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January 23, 2006
1000?
Hi Victoria, welcome to the blog. If you're wondering what's going on, check out the Calorie Restriction Society to find out why we practice Calorie Restriction with Optimal Nutrition. I just checked out your blog, over at http://www.stumblingtobethlehem.blogspot.com. Congratulations on the weight loss, wow! 60 pounds on Atkins. Another low carb success story. I am always concerned about the saturated fat that many people eat on Atkins, but it's easy to do low carb without so much saturated fat, especially if you love eggwhites! What's your low carb pizza recipe?
Up until this month, I was averaging 1300 calories a day or a little more. This month I've been gradually lowering my calories, all the while carefully monitoring my nutrition on my nutritional software and making sure that I don't lose too much weight too fast. Becoming skinny is a side-effect of CR, but not the goal. The goal is to slow down biological aging, and CR is the only intervention currently known that actually does that in mammals. Check out Luigi Fontana's study for the latest.
Cautions: I am a very small person, at under 5' 2', and I have been gradually lowering my calories for almost two years. I very, very carefully monitor my nutrition to make sure I am getting everything I need. I also get a whole bunch of blood tests every year to make sure I'm getting everything I need and staying healthy. No one should attempt to eat as little as I do unless you're willing to take the responsibility for tracking your nutrition and visiting your doctor. Doing CR is a long term self-experiment, and it requires discipline, research, knowledge, and attention to detail. If you just want to lose a few pounds, you don't need to drop your calories as low as mine. Don't just drop calories... you have to improve your nutrition at the same time. Also, animals who lose weight too fast actually increase their chances of dying young, so you must make sure that you lose weight at a very slow rate. For those whose main concern is losing weight without feeling hungry, I recommend cutting out unnecessary carbs like bread, pasta, and anything with sugar in it. Getting rid of fried foods is just a given. Making those two changes will cause significant weight loss in most people. While I prefer Zone and South Beach diet type of eating, I have tons of respect for the Atkins folks. If you actually read the Atkins books (which a lot of people who say they're doing Atkins don't) you'll find that especially after the first two weeks, low calorie vegetables are encouraged in large amounts. My ideal diet, as you can see from the blog, is high protein, lower carb (40% or thereabouts) and very little saturated fats but lots of unsaturated fats, especially almonds, flax oil, and these incredible Greek olives I got at Whole Foods. I could live on them, but I promise I won't! Zeynep... I bet you can get the best olives where you live, and really good olive oil too. I am jealous. I only like really good, really expensive olive oil, and I could spend a very large portion of my income on olives trying to get just the right ones, if I didn't have to do things like pay the gas bill. They are among my favorite foods.
Pre-CR, I weighed 137. Today, I weigh 102. I have tons of energy, never get sick, and feel great about my body, my relationship with food, and delicious meals I prepare for myself and my lover (who also does CR, and has been for eight years.) As Zeynep points out, I love food. I just channel my love for food into cooking and eating healthy foods.
I've discovered since I stopped drinking a glass of wine with dinner as part of my daily diet that I can eat fewer total calories while maintaining my weight, so I'm lowering my calories again. CR seems to be linear -- fewer calories, more life-extension benefits. So if I'm feeling great, not losing weight too fast, and not feeling hungry or suffering other quality of life problems, I may as well take my calories a bit lower. If I start to get too hungry or lose too much weight too fast at 1050, I'll go back up. At the risk of repeating myself, the goal is to live longer, not to lose weight. I was thin enough ten pounds ago... but I want to be younger, longer, and this is the only thing that actually works.
Back to Victoria... I'll leave religion and politics alone, as I fear we would find areas of disagreement, but I am wondering if you might be one of very few people who gets almost all my jokes.
Greetings to our travelling public health expert, one who actually eats well herself! Hi Emma!!! Thanks for checking in!
Posted by april at January 23, 2006 5:03 AM
Comments
Het April,
I have to admit that I am an olive freak as well, and am somewhat ashamed to admit that we actually have our own olive trees in the garden of our vacation house and make our own olive oil. Send me a mailing address to zeynepa@radikal.com.tr and I'll send you an olive-care package filled with olives and oil from our garden and other kinds of great turkish olives...You can indulge in them with your orange one and invite some friends over to taste them too, maybe with some dry martinis. I only hope that that's customswise allowed food to send.
zeynep
Posted by: zeynep at January 23, 2006 4:57 PM
I've read the Atkins book cover to cover, and even run a small forum for Atkins folks, as well as hanging out on the official forums, and About.com's Weight Loss forum, which is friendly to just about all diets.
The pizza is a crust mix I use put out my Mini Carb/Carb Sense. I skip the sauce (don't like pizza sauce) and put on tons of meat and cheese.
Saturated fat hangs around 15% of my total calories. Sometimes it can go as high as 20%. I'm not really concerned about what kinds of fat I'm eating because my blood lipids were awesome when I was last tested last June. I eat whole eggs, never just egg whites. The yolk tastes better and has lots of nutrients.
I don't get into politics too much on my blog, though I read a couple blogs that get into those issues. Faith matters, yes. My relationship with God is as important as healthy eating and I have volunteered on ministry forums before.
Posted by: Victoria at January 23, 2006 9:30 PM