Which is the best diet for long term use?

Mr ProgFreak wrote: Padraic wrote: The best diet for long term use is low-calorie, high on fruits/vegetables.  IMO. Moderate intake of complex carbs/fats/etc.  Avoid the obvious junk. That said, I don't live by any of this advice.  Things may not be as healthy as they appear ... for example, orange juice is as bad as soda, as far as obesity and/or diabetes are concerned.

Moderate intake

Moderate intake

MODERATE INTAKE

So, in other words, yeah don't drink 17 glasses of orange juice a day.  Then you probably won't develop Type-II.

This really isn't as hard as some make it out to be.

I take so called "nutrition science" with a large grain of salt. For me, common sense trumps all these studies that frequently contradict each other.No amount of studies will make me believe that orange juice is bad for me. Sorry, I just don't buy it.

^ and ^^ it's a fact that orange juice contains just as much sugar (glucose and fructose) as soda. Ok, now one could say that it's not as bad as soda because it also contains many healthy natural nutrients and minerals ... but so do other foods that don't contain as much sugar. And soda also contains salt, which increases blood pressure and makes you thirsty - so soda is indeed worse than orange juice. The fact remains though that orange juice is not a natural, healthy food. Not even oranges are, given that they were bred to contain more sugar by humans, and before the age of industrialisation they were never consumed in such concentrated form.

If you're thirsty, my recommendation would be: water. Now of course I don't always drink pure water when I'm thirsty, but I acknowledge that most other beverages are not as healthy for the purpose of quenching your thirst.


Edited by Mr ProgFreak - March 22 2010 at 10:29

I ate five oranges a day for much of college and never got sick and never gained weight. Oranges are good for you.

Mr ProgFreak wrote: Padraic wrote: Moderate intake Moderate intake MODERATE INTAKE So, in other words, yeah don't drink 17 glasses of orange juice a day.  Then you probably won't develop Type-II. This really isn't as hard as some make it out to be. How about eating at most one orange a day, or drinking the juice of one orange? That would seem properly moderate to me. Orange juice is much too concentrated - too much glucose and *way* too much fructose, even if you only have a small glass IMO.

C'mon Mike.  Drinking one glass of orange juice every morning is not going to send your fasting blood sugar to hell, or drastically increase your risk for diabetes.

^ well, I could have added one option "equal distribution" ... but in the end I'm fairly certain that we each eat by one of the three choices. In the USA high-carb, low-fat has been recommended for almost half a century, and empirical data confirms that people have been paying attention to those recommendations.  Unfortunately while people have been eating less fat, obesity, heart disease, diabetes etc. haven been increasing, too. This is why I think that maybe trying to eat fewer carbohydrates might be a reasonable thing to do. Even if you just don't drink sodas anymore, that's already an important step towards low-carb.

Some years ago I was weighting 125 Kgms (275 Pounds), being 1.80 Mts. (5.95), I went to a famous Doctor (Ljuba Cannucci) who came from Romania.

She gave some secret pills and she said they didn't contain amphetamines, but as soon as I started to take them, I begun to walk in the walls.

Even though it was obvious I was taking some sort of amphetamines (prescribed by a doctor), I started loosing weight, in less than a month I lost 20 Kms (44 pounds), and in less than 3 months I had lost 40 Kgms (88 Pounds).

I was almost in my ideal weight, but with my nerves destroyed for a long time....Now I grew fat up to 95 Kgms (about 33 extra pounds and only eliminated the sugar, the sodas and started to run 3 Kms a day...In 3 months I'm slightly above my ideal IMC (26), and healthy.

Dr. Canucci was radical and I wouldn't recommend her pills, but with hat weight, drastic measures were required.

Iván

Ivan_Melgar_M wrote: Some years ago I was weighting 125 Kgms (275 Pounds), being 1.80 Mts. (5.95), I went to a famous Doctor (Ljuba Cannucci) who came from Romania. She gave some secret pills and she said they didn't contain amphetamines, but as soon as I started to take them, I begun to walk in the walls. Even though it was obvious I was taking some sort of amphetamines (prescribed by a doctor), I started loosing weight, in less than a month I lost 20 Kms (44 pounds), and in less than 3 months I had lost 40 Kgms (88 Pounds). I was almost in my ideal weight, but with my nerves destroyed for a long time....Now I grew fat up to 95 Kgms (about 33 extra pounds and only eliminated the sugar, the sodas and started to run 3 Kms a day...In 3 months I'm slightly above my ideal IMC (26), and healthy. Dr. Canucci was radical and I wouldn't recommend her pills, but with hat weight, drastic measures were required. Iván

I'm 1.80 meters tall, too - and last year my weight peaked at 118kg ... it's not as much, but comparable.  My target weight is 85kg ... and I've already lost 7kg in the last few weeks.

You say that you cut back sugar and it worked for you. If you also eat lots of carbohydrates (bread, rice, pasta, sweet fruits etc), keep in mind that in the end even the complex carbohydrates are converted to simple sugar (glucose and fructose) before they are absorbed into the bloodstream - the only difference is the speed at which it happens, but if you gorge on pasta, it can have a similar effect as a candy bar.

My advice would be to cut back further on the carbs and see how it goes ... it might save you the strenuous workout. One other interesting thing about workouts while you're eating fewer calories (but lots of carbs among them) is that the body starts to limit resources in other areas in order to accomodate the workout in combination with the low caloric intake. If my theory is correct - and many people smarter than me support it - then replacing more carbs with fat (like putting a bit more butter/cheese/meat on thinner slices of bread) can shift that equation ... your body will still burn fat reserves, but without the symptoms of starvation (exhaustion).

^ by all means. I even got some dextrose (glucose) today to replace the sucrose (table sugar) in my kitchen. Even though I'm going low-carb, I'll still want some sugar in my Chai tea.

Mediterranean diet and good exercise 

The only oil that is allowed to enter my premises is olive oil... I do not claim losing substantial weight, but at least I maintain the current (still heavy though...) and making efforts to go down...