I exercised Patience today.

It was Exhausting.

Any reader who has paid attention to my posts here at DietHobby knows that...

I highly respect the work of Journalist, Gary Taubes, who wrote "Good Calories Bad Calories"  and "Why We Get Fat".  In fact DietHobby's section; BOOKTALK  features "Why We Get Fat", together with summaries of what I personally found in every single chapter.

Since these books were published, I have conducted quite a few personal Experiments-of-One with Low-carb eating. In fact,  I'm involved in one at present.

However, my own experience and education leads me to believe that this not a one-size-fits-all-world, and that while Every Diet Works for Someone, No One Diet Works for Everyone.

As a lay person with no biochemistry education,  I'm interested in Gary Taubes' Low-carb Theories, and am open to the issues involved in his alternative hypothesis ..., although I will admit at this point I am not convinced that the hormone "insulin" is the sole and ultimate answer. 

Based on my own personal Experiments-of-One, and life experience of observing others, I am still convinced that Calories matter. While I can see that the body processes macronutrients differently, and that additional processing differences exist between individual bodies due to genetic and/or hormonal differences etc., no matter HOW nutrients are processed within the body, it seems obvious to me that ultimately, fat gain, loss, or maintenance, is a matter of Energy balance in and out. This is despite whether, or not, one makes the choice to label that Energy with a caloric number. While body processing differences can make it difficult for one to know precisely how much energy each molecule of food possesses, I cannot help but think that Discounting this Truth as  "CICO garbage", as many people in the the low-carb community tend to do, is a rather stupid way to throw out the baby with the bathwater.

I also respect the work of the obesity specialist, Dr. Yoni Freedhof, M.D. and find his take on Gary Taubes NuSi's potential Research very interesting, so I'm sharing two of his related articles about it here at DietHobby. The first article he posted today, and the bottom one is from a year ago. 

 Here's the current one:

I Predict Gary Taubes' NuSi's First Experiment Will Show Dramatic Low-Carb Benefits 
             by Dr. Yoni Freedhof, M.D. 8/28/13 www. weightymatters.ca

Because that's exactly what it appears it's designed to do.

Taubes lays out the experiment in his recent NuSi promoting Scientific American piece. He's going to take 16 individuals with overweight and obesity and house them in a research facility so as to ensure careful and total control over their dietary intake. Next...

In life we often experience multiple wants and desires. Frequently these desires are incompatible with each other and, even worse, sometimes we make decisions that result in neither one of our desires getting fulfilled. 

Self-sabotage can be the result of conflicting desires, where a person has two (sometimes more) desires that are incompatible with each other. Fulfilling one of these desires means losing out on the other. This often involves two or more conflicting goals, often one being a short term goal (like the desire to overeat) and the other being a long term goal (like wanting a "normal" bodysize).

The short term goal often tends to win out, however, because the behavior supporting that goal feels more immediately satisfying, while the behavior supporting that more distant, long-term goal seems more difficult. Yet, in the long run choosing short term goals over long term goals leads us down that path in life of "how did I end up here?"

Sometimes just taking even a brief moment to think about the conflicting desires present within us can help us avoid self-sabotage. Calmly accepting and considering each desire before acting, knowing that we always have a choice, can help reduce the inner fighting and make that battle easier.