Quote from orangina:

Thanks so much..sadly my brain has trouble absorbing the info.

Join the club, because the more sources you read, the more they question one another, and it becomes evident that the whole mechanism is still not well understood. If you are interested in reading some about this, there is a good exercise physiology text that covers the metabolic functions. The authors are McArdle, Katch, and Katch.
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So how do you know you do better on low fat?


OK, I guess I can describe just how bad I was so that can be contrasted to the 180 I made. My weakness was never really desserts and carbs; I had a taste for high fat and protein. My cholesterol was near 300 untreated, my fasting glucose was in the 300s (mg/dL) and my triglycerides were > 600 mg/dL. By the time I was diagnosed with diabetes, I was on 3 bp meds and Tricor for triglycerides (and low HDL). I was prescribed Amaryl and used that to keep my HbA1c at 6.2-7.2%, and proceeded to continue with my diet and life of zero exercise. My sandwiches would consist of over a pound of deli meat (sometimes up to 8 kinds of meats) sandwiched between slices of swiss, colby, provolone, etc.--no mayo, no bread. My dinners were often steaks, or my favorite, prime rib, blackened with lots of butter on my cast iron skillet. Weekend breakfasts consisted of 3 eggs, scrambled and 1/2 a package of bacon, with perhaps a 1/4 brick of cheddar cheese. My favorite fast food restaurant was Wendy's. Loved those triple cheese with everything sandwiches. I would get back home, toss the top 1/2 of the bread and pile on a few more pieces of processed American slices cheese. Remember the commercials that had the grease dripping down from Dave Thomas's chin (hot and juicy)? I loved that grease! I often would go without the fries, opting for a another double on the side, or perhaps a chicken sandwich. One of my favorite breakfast spreads was a Canadian recipe (les cretons). It was essentially ground fatty pork (similar to high fat beef) cooked slow in a pot with various seasonings. You would cook it a few hours and then pour it out into bowls and let it cool. The greasy fat would harden along the sides of the bowl and throughout the ground meat. You would be left with a delicious high fat spread. I lived for football weekend barbecues, where I would throw slabs of meat on the smoker outside (ribs, pork roasts) and munch on them all day--minimal work to cook, plenty of time to plant myself on the couch and watch the games.

I maintained my weight above 220 lbs eating like that, and suffered a heart attack at age 35. Looking back now, I can't imagine how I thought that I was really getting away with something.
For some people, their weakness are the carbs, and that is then what needs to be controlled in their case to get their weight back down to appropriate levels. I tend to function best when my carbs are about 60% of my total calories, while others in here do better with a lower percentage. Some heart patients have diets that are up to 85% carbs and extremely low fat (esp. sat fats). I think I fall somewhere more in the moderate range now; but I started off very fat-phobic after the heart attack.

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And when you say restricting carbs..thats purely for weight loss right? YOu could restrict or micromanage any of your nutrients and lose so long as you eat less...right?

Often, the carb excess will lead to elevated triglycerides, but again...if in excess. I can take in 400+ g of carbs now, daily, because I exercise so much to keep using it such that it is not stored. I would not say to cut out all carbs, but in some cases minimization of intake will set certain people on the right path with weight loss and/or improved lipid profiles. One of the pitfalls that can be fallen in to (and I had to be careful of this) is that when you are scrutinizing everything by calories, sometimes the balance of all essential nutrients is not compensated well. Many sources advocate supplementation with vitamins. I still do supplement with vitamins to ensure that I do get at least the RDA, if not well above, the levels set for vitamins and minerals.