mikefarinha

For most of my life I've adhered to the calorie-in/calorie-out dogma of weight gain/loss that is taught in nutrition classes and voiced by most doctor's and nutritionists.

About 10 years or so ago I hit 280lbs and decided to lose the weight. It took me over a year but I eventually got down to about 235lbs... and was hungry most of the time. I also never got that great explosion of energy people claimed to get when losing weight. I stayed around this weight for a few months and then happened into a job working as a day labor shoveling dirt and working with concrete got me down to around 215lbs. Then I returned to my typical desk jobs and the weight crept back up.

Since then college, career, family, and back up to almost 260lbs!

I've since done a lot of reading and learned from various books and blogs.

From: "Why We Get Fat", "Dr. Atkins", "The New Atkins", "Fat Head" (Movie)

I learned that carbs spike insulin which controls our fat storage and that dietary fat, especially saturated fat, is healthy and doesn't cause weight gain and should typically make up the bulk of our calories.

From: "Wheat Belly" "Marks Daily Apple" (Blog), "Wellness Mama" (Blog)

I learned that grains and nuts have anti-nutrients that can actually pull good nutrients from your body leading to deficiencies.

From "The Schwarzbien Principal"

I learned how important hormone regulation is and how diet and exercise is critical in keeping them in balance.

From: "Nourishing Traditions", "Deep Nutrition".

I learned how important it is to eat how traditional cultures eat.

Eat bone broth, organ meats, dairy fat from grass feed ruminants, fermented foods, cod liver oil, soak and sprout grains & nuts, salt, etc. avoid polyunsaturated fats (aka PUFAs) that are high in Omega-6 and polyunsaturated fats that are cooked.

I can't claim that I completely eat this way as it can be difficult, time consuming, and expensive. But I do what I can and am open to new ideas.