Evian Gillette answers:

You can lose more body fat eating protein & fat (don’t eat protein alone) than not eating AT ALL. To lose weight fast, eat all you want, but nothing but meat, eggs, healthy oils, mayo, butter & half an avocado a day (for added potassium). Keep the calories high & the fat percentage high, at least 65% of calories. Green vegetables & some cheese will continue weight loss but at a slower pace.

The first 2 weeks eat several cups a day of (mostly) lettuce & celery, cucumbers, radishes, mushrooms, peppers & more variety of vegetables thereafter – add 5 grams per day additional every week (20 grams day first 2 weeks, 25grams 3rd week, 30grams 4th week etc) til you gain weight, then subtract 10grams. That will be your personal carb level (everyone is different & depends on how active you are.)

Start with meat, fats & salads for 2 weeks and then slowly add in more green veg, wk4 fresh cheeses, wk5 nuts & seeds, wk6 berries, wk7 legumes, wk8 other fruits, wk9 starchy veg, wk10 whole grains. You will learn how your body reacts to different foods.

The first week is just water weight but fat is lost thereafter if you keep your calories high enough. Otherwise the body will strip it’s own lean tissue for nutrition. Although that may look great on a scale it will make it MUCH easier to accumulate fat in the future (since all that pesky lean tissue burning up calories will be gone). The body won’t release fat stores if you lower calories below what it needs. It will slow metabolism to compensate & store every spare ounce as fat. If you continue lowering calories, it will continue lowering the set point, til it can survive off nothing & store fat on anything. The body will only release it’s fat stores if it knows there is plenty of nutritious food.

Eating carbs while trying to lose body fat is terribly inefficient. When in glycolysis (burning glucose as fuel) you have to lower your calories (which slows your metabolism) & exercise heavily to deplete your glycogen stores before burning body fat.

The core of Atkins program is converting the body from glycolysis (burning glucose as fuel) to ketosis (burning fat as fuel). Dietary fat levels need to be at >65% of total calories, if not, the body will still remain in glycolysis by converting 58% of excess protein into glucose (via gluconeogenesis).

It takes minimum of 3 days to convert a body to ketosis, (but only one bite to convert back to glycolysis). People feel sluggish the first week but most feel better than ever thereafter.

Carbohydrates (sugar, flour, bread, cereal, pasta, potatoes, rice, beans) trigger insulin (the ONLY fat storage hormone). Protein triggers the fat burning hormone glucagon.

Simple carbs are addictive & can be disastrous to health. The best way to break the addiction is NO carbs for 3 days. Make a huge batch of deviled eggs, eat one every time you want “something” – have huge omelets with bacon, sausage, peppers, mushrooms & cheese. Pork chops smothered with peppers, mushrooms & cheese – pork rinds & dip or tuna/chicken/turkey/egg salad – steaks – a huge sugar free cheese cake. Eat so much you won’t feel deprived of anything. By the 4th day, the addiction will be gone & you can start making healthy choices.

High insulin levels promote inflammation, weight gain, hunger & unbalance other hormones. Controlling insulin levels will balance out other hormones & allow human growth hormone (HGH) to be produced naturally so lean muscle will be gained even without exercise.

Ground flax seed (2 Tbsp) 1/4 cup water, artificial sweetener, mix in a raw egg – let sit 10 min. To absorb liquid, put some cream cheese in the middle & nuke 2 min for daily fiber needs.

As long as you have <9grams carbs per hour, you will maintain insulin control & shouldn't gain weight, no matter the calories because insulin, the fat storage hormone is not activated. Many people gain weight on high carb, do low carb to lose weight & then are shocked when they return to high carb & gain weight. Many people can return to moderate carb levels but very few can really eat all they want of sugar & maintain weight or health.

I am adamantly opposed to low calorie dieting because most people lose a good portion of lean tissue (including vital organs like the heart) along with fat stores. There is no nutrition in fat stores, only energy. Most people get impatient and lower their calories and increase their exercise to a point where they lose so much lean tissue that when they return to what was maintenance level eating they are now accumulating more fat stores because their caloric needs have dropped due to the loss of this tissue as well as their metabolism slowing down to work more efficiently on fewer calories & it becomes a vicious cycle of dieting and more loss (including vital organs like the heart). This stress to the vital organs cannot be healthy.

Evian Gillette answers:

Like just about any other responsible diet or plan of eating, weight watchers’ works will if you stick with it. I’ve done weight watchers twice, had success on it, and there are a few guidelines.

1) What foods to buy: Well, that is the good news about WW. There are no forbidden foods, the important thing is not eating too much and following some sound nutritional solutions. You will learn at the meetings how to figure out foods to enjoy, and the proper amounts to eat. Other guidelines (e.g. Drinking enough water, adequate vegetable servings daily, the right amount of healthy oils) make sure that you will get proper nutrition.

2) Another thing that I like about the program is that it begins with more generous portions, and as you lose weight you gradually decrease your food intake. This helps to insure steady weight loss from beginning to end.

3) One thing that some people don’t like about WW is that it is very intentional about limiting weight loss to approximately 1 pound a week. This is actually the healthy way to do it, but darn it, it isn’t as much fun in the short term as faster weight loss. However, weight loss is more easily maintained with this sort of weight loss. That is the difficulty with any diet, when the weight is lost, and you have to start eating normally again. With the WW system, the transition into maintenance is fairly simple, as you eat the same way as during weight loss, you just are able to eat slightly more.

4) About the goal. The meetings I attended set the first goal as losing 10% of your body weight (so, for example, if you weigh 220 lbs, your first goal would be to lose 22 lbs, or get down to 198). This actually has some medical backing, as there have been many studies showing the health benefits of a 10% weight loss. After you hit the first goal, why not go for another 10%, in this case it will only be another 19 lbs! And so on until you reach your ideal weight.

5) How it works, well, this is already a long post, so I won’t go too much into it. Basically, every food has a point value, based on the amount of calories, fat and fiber. It is super easy to calculate, and you just keep your food intake to a prescribed amount each day. Then you are encouraged to eat vegetables, drink more water, and exercise sensibly. All in all, it is a very simple program to implement.

As I said at the beginning, the main problem with WW is user error. I tended to follow it for a while, and then (as I’ve done with every other diet I’ve ever attempted), stopped following it, and gained the weight back. The program is nutritionally sound, and sensible, you just have to know going in that, in order to get and keep the weight off, you are making a lifelong commitment. That is true with any weight loss program. The good thing about WW is that, while can’t imagine living on shakes, or drinking maple-syrup-sweetened lemonade, or buying those expensive celebrity-endorsed “eat nothing but our pre-packaged-food-and-you’ll-lose-weight programs for the rest of my life, WW provides a solution that is logical and maintainable.

This has turned out to be more of a glowing endorsement than I planned when I started typing. Just to clarify, I’m in no way affiliated with WW, and I’m currently not following the WW program. I am, however, a fan, and if you are ready to do it, WW will provide you a reasonable and relatively simple road to get there.

Hope this helps. Sorry for the length!!!

Peace,
Tom

Evian Gillette answers:

I’m at the same place as you. I have 8lbs left to reach my goal. But I’ve plateaued. These last 8 pounds are going to be a real pain in the butt to shed.

I too am exhausted when I get home from work, and often back out of my planned exercise. But even when I jog my 5 miles and run my sprints it’s not helping much anymore. Luckily I currently look good, so if I walk down the isle at this weight, I’ll be okay with it. But it’s frustrating to be so near the goal I’d set, but not reaching it.

I will tell you one thing I’ve found that is motivating: When my fiance wants to exercise too. On days when I come home tired, if my fiance says he wants to join me on my jog I always go anyways. But if I come home tired and the FI says he’s skipping, I’m way more likely to plop down on the sofa with him!