Reviving the Diet and Weight Loss discussion

Poststructural Pub
1

I saw an article recently about a fellow who ‘dieted’ by taking a tablespoon of some oil a few times a day. It may have been in a local paper, the New York Times Sunday paper, or a popular science magazine.

I know its not a lot for you to go on, but I’m looking for the name of this guy…or an article. I know he’s writing a book, and he’s sure to make the talk show rounds, but I’d like to get some info on him.

Any help in the matter would be sincerely appreciated!

Sincerely,
Tyg – a Weight Watcher who has plateaued just shy of her goal weight.

2

Might be Jorge Cruise, an Internet/newspaper weight loss coach and author. He’s getting some interest recently with his new book 3-Hour Diet, the follow-up to his successful 8 Minutes in the Morning exercise/diet book.

In the 3-hour diet, you allot your food portions by size so you can “see” that you’re eating the correct amount and proportion of food. The protein portion is the size of a deck of cards, and the vegetables the size of 3 DVD cases, and so on. The plate should include a bottle cap-size portion of oil–presumably as part of the rest of the meal, as in a salad dressing.

He insists you have a 100-calorie snack mid-morning and mid-afternoon so your body keeps the metabolism revved up.

In the 8 minutes book, he’s hot about flaxseed oil.

Yeah, I’ve got both books and I think I’ve found a system that makes sense to me and is something I can stick with. He’s a little preachy, and pushes the motivational talk a lot, but it seems to be working. The snacks keep me from feeling ravenous by mealtime.

What made me really think he was on to something was an interview I read (a WebMD chat transcript, I think) where he admitted it was “all about the calories.” And he’s right. It’s important to eat right, and we’re all trying to figure out what that means these days, but what it all comes down to is if you take in fewer calories than you can burn off, you lose weight and if you take in more, you gain.

The eye-opener for me was discovering what my maintenance calorie level was (or at least as close as an Internet tool can assess). And then reading that to lose weight, I had to eat 500 calories a day less than that.

I’ve been reading the nutritional labels on everything and it’s dismaying to see how little a short, middle-aged woman is supposed to eat to lose weight. And do you have any idea how teeny a 100-calorie snack is? He doesn’t list any food as “forbidden,” but it takes only two Oreo cookies to constitute one snack. A mini bag of popcorn is a lot more satisfying. :smiley:

M

3

I can’t help you with your search but I came across this the other day, the ancient use of bitter vetch to curb hunger in Scotland.

Dieting hope for monastic elixir
A herbal remedy developed by Scottish medieval monks could be turned into a new dieting pill.
The monks of Soutra Aisle, just south of Edinburgh, used the bitter vetch plant as a means of suppressing hunger.

Samples of the plant have been sent to Highland Natural Products at Muir of Ord, Ross-shire, for investigation as a possible slimming pill.

But pharmacists say slimming pills really only work in conjunction with a healthy lifestyle.

Archaeologists at the 12th Century monastery at Soutra Aisle have discovered that the Augustinian monks chewed the bitter vetch plant to stave off hunger.


They feel no need to eat and drink and this last for weeks, sometimes into months said Brian Moffat Archaeologist
The area’s hospital, set up in about 1160, was one of the most important medical centres in Scotland.

Dr Brian Moffat, the director of the Soutra Aisle dig, said there was evidence that the monks were cutting up the tubers of the plant, lathyrus linifolius, to make a potion.

It is believed this was used to help their patients lose weight or cope with the effects of a failed harvest.

Dr Moffat said: "These tiny tubers are eaten two or three at a time. Chewed, they taste of leathery liquorice.


"Quite simply, according to all the reports we’ve compiled, around 300, people forget to eat and drink.

“They feel no need to eat and drink and this lasts for weeks, sometimes into months.”

He said there was also evidence that the monks treated cryptosporidium food poisoning with blaeberries, could induce women in difficult childbirth and used hemlock as an anaesthetic in more difficult operations.

Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/1/hi/scotland/4196350.stm

MarkB

4

I guess you’d want someone around to make sure you didn’t die of dehydration and starvation. If you’d just plain forget to eat and drink. I guess you’d die fairly quickly without water.

5

Rule of three:

3 minutes without oxygen, 3 hours without warmth, 3 days without water, 3 weeks without food

(Gosh, I love CSI.)

M

6

Thanks, Marguerite. Nice try but not the guy.

If I recall, the fellow I’m looking for is a researcher/scholastic, but not specifically in the nutrition field, and his self-experiment involved ONLY oil…the rest was ‘business as usual’. It sounded faddish, but the guy was intriguing and I want to do some research on him. I’m less interested in his nutritional experiment as I am in the guy himself.

Thanks…still searching…

7

Oh well. Did you Google News? He might not show up in a straight Google search. You’d know better than I what search words might dig it up.

M

8

I’ve had modest success (2 clothing sizes) by simply cutting my portions in half. Two pieces of toast? Eat one. Tuna wrap at lunch? Ask them to put only two, not three scoops of tuna, and save half for tomorrow. Or, have just a veggie wrap with half the cheese. Have an apple for dinner, or vegetables, or a small package of sushi (incorporating 2 large shrimp) for a “big dinner.”

Eat a cup of cooked whole grains . . . takes so long to chew it that you have time to recognize that you’re full. STOP when you aren’t hungry any more, then note how much food you have left and don’t take that much next time.

Eat a solid breakfast (unsweetened oatmeal or whole-grain toast with a bit of oil, maybe with an egg) to avoid passing out in meetings in late morning.

Part of my problem was the sight of a plate with nothing on it but a tiny portion. It wasn’t that I felt deprived, but that I couldn’t tell when to stop loading the plate. Moved the dinner plates and soup bowls up in the cabinet and put the bread plates, saucers, and dessert dishes within reach on the bottom. A small portion on a bread plate looks “normal.” A cup of soup in a dessert bowl looks “normal.”

There is a huge exercise requirement to losing weight. Huge. Thirty minutes a couple times a week is not enough. I’ve seen studies that say a full hour is the minimum, nearly every day, and I believe this. You have to burn some calories, but you also need to boost your metabolism.

Oh, I also got rid of my fat clothes. Gone. Bye-bye. Went to Target and bought stuff that I could get into, like tops, but which was shockingly tight. Then had to wear a jacket or cardigan over it because it looked obscene. It’s too hot here to wear the cardigan or jacket, so either I stop eating or suffer in the heat. Bought lovely new undies, too, in a size too small. If I want to wear them, I have to shrink. I’m on my second set now. The ploy is actually working.

9

I’m loosing a lot of weight lately and I’m not even trying. I’ve been here for a month and I’ve lost close to 10 pounds already. It’s kinda scaring me, but I guess it’s due to all the walking I do. I literally walk (or bicycle) everywhere I go, but I haven’t changed the way I eat at all.

10

It’s the exercise and lifestyle disruption, Cran.

P.S. Why are you still awake???

11

I’m actually laying in bed right now, I’m just really restless and I don’t feel good. At all. I’m having really sharp, sudden headaches that last for a few seconds then go away. It’s so weird (and frightening, really).

(Now back to your regularly scheduled dieting program…)

12

I’ve gotten beyond that stage where I can eat what I want and still slip into my 36 inch trousers…you know, the stage where your muscles give up, wave a little white flag and suddenly you’re fat…
When I was in my early to mid twenties I could eat whatever I wanted and never even had to try to stay in shape…ah, those were the good old days! I hate getting older… Now I actually have to try just to maintain my weight.
Actually, one very good way that I’ve found to beat the “Old Fat Bastard Blues” is I eat this wonderful blend of grain meal (I think it consists of rolled oats, rolled barley, rolled rye and rolled wheat…add some hops and you’ve got good beer fixins’!) for two meals a day with a yogurt. Sweeten with Splenda and you’ve got a good healthy meal that will fill and satisfy without loading on the calories and excess fat. (on top of all that, it’s dirty cheap! I eat breakfast and lunch for an entire week on less than six dollars)
Another way that I keep my weight in check is to completely cut sugar out of my diet. This has other benefits too…

13

Yep, yep. I had worked real hard several years ago and got down to my fighting weight. But age and changing routines have caught up to me.

When I’m left alone to set my own schedule and meal plan, I do pretty well. But working in friendships, which often revolve around meeting for dinner, can make problems. So, boring as it can be, I’m paying attention to calorie counts. Again, to lose weight, a person needs to eat 500 calories less than they use just breathing and walking around.

If you start paying attention to how many calories you eat as compared to how many you need, as I recently did, you kinda go “Duh!” and realize “no WONDER I’m not losing weight.”

Exercise (both cardio and weight training) not only burns calories but boosts metabolism by adding muscle, which is more expensive to maintain, calorie-wise, than fat.

Basal Metabolism Calculator

14

I just read my results. :waah:

15

Tell me about it. And if one pokes around a little on the site and sees where one’s weight and height fit in on the “Healthy Weight” vs. “Overweight” table-- :astonished: :astonished: !

M

16

There’s a couple of interesting ideas out lately that caught my eye. One of them was about foods that actually use more calories to digest than what they give to you. Apples was one of the examples, but I would have had to buy the book to learn more. One weight trainer/coach I was watching on tv recommended a meal of apple sauce mixed with rolled oats (yuck!).

Another item emailed to me by a friend was a study done at some clinic in Florida where they noted that ingesting something very acidic just before a meal would temporarily lower your insulin levels. Since insulin is used in the digestion of food, they say that this reduced level meant that more food would just pass through than contribute to the old waistline. They say that this is why the grapefruit diet works. Since the study was done in Florida I am somewhat dubious. :wink:

For exercise, 350 calories per day is a good goal to set -about 1/2 hour strenuous walking. To get your body into the habit of burning energy instead of storing it requires sticking with any diet/exercise routine fo a minimum of three months, and preferably six. Few people stick to any plan that long, so small wonder they don’t see the results.

djm

17

Disclaimer: I would like to lose some weight, and I appreciate this thread very much.

To give some perspective, there was a study reported several months ago that found that overall mortality was lowest among people who were slightly overweight, compared to people who were not overweight or very overweight. I don’t recall the source, but it was mainstream research published in a well regarded, peer reviewed scientific journal. It got a fair amount of media play at the time.

From strictly a health perspective, it may not be so important to get that last 10 or 15 pounds off to achieve one’s “ideal weight.”

Best wishes,
Jerry

18

Just raw rolled oats? Or do you cook them first?

Someone on another board I visit reported success with the Atkins diet. Eggs, bacon, sausage, steaks, etc. He reported that his cholesterol was not high but.. I don’t know…that diet kind of scares me.

19

As a (former) anorexic, we called these foods “negative calories.” They include most fruits and vegetables (celery is the “most negative” in as much as it burns more calories to digest than it contains) and pickles and mustard and some crackers and diet sodas…I used to have a huge list of negative calorie foods but I destroyed it when I began recovery a couple years ago.

20

Re: are ‘negative calories’ myth or reality ?
Date: Thu Sep 9 07:58:00 1999
Posted By: Jill Irvin, Staff, Food and Nutrition, Ohio State University
Area of science: Biochemistry

For the Manufacturer I think the negative calories statements are just a marketing tool. For the consumer, I think the negative calories statements are wishful thinking. In fact, there is no such thing as a negative calorie.

I believe negative calories are supposed to result when the energy it takes to metabolize a product exceeds the calories in the product. Usually things like celery are claimed to have negative calories since they don’t have many calories and they would seem to require a lot of energy to consume, what with all the chewing involved. But the amount of energy required to metabolize a food item is a very individual thing, with some people being very efficient metabolizers while other people are inefficient. So there is no way that this claim can be made for a product.

There are a lot of nutrition related myths that are floating around out there, being spread in the popular press, by the media, and by people who claim to be nutritionists but are really just interested in making money. It can be difficult sometimes to sort out the truth from the myths. One good way to do this is to ask yourself, “does this claim sound too good to be true?” If it does, then it probably is false.

[Source: http://www.madsci.org/posts/archives/sep99/936883120.Bc.r.html ]

Repeat after me:

“There is no substitute for eating less and exercising more.”

M