Atkins guilt .. anyone else?

[reluctant_whale]

I have come over from Weight Watchers and am finding the "guilt" about eating chese & cream still a bit weird - because I am so programmed NOT to each such things or to eat them in miniscule portions it feels really odd and I feel almost guilty for eating them. Just had 3 pork rinds as a snack and feel literally sick about putting that fat into my body.

Has anyone else that has come over from a "low fat" diet felt similar. I feel a bit of a fool because I know from the results of others and reading the books it isn't doing me any harm ... fat just has been programmed as "the enemy" and I am concerned I am being too liberal with it even now (went to cut the fat off my bacon this morning and wipe it with a kitchen towel which is what I am used to doing for example).

RWx

 

[slaj]

I felt exactly the same, it is so hard to change your way of thinking and eating after so many years of eating low fat food. I still have days when I worry particularly as both my parents died of heart attacks in their 60's,but I must say I feel really well eating this way and the weight is coming off. Colleagues at work have started commenting on how well I look and my clothes are definitely feeling looser!

 

[letsgetlosing]

Yes it is strange to be free to eat the fats. I do think back to my childhood though...we ate butter, clotted cream, fried breakfasts, etc. Certainly obesity was not as big an issue then...I try and think its good fat I am eating. If I ate Burger King, that is bad fat. IYKWIM!

 

[Lily]

I have come over from Weight Watchers and am finding the "guilt" about eating chese & cream still a bit weird - because I am so programmed NOT to each such things or to eat them in miniscule portions it feels really odd and I feel almost guilty for eating them. Just had 3 pork rinds as a snack and feel literally sick about putting that fat into my body.

Has anyone else that has come over from a "low fat" diet felt similar. I feel a bit of a fool because I know from the results of others and reading the books it isn't doing me any harm ... fat just has been programmed as "the enemy" and I am concerned I am being too liberal with it even now (went to cut the fat off my bacon this morning and wipe it with a kitchen towel which is what I am used to doing for example).

RWx

It takes a while, I know. But the thing is (and this is going to sound extreme), I honestly think we've been lied to - that low fat really isn't the way to go. Try as they might, the low calorie/low fat brigade have been unable to prove that eating that way improves health. In fact, it's quite likely that the only reason low calorie diets seem to work is because we reduce our carb intake in the process of reducing our calorie intake.

Put another way, if low calorie diets were sustainable, none of us here would have a weight problem. Obesity rates would've fallen in recent years - they haven't, they've soared. The problem is what we eat, not how much of it.

The worst of it is that many of us have bought into the idea that we're greedy and have no willpower and that's why we can't stick to diets. That's probably the biggest lie of all. The reason most of us gained weight is because we ate too many carbs.

So don't feel guilty. You're giving your body what it's been crying out for for years. If you steer clear of manufactured low carb cr*p and eat lots of meat, fish, eggs and low carb veg (plus butter and fat) you can't go wrong.

 

[Soraya]

I just made a flax pizza base and added mozarella, chicken and ham toppings. I looked at it when it came out of the oven and thought - there is no way in the world you can eat this and lose weight.

I still wince if DH uses butter on the veggies, it just feels wrong.

 

[-Pudding-]

I felt guilty until I watched the following lecture by Dr Andreas Eenfeldt, talking about the Low Carb High Fat eating revolution in Sweden.

I can guarantee that once you've watched this, you don't just shed your guilt...you feel positively revolutionary :rant2:

It's 54 minutes, but it's well worth watching - a total eye-opener!

The Food Revolution - AHS 2011 - YouTube

 

[-Pudding-]

I honestly think we've been lied to - that low fat really isn't the way to go. Try as they might, the low calorie/low fat brigade have been unable to prove that eating that way improves health.

Absolutely

Look at the map halfway down the page on this link. It shows the levels of obesity in the US from 1985 to present day. 1985 (as Dr Eenfeldt says in his lecture) was the year the US started their low-fat campaign.

That map is shocking - in 1985 five states had 10-14% of people with a BMI over 30. The low-fat campaign was supposed to reverse that. In 2010 not a single state had as low a figure as 10-14%....the healthiest states can only show 20-24% of people with a BMI over 30 and 13 states have over 30% of people with a BMI over 30.

Obesity and Overweight for Professionals: Data and Statistics: U.S. Obesity Trends | DNPAO | CDC

 

[boggins]

Dr Eenfeldt's talk was one of the two that made me finally go high fat/low carb. The other was Chris Gardner of the Stanford A to Z study.

Even so, the first week I was waiting to drop dead from a heart attack, and even some time afterwards I would talk about "unhealthy, high fat diets" and then have to stop and correct myself. It took a while. In fact the other day I had upper back pain and my first thought was- oh god, Atkins-induced heart attack!

It's difficult to undo years of low fat indoctrination. I agree 100% with Lily.

 

[reluctant_whale]

Thanks for those links, I will definately take a look ...

Just had to make cauliflower mash again ... absolutely addicted ... not so worried about the cream in that, it's kind of "hidden"

 

[Kat1e]

Agree that changing habits is wierd - but they do change if you stick with it and make sure you really embrace and enjoy the new way of eating. I knew that my retraining had worked when i came home from a party moaning about the unhealthy food that had been laid out - no vegetables, no plain meat and all carbs, carbs, carbs! I ate the salami (i took), the carrots (only veg) and managed to pick some prawns out from around the noodles. But all the girls there thought it looked ok (and many veggies too - but they didint seem to actually eat green stuff)

Anyhow rant over - i'm on a high vegetable, high fat diet