Now that you know what a carbohydrates, fats, and proteins are, you are probably wondering which one you want to eat. While we will get into the problems surrounding carbohydrates, let’s set that aside for now and take a look at what kind of each these nutrients work best for humans.
Fats: As a country, you would have to agree, we are pretty fat phobic. There has been some change in the last few years, but “fat free” on a label is still a big selling point. The underlying problem with fats is the types of fats that we eat. Since fats play so many vital roles in our bodies, it is essential to get the right kinds of fats in our diets. In fact, there are a group of fats called the essential fatty acids that we need to get in our diets, but we just don’t.
Fats to avoid are any artificial fats such as margarine and any other trans fats. In general, the best fats to cook with are olive and grape seed oils. Butter is also okay in small amounts (yes, butter is okay!). Make sure to supplement with some form of essential fatty acid, like krill oil.
Proteins: Proteins are essential to life; make sure you get a wide variety of proteins every day. Eggs contain the almost perfect balance of amino acids that humans needs. Other good protein sources are meats and nuts. Many beans are also a good sources of protein.
Avoid, especially for weight loss, soy proteins, as they tend to slow down your metabolism. Try to not overcook any protein, because cooking, (especially grilling and frying) can create harmful chemicals.
Carbohydrates: Some nutritionists claim that carbohydrates are optional in your diet. Read that again: your body may not need carbohydrates. Carbohydrates, from our point of view, are fine in a diet as long as they are in their original state. This means that you can eat a whole grain of wheat, but don’t eat the bread. You can eat an apple, but don’t drink apple juice. Stay away from all simple sources of carbohydrates such as sugars.
We will talk later in this path about how to balance carbohydrates once you have achieved the weight loss you are looking for, but for now avoid them as much as possible.
Action Plan: Basic Nutrients
Try to work as many of the good nutrients into your diet as possible. Cook with olive and Grape Seed oils, find a good fish oils supplement, choose good protein sources and avoid all simple carbohydrates.
Eat something crunchy with every meal. This does not mean eat potato chips, it means eat something crunchy in its original state: apples, carrots, lettuce and other fruits and vegetables.
I am very disappointed to learn that your secret weight loss plan is the tired old Adkins-no-carbs diet. While I will absolutely agree that virtually anyone who eliminates carbohydrates from their diets can LOSE weight, only a TINY-TINY-TINY percentage of them can stay on the diet forever. I have tried no/low carb diets over the years and know for a fact that: 1) I can lose some weight, and 2) I NEVER stop craving carbs. The longer I stay on the diet, the more intense the cravings become. Worse yet, unlike a simple calorie-restricted diet, with Adkins (or SouthBeach or whatever they’re calling the latest iteration of this plan) if you make ONE mistake or have ONE cheat, you gain back inordinate amounts of weight (usually around the middle), and the weight loss goes to a plateau for much longer than any other plan. These facts alone cause 98%-plus people to abandon the plan and go back to unhealthy eating, thereby gaining everything back (usually more than they lost in the first place).
If this is the basis of your “Never crave sweets again” program, I think I’ll opt out now. I know it does not work long term.
I signed up because you called it the “Skinny brain” program. I had hoped you would focus on building a different self image through affirmations, visualizations and coming back to listening to your body. Unfortunately, the “Change your thinking” portion of the program has been limited and fairly light in context. Before you start to visualize the size of your stomach, for instance, I would think you would ask people to become more attuned to their body’s signals. Most of us overweight-emotional eaters don’t care what size stomach we have because we haven’t paid attention to full or empty signals for years. I had expected some ideas like: as you are keeping a diary of the foods you eat, add a notation with every separate meal or snack that designates where you are on a hunger scale of zero to ten, where zero is completely empty and ten is so stuffed you can’t zip up your pants and breathing is almost painful. If you force yourself to evaluate where you start a meal (recommend say, 0 to 3) and where you stop eating (hopefully before you hit a 5 which is comfortable—not full), then you begin to connect the act of eating with the signals your body is providing. After a few weeks of that, thinking about shrinking the size of your stomach might actually be beneficial.
Finally, your recommendations for exercise are not the latest ideas for weight loss either. I have run out of time, so I will just recommend that you do a bit more research.
Please advise me on how to get my money back.
Thank you.
Hi there, pstuht! First, let me say a sincere “Thank you” to you for your feedback. We really appreciate feedback from our readers, especially about the Skinny Brain program, which is a work in progress. We are definitely going to take your excellent suggestions to heart, and improve the course. We actually have not promoted it too heavily yet mainly because we’re aware it needs some “tweaks”. As far as the refund goes, it was sent through yesterday, so you should be all set. Have a wonderful day!