I read Good Calories, Bad Calories several times. The last couple when severely brain-fogged from a very low carb diet.
So I was stunned when I read Denise Minger’s 2015 post In Defense of Low Fat.
I had been reading low carb blogs for years, and I had read Taubes seemingly reasoned take on the carbohyrdrate-insulin hypothesis with a history that discussed seminal figures in detail, like William Banting, but I had never noticed a discussion of Walter Kempner until reading Minger’s post.
Many people have over the years started Youtube channels to chronicle their weight loss. Past of the reason for doing so is accountability. I believe High Carb Hannah mentioned that as part of her motivation.
I’ve been in dire need of personal accountability.
I remember well the pinnacle of my low carb diet experience — then more than 50 pounds weight reduced after 18 months of perfect adherence to the diet, staying in ketosis day after day after day. I ate less than 20 french fries in a year (I counted them out carefully, one by one — the exact total in 2012 was 13 french fries).
I woke up one day wondering how did I get here? This is not my beautiful life. This is not my beautiful house. How did I get here (cue the Talking Heads…)?
Well, it wasn’t quite as bad as waking up and finding oneself stuck to the ceiling as a cockroach, completely unrecognizable to my family, but it wasn’t a pretty picture. I was instead a middle-aged guy with a very long list of life issues to solve. A heaping helping of problems.
Where to start? Let’s start with losing weight. I thought I should start with losing 75 pounds.
I was well north of 250 pounds. “At least I can fix that one problem,” I told myself, “then the rest won’t seem so bad.” Plus I’d discovered the writings of Gary Taubes. He’d gussied up the previously intellectually unseemly Atkins diet thing. Atkins had worked for me 15 years before, albeit only briefly and on a much smaller scale, so suddenly one day I took the plunge. After all, who the hell doesn’t like bacon and eggs for breakfast.
I ultimately read Good Calories, Bad Calories several times. Everything Taubes. I began reading the impenetrable Hyperlipid, and there I met other smart, fascinating zealots (how does a brain-fogged only marginally science-capable person read Hyperlipid? Very very slllllooooowlllly).
I read other low carb blogs and hung out on forums. I got excited. In short, I got religion. Even before I’d seen some of the oiler low carb evangelists in their white patent leather shoes, thumping their copies of Atkins and handling snakes.
Little did I know my fix was just the beginning of a whole new set of issues.
This blog is the meandering, circuitous story of what ensued.
Carpe Carbem 