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Why Counting Calories doesn’t Work

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From Gluten Free January:

Here’s another bit of conventional wisdom I’d like to debunk.

We’ve all been told ad naseum that if you want to lose weight you have to eat less and exercise more. In other words, you have to create a calorie deficit. People have been trying diets like this for thirty years now and the track record is pretty abysmal. Sure people lose weight at first, but 98% of the time it all comes back – usually with interest.

What’s the problem? The model is fundamentally broken.

People quote the calories in/calories out thing as a fundamental rule of thermodynamics. Well it is, but it only applies to closed systems. Your body is not a closed system. In fact it is an incredible complex and open system that tries to confound your pathetic attempts to corral it into some sort of human calorimeter.

You metabolic rate is not fixed. You body plays with this all the time based on things like the ambient temperature and food intake. The energy your body spends on maintenance far dwarfs any amount of energy you could spend exercising (ultra-marathon endorphin junkies excepted). Let’s say you decide to cut your intake by 200 calories a day. Your body, wanting to keep things as static as possible (called homeostasis) simply lowers your metabolism enough to compensate. So you’re tired, cold, and sleepy, but you don’t lose any weight. Nice huh?

So you cut your intake by 1000 calories in an effort to give your body no choice but to drop weight. So what does your body do? It starts ditching all that expensive lean mass – muscles, organs, stuff like that. Guess what? You’re still fat, but now you’re weak and sickly as well. Some 9 year old with a pituitary problem takes your lunch money.

Leaky Guts?

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Here’ s a good email I got all about gluten and leaky gut. Sounds icky.

Aaron

———- Forwarded message ———-
From: Gluten Free
Date: Wed, 5 Jan 2011 23:04:03 -0800
Subject: Leaky Guts?
To:

Ever heard of “Leaky Gut”? I’ll admit it sounds a little ridiculous, but
it’s real.

Technically, the inside of your stomach and intestines are still outside
your body. Food is brought in, processed, the nutrients absorbed, and the
waste passed out. Your digestive track is the most highly immune system
protected area of your body. If you think about it, this is the most likely
point of entry for any invaders or toxins.

The idea here is that when your small intestine gets damaged then it leaks.
It’s not like a leaky tire, but more like a screen door with a hole in it.
You want the fresh air, but not the flies. Get enough holes and the screen
door is an open invitation for all the bugs in the world to come into your
house.

It is like this with leaky gut. Bacteria, undigested food, toxins, get
through the gut barrier and into your blood stream. This causes an immune
reaction inside your body. Your body will assume it is under attack and
produce antibodies for any foreign objects it encounters. Things get dicey
when your body makes antibodies for proteins that happen to look like
structures in your own body. This is called auto-immune disease. When you
body’s own immune system attacks it’s own tissue.

It’s a real crapshoot. It varies from embarrassing hair loss (alopecia) to
permanent nerve damage (multiple sclerosis).

Where does wheat and gluten fit into this? I’m glad you asked. :)

Gluten is a gut irritating substance. In other words it can damage your gut.
If the damage gets bad enough then tiny gaps start to form in the intestinal
lining. Next thing you know you have leaky gut. Of course some people are
more sensitive than others, but I think everyone suffers from it to a
greater or lesser degree. Even if your gut doesn’t actually leak, this
constant irritation keeps your immune system on red alert all the time,
making allergies worse.

Other stuff like aspirin, NSAIDs, and alcohol can also irritate the gut. So
you want to take it easy on those things. But for most people the constant
bombardment is coming from gluten. For many people it’s every meal of every
day for their entire lives.

Eating gluten is like gambling except there’s no winners – only losers. And
some people are gonna lose bigtime.

ODDS AND ENDS

For those of you who missed it on Facebook, here’s a link to an interview I
did for Newstalk 1290 CJBK in London, Canada about Gluten Free January.

I’ve added some new items to the website. I have a section for Products so
people can recommend gluten-free products and companies. Only a few things
there at the moment so feel free to contribute.

https://sites.google.com/site/glutenfreejanuary/products

I’ve also added a section for Stories to share personal stories people have
sent me about their experiences with being gluten-free. In the future I will
assume any stories sent to me are okay to post here unless you specifically
ask that they be kept private. If you’re willing to share, I’d love to get
your personal stories on the site. I can blabber on and on about gluten and
the danger to health it represents, but personal stories are much more
compelling.

https://sites.google.com/site/glutenfreejanuary/stories

Those of you who are new to the program can catch up on all the emails I
have sent out here:

https://sites.google.com/site/glutenfreejanuary/email-archive

Getting close to a week in. I’ve already heard that some of you have lost
weight already or are starting to feel better. Keep it up. Habit-wise the
first week is the hardest.

Matt

The Paleo Table: 6 DIY food projects to try in 2011

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Dec 26 2010

The Paleo Table: 6 DIY food projects to try in 2011

The holiday rush is over, and January 1 is right around the corner. For me, January always seems like a good time to start fresh and broaden my horizons. Even if you’re not a resolution-making type, the new year is always a fun time to try something new. Maybe your big project will be staying gluten-free for a month, or just cooking at home a few times a week rather than eating out. But for the more adventurous among us, I’d like to propose a few food-geeky projects to try this year.

6 DIY food projects

Julia's Orange Marinated Dried Beef

Make your own jerky. This is the number one project on my list! I am investing in a food dehydrator with some Christmas cash I got, and I can’t wait to make my own. Diane of Balanced Bites explains how easy it is to make your own jerky, WikiHow has an illustrated guide, and there are even more tips at Mark’s Daily Apple.

Build a meat smoker for ah-maze-ing barbecue. Buying a smoker is expensive for a single-use appliance, and you probably don’t have a tin-roof shack you can convert into your own authentic barbecue smoker. But never fear – you can build your own ceramic smoker for under $50. Watch Alton Brown do just that and make pulled pork with a flower pot, a trashcan, hardwood smoke and a lot of patience.

Beer Can Chicken

Cook a chicken standing up. You’ve probably heard of beer can chicken, but if you haven’t cooked a chicken this way, you’re missing out. The skin gets super crispy and yummy, but the meat inside stays moist thanks to the steam coming from the can of beer. Now, I wouldn’t go for beer can chicken anymore because beer is filled with nasty gluten. However, there are countless other options. A can of fruit juice or coconut milk would do just fine, or use a pint mason jar filled with chicken stock, wine, apple juice, or any liquid of your choice. Get directions for making a stand-up chicken on the grill or watch Christopher Walken make a chicken with pears (it’s kind of awesome).

Pickle something. Making Jalapenos en Escabeche is super easy and here’s a video on how to do it. You can also make fridge pickles with cucumbers (no canning equipment or boiling jars or any of that). This recipe has jalapenos in it too, but leave them out for regular ol’ tasty pickles.

Pot Garden

Grow your own fresh herbs. This spring I dug a hole in the backyard, put in some compost, planted some baby herbs that I got from the hardware store, and then pretty much neglected them all summer besides watering them every now and then. For all that effort (ha!) they repaid me by growing huge and providing me with fresh herbs to use in my cooking. Rosemary for roasting lamb, thyme for stews, basil for curries, and parsley for everything else. I love my herb garden – it almost makes me feel like a real farmer or something. Herbs do great in container pots too, and CHOW has a pretty good guide about growing them indoors too if you don’t have the space outside.

Grilled burger macro

Grind your own meat for killer burgers or meatloaf. Grinding your own meat sounds a little scary but you don’t need some medieval-looking contraption to make this happen. If you have a Kitchenaid mixer like I do, there’s a meat grinder attachment for it, but you can also make ground meat in batches in a food processor. Whenever I can, I do my best not to buy pre-packaged meat. Mark Bittman’s piece on making great burgers does a good job of explaining why. He also gives tips on selecting cuts of meat as well as seasoning.

What will you make?

Are you into the DIY foodie thing? Like experimenting in the kitchen and getting your hands dirty? Tell us which of these projects you’re likely to try, or give us more ideas for some DIY kitchen fun in the comments!

About The Paleo Table

Amber Karnes is author of The Paleo Table. She’s a fearless home cook from Norfolk, Virginia. She makes websites, hangs out in the kitchen, and loves a heavy deadlift. Follow her on Twitter, won’t you?

via robbwolf.com