The great diet debate

Zdice, Beroun District, Central Bohemian Region, the Czech Republic. A weight scale in the train station. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

If you've been reading the headliners on the home pages of Google, etc..you may have run across articles talking about diets and which ones are the best. Well, naturally I saw a lot of comments on the subject and one from someone who was advising everyone how to eat that had admittedly never even had a weight problem.

 Sigh..these commenters bother me the most because unless you've been overweight and have successfully kept the weight off for  a significant period of time I am not convinced that you aren't just genetically blessed with a good metabolism.

This commenter said no one in their family was overweight, and assumed it was their perfectly healthy eating habits that were the credit and so felt they could school everyone on how to lose weight. How do you tell others how to lose weight, when you've never ever had to lose any?

 If you've never been overweight, chances are you have inherited the right genes over dieting practices. We've all known skinny people that could eat everything and not gain a pound. So for those that have never had a weight problem to tackle, please, stop telling others how to lose weight. I'm sure you don't want a fat person telling you how to stay thin, right? Ok with that being said, I will say that most of the articles again pointed to low carb as being the most successful diet.

English: A pile of Wheat Thins crackers, made by Nabisco. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

I like doing low carb, but I follow a loose version of it, focusing primarily on portion control and limiting my overall in take of food. Is it easy? Not really. Some nights I just want to head down stairs and go raid my fridge. Other nights, I fall asleep and then wake up and do it.

Cross section of celery stalk, showing vascular bundles, which include both phloem and xylem. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

What helps is opting for something healthy when I get the munchies. I will eat a few pieces of cheese, a stalk or two of celery and some salad dressing for dipping. I make sure to have a few Wheat thins too..All in a tiny bowl. The crunch of the celery and wheat thins, and the decadent-feels like Im cheating of the cheese and salad dressing..somehow do the trick. I also always drink a bottle of water too. This helps with making me feel full.

whitneyinchicago.wordpress.com/2009/07/11/summery-salads-... (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The bottom line is no diet works if you can't or wont follow it. Find one that you can stick to.

When your low carb diet quits working

Low carb diets are great, however like any diet, they have their faults and drawbacks..part of this is usually dieter error. Many low carbers start off with a bang and then hit a plateau that they can't seem to breach. There culprit may simply be in the form of that horrible " F " word,.... FAT.

Since most low carb diets are low in carbohydrates and a little higher in fats, it is easy to go too far with the so called low carb foods that have too much fat. These might be in the from of creams, cheeses, butter, sauces that are milk and cream based..while these add in items to many recipes may be low in carbs, too much of these good things can start coming back to bite you.

So what is the new strategy to override this oversight? Well keep in mind at all times, fat makes you fat. Low carb is a great way to jump start weight loss and low carbing is particularly great for diabetics, but when you hit that dreaded plateau, it is time to review your diet list of acceptable items and make changes, the human body is a wise old soul and it catches on to even the best thought out diet.

Low carb flies under the body's natural survival mode for a while and fools the body into burning fats in the diet for energy. However over time, low carbers tend to become so fixated on low carb they over do it on fats, especially animal fats.

This image shows a display of healthy foods on a table. Foods include beans, grains, cauliflour, cantelope, pasta, bread, orange, turkey, salmon, carrots, turnips, zucchini, snowpeas, string beans, radishes, asparagus, summer squash, lean beef, tomatoes, and potatoes. AV Number: AV-8812-3430 Reuse Restrictions: None - This image is in the public domain and can be freely reused. Please credit the source and/or author listed above. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

If you have hit a plateau, keep it simple, revise your diet by keeping your meats lean and increasing your intake of veggies, especially the leafy greens. Eat as much negative calorie foods as your hearts desire, because no diet works if you feel hungry all the time while you're on it. If you are using low carb pasta, make sure you do not eat the left over pasta because low carb pasta reverts back into regular pasta after it has sat around in liquids or is over cooked which releases the starchy glutens. its kind of like Cinderella, after midnight, it turns back to its former self.

If you are a diabetic it is imperative that you become a student of the disease. Do not make up your own rules as you go. You can not say, on the weekends I will allow myself to go off my diet and have whatever I like. Why can't a diabetic do this? Because you are a diabetic 24/7 (weekends included). What does this mean? Those regular slips in diet protocol for a diabetic could cause the body to adjust and respond negatively. The body will literally "figure out" that it is deprived during the week, and work harder to store fat on the weekends when it is getting it.

Image via Wikipedia

So what is a low carber or diabetic to do? Well, let yourself have random treats on occasion with no set time or schedule, this keeps the body guessing. The key factor is, these random treats have to be the smallest portion you can have, have a few tablespoons of mac and cheese, not two cups, have one or two cookies, not a half of a bag...if you can't be disciplined with this random treat idea, don't even start it, because letting up on yourself on a regular basis isn't really dieting at all.

This random treat idea also should never ever be done when you are a newbie at low carbing or just found out you have diabetes. This is for the tried and true dieter that actually knows how to show discipline and control and is experienced at maintaining their weight.

It takes time to know your body. You have to be strict and learn what will spike your sugar levels and avoid these foods. Don't make up your own rules, slipping up on your diet when you are a diabetic might have dangerous health consequences..just sayin...oh and did I mention exercise? Yeah, that too can offset a plateau as well.

Related articles

• Great low-carb products
• Low carb yourself thin
• Known foods that spike blood sugar levels
• Healthy dessert recipes
• Top low carb recipes