Unix-Jedi said: The true American Way would be to do BOTH.
Simultaniously.
It's both more of a challenge and we want to keep the line moving.
On the diet issue, I can personally recommend the Type 2 Diabetes Diet. Gruel for brekkies and grilled chicken twice a day up to a limit of 250 grams of carbohydrates/day will certainly take the pounds off your gradually-less-fat ass, I promise you.
The diabetes part of it sucks doorknobs I admit, but you take your motivation where it's forced upon you, I suppose. It certainly beats the alternative of stabbing myself in my gradually shrinking belly.
See how easy it is to make grilled, skinless chicken - yet again - seem wonderfully appetising?
Modify that Type 2 Diabetes diet to accommodate heart disease, and you've got a real diet. Low carbs, low fat, low cholesterol, and low salt.
I remember going through cardiac rehab and the nurses praising me for the pounds I was loosing each week (I was also bicycling 100+ miles per week, something the nurses most definitely didn't appreciate). I told them the pounds were melting off because I was slowly starving to death.
Seriously, keep your blood sugar, your cholesterol, and your stress levels under control, or no more bacon and eggs for you.
The key to losing weight, in my experience, (250 lbs down to 170) is portion control. Just about any fast food restaurant, with their perfectly identical portions, gives you that, and then it's just a matter of picking the right items on the menu, and resisting the temptation to supersize the meal.
I ate a lot of McD's grilled Asian salads while I was losing that weight.
In Super-Size Me, Spurlock ate over 5,000 calories per day. That reminded me of something I saw on a cable show about SEAL Hell Week, so I went a-Googling. Couldn't find a reference to the SEALs, but I did find a book that mentioned what they feed Marine officer candidates during training...
...about 4,600 calories a day. Some of them gain "two or three pounds" in 13 weeks. 'Course, they're working a little harder than Morgan Spurlock.
That's what was so stupid about Spurlock's film -- if he ate 5000 calories worth of organic meats, vegetables, nuts, etc. he would have been better off because of the higher-quality food, but still would have gained a lot of weight. It's possible to lose weight on any sort of diet. The magic formula is calories in < calories out. I'm on Weight Watchers, and I can eat at McDonald's anytime I want. The catch is, a small hamburger + small fries comprises about 1/3 of my daily intake. So, like Brett says, it's mostly about portion control.
Sarah: I think part of the point was that it's a lot easier to eat 5000 calories of food a day at McD's, than if you're eating "real food", lean meats and vegetables, whole grain pasta and long grain rice, etc.
I can't remember the exact numbers, but a 16 ounce buffalo sirloin steak has some ridiculously small number of calories in it. On the order of 500 or so. I like meat, but I'd die if I tried to eat 10 pounds of steak a day.
Not that it wouldn't be a lovely way to go... :D
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JS-Kit/Echo comments for article at http://smallestminority.blogspot.com/2008/06/mcfit-mcdiet.html (16 comments)
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If there were any true justice in this universe, bitch-slapping Morgan Spurlock would be a national pastime.
No, crotch-kicking Ted Rall would be.
Why must we choose?
The true American Way would be to do BOTH.
Unix-Jedi said: The true American Way would be to do BOTH.
Simultaniously.
It's both more of a challenge and we want to keep the line moving.
On the diet issue, I can personally recommend the Type 2 Diabetes Diet. Gruel for brekkies and grilled chicken twice a day up to a limit of 250 grams of carbohydrates/day will certainly take the pounds off your gradually-less-fat ass, I promise you.
The diabetes part of it sucks doorknobs I admit, but you take your motivation where it's forced upon you, I suppose. It certainly beats the alternative of stabbing myself in my gradually shrinking belly.
See how easy it is to make grilled, skinless chicken - yet again - seem wonderfully appetising?
Will,
Modify that Type 2 Diabetes diet to accommodate heart disease, and you've got a real diet. Low carbs, low fat, low cholesterol, and low salt.
I remember going through cardiac rehab and the nurses praising me for the pounds I was loosing each week (I was also bicycling 100+ miles per week, something the nurses most definitely didn't appreciate). I told them the pounds were melting off because I was slowly starving to death.
Seriously, keep your blood sugar, your cholesterol, and your stress levels under control, or no more bacon and eggs for you.
Mike,
It's probably borderline unAmerican (or at least unTexican) to say so in public like this, but I've pretty much lost my taste for bacon and eggs.
I quit smoking about a year and a half ago (Chantix works, if anyone's interested) and literally nothing tastes "right" ever since.
Between the diet and not smoking, I may live forever if I don't shoot myself first. :)
Try being pre-diabetic and having acute intermittent porphyria. A high-carbohydrate diet is the treatment for it.
Good news is, one study found that Porphyria sufferers who went into full-blown diabetes never had a porphyric attack again!
Whoopee!
Just don't eat too many calories and you should lose weight...
The key to losing weight, in my experience, (250 lbs down to 170) is portion control. Just about any fast food restaurant, with their perfectly identical portions, gives you that, and then it's just a matter of picking the right items on the menu, and resisting the temptation to supersize the meal.
I ate a lot of McD's grilled Asian salads while I was losing that weight.
What does grilled Asian taste like? ;)
(Oh, wait... I know; Chicken!)
(Oh, wait... I know; Chicken!)
Kevin Baker
With or without soy sauce? Or, for the more extreme taste sensation, kimchee!
How Asian do we want to go with this?
In Super-Size Me, Spurlock ate over 5,000 calories per day. That reminded me of something I saw on a cable show about SEAL Hell Week, so I went a-Googling. Couldn't find a reference to the SEALs, but I did find a book that mentioned what they feed Marine officer candidates during training...
...about 4,600 calories a day. Some of them gain "two or three pounds" in 13 weeks. 'Course, they're working a little harder than Morgan Spurlock.
That's what was so stupid about Spurlock's film -- if he ate 5000 calories worth of organic meats, vegetables, nuts, etc. he would have been better off because of the higher-quality food, but still would have gained a lot of weight. It's possible to lose weight on any sort of diet. The magic formula is calories in < calories out. I'm on Weight Watchers, and I can eat at McDonald's anytime I want. The catch is, a small hamburger + small fries comprises about 1/3 of my daily intake. So, like Brett says, it's mostly about portion control.
Good news is, one study found that Porphyria sufferers who went into full-blown diabetes never had a porphyric attack again!
That sucks.
Right. The damage diabetes does is bad enough.
Sarah: I think part of the point was that it's a lot easier to eat 5000 calories of food a day at McD's, than if you're eating "real food", lean meats and vegetables, whole grain pasta and long grain rice, etc.
I can't remember the exact numbers, but a 16 ounce buffalo sirloin steak has some ridiculously small number of calories in it. On the order of 500 or so. I like meat, but I'd die if I tried to eat 10 pounds of steak a day.
Not that it wouldn't be a lovely way to go... :D
Note: All avatars and any images or other media embedded in comments were hosted on the JS-Kit website and have been lost; references to haloscan comments have been partially automatically remapped, but accuracy is not guaranteed and corrections are solicited.
If you notice any problems with this page or wish to have your home page link updated, please contact John Hardin <jhardin@impsec.org>