Dietary despair

“You don't have to be emaciated or vomiting to be suffering. All people who live their lives on a diet are suffering.” Portia de Rossi, Unbearable Lightness: A Story of Loss and Gain

"Most studies show that more than 80 per cent of people regain any lost weight in the long term." Peter Wilson, 1843 Magazine in the AFR

Yesterday was a fasting day. All I had to eat was a banana at lunchtime and a very small helping of my leftover soup - it just covered the bottom of the bowl. But yes it did have lentils and potatoes in it and a bit of ham too - two tiny smidgins of it. And I also went for a three quarter of an hour walk. So this morning I hopefully weighed myself and found that I had put on half a kilo after my last fasting day. Gloom and despair. Really. Of late it has been difficult to get to the magic 60kg or just below. I feel like giving up.

I know this happens. In fact when I was dieting it took longer to remove the last five kilos than the first ten. But I got there in the end. And I did think that it might be easy enough to at least remain at the target weight, possibly by reducing my fast days to just one a week. Not so. And I have to say that I am beginning to find it more and more soul destroying to be fasting twice a week. Yes I could cook exciting dietary things with no calories, but frankly I can't be bothered. It's just me and it's a lot of fuss for a few calories. I've even given up on the scrambled eggs. Mostly it's a banana and a small yoghurt. Hardly exciting.

Coincidentally, a few days before, I had read a long article in the AFR entitled Why You Should Stop Counting Calories which to be honest, I had found had been a bit too hard to follow. Well maybe I lost interest and wasn't reading it with enough attention. It is written by one Peter Wilson and is reproduced from the 1843 Magazine. Anyway in the light of my weight gain I decided to reread it to see if I could glean anything from it that would help. This together with a few articles I came across when looking for suitable pictures and quotes for this post, have caused me to reflect on how to proceed.

For my 5/2 diet is predicated on counting calories. 500 to be precise - on my fasting days. And often I don't think I even eat that many. And really I don't find it difficult from a feeling hungry point of view. I rarely feel hungry. But it is boring. And when there is no reward - like being able to reduce to 1 day of fasting a week - or none at all (now wouldn't that be great?) and maintain the weight - then it becomes more and more difficult to do. You start to think why bother? And also, what am I doing wrong? I don't count the calories with maniacal efficiency. I sort of know which foods have a lot and which foods don't, and if I don't know I look it up. But I know I am not eating a lot of calories.

However, according to the AFR article and many other sites as well I might add, counting calories it seems is not the way to go. For apparently a calorie is not always a calorie as it were - never mind the accuracy of all that labelling. The strict definition is "the energy required to heat 1kg of water by one degree celsius". The definition, and the term, was devised back in the 19th century by rural chemist Wilbur Atwater, with little examination of its usefulness ever since. And it doesn't seem to have a lot to do with food does it? For heating water on a stove or in an oven is not the same as heating it - or food in the human body.

"A calorie of carbohydrate and a calorie of protein both have the same amount of stored energy, so they perform identically in an oven. But put those calories into real bodies and they behave quite differently ...

The process of storing fat - the 'weight' many people seek to lose - is influenced by dozens of other factors. Apart from the calories, our genes, the trillions of bacteria that live in our gut, food preparation and sleep affect how we process food ...

Our fixation with counting calories assumes both that all calories are equal and that all bodies respond to calories in identical ways. Yet a growing body of research shows that when different people consume the same meal, the impact on each person's blood sugar and fat formation will vary according to their genes, lifestyles and unique mix of gut bacteria." Peter Wilson - 1843 Magazine in AFR.

We like simple answers don't we? As I was copying these statements I thought that my husband for example would have seized upon the gut bacteria thing and relegated the other statements to the back of his mind. I, on the other hand, might have noticed the statement that two different people eating the same meal will not have the same result when it comes to weight, because of genes. Well I sometimes put it down to genes, or maybe hormones, because of how I was able to eat much more than my friends back in the day without putting on weight. But really in my heart of hearts I believe that it's just a matter of not eating too much and so calorie counting is a simple answer - a more precise way of not eating too much. Keep the calories going in less than the calories going out and you will lose weight. Eat less, is the answer. And eating very much less two days a week is therefore much better and is really easy - for me anyway. But no it isn't that simple. It's more difficult than that.

As soon as you start messing with food you change its effect with regard to calories.

"the amount of energy we absorb from food depends on how we prepare it. Chopping and grinding food essentially does part of the work of digestion, making more calories available to your body by ripping apart cell walls before you eat it. That effect is magnified when you add heat: cooking increases the proportion food digested in the stomach and small intestine, from 50 per cent to 95 per cent." Peter Wilson

I think this is where I got a bit confused. On a second reading I guess he is saying that the more you prepare the food going into your body the easier it is to digest and to get the calories. Your body uses more energy to digest it. And if the food is indigestible - like the coating of the kernels in corn on the cob, or harder to digest then we get less or none of the calories and we use more in trying to break them down. And apparently if you chill and reheat carbohydrates, they become less digestible - so less calories. Cold toast is better than warm. I hope I've got that right.

And then there's exercise. I think even Michael Mosley is coming to the conclusion that exercise is not going to make you thin. Yes you must exercise for all sorts of other health reasons, but as to losing weight, not so much.

"Unless you are a professional athlete it plays a smaller part in weight control than most people believe. As much as 75 per cent of the average person's daily energy expenditure comes not through exercise but from ordinary daily activities and from keeping your body functioning by digesting food, powering organs and maintaining a regular body temperature. ...

Powering the brain consumes about a fifth of a person's metabolism energy each day." Peter Wilson

Elsewhere in the article he talks about fidgeting as an energy consumer. The more you fidget the more energy you burn.

So what's the answer? Well we all know it really. Just eat a healthy diet that does not include processed foods. And not huge portions. Keep away from junk food and fad diets - and maybe the gym too. And ironically lots of so-called health bars and health drinks and other suchlike products contain these things.

“The diet industry is making a lot of money selling us fad diets, nonfat foods full of chemicals, gym memberships, and pills while we lose a piece of our self-esteem every time we fail another diet or neglect to use the gym membership we could barely afford.” Portia de Rossi, Unbearable Lightness: A Story of Loss and Gain

“The diet industry has a deep interest in the failure of dieters - if everyone got skinny, they'd go out of business.” Golda Poretsky, Stop Dieting Now: 25 Reasons to Stop, 25 Ways to Heal

"The calorie system lets food producers off the hook. They can say, 'we're not responsible for the unhealthy products we sell, we just list the calories and leave it to you to manage your own weight." Salvador Comacho

“Any food that requires enhancing by the use of chemical substances should in no way be considered a food.” John H. Tobe

And I think I understood from the article that sugar is a much bigger villain than fat. But we know that too don't we people? Mind you lots of fruit and vegetables are high in sugar, but not processed sugar, and so more difficult to absorb.

So what is a healthy diet? Well guess what - you knew that too. It's sort of the Mediterranean diet and it includes small quantities of meat and fish and bread and cheese and oil and lots of fruit, vegetables, nuts and seeds. And I think we are allowed to cook it, although I'm not sure about that really.

You don't have to be a vegan, and you don't even have to be a vegetarian. There are of course other reasons - mostly ecological or ethical that might move you to these things, but they are not necessary for a healthy diet. Indeed it makes it more difficult to get some of the things you need for a healthy diet. Then there's those who eat raw food mostly - not for me this one. As I have said before I'm not a real salad fan. Though in the light of the argument that uncooked food is harder to digest and therefore gives up fewer of its calories I suppose it is a good argument for raw. But not for me - or Nigella:

“I despair of the term 'clean eating'... it necessarily implies that any other form of eating – and consequently the eater of it – is dirty or impure and thus bad.” Nigella Lawson

But where does this leave me and lack of weight loss. One more fast day this week perhaps, and then maybe next week I'll just try very hard not to eat anything 'bad'. I will try to do as the man (Salvador Comacho) who inspired Peter Wilson's article, decided:

"listen to my body and eat whenever I was hungry but only when I was hungry, and to eat real food, not food products." Salvador Comacho

He claims to have then lost kilos in a relatively short space of time. Now I don't want to lose any more kilos, just stay where I am. So I might give it a go.

Hungry though. What does that really mean? For I could not truly say that I am ever hungry - I have fortunately never known what hungry - really hungry - means. I suppose in this context it just means that I feel ready to eat. Fancying something to eat - like a Mars bar - or even some grapes - doesn't count. And am I allowed wine?

I will leave you with a few cryptic words of wisdom, ancient and modern.

“Let food be thy medicine, and medicine be thy food.” Hippocrates, Greek Philosopher

Food is an important part of a balanced diet." Fran Lebowitz

“Preach not to others what they should eat, but eat as becomes you and be silent. ” Epictetus