Perhaps someone in that position should reassess whether their "goal weight" they have in mind is realistic or not. When I reached 230 pounds in one year after weighing in at 410 at the beginning of 2004, people asked me why I stopped losing. I told them that I felt healthy at that weight and there was no sense trying to artificially lower my weight further by trying to force the issue. Shedding 180 pounds in one year was a huge accomplishment, and I suppose I could have kept it going if I wanted to. But I didn't at the time for a number of reasons. Over the past few years, I convinced myself that maybe I needed to get down a little further and I was able to be as low as 213 at one point. However, I felt awful at that weight, became very weak with no energy whatsoever and experienced an unhealthy obsession with reaching a contrived number on the scale. While I don't think people who are carrying around loads of extra body weight is a good idea, it's also not prudent to try to force weight loss where it is unnecessary just to reach an artificial and arbitrary "goal weight." As I said before, you just keep doing what you know you should be doing (limiting carbs, eating ample fat and moderate protein, exercising, etc.) and that goal will come when it comes. By all means, put that stupid scale away if you're getting discouraged too!
8. Are we getting closer to acceptance in the medical community? Any predictions for the future?
Paraphrasing the immortal words of former President Bill Clinton, it depends on what your definition of the word "acceptance" is. Are the members of the medical community accepting the low-carb lifestyle as a healthy way of eating? It depends. If you call it the Atkins diet, then they rail against it as a "dangerous fad" and characterize it as a "high-protein" diet. It always makes me laugh when I see that, because anyone who has ever done Atkins by the book knows it is more properly described as a high-fat, moderate protein, low-carb diet. Where do they get this high-protein stuff from? Misconceptions abound despite all the research that has been released about low-carbohydrate nutritional approaches.
Back to your original question, are we closer to acceptance in the medical community? While they may not explicitly call it "low-carb," many medical professionals are realizing the inherent dangers of excessive carbohydrate consumption. Sure, most of the focus is on refined carbohydrates, but even starchy carbs are starting to become scorned somewhat. These kind of paradigm shifts in thinking take time to move, and it's not gonna happen overnight. Groups like the American Diabetes Association advocating low-carb diets for diabetics for up to one year for weight loss this year for the first time ever is a back door way for them to issue a mea culpa for their years of low-fat diet dogma now that they realize how harmful carbohydrates have been to insulin and blood sugar levels. They're slow to move on this because issuing a strong statement of support for low-carb diets after years of castigating it would open the door to class action lawsuits galore. That's why the American Heart Association, United States Department of Agriculture and other powerful and influential health organizations in America aren't changing their tune anytime soon. What's amazing is how long they've been able to put on this charade about the high-carb, low-fat dietary approach being healthy when it has been anything but. Have they looked at obesity rates skyrocketing? And how about incidences of type 2 diabetes spreading like wildfire? Let's not forget all of the preventable diseases that a low-carb diet would help turn around — where is the outrage about the conventional wisdom we've been given for decades?
That's why I do what I do at my blog like you do here at About Low-Carb Diets, Laura. People realize there is more to this diet and health story than they've been told which leads them to do their own personal research on the Internet to find our sites and become educated. This kind of education is what will bring about the acceptance in the medical community in conjunction with the preponderance of the evidence from the scientific community. I do believe we'll see this happen within my lifetime over the next 30 to 40 years. We'd like for it to hurry up and get here, but these processes of turning the Titanic around before hitting the proverbial iceberg indeed are slow as molasses on a cold, winter day.
9. What do you see as the current "hot topics" in the low-carb community?
Hot topics? There are a few of them that seem to be swirling around out there:
- What is the definition of "low-carb?"
- How much fat should you eat on a low-carb diet?
- Is a zero-carb diet better than a low-carb one?
- The emergence of more and more compelling low-carb research on health
- Are artificial sweeteners a good alternative to sugar?
