Will Restricting Carbs Make You a "Fat-Burning Beast?"

photo: pixabay

By Tiffany Reiss; With a Long-Winded Intro by Crabby McSlacker

So for years I've been intrigued by notion of "Fat Adaptation," a concept advanced by Mark's Daily Apple and others. The idea is that by strategically restricting carbohydrates, you can reprogram your body to use fat as fuel instead of glycogen.

According to Mark:

If you’re fat adapted, the genes associated with lipid metabolism will be upregulated in your skeletal muscles. You will essentially reprogram your body. 

With that comes great benefits!  Like more energy available during exercise and throughout the day, and an easier time burning fat and losing weight than if you are a "sugar burner."

However, most mainstream nutritional advice says almost the opposite: Watch the fat, eat more carbs. These experts claim you need a crapload of carbs for optimal nutrition, especially if you are doing something athletic.  

And yeah, everyone agrees you need protein and that you should avoid refined and processed foods as much as possible and you should be eating plenty of produce.  But as to what else you should be fueling with, the "Are Carbs Good or Are They Bad" debate rages on.

I got so tired of hearing the contradictions that I asked Tiffany Reiss what she thought.  As regulars may recall, Tiffany is a smarty-pants professor type who knows a lot about exercise physiology. (Her bio is below).

So, is her answer simple and straightforward?

Hell no! Because it turns out it's a complicated question!

So those of you who like to geek out, here's Tiffany take on the whole "Should I restrict Carbs" question.

--Crabby

To Carb or Not to Carb

It’s such a simple question: Are carbs good or are they bad? Should we eat them or shouldn’t we?

Good excuses to be baaaaad

Ah yes, all the pieces are starting to fit together...

Photo credit: Max-B

Sometimes in my idle wandering through the Interwebs ceaseless search for Truth, I come across some disparate studies that seem related. It's some kind of synergistic convergence, if that means what I think it does. Everything comes together like pieces of a jigsaw, and it's serendipity doo dah, serendipity day.... Or something like that.



Here are three excellent studies that prove you can prove anything if you stage your study right prove exactly what I've wanted to hear: it's okay to give in and be baaad...

- fatty food improves memory
Yes, according to one white-coated researcher, "By helping mammals remember where and when they have eaten a fatty meal, OEA's memory-enhancing activity seems to have been an important evolutionary tool for early humans and other animals.

"Remembering the location and context of a fatty meal was probably an important survival mechanism for early humans."

However, don't go out and order several dozen extra large pizzas yet. The researchers also admit that eating too many fats can result in obesity. (Really? You think?) Maybe just one pizza.

- drinking coffee fends off Alzheimer's
Drinking 3 to 5 cups of coffee daily in middle age can stave off developing Alzheimer's when you're older. Of course, the problem here is that I don't think I'm middle aged yet, even though I'm halfway to 90. (Gasp -- she's how old???) So when should I start hitting the coffee? When I feel middle aged? The study also noted that the group with the lowest rate of coffee consumption scored highest in depression, which might be significant. Sounds significant, even if it isn't.

- Strenuous exercise may be connected to memory loss
I stole leveraged this study from Healthbolt. Thankfully, the study dealt with people who did really strenuous exercise, which means you can still follow Crabby's patented S.H.I.I.T. method of keeping fit. You just don't have to do it for too long.

So, now you can wake yourself up with coffee in the morning, chow down at the barbecue, and go easy on the hardcore workout. (Well, so long as you believe these studies. I figure if you already believe these things, you'll find these studies useful and if you don't believe, these studies won't keep you awake nights.)

You just have to believe!

http://www.flickr.com/photos/massimobarbieri/ / CC BY 2.0

I'm still waiting for a study that says sitting around reading blogs causes people to get enormous raises at review time, and one that proves spending time in a hammock helps you fit into a skinnier bathing suit. I have a feeling these studies will be along shortly.

I did come across this study:

- blue eyed people are brainier

I really want this one to be true, in the same way that I want to read a study proving that short, round,Irish-American women are statistically more likely to win the lottery, marry George Clooney, and lose 20 pounds on the Chocolate Éclair diet. Except that my brother is also blue-eyed, so it doesn't settle the issue of which one of us is smarter. (He's probably off looking for a study that proves tall Irish-American men who are older than their sisters are smarter.) Even a quick read of the study raises so many questions that I wonder how the researchers could keep a straight face. I still want to believe.

And one last study, that I also want to believe in:

- Swearing is good for you
Apparently someone actually did a study to determine whether people felt better if they swore after hurting themselves. (Um... who funds these studies? 'Cause I'd really like to get going on studying the Chocolate Éclair diet, and I think they'd go for it.)

So, next time you hit your thumb with the hammer, don't hold back on the language. Let it out! You can tell any nearby kids you're doing it for your health. I'm sure they'll understand.

Maybe turn your face away first...

http://www.flickr.com/photos/massimobarbieri/ / CC BY 2.0

Brown Fat Leads to Weight Loss?

Sorry, This is NOT what They Mean.

When I first saw the news article entitled "Brown Fat: A Fat That Helps You Lose Weight" I totally got the wrong idea.

Anyone else guess that they were going to say that there's some kind fat that's browner that others that we don't metabolize the same way, so if we ate more if it instead of white fat we'd lose weight?

No one? Ah well. That's where my mind went, anyway. And at first "brown fat" sounded a little gross, and then I thought, well, maybe things like hamburgers and beef stew and gravy and chocolate ice cream would count as brown fat? That wouldn't be so bad!

Alas, the researchers weren't talking about eating brownies or chocolate ice cream.

They're talking about a kind of fat we have in our bodies. "Rather than storing excess energy, this fat actually burns through it."

Scientists knew babies and rodents had brown fat, but until recently, they thought human adults didn't have much of any. Now they're discovering we do--but apparently some of us have more than others. Perhaps not coincidentally, skinny people have more than overweight people. (And women have more than men. And conditions such as cancer or hyperthyroidism can stimulate the growth of brown fat.)

Are you guessing where this is going yet? Probably. But here's some more background first.

What's brown fat for, anyway?

And why would we have more as babies? Well, brown fat works to regulate body temperature. Brown fat cells burn more sugar than regular fat cells, and release the energy as heat. It's inefficient but it works--sort of like throwing your dining room furniture into the fireplace and building a blazing fire when you're feeling chilly. You get warm, sure enough! But you might not choose to do that if you had fully-functioning central heating.

As we grow up, our bodies get better at temperature regulation, so we can just pay the gas & electric company and don't have to burn up our furniture. Or something like that. Anyway, over time brown-fat supplies shrink and we get more white fat.

But, it turns out healthy adults still retain a sizable amount of brown fat in the front and back of the neck. (Really? And how sizable could that be? I don't know about your neck--but mine isn't nearly as well equipped to store "sizable" amounts of fat as my thighs, belly, or ass are).

And so of course scientists want to know: How to Activate this stuff so we can all lose weight?

In the article I read, scientists were just itching to figure out how to figure out how to activate brown fat to burn more glucose. One possibility: brown-fat cells become more active in the cold, when people need to boost their body temperature. Scientists were not specific about what the implications of this were. Does that mean we all need to take ice baths now? I'd personally rather go to the gym or eat less.

But they're going to try to figure out some way to monkey around with this, possibly with some kind of drug. "Brown fat may indeed shift the balance of calorie intake and expenditure — allowing a person to burn more calories with the same amount of consumption — without the chore of going to the gym or sweating through a workout." (OK, I believe that was the Time magazine author speaking, not the scientists, but you know that's what everyone is thinking). A clinician at NIH said: "We have very few interventions aimed at increasing energy expenditure... and here we have a tissue that works exactly with the purpose of burning energy." If they could get this stuff activated, they figured people could burn about 20 % of their average daily caloric intake.

But, whoa, hold on there a minute...

There are lots of problems, of course, with assuming activating brown fat will leads to weight loss. For one, our bodies like to maintain equilibrium--so if we started to burn more calories, we might just get that much hungrier. And, even if drug companies could find a way to activate brown fat safely, that activation could in turn mess with other metabolic systems.

What do you guys think?

So, as usual, I have mixed feelings. I think for some folks with screwed-up metabolisms, who really don't overeat (at least anymore) and who get plenty of exercise but are still morbidly obese, perhaps this Frankenstinian approach to tinkering with brown fat might be better than surgical alternatives--if they could activate that brown fat safely. (And that's a big if.)

But I worry that for the majority of folks who could address the health risks of obesity with healthy lifestyle changes, research like this might just be another excuse to skip the exercise and put off the dietary changes they need to make. Same with folks who just want to lose weight for vanity purposes. Why go messing around with your metabolic processes? As appealing as a 20% calorie credit would be (hmm... how many cupcakes would does that work out to?), I would probably give a hypothetical "brown fat activating pill" a pass.

Thoughts?

Cheeseburgers can cause insomnia?

Note: this is not Another Post Bashing Red Meat. In fact, the phrase "Red Meat" will be used only twice in this post, and you've already passed both usages. It's safe to keep reading.

Do you want to stay up all night?
Photo: linecook

I stole leveraged this picture of a bacon-and-everything cheeseburger because it seemed the epitome of a high-fat meal. A study published in the journal Endocrinology claims that a high-fat diet can be bad for a new reason.


Dr. Oren Froy, and a couple minions white-coated colleagues, studied a circadian rhythm ("adiponectin signaling pathway") that deals with glucose regulation and the oxidation of fatty acids. According to the study, if the test mice fasted, the circadian rhythm was delayed, while eating a high-fat (HF) diet advanced the rhythm. A low-fat diet did not affect the circadian rhythm either way.

(They abbreviated "high-fat" to HF. Not sure why, since they didn't abbreviate any of the other terms. Maybe because it sounded way cool that way?)

Their conclusion? "Changes in the phase and daily rhythm of clock genes and components of adiponectin signaling pathway as a result of HF diet may lead to obesity and may explain the disruption of other clock-controlled output systems, such as blood pressure and sleep/wake cycle, usually associated with metabolic disorders."

I knew that not getting enough sleep causes cortisol levels to rise, and the waist to get thicker, and other not-so-great results. It was new to me that an HF diet (hell, if the cool people in white coats abbrev. stuff, I wanna abbrev. stuff 2. I cool) would mess with the body's cycles such as the ability to go to sleep at night and get up in the morning.

Besides insomnia, I don't like the idea of messing with the circadian rhythms in any case. To quote the blog Psychology, "The disturbance of circadian rhythms can lead to such phenomena as hormone imbalance, obesity, psychological and sleep disorders and cancer."

Eating an HF lunch can cause me to crave the Zzzs during my afternoon meetings, but I thought that was normal. And I thought frequent bouts of insomnia were just my lot in life.

Mmmmmaybe not.

Next time, I'll skip the pizza and take a walk at lunch instead.





Sleepy photos: Ingorrr

Toxic fat: reality or money-milking myth?

A popular fishing spot in Oregon,
next to a (now destroyed) nuclear power plant
Photo credit: wikipedia commons

I have been reading a lot of nutrition/diet books lately, and I keep reading about toxic this and toxic that... the poor adjective has been used a whole lot. Oh yeah, that buzzword again, yawn.... hmmn... who's been kicked off Dancing with the Stars this week... But the fact that the word has become a popular marketing buzz-toy doesn't mean that there aren't toxins out there.

Isn't 'toxic' simply the latest buzzword?

A lot of the buzz is based on biology. There are some facts hidden amidst the fuss.

It is a fact that there are toxins out there, and it is a fact that your body deals with them, or tries to. And the body uses fat cells in the process.

Fat is useful

Fat, also known as adipose tissue, isn't just sitting there on your hips. (Or jiggling there on your hips. Whatever.) "Adipose tissue is a complex, essential, and highly active metabolic and endocrine organ."

Unlike some of us (*cough* points at self *cough*), the body doesn't go out and rent a storage area to put extra 'stuff' and then forget about it.

Photo credit: Esprit de sel

The body makes use of these fat cells. Fat cells are storage units that maintain triglyceride and free fatty acid levels. In addition, there are several different hormones created in fat cells. "Adipose tissue is also a major site for metabolism of sex steroids and glucocorticoids." Indeed, some of the metabolic processes that go on in adipose tissue aren't always beneficial in the long run. "...adipose tissue is a major endocrine organ that secretes numerous polypeptide hormones and cytokines that are proinflammatory and proatherogenic."

Fat cells are also the preferential storage area for toxins that your body can't get rid of in some other way.

No, you can't store children in these containers

(Photo credit: russeljsmith)

When your body meets a toxin... Not a sequel to When Harry Met
Sally

In general, you're pretty good when it comes to dealing with toxins. How your body deals with a toxin depends in part on how the toxin comes into the system. Sometimes the body's responses, which originated during a time when there was no industrial waste, aren't helpful. For example, when cigarette smoke comes into the lungs, the body reacts by transforming a major component of the smoke into a carcinogenic compound. (1)

Alternatively, if the body receives the toxin known as alcohol (grain alcohol) in relatively small doses, the liver processes it and the human frequently enjoys the process of being intoxicated.

Or, your body could store the toxin. "Most of us have been exposed to organochlorines found in pesticides, dyes, solvents, etc... and we contain residues in our adipose tissue, where they are preferentially stored."


Yet another reason to eat organic and not live next to a chemical factory

I don't mean to scare anybody, but you should be aware that if you've got toxins in your system, they can affect you adversely. "Because most of environmental chemicals, called estrogen disruptors or xenoestrogens, are toxic and estrogen/antiandrogen active, they can disregulate hypothalamic-pituitary-gonadal axis potentially inducing reproductive disorders."

Similarly, if you're having problems with low thyroid levels, the toxins in your environment might be one of the causes. "Even after adjustment for weight loss, the related increase in organochlorine concentration has been correlated with decreases in triidothyronine (T3) concentration and resting metabolic rate."


Why all the talk about detox diets?

Researching all this stuff not only increased my paranoia level, it made me appreciate why people are so eager to buy books and products that purport to help rid your body of toxins. I plan to write another post on detox diets, but I had to write this one first, because there was too much material to fit into one post.

Three things I should mention here:

- All the kerfuffle about toxins in your system has some depressing basis in reality.

- Because this is such a popular subject, there are tons of unscrupulous people trying to sell you something to deal with toxins. I think it's safe to say that there might also some scrupulous people trying to sell you something to help with the problem.

- If you're obese, you have more toxins stored in your body. "... the obese tend to have increased organochlorine concentrations compared to lean individuals. During body weight loss, a decrease in fat mass results in lipid mobilization, and organochlorine concentrations increase both in plasma and remaining adipose tissue."

The preferential storage place is adipose tissue, the fat cells. If you are losing weight, and hopefully are doing weight lifting and aerobic exercise, then you're losing fat, which does mean that there are toxins circulating in your system. Even people who advocate Calorie Restriction do not recommend adopting the CR lifestyle too abruptly, for fear that losing a whole lot of weight quickly (and thus releasing a large the amount of toxins into the system all at once) might overwhelm the body:

"Our foods contain various chemicals (e.g. pesticides) that are fat soluble.... losing fat (weight) too quickly will flush lots of toxic chemicals into our bloodstream -- too fast for our bodies to effectively eliminate."

Toxins are bad for you, baby

I don't want to sound like I'm saying toxins are bad only if you're obese. They're bad, period. Remember the post that Crabby did about breast milk being used in restaurant meals? According to the World Health Organization (which supports breastfeeding), "Contamination of
human milk is widespread and due to decades of inadequately controlled pollution by toxicants, persistent pesticides or chemical solvents. These chemicals tend to degrade slowly in the environment, to bioaccumulate in the food chain and to have long half-lives in humans."


Well, now that you're feeling all paranoid...

Cheerful stuff, eh? I'm not trying to increase the general level of paranoia in the world; some of this stuff I can't control, so I refuse to stress over it. I will focus on the areas where I can control the amount of toxins.

If you're looking for ways to reduce the amount of toxins in your environment, iVillage has a quiz that claims to test how healthy your home is. They also have an interactive little video quiz that focuses on different areas of your home and ways to reduce pesticide levels. High-level stuff, but it's a starting place.

(1) Vander, Sherman, Luciano Human Physiology 6th edition, p. 740

Labels that Lie: "Zero" Integrity

Since the Associated Press just reminded us again that you can't trust a food label to be accurate, Crabby thought she'd use their article as an excuse for a little rant. She's tired of swearing at her computer, and now that it's fixed, she thought it might be time to get back to her more usual swearing about Health and Fitness annoyances!

And Crabby doesn't mean those obviously Scammy Miracle Weight Loss Products marketed by skeezy fly-by-night companies you've never heard of. This is mainstream, government sanctioned lying by big Fortune 500 companies. No doubt they all have the usual corporate mission statements about "delighting customers" and "exceeding expectations" and offering "extraordinary quality and value!" They never seem to include "Lying our Pants Off to Make People Think Crap that Will Eventually Kill them is Actually Good for Them" into those mission statements.

Anyway, what the AP article is talking about is labels that say "zero trans fats."

You've seen these. Say you're at the grocery store and you pick up a package of Tempting Junk Food that you know probably isn't good from you. But, at least it has finally switched away from Evil Trans-fats. It's packaging shouts out "Now with Zero Transfats!" Good news!

But then you look further on down at the ingredients, and one of them is "partially hydrogenated something-or-other oil." Hey, what gives? Isn't that a Trans Fat?

Yep, of course it is! Even though the package has quite a few transfats in it, they've declared an arbitrary, teeny tiny portion is "a serving." And because our always-helpful government agencies allow them to declare that .5 grams of something is really "zero"--all the trans-fats in the package simply disappear!

Why is it a hardship to put the actual amount of transfats on the label? Crabby speculates that the extra ink it takes to print .5 instead of 0 must be really expensive. Or something.

This doesn't mean there's necessarily a lot of transfats in the product. There may not be. But half a gram is not zero! It's a lie! And you can't even figure out for yourself how much is in the whole package, because apparently they don't have to tell you.

This drives Crabby crazy. Because unlike you Smart Readers, average consumers don't necessarily know about the cheaty rounding rules, or to look for partially hydrogenated oils on the label. They think if it there's a big banner saying there's Zero Transfats in a product, that means there aren't actually any transfats, no matter how much you eat. Which is wrong, but actually quite logical.

It's not just transfats either. Splenda is very low-cal, but it doesn't actually have "zero" calories in it. And have you ever bought a can of Pam "Fat Free" Olive Oil and wondered what the hell is supposed to be in there if there's no fat? How can there be no fat or calories in a can full of Oil? (Crabby doesn't buy it anymore anyway, since it smells more like paint thinner than olive oil, and she's no longer afraid of Good Fats). But still. They use a microsecond spray as a serving until they find one less than .5, then round down. And again, by magic, all the fat and calories in a can of Olive Oil simply cease to exist.

There are only about 37 million more examples of deceptive advertising like this (and don't let Crabby Go Off on "Now Made With Whole Wheat" yet again) but she thought she'd share another new twist she discovered.

Crabby herself is now Virtually Fat Free!

At least that must be the explanation. Because here's what happened:

Crabby hates to shop for clothes and has not done much of it in the past few years. But she went off to Macy's over the weekend and braved a One Day Sale. She actually bought things! Including shorts.

And Crabby is pleased to announce she has dropped two sizes! All her hard work has paid off. She now wears a size that is so small it barely exists. It might as well be a Zero! (Which is now, apparently, an actual size). Crabby had to keep going back for more clothes because she couldn't quite believe how much she had accomplished over these last years.

The interesting thing is that it was so easy! She's just doing the same cardio, the same weights, eating the same mostly healthy but sometimes Abominable diet, yet the labels prove she is so much thinner than she used to be.

The strange thing, though, is that all her old clothes with the much bigger number on the label still fit her just fine. They should be hanging off her! Obviously, the dryer must have shrunk them. Also, her bathroom scale must be out of order because it still has the same old range of numbers it always did.

Because to arbitrarily declare that a pair of shorts that has not changed dimensions is nonetheless now a "smaller" size? That would be dishonest and misleading, wouldn't it?

Crabby is so very, very proud of herself!

Random Friday!

First off, some nutrition-related studies to get out of the way, so we can all feel Responsible and Informed. Then it's time for the usual Friday Silliness.

So a complicated study about fish oils and vegetable oils seemed to indicate yet again: fish oil is good for you! (The study involved discussions of prostanoids, inflammation, COX-1 and COX-2 enzymes, and other stuff that made Crabby's brain hurt. Smart Scientists: feel free to report back whether this rather indirect sort of "good for you" research seems persuasive or not.)

A study of goats' milk suggested it has health advantages over cows' milk, at least when it comes to preventing anemia and bone softening. Goats' milk appeared to aid the body in using minerals such as iron, calcium, phosphorus and magnesium.

And who knew undercooked beans or rice could give you food poisoning? Crabby didn't.

In breaking snack food news, scientists may be getting close to developing allergen-free peanuts. And blue corn chips are better for you than white ones! (Note: Blue corn chips taste excellent when dipped in guacamole (good for you) and washed down with margaritas (not so good for you but what the hell).

And these stories were well-reported elsewhere this week, so you probably already heard that combining caffeine and exercise seems to help prevent skin cancer; and that people who drink diet soft drinks instead of regular still face similar heart disease risks. But Crabby hadn't gotten around to mentioning them here yet.

Now, getting progressively sillier but still food-related: Sara at Healthbolt has the ultimate Bacon Flavored blog post.

And if you haven't yet heard about Kopi Luwak, one of the most expensive coffees in the world, just guess what it's made from? Weasel poop! Well, actually Civet poop. Apparently the Asian Palm Civet eats ripe coffee berries somewhere on the islands of Sumatra, Java and Sulawesi. When the civet excretes the partially-digested berries, they are harvested and made into coffee. Yum!

Amazing pictures of the week: Mark's Daily Apple has a post about a very, very large man who lost weight. There are a few photos there, but then he links to more disturbing photos which are (warning), not for the faint of heart. It's inspiring and creepy all at the same time.

And speaking of warnings, would you like to create a silly warning sign like the one at the top of this post? Go here!

Comments, as always, are very much welcome if you can find anything in this mess you want to weigh in on.

Alli: Lots of Questions

A new diet drug is on the market, and people seem to have strong feelings about it. Crabby, who is ordinarily opinionated about everything, feels a bit left out. She's all rarin' to climb up on her soap box and spout off--but she's not quite sure what to spout. She's hoping you folks will help her figure out what to think about Alli, so she can locate her self-righteousness again and pretend to be a Crab Who Knows Everything.

Some background:

Alli is a weaker, non-prescription version of the drug Orlistat. It works by interfering with fat absorption, blocking about 25% of the fat you eat.

Users are supposed to diet in conjunction with using the drug, and the manufacturers say it will typically result in a 50% greater weight loss than one would get from dieting alone.

However, Alli can cause disconcerting side effects if you eat too much fat while taking it: "loose or more frequent stools that may be hard to control, or gas with an oily discharge."

Yikes.

An LA Times article says Alli is flying off the shelves in Los Angeles. By contrast, no winged diet pills were observed further north in the Oakland/Berkeley area, where Crabby stopped by her local pharmacy. The guy behind the counter didn't even know what Alli was. But one would assume that if it's an over-the-counter diet drug with a large marketing campaign behind it, people will be sooner or later be buying it with enthusiasm. Especially if it works.

So here's what Crabby doesn't like, so far, about Alli:

Crabby wonders if it's a such a good idea to take something for the long term that interferes with the way your body naturally works. She also wonders if Alli allows you to get and process enough "good" fats--she's hoping someone smarter than she is has some more information about this. The limit per meal for any kind of fat is about 15 grams.

And the L.A. Times article featured a bunch of superficial-sounding women who were completely ignorant about how it worked and who were going to use it anyway. (Crabby hopes they'll be stocking up on Depends along with their pills). Are they typical? Who knows. But they're certainly out there.

There's also an interesting recent study that concluded: "consumers who contemplate taking a prescription or over-the-counter drug" for obesity "become more likely to engage in bad habits like junk food and a sedentary lifestyle."

And finally, there was something kind of yucky about the way the Alli pamphlet tried to soft-pedal the downsides of their medicine. They don't like the term "side effects;" they prefer you call them "treatment effects." And the disgusting oil that you're excreting instead of digesting? Don't be alarmed. "It's not harmful. In fact you may recognize it as something that looks like the oil on top of pizza"!

Yeah, but the "oil on top of pizza" isn't usually coming straight out of your ass.

Sorry.

On the other hand, there are some things to admire about the whole Alli concept and advertising campaign.

For one, their marketing approach is way different than most diet products. Their pamphlet starts right off with: "Your commitment, your hard work, powered by Alli."

Not many weight loss products mention "hard work." Most imply magic.

They offer online help in diet planning. They even have an "are you ready quiz," which asks users to swear, solemnly, like earnest jurors under oath, that they are:

"Willing to do the hard work to lose weight gradually,"
"Committed to following a reduced-calorie, low-fat diet," and
"Committed to making the time to be more physically active."

(They also have to swear they understand about the totally disgusting side effects they'll be dealing with if they eat too much fat).

So Crabby sees both pros and cons. She knows some people are desperate for a little help. Is this something that might be useful?

She's hoping her Smart Readers have some thoughts to share.

A Big Fat Thank You

So Crabby had stupid questions, and readers had answers!

These last two posts on Fat Acceptance (and on weight and weight loss efforts generally) were all about the Comments. In them, readers shared thoughts and opinions, admitted confusion and sometimes prejudice, and they told stories.

So many of these stories were inspirational. Sometimes they were funny and sometimes heartbreaking. As Crabby read these comments, she was struck by a few things that made her even more appreciative of her readership (and she already knew this was a cool group of people).

1. Though commenters were coming from very different places, the tone was always respectful. No name-calling, no umbrage taken, no "I can't believe you said that." Having been on other sites when Weight Loss folks meet up with Fat Acceptance folks and decide to have a chat, Crabby can tell you that this is not always the case.

2. People's stories seemed to Crabby quite honest and not the least bit bullshitty. What she means by that is: people copped to unhealthy habits or impulsive behavior at certain times in their lives. But they also cited obstacles that sounded real and daunting, and showed tremendous courage and determination in dealing with these and trying to be healthy.

3. Others who weren't fat themselves admitted to some possible prejudices and judgments but were willing to look at them.

4. People took time from their busy days to write really long, thoughtful comments, from the heart.

As an interesting aside, Crabby has been known to check her sitemeter occasionally. (Okay, constantly). A lot of the traffic to Cranky Fitness is unobservable from the number of Comments--Crabby loves her silent readers too, those who don't leave comments but who check in every day to see what's up. There are, happily many of them for each one of you who puts down their thoughts.

Well, a lot of the silent readers were checking in a lot more often these past couple days, just to read your comments as they came in. Your stories propelled a big spike in traffic. (There was also a nice little boost from another source which Crabby will get to in a moment). People wanted to hear what you had to say, and no doubt many were inspired or encouraged or validated by your stories.

So thank you, awesome Cranky Fitness Commenters. Please continue to contribute your 2 cents whenever the spirit strikes, because you are smart and funny and touching and you're what makes readers want to come back and visit Crabby more often!

And more gratitude, on an unrelated subject:

A big hearty thanks to Jacki over at The Cancer Blog. Not only did she say nice things about Cranky Fitness, sending some folks over to check us out, but also she introduced Crabby to a great resource for cancer news and discussion. (Crabby will be stealing their ideas and research updates frequently in the future). The Cancer Blog covers a wide range of cancer-related subjects, so readers with a particular interest might want to go there and rummage around for a bit. But do, at some point, try to make your way back to Cranky Fitness--Crabby gets lonely and sad when you go away for too long!

Fat Acceptance Continued...

This is in lieu of a whole different post that was supposed to be for Thursday. But Crabby found the comments in the previous post on Fat Acceptance so articulate and compelling, she just wasn't quite ready to move on. If any readers missed the last post, skim over Crabby's part and jump down into the Comments, where the real action is.

Crabby has not managed to respond to all the comments in the last post yet, but she promises she will, either there or here. (It's bedtime, but she will be back). She will be in and out on Thursday, attending to the demands of Real Life, but she will also be catching up with you all when she can.

Of course by saying, "let's keep the discussion going," Murphy's Law pretty much guarantees that everyone will have said everything they wanted to say about this. Crabby will have made a big deal out of Nothing, and the Comments to this post will be empty. Perhaps no one else but Crabby is interested in keeping this going. That's fine; she's quite used to making a fool of herself.

But this is her hope: that people will keep telling their stories for a while longer, and her smart readers will comment on each other's comments a bit longer. (Feel free to comment in this post about something your read in the last one). Crabby also hopes inspiration will strike and that she will draw some grand conclusions, or at least have something to add. (More likely she will make some simplistic generalizations instead, and satisfy herself by being impressed and amazed at all of you).

So this is the plan: she will respond to your comments below, and Update this main post with Insipid Generalizations sometime later tomorrow. (Thursday).

As Crabby is very aware, the best thing about her blog are her clever and thoughtful readers.

Fat Acceptance: Thoughts and Stupid Questions

This is only the first post on this subject, because frankly, it's going to be an ignorant one. Just some random thoughts without any responsible research to back these thoughts up; one person's (or one Crab's) uninformed opinions.

This is with the hope that better informed readers out there will chime in, and that this could become a dialogue of sorts. It would be great to have follow-up posts in the future. Because the issue is complicated and contentious.

Cranky Fitness is a Health and Fitness site (though not a terribly serious one). There are discussions about calories and exercise; there is a general premise lurking behind many discussions that obesity is a health risk. That exercise and healthy eating and moderate portions are good for everyone, fat or thin. And that to the extent one's unhealthy habits cause one to put on excess pounds, it might be smart for individuals to Take Steps to reverse that trend.

That said, Crabby notes that:

1. Some people who exercise way more than average and eat way less than average have crappy metabolisms and are still fat. (And no, this is not due to "cheating," though some people do fool themselves. Crabby has lived with people who have made heroic efforts to lose weight with no success; she has observed their daily routines; and they are not all cheating).

2. Our culture, while encouraging the eating of junk food, and discouraging exercise and other healthy lifestyle choices, is at the same time, fat-phobic. We ridicule fat people and discriminate against them and conspire to make them feel badly about themselves. This is wrong. Society's attitudes towards fat people need to change.

So here's Crabby's dilemma. She goes to a great fat acceptance site like The Rotund (thanks, ChickenGirl, for the link), and she finds herself agreeing with almost everything on there.

And yet she goes to a convenience store and can't find anything remotely healthy to eat there, and she feels angry. Because as a culture, we are gluttonous and impulsive and childish. Crabby wishes we'd just grow up and behave more sensibly so she could get a piece of fruit and a pint of f*cking nonfat milk which often, she can't--because the shelves are full of chips and candy and sugary soft drinks. And not coincidentally, as a culture, we're getting fatter and sicker because of these kinds of choices.

So Crabby likes to believe that each individual fat person she meets is behaving in a reasonably healthy way, not subsisting on junk food or refusing to exercise or otherwise making stupid choices. But she can't ignore the evidence that such unhealthy behavior, in general, is making us as a population much fatter and much less healthy.

This leads to the aforementioned stupid questions. Crabby would love it if readers would offer any help. She really wants to understand where everyone is coming from.

If you think of yourself as fat:

How do you think you got that way--was it because of your lifestyle, your genes, or both? Are you making healthy choices now? If so, is that good enough, or do you feel pressure to lose weight as well? If you're not making healthy choices, what's getting in your way? What would make it easier?

And if you think of yourself as not fat:

Do you look down on fat people? Do you think they could all lose weight if they just tried hard enough? Do you think they're discriminated against? Do you think your own weight is a result of healthy lifestyle or did you get lucky with your genes?

Also, it's kind of silly to group people into "fat" or "not fat" when it's a continuum. So feel free to ignore this dichotomy and say anything whatsoever you want about this topic.

Crabby apologizes if she has offended anyone. She really is just looking for a bit more information and hopes you will help her.

Touchstone Ranch Recovery Center is a recovery center on a horse ranch using equine therapy.

Artist Makes Meatballs from His Own...

(Warning: Stop right here. You don't want to read this. Seriously. If you're new, skip down a post or two, right past the boring broccoli musings, to "Sidewalk Hogs" or something better. If you're a regular, check the archives or your other favorite blogs).

Still here? Don't blame Crabby, then, you're as stubbornly reckless about what you read as she is.

So we have Bethany over at That'sFit to thank for alerting us to this lovely story:

"Artist Makes Meatballs from His Own Fat." (Or did you think it was something even grosser?)

More of the story is here, but why go there when you can stay here and get completely disgusted?

Here's a quote:

"Artist Marco Evaristti mixed fat removed from his body by liposuction with ground beef to make meatballs, which he then fried in olive oil and displayed in a public gallery. He also invited 12 people to join him in eating the meatballs in a last supper."

He claims they tasted better than his grandmother's.

“I want to show people that meatballs made with my fat are no more disgusting than the meatballs you buy in the supermarket,”
he said.

Crabby doesn't know where Mr. Evaristti shops, but she's certainly not going there next time she needs meatballs.

You may have heard of this guy before: he's the one who put live goldfish in blenders and gave exhibit visitors the option of "making their own fish soup" by turning on the blenders.

Crabby really, really, does not like this man.

For those of you who are still left, any thoughts?