Personally, I've had the opposite problem from most people; it takes a lot of willpower to eat regularly. I just don't get hungry, so if I'm not careful, I can go for several days without eating, which is NOT a good thing.

And then you torture the rest of us by having a username that consists of two yummy food items. Damn you.

I'm at work, so I'll have to make this quick (I can write a lot on the virtures of excercise and stuff). If you think you need to lose weight, something obviously isn't working for you, and you have to change your lifestyle. Eating healthy is one way (notice I said healthy and not dieting - huge difference). The most important thing is to get some excercise. Even a walk after dinner helps. Just eating healthy is a start, but that is only one step.

Personally, I've had the opposite problem from most people; it takes a lot of willpower to eat regularly.

I have sort of the same problem. I was on a diet for a really long time (wrestled through grade school and high school), and to this day, I get full really quickly. Two of my friends (neither can weigh more than 105lbs) get really pissed at me whenever we go out to eat. They end up finishing their meal, and I can never eat more than 1/2 of mine, especially if we get an appetizer. I guess it makes them feel like they are fat :/

One of them makes sure she calls me on weekends, even if she is out of town to make sure I eat something, otherwise I will just forget.

That reminds me of the way I do things. I eat when I'm hungry. If I'm not hungry at lunch, I skip it. If I ate at noon, and I'm hungry again at 3:00, I eat again. I kinda figure the body takes care of itself and lets you know when it needs nourishment. There was a study that dogs that were fed 3 times a day, and only 3 times a day, had a propensity towards obesity, as opposed to dogs that had food out all the time. I've never had a "feeding time" for any of my dogs, and I've never had an overweight dog.

All that being said, I consume on average ~3000 calories a day, which is high, until you realize that I'm 5'10", 28, and 140 lbs. When I was in college, I was consuming closer to 7000 calories a day. But I was running, mountain biking, mountain climbing, swimming, diving, playing raquetball, tennis, and soccer. So I guess I just used it all.

Tony... A friend of mine lost ~150 pounds about 5 years ago by eating a lot of tuna fish. I mean a LOT of tuna. He has kept it off ever since by simply jogging a couple of miles a couple times a week. He also says that plain yellow mustard will cut down (or cover up) the taste of tuna somewhat. He got to a point where he'd open the can, add a little mustard, mix, and eat right out of the can. Not for me, but hey.... I got lucky genetically so it isn't an issue.

The one thing I'll say about the Atkins diet is that I've never met anyone who has resumed a normal diet and kept the weight off]The one thing I'll say about the Atkins diet is that I've never met anyone who has resumed a normal diet and kept the weight off

But that's not the diet. The diet intends you to keep eating like that. What do you think Atkins does?

My parents are on that diet, and plan to stay on it for the rest of their lives. My dad lost 80+ pounds on it.

Once you get down to your target weight, you have to balance out. My parents, when balancing, do eat a lot of meat and high protein foods, but they also eat greens. You can eat healthy, just not what people tend to think of as healthy. Like someone said, people don't usually think of fat being good for you, but it's the carbs that do it. If you eat a lot of carbs, then the fat isn't good for you.

Also, every once and a while, my parents cheat on the diet. They'll have a 3 day business trip or two, and at the company dinners they'll eat some bread and other carb foods, but then they'll follow the diet more strictly for a week or so before balancing out again.

Honestly, with all the negativity the diet has gotten, as usual it was not very well informed.

• For one, people would just decide to go on it. That can be risky. You may be pre-disposed to something adverse to the diet.
• Some people don't read up on how to do it. My girlfriend's roommate just up and decided to do it, but didn't read up on it. It's not as simple as,"drop the breads and sugars and eat lots of meat." There's more to it.
  

The fact is, my parents have regular doctors checkups. My mom has a slight form of diabetes, and her doctor admits that the diet, and the diet alone has helped keep it in check. They don't suffer the side effects, and are, without a doubt, better off than if they didn't loose the weight.

Oh, and my dad only has one kidney

Some of my fav protein sources...

1. Nonfat cottage cheese (add a little yogurt or fruit if you can't handle the taste)
2. Tuna sandwich w/mustard
3. Light Yogurt (not non-fat which is 80% carbs, but light which tends to be about equal carb to protein)
4. MetRx Protein Plus bars. Some of these taste like dirt, but some aren't bad. I like the chocolate fudge. IIRC these are about 35/20/10 grams protein/carbs/fat.
5. Powerbar protein bar. I don't remember the exact name, but they have about 20grams of protein and zero carbs (they use sugar alcohol). There is a nut-fudge that tastes like a real candy bar. They run about a buck a piece. Might want to check the fat content on these, I don't remember how bad they are.

-Mike

And another favorite is any of the protein shakes from Smoothie King. I think they're a local thing, but they rock! I usually get the vanilla Hulk. (1700 Calories)

Nutrition Info (these are based on the 20 oz smoothie. I usually get the 40 oz.

I found that most of the bars said "high protein" on the label, but when you looked at the fine print, they would be something like 10-15 grams of protein, 30-40 grams of carbs, and 20-30 grams of fat. Not what I was looking for. And, IMHO, falsely labeled. If it's a protein bar, why so much fat and carbs? They should say "some protein", not "high protein".

Are those bars claiming to be "protein bars", or are they claiming to be "energy bars"? A lot of energy bars never contained any protein at all -- it was all carbs, a bit of fat, and some potassium and other minerals, so for an "energy bar", 10-15 grams *is* a "high protien" content.

Are those bars claiming to be "protein bars", or are they claiming to be "energy bars"?

I don't know, there was a big mixture of bars, some of which said "energy" and some that said "high protein". I only bothered looking at the labels of the ones that claimed to be high in protein. If it just said "energy bar" I knew it would be all carbs. I found that even the ones claiming to be high in protein were also high in fat and carbs, except for the one brand of bar.

Edit: Did a search and found a picture of the bars on the web here. These were the only ones at my local store that were truly high protein low carb. Everything else was high carb.

Do you have to have high protein ? I thought the low carbs part was the key.

Do you have to have high protein ? I thought the low carbs part was the key.

If you have low carbs and low protein all that is left is fat! Most people would agree that a diet of mostly fat would be a bad idea.

Do you have to have high protein ? I thought the low carbs part was the key.

My goal is to find enjoyable snacks that are high protein, low carbs, and low fat.

I found that even the ones claiming to be high in protein were also high in fat and carbs, except for the one brand of bar.

That's not too surprising. Except for the people on special diets, most energy bars are designed for athletes looking for a pre/mid/post-workout snack, and the best fuel for that situation is carbs, since that's what replenishes your muscles' energy. The only reason you see any protein in these bars at all is because in recent years, it's been "discovered" that eating carbs isn't enough for muscle recovery after/during exercise. In order to help rebuild (and strengthen) all those muscle fibres that have been broken down through exercise, the body also requires some protein, which is what those fibres are made of. Without the protein, your muscles get energy, but they don't start to rebuild as quickly. As a result, energy food makers started adding protein to the mix, and "high protein" on a label usually equates to "more than none."

If you've just been looking in a regular supermarket, you might have better luck finding something in a health food store, or a Trader Joes.

Disclaimer: I'm not a nutritionist or medical person by any stretch of the imagination (but I took a nutrition course in university). This is all just stuff I've picked up from reading various literature and trying to find something that tastes better than PowerBars, but works just as well. Corrections from those who know are welcome.

> The truth is even self proclaimed health experts have no idea how fats
> affect weight loss, actually fat is good for you if you eat the right kinds.

This reminds me of a book I read a while ago that suggested that cholesterol isn't the cause of heart disease, but is actually the body's defence against it, which is why there are such high levels in the body when people are at risk of or have had a heart attack.

Mixed nuts, tuna, or protein bars are the way to go. I'd say the best is tuna... and yeah, the fats in nuts and tuna ARE good for you.

If you've just been looking in a regular supermarket, you might have better luck finding something in a health food store, or a Trader Joes.

Yup. If you haven't tried your local Trader Joe's yet, check it out. I was in there today, and found a stash of these low-carb bars. 3 grams of carbs, 20+ grams of protein. There were a couple other bars with only 2-3 grams of carbs.

Yup, those are the same ones I got.