Stephen Fry: How I lost six stones in just six months

[MoodyJenny86]

I assume this is Stephen Fry in the photo? If so, he was kinda good looking himself.

^Indeed.

I actually had a little crush on his character in "I.Q." he played Meg Ryan's fiance.

[Honey]

God, Hugh looks so young

[qwerty]

LOL I wouldn't call it "knowledge". Just years of experience fighting - and sometimes failing - to stay a healthy weight. I used to resent the fact that I can't eat what I want, when I want but neither can a diabetic so I now look on my propensity to gain weight even thinking about a bagel as a chronic medical problem that I can control by being very aware of what I am eating.

I am NOT a dietician or medically qualified but I have tried most 'diets' out there over the years and the only one that works FOR ME is a low carb/high protein diet that follows the Atkins principle. The science of how protein "burns" fat and carbos "store" it makes sense. If you want to read about that side of it then get The Atkins Diet book which explains it very clearly. Once you understand the principles it's easy to eat accordingly although it's counter-intuitive at first to be able to eat a large plate of ham and eggs (no toast!) and not feel guilty. Most modern diet plans follow the same basic principles once you get past the hype. Dear old Weight Watchers are slowly moving towards the same idea but still cling to their calorie counting/low fat system which does work for some people but didn't for me. I found I was spending my days thinking about food, planning meals, working out ways to award myself 'treats' and generally living to eat, instead of eating to live. WW works very well for some people, it depends a lot on your particular metabolism and what motivates you. Personally I find groups and meetings a turn off but some people need that reassurance and inspiration.

The best thing about the NWF (No White Food) regime is that you can easily incorporate it into your daily life and you don't need special ingredients or cooking skills. Just prepare your normal meals but skip the potato, rice or whatever. You can go out to restaurants and order almost anything off the menu apart from the White food. I've been to several places where they are happy to leave out the pasta or whatever if you ask them because so many people avoid White food/carbs these days. In fact I've noticed a lot of places don't serve carbs as part of the dish at all so you have to specifically order rice or pasta or potato as a side dish if necessary.

Will you eat ezekiel (sprouted wheat) bread, brown rice, beans/legumes on your no white food diet?

Diets like Atkins or Protein Power for me means I can never have a cheat day because it throws me into carb binge mode. My body just stops processing carbohydrates properly and unfortunately that's all I wanted for a long time, the junkier the better. It was a total disaster for my waistline after I did it about 10 years ago. It kind of was a problem too because I'm hardly a meat lover. Trial and error have shown me that I do better on moderate to low carb - say 75 to 150 good carb gms a day. I have to be careful because of PCOS. I regularly include the foods I've mentioned above in my diet and I do much better with controlling my weight as well as blood sugar and insulin levels.

[A*O]

Yeah you can eat SOME carbs, in fact your body needs them. I just try to eat them for breakfast and make sure they are low GI, eg, brown rice, oatmeal, beans/legumes, etc. I also eat fruit which is banned on the full Atkins No Carbs diet but a bit of natural fructose is also good for you. But avoid fruit juice and tropical fruits (pineapple, mango, banana) which are much higher in fructose than, say, apples or apricots. I also eat nuts, again banned by Atkins.

But if your day will be ruined by not eating a banana then have one. This is an eating system you have to be able to live with long term and the occasional 'treat' won't do any harm.