though he may brush his teeth twice a day, he must have cavity after cavity filled up, and wonders why. He reasons that since he brushes his teeth a lot, he should have excellent condition of his teeth, and reasons that he must have bad genes. If his dentist was forthcoming (and not ignorant of the truth), he would be informed that the starch and sugar in his diet is to blame, but unfortunately dentists make money every time you come back to visit, so it really doesn't work out in his favor to tell you this (if he is even aware of the truth). The next time you see your dentist roaring down the street in a brand-new Porsche, look down at the candy bar you are eating and realize the connection.

Back to the low carb diet. By substantially lowering your carbohydrate intake to about 30 grams per day, your body quickly burns off this source of energy and turns to its naturally-designed storehouse of engery: fat. Now let me tell you something about fat. The energy from fat does not produce a mountainous spike of energy and send you crashing in a few hours the way a carb (sugar) spike will. Quite the contrary. The energy you'll get from fat is much more consistent and does not produce a hyper, jittery feeling in your body. When your body turns to its own fat for energy, you will notice that you are a lot more clear-headed all day long; alert but in a relaxed, mellow state.

The low carb diet is NOT a starvation diet like those restricted-calorie diets. You MUST understand the difference. A restricted calorie diet WILL make you lose weight, but you are liable to gain it all back again, and then some. Why? Because when you starve yourself, you are depriving yourself. When you deprive yourself, it makes temptations stronger. When temptations are stronger and you finally give in, you're more liekly to go overboard and indulge like never before. Let's look at an example. Suppose Jane is on a 1000-calorie diet. She eats a small meal for breakfast of one slice of wheat toast, one egg, and half of an apple. So far so good. At work, an evil coworker offers her a scrumptious piece of chocolate cake, just a tiny piece. Jane is allowed to eat this piece of cake on her diet, as long as she adheres to the 1000 calorie rule. So Jane indulges herself and eats that piece of cake. Uh-oh! Her calorie allowance for the day has gone down substantially. Now she can't eat anything more than mouse-sized rations for the rest of the day. The result? Jane fights hunger and fatigue all day long (and all night). If she does not give in today, it is a miracle, but living like this, she will give in eventually. Why? Because hunger weakens the willpower. A strong will is needed to sustain one through a starvation diet, and being hungry will chip at that will every single day, and when that wall finally comes down, the person will consume so much junk food, because his or her will is completely gone, that he will be more obese than ever before (and self-esteem will be lower than ever before).

As a final note, the low carbohydrate diet is NOT a lifelong eating plan. When you have lost weight and are approaching your ideal weight and bodyfat percentage, you will begin to increase your carb intake in the form of vegetables and fruits. As you increase your intake of carbohydrate, you will notice your weight loss slowing down. There is a point at which you will begin to gain weight again, if you eat too much carbohydrate. This happens when you eat more sugar than you are able to burn off in a day, and your body is unable to switch to fat-burning mode for energy. Just decrease your carbohydrate level again, and you body will burn its own fat again. When you know the amount of carbs you can eat in a day without gaining or losing weight, you have found that threshold. This is a very good thing to be aware of, because now you have complete control over whether you lose weight, gain weight, or maintain weight.

A word of caution! My big problem with low carb diets being touted today is that they are marketing so many products that are low carb, but are STILL JUNK FOOD! Just because a candy bar or soda is low carb does not mean that it is healthy! It is stilllll Junk Food! If you are going to remain true to the Organic-Fitness creed of always doing things naturally, then losing weight the low carb way needs to be done with only natural foods. Meat, eggs, cheese, and low-carb veggies (mostly the green veggies) are what you are allowed to eat. Avoid starchy veggies like potatoes, rice, and corn (for now) and avoid fruit, except in just modest quantities. When you have lost weight and are at your ideal weight, you can eat veggies and fruits to your heart's delight, as long as you are aware of your Carbohydrate Threshold(c). Always eat NATURALLY!

One last thing. Fiber is a very important food source. It helps promote bowel movement regularity, cleans out your digestive system, expands to help you feel full so that you eat less, and though it is counted as a carbohydrate on food labeling, it does NOT affect blood sugar levels. What that means is, if I eat a prune, when I calculate the sugar level, I will subtract the amount of fiber from the total carbs to get the NET CARBS amount, and this is the REAL amount of carbohydrate I am consuming. Put as much fiber in your diet as possible! Eating meat, cheese, and eggs and nothing else will make you unbelievably constipated, so to counter this, eat lots of fiber and you will be fine (you should be eating lots of fiber anyway, so don't worry that I'm telling you to eat lots of fiber on the low carb diet).

BE NATURAL!

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