The Cure for Everything!

[Jwolf]

But then he also advocates a no-fruit diet, so...

No fruit???! That sounds horrible. A no-"anything" diet sounds horrible actually, but fruit is probably the last thing I would ever cut!!

many of the low-carb/no sugar diets don't allow fruit. That 4-hour body guy says no refined carbs, sugars or fruit. (he also makes some other very wild claims...) Others are more moderate and allow one or two fruits per day and the rest veggies.

[turd ferguson]

Read the book.

Are you actually recommending the book or simply trying to stop us from expressing opinions without having read it, 'cuz you know that ain't gonna happen. Lack of facts has never silenced us in the past.

Both.

Oh, I know people are still going to express their opinions regardless. I just think if people want to know/understand why he is making the claims he's making (i.e., what evidence he has to back it up) that they should read the book, since he'll do a much better job of explaining it than I will!

I'm just summarizing his points as a way of giving people of sample of what they'll find in the book if they are interested in learning more.

My first impression: he seems to have a set of opinions just like everyone else in the field. By expressing them in a folksy manner (his wife's zucchini bread!) he's more persuasive than the usual impenetrable scientician. He might be right, but being a good communicator isn't the same thing as being correct.

Sort of like The Wealthy Barber Fitness Manual. Good storytelling equals persuasive science.

[La]

My first impression: he seems to have a set of opinions just like everyone else in the field. By expressing them in a folksy manner (his wife's zucchini bread!) he's more persuasive than the usual impenetrable scientician. He might be right, but being a good communicator isn't the same thing as being correct.

Sort of like The Wealthy Barber Fitness Manual. Good storytelling equals persuasive science.

Those two things aren't mutually exclusive, though. He definitely has a "Michael Pollan" feel to his writing.

[MikeM]

OPL has ordered 12 copies. 8 on are on hold.

I'm #6.

[MikeM]

I honestly believe that I lost weight by exercise alone. I can't imagine that my caloric intake went down at all when I became a runner, and I lost over 30 pounds.

It's definitely possible, but it's probably not the easiest way for most. I lost weight during marathon training even though I ate even more than usual. For most people though, they don't realize how much exercise it takes to burn the calories they take in. There's a series of videos a trainer made called diet vs exercise that are a bit silly but show the point well. One guy sprints on the treadmill for 5 minutes while the other eats a slice of pizza, or burger, or whatever. At the end of 5 min they compare the number of calories burned vs consumed. An extreme example but for most people what they eat will be a bigger influence than their exercise.

[Jwolf]

I honestly believe that I lost weight by exercise alone. I can't imagine that my caloric intake went down at all when I became a runner, and I lost over 30 pounds.

It's definitely possible, but it's probably not the easiest way for most. I lost weight during marathon training even though I ate even more than usual. For most people though, they don't realize how much exercise it takes to burn the calories they take in. There's a series of videos a trainer made called diet vs exercise that are a bit silly but show the point well. One guy sprints on the treadmill for 5 minutes while the other eats a slice of pizza, or burger, or whatever. At the end of 5 min they compare the number of calories burned vs consumed. An extreme example but for most people what they eat will be a bigger influence than their exercise.

My friend Mike definitely lost weight while training for ironman and eating the same or more than he did before. He definitely was doing a higher volume of training than most people do for "exercise" though. In general, people definitely do over-calculate how many calories they burn, and then think that exercise calories don't count.

It's all in the math. In general people do tend to overcompensate for exercise, but if you get into calorie deficit you will lose weight.

When people say "the type of calories count" they don't mean that carb calories create more weight gain than protein. They mean that if you eat a lot of refined carbs you tend to crave more because of insulin response.

[La]

When people say "the type of calories count" they don't mean that carb calories create more weight gain than protein. They mean that if you eat a lot of refined carbs you tend to crave more because of insulin response.

This is exactly it for me.

People eat for lots of reasons, but from a physical perspective two of them are: feeling full, and keeping blood sugar/energy up. Feeling satisfied/full is something that is important when trying to lose weight, so filling up on low-cal foods that take up a lot of volume (due to water and fiber) will help with that. And how you choose your calories will help to maintain your blood sugar.

[turd ferguson]

My first impression: he seems to have a set of opinions just like everyone else in the field. By expressing them in a folksy manner (his wife's zucchini bread!) he's more persuasive than the usual impenetrable scientician. He might be right, but being a good communicator isn't the same thing as being correct.

Sort of like The Wealthy Barber Fitness Manual. Good storytelling equals persuasive science.

Those two things aren't mutually exclusive, though. He definitely has a "Michael Pollan" feel to his writing.

You're right that they aren't mutually exclusive.

I'm not saying that he's wrong - just that some people seem to abandon their critical thinking when ideas are presented to them in a simplistic fashion. Read any column in the Sun for numerous examples.

[fe.RMT]

I finished reading this last week and loved it. If you are remotely rational and not sucked into infomericals, there aren't any real surprises, but it was nice to see common sense presented in a funny but rational way.

On one hand the idea that none of these things really work is uplifting ... knowing that plain ole fashion common sense and old timey eating are really the answer.... but on the other hand it was also kind of depressing in a way too

[La]

I finished reading this last week and loved it. If you are remotely rational and not sucked into infomericals, there aren't any real surprises, but it was nice to see common sense presented in a funny but rational way.

On one hand the idea that none of these things really work is uplifting ... knowing that plain ole fashion common sense and old timey eating are really the answer.... but on the other hand it was also kind of depressing in a way too

Exactly - there are no "magic bullets" to health. As you said, on the one hand it's good to know that, but still a bit depressing.

Though I did get in a disagreement with someone over the fact that Naturopathy is not science-based.

[MikeM]

I finished reading this last week and loved it. If you are remotely rational and not sucked into infomericals, there aren't any real surprises, but it was nice to see common sense presented in a funny but rational way.

On one hand the idea that none of these things really work is uplifting ... knowing that plain ole fashion common sense and old timey eating are really the answer.... but on the other hand it was also kind of depressing in a way too

I finished it last week too and had a similar reaction; no huge surprises but it was a fun read.

[Half-Mary]

The author of this book is being interviewed by Jian Ghomeshi on Q today. I'll have to try to find it online later as I can't listen to the radio at work.

[Samantha]

The author of this book is being interviewed by Jian Ghomeshi on Q today. I'll have to try to find it online later as I can't listen to the radio at work.

Itunes. The Q podcasts (basically the radio show) are on there.

[Jwolf]

The author of this book is being interviewed by Jian Ghomeshi on Q today. I'll have to try to find it online later as I can't listen to the radio at work.

Itunes. The Q podcasts (basically the radio show) are on there.

+1

podcasts rule.

[Half-Mary]

The author of this book is being interviewed by Jian Ghomeshi on Q today. I'll have to try to find it online later as I can't listen to the radio at work.

Itunes. The Q podcasts (basically the radio show) are on there.

+1

podcasts rule.

The CBC website often posts individual interviews more quickly than iTunes gets the podcast. That said, I still haven't listened to the interview yet.

[Ironboy]

Looks interesting... will have to get my hands on it.

Right now I'm reading "The 4 Hour Body" (same guy who wrote 4 Hour Work Week). It's really interesting, but I think rather far-fetched in a number of areas. He relies a LOT on supplements and extreme regiments too. But with that said, he has a lot of fascinating stuff to say.

He spends a fair amount of time talking about how calories in vs calories out does NOT work in real life because the types of calories do make a difference. But then he also advocates a no-fruit diet, so...

Little bit of a hijack, since I just noticed this thread, and all my questions have been answered I can branch off to this: Holly, what did you think of Tim Ferris's book? That's what got me on to Crossfit. (About the only thing I took from the book though )

[ultraslacker]

Looks interesting... will have to get my hands on it.

Right now I'm reading "The 4 Hour Body" (same guy who wrote 4 Hour Work Week). It's really interesting, but I think rather far-fetched in a number of areas. He relies a LOT on supplements and extreme regiments too. But with that said, he has a lot of fascinating stuff to say.

He spends a fair amount of time talking about how calories in vs calories out does NOT work in real life because the types of calories do make a difference. But then he also advocates a no-fruit diet, so... :P

Little bit of a hijack, since I just noticed this thread, and all my questions have been answered I can branch off to this: Holly, what did you think of Tim Ferris's book? That's what got me on to Crossfit. (About the only thing I took from the book though :? )

It's what prompted me to start Total Immersion (I'd heard of TI before but this book was the catalyst for looking into it). So if I take nothing else from it, it was worthwhile.

I thought the book was really interesting, but I don't think I'm going to try much of what he said, simply because it's so extreme and a lot of it is untested except by him.

I skipped a lot of the strength building stuff (I don't care to increase my deadlift, lol!).

[Spirit Unleashed]

Interesting review:

http://www.drsharma.ca/the-cure-for-eve ... a%2C+MD%29

[La]

Interesting review:

http://www.drsharma.ca/the-cure-for-eve ... a%2C+MD%29

Interesting... Dr. Sharma was quoted in the book (and I thought I noticed that his name was spelled incorrectly because I've read his blog before). I like the comment he made about how the author had a bit of an unhealthy obsession about his (perectly normal) 18% BF.

[La]

So far I've read reviews by Yoni Freedhoff, MD, Arya Sharma, MD and Alex Hutchinson, PhD. All three of them have links to each other's blogs on their own sites, so I assume that means they (mostly) see eye to eye on similar subjects (they are all big proponents of evidence-based medicine).

I wonder if there are any reviews that give a different perspective?

[jgore]

I agree with everyone else's assessment: nothing surprising, no magic bullets, and a fun read.

Though I did get in a disagreement with someone over the fact that Naturopathy is not science-based.

Naturopathy is the reason the sentence, "The plural of anecdote is not data." was invented.

[ultraslacker]

I finally got my copy from the library, and started reading it on Monday. I am enjoying it, though like the rest of you I haven't come across any life-changing info that I didn't already know!

[oobinsnaffa]

I got about 3/4 of the way through before I had to take it back to the library... putting another hold on it now so I can finish it up!

The only thing that gave me an "aha" so far was the part about high-intensity interval training being more effective than long, slow cardio. I am probably several years (or decades) behind in my knowledge of health, fitness & diet compared to most people here, but this is something that I didn't know. It's given me a push to include more than just running in my fitness quest, and to be more conscious about the types of exercise I'm doing to get the most benefit out of my very limited free time.

[Jwolf]

It's a bit simplistic to say that high intensity is better than slow sustained cardio. High intensity intervals (HIIT) would be more effective if you are pressed for time (I.e., you'll burn more calories in a 30-minute HIIT session than a 30-minute easy run). But easy-paced running allows you to run more, and if you're doing more running overall, then you're burning more calories.

Also running HIIT can be injury-inducing if you're not careful and if you don't have a lot of running experience. So if running endurance and performance are your goal, then generally it's best to do a mix of both HIIT and easy running.