Water fasting

[Slothy]

And again, I don't think a HIGH carb diet is good for you, and I think that's what your emphasizing. But I don't think a NO carb diet is good for you either. I think if you're going to eat carbs, you should focus more on complex carbs and cut out simple carbs. I also think people need to be eating more good fats. I use olive oil in everything, eat tons of fish, and I'll admit I love whole milk, steak, eggs, salami, prosciutto, bacon...all that fatty goodness. My diet typically consists of more protein and good fats, veggies (and I'm trying to eat more fruit), and a SMALL portion whole grains.

I may not have been clear enough in my earlier posts but I agree on a high carb diet not being good, but also that people shouldn't take it to the absolute opposite extreme of no carbs. Some carbs should be consumed in the diet in the form of vegetables, some fruit, and what little you'll get from nuts or seeds. I do however advocate not eating grains of any kind, even whole grains, or starchy vegetables for that matter. The majority of people simply aren't adapted to eating them well enough to do it on a regular basis. If you eat a lot of grains and have no problems with obesity, various blood markers, or wild swings in blood sugar and insulin production then congratulations, you may be one of the lucky few who don't get adverse chronic health problems from eating them. But if you do have problems with any of these, try cutting grains out entirely. A lot of people notice that their general health improves when they do, and some chronic health problems are either reduced in severity or disappear completely when they stop eating grains and starchy vegetables.

The biggest immediate problem with grains in particular is that the carbs you get from them get converted to glucose by the liver and cause the rise in blood sugar. And they tend to pack a lot of carbs relative to the actual amount of food you eat. So while it would be quite difficult to fit in 40g of carbs in a single meal from vegetables, you can blow right past that easily just by having a sandwich and end up feeling hungry sooner once your blood sugar crashes after the huge spike. Also to clarify, I'm using you in the general sense and not to refer specifically to you AngelWings8.

And you mentioned that it isn't until recently that we've had these problems because of our modern farming methods. What about the introduction of processed foods into our modern diet? Packaged, processed, and refined foods are what I've attributed to this country's obesity problem. Overeating as well as high-fat, high-calorie, high-sodium and high-sugar fast food and soda meals seem more likely to be the problem than a few slices of whole grain bread.

I agree that processed and refined foods are also a huge problem. They may even be the single biggest factor in obesity and diet related health problems growing over the last half a century. The main problem being that so many processed foods are filled with a lot of sugar. It seems to be the go to thing to add to make all of that crap palatable. Overeating is also a problem, but it's not hard to understand why it happens to some extent. When you spike your blood sugar constantly with foods high in sugar and carbs you set yourself up for the crash that inevitably comes a couple of hours later leaving you feeling hungry again. And when these processed foods are full of so many empty calories to begin with, it makes it even worse since it's easy to eat 3-4,000 calories worth of processed food, assuming you can actually stomach it. And eat too much of just about anything and I won't be surprised to see someone gain some weight. I disagree with tossing high fat in there though. Certainly the wrong kind of fat is a problem (trans fats and fats from vegetable oils especially), but unsaturated and saturated fats from meat, nuts and other sources could be consumed in much higher quantities than the USDA or the Canadian government recommend with no ill effects that have ever been proven by any study. But again, I think this is something we probably agree on.

how the hell do you even gain weight? It's bloody impossible.

If you're not lactose intolerant then I'd recommend adding whole milk to your diet and focusing on heavy compound lifts. Squat, Deadlift, Cleans, etc. You will in all likelihood gain some fat as well, but it's one of the better ways to make sure you get enough food in you to support muscle growth. Once you're at or a bit over your desired weight, you could cut back on it or cut it out altogether to cut the fat. Add some conditioning work if you feel you aren't burning the fat off quickly enough. Don't bother running long distances though since that will result in more muscle loss than necessary. Try short fast intervals of sprints, swimming, biking, or start throwing in some Cross Fit workouts in addition to your usual weight lifting. It will improve your overall fitness and help avoid muscle loss from doing lot's of long slow exercise like jogging longer distances.

If you happen to be lactose intolerant (which I think a lot of asian people tend to be if I'm not mistaken) get your ass to McDonald's and order a Quarter Pounder or Big Mac a few times a week. And no, I'm not actually joking about that.