Especially when your weight refuses to shift no matter what…
Quite recently this story was posted on Medium.
The story refutes the benefits of the ketogenic diet , suggesting that it is really complicated so that people don’t know where to start.
The writer also says, “The first problem with diets is that they’re a short-term solution.”
And yet, a diet is simply the food choices we make on a regular basis.
That’s what diet once meant!
So basically whether we eat keto, calories-in-calories-out counting, fast-food, Paleo, eat-all-you-like, move-more-eat-less, they can all be seen as diets.
But I get what he is saying. If you are on a diet and it’s not working for you, why on earth would you stick to it?
The thing is, there’s no one diet that suits all homo sapiens.
And if there is any way to prove that life is not always fair, ask a dieter who can’t lose weight.
That reminds me.
In the heady days of serious distance running, I used to run with a small group on a Sunday morning.
We’d run roughly twenty km well before breakfast. It wasn’t for sissies, let me tell you.
One of the guys in the group was over six feet tall, and carried a lot of extra weight. He ran every blessed day, as well as Sunday, and his weight never changed.
Yet he still battled the distance with the rest of us.
I once asked him if it made him angry, doing so much running and not losing weight.
“No,” he replied. “I love running and could never give it up, but I’d sure like to know which ancestor’s grave I trampled on, because he’s sure got it in for me.”
It doesn’t seem fair
It’s hard to respond to something like that. The rest of us enjoyed different stages of trimness. He was heaviest by far.
Of course this was in the days before keto was even a word, because had he known about the protocol, you bet he’d have embraced it overnight.
I was thinking about Garry after reading about the keto diet being stupid and just this morning I recalled reading about another Gary – Gary Taubes, an investigative journalist who also struggled with his weight.
Gary felt there was a missing link in the obesity issue. Like my other friend Garry, he exercised, was a runner on top of that, ate low fat, denied himself so many fatty foods, including avocado, meat and bacon, but couldn’t shift his weight.
Thing is we are all metabolically different…
Through thorough research, Gary reached the conclusion that we are all metabolically different.
Some people can eat all the carbs in the world, and remain lean.
Others just need a sniff of carbs and they are already in trouble. These are the fat storers of this world, whether they like it or not.
Fat storing could be classified as a metabolic disease.
Metabolic disease?
Once you have reached the conclusion that you have been metabolically punished, and that carbs will always be your fighting enemy, and if you want to be lean, should keto become your way of life?
To hell with what others say about it being difficult to follow…or indeed that is a health hazard.
So is being fat!
It’s your decision, and if it allows you to look, feel and think better, why in heaven’s name would you not embrace it?
Besides, those who follow keto under the direction of a ketogenic doctor, all find that their markers for health improve out of sight.
The case for ketosis
Ketosis is the process where your body starts to call foul on fat cells, converting them to ketones. Gary argues that this is the only way for fat people to ditch the fat for life.
Nobody is saying that fat people have to forego carbohydrates. They don’t.
They can eat all they like of bread and desserts and the likes.
There’s no law about it.
Just as long as they don’t mind being fat!
Let’s face it…
We’re always going to fight the different gospels:
- the low-fat adherents who smugly know that their hearts are in better shape than yours
- the everything-in-moderation group who know that being fat is all your fault
- the medical groups who cite so many health risks in not eating bread and beans and whatever else
- the absolutely no-fat milk and yoghurt consumers who’ve long given up the pleasure of a full-fat dollop of cream just for the pleasure of it
Maybe we need a new gospel…
The gospel that’s been around for so many years without challenge, is maybe not such a credible gospel.
There are many doctors who have already reached the conclusion that we don’t always get things right, especially when it comes to health. They know that carbs are not always friends of the faithful.
Many nutritionists have also jumped on board, flying in the face of the mantra they’ve been taught to spruik.
As for Gary Taubes, he’s walked the walk, he’s done the research, and as a slimmer, more healthy version of himself, knows he’s found the sweet-spot in healthy living.
You can read his book here.
