Obstacles to starting CR...trying to figure it out!

[Brendan C]

Hey everyone... I'm getting ready to switch to a more nutrient dense diet because if I start CR now I think I'll put my body into shock. I'm 26, male and just under 6'1". I am currently 125 lbs. without being on a calorie restriction diet. I have always been "underweight" for my height, and apparently my current BMI is 16. Are there any danger for a skinny person who wants to start CR? I am skinny, but I don't think that means I'm healthy. I'm seeing the beginning signs of pattern baldness (in front only), and I can't imagine I'd be seeing this so early unless something was off with my health and nutrition. I don't exercise enough, either.

 

Still, I feel okay, can exercise without feeling any negative effects, and yet I still wonder why I never gain weight without consuming massive amounts of carbs/soda/refined sugars (something I did in the past, but no longer do). Over the past several months or so, I've gradually switched to a diet that is higher in fiber and includes only unrefined sugar/evaporated cane juice. That alone seems to have caused some weight loss. I will occasionally drink Agave sodas by Oogave, but they are supposedly low glycemic. I try to avoid very high glycemic foods and only eat whole grains. Here are some examples of what my diet looks like.

 

Fruits: apple sauce with no added ingredients or sugars, bananas (occasionally), pears.

 

Vegetables: Not getting quite enough greens, but I try to eat salad and broccoli (raw). Since having jaw surgery, I can not chew anything so most veggies are out. I need more ideas on how to increase my vegetable intake without spending a fortune! I hope to eat mostly raw vegetables once I can chew again, due to the enzymes being destroyed through cooking.

 

Grains: the only bread I eat is sprouted wheat (flourless), but it has dates in it so I worry about the possible blood sugar spikes this causes. I usually have it with peanut butter (no sugar added) and jelly (only organic cane sugar added). Is a CR lifestyle impossible with a food like this? This is the one thing I don't want to give up, as it is completely natural and fuels my exercise routines. I just worry about the amount of sugar in such a snack. I also eat wheat tortillas, usually with meat, salsa and avocado. I avoid dairy as much as possible and drink only grass-fed milk on occasion.

 

Meat/protein: I eat free range chicken and fish when I can. Salmon burgers are something I thought might be CR friendly, but they might be high calorie. I have tried the Quorn naked cutlets, but they are... less than delicious. I've had Gardenburger as well. Boca products seem a little too processed for me. I also eat 3 eggs every other day or so, but honestly I don't think regular eggs are as healthful as the more expensive pastured eggs - which I don't eat right now.

 

I also eat soy yogurt that has organic sugar added to it. Again, I worry about the sugar for someone who wants to do CR, but there are also 2g of fiber per serving. I try never to consume sugar without having some fiber with it. I but peanut butter in my rice protein shakes, along with some vegetable oil. Everything I do is intended to keep my blood sugar stable, but I don't have a test kit yet.

 

Do the foods mentioned above sound like things that won't work for someone wanting to do CR? I know I need more veggies, but I'm just afraid of the cost of eating exclusively raw, or even mostly raw. I don't think I can do that until I can increase my income a bit, in 3 or 4 years. Also, I will possibly be working on a cruise ship soon, and a C-RON diet might well be impossible. I will be able to eat at a buffet that includes salad and fruit. I imagine it will be difficult to stick with just fruit and salad for 6 months, but that's all I can imagine doing since most everything else on a cruise is unhealthy. However, with salad in particular, I'm concerned about the pesticides. It seems there is always something to worry about.

 

Does anyone have any pointers for me to get started? I don't plan to restrict calories until I've eaten a more nutritious diet for about 6 months and (hopefully) put on some weight. I also considered just exercising more right now, and not worrying about restricting calories since I'm so thin. But I really want to do CR because I could use the benefits. My career requires extensive training, and I want to be healthy in my mind and body while undergoing such a vigorous training period of 10 years. If I start to have health problems, I can guarantee any momentum I have with my music career will be halted. I also am finding that my brain doesn't function well enough to do what I need to do, and I would attribute it entirely to diet and lifestyle. I haven't been able to exercise since surgery.

 

Also, I know Michael Rae is a big poster child for this diet; how do you calculate exactly how many calories to cut? I wonder how he came up with the number of 1,913 calories per day. It must have something to do with measuring your body fat %?

 

I've been taking a rice protein shake every day by Peacuful Planet. Does anyone know if this is ill-advised? With all the problems I've heard about soy protein isolate, and whey protein isolate, I try to avoid those like the plague. Thanks to anyone who can help! I'm excited to break into this lifestyle.

[Guest Bob Cavanaugh]

Hello Brendan,

 

Quite a long intro, but it seems like you have things pretty well in hand. You asked:

 

"Does anyone have any pointers for me to get started? I don't plan to restrict calories until I've eaten a more nutritious diet for about 6 months and (hopefully) put on some weight. I also considered just exercising more right now, and not worrying about restricting calories since I'm so thin. But I really want to do CR because I could use the benefits."

 

Hmm....CR is not about weight loss or weight gain. It is about eating fewer calories than you would otherwise be inclined to consume. Folks mostly eat way too many calories. Your game plan should be to determine how many calories you currently need to maintain your current weight. Then, IMO, you will need to gain about 10 healthy pounds to put you in the healthy weight class. Add 100 or so calories to your diet and gradually take your weight up to a healthy level. Healthy pounds come from eating healthy food. Exercise during this weight gain period to build heart muscle and cardiovascular health. I don't get the impression you would want to eat junk food simply to gain weight so you can then begin CR. BTW, you are already on CR; you simply need to tweek your diet to assure nutrition

 

Once you are at a healthy weight of 135ish with a BMI in the 18-19 range, all you need do is maintain that weight by eating properly and assuring your nutritional needs of micro and macro nutrients. The calories will work themselves out so don't set a target. Your daily work/exercise load, length of sleep, and other factors determine your calorie needs. Stay under 150 pounds the rest of your long life and you'll be fine.

 

Lots of healthy food on a cruise ship. Eat healthy salads and some fruit daily. All else in moderation, but not abstinence.

 

Don't worry about pattern male baldness...only makes it fall out faster. :) Don't hide it, flaunt it. Shave it down and go Jason Statham. Chicks dig confidence and those that judge you by your hair aren't worth wasting time on.

[Michael R]

Hey everyone... I'm getting ready to switch to a more nutrient dense diet because if I start CR now I think I'll put my body into shock. I'm 26, male and just under 6'1". I am currently 125 lbs. without being on a calorie restriction diet. I have always been "underweight" for my height, and apparently my current BMI is 16. Are there any danger for a skinny person who wants to start CR?

Wow! And I thought I was skinny AL ... I do have to tell you, I'd be pretty damned cautious at your AL weight about losing much weight at all. I'd be concerned about losing so much bone or muscle (I assume your body fat is pretty damned low) as to cause functional problems, either now or in the future.

 

What I would do first, before even thinking about starting CR, is what really everyone should do anyway but that you REALLY need to do: clean up your crummy "junk-food-with-healthy-buzzword-label" diet ;) , and TRACK YOUR NUTRITION ON NUTRITION SOFTWARE like CRON-O-Meter. You need first to both make sure you're getting adequate and balanced nutrition (don't worry: you're not, yet ;) ), and to figure out how many Calories of a healthy diet that resembles the one you'd be on for CR are required just to support your current weight with adequate nutrition.

 

I am skinny, but I don't think that means I'm healthy. I'm seeing the beginning signs of pattern baldness (in front only), and I can't imagine I'd be seeing this so early unless something was off with my health and nutrition.

Male pattern baldness is too idiosyncratic to take too seriously as a sign of aging. But if you're not exercising much and eating this "crypto-sugar fiend diet," you're probably right to think your health is less than it could be.

 

Over the past several months or so, I've gradually switched to a diet that is higher in fiber and includes only unrefined sugar/evaporated cane juice.

... which is expensive sugar with a nice-sounding label ;) .

 

I will occasionally drink Agave sodas by Oogave, but they are supposedly low glycemic.

Agave is low-GI 'cause it's full of fructose. Pure crystalline fructose is low-glycemic, and cheaper ;) . (Seriously: fructose is really bad for you in quantity; avoid it).

 

I try to avoid very high glycemic foods and only eat whole grains.

Whole grains aren'tn particularly low-glycemic, and aren't particularly high in nutrition.

 

Fruits: apple sauce with no added ingredients or sugars, bananas (occasionally), pears.

These are all low-nutrition foods. Apple sauce is itself little more than sugar and a bit of fiber. If you're under the impression that bananas are full of potassium, compare how much potassium you get per calorie to blueberries, or broccoli, or most other fruits and veg on this nutrient search tool.

 

Vegetables: Not getting quite enough greens, but I try to eat salad and broccoli (raw). Since having jaw surgery, I can not chew anything so most veggies are out.

Oh, that sucks! Until you heal up, I'd suggest making fresh vegetable mashes, or if even that is too much chewing, then smoothies.

 

I need more ideas on how to increase my vegetable intake without spending a fortune! ... I know I need more veggies, but I'm just afraid of the cost of eating exclusively raw, or even mostly raw.

So eat some frozen. Here is a post in a thread about How to Eat Healthy on a Low Budget. Here is a useful link on buying cheap seasonal vegetables. Do a Google search on:

inexpensive vegetables

 

I hope to eat mostly raw vegetables once I can chew again, due to the enzymes being destroyed through cooking.

This is really a bit of a myth, for most veg. Light steaming or microwaving is harmless, even for teh ones that matter (like cruciferous vegetables).

 

Grains: the only bread I eat is sprouted wheat (flourless), but it has dates in it so I worry about the possible blood sugar spikes this causes. I usually have it with peanut butter (no sugar added) and jelly (only organic cane sugar added).

The bread itself, tho' better than flour bread, is still not great for sugar or anything else. "Organic cane sugar" is sugar.

 

Is a CR lifestyle impossible with a food like this?

Crunch your COM; then you tell me :) .

 

I also eat wheat tortillas, usually with meat, salsa and avocado.

Now that's food -- although when and if you go properly on CR, and you've stabilized at a CR weight, you may want to bump your protein down. As a transition, try your PB&J on a tortilla, or Ryvita (or Wasa, if you can't get Ryvita) ... then on celery sticks ... and try putting frozen fruit thru' the blender (brielfly! -- use "pulse" rather than "blend") to make sugarless "jam."

 

I avoid dairy as much as possible and drink only grass-fed milk on occasion.

Hm. Why do you avoid dairy?

 

I also eat soy yogurt that has organic sugar added to it. Again, I worry about the sugar for someone who wants to do CR, but there are also 2g of fiber per serving.

Sprinkling fiber (or, in this case, presumably FOS) into sugary yogurt is still sugary yogurt.

 

[/i]Everything I do is intended to keep my blood sugar stable, but I don't have a test kit yet.

Your blood sugar can stay extremely stable on table sugar or crystalline fructose. Sugar is junk: step one is to get it out of your diet. Here: watch this excellent video (but ignore the free pass given to saturated fat):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dBnniua6-oM

 

I will be able to eat at a buffet that includes salad and fruit. I imagine it will be difficult to stick with just fruit and salad for 6 months, but that's all I can imagine doing since most everything else on a cruise is unhealthy.

First, presumably the salad will include tomatoes, peppers, occasional broccoli or cauliflower florets, etc -- you'll just need 'unusual' portions ;) . Second, I'm sure the cruise will often serve actual vegetables: see if you can get the cooks to put you some aside before they cover it with crap ...

 

However, with salad in particular, I'm concerned about the pesticides. It seems there is always something to worry about.

That's a perfectly reasonable concern; however, it is much more important to eat lots of fruits and vegetables than to worry about pesticides. And see the post I gave on eating healthy on a budget.

 

I don't plan to restrict calories until I've eaten a more nutritious diet for about 6 months and (hopefully) put on some weight.

The first half of that is a good idea, but I'm not so sure about the latter half. If you increase your Calories and then bump them back down again to where you've historically gravitated, you're at status quo ante after a period of excessive (for you) Calorie consumption, not CRed.

 

I also considered just exercising more right now, and not worrying about restricting calories since I'm so thin.

You should exercise because you should exercise, and your thinness really doesn't enter into it, except inasmuch as you don't want to lose what you judge to be too much weight. There is more evidence for the benefits of exercise than for CR in humans. Get your exercise and nutrition pattern established as a first priority, and then consider a dangerous experiment for radical life extension like CR.

 

Also, I know Michael Rae is a big poster child for this diet; how do you calculate exactly how many calories to cut? I wonder how he came up with the number of 1,913 calories per day. It must have something to do with measuring your body fat %?

Nope: as Bob said, CR has nothing to do with your weight, BMI, or % body fat. (The first link in that post is toast; new link here). In one very careful study by Weindruch, (1) "The reductions in [body weight] appeared to account for approximately 11% of the effect of CR. " Remember, the "ad libitum" controls in properly-conducted CR studies are actually not allowed to literally eat all they want, but are held back by ~10-15% to avoid the confounding of overweight. Mutant ob/ob mice remain absurdly adipose, even on CR: they preserve their enormous fat depots by moving less, lowering their BMR, and preferentially losing lean mass.

 

There is no hard rule on how to determine your "%CR": see this guideline on setting your Calorie goal on CR.

 

I've been taking a rice protein shake every day by Peacuful Planet. Does anyone know if this is ill-advised?

Methionine, and bad for the planet (methane from the paddies). And I bet it has sugar -- I mean, "organic cane juice" ;) ...?

 

With all the problems I've heard about soy protein isolate, and whey protein isolate, I try to avoid those like the plague.

Good idea. If you really do need a protein powder (why?), I'd go with pea protein.

 

Sorry to be such a grouch ;) . But get off the sugar, dude!

Reference

 

1. Wang C, Weindruch R, Fernandez JR, Coffey CS, Patel P, Allison DB.

Caloric restriction and body weight independently affect longevity in Wistar rats.

Int J Obes Relat Metab Disord. 2004 Mar;28(3):357-62.

PMID: 14724654 [PubMed - in process]

[Taurus Londono]

But get off the sugar, dude!

 

Let me put it this way; if you're serious enough about CR that you found your way here, and you have a pretty decent grasp of the level of commitment this will require, then cutting the useless sugar should be a no-brainer.

 

I would say that artificial sweeteners are a reasonable substitute if you *must* ...and you could always just compliment your meals with delicious whole fruits here and there. Michael is right about the banana as far as nutrient density goes (not to mention the GI), but a couple slices of banana are a far cry from an equivalent mass of cane sugar. One thing we all agree on; delicious, tasty meals are not to difficult to come by on CR.

[Brendan C]

Thanks for all the replies. I'm still in the process of improving my diet, but I'm definitely getting closer to what I think is the best diet for me, while not worrying about keeping tabs on calories at this point. Exercise is slowly getting better after 3 major surgeries.

 

 

Wow! And I thought I was skinny AL ... I do have to tell you, I'd be pretty damned cautious at your AL weight about losing much weight at all. I'd be concerned about losing so much bone or muscle (I assume your body fat is pretty damned low) as to cause functional problems, either now or in the future.

 

What I would do first, before even thinking about starting CR, is what really everyone should do anyway but that you REALLY need to do: clean up your crummy "junk-food-with-healthy-buzzword-label" diet ;) , and TRACK YOUR NUTRITION ON NUTRITION SOFTWARE like CRON-O-Meter. You need first to both make sure you're getting adequate and balanced nutrition (don't worry: you're not, yet ;) ), and to figure out how many Calories of a healthy diet that resembles the one you'd be on for CR are required just to support your current weight with adequate nutrition.

 

Male pattern baldness is too idiosyncratic to take too seriously as a sign of aging. But if you're not exercising much and eating this "crypto-sugar fiend diet," you're probably right to think your health is less than it could be.

 

 

... which is expensive sugar with a nice-sounding label ;) .

 

Agave is low-GI 'cause it's full of fructose. Pure crystalline fructose is low-glycemic, and cheaper ;) . (Seriously: fructose is really bad for you in quantity; avoid it).

 

Whole grains aren'tn particularly low-glycemic, and aren't particularly high in nutrition.

 

These are all low-nutrition foods. Apple sauce is itself little more than sugar and a bit of fiber. If you're under the impression that bananas are full of potassium, compare how much potassium you get per calorie to blueberries, or broccoli, or most other fruits and veg on this nutrient search tool.

 

Oh, that sucks! Until you heal up, I'd suggest making fresh vegetable mashes, or if even that is too much chewing, then smoothies.

 

 

So eat some frozen. Here is a post in a thread about How to Eat Healthy on a Low Budget. Here is a useful link on buying cheap seasonal vegetables. Do a Google search on:

inexpensive vegetables

 

 

This is really a bit of a myth, for most veg. Light steaming or microwaving is harmless, even for teh ones that matter (like cruciferous vegetables).

 

 

The bread itself, tho' better than flour bread, is still not great for sugar or anything else. "Organic cane sugar" is sugar.

 

 

Crunch your COM; then you tell me :) .

 

 

Now that's food -- although when and if you go properly on CR, and you've stabilized at a CR weight, you may want to bump your protein down. As a transition, try your PB&J on a tortilla, or Ryvita (or Wasa, if you can't get Ryvita) ... then on celery sticks ... and try putting frozen fruit thru' the blender (brielfly! -- use "pulse" rather than "blend") to make sugarless "jam."

 

 

Hm. Why do you avoid dairy?

 

 

Sprinkling fiber (or, in this case, presumably FOS) into sugary yogurt is still sugary yogurt.

 

 

Your blood sugar can stay extremely stable on table sugar or crystalline fructose. Sugar is junk: step one is to get it out of your diet. Here: watch this excellent video (but ignore the free pass given to saturated fat):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dBnniua6-oM

 

 

First, presumably the salad will include tomatoes, peppers, occasional broccoli or cauliflower florets, etc -- you'll just need 'unusual' portions ;) . Second, I'm sure the cruise will often serve actual vegetables: see if you can get the cooks to put you some aside before they cover it with crap ...

 

 

That's a perfectly reasonable concern; however, it is much more important to eat lots of fruits and vegetables than to worry about pesticides. And see the post I gave on eating healthy on a budget.

 

 

The first half of that is a good idea, but I'm not so sure about the latter half. If you increase your Calories and then bump them back down again to where you've historically gravitated, you're at status quo ante after a period of excessive (for you) Calorie consumption, not CRed.

 

 

You should exercise because you should exercise, and your thinness really doesn't enter into it, except inasmuch as you don't want to lose what you judge to be too much weight. There is more evidence for the benefits of exercise than for CR in humans. Get your exercise and nutrition pattern established as a first priority, and then consider a dangerous experiment for radical life extension like CR.

 

 

Nope: as Bob said, CR has nothing to do with your weight, BMI, or % body fat. (The first link in that post is toast; new link here). In one very careful study by Weindruch, (1) "The reductions in [body weight] appeared to account for approximately 11% of the effect of CR. " Remember, the "ad libitum" controls in properly-conducted CR studies are actually not allowed to literally eat all they want, but are held back by ~10-15% to avoid the confounding of overweight. Mutant ob/ob mice remain absurdly adipose, even on CR: they preserve their enormous fat depots by moving less, lowering their BMR, and preferentially losing lean mass.

 

There is no hard rule on how to determine your "%CR": see this guideline on setting your Calorie goal on CR.

 

 

Methionine, and bad for the planet (methane from the paddies). And I bet it has sugar -- I mean, "organic cane juice" ;) ...?

 

 

Good idea. If you really do need a protein powder (why?), I'd go with pea protein.

 

Sorry to be such a grouch ;) . But get off the sugar, dude!

Reference

 

1. Wang C, Weindruch R, Fernandez JR, Coffey CS, Patel P, Allison DB.

Caloric restriction and body weight independently affect longevity in Wistar rats.

Int J Obes Relat Metab Disord. 2004 Mar;28(3):357-62.

PMID: 14724654 [PubMed - in process]

 

 

Not at all, I appreciate your pointers. Most of this I understood before (about sweeteners like evaporated cane juice being almost identical to white sugar, except for the small amounts of nutrients they retain, which are too insignificant to outweigh the negatives of sugar consumption), but I think that when I wrote the original post, I was hesitant about cutting out all calorie-containing sweeteners entirely during the transition. This was simply because of the fear of losing more weight. I had intended to gain enough to get me up to 135 lbs and then figure out how to maintain that (in a nutritionally sound way) at the very least, as aesthetically it's much better for me to be at or around that weight.

 

BTW: I should have been more clear. A big goal of mine is to keep my blood sugar both stable *and* low.

 

I also read that it's not good to suddenly start CR, and I'll have to eat a WHOLE lot of food if I stick to nutrient-rich options while trying to gain some healthy weight, which could get costly. I'm hoping to be financially equipped for that soon, but being essentially temporarily disabled, I can't work for a while. I'd much rather put on weight with something other than sugary calories, though... I think sugar is very anti-calorie restriction: so high in calories, yet so nutrient sparse - not to mention it IS basically toxic, as you said. However, I've already cut way back from what I was doing a year ago, which included drinking soda and taking in even more heavily processed foods. This was during a time when I cared less about my health. But, I've found many reasons to care again. I'm feeling less depressed, and I have developed an interest in life-extension and anti-aging. I'm hoping I can juggle my career with this new-found interest, but most of my time admittedly goes toward practicing my music at present. I do think it could enhance my entire life, including my music career, to pay better attention to my health. I intend to do everything I can for my health when I have some time and money to invest in it, and am extremely interested in CR as a way of becoming healthier - not as a way of losing weight. For now, I'll make a little bit of time when I can, and I'll definitely be doing more research to figure out the best way for me to transition to CR. I just feel like I can't afford to go crazy with it because of time commitments, and lack of funds. Then again, maybe I'll lose some sleep for a while and get a lot of this figured out sooner rather than later. I do know there are some must read books out there for those who want to learn about practicing CR.

 

Previously, I had it in my mind that cutting out sugar completely would increase both the cost and inconvenience of my diet. But it seems I just need to invest some time in researching the most nutritious foods and buying what is good for me, yet still affordable. The tools you provided should help with everything. It is perfectly possible to do what you mentioned and start buying some things frozen, increasing nutrition per calorie, and so on. Since posting the original topic, I had already decided to cut out sugar ASAP, replacing any sweets with fruits and vegetables, including frozen blueberries and raspberries. Bananas are indeed not an ideal fruit (and I don't even like them), but I've been buying what I can afford while unemployed...they don't cost too much, and aren't as unhealthy as refined sugary foods, as mentioned. As for GI, I've read reports of people online saying that most fruits do not spike blood sugar in the same way as fruit juice or cane sugar, but I'll try even harder to stick to low GI fruits like apples. I will indeed check out the post on eating healthier on a limited budget.

 

Regarding the applesauce, I'm thinking this is an instance of me being fooled by the label. I figured it was similar to just eating an apple. It says the only ingredients are "organic apples and ascorbic acid," but of course the apples are processed and pasteurized. Furthermore, the skin is removed, and that's the best part for health.

 

Anyway, I read more online about it, and it struck me as a good idea to eliminate even minimally processed sugars and grains. Even though whole grains in particular have been called "health" food for who knows how long, they do not seem to be a good idea for CR because they aren't nutrient-dense and are high in carbohydrates, correct? Would it be likewise for black beans and similar foods? I don't gather that beans are CR friendly, either. This is just what I've heard, but apparently they have nutrients, but not enough bio-available ones to justify their consumption.

 

As for dairy, I've heard that normal grain-fed milk is supposed to have an inferior balance of omega 3 and 6, when compared to grass-fed milk. Nutritionally, I've just gathered that it's not all that great, while still being high in calories. Isn't the cholesterol a problem too (granted, that's in meat as well)? I would think raw milk would be the best way to go? I've also read that Paleo Diet practitioners don't believe dairy is a good thing, but their reasoning is that humans did not consume it before agriculture, and "we're not meant to drink what calfs drink." I'm not an expert on it, but I will say that what I've read gave me pause about consuming too much of it (including the fact that the Japanese have minimized it in the past, and look at their health and longevity). This is anecdotal, but I believe I noticed more acne/skin problems while consuming dairy; this is merely a suspicion of mine. To be sure, the evidence that the Paleo dieters are using against it doesn't exactly prove it's unhealthy. I just don't know if it's been shown that it's all that good for us, either? I do think the Paleo diet seems very sound, but I'm not a nutritional expert.

 

I plan to continue to educate myself. As I said, I have also been more and more wary of consuming grains in the last year, for the reasons already mentioned. Bread will likely be eliminated from my diet in a couple weeks. I haven't eaten all that much of it at all, but it's certainly not even something I want to consume in moderation from this point on.

 

Also, I came back to read this after reading about this gentleman on Oprah. Can't remember his name, but he practices CR to an extent. He mentioned fruits like blueberries and raspberries as being a great way to start the day. He eats them on apples, but uses the apple peel only, and adds some nuts like walnuts for "good fats." For lunch he makes a large salad, and for dinner he eats fish or something similar. My goal is to start incorporating into my diet more foods like the ones he mentions. As a start, I've been eating these blackberries I bought yesterday. Food like this is so much more delicious to me than what Americans normally eat. I'm also eating an avocado once every other day or so. They probably aren't the greatest thing to eat, but I'm aiming for continuous improvement, so nothing's set in stone. The protein powder I have stopped almost entirely, but it was simply a convenient thing to get down while I was unable to chew.

 

P.S. Also, after reading some of the links you provided, I can see they addressed a lot of what I needed to know and clarify for myself; thanks. :)

 

 

Taurus, aren't artificial sweeteners supposed to be pretty bad? I've heard some experts say they're potentially worse than sugar. I don't like either option for reasons of taste (I don't really enjoy sweets all that much to begin with), but as much weight as I seemed to lose by simply reducing my intake of sugars, I was hesitant to cut them out entirely without replacing those calories somehow. Not to mention the 3 recent surgeries I've undergone, which have been a huge distraction and have made it nearly impossible to eat a balanced diet. With a little research, I'm hoping to find a way to incorporate some healthier calories into my diet in a way that is financially affordable. For the record, I've weighed around 130-135 for most of my adult life. Braces and jaw surgery took about 10-15 pounds off that, and I'm still hovering around 127 as of my last physical (2 weeks ago).

 

Sorry about the length of my posts. I tend to get into things like this - perhaps a little too obsessively. It's one of my few flaws. ;) Seriously, there's just so much to cover when it comes to complex topics like nutrition.

 

BTW: I've used that nutrition calculator before. I was looking for it but couldn't find it. That helps a bunch!