MYTH: Fruit juices are high in carbs and low in fiber.
Juices do, in fact, have redeeming qualities for your health, and there are times when juice is uniquely beneficial. After a workout, for example, it helps replace fluids and blood sugar and provides nutrients. Juice also comes in handy when eating is simply not convenient – when you’re driving, say, or traveling, but still want something with nutritional value. Be sure to drink 100% juice, with no added sweeteners, or no sugar added. But be careful; the calories quickly add up!

MYTH: Ketosis is good for you.
This is definitely misleading. Ketosis is a sign that the blood is becoming too acidic. To combat this, the body takes calcium from the bones, which raises the risk of osteoporosis. In fact, the Nurses’ Health Study showed that women on higher-protein diets had a higher risk of bone fractures. Ketosis can also damage the kidneys, cause bad breath, and trigger irregular heart rhythms that can cause sudden death.

MYTH: Eggs are bad for you.
A study published in 1999 that followed 38,000 men and 80,000 women found that an egg a day had no impact on the risk of heart disease or stroke in healthy men and women. Eggs eaten in moderation, about 3 or 4 a week, are fine for most people. Health professionals advise people who already have high blood cholesterol to carefully watch their saturated fat intake and lose weight if they are overweight.

MYTH: Taking vitamins replaces the need for healthy foods.
So-called whole foods like veggies and whole grains contain fiber and a host of other important nutrients that can’t be adequately delivered through pills. In fact, scientists are still finding new “trace elements” in whole foods that may someday be labeled essential to health – but aren’t found in any pill. Many experts will tell you that taking vitamins doesn’t compensate for a healthy diet.

I'm sorry, but this week's just been really hard. I've been going through a divorce......with starchy carbs. They want custody of my sanity with no visitation rights. Not to mention the volatile relationship I am trying to avoid with sugar!

I saw Sugar for the first time today since the break-up. He looked so smug sitting in the window of Club Sandwich. He had his best mocha-bun on. I thought I would be ok but it brought all the feelings back again. Maybe I do still love him...maybe we are meant to be? Is the grass really greener with Equal and Sugarine? I haven't found it to be. He was with jam donut. F**k I hate her. He says they are just friends because they have so much in common. Blah blah blah. He didn't even look like he was hurting. It was like he was better off because a huge weight had been lifted and he didn't feel under pressure to have just the right amount of icing and the perfect bun consistency. Soft but dense with sultanas. I wasn't that demanding was I? All donut's interested in is being pumped full of jam every morning, she's so superficial - everyone can see her hole.

Anyway back to starchy carbs I can't talk about sugar anymore. It's getting nasty. I think there will be lawyers. I had a potato thrown through my window last night and this morning I found pasta shoved up my exhaust pipe. I don't know what to do.

I am just saying that we should take high GI foods a little more seriously. They'll make a hard (wo)man crumble.

There are no words to say here.....

mariasol: Kimkins during Pregnancy:

"This was posted on Kimkins on June 20th:

Pregnant
Has anyone ever done kimkins while pregnant? This is my third child and I really don't want to gain weight I am already heavy and I would actually like to lose a little weight. Please let me know....

Up to today (June 28th) no Admin has bothered to give an answer."

Medusa: URGENT WARNING !!! PREGNANT ??? DO *NOT* DO THE KIMKINS STARVATION DIET !!!:

"On the Kimkins website, several female members have asked if anyone has done the Kimkins diet while pregnant. One member said that she didn't want to gain weight and would 'actually like to lose a little weight' while pregnant.

Rather than stepping up to the plate and telling these women that following the nutritionally bankrupt Kimkins starvation diet could result in causing untold harm to the fetus, Heidi Diaz aka Kimmer and her sidekick, SingingLass, and whatever administrators are left in that Kimkins ghost town, have failed to warn these women that dieting is the last thing they should do while pregnant."

I guess Heidi wasn't satified with dangering just teens with her nutritionally bankrupt diet....now she's targeting the unborn fetus too.

Heidi----you are being watched closely. I advise you to do the right thing here for once.

Are the products safe?

The products have been recommended by over 15,000 physicians and used by over one million customers. Medifast has been providing a clinically proven approach to weight loss and nutrition for over 20 years.

What is Super Citrimax?

Citrimax contains a natural appetite suppressant made from the vine of a South Asian fruit. Super Citrimax works without stimulating the central nervous system so it does not cause problems with heart rate, blood pressure or other symptoms such as insomnia or nervousness.

Are there any special guidelines for Take Shape for Life customers over age 65?

Maintaining a healthy weight is beneficial for people of all ages. Everyone needs to obtain a healthy weight to live life to its fullest. The Take Shape for Life program helps their customers reach their healthy weight. As a person grows older, it is imperative that they remain healthy as they lose their weight. This is why Take Shape for Life has set up some guidelines for customers over the age of 65:

• Maintain a minimum of 1200 Calories a day while on the program.
• Use Medifast Products (Shakes, Bars, Soups, Oatmeal, Chili, etc.) in addition to a meal plan, which includes protein and salad or vegetables
• Call 1-800-572-4417 to request more information about the Take Shape for Life program for seniors

Ketosis and Weight Loss

What is ketosis?

The nutrient balance of Medifast combined with the low-calorie level causes the fat stores to release free fatty acids that are converted by the liver into an energy source called ketones. This mild state of "ketosis" helps the body achieve rapid weight loss while preserving muscle tissue. Ketosis also helps eliminate physical hunger while providing good levels of energy.

Is ketosis harmful?

No, the level of ketosis achieved is very mild – just strong enough to protect you from losing muscle tissue. This mild level of ketosis has not been shown to cause harm to the body.

How long does it take to get ketosis built?

Plan for about three days of being on Medifast for building the ketosis level. If you falloff the plan, it will generally take two to three days to rebuild the level again to the point where you no longer feel hunger or fatigue

Kimkins Scam states what we all feel about this with the following "
The viral marketing techniques utilized by these so called “article” sites are nothing but glorified spam. I for one an sick of all of them." please  read the rest  and take the time to send Alastair Harris, Chief Editor of Article-gems an email about those articles.

ETA Seems Mr Harris has changed his mind about removing those articles.

   there are several changes going on at CampCarbaway. 

       CampCarbaway is now a private free site by invite only with each member (inside camp already) allowed to invite 10 new folk in. This should eliminate the back log of applications waiting to be vetted.

       Owner of Campcarbaway and former Kimkins PR director Jeannie AKA TippyToes has handed the reins of CampCarbaway over to Heather and Brain. She will stay on as an admin in Campcarbaway. As the new owners Heather and Brian are not making any changes at this time. The website is financially sound and paid for until 2009. 

         Since everybody wanted to know if Kimmer paid for Campcarbaway and if Campcarbaway is the back up site for Kimkins.com when it goes down I'd like to address that.
         CampCarbaway is a place folk who are inside kimkins can go, but Kimmer is not financially connected to the camp in any manner. Camp was and is paid for by Jeannie, AKA TIPPYTOES,  with the money she was paid as PR director of Kimkins. This money was reported to the IRS by both Jeanie and Kimmer as salary paid to Jeannie, not an investment in a new website.  Nor is the Kimkins.com diet being taught in Campcarbaway.

        I'd like to wish Heather and Brian the best of success in keeping camp a safe place for kimkins victims to heal, find a safe low carb eating plan, and achieve the healthy smaller body we all work our low carb plans for.

I understand folk will need quicktime plugins to view it and it is almost 10 mins long but it is a wonderful piece about the fraud and dangers with doctors nutrtionists and folk who are not getting paid to sell kimkins talking about the issues.

If you can't view it Grillcheesewithpickels has a transcript Elle did for free too.

Halitosis is the medical term for bad breath. There are many factors that causes halitosis, these are gum problem, tooth decay, digestive problems, kidney problem, lung problem, cirrhosis of the liver and sinus infection.

When halitosis occur during dieting this is a condition called Ketosis. Ketosis is caused by low carbohydrate diet, this is a process in which our body converts fats into energy and this occurs normally during starvation. Normally, our body utilized glucose to meet its energy needs. Glucose comes mostly from the carbohydrate in our diet. A healthy, balanced diet should provide us with all the glucose our body needs, so that ketosis will not take place. If we starved ourselves during diet ,ketone bodies are produced, it increases in the blood stream and this give your breath a sweet, fruity smell that most of the time may be mistaken for alcohol. Health Proffessionals never recommend ketogenic diet more than 14 days. Prolonged severe ketosis can be serious as it can change the acidity of your blood, which may will eventually lead to severe damage to your liver and kidneys.

So, when choosing a diet plan, check on glycemic index, as it will tell you the categories where your food belongs. Does it belongs to low, medium or high carbohydrates. There are ways you can limit the effect of ketones on your breath. One approach they say is to drink plenty of water as it dilutes ketones in the body but that remains a controversy. Just to be sure seeking treatment to your doctor is the best option. Click here for more

I need some variety in my diet, so I will be postponing any ketosis phase, and just concentrate on walking, exercise, and a general low carb plan, keeping the carbs as low as possible.  I've got to begin my weight training routine again along with starting up my jogging.

Other than that, I feel poised and ready to beef up my workout routines and to get rid of my magnificent belly.

Monday, March 10, 2008
5:30am - no color on ketostick; 218.6 lbs (0.2 lb loss), 34.5%BF (body fat), 47.0%BW (body water)
     Very odd; second day in a row with no color on the stick.  Had less than 13 net grams of carbs yesterday, so what gives?  Have to assume for the time being that I am still in ketosis but am burning my ketones so completely that there aren't enough left over in my urine to color the stick.  And what's with the body fat increase lately?  The more I lose, the "fatter" I get, according to the Tanita.  On the other hand, I hadn't taken in as much water over the weekend as I typically do during the week.  Every time my body water reading goes down, my body fat reading goes up, and vice versa.  If I'm lowering my hydration as the scale indicates I am, and the lean muscle and bone masses aren't changing, wouldn't that necessarily require that the other side of the equation (body fat) balance it out?  
     20.5 net grams of carbs and 1923 calories for the day.

Tuesday, March 11, 2008
6:00am - trace ketostick; 219.2 lbs (0.6 lb gain), 33.0%BF, 47.5%BW
     Some sawtoothing has to be expected.  (Doesn't it?)
     16.2 net grams of carbs and 1780 calories (even with chocolate ricotta dessert!)

Wednesday, March 12, 2008
5:00am - no color on ketostick; 219.8 lbs (0.6 lb gain), 32.5%BF, 48%BW
     My brain is saying, "Here we go again," and expecting tomorrow's reading to be back in the 220's for some reason.  What reason?  I don't know.  What do you do when you run out of reasons?  Way under 20 net grams of carbs but no color on stick.  Under 2000 daily calories but not too much under, yet gaining weight.  It's like in The Blair Witch Project where they kept going in the same direction according to the map and the compass day after day after day, yet they kept winding up going in circles.  Maybe I should call this The Blair Weight Project.
    11.3 net grams of carbs and 2588 calories

Thursday, March 13, 2008
6:05am - no color on ketostick; 219.2 lbs (0.6 lb loss), 32.5%BF, 48%BW
     I was chanting internally as I approached the Tanita, "222.2, 222.2."  It would have disgusted me, but certainly wouldn't have shocked me.  Losing shocked me.  Why is that?  All my expectations have been of loss, maybe not rapid loss, but consistent loss.  Everything I've been reading has pointed to this fact as inevitable.  I really am expecting too much too soon.  I'm currently 3.8 pounds less than I was at the beginning of the experiment, that's in less than 2 weeks, so why am I complaining?
    19.5 net grams of carbs and 2285 calories

Friday, March 14, 2008
6:00am - no color on ketostick; 219.8 lbs (0.6 lb gain), 31.5%BF, 48.5%BW
     Yawn.  As I was saying... historically speaking, there had often been periods of stabilization before I start losing more weight, so I'm just going to have to ride this out and hope it stays as insignificant as it has been the past few days.  The other odd thing, beside no color on the ketosticks, is that I have cut through my old graph line six times, count 'em, six, in just this one week.  Back in 2003, I'd started a plateau about a week previous in time, so I'm hovering around the same weight I was then.  That old plateau stretches out to beyond the end of the month, so I'm anxious to break through and drop below, for good.
    19.7 net grams of carbs and 2350 calories

Saturday, March 15, 2008
5:30am - no ketone check; 219.6 lbs (0.2 lb loss), 31.0%BF, 48.5%BW
     This appears to have broken the "streak."  The past two weekends, I've had a pound-plus loss on Saturday morning followed by an even larger loss on Sunday (last Sunday it was 2.4 pounds).  The trend I'm noticing, though, is the body fat reading.  It had been bouncing around before, up and down a point or two, but since Monday it's been on a steady decline from 34.5% to 31.0% today.  Meaningful?  Maybe.  And maybe tomorrow it'll shoot up to 35% for some reason.  Crazy carbon-based lifeforms!
     I'm going to drift off here a little to a related item.  I was just looking at my weight chart and graph and remembering how my old scale was off eight pounds.  Right now, I feel like I have this huge road ahead of me and I haven't been making much progress in the last 11 weeks.  I'm a hair under 220 after having lost just over 10 pounds.  So why do I believe I would have felt better on the old scale?  At this time, that scale would be telling me I'm 211.6 pounds.  I liked being 211; it just seemed like 200 was so much easier to get to since it was only ten pounds or so away.  Now it's 20 pounds away and with the way things have been going since week 3, it feels like it may as well be 50 pounds away.  My original Atkins loss was about 30 pounds, and I maintained around 200, or so I thought.  I was really maintaining around 208, and if I'd known that, would I have worked harder to lose another ten?  Why is 200 such an important number to me?  If anything, I should be 175 or less according to standard weight charts.  The only time I got that low was following a 500 calorie diet in the late 1970's.  I was never that thin before.  People told me I looked downright sickly.  When I started to regain the weight, I was told I looked great at 185.  Even 190 was good.  And that's another 10 pounds beyond 200.  Good thing this is a lifestyle and not a diet; if it was a diet, there would be some sort of end in sight, like there was on the 500 calorie diet, and look how that turned out.
     And now for tonight's World's Dumbest Low Carb Blunders report.  We were planning to have tacos for dinner and I'd had enough carbs during the day that I had to keep deducting elements of the upcoming dinner to make up for it; first the onion, then the salsa, then the lettuce.  I was down to a small low carb tortilla with guacamole, sour cream, cheddar cheese and taco meat, and that was going to be it for the evening.  Mrs. Megamas had hers as a salad in what I thought was the last remaining taco bowl shell I'd bought in December.  As I finished my meager soft taco, I went to get some more meat and cheese, and added some more guacamole and sour cream since they're low carb too.  Here comes the stupid part, and I can't believe I did this after all my talk about difficulty getting to goals and replying to the post about mistakes that goof you up on low carb.  There was a broken taco bowl left in the box, so I ate that as big taco chips to go with the rest of it.  And then, after I was done, I read the nutrition panel: serving size, 1 shell; calories, 180; total carbs, 23 grams; fiber, 4 grams.  So I had almost my daily limit of net carbs in that one single shell.  Did it taste good?  It was tolerable.  Was it worth it?  Absolutely NOT.  So I can sit here and punish myself mentally or I can accept that I did some stupid thing, one stupid thing, and move on. 
     41.6 net grams of carbs (I'm going to Atkins hell) and 2734 calories
     If I don't weigh more tomorrow, there's something not quite right in our section of the western spiral arm of the galaxy.

Sunday, March 16, 2008
5:15am - no color on ketostick; 220.2 lbs (0.6 lb gain), 31.5%BF, 48.5%BW
     Aaah, all is well here in the carbohydrate-reduced Milky Way.  The piper has been paid.  Today I will Atone because there is No Carbland For Old Men.  There Will Be Fat, however.  (Sorry if those sounded like something from the Oscarbs.)
     20.1 net grams of carbs and 1585 calories

Monday, March 17, 2008 (Happy St. Paddy's Day!)
4:45am - no color on ketostick; 220.2 lbs (no change), 32.0%BF, 48.0%BW
 

That's the end of week two off alcohol.  To recap, I started (re)induction Jan 2 following the rules to the letter; two weeks into it, I resumed my routine use of alcohol and, during the third week, the weight loss stopped after 8.5 pounds.  For the next six week period, during which other odd things were going on physiologically, my weight increased, decreased, and increased again, from 221 to 225 pounds in a wildly varying sawtooth pattern.  In week ten, I began this experiment of abstinence. 

During the experiment, the first week showed a dramatic net loss, 4.4 pounds.  I lost weight after consuming between 1421 and 2032 calories the day before, and I gained weight after taking in more than 2200 calories the prior day.  The second week, however, seemed to flip that pattern 180 degrees and turned the graph line in a basically upward trend again.  I showed a net gain of 1.6 pounds for the week, gaining the days after eating less than 2065 calories, and losing the days following consumption of more than 2350 calories.  (The only day not consistent with this was Bonehead Error Saturday.)  Through the two week period (except the last Saturday), daily net carbs ranged between 11 and 22, averaging 16.7, but I cannot see any recognizable pattern in weight fluctuation with regard to this factor.

So what's my analysis?  I don't have one yet.  If the purpose of the experiment was to test whether cessation of alcohol consumption would indeed break a "stall" in weight loss, then I would say it indicated positively.  As to whether cessation of alcohol produces a change in the trend to lose weight over a period of time with all other factors being the same, I think two weeks is not a sufficient time-frame in which to measure this.  The aniticipated association of caloric decrease due to a decrease in alcohol intake does not seem to be a factor because I appear to have replaced those calories with other sources, for example, an increased consumption of hard cheeses and Italian deli meats.  If anything, I would assume I've increased the fat content of my diet in the last two weeks. 

I'm confused by the change in the second week, both in how the trends reversed and that I'm not showing color on the ketosticks.  If, as I've read elsewhere, I must be in ketosis due to severely restricted carb intake, regardless of the test strip indication, am I actually using the manufactured ketones that efficiently?  Have I increased my dietary fat content to the point that I've curtailed my need to draw fat from my adipose depots for fuel, and hence the change in weight management trends?  How does this correlate with the studies mentioned in Good Calories, Bad Calories, where subjects continued to lose weight no matter how many calories of fat were added to the diet as long as carbohydrates were severely limited? 

This all begs a third week of testing with a minor change: I'm going to abstain from high fat cured deli meats this week.  I do recall reading somewhere, possibly in other low carber's comments, possibly in low carb plan advisements, to avoid eating a lot of processed meats like salami and sausage.  Let the new week begin, and I'll report back next Monday.

After 20 days or so in ketosis, I fell off the wagon and went a bit haywire with my diet. At this point, I still feel very good, however I will wait until Thursday to dive back into ketosis.

My Stats:

• Weight - 269 lbs
• Waist - 50.5 Inches

I've gained a few, but I think it might have to do with an overload of carbs over the last few days as well as some bloating. I'm down two inches from the beginning of the year on my waist, so that is extremely positive.

I've been jump roping, walking, doing some push ups, utilizing the Abslide, and today I began the Couch to 5KM program. Here is what the program entails on day 1.

Brisk five-minute warmup walk. Then alternate 60 seconds of jogging and 90 seconds of walking for a total of 20 minutes.  That was easily accomplished.

I'd like to continue with this plan and see how my right knee holds up. I hope to also throw in a couple days of weight training per week. I really must stay focused and finish this month out on a high note.

- Mr F.

Mouth tastes like a sewer today - and I couldn't be more excited - does this mean that elusive ketosis has appeared??? Headache has been on and off again - poo - thought I was rid of it! Tried the chocolate opti bar yesterday... it was weird but I didn't hate it. But it did take me nearly 2 hours to eat. It's a funny texture.

I'm finally graduating tonight after 7 years of uni! Have been studying part time and working full time during that period and it has been tough. I picked up my regalia yesterday and was super disappointed to find I don't get a cap to throw in the air! :( So sad. Apparently Bachelor graduands don't get them. Anyhoo, it will be good to get my two pieces of paper (Bachelor of Commerce - Professional Accounting and a Bachelor of Arts - Media Analysis).

 Anyhoo, better do some work

Em :)

Granted, I'm delighted to find that the lifestyle I've adopted is really good for me, in a multitude of ways. But I came into this in 2003 to lose weight, and I did, 30 pounds of it, and I kept most of it off for a good long time (see what went wrong here). Now I'm back in full force, and it's not going quite as well as the first time. I've read about the "One Golden Shot" theory, but that seems to be centered around having difficulty getting into ketosis unless net carbs are dropped to some amount lower than previous attempts. (This idea seems to be refuted somewhat by a comment I read on Jimmy Moore's blog to the effect that, "Being in ketosis is like being pregnant--you either are or you're not; regardless of what the Ketosticks show you, if you are eating less than 30g carbohydrates a day, then you ARE in ketosis." I'm assuming the comment meant net carbs, but I could be wrong.) Despite this comment, my sticks have been showing at least a trace of color since I went back into induction on Jan 2, so I feel assured I am in ketosis and therefore burning fat stores for fuel (or so the science says).

But I'm not losing any more weight. It's been eight weeks and I've lost only between 5 and 8.8 pounds depending on what day of the week you want to check. The 8.8 came after just three weeks, but right around then, something happened to me. Almost like flipping a switch, suddenly I felt "unwell," for lack of a better term. There was a sort of cognitive disconnect between my mind and my body, as if I were somehow out of sync with myself. I started gaining weight back in small amounts, and then in larger amounts as the days went by, even though I was maintaining less than 20 net carbs and around or under 2000 calories daily.

After two weeks of that, a sudden return of anxiety disorder symptoms that I hadn't experienced since 2001 and some internet research convinced me to make an appointment with my doctor. I asked to have my thyroid function checked, although the symptoms I was experiencing pointed to hypothyroidism while the others suggested hyperthyroidism. He also prescribed a complete blood count along with vitamin B12, folate, and testosterone measurements.

While waiting for the test results, my upward weight spikes grew in intensity, the worst being 2.6 pounds overnight. Then, just like a switch being thrown again, I began to feel well. The mind/body disassociation and any remaining symptoms of anxiety disorder resolved themselves within days. I started losing weight again, and dropped nearly four pounds in the space of a week. The blood test results showed up with just about everything in the middle of the expected range except the testosterone, but I've had a history of low testosterone for ages.

Now I'm back to the sawtooth pattern on my weight graph. I've only lost half of what I lost in 2003 by this time; that old graph line is about to take its next downward swing of 5 pounds over a three week period, and here I am, struggling.

I have no solid explanation for what happened to me in January and earlier this month, but I have a few observations that may or may not have anything to do with any of this; all these things happened almost coincidentally with my feeling of unwellness:

• The night before I started feeling crappy, my wife had grilled me a half-pound burger on our stove top grill. It looked great on the outside, but when I cut into it, just about everything except the outer 1/8" was nearly raw (we're still getting used to using this grill, obviously). I put the burger in the microwave for a bit, but it still looked pretty bloody. I ate it anyway. Lots of people eat rare burgers and love them, who am I to complain? Despite how I felt the next morning, at lunchtime I ate one of the spare burgers she'd cooked and it was basically the same story.
• I've read Taubes' "Big Fat Lie" article and its implications regarding exercise, but in spite of that, I'd started doing light workouts every other day during the second week of induction. After a week of that, my weight started going up. At the end of the second week of workouts, I thought that if I increased the intensity of the workout and burned more calories, I would start losing weight again. I went to the next level on the treadmill and damaged my metatarsal on my right foot, similar to how I injured my left foot a few years ago. That was the end of the running, and my weight dropped in small increments for several days after that.
• After two weeks of induction, I resumed drinking martinis, one a night during the week, two a night on the weekends. I've been aware since the beginning that alcohol will be used for fuel before fat while in ketosis, but I'd been drinking moderate amounts of red wine, low carb beer, and martinis the first time around and it didn't seem to affect my loss at all. I've recently learned that alcohol stimulates insulin secretion as well, and where I have a fear of this reaction as a result of eating carbohydrates and even the possibility of it with regard to ingesting caffeine, I continue to accept its inevitability when it comes to my cocktails. I rationalize it by telling myself it's okay because I'm not stimulating insulin secretion with much of anything else.
• I have occasional complications from prostate surgery I had a few years ago; sometimes it manifests itself as a result of exertion, other times because of inflamation from a viral or bacterial infection. A week ago I started seeing signs of this problem and, after several days, called my urologist who prescribed the first line treatment, a course of antibiotics. I'm happy to report things are looking up after 3 days on the drugs. Was this the last vestige of whatever had been in my system for weeks?

As of this morning, my loss stands at 8 pounds; I had hoped by now it would have been at least 16. I don't mind losing slowly, as long as I'm losing. My graph from 2003 shows plenty of lengthy plateaus and sawtooth patterns, so I have that to keep me motivated. I just have to hope that the slowdown was due in some part, if not all, to something foreign in my system that my body was probably fighting for weeks.

In the meantime, I'll have to be content in the knowledge that I'm getting healthier every day in every other respect.

2BIG

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