What's Really Making Us Fat?

[Dreamliner]

Originally Posted by ATL_Gator

Captain Jack's Burried Treasure.

Forget any diet that says I can't have that. If caveman only knew.

/wave.

Let's be honest, if ice cream cake was available for the caveman ... he would have gobbled it down. Paleos are muddled ...

The caveman didn't eat to 'get healthy.' He ate the available food to survive. Nowadays, food is super-abundant. And we're fat because we eat too much of it. Indeed, Americans get fat eating so-called 'healthy foods.'

What is paleo ? Is it avoiding sugary foods ? Hell, that kind of advice has been mainstream for years.

Is it eating mostly meat and veggies ? That's been around for decades. It's called the Atkins Diet.

On the other hand, is it avoiding grains ? Why ? Cavemen ate grains. So now paleo seems to be eat *some* of the foods the cavemen ate but not all of them. On minute they're idealizing the cavemen and the next minute they're dumping on them.

Suggestion: why don't we call paleo what it is ? It's just the latest iteration of low-carb, which is just another strategy for controlling weight.

[Gator_Tom66]

CO2 makes you fat

[Dreamliner]

Originally Posted by Gator_Tom66

CO2 makes you fat

Personally I hold out little hope for mankind.

[LeafUF]

[Dreamliner]

"Don't eat anything with a face!"

-- Tony Horton --

[ATL_Gator]

Hahahaha.. evil bread picture = brilliant!

------

And I agree with Tony, I don't eat the faces either.

[GuyWhiteyCorngood]

I softened a bit on the paleo dogma, but I agree it's a better way to eat. Not because of weight loss, but because of non-inflammatory foods. I don't think rice and potatoes are that bad, either, but I limit mine because they cause me to pork up.

It's not just the food or the dose. It's both. I think the ideal training diet is probably paleo foods coupled with controlled calories - think Paleo/Zone. Anyone who says calories don't count believes in an over-simplification. Any who thinks in terms of energy in = energy out is equally wrong. Part of the reason paleo works is because eating paleo foods generally makes it easier to not over-consume. A paleo pig is still a pig, though. It is possible to be a fat caveman.

A big part of the reason I like the paleo diet is that it started a change in my life. I started feeling better, and I think it set the stage for me exercising a lot more. It also made me more acutely aware of the impact of "bad foods." If I eat pizza, I feel like I need to put on my wife's period panties and lay around and groan. My face gets puffy and I feel like complete crap.

I think the biggest benefit of the paleo diet comes when the useless grain-based food is replaced more with nutrient dense veggies. The paleo crowd tends to mess up in a few main areas:

- too much meat (too much bacon - NOOOOOOO!)
- too much fake pastry (almond flour overdose)

My personal diet is heavy on raw veggies (lots of green smoothies) with natural meat. Feedlot meat is possibly worse for you than most grains.

[malscott]

Bottom line: Fatness is a result of porking out. Putting way more food in your mouth than is required for sustenance. "Eat to live, not live to eat!" Toss in fructose and all of those corn-sweetners and you have an epidemic, along with some of what is mentioned above. No one ever needs to do more than walk to be in shape, that is if they're not jamming a bunch of food in their mouth. Old proverb: He who eat more and more food cuz taste good, grow large ass.

[Dreamliner]

I think you guys are close(er).

Paleo: "inflammatory foods" are the latest buzzword. What is really inflammatory to the system is getting fat.

Undoubtedly, many will lose weight and feel better on Paleo. This insofar as Paleo serves to establish a calorie deficit. And it typically works in the same way that low-carb works, by eliminating "reward foods."

However, I am of the opinion that people who want to lose weight need to prepare for maintenance, so to speak. That is, if they want to lose weight AND keep it off, they should continue to eat the foods that made them fat, albeit less of them. In other words, they should eat in a manner which best prepares them for maintenance against the backdrop of extreme probability that they will regain the weight.

[LeafUF]

Yeah, I am still not buying Paleo as "better" and I wont be going back to viewing foods as "good" or "bad". If I just listed the foods I ate regularly on here some people would probably faint. And you know what my weight is pretty stable, I fluctuate no more than 3 pounds and some days I have been known to eat entire bags of potato chips.

My diet is still mostly protein based foods but I dont avoid anything. I love a good pasta and risotto. I find between a condensed eating window and some portion control (and sometimes I am not even good at that) I can enjoy what I eat and stay at a healthy weight. And get lots of compliments on how I look which is of course what matters most.

[Dreamliner]

I'm the super-lean fitness trainer and my obese clients eat "healthier" than I do. Yet, they're fat and I'm not.

[GuyWhiteyCorngood]

Originally Posted by Dreamliner

I'm the super-lean fitness trainer and my obese clients eat "healthier" than I do. Yet, they're fat and I'm not.

Which basically proves that hormones matter.

[Dreamliner]

Originally Posted by GuyWhiteyCorngood

Which basically proves that hormones matter.

I'm afraid I don't understand. I have the same hormones as everyone else. Indeed, I experience hunger pangs just like everyone else.

[LeafUF]

I am not following the hormone thing either. I know some of the posters on here get way more into the technical stuff about hormones so maybe someone can explain.

[GuyWhiteyCorngood]

Good article from Sisson:

[LeafUF]

Is hormones like the "they have better genetics" argument? Because trust me I am as average as everyone else.

[GuyWhiteyCorngood]

Originally Posted by LeafUF

Is hormones like the "they have better genetics" argument? Because trust me I am as average as everyone else.

Not necessarily. Genes are fixed, but genetic expression (hormonal balance) is somewhat dynamic. Food influences hormonal regulation, which impacts metabolism and hunger. The impact of food varies from person to person. So some tent to fatten up better than others.

The bottom line is that the type of food matters because different types of food have different hormonal impacts. I'm not saying everything boils down to a simple insulin argument, but insulin definitely drives fat storage. Calories matter too, though. It's frustrating to hear people explaining the paleo diet as if it's all you can eat ribs and no consequences.

As far as the inflammation argument goes, I'll just point you guys to the question of food allergies. Why do some foods cause autoimmune responses? Is it possible that many people eat foods that cause tolerable autoimmune responses? I say the evidence is all over the Too Hot forum. It's clear that folks are eating foods that perforate their digestive tracks, which in turn allows feces into the bloodstream, which in turn penetrates the blood/brain barrier.

[Dreamliner]

While I like Sisson's take on exercise, he seriously needs to abandon the Insulin-Carbohydrate Hypothesis before he's the last low-carber left to champion it.

But on the ground, yes, hunger is a bigger issue for some than others. And I certainly don't begrudge people finding ways of eating that work best for them.

Back to skinny me, I can eat anything I want. But skinny and active as I am, I can't eat AS MUCH as I want. No one can. Indeed, I gain weight just like any other man.

[LeafUF]

Originally Posted by Dreamliner

Back to skinny me, I can eat anything I want. But skinny and active as I am, I can't eat AS MUCH as I want. No one can. Indeed, I gain weight just like any other man.

I think this is where the misconception comes from to casual observers. When people see what you eat they only register the type of food and not the amount of food. Therefore, they gain the incorrect assumption that so and so eats whatever he wants and doesn't gain a pound without even considering that whatever he wants was less calories than he burned.

[Dreamliner]

Exactly, people accede to 'calories in/calories out' but they fixate on food choices. The reason I dig in against the 'good food/bad food' schema is because, from where I am, it causes people to take their eyes off the ball.

In the end, I don't much care what foods my clients eat to lose weight and keep it off. I have one gal who swears up and down that Atkins is the way she prefers to eat. If she's honestly happy eating meat and sprigs for the rest of her life, God love her.