The Art and Science of Low Carbohydrate Living

I just finished a most interesting book, called The Art and Science of Low Carbohydrate Living by Jeff Volek, Ph.D., R.D. and Stephen D. Phinney, M.D., Ph.D. The book is targeted at medical professionals who might be interested in treating patients with a low carb diet and it gives all of the ins and outs of the process. Only a couple of chapters (that went into the clinical application of low carb diets) were not relevant to me and my experience.  My verdict: I highly recommend this book.

It tackles all of the big questions (e.g., "Won't eating saturated fat cause you to have a heart attack?" or "All the weight lost on low carb diets is water weight") and outlines not only a comprehensive low carb eating plan, but also a low carb "maintenance" plan for eating, after you have lost your weight.

It is fully referenced and includes all of the pertinent studies backing up everything it claims. It also concludes with a section on healthy recipes for a high fat, moderate protein, low carb diet.

I must say, the book is well written, but it looks like it was self-published. Nevertheless, it is quite the resource. If my physician gives me any grief about my low carb lifestyle on my next visit in early September, I am tempted to recommend it, or even give it, to her.

Some gems from the book:

• A listing of diseases successfully treated with a low carb diet (e.g., high blood pressure, metabolic syndrome, type II diabetes, sleep apnea, etc.); see p. 170.
• An in-depth explanation of why a low LDL reading is not necessarily bad; see pp. 91-95.
• In the discussion of fructose (a sugar that partitions like fat), the authors have this gem: "Most energy drinks and sports beverages use sucrose or high fructose corn sweetener as their primary energy source. Given that the average exhausted athlete still has tens of thousands of fat calories in body energy reserves but is running out of carbohydrate (glycogen), why would one want to add a sugar that cannot be used for quick energy, with most of it eventually ending up as fat?" P. 57.
• The authors explain the "Whoosh" experience (where someone stays at the same weight for days, then, "whoosh," over night they lose several pounds); it is a function of water retention. You are losing fat and inches, your clothes are feeling looser, but for whatever reason, you are holding on to water. Eventually, you will lose the water. When that happens, whoosh, you have lost five pounds overnight! P. 73.
• The authors introduce the concept of "carbohydrate intolerance" (chapters 14 and 15). If you don't tolerate carbohydrates very well, restrict them. A lot of good things will happen to your health. So I can now say I am carb intolerant, and cite this book as proof.
• A maple walnut ice cream recipe (pp. 229-230).

Weekly Update, Part II

It's been two weeks since my last "weekly" update, because we were traveling around Europe with a group of business students and spending most nights in a different hotel. But as I hinted at yesterday, I still lost weight, but I wanted to wait to report it until Monday, my usual day. Since I am jet lagged and unable to sleep in, I am writing this post fairly early in the morning. In the two weeks since my last update, I have dropped 4.8 pounds. Follow my progress using this chart.

I am particularly pleased by this drop, as I have spent most of the last two weeks eating out three times per day. Since we were staying in hotels instead of our usual apartment in Antwerp, we could do no cooking and relied on the hotel restaurant, stores, and other restaurants to eat. But even in a challenging environment such as this, one can make good and wise choices about what to eat.

In related news, I also lost several inches off my waist during the trip to Europe. I took a pair of pants with a 48-inch waist and one with a 46-inch waist. But even the 46-inch waist pair of pants was too big after a couple of weeks and I had to wait for my daughter to arrive  a few weeks later with another pair of jeans with a 44-inch waist. I wore those jeans the last two weeks, but by the end, they were becoming too big as well. Yesterday, I went through my closet and discovered that most of my 44-inch waist slacks and jeans were too big and that the 42-inch waist slacks and jeans, for the most part, fit better. That was a huge psychological booster. I had to go through all of my clothes to find something appropriate to wear to work today. That's a six-inch drop off my waist in a little over seven weeks.

And the best news of all: I lost this weight without being hungry and by eating lots of butter and cream, which truly adds flavor to my life. I honestly don't know how I suffered through the bland, tasteless, cardboard-like low fat diets all those years. Low carb is the way to go.