2009 Read The Book Challenge

[RosieC]

Re: 2009 Read The Book Challenge

It was great for me to read all about the function of dietary fat. I have been so programmed by low fat diets to choose skinless chicken, cook in water instead of oil, use the minimum of salad dressing etc ... have to remind myself at every meal that it's OK! So I put a quote in my signature.

Rosie

[steffi44]

Re: 2009 Read The Book Challenge

Finished chapter 2 and 3

[mizski]

Re: 2009 Read The Book Challenge

Read Chapters 1 and 2.

Chapter 1, The Promise, p. 16

Low-fat diets are in effect high-carbohydrate diets and bring on the very problems that they were intended to protect us from.

When I realized this I was angry. Still am. I’ve been lied to (still are) by my doctors, my government (the USDA, etc.), dieticians, nutritionists, countless magazines and the dozens of dieting books that collect dust on my shelves. After years of trying and failing at various diets, I realize that they were all A BIG LIE. And I tried so hard on those diets, but eventually became discouraged and drifted off in search of another solution. And as the years went on, not only did I get fatter, I developed various health problems.

Chapter 2, Understanding Some Basics, p. 17

So it’s time to abandon the assumption that the only way to lose weight is to strictly control your intake of calories. Many people think that only one thing matters: how many calories you take in and use up. It is not that simple.

When you follow a controlled carbohydrate approach, you get what I call a “metabolic advantage.” When you control carbohydrate consumption sufficiently, your body will switch from burning glucose derived from carbohydrate to burning primarily fat for energy. This means you could eat, say, 2,000 calories and still begin losing pounds and inches.

In contrast, if you were consuming 2,000 calories on a low-fat diet you might not lose weight, and you might actually gain weight. The metabolic advantage is that burning fat takes more energy so you expend more calories.

And so there it is. All those years of struggling with hunger on low-calorie and low-fat diets. Me and a zillion other people. And our doctors still push that WOE. Atkins’ metabolic advantage makes so much sense. It wasn’t that I failed at those other diets, they failed me.

[franniel]

Re: 2009 Read The Book Challenge

I am up tp chapter 4, isn't it amazing how a few chapters can inspire you.

[jimmie 48]

Re: 2009 Read The Book Challenge

rosie, i like the addition of the quote to your signature. georgiana has been doing that for a few weeks, maybe a month now, and i can hope that it is having an impact to those who come across your posts.

mizski, thanks for the thoughts you put into your post.

fran, i do like these first chapters. people cheat themselves to not read them when they begin atkins. i'm happy these chapters are inspiring you.

-------
i've finished chapter 4.
i've discovered that i am no longer in group b on page 39/40. pre atkins, i could answer 'yes' to many of the choices listed in group B. now, i think i'm more associated with group c. grains are my nemisis now. i have to really really watch the grains if i want to lose a few pounds. and my bread? my homemade bread? i feel instantly better and satisfied if i eat it.

[happymomto4]

Re: 2009 Read The Book Challenge

I finally took an hour this afternoon to get to my reading. I was thinking it would be perfect to read at night before I fell asleep--I had forgotten that now with my daily exercise, I don't lay awake in bed anymore! I have to read during the day or I'm asleep before I can crack the book!

I totally agree with Mizski about feeling lied to by my drs and all of the weight loss "professionals". I have realized that about 10 yrs ago when I decided to get really "healthy", I paid a dr hundreds and hundreds of dollars for a program that really ended up being a low-fat version of Atkins! Most of the stuff was the same (veggies encouraged--3 cups a day, proteins etc, but only low-fat cheese, low-fat salad dressing etc. I really wish it had been the real Atkins back then. I did lose 50 pounds, but it all came back when I went off the diet!

I'm in chapter 3. I still remember this information and the feeling that YES this makes sense, from a few months ago when I started, but am really looking forward to reading the higher chapters that I never bothered with because I was starting induction and didn't "need to know" the rest yet.

[imagood1]

Re: 2009 Read The Book Challenge

Read before I fell asleep last night -- read to start on Chapter 8 today. My highlighter was busy last night!

This is a great challenge - so many things I had forgotten (or choose not to remember - which was it?) -- it's good to go back and re-read the book from time to time.

[gumby87]

Re: 2009 Read The Book Challenge

I read the first 4 chapters over the weekend, but now I want to go back and highlight a few things. Great stuff!

It was a bit scary seeing which group I fell into in ch. 4 (group B). Possible hypoglycemia and pre-diabetic. Wow! Never thought that could or would be me, but the path I was headed down was definitely in that direction. Definitely opened my eyes!

[bizzlekitty]

Re: 2009 Read The Book Challenge

Read Chapters 1-4 so far.

What's sad is despite all the information we've had for 30+ years now, people still think low fat/high refined carbs is the way to eat. All you have to do is look at history.

[steffi44]

Re: 2009 Read The Book Challenge

Read to chapter 14. I have done the low fat diet and lost 30 pound and gained it back plus some. My snacks were sugar filled foods and breads without butter and most the time I was starving. I never realized how bad sugar really was until reading this book.

[wvfireboss]

Re: 2009 Read The Book Challenge

Just finished chapter 3

[jimmie 48]

Re: 2009 Read The Book Challenge

good morning peep challengers and good reading!

well for some of us, anyway. i totally took the day off yesterday from anything. won't go into why but i just wasn't here and wasn't busy. however, today is a new day, nothing seems to be in my way and i'll be getting at least one more chapter read.

fireboss, i like the quote in your signature.

[mizski]

Re: 2009 Read The Book Challenge

Read Chapters 3, 4 and 5.

Chapter 4, Is This You? Three Types Who Need to Control Their Carbohydrates, pp. 38-41

Group A: “I Really Don’t Eat That Much!”
Are you overweight despite the fact that you don’t eat that much?
Do you follow standard weight loss diets to the letter, yet make no headway losing weight, or get stuck far short of your goal?
Have you noticed that many slim people definitely consume more food and more calories than you do?
…
Do you find that when you eat the amount of food that feels just right, you don’t lose—or you even gain?
Do you find yourself losing and regaining the same 10 to 15 pounds?
Do you gain weight even though you eat natural, low-fat foods?
Have you often said, “I’m really very disciplined; it must be my metabolism”?

Do most of your “yes” responses place you in Group A? Then you have a metabolic problem, manifested either by an inability to lose weight or keep it off, or by hunger or the inability to achieve and maintain satiety….

Individuals … have a condition that is the common denominator among nearly all overweight people. It is called hyperinsulinism.

p. 45 Eating large amounts of foods high in sugar, white flour and other refined carbohydrates can promote or aggravate hyperinsulinism.

While Group A attributes fit me to a “T” meaning I have a metabolic problem, my initial weight loss on Induction suggests that I have a low degree of metabolic resistance (more on that when we get to Part 2 readings). As my pre-Atkins diet was very very low in refined carbohydrates, I wonder if it is also excessive carbohydrates (as suggested by the USDA food pyramid) that lead to hyperinsulinism?

Ah, question answered in Chapter 5! Chapter 5 explained what happens to the body when there is too much insulin and why there is too much insulin and how this makes it very difficult to lose weight.

Chapter 5, Understanding The Importance of Insulin, p. 54 …imagine going into your doctor’s office after diligently eating a low-fat diet that was quite possibly high in sugars and carbs. And imagine being told, “Well, if you just had a little more willpower…” Sad, isn’t it? Willpower is not the issue. To lose weight, you’re going to need the controlled carbohydrate nutritional approach offered by this book.

I never really paid much attention to insulin before Atkins as I thought it was a diabetes only type issue. Boy, was I wrong:

pp. 54-55

• Excessive carbohydrate intake results in an oversupply of glucose, and thus insulin, in the body.
• An ongoing cycle of excess blood glucose overproduction and insulin overproduction eventually results in hyperinsulinism and ultimately diabetes.
• Hyperinsulinism is what makes it hard for many people to lose weight.
• If you don’t stabilize your blood sugar you will have difficulty losing weight.
• If you lower your carbohydrate intake you will lower your insulin levels as well as your triglycerides.

I never really understood before why when I restricted my carbs, I would lose weight. Now I’m starting to get a clue. And apparently I am on the right track as I am losing weight.

[mygarden]

Re: 2009 Read The Book Challenge

Hi all, finished reading Part one. NO, I am not bragging. Just finished a long road trip from Los Angeles to SF Bay Area. (5 1/2 hours w/ 1 bathroom break for those of you who don't know) and managed to finish reading the book.

I really appreciated chapter 7 on Is there a Metabolic Advantage? and Chapter 9 Facts and Fallacies. I am/ was really hung up on the unlimited calories allowed on Atkins because I have been so conditioned to think that that was all important. Eat less, and fewer calories. When Dr Atkins addresses this issue with result of studies that have been conducted on reduced calories versus reduced carbs it made a lot of sense to me. I have had my own strugges with low calorie diets and my physicians shake their heads at me when I explain that I have been on VERY low calorie diets with very little weight loss. Not to mention not being able to stay on them very long.

[jimmie 48]

Re: 2009 Read The Book Challenge

i'm glad to see so much reading has been going on! mygarden, you did what i would do if i had been traveling. kudos for making good use of your time!

mizski, i'm glad to see you continue to learn about the insulin, diabetes and so on. i'll admit, as i did in my journal, that i am truely lost when it comes to this subject. i read, and reread, very slowly but the science just doesn't seem to get through.

i've finished chapter 5 and looking forward to chapter 6 tomorrow.