How to make low carb fat loss work….

Today's post: Thursday, 4-16-2015

This post has two parts for you:

1.  The tested strategies that give you the most leverage on fat loss on a low bad carb, low glycemic load eating style – including recent research into what protein foods to add to produce the most fat loss!

2. Solutions that have proven in practice to help people actually do it.

The research was reported in Medical News Today:

 “Making small, consistent changes to the types of protein- and carbohydrate-rich foods we eat may have a big impact on long-term weight gain, according to a new study led by researchers at the Friedman School of Nutrition Science & Policy at Tufts University. The results were published on-line in The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.”

Essentially, they said that the evidence was beginning to be quite established that stopping bad carbs both prevented the gain of excess fat or helped remove it particularly when combined with eating more protein foods.

But which kinds of protein worked best for this;

and which kinds were a mixed review adding fat with a high bad carb diet but helping remove it in a low bad carb diet;

and adding fat no matter which kind of carbs people ate.

They do not seem to have added the extra study of checking to see what effect using protein foods from animals fed their natural diet and those fed with high omega 6 grains might be.

Even so, the results were so clear that they are usable as is.

a) For example, “….yogurt, seafood, skinless chicken, and nuts were most strongly associated with weight loss.”

(Full fat yogurt from cattle fed only grass and hay from it and organic sprouts likely works best because the fat is safe to eat and that kind is lowest in glycemic response as the small amount of lactose is balanced by the fat. 

Wild caught fish, work best along with some sustainably obtained seafood from unpolluted water. 

Skinless chicken removes much of the fat even from chickens fed grains and has fewer calories with most of the protein. 

And, for those not allergic, nuts have so much protein, health OK oil, and fiber that the small amount of carbs they have ZERO glycemic effect.  Their net glycemic load is ZERO because their glycemic index is ZERO! Nuts are so filling in fact it has long been known that people who eat nuts in reasonable amounts are less fat and weigh less than people who don’t despite their fat content!  (You do want to avoid nuts that have had oils added or salt added because that can mess up this effect and harm your health too.)

They found that milk and cheese added to fat gain when people at bad carbs and helped fat loss when eaten with very low bad carbs such as vegetables.

Again, they likely tested red meat from grain fed cows and most processed meats are from grain fed cows.  That said, in their research both tended to be fattening.  They made the fat effects of a bad carb diet worse.  And, they reduced the fat loss effects even when eaten with very low bad carbs such as vegetables.

This one may be totally different when red meats from cows fed only grass and hay from it and organic sprouts are tested.  And even if that tests to be true, it’s best to have red meat as an occasional treat due to its very high environmental costs. 

We think the other evidence suggests, if you like red meat, that eating red meat from naturally fed animals between once a month and once a week is more likely to help fat loss than harm it.

The rest of the time, nuts, and beans and lentils and wild caught fish and skinless poultry and full fat dairy from cows fed naturally work well.

(For health using dairy foods from cows fed grain, using nonfat or very low fat dairy may be better; but they found it tends to be fattening while full fat dairy is not.  Here again, the ideal is using dairy from naturally fed cows!  That is far more health safe and far less fattening.

 "In fact, when people consumed more low-fat dairy products, they actually increased their consumption of carbs, which may promote weight gain. This suggests that people compensate, over years, for the lower calories in low-fat dairy by increasing their carb intake."

The lactose in the reduced fat dairy -- because it’s not balanced by the fat makes -- the reduced fat dairy in fact directly higher glycemic!)

Our last two posts have how to eat low carb.

Our 4-9 post last week and the similar list from Citizens for Health in the comments have what kinds of carbs and other ingredients such as all artificial sweeteners and MSG and hydrogenated oils to totally stop buying and eating to help with fat loss.

And, our post, 10 keys to Live Long and Prosper, yesterday, 4-15, includes what kinds of carbs to eat MORE of:

 6 or more servings a day of: organic vegetables and one or two pieces a day of organic fresh fruit.

2. Solutions that have proven in practice to help people actually do it.

(Hopefully some of these strategies and workarounds will work for you also!)

a)  Some people dislike giving up things they like that taste good. 

(That includes me by the way.)

And some people are hungrier for bad carbs just after they stop eating and drinking them.  The companies that sell them design in this addictive effect on purpose to some degree!

So know in advance that you need some extra ways to control stopping these things to beat them!

Here are some of the best ones:

b) Research has found that when tempted by fattening treats, people who focus on how they taste are much more likely to have some.

BUT there is better news!

If you focus on the bad effects of eating the food, you can pass it up from most of the time to always.

(Research found that you quite literally use different parts of your brain for those reactions.

But if you know YOU choose which one and go with the focus on the bad effects, you ARE then in control!)

c) Also, I’ve found personally that even though I want to be less fat and keep it off, it’s too easy to say just this once too often even if I focus on the fattening effects.  So, that is only partially effective or not effective by itself.

But the fact that these foods are also horribly harmful, quite often literally proven heart attack starters and disease causers, I’ve found useful.

If the food is something I really used to like, my reaction is:

"I surely wish that was safe to eat; but it isn't and I REFUSE to eat heart attack starters!"

And, for such things that were OK but not great before, it’s simple: 

If I am so hungry and treat starved I’ll make a small and limited exception for things I really like, FOR SURE that will never happen for things that taste decent but I never was that fond of.

I find I’m out of time enough that I’ll need to put my other tips and workarounds to avoid bad carbs  into my next post.  And there are some really good ones now!

But to close this part well, here’s the important part of the superb and relevant recent post by habit upgrade specialist James Clear:

“The Power of Bright-Line Rules

A bright-line rule refers to a clearly defined rule or standard. It is a rule with clear interpretation and very little wiggle room. It establishes a bright line for what the rule is saying and what it is not saying.

Most of us, myself included, could benefit from setting brighter lines in our personal and professional lives. Consider some common examples:

We might say that we want to check email less frequently.

We might say that we want to drink moderately.

We might say that we want to save more for retirement.

We might say that we want to eat healthier.

But what do these statements really mean?

What does it mean to check email less frequently? Are you going to “try to be better about it” and hope that works? Will you set specific days or certain times when you will be unavailable? Will you check email on weekends? Will you process email only on your computer?

What, exactly, is moderate drinking? Is it one drink per week? Five drinks per week? Ten drinks per week? We haven’t defined it, so how will we know if we are making progress? 

What does it mean to save more? More is not a number. How much is more? When will you save? Every month? Every paycheck?

What does eating healthier look like on a daily basis? Does that mean you eat more servings of vegetables? If so, how many more? Do you want to start by eating a healthy meal once per day? Twice per day? Every meal?

It can be easy to make promises like this to yourself, but they do not create bright lines. Fuzzy statements make progress hard to measure, and the things we measure are the things we improve.

Now, do we need to measure every area of our lives? Of course not. 

But if something is important to you, then you should establish a bright line for it. 

Consider the following alternatives:

I only process email between 11AM and 6PM.

I enjoy a maximum of 2 drinks per night.

I save $500 per month for retirement.

I eat at least two types of vegetables per day.

These statements establish bright lines. These statements make action steps precise and obvious. Vague promises will never lead to clear results.

How Bright Lines Unleash Your Hidden Willpower

Establishing bright lines in your life can provide a huge boost in daily willpower.

Here are two reasons why:

1.  First, bright lines shift the conversation in your head from one of sacrifice to one of empowerment. 

When you don’t have a bright line established and you choose not to do something, the tendency is to say, “Oh, I can’t do it this time.” 

Conversely, when you do have a bright line clearly set, your response can simply be, “No thanks, I don’t do that.” 

Bright lines help you avoid making just-this-once exceptions. Instead, you are following a new identity that you have created for yourself. 

Second, by establishing clear decisions in your life, you conserve willpower for other important choices. 

Here’s the problem with trying to make daily decisions in muddy water: Without bright lines, you must decide whether a situation fits your standards every time.

 With bright lines, the decision is made ahead of time. 

Because of this, you are less likely to suffer from decision fatigue and more likely to have willpower left over for work, relationships, and other health habits.”

Contrast:  “I know that treat is made out of heart attack starters, and I refuse to eat them.”

With:

“I’m going to try to eat less carbs.”

James is correct.  The first is a bright line rule and you’ll stop eating harmful fast carbs.

The second will wear you out trying to do it if you ever get around to it because you have to use will power each time you try.  Most people never try in the first place and never begin OR they try for a while and stop quickly.

The good news is that using Bright line rules, you always make the less fattening choice and it’s doable.  It even gets easy to do!