Well, I read through the first page, but not the rest. Let me add my 2 cents to this.
I've changed the way I've ate about 6 months ago. Notice I didn't say diet. I switched from eating like other average americans, to eating healthy and exercising daily. I take in around 35% protein, 50% carbs, and 15% healthy fats. I've lost 35 pounds in the process. Prior I weighed 250 pounds. Before I started however, I did my research and came across the huge amount of diets there were on the market. I've decided that all had their drawbacks, so I just kept it simple and use my common sense when it comes to eating.
Cut down the junk food, cut out the bad fats, cut out alcohol altogether, lowered my daily calorie intake a little if I'm trying to lose to keep it at a slow steady pace, ate adequate protein to maintain muscle mass, and did cardio to work my heart and lungs. The only thing I learned from the fad diets are moderation of carbs and eating good carbs such as multi-grain, so I didn't go all out carbs like some diets. Moderation is really the key.
Weight loss all comes down calorie intake versus calories needed.
Weight loss doesn't need to be such a difficult concept. To gravitate more to the healthy lifestyle, you eat healthy foods instead of junk food. You exercise instead of watching tv all the time. Weight loss simply means, that you intake less than you need. So instead of eating in 1500 calories at Burger King with a supersized value meal, you go eat a sandwich, a fruit, and a rice krispy treat for 1000 calories. Do that 7 times, you've lost a pound. You exercise daily, assuming you do enough activity to burn 350 calories a day, do that 10 times, you've lost another pound.
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Now lets take care of all this bullcrap arguments that's been going around with these diets
1) If food pyrimid is good for you, why are Americans progressively getting fatter
Well, for one, we sure aren't following the food pyramid. The reason we're getting fatter is because we sit down and watch tv all day, we've slowly migrated to desk and inactive jobs without staying active, and we're slowing adjusting our diet to become more fast food and market hype food. We teach all this to our kids, we get fatter, they get fatter, etc... Its true, you know it, the doctors know it, the studies proves it, quit trying to blame this on the carbs. If anyone understands this is why most of us are bigger than we should be, I didn't waste 20 minutes writing this.
2) Low Carbs is a new way of diet and is for all those whom low fat diets didn't work.
Well... kinda, but not really. If you cut out sugar and starches, which has been noted as bad for a long long time, you're pretty much on a low carb diet. The only real difference I see is that we're pointing out new things that have bad starches and stuff in it, such as refined flour in bread and pasta. Low fat diets were actually working pretty well for *most* people that stuck too it, but then a lot of people regained or failed, since it was a very frustrating way of life. When Atkins came up, it appealed to most people as being easy, and was easy to stick to.
3) Carbs are bad in general
Well, these are for the extremes. Refined carbs such as refined flour is bad for you, true. Sugars are bad for you true. But having a low fiber diet is also. A low carb diet might lead to loss of muscle tissue resulting in a slower metabolism. Moderation and eating "good" carbs, such as whole grains, will do you little harm.
4) Fad diets are high in sat fats, low in fiber, and promotes unhealthy eating.
Well... this is a basic result of people who don't read the entire book or use any common sense. Atkins tells you a bunch of stuff that you should and could eat, red meats such as sausage and bacon just happen to be one of them. Some dieters take that its ok to eat as much as they want of one thing they like, resulting in unhealthy eating by eating bacon 3-5 meals a day. Then those opposed to it point that out and say, bad. Technically, you're supposed to eat a variety and get moderate carb intake later, but who the hell reads that far.
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Well, there's my rant, shoot me down, flame me, whatever, I'm probably not goign to read through this thread again anyways. Just trying to help a few souls. If I repeated anything, I apologize.
Btw, read WASVI's post, it should clear up a lot of misconceptions.
PS - Pretty good deal for pretein bars, just to stay on topic