This is just going to be a quick write up on some ideas I have on the subject of losing weight, which are mostly coming from bits and pieces of things that I have been reading and watching over the last few days. These ideas are of course new to me, and maybe some of you, but probably not to everybody.
I will start by saying that there are some crazy misconceptions about losing weight. For one, there is the age old idea that eating low fat foods means that your body will use your own fat cells for energy. This simply is not true, and as a result of people believing this, they think that it's OK to eat a bowl of sugary cereal with low-fat milk because of the low fat content, when in reality it's sugar, or simple carbohydrates, that are causing them to get fat in the first place. People pass up the bacon for Special K, and this is a huge mistake. (Wouldn't you rather eat the bacon anyway?)
You're much better off to eat the bacon instead of the cereal, because simple-carb cereals breakdown in your body in much the same way that a can of soda does (everybody knows that soda makes you fat). Eating a high amount of carbohydrates causes a spike in insulin, which then the insulin does a couple of functions to even out your blood sugar, and one of them happens to be pushing the excess carbohydrates into your body's fat cells. For more on this read: LOWER YOUR CARBOHYDRATES AND LOWER YOUR INSULIN LEVELS
For little bit of anecdotal evidence on this notion that more carbs equates to more fat, think about the differences between carnivorous and omnivorous/herbivorous animals. Can you think of one carnivorous animal that is fat? Now think about the hippopotamus, they are primarily vegetarian. Another one thing to ponder, what do we feed livestock to fatten them up? It certainly is not meat.
So with this basic premise that more carbs equals more fat, one of the easiest methods to lose weight would be to follow what's called "The GI Diet." GI stands for Glycemic Index. This is basically the foods that people with diabetes should eat, and in my thinking what you should eat if you're trying to lose weight. A good primer on this can be found here: The GI Diet - List of low GI foods
"The glycemic index range is as follows:
Low GI = 55 or less
Medium GI = 56 - 69
High GI = 70 or more"
A really good film to watch: [ame=http://www.amazon.com/Fat-Head-Tom-Naughton/dp/B001NRY6R2/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1308007057&sr=8-1]Amazon.com: Fat Head: Tom Naughton: Movies & TV[/ame]
The movie basically picks apart "Super Size Me" and the guy proves that you can actually lose weight from eating only fast food, but if you limit your carbs to 100g per day and calories to 2000 per day.
I will start by saying that there are some crazy misconceptions about losing weight. For one, there is the age old idea that eating low fat foods means that your body will use your own fat cells for energy. This simply is not true, and as a result of people believing this, they think that it's OK to eat a bowl of sugary cereal with low-fat milk because of the low fat content, when in reality it's sugar, or simple carbohydrates, that are causing them to get fat in the first place. People pass up the bacon for Special K, and this is a huge mistake. (Wouldn't you rather eat the bacon anyway?)
You're much better off to eat the bacon instead of the cereal, because simple-carb cereals breakdown in your body in much the same way that a can of soda does (everybody knows that soda makes you fat). Eating a high amount of carbohydrates causes a spike in insulin, which then the insulin does a couple of functions to even out your blood sugar, and one of them happens to be pushing the excess carbohydrates into your body's fat cells. For more on this read: LOWER YOUR CARBOHYDRATES AND LOWER YOUR INSULIN LEVELS
For little bit of anecdotal evidence on this notion that more carbs equates to more fat, think about the differences between carnivorous and omnivorous/herbivorous animals. Can you think of one carnivorous animal that is fat? Now think about the hippopotamus, they are primarily vegetarian. Another one thing to ponder, what do we feed livestock to fatten them up? It certainly is not meat.
So with this basic premise that more carbs equals more fat, one of the easiest methods to lose weight would be to follow what's called "The GI Diet." GI stands for Glycemic Index. This is basically the foods that people with diabetes should eat, and in my thinking what you should eat if you're trying to lose weight. A good primer on this can be found here: The GI Diet - List of low GI foods
"The glycemic index range is as follows:
Low GI = 55 or less
Medium GI = 56 - 69
High GI = 70 or more"
A really good film to watch: [ame=http://www.amazon.com/Fat-Head-Tom-Naughton/dp/B001NRY6R2/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1308007057&sr=8-1]Amazon.com: Fat Head: Tom Naughton: Movies & TV[/ame]
The movie basically picks apart "Super Size Me" and the guy proves that you can actually lose weight from eating only fast food, but if you limit your carbs to 100g per day and calories to 2000 per day.
Also, obviously we don't feed livestock meat to fatten them up (although we used to) - firstly, because then you end up with foot & mouth, and have to kill off all your livestock. Secondly, feeding them with meat is a lot more expensive, and lowers profits, due to the pyramid of biomass.
