CalebRockeT
Golden Member
Wat
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Do you thiink sugar will eventually be banned, or at least restricted?
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Red Squirrel
No Lifer
I heard about this too, not sure how true it is. I'd like to think it's not because it's one of my favourite fruit and I think I'm being healthy by eating one. I think this is yet one of those things with health where we're not sure what to believe. I'd like to think that because it's natural and not processed it's good for you, then again potatoes are natural and arn't considered healthy so I guess Bananas could be in the same category. Some mushrooms can kill you if you eat them so just because it's natural does not mean it's healthy I guess.
snoopy7548
Diamond Member
I'm not gonna trust some random wacko on YouTube. Bananas also contain fiber, along with potassium and other nutrients. Candy bars... don't. It's crap like this that make people think it's OK to eat a Snickers instead of an apple.
I strongly agree with you on the utter nonsense that two bananas are worse then a single Snickers bar.
Mai72
Lifer
Don't know why you wouldn't trust his glucose scores. Did you watch the video? He took his blood test when he ate the snickers, 30m, 1hr, 1.5hr, and 2hrs. Same with the 2 bananas. The outcome wasn't good fot the fruit. It's right there on his glucose reading. I guess you could replicate the same thing if you thought he might had lied about the results. I don't know why he woud since anyone could replicate the same test.
Kaido
Elite Member & Kitchen Overlord
Ownership is a tricky thing, for a few reasons:
1. People lack the correct education to take the proper action (there is a tremendous amount of haze & misinformation in the world of nutrition)
2. Because of that, and because of their prior experience, it can feel overwhelming or difficult or impossible to change, or to even want to change
3. A lot of people simply choose not to care
My own history is pretty simple. I've been overweight twice in my life:
1. I grew up super skinny & could eat whatever I wanted whenever I wanted
2. Got married, got an office job, gained like 50 pounds
3. Went on a clean-eating diet & lost the weight, but had no idea what I was doing
4. It wasn't really sustainable, so I gained weight again over time
5. Then I learned about macros, learned how to control my bodyfat & my muscles, and have lived happily ever after ever since
For me, eating against my macros every day has a lot of benefits:
1. No dietary restrictions (yay IIFYM!), so it wasn't so much of a lifestyle change in terms of what I was eating, as much as a workflow change in learning to count the macros in the foods I ate. It was super annoying for awhile, but as I mostly eat homemade food at this point, I just used a meal macros calculator to add the numbers to all of my recipes. From there, it's just a simple matter of playing Food Tetris every day to split up my numbers! I mostly operate out of my freezer using meal-prep meals (with labels), so it's generally pretty easy!
2. I love sugar & have dessert pretty much every single day. It's not so much about willpower-based moderation, as much as just seeing what I can fit into my macros for the day. A plain baked potato is 37 grams of carbs. A 12-ounce Sprite is 38 grams of carbs. A single Olive Garden breadstick is 25 grams of carbs. Throw in some pasta, desserts, etc. and you could easily be taking in 200 grams of carbs at every meal all day long. A 500+ grams of carbs day is normal for a lot of people. Self-induced diabetes doesn't care about simple or complex carbs, good or bad carbs, or net carbs, it only cares about the sugar intake into your body over the long-term. Given that 50% of Americans are now diabetic in some form (pre-diabetic, Type II, etc.) & given how many ready-to-go food products are laced with high quantities of carbs, it's super easy to overdose on it & screw up your sugar tolerance, especially if you're not paying attention to it over the years.
3. I can precisely control my results. Losing fat, gaining muscle, getting to a certain bodyfat percentage is simply a matter of time with macros, not willpower. There are no questions marks...it's just three simple numbers. The more strict you are, the better & faster results you'll get over time! Before, this was a complete fog. When I first tackled my weight problem about ten years ago, I ate a lot of plain chicken, broccoli, brown rice, whole-wheat bread, etc. Had zero knowledge of calories, macros, etc. - I just knew that I'd somehow gained a lot of weight & wanted to get it off. It was not enjoyable to do & I didn't understand the underlying operational principles involved with weight-loss. Macros turned out to give me such great results & be so easy that I've just stuck with it long-term. I'm not always super-strict with it & have plenty of untracked days, but I know exactly how to get results if & when I want them now, and generally eat according to my macros out of convenience (and for high energy levels!).
4. I grew to become a somewhat lazy eater (pre-macros) & would often run out the door without breakfast and/or work through lunch. I've come to discover that I get hungry every few hours, so I typically do 7 meals & snacks a day (morning snack, breakfast, brunch snack, lunch, afternoon snack, dinner, dessert). I typically don't do large meals because they make me sleepy. Dealing with this situation by creating a meal-prep system has worked wonders for me...no more arguments about "what's for dinner?" or having to figure things out food every day from "zero" (i.e. no plan for cooking or getting take-out or whatever). So macros pretty much forces me to do meal-prep so that I'm not having to do math gymnastics in my head every day, lol.
5. Some people restrict how much they eat, or what they eat, which is fine, if that works for them. However, my own personal willpower isn't exactly super reliable, haha. The thing that's worked the best for me is eating prepared foods against my macros every day, rather than winging it on a daily basis and/or ignoring my personal macronutrient guidelines per my current weight loss/maintenance/gain goals. Basically, following macros & doing meal-prep makes eating easy, and you can program in as much deliciousness as you want into your day through homemade food, packaged foods, take-out, and dine-in meals.
TL;DR: It all boils down to personal desire. If you want to get in shape & control your health, then you'll do it. If you do it, you'll eventually find the underlying operational principles of the human body's GI tract, in relation to bodyfat & energy levels. There are multiple barriers along the way (self-confidence, education on how things really work, preparation vs. willpower, and so on), but if you really want something, then you'll stick with it & be persistent & chip away on it until you learn what you need to learn & do what you need to do to get the results you want.
"Caveat emptor" applies to sugar just as much as anything else...it's your body, you have the choice about what to put into it every day, and you know that sugar can be addictive, so it's up to everyone on a personal basis to create the right dietary inputs for themselves. I enjoy Snickers bars from time to time, but I don't eat a whole box of them at once & exceed my calories & macros for the day, every day. It's not the job of the Snickers manufacturer to control the end-user usage of the product, even though they know they have an addictive product.
It can be a difficult thing to accept, because half our nation is suffering from some form of diabetes, which makes it an honest public health crisis, but I'd say that if anyone was going to tackle it, the government should release a guide like my macros tutorial linked above, rather than the crummy food pyramid. Then you can make educated decisions about whether you want to continue to have an unchecked super-high-carb diet, knowing full well how things work & what the consequences are, instead of the general public perception we have now of "I should probably cut back, but I'm not going to" - which happens because people don't have a clear knowledge of how things work & why, so their brains blow a mental fuse & wants to quit dealing with it (at least, that's what mine did for a long time!).
Kaido
Elite Member & Kitchen Overlord
So this is an important thing to talk about, because glucose scores aren't the only factor involved. Right now, there's a lot of focus on sugar & carbs, and that's the one piano note that a lot of people keep hitting on. But bananas are also low-fat & high-fiber, and have various micro-nutrients built-in too, so "sugar" isn't the whole picture, assuming you're a normal, healthy adult who is not carb-sensitive. This is one of the reasons I'm such an advocate for IIFYM...if you care about your health (or if your health has gotten bad through things like weight gain, low-energy, high sugar levels, etc.) to the point where you're willing to track some numbers to manage it, then pick a goal (weight loss/maintenance/gain), calculate your macros (free & only takes a minute), and monitor your diet. It's annoying, but not overly difficult, and leads to positive health outcomes, because you're taking control of & babysitting your macro-nutrient intake on a daily basis.
The biggest situation that precise sugar-intake monitoring matters in is when you're on your way to carbohydrate toxicity, i.e. pre-diabetes & then Type II diabetes, or if you have Type I diabetes, or some other insulin issue like PCOS. My friend's kid has Type I. She can only have 3 grams of carbs at a time, otherwise she tanks & basically passes out. Her parents have a CGM (continous glucose monitor, don't have to prick your finger anymore!) for easy sugar level monitoring. But, that's specifically the case for her, because of her personal insulin sensitivity level. For many people who are pre-diabetic or Type II, their situation can be reversed (not cured) by eating a low-carb diet (less than 20 grams of any types of carbs per day), and they can eventually (usually within a year) get back up to eating 50 to 100 grams of carbs per day by letting their system fix itself (through dietary changes). Dr. Sarah Hallberg has a really great TED Talk on the topic:
The clinic she works with, Virta Health, has a ton of great Youtube videos on the topic:
Virta Health
Virta is an online specialty medical clinic that reverses type 2 diabetes safely and sustainably, without the risks, costs, or side effects of medications or...
It's hard, because we're kind of raised to say "sugar is bad". Sugar IS bad, when used inappropriately. It can be super, super terrible & have horrible consequences on your health long-term if not properly managed, particularly if you're a sugar-sensitive person. For example, I'm mildly sugar sensitive...I don't do well with high carbs in the morning, but do just fine with them at night. If I eat a stack of pancakes for breakfast, I'll be taking a snooze an hour later, but that's not the case if I have breakfast for dinner. Everyone is different, and everyone needs to find the right balance for them, which involves a bit of research & work, but imo is worth knowing, as it can have such devastating long-term consequences if you have issues with it & leave it unchecked.
Muse
Lifer
Dude, you are hell of impressive. I'm copying this entire post into my personal data... MACROS! Gonna check it out!
I created a new table for the purpose and the first record is your post quoted here!
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Kaido
Elite Member & Kitchen Overlord
I have some posts over there on meal-prep as well, if you're interested!
Once the idea of macros "clicks" in your head, it's SUPER easy! Technically, ALL diets are macro diets, and all diets that work are diets that offer calorie-restriction in some way. But you can eat Twinkies all day & still not be feeding your body properly, which is why you have to break it down even further to the macros level. For example, you don't really need massive amounts of protein:
The myth of 1 g/lb: Optimal protein intake for bodybuilders
Protein. It’s every bodybuilder’s favorite macronutrient and for good reason. Protein is extremely essential, super satiating and amazingly anabolic. Protein is awesome… but you’re consuming too much of it. Like most myths, the belief that you should take in 1g/lb of body weight has become so...
mennohenselmans.com
And the carbs vs. fats percentages can be variable based on need, like if you need a low-carb diet for medical reasons, you can adjust your remaining calories for a higher fat level, for example. I like IIFYM because it's simple & it works. Join the Facebook group & spend an hour browsing through the posts, especially the before & after photos:
www.facebook.com
It's pretty easy to get controlled results (i.e. setup a basic timeline of how long it will take & what you need to eat) when eating according to your macros. All you have to do is start looking at your body as an external asset, like a machine. That machine has requirements, based on your goals:
1. Weight loss
2. Weight maintenance (stay where you are right now)
3. Weight gain
You can't spot-lose weight & you can't pick losing fat over muscle. You can simply lose, maintain, or gain bodyweight. Gaining muscle, for example, has more to do with eating a proper macro split & exercising, because if you eat 3,000 calories of Snickers bars a day, you're not going to get the same weight-gain results as if you were eating the proper amount of protein, carbs, and fats per day. This guy has a great channel where he eats fast-food for 30 days, and ice-cream for 30 days, etc.:
If you have a couple free hours, check out the Fathead documentary, which is kind of like a long, drawn-out discussion of CICO (calories in vs. calories out, which is the bottom line for weight management in general - whereas macros is for better health results & physical results).
Muse
Lifer
Thank you!I have some posts over there on meal-prep as well, if you're interested!
Once the idea of macros "clicks" in your head, it's SUPER easy! Technically, ALL diets are macro diets, and all diets that work are diets that offer calorie-restriction in some way. But you can eat Twinkies all day & still not be feeding your body properly, which is why you have to break it down even further to the macros level. For example, you don't really need massive amounts of protein:
The myth of 1 g/lb: Optimal protein intake for bodybuilders
Protein. It’s every bodybuilder’s favorite macronutrient and for good reason. Protein is extremely essential, super satiating and amazingly anabolic. Protein is awesome… but you’re consuming too much of it. Like most myths, the belief that you should take in 1g/lb of body weight has become so...
And the carbs vs. fats percentages can be variable based on need, like if you need a low-carb diet for medical reasons, you can adjust your remaining calories for a higher fat level, for example. I like IIFYM because it's simple & it works. Join the Facebook group & spend an hour browsing through the posts, especially the before & after photos:
It's pretty easy to get controlled results (i.e. setup a basic timeline of how long it will take & what you need to eat) when eating according to your macros. All you have to do is start looking at your body as an external asset, like a machine. That machine has requirements, based on your goals:
1. Weight loss
2. Weight maintenance (stay where you are right now)
3. Weight gain
You can't spot-lose weight & you can't pick losing fat over muscle. You can simply lose, maintain, or gain bodyweight. Gaining muscle, for example, has more to do with eating a proper macro split & exercising, because if you eat 3,000 calories of Snickers bars a day, you're not going to get the same weight-gain results as if you were eating the proper amount of protein, carbs, and fats per day. This guy has a great channel where he eats fast-food for 30 days, and ice-cream for 30 days, etc.:
If you have a couple free hours, check out the Fathead documentary, which is kind of like a long, drawn-out discussion of CICO (calories in vs. calories out, which is the bottom line for weight management in general - whereas macros is for better health results & physical results).
I lost about 14 pounds from when I started playing golf again (2x/week) last April or so. I continued to work out 3x/week, but was getting more aerobic (not counting the golf, which involved walking a hilly ~5 mile course) because my gym closed and I started having to bike/skate (combo!) 5 miles each way to the gym... this about the same time I took up golf again (when the rains stopped). I'll start golfing again when the winter rains stop around here.
But my weight loss stalled about 10 weeks ago and I have gained back 3-4 pounds. With the absence of golf (I stopped playing about 10 days ago) I figure I have to either eat less or get compensating aerobic in the gym (or both). I've done aerobic in the gym before, but haven't been doing that for a few years.
So, yeah, I figure I have to do something because TBH I had only lost about 1/2 of what I wanted. I guess focusing on macros is my best bet in this!
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Kaido
Elite Member & Kitchen Overlord
You're welcome! It really is all about food. Exercise is like, the least efficient way to lose weight, lol. For example:
* Running 1 mile = burns 100 calories
* Running a 26-mile marathon = burns 2,600 calories
* Outback Steakhouse's "3-Point Bloomin' Onion" is 3,080 calories
So you could run for hours on end in a marathon, eat a Bloomin' Onion, and still gain weight lol. Exercise is great for staying healthy & getting ripped, but is not so great for the management of bodyfat. The nice thing with IIFYM is that you don't have to change what you eat or when you eat, and you don't have to give up any of your favorite foods, you just need to figure out how to hit your macros every day, regardless of what your personal food choices are.
I don't really like having to figure out my food situation every day, both from deciding what to eat & having to figure out the macros in every meal, which is one of the big reasons I got into meal-prep. I'm also a very mood-based cook...sometimes I feel like making cookies, sometimes I don't want to lift a finger in the kitchen. Having meal-prep available means I can be a LOT more flexible when it comes to me actually having to do the work of cooking, because I have stuff prepared & ready to go! But that's for another post, haha!
Muse
Lifer
I have a lot of quick stuff. I hardly ever devote an hour to a single meal anymore, used to do that all the time (well, very frequently!) when I was younger. Nowadays I do spend an hour or more in the kitchen preparing, but when I do that it's preparation for what can span several meals. For instance, I make a big stew that produces about 3 quarts, which I put in 3 quart containers in the fridge. I've yet to have any of that go bad and it yields me 6 or more quick meals, heated up in the microwave. It has lots and lots of veges and I throw in a pound of cut-up beef, some split peas, barley, sometimes some lentils, some powdered chicken broth, curry powder. The meat and peas/barley go in a pressure cooker and the veges I prepare in a large pan, combine all after cooling some.
I have other quick options, e.g. bananas or apples (always have some), and some things not so good for me, but I am disciplined in how much/day I will eat (multigrain organic chips, several kinds of chocolate, ice cream). I allow myself less than 1oz ice cream a day, and only indulge in that occasionally.
I also have mixed nuts, that I put together myself from various sources. I should ration them too, they've become something of an indulgence, however nuts aren't so bad for you, they're just pretty high caloric.
I'm going to have to reshuffle/rethink my dietary strategies!
Kaido
Elite Member & Kitchen Overlord
I was victim to a lot of that stuff myself for many years. It took me a looooong time to really get educated on what worked & what didn't, and even longer to actually accept that stuff as reality, and even longer than that to actually change my habits. As it turns out, all you have to do is spend a minute or two calculating your macros using a free online calculator, and then adopt a meal-prep system, and voila! You magically get results simply by executing the work required, as reminded, rather than trying to do habit changes & self-discipline yourself & all that nonsense. I typically eat pre-made meals throughout the day, using delicious recipes, with the macros already figured out for each serving. Then all I have to do is eat & get great results, in terms of physique & energy levels!
LOTS of people here on the AT forums were super helpful, like SociallyChallenged:
Fat loss - how to lose the bulge and gain the ripples
Fat Loss - How to Lose the Bulge and Gain the Ripples (An AT special post!) By Brent Sallee (SociallyChallenged) Alright, everyone, I decided to write this article because I see a lot of the same questions over and over and over again. I figured the most logical action to take would be to toss...
forums.anandtech.com
My original thread is MIA, but I have a follow-up here from 2008:
Dave's Fall Journal: Losing the Gut
Update: Making an updated diet with more DIY foods. Starting 6-week plan shortly. Check back later :) Introduction: Note: This was originally my "Summer Journal", but I made excuses to myself and never got my act together after May. So now it's the "Fall Journal". No more excuses...
forums.anandtech.com
I had a lot of incorrect information & unknown situations in those decade-old threads:
* I didn't know I had genetic sleep apnea - I was tired all the time & didn't know why (didn't really know what sleep apnea was!)
* I had an undiagnosed stomach condition (SIBO) that was also goofing me up
* I had a meal plan, but not a meal-prep system, which are two entirely different things - having a system was a gamechanger, for me, at least, in terms of sustainability
* I didn't realize that exercise was pretty much unrelated to weight-loss (at least from an efficiency & nutritional standpoint); it's really all about food
* I also didn't realize that cardio just straight-up was not required for fitness at all; many people who do IIFYM do strength-training exclusively & zero cardio (I still do cardio because I've got a garbage digestive system with slow motility, so I kind of have to manually stimulate it through exercise every day)
A big thing was that I didn't want to accept that health & fitness were long-term games, and wanted to get fast results, including exercise - if all you can do is a 5-minute brisk walk, then start there, and build up incrementally week by week. You're going to be alive until you die, so there's no rush to get overnight results or anything, other than your own guilt, shame, and anxiety pushing you towards a quick resolution. This is why I advocate a multi-step approach for people who are overweight, have no idea what they're doing, and have never attempted to get in shape before:
1. Lose weight through diet & small but growing amounts low-impact cardio (max 2 pounds a week, pretty easy to calculate a schedule - plus with IIFYM, you're not changing your diet, you're just tracking macro numbers every day)
2. Once you hit your target weight, spend a year building up a foundation of strength. I personally like calisthenics (bodyweight exercises), some people like weights, some people like kettlebells, some people like heavy-duty resistance bands, there are plenty of options out there for building up the health of your muscles & physical body system.
3. Now that you are in-shape, choose where to go from there. If you're not interested in physical fitness, then just stick with a basic strength-training routine & eat well (I mostly eat against my macros still, just because it keeps me from drifting out of the lane I want to be in, haha!). Or keep pursuing physical growth, or new techniques, or sports, or outdoorsy stuff like hiking, or whatever you're into.
We are like, 100% governed by our emotions & feelings - we like to think we're logical creatures, but we're all pretty much mood-based, and if your energy is low & your motivation is low because you don't feel too great & don't have very much energy, then that really super limits your options for what you can do. One of the biggest reasons that I got into IT was that it was a sit-down, low-energy job...chill in front of a computer & work, lol. I didn't realize that having low energy wasn't normal...that was just how I grew up! Truthfully, however:
1. Our bodies are designed to have motors in them. If you wake up & aren't instantly awake & ready to go, then something is out of whack in your body, and it's your job & your responsibility to be a detective, identify it, and fix it. No one else really cares how you feel, and your body is either a meat paradise or a meat prison, depending on how you manage it (barring any uncontrollable medical situations, of course!). I really like Chris Califano's explanation on this topic: (raw vegan diet aside)
2. Part of personal responsibility involves having a clear path forward that actually gets results. That's why I post stuff like that macros tutorial...I had nooooooooo idea how any of that stuff worked when I first started! Or even five years later, for that matter! There's so much FUD out there in the world of food & fitness that it's just ridiculous. If you want awesome results, eat according to your macros, per your bodyweight management goals. If you're insulin-sensitive, then eat less than 20 grams of carbs a day. Adopt a meal-prep system so that you don't have to hustle all the time & can actually enjoy food AND get great results without killing yourself on the physical & mental effort side of it!
3. You should feel consistently good all day. If you're having energy dips, then you need to adjust things like your sleep hygiene, your macro intake & tracking, your daily exercise, and your stress management. Mostly, it's about proper food intake (not type of food, but the invisible macros inside of them!) plus make sure you're getting enough sleep.
4. A simple indicator, not to get too gross about it, is GI function. If you have a daily solid bowel movement that comes out instantly, sinks to the bottom of the bowl, doesn't leave a streak, and only requires one piece of TP to wipe clean, then you're probably doing awesome & feeling awesome. If your bowel movements are sporadic, if you have rabbit pellets, if you have mush, if you're on the john for longer than like, a minute, if you have to push or struggle or wait a long time, it's time to re-evaluate your diet, and also include a basic exercise plan in your life.
I had IBS for most of my life & didn't realize it wasn't normal. It was a hugely controlling factor on my daily energy levels & bathroom trips weren't exactly pleasant. I just thought that was how things functioned...nope! Your stomach should not hurt all the time, bathroom trips should be quick & easy, fast & painless, and you should feel pretty dang good all the time. That video above about how you should feel when you wake up every day, as well as your consistent bathroom trip experience, are the two key indicators to how your body is performing.
As gross as that stuff can be, I don't think we discuss it enough in our country, so nobody really knows what's normal & what's not normal. I never had much energy growing up & my stomach was always kind of goofed up, and that was just how things were - didn't know any better! Now (when my work schedule isn't crazy) I can wake up at 3:30 or 4am, feel awesome, knock out my workout, get ready for my day, work all day & feel good, and not be totally shot energy-wise when I get home. That's an amazing difference in my quality of life...I always thought I was a night person because I was always a night owl & oddly felt better at night than at any other time. Turns out I just had to get out of my own way & start managing my own personal barriers to feeling good. These days, I just tell people to try out macros strictly for a couple of months & see how they do on it.
Also reading through that old thread, lol...this post in particular had good intentions, but totally wrong information:
Dave's Fall Journal: Losing the Gut
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forums.anandtech.com
I wrote that you really only have to worry about 3 things:
1. What you eat
2. When you eat
3. How much you eat
As it turns out:
1. It doesn't matter what you eat, if it fits your macros
2. It doesn't matter when you eat, as long as you hit your three macro targets by the end of the day
3. It doesn't matter how much you eat at all, as long as you hit your macros every day
I was suffering from a lot of unknown problems at the time...I was always tired, so I needed energy. I was always tired because I had severe undiagnosed sleep apnea. I have mild reactive hypoglycemia, so I generally do better eating smaller meals so that I don't tank & eating every few hours to stay full. I was reacting to things like fast food & junk food because I had SIBO & was experiencing crap digestion. Once I got my stomach kinks worked out, I could eat donuts & feel not just fine but awesome, haha, which is a dangerous thing! On a tangent, 100% of my acid reflux disappeared within a week of using my BiPap machine, which by itself was a minor miracle!
I posted my 2-week rotating menu here back in 2008:
14 Day Menu | PDF | Meal | Hamburgers
Dave's 14-day menu, including Rules, Menu, and Shopping List.
Oh man, look at the sadness - "Meal 6 = rice cakes + 2 tablespoons of natural peanut butter" nooooooooo lol. I usually do 7 meals a day now (morning snack, breakfast, brunch snack, lunch, afternoon snack, dinner, and then dessert), so the last meal of the day is usually cookies, brownies, homemade mini cheesecakes from my Sous-Vide machine, creme brulees from my Instant Pot, etc. Today I made mini pumpkin bread loaves with mini chocolate chips & a maple sweet cream-cheese spread. And still feel great! And am still in-shape! Haha.
Anyway...yes, sugar is bad. Especially if you don't eat it in moderation, and super especially if you are a sugar-sensitive person, insulin-wise, which at least 50% of the nation is, based on current numbers regarding the diabetic levels of people in America. But if you're not sugar-sensitive, and if you eat it in moderation, especially controlled moderation through a macros-driven diet...then meh. The way I look at it is that I'm going to die eventually...if my health situation dictated, as it did before, that I had to be careful about eating acidic foods & fast-foods & whatnot, then fine, that's just how it is.
But after doing some sleuthing on my own particular body & getting educated about health & fitness in general, it turns out I totally had the wrong ideas about a LOT of things. So, as it turns out, I can enjoy sugar in a more responsible manner while still meeting my health & fitness goals of having a good, healthy weight, being in-shape, having good bloodwork in my annual physicals, feeling good on a consistent basis, and so on. So again, is sugar bad? Yes..ish. If you have high, unchecked intake & especially if you are have a sugar-sensitive body chemistry, then sugar can be a pretty bad thing. When properly managed, then again...I'm going to die someday, and unless it's goofing up my health in terms of bloodwork & stuff and/or affecting how I feel every day, then I don't see much of a problem with eating sugar, as long as you're not legitimately addicted to it!
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Kaido
Elite Member & Kitchen Overlord
Also, life is crazy because our lives are dictated by invisible gears. When you're looking at those gears (like macros in relation to fitness, for example), I call that Maintenance Mode, and when you're back in the swing of daily life, I call that Normal Mode. Per that video above about the "1-second energy test", it's so easy to just chalk it up to life, universe, and magic for how we feel on a regular basis, when really, it's our personal choices that are affecting us & dictating how we feel & thus how we act.
But it's soooooo incredibly easy to just write that stuff off, because we're so mentally overloaded & fried all the time, and because most people never get access to a really clear explanation (which is one of the reasons I posted my macros tutorial!), that we just kind of turn off our brains, go back into Normal Mode, and fleetingly wonder why we won't feel super high-energy all the time or even very good all the time, but then quit caring & move back into the swing of things. It's a dangerous, dangerous game we play on a daily basis, lol.
This is why having a meal-prep system is so critical to me...I HAVE to have a way to support my goals once I fall back into Normal Mode, because otherwise, I just drift & don't accomplish very much. I'm a slave to "Night Guy", as Seinfeld puts it. Having systems, which are is a method for using reminders to trigger the use of checklists designed to accomplish the things you want to accomplish, is like having your very own private genie-in-a-bottle, because you no longer have to rely on willpower, motivation, self-discipline, or trying really hard...you simply have to execute a checklist when reminded! Sooooo much easier, especially mentally, and fits into my Normal Mode routine, so that it actually gets done on a regular basis!
But it's soooooo incredibly easy to just write that stuff off, because we're so mentally overloaded & fried all the time, and because most people never get access to a really clear explanation (which is one of the reasons I posted my macros tutorial!), that we just kind of turn off our brains, go back into Normal Mode, and fleetingly wonder why we won't feel super high-energy all the time or even very good all the time, but then quit caring & move back into the swing of things. It's a dangerous, dangerous game we play on a daily basis, lol.
This is why having a meal-prep system is so critical to me...I HAVE to have a way to support my goals once I fall back into Normal Mode, because otherwise, I just drift & don't accomplish very much. I'm a slave to "Night Guy", as Seinfeld puts it. Having systems, which are is a method for using reminders to trigger the use of checklists designed to accomplish the things you want to accomplish, is like having your very own private genie-in-a-bottle, because you no longer have to rely on willpower, motivation, self-discipline, or trying really hard...you simply have to execute a checklist when reminded! Sooooo much easier, especially mentally, and fits into my Normal Mode routine, so that it actually gets done on a regular basis!
Red Squirrel
No Lifer
You sound quite an expert at this stuff though. Like I have no idea what a macro even is outside of computers or games lol and most of this stuff goes way over my head when I google it. Seems health is so complicated you pretty much need to spend your life studying and analyzing it to really understand it as you also need to be able to figure out what's true and what's not as there's tons of conflicting information. I've pretty much just stuck to the "everything in moderation" diet. There are some things that probably every diet or way of thinking can agree on that's bad for us like sugar and processed food, so I do my best to reduce my intake of them. But there are some diets out there like keto that eliminate entire food groups and some people say it's good but some say it's bad. And that goes for lot of diets. It seems every few years there is a diet or philosophy that becomes really popular then it dies off and then a new one comes out. Like for the longest time fat was evil, now I think it's considered less bad and it turns out it's sugar. But again it depends who you talk to. A cardiologist will probably tell you to avoid it while some internet expert might tell you that you can eat as much as you want.
And the end of the day we all die anyway.
And the end of the day we all die anyway.
Kaido
Elite Member & Kitchen Overlord
Just read this:
That's all you need to know to get not just results but great results. There's a lot of FUD out there...you can spend your life endlessly reading & arguing about health stuff without actually setting any goals or doing any real work on yourself. Like you said, in the end, we all die anyway...the question is how you want your experience to be up until that point.
For me, I didn't really realize that my low-energy & messed-up GI tract system weren't normal. I didn't realize that waking up groggy wasn't normal. I didn't realize that my bowel movements weren't normal. Your body is literally designed to be high-energy machine non-stop, but we all put barriers in the way of achieving that on a daily basis, whether we realize it or not, whether we choose to accept it or not, and whether or not we take personal responsibility for our results & our experience or not.
Ultimately, no one is stuck in your body but you, so no one really cares & no one is going to babysit you to get the results you want. That has to be a personal decision & has to be used against a functional plan. IIFYM is the most fuctional plan I'm aware of. It gets results, it's realistic, it's flexible, and you can adapt it to basically live your food life however you want - what you want to eat, when you want to eat, etc. I spent a long time dancing around the issue of my health & weight & energy level, and a long time not really seeing things very clearly, and even when I did see things clearly, a long time not making any real changes in my life.
I wish that I knew about macros ten years ago when I started in H&F...heck, I wish I knew about it when I was a kid! I've seen it make a hugely positive change in my own life & the lives of my family members & friends, which is why I tout it so much. If you feel stuck, if your ideas about food & nutrition & health & energy are all diluted & you don't know where to go & you want better results & maybe even really awesome results, give macros a shot! And feel free to ask any questions! I'm a total nerd about this sort of stuff. I don't know everything there is to know out there, but the basics are enough to get you by & create real change in your life, if that's what your after, so imo, it's worth doing if you're feeling stuck & want more out of life!
Mai72
Lifer
Have you seen the work of Dr. Paul Mason? He goes against the advice of popular opinion, and is all about low carb/high fat. He has seen hundreds of over weight/low energy clients and will put them all on the keto diet with some amazing results. This is all reseached BTW. The biggest issue he says is the excessive amount of sugar in our diets. Not just added sugars, but carbs and even the so called "good carbs." It all eventually turns into gluicose and frutose which spikes blood sugar levels in people. He also says that fiber and way over rated and not we don't need nearly as much as we think. The fiber one is very interesting.
- YouTube
Auf YouTube findest du die angesagtesten Videos und Tracks. Außerdem kannst du eigene Inhalte hochladen und mit Freunden oder gleich der ganzen Welt teilen.
www.youtube.com
Kaido
Elite Member & Kitchen Overlord
Have you seen the work of Dr. Paul Mason? He goes against the advice of popular opinion, and is all about low carb/high fat. He has seen hundreds of over weight/low energy clients and will put them all on the keto diet with some amazing results. This is all reseached BTW. The biggest issue he says is the excessive amount of sugar in our diets. Not just added sugars, but carbs and even the so called "good carbs." It all eventually turns into gluicose and frutose which spikes blood sugar levels in people. He also says that fiber and way over rated and not we don't need nearly as much as we think. The fiber one is very interesting.
- YouTube
Auf YouTube findest du die angesagtesten Videos und Tracks. Außerdem kannst du eigene Inhalte hochladen und mit Freunden oder gleich der ganzen Welt teilen.
Low-carb, high-fat is a really good approach IF you're a sugar-sensitive person (hypoglycemic, pre-diabetic, diabetic Type II, diabietic Type I, PCOS, etc.) or if you just want to manage your sugar intake more carefully. Not everyone is sugar-sensitive, however.
Mai72
Lifer
Yes, but acording to Mr. Mason's research what he is finding is even "good carbs" gets converted into sugar and fat that can't be countered by the body. The "good carbs" have chains of glucose. That glucose interacts with your saturated fat intake which oxidizes it, and that inturn causes the heart issues. It's the glucose and frutose that are the main culprits and will create atherosclerosis. It's the sugar. If that is the case then everyone shoule be worried, not just diabetics, or pre-diabetic people. I time stamped the part where he starts talking about how sugar oxidizes LDL cholestrol.
mindless1
Diamond Member
I want as little sugar in my food as possible, besides that which naturally occurs in fruits and vegetables, but I am completely against banning something because someone else wants to be a control freak "for my own good".
Freedom means nothing if you can't exercise it. There should always be a free market that allows people to buy whatever they want.
Next they'll take your phone and computer away because it's not healthy to be using them all the time.
The only items that should be restricted are those that cause direct harm to OTHER people, like assault rifles, LED retrofit headlights, and XXL bikinis.
Freedom means nothing if you can't exercise it. There should always be a free market that allows people to buy whatever they want.
Next they'll take your phone and computer away because it's not healthy to be using them all the time.
The only items that should be restricted are those that cause direct harm to OTHER people, like assault rifles, LED retrofit headlights, and XXL bikinis.
Kaido
Elite Member & Kitchen Overlord
Sugar is scary because we add massive amounts of it to everything we eat & consume a high amount of it unwittingly. There are 5 major sources of man-made sugars:
1. Sugar treats (desserts, Jamba Juice smoothies, etc.)
2. Bread (loaves, bagels, English muffins, hamburger & hotdog buns, dinner rolls, paninis, etc.)
3. Pasta
4. Cigarettes (legally up to 20% sugar, something like half a teaspoon, so you get a double-whammy of sugar + nicotine)
5. Alcohol (bonus hit of the buzz)
People can get addicted to any of those things. Alcoholics are nothing more than sugar addicts, except that it also wrecks your liver & is doubly-addictive because of the buzz you get from drinking. A lot of people are surprised to find out that cigarettes contain sugar (I've read that the tobacco industry is the world's #2 customer of sugar, with the processed food industry being #1), plus the nicotine chemical can yo-yo your blood sugar:
How Does Nicotine Affect Blood Sugar?
Nicotine alters the way your body can use glucose, the sugar in your blood that fuels your cells. Find out what problems it can cause, and what you can do about it.
www.webmd.com
Imagine a day in the life of an American adult who uses all of the above sugar sources:
1. Breakfast: Bagel (53g carbs) & Starbucks Caramel Frappuccino (67g carbs)
2. Smoke break: You have a 30-40% higher chance of developing diabetes than someone who never smoked)
3. Lunch: Big Mac meal with a Large Sprite & Large Fries (181g carbs)
4. Dinner: Olive Garden Fettuccini Alfredo classic dinner (97g carbs) with a Traditional Alcoholic Margarita (67g carbs)
5. Dessert: Large Chick-fil-a frozen lemonade (80g carbs)
Total = 545 carbs. And that doesn't include trips to the vending machine to get a Snickers bar (35g carbs) or other grazing between meals. Now obviously, I'm kind of aiming high-carb to illustrate the point here, but none of those are unusual food choices for many people...it's pretty easy to have an extremely high daily sugar intake without really realizing it!
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