Its just a rehash of the food pyramid that caused all the problems in the first place.

Far too many carbs for me, but for the average person I think controlling portion size and overall calorie intake is the most important thing.

How can someone possibly 'give up' sugar? It's in practically everything naturally. Do some folk seriously cut fruit from their diet?

Last year I really made an effort to do something about my weight gain. In nearly 11 months, I've gone down from 13 stone to just under 11, and that's with one of the 'excuses' normally associated with being 'unable' to lose weight (underactive thyroid). My chosen diet? 'Eating less and moving more'.

What's in fruit that isn't in vegetables?

I give up. What is it?

I gave up sugar once and the changes were massive (though I only drank water as well).

First, my skin started clearing up. The red tinge, small blotches and roughness went away and even though I was in my late-20s, people thought I was younger. My hair went from being straw-like to soft and silky (girls would like that one). The weirdest change was at night when I was laying in bed, all I heard was complete silence. You don't really notice the sound of your blood circulating or the very faint sound of your heartbeat. I found it very easy to sleep, all my aches and pains went away. My bones stopped clicking etc.

I had a greater sense of calm and tranquility and my thinking became clearer. I found that I was reading more and had more patience. I began to organise my life better.

After a while, I became less spontaneous and creative. I couldn't banter with friends like I did before and I became more aware of my surroundings. Small, trivial things began annoying me, I didn't laugh as much, I got into arguments with people easily. Then my legs began aching constantly to the point I couldn't sleep. I put up with this for another two weeks before going back to sugar.

Interesting reading, Pencil. Can I ask did you cut out on processed carbs and artificial sweeteners too?

Grabid Rannies;


Yes. I honestly couldn't tell you the last time I ate fruit. Its been atleast a couple of years.


I don't believe any of the excuses for why people say they can't lose weight because these days, thanks to the internet, we have examples virtually coming out of our ears of people who have despite their conditions.
Different things work for different people. I come from an overweight gene pool, pretty much all my family are losing the battle and for me what worked was getting my carbs down to 20 grams a day. I lost a stone and a half in 3 weeks.

A lot of that will have been water weight but still, well done! I'm on the same diet and it's absolutely amazing. I can't see me ever coming off it.

The whole 'everything in moderation' thing that's spouted out from everyone at the first given opportunity is wrong. It's wrong because the definitions of 'moderation' are wrong. The body doesn't need any sugar at all, it barely even needs carbohydrates.

2,000 calories for women, and 2,500 for men, isn't it? Sounds reasonable to me.

I work in an office so I barely do anything all day. I require a lot less food than I did when I did 10 hour night shifts stacking shelves at Asda.

1. Those numbers are an average. Its not a one size fits all.

2. Calories of different foods produce different responses in different people and we've known this for years because of feeding experiments.

I think that's fairly obvious, and something I've said myself several times on here, which is why I don't go in for the demonisation of sugar. But one thing for certain is that if you take in more calories than you burn, you will gain weight.

I think absolutely everything I eat has to have some sugar in it. I had to give up eating cereal because I had to add sugar to every spoonful. My coffee either has to have vanilla syrup or 3 heaped sugars. I'd probably go a bit loopy without sugar!

Its true that if you take in more than your body can use of certain things(you won't get fat eating meat and salad)then you will gain weight but that doesn't mean everyone gains weight at the same rate, even if they're on the same calories. Some people are a lot less likely to become obese and it has nothing to do with their diet, its just the way they were born.

Consuming your daily calories through carbohydrates makes it a LOT easier to over-eat. Carbs make you hungry. It's why Special K and low fat yoghurt diets are completely unsustainable. It's why you can eat a 2500 calorie Chinese meal and feel starving hungry 4 hours later.

Eat 2000 calories worth of pork and cheese and you're not getting hungry for a very long time.

I understand why low-carb helps people lose weight. I've posted on it ad nauseum, and while I don't have a weight problem, I I eat low-ish carb myself to help control my type 1 diabetes. But it's not for everyone, and a blanket demonisation of sugar is impractical and unnecessary.

And I've never seen anyone recommend eating your daily calorie intake through carbohydrates alone, so I don't understand your point there.

Most people's beliefs are that the less fat you eat, the better. So 55% carbs, 40% protein and 5% fat is ideal in most people's eyes. This is simply not the case.

The government are finally doing something right by pushing this demonisation on carbs.

That's much different from consuming your daily calories through carbohydrates, and I doubt most people think about their diet in that much detail. Before going low carb, I grew up eating a standard diabetic exchange diet that included pasta, potatoes and bread, and I never had a weight problem. That's because I practiced strict portion control.


Are they? I thought the idea was that there should be less sugar, and therefore fewer calories in our processed food.

My mum had a friend in rehab and there was a complete suger detox going on when she was in there and people was actually really I'll from the detox and it's got to be one of the worst detoxes from all accounts as suger is in almost everything.

I'm only speaking for myself here, but I don't think it's necessary to 'give up' sugar, fruit is healthy and full of vitamins and minerals, and it has fiber so you don't get that spike in blood sugar the same way you might with a portion of sweets or a can of regular Coke. What I'm trying to do is cut out 'excess' sugar, I don't drink soda, I don't put sugar in my tea, I limit sweets, but I'd be happy to see a change in packaged foods, most of them don't need all that sugar.

Not for me it isn't it.
I lost weight very easily eating that way. I even used to eat those low fat yoghurts every single day and I still lost weight.
In fact I grew up eating mainly bread and potatoes (just like lots of other people did, in the pre-obesity era) and wasn't overweight.
There again, I don't drink things like coke (never have done) or eat take aways, so I suppose my diet balanced out that way.

Japan eats shed loads of rice. Italy eats shed loads of pasta. France eats shed loads of bread.

None of them have as severe an obesity problem.

I'm not giving up carbs, I'm just giving up added sugar. So I'm still eating rice and fruit, but no biscuits or yogurts or cans of baked beans.


Trying to be realistic so that I can sustain this diet for a bit longer than my last one which only lasted for a month.

It is all down to ready processed meals in the UK and US where they are sweetened and fattened to make the food tastier.

Everything nice is fattening or sinful.