Lacking Motivation Seeking Guidance

[JT0325]

I'm 5'5 and around 190 and I want to start working out and eating better just don't know where or how to start any advice?

[Kirstie_MHModerator]

Let's get back on track here.  If you're not answering the OP's question directly, that's considered "hijacking" a thread, which isn't allowed in our forums.  Please continue this debate via private message, or start your own thread to debate diets and research findings.  Thank you.

[Red_Star]

Dr Atkins did not die of a heart attack. He slipped on ice while walking to work and hit his head which caused bleeding around his brain. He lost consciousness on the way to the hospital and spent two weeks in intensive care. His body deteriorated rapidly and he suffered massive organ failure. His death certificate states cause of death ""blunt impact injury of head with epidural hematoma."

The rumour Dr Atkins died of a heart attack from his own diet was spread by the vegan group Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine as well as other groups and individuals.

Butter demand and pricing is at an all time high. Margarine tastes awful IMO. Butter is delicious!  

[Paxiled]

I will obey the moderator, but when I'm wrong I'm wrong -- you're absolutely right, he died of a fall.  He did have heart disease, but probably from a virus, and you're also right that the group you mention smeared him at death.  Again, you're right on this one.

[Paxiled]

Although ironically, he was overweight.  Apparently failed to follow his own diet at the end of his life.

[Red_Star]

I eat bacon because it's delicious.  You might want to read "An Epic Debunking of The Saturated Fat Myth" by Kris Gunnars. More studies than you can poke a stick at. And the final sentence sums it up in a nutshell about saturated fat causing heart disease...

"It wasn't proven in the past, it hasn't been proven today and it never will be proven... because it's just flat out wrong."

Amen to that!

[Paxiled]

There was a very large study done recently -- about a year or two ago.  The headlines were, saturated fat isn't bad for you.  Coconut oil is fine.  Butter is fine (which got all the headlines).  The authors of the study had to do a tour of public radio and major newspapers to tell them they'd gotten it wrong -- what they'd found is that some saturated fat wasn't as bad as they thought, but it was still bad for you and should only be eaten in moderation.  The studies are being interpreted incorrectly, mostly by people selling high protein diet books and high protein diet websites.  Most studies aren't very well done.  Only a few are large enough and double blinded and done well enough to qualify as factual information as opposed to ideas for consideration.  Most people do not have a basis in the scientific theory and believe that if I give something to five people and get it published it proves something.  It doesn't, though it is food for thought for future studies.  Dietary studies are especially expensive and difficult to do because you have to follow a large enough number of people very carefully for a significant number of years.  If you just measure the impact of a few months, which is what most dietary studies do, with very small sample sizes and no controls, you just have food for thought, not something that has proven out.  That's been the problem starting with Atkins, which because it was a diet originally conceived to prevent heart disease had more research done on it than most, and over the long term it didn't pan out either as a weight loss plan or has a heart disease preventative (Atkins himself died of heart disease).  I don't eat bacon anymore unless it's made of soy or turkey because I gave up pork years ago for reasons other than health, but I agree, it is delicious.  As is ice cream.  As is margarine, for that matter.  It doesn't make it a good idea for most people to consume too much of it.  Once again, you get to do whatever you want in your life, just don't pretend to others you know it will have beneficial long-term benefits.  If you're wrong, and we already know you are for far too many people, then you've harmed someone.  Perhaps not yourself, but someone.  Better to just do your own thing, because no matter how many times you post the same thing, it boils down to, I like these foods and I'm going to look for the people who tell me it's okay to eat it because that will reinforce what I want to do.  Again, that's fine, I have no problem with you doing that, and hope you have the life you seek.  It's just another thing to evangelize to others what you don't and nobody else has been able to prove with adequate long-term studies, and all the adequate long-term studies are going the other way.  There are times being out of the mainstream is the best place to be.  So far with nutrition, that hasn't proven to be the case, but people keep trying.  I have to tell you, I managed health food stores for 18 years, and I saw more dietary theories in that amount of time than I can count.  Some of them proved out, but those were the ones that stuck pretty much to the standard eat a balance diet of complex carbs, lots of antioxidant rich veggies, and enough but not too much protein mostly from non-red meat sources.  Most of these diets are grouped today under the rubric Mediterranean diet, but I think the macrobiotic diet has held up fairly well over time because it's in this general category of nutrition.  I'm not say I eat that way, but I don't tell anyone to eat the way I do.  You are.  

[Red_Star]

Bacon contains fat, protein, B vitamins and various minerals. Fat is essential in the diet but avoid man made transfat and  PUFA vegetable oils.  

Susannah Mushatt Jones - died age 116 and 311 days. "For breakfast, she always ate four strips of bacon along with scrambled eggs and grits.[15] She also ate bacon throughout the day.[16]"

Gertrude Baines - died age 115 and 158 days. "ate a diet of bacon, eggs and black-eyed peas"

Edna Parker - died age 115 and 220 days. "Parker especially enjoyed eggs, sausage, bacon and fried chicken."

World's oldests cats (both owned by Jake Perry) - Creme Puff - died age 38 years and 3 days and Grandpa - died 34 years and two months. "The co-authors of at least one book have pondered whether the longevity of Perry's cats may have had something to do with an unusual diet of, among other things, bacon and eggs, asparagus, broccoli, and coffee with heavy cream, concluding that Perry "must be doing something right."[7]"

[Paxiled]

Do you know the difference between anecdotal evidence and evidence?  You are doing people a disservice here, or I'd just let it go as just another quirky MedHelp person -- I mean, we're all pretty odd on here or we wouldn't be here.  But again, I have no complaint with you eating any way you wish, though seriously, if you're eating bacon for the nutritional content, that is odd.  It has virtually none.  I mean, you can eat a rock and it has some minerals in it but I wouldn't really suggest it.  As for cats, they don't have a digestive system remotely like humans -- they are pure carnivores and some of the few pure carnivores on the planet.  Humans are not.  I especially enjoy a lot of things I don't eat very often, but I also don't go without them altogether.  But we should really close this useless discussion -- I don't care what you personally eat and I hope even if you decide to eat your lawn every day you live to be as old and as healthy as you desire.  Just have a care about others, okay?  And just to be clear, hydrogenated fats are found in margarine and some artificial shortening.  Everyone knows by now these are bad for you.  That doesn't translate to every other kind of fat or every other kind of food is good for you.  That is misreading the studies that told you not to eat hydrogenated oils.  They also told you not to eat too much animal fat from any source and to be careful with all saturated fats.  Did you read that part of those studies?  Anyway, best of health to you.

[Red_Star]

Paxil,  the oldest cats who ever lived and some of the oldest people who ever lived on the planet ate bacon and eggs daily. I call both superfoods! I have never had to worry with my lipids (always in excellent range) except when cholesterol rose twice - once due to  untreated hypothyroidism and the second due to a serious amount of toxic mould.  As for fructose, even Harvard talks about the dangers.

[Paxiled]

I have no idea who "Harvard" is.  It's a huge institution that has a lot of people who work for it and with it, but it itself does not do anything.  You can hire a Harvard researcher to do whatever you want that person to do, so some of the studies done there are by independent researchers, some are paid for by companies seeking to produce propaganda, some are ordered by the gov't -- it's a huge place with employees that do a lot of different things.  So again, Harvard doesn't talk.  People who work for it do, and they are all over the place, some of them doing good studies and some of them doing fixed studies.  There are a million studies out there, but few facts -- a study isn't a fact, it's a production of information.  I have no idea how you know that anyone ate bacon and eggs daily -- can you produce a single name of someone who was the oldest person who ever lived and ate bacon and eggs daily?  I'm guessing we all eat different things on different days, life would be very boring otherwise.  Some days we eat cereal, some days we eat porridge, some days we skip breakfast altogether.  It doesn't matter a whit what happens to you because you are the only you and your life isn't over yet.  We'll see when it's all over.  According to your profile, you're now 44, which is very young in a developed country like Australia, and you're female, which means your life expectancy is high anyway.  Let's see how you feel when you're 65, as I am, when the chickens, or in your case the fat, comes home to roost.  I was raised at a time when cigarettes were good for you, women were told by doctors that formula was healthier than mother's milk, and the air and water and food were polluted to death.  My parent's generation then entered the cancer and auto-immune system epidemic, and it wasn't so fine anymore.  We're now still in those epidemics and in a mental health epidemic as well, probably from all the tainted food and the, yes bacon, and the heavy metals children are exposed to daily.  These people didn't die young, however -- dying young stopped with proper maternal health care and clean water.  Provide clean water and the life span goes up pretty much to what it is now.  Toss with a bit of antibiotics and such and it goes up a bit more.  But you can live a long time with a bad liver, bad kidneys, bad heart, and anxiety and depression.  Notice, I didn't mention eggs -- not sure about eggs.  But bacon and ham have, again, virtually no nutritional value -- ham has more, because it has protein, but bacon doesn't even have that -- bacon by definition is a cut of "meat" that is all fat and full of carcinogens.  I have no wish to have you change anything you're doing -- it's your life and I hope you live as long as you want.  But there are several long-term studies going on of how people actually live and eat, the basic two takeaways that always come out are, a basic balanced diet and not living a sedentary life are the only constants in large numbers of people not becoming obese and living a long time.  The don't eat a lot of animal protein, and when they do, it's mostly from the ocean.  It is what is.  But everyone gets to do whatever they want and to find a source that justifies that, but nobody gets to pretend that equals factual knowledge.  Peace.  

[Paxiled]

I have no idea how to get you to do something you don't apparently want to do but feel you have to do, only to say once you start doing a routine it becomes what you do and momentum takes over, especially if you enjoy whatever it is you choose to do.  I will say that the above about fructose is probably not a fact, just an opinion by one person.  Fruit is in fact loaded with fructose as is honey, and that's why most will tell you to eat both in moderation and not to overdo either, except for those fruits that are lower in sugar such as squash and avocados.  But the advice to eat a lot of bacon and cheese and other unhealthy foods when eaten too much can be dangerous.  There are always those who can eat just about anything and do fine.  You never know you're one of those until the end of your life, whenever that comes.  There are so many healthy and nutritious foods to eat that taste good especially if you know how to cook even a little that there isn't any reason to eat bacon, for example.  It's very high in fat, and has virtually no nutrition whatsoever -- it is almost just fat.  The fact the person posting has a good weight level has nothing to do with the health of the average person, as weight is just one factor in health.  Being overweight doesn't mean anyone is going to die sooner than they would have otherwise, it means health won't be as good.  But eating too many nitrates in smoked meats will increase the risk of cancer, and dying of cancer no matter how great you look otherwise isn't a wonderful thing if you happen to be one of those who gets this problem.  Ham has the same problem.  Cheese tastes great and we'd all love to eat a lot of it, but most adult animals can't handle dairy very well.  The effects can be hidden and not affect you until you're old and the inflammation adds up and the digestive problems add up and you live to a ripe old age but you feel horrible.  It's also very very high in calcium but deficient in magnesium, and not having enough magnesium is a big problem in our society.  It leads to digestive problems, nerve pain, muscle pain, sleep problems, anxiety, and osteoporosis, to name a few.  A better balance is had by eating a lot of green veggies, and if you know how to prepare them, they taste fine.  Not as good as cheese, so have your cheese occasionally, but if you overdo it, well, you might be fine and you might not.  You'll know when it hits you.  Look, we all pretty much know the healthy foods and the ones to have once in awhile.  Sucrose will store as fat more quickly than fructose.  Too much sugar is too much sugar.  Enjoy life, austerity isn't necessary, we're all going to die anyway, no one makes it out alive, but a life not lived in pain is a lot better than one lived in pain.  Be aware of fads that sound too good to be true and that are being pushed by one person out there but contradicted by all the long-term studies.  Everyone gets to do what makes them happy, but not everyone gets to claim because they do it everyone else should do it.  Careful out there.    

[JT0325]

I'm so glad that we have such similar views. Thanks so much for the advice.

[val311]

I've lost around 30 some lbs from my heaviest weight and I think one of the most helpful things aside from cutting down on refined sugars was cooking as many meals as possible at home, avoiding the pre-made stuff. Include healthy fats from salmon and avocado for example, so that this way of eating is more sustainable and keeps you satisfied/nourished. If you cut too many calories/fats it'll be near impossible to keep up with it in the long run.

[JT0325]

thank you for the advice I'll take it into consideration.

[Red_Star]

Okay. :)

[Red_Star]

Sugar is half glucose half fructose. It's too much fructose that's the problem. And while fruit contains fructose it also contains fibre so fruit is okay to eat.

To quote Dr Lustig: "When God made the poison he packaged it with the antidote."

The poison being fructose and the antidote fibre.

[JT0325]

That makes sense I'll definitely give it some thought.

[Red_Star]

I lost weight removing all the refined sugar from my diet. I still eat bacon, eggs, cheese, ham, chicken, butter, rice, noodles, rice wraps. The sugar turns to fat! Ayayaya~! Check out the video on youtube -Sugar The Bitter Truth by Dr Lustig. You have the right video if it shows 7.5 million views.

[JT0325]

Thanks so much, I hope this works!!