I've done research myself on the Atkins diet, unbiased research, and there's a huge difference between a low carb diet and putting yourself through ketosis. It's pointless to argue this any further with you though Gatekeeper, you were an overweight guy that found a way to lose weight without having to move, you're very very biased on the issue. And yes, there's no reason Atkins couldn't get away with selling his book, you can say you believe anything you want has health benefits. There's people selling dieting books based on eating according to your zodiac sign for fuck's sake. I don't care anymore though, you're adults, do whatever you want to lose weight and get as freakishly thin as you want, I'm just tired of all this stupid rationalization. Eat everything in moderation, exercise and drink lots of water if you want serious results. I'm going back to my old workout routine and boxing to get back into good shape, I think my shoulder's good enough to give it one more shot before I concede to surgery. I got back into working out in Cali and realized just how much I miss it. It also provides a healthy self esteem boost that you can't get from eating a pound of bacon.

Anyway, I flew home from Cali tonight so I should be around tommorow jet lag not withstanding. I'll see y'all soon.

I've actually done some research on ketosis myself and I have a few things to say about it.

Carbohydrates are what your muscles use for fuel. That's why, when you're working out, any gym will tell you to drink Gatorade or Powerade or something else with a lot of carbs. As you work out, you use up the carbs and then your muscles are forced to use stored body fat, which isn't as efficient a fuel as the carbohydrates. It's like the difference between premium Mobil gas, say, and John's Auto and Gas regular gas for your Dodge Viper.

Ketosis is what they call your muscles using the stored body fat for fuel. If you were to eliminate all carbohydrates from your diet, yeah, you'd probably end up burning through all of your stored body fat and damaging something. The Atkins diet, however, does not eliminate the carbohydrates. Instead, the diet gives you a plan for lowering your intake - this gives your muscles a limited amount of carbs to burn so that you don't use up a lot of the stored body fats. I believe I read that Dr. Atkins recommends exercising; not necessarily working out, but even walking daily helps. (Sorry if I'm wrong, there.) Walking burns a surprising amount of carbs or body fats and speeds up the diet process, obviously, just as exercise and working out would.

If the diet were harmful in any way, there's no way anyone would allow Dr. Atkins to publish his books and make his Atkins bars and whatnot. I don't think it's a suggested diet for morbidly obese people, but for people like Gatekeeper and Lio it's fine because they were only overweight. Is there a success ratio for people who follow the diet, or does everyone succeed? That's generally a sign - if you're using a "results may vary significantly" diet, it's not a good diet. I don't know anyone displeased with the Atkins diet.

Doctors also wouldn't recommend low-carb diets if they were bad. Most physicians are proficient enough to know the difference between a harmful diet and a beneficial one for each patient. I can see Spo's concern, and while I was with him for a significant time, I figured I would read up some more.

Knaa'mean?

ADDED: I see that Gatekeeper posted the same thing pretty earlier, I should have read it. Oh well.

Hey, Spo, I'll try to be as polite as possible when I tell you this. You don't know what you're talking about. Someone who says "ketosis is bad" without a.) ever reading any medical literature (which I have) or b.) losing 50 pounds from ketosis (which I did) has no room to make uneducated assumptions in this manner.

The ketosis that occurs from a low carb diet is referred to by Dr. Atkins as BDK (Benign Dietary Ketosis). When you remove carbohydrates from your diet (not 100% removal, but removal so you're only intaking 20-40 grams per day as opposed to the government, hear that?, government, what?, government "required" carb intake of 300 grams) your body uses its own fat stores for energy, and yes, the breakdown of your lipids does produce ketones which are eliminated in your breath and urine.

Now, this ketosis is not bad. It STOPS once you have no more weight to lose. I'm still on a low carb diet after 2.5 years now, and I don't think I've lost weight in 1.5 years of that time (after I average out all the tiny weight gains and weight losses I've had since then). So you're probably under the assumption that ketosis will break down muscle and organs an all that other good stuff. It won't. If it did, I believe I'd be dead after two years on this diet.

Now enough of that. Lio, consult with your own personal physician, or do your own medical reasearch and then work up a diet that works best for you. Don't listen to what the government tells you that you "should" eat, don't listen to medically uneducated people like myself (although my experience was positive, I have a computer degree on my wall, not a medical degree), or even less medically educated people like Spo. That's all. You looking better and feeling better is for you and you alone, and you should do it the way that's best for you. If that's a low carb diet, great. If that's a low fat diet, great. If that's no diet and working out at a gym like a maniac or running 10 miles every day, that's great too. Do what's best for you, and fuck everyone else.

So Speaks The Gatekeeper...So It Shall Be!

Aaron, LOW carb doesn't mean never eat carbs. I told you never eating carbs is horribly unhealthy, not watching your carb intake. You should watch your intake of everything. Not eating carbs at all puts you in a state of ketosis, which is bad. There's no such thing as a healthy way to eat as much as you want and still drop pounds, there aren't shortcuts. Just watch your calories and don't eat tons of carbs and you'll lose weight, and if you exercise a little you'll lose it much faster and build muscle too. BTW I just got home from Vegas a few hours ago, it was fucking amazing. I'll give details later, right now I've got to get to bed now because we're going to San Francisco early tommorow morning, hope everyone's doing well. Later guys, see you soon

Lio, you're not going to die from a low carb diet. The fact that your doctor told you to go (back) on a low carb diet means that people are finally starting to see the benefits of it. As far as your friends telling you that you're going to "die" on a low carb diet, ignore the morons. If I had listened to all that, I'd still be 270 pounds now instead of 200, and a 46 waist instead of a 38. Fuck what uneducated people say about something, and do what's best for you.

But 10 or 15 pounds, that's not a lot. For that much weight, you shouldn't have to eliminate ALL carbs, just BAD carbs. Avoid cookies and ice cream and pizza and anything with processed flour and shit. Talk to me later if you need any more advice, or go buy Dr. Atkins' book (I don't know if you already did before). Enjoy.

So Speaks The Gatekeeper...So It Shall Be!

It has cucumbers in it.

Stone

/Yea, so tom collins is damn good. I only had one in this past evening, but we all wish it was more. Beer is good too tho.

Regarding the Coke issues calliander brings up. The active ingredients in many fine concoctions is often fatal or considered very bad if consumed in a large quantity. The coke syrup may be hazardous (its not in reality, the trucks place it there on their own to thwart hijackers.. in the past 15 years the trucks have made a bit of a migration to water/oil markers), but when you drink a fine glass of coca-cola you really arent harming yourself that much.

Myths regarding substances are so horrid. Marijuana has many, including stuff like marijuana will harm your fetus, and marijuana will make you impotent.. coca-cola has had many more, partially due to its secret nature. Myths are myths, and when scientists really analyze them, they probably wish they hadn't begun their research because they usually end up with somewhat unbelievable results compared to what has been believed to be the absolute truth for years/decades.

When it comes down to it, you have never seen the syrup in teh form coke transports it in. It is a secret and well guarded. In countries where you can still buy consumer grade syrup, you are getting very different syrups and none contain that horrid red dye that freaked people out years ago and many surge towards the pre-mixed stuff compared to making your own coke in a soda machine.

I miss being able to use a soda machine.. They are wonderful.

When it comes down to it, the world is stupid and Tom Collins is a genius. I love Tom's fine mixture and you should too god damnit. What is a Tom Collins with tonic water? We'll call it a Wilson, because thats how he makes them. It's like a gin&tonic that is fizzy. Never ginny enough tho.

I forgot to buy toilet paper, god damn me. I hope I don't have to shit before I buy some tho.

Dammit all to fucking hell. Okay, just a little bit of background. After eating all the terrible things I did last week (between Thanksgiving, and the wonderful evening at the Outback with all you find people) I started being much more strict with my diet than I had been in the past few months, because I'd gained back a few pounds I didn't want to. So, since last Sunday, I've lost 6-7 pounds already and it's great. But the essential part of the low carb diet is to have things to eat. While cheese and pepperoni and stuff are great, I need a bit more variety.

So I remembered that when I fist did the diet nearly 2 years ago, I lived on pork rinds for a while. Since the things are literally fried animal skin, they have no carbohydrates yet are very similar to most other salty snack foods. So all week, I've been searching with no avail for the delicious little fried skins. I've tried several supermarkets, several 7-11 stores, and a few Cumberland Farms too, but I can't find the damn things. If anyone can let me know what stores still carry these damn things, then I'd appreciate it.

So Speaks The Gatekeeper...So It Shall Be!

SLAB, A SLICE, A CHUNKA

My sister is the size of a house, literally. I think everyone who was here over last week can attest to this. It's almost as if she's absorbing all the pounds that Lio Convoy is losing! She got this way through her actions. Let me describe a typical day for my sister:

• Wake up at 11:00 AM.
• Go downstairs and make two boxes of greasy fish sticks.
• Eat greasy fish sticks on expensive couch in living room while watching The Jerry Springer Show and similar programs.
• Breathe heavily and talk back at TV.
• After end of talk shows, go back into kitchen, cut up two apples and smother them in brown sugar and cinnamon.
• Eat apples while watching the beginning of soap opera.
• Go back into kitchen during commercial break and grab cereal with marshmallows and heavy cream mother uses for coffee.
• Eat entire box of cereal using the heavy cream instead of milk, until end of soap opera.
• Go back into pig sty room and wallow in clothes that have been on for weeks while watching movie stolen from brother.
• Act pissy when pregnant friend calls on mother's phone line.
• Yell at mother about how she doesn't love you.
• Eat dinner provided by mother.
• Consume 1/7 of a two-pound vat of cottage cheese.
• Return downstairs to kitchen, grab bowl of Jell-O made the night before.
• When finished, prepare another bowl of Jell-O for the next night.
• Contemplate showering, decide against it. Go to sleep instead, unless strange men in red & yellow cars are waiting outside for sexual favors.

Don't think I'm exaggerating here. Cut out the cottage cheese bit, because my mother stopped buying it, but that's still her day. She does NOTHING. And I know she's my sister, but damn, she is the most useless human being on the planet. What prompted me to write about this tonight?

I just went upstairs to use my bathroom. She, of course, was in the fridge (no doubt wondering where the cottage cheese was). I checked to see what she was doing, to chide her about her weight (not something I usually do to her face), and I see her with the cold-cuts drawer open and a nectarine on the FLOOR. The same floor she spilled cranberry juice all over and "forgot" to wash tonight. She then peeled a slice of ham off the pile and wrapped it around the nectarine.

!!!!@#@&^JK@H @&E^LLLLBBLLLLB!@B&WDMXNCY@!(*!~@@!!!!!!!!!!!!!

WHAT?!?

Who wraps their nectarine in HAM before they eat it? Is this a common practice?! I'm going to go have an aneurysm now. Goodnight.