"Google 15" weight loss tracker

[Connie Brown]

For those of you who like to chart progress with fat loss, Google has a cute-looking tool featured today in "Livin La Vida Low-Carb" by Jimmy Moore.

http://livinlavidalocarb.blogspot.com/

Basically you put in your daily scale weight and the tool takes care of averaging AND has a built-in trend line. Very nice to take the charge out of daily ups and downs.

http://www.laughingwarrior.com/ggl15_screenshot.png

About Jimmy Moore: I love his enthusiasm but totally ignore his pushing of frankenfoods that keep the junk food sensations alive in the bod.

[Coach Flanagan]

frankenfoods that keep the junk food sensations alive in the bod.

I've never heard of this, could you explain more about this?

[Connie Brown]

I've never heard of this, could you explain more about this?

It's the brain chemistry thing. Taste "fires up" brain pathways, especially the taste of sweet. Some people who have been having too much junk food, their brains actually re-regulate to expect junk food coming in. So, when they change diets to cut out junk food, they experience withdrawal.

This is where frankenfoods come in. They prevent withdrawal because they fire up the systems.
Unfortunately, that keeps the brain in its highly re-regulated state.
One becomes a slave to incoming intense (manufactured) tastes.

This is a whole different dynamic than the blood-sugar, "calories as fuel" system. The frankenfoods are sold as a healthy alternative to junk food because they don't have carb calories, but they do affect brain chemistry still. The taste of sweet and fat and "flavors" are the big triggers.

If you listen carefully to diet forums, you can hear that some people who use such products are still fighting cravings. And the degree of discomfort corresponds to how re-regulated (addicted) they are. Some people hardly any, some people to an uncontrollable degree it seems.

Books that talk about this to one degree or another:

Potatoes not Prozac, DesMaisons
Protein Power, Eades
Breaking the Food Seduction, Barnard
The Program, Schwarzbein
Mastering Leptin, Richards

[Coach Flanagan]

Oh...ok...so you mean GMOs that are modified to taste in a certain way, i thought you meant ALL GMOs. That makes perfect sense. thank you.

[Connie Brown]

Right. But not just GMOs. Manufactured food in general if it has lots of chemical ingredients and fractionated foods instead of whole foods.

[KD Jones]

It's a little known fact that the vast majority of arguments against Frankenfoods are based of an incomplete misunderstanding of some very complex issues. Overlooking all of the scientific and historical information leads to some very misleading conclusions about the health effect of the foods and products in question.

Very, very early studies on the effects of Frankenfoods were based on several premises that are not, now, generally taken into account. The most important of these premises is that Frankenfoods were - at least initially - specifically designed to be used only in connection with a strict regimen of Frankencize. Without Frankencize, Frankenfood does indeed become terribly, terribly risky, even disastrous in its effect.

The ancient texts, without exception, link the use of Frankenfoods to the use of specific Frankencize protocols. Unfortunately, much of the equipment required to produce the necessary effects associated with Frankencize are no longer accesible due to a cultish underground that effectively limited their sources of procurement to a conspiratorial web of garage sales and ebay auctions. The Thigh Master, Gazelle, and "Bob" (the latter now being found primarily in the gyms of high-level FlowBox coaches, from whom no secret can be hidden), are now difficult to acquire, and IF acquired, their true methods are generally lost to history, due to the poor composition of off-shore videotape. Thus, the effects of Frankenfoods, due to the dilution of true Frankencize methodology, have fallen into disrepute.

In the end, this is just as well, because many of the most crucial methods. tools and temporary results of the truly effective and original "Franken" methods, such as on-the-hoof embalming, creation of new neural pathways via the use of organic amphetemines, and razor-wire vacuum attachments, are too complicated for use by the general populace.

Just thought everyone (who didn't already) should know.

[Coach Gostnell]

It's a little known fact that the vast majority of arguments against Frankenfoods are based of an incomplete misunderstanding of some very complex issues. Overlooking all of the scientific and historical information leads to some very misleading conclusions about the health effect of the foods and products in question.

Very, very early studies on the effects of Frankenfoods were based on several premises that are not, now, generally taken into account. The most important of these premises is that Frankenfoods were - at least initially - specifically designed to be used only in connection with a strict regimen of Frankencize. Without Frankencize, Frankenfood does indeed become terribly, terribly risky, even disastrous in its effect.

The ancient texts, without exception, link the use of Frankenfoods to the use of specific Frankencize protocols. Unfortunately, much of the equipment required to produce the necessary effects associated with Frankencize are no longer accesible due to a cultish underground that effectively limited their sources of procurement to a conspiratorial web of garage sales and ebay auctions. The Thigh Master, Gazelle, and "Bob" (the latter now being found primarily in the gyms of high-level FlowBox coaches, from whom no secret can be hidden), are now difficult to acquire, and IF acquired, their true methods are generally lost to history, due to the poor composition of off-shore videotape. Thus, the effects of Frankenfoods, due to the dilution of true Frankencize methodology, have fallen into disrepute.

In the end, this is just as well, because many of the most crucial methods. tools and temporary results of the truly effective and original "Franken" methods, such as on-the-hoof embalming, creation of new neural pathways via the use of organic amphetemines, and razor-wire vacuum attachments, are too complicated for use by the general populace.

Just thought everyone (who didn't already) should know.


Connie, nevermind the Frankenfoods, I think YOU just created a monster!! :eek: :D

[Coach Gostnell]

It's a little known fact that the vast majority of arguments against Frankenfoods are based of an incomplete misunderstanding of some very complex issues. Overlooking all of the scientific and historical information leads to some very misleading conclusions about the health effect of the foods and products in question.

Very, very early studies on the effects of Frankenfoods were based on several premises that are not, now, generally taken into account. The most important of these premises is that Frankenfoods were - at least initially - specifically designed to be used only in connection with a strict regimen of Frankencize. Without Frankencize, Frankenfood does indeed become terribly, terribly risky, even disastrous in its effect.

The ancient texts, without exception, link the use of Frankenfoods to the use of specific Frankencize protocols. Unfortunately, much of the equipment required to produce the necessary effects associated with Frankencize are no longer accesible due to a cultish underground that effectively limited their sources of procurement to a conspiratorial web of garage sales and ebay auctions. The Thigh Master, Gazelle, and "Bob" (the latter now being found primarily in the gyms of high-level FlowBox coaches, from whom no secret can be hidden), are now difficult to acquire, and IF acquired, their true methods are generally lost to history, due to the poor composition of off-shore videotape. Thus, the effects of Frankenfoods, due to the dilution of true Frankencize methodology, have fallen into disrepute.

In the end, this is just as well, because many of the most crucial methods. tools and temporary results of the truly effective and original "Franken" methods, such as on-the-hoof embalming, creation of new neural pathways via the use of organic amphetemines, and razor-wire vacuum attachments, are too complicated for use by the general populace.

Just thought everyone (who didn't already) should know.


Connie, nevermind the Frankenfoods, I think YOU just created a monster!! :eek: :D Or at least egged (ahem) him on...

[Glenn Sunshine]

According to a TBM chiropractor I know, even artificial sweeteners cause an insulin release--evidently, it is tied to the taste. The net result is that artificially sweetened foods sold to diabetics are a disaster since they encourage the hormonal profile that characterizes the disease in the first place.

[KD Jones]

The only verifiable study I've been able to find on artificial sweeteners causing insulin release suggest that it doesn't happen... see HERE (http://www.sciencedirect.com/science?_ob=ArticleURL&_udi=B6T2M-3V5DWX7-7&_coverDate=11%2F30%2F1998&_alid=501360857&_rdoc=1&_fmt=&_orig=search&_qd=1&_cdi=4922&_sort=d&view=c&_acct=C000050221&_version=1&_urlVersion=0&_userid=10&md5=5abd0644954d75fd8069294fb2184776).

Any comments to the opposite are either stated point blank (like, "isn't it obvious?"), or, by more scrupulous sources, are directly referred to as "speculation," for example, see HERE. (http://www.drhoffman.com/page.cfm/132)

Of course, it's just a bunch of scientific nonsense, really, and probably doesn't mean anything...

(Note that lack of an insulin response doesn't make artificial sweeteners good. Or acceptable. Or George Clooney.) (I should add Angelina Jolie, for the sake of fairness.)

[Connie Brown]

Thanks for the study link. I didn't follow it but would be curious about the study design.

I suspect it's way more complicated than just one variable like insulin. Here's just ONE hypothesis of NIE involvement that was kicked around at RR, based on experiential data:

- taste of sweet "primes" beta-endorphin
- if it's a big enough hit, the endorphin "trips" dopamine
- dopamine triggers THRILL / EXCITEMENT hormonal cascade
- if one's life has been such that THRILL / EXCITEMENT is highly sensitized, then one can get the fight/flight/freeze cascade
- if the fight/flight/freeze signal is big enough, liver shoots out sugar to cope with sudden emergency
- if the sugar squirt is big enough, insulin goes high to cover it

wahoo. Just like a mousetrap game, LOL

[KD Jones]

Then again, the whole thing could be clouded by psychology.

Can we just say "avoid artificial sweeteners, because the chemistry is dubious at best?"

I am one of a peculiar group who are a little creeped out by complicated experiential modelling of complicated chemical processes, without any hope of backup. It's a little like throwing extra hox genes into a meme. A little.

Perhaps it is now my job to stay out of these threads.

[Kathryn Woodall]

The only verifiable study I've been able to find on artificial sweeteners causing insulin release suggest that it doesn't happen... see HERE (http://www.sciencedirect.com/science?_ob=ArticleURL&_udi=B6T2M-3V5DWX7-7&_coverDate=11%2F30%2F1998&_alid=501360857&_rdoc=1&_fmt=&_orig=search&_qd=1&_cdi=4922&_sort=d&view=c&_acct=C000050221&_version=1&_urlVersion=0&_userid=10&md5=5abd0644954d75fd8069294fb2184776).

Any comments to the opposite are either stated point blank (like, "isn't it obvious?"), or, by more scrupulous sources, are directly referred to as "speculation," for example, see HERE. (http://www.drhoffman.com/page.cfm/132)

Of course, it's just a bunch of scientific nonsense, really, and probably doesn't mean anything...

(Note that lack of an insulin response doesn't make artificial sweeteners good. Or acceptable. Or George Clooney.) (I should add Angelina Jolie, for the sake of fairness.)
KD,
I don't have research to add to this, but in my clinical experience...
There have been a handful of diabetic patients whose values would not stabilize despite the presentation of a good diet and exercise diary. When we dug deeper, each of them was getting some artificial sweetener. We pulled the sweetener out of their diets and the values changed favorably. When I spoke to some of my colleagues about this, they also reported similar experiences or went and tried it and reported that it worked for thier clients also. Not a study, but something to at least pay attention to.

Connie,
I would add one other theory to that. It seems possible that when dietary changes are first made, even the scent of the sweetness can trigger a hormonal cascade if it is something that we did often enough or with strong enough emotions. If for 20 years everytime you came in contact with the smell of chocolate chip cookies you proceeded to eat the entire pan of them, your body will prepare for the "attack" that much sugar offers just in case you might eat the entire pan this time. That can be counter-condititioned the same way it was conditioned, but there are people who certainly seem to have that response. If cologne/perfume can set off a hormonal cascade, it seems reasonable that sweets could too.

[KD Jones]

When I spoke to some of my colleagues about this, they also reported similar experiences or went and tried it and reported that it worked for thier clients also. Not a study, but something to at least pay attention to.

Kathryn - I'm completely, completely on board with that. Experience is a sensible and profitable place to start. And I really don't mean to sound like Mr. Scientific method or the highway - not least because I don't have the credentials - but I also think that the process that follows requires a bit of "agnosticism," if we're not just going to use our hips to propel the pendulum through another cycle (to CSTulate the metaphor).

[James Boelter]

It's the brain chemistry thing. Taste "fires up" brain pathways, especially the taste of sweet. Some people who have been having too much junk food, their brains actually re-regulate to expect junk food coming in. So, when they change diets to cut out junk food, they experience withdrawal.

This is where frankenfoods come in. They prevent withdrawal because they fire up the systems.
Unfortunately, that keeps the brain in its highly re-regulated state.
One becomes a slave to incoming intense (manufactured) tastes.

This is a whole different dynamic than the blood-sugar, "calories as fuel" system. The frankenfoods are sold as a healthy alternative to junk food because they don't have carb calories, but they do affect brain chemistry still. The taste of sweet and fat and "flavors" are the big triggers.

If you listen carefully to diet forums, you can hear that some people who use such products are still fighting cravings. And the degree of discomfort corresponds to how re-regulated (addicted) they are. Some people hardly any, some people to an uncontrollable degree it seems.

Books that talk about this to one degree or another:

Potatoes not Prozac, DesMaisons
Protein Power, Eades
Breaking the Food Seduction, Barnard
The Program, Schwarzbein
Mastering Leptin, Richards

One more argument for learning to actually cook, with real ingredients, rather than relying on quick-fix weight loss powders, energy drinks, and power bars.


BTW, Alton Brown had an excellent segment on "Good Eats" devoted to making your own granola and protein bars, for nickels a serving, from real ingredients. I haven't tried them yet (still mastering pouch/'en pappillote' cooking), but I am going to. Here's the transcript to "Power Trip":

http://www.goodeatsfanpage.com/Season9/energy_bar/power_trip_trans.htm