First an introduction: My name is Vicki, I'm 53 years old, married with cats, and I live in New York near the Hudson River closer to Albany than NYC. I've been overweight most of my life and many years of yo-yo dieting have really messed up the old metabolism. I have low thyroid (under control - taking meds), chronic depression (taking meds), and severe hypoglycemia (controlled by diet). I felt lousy all the time until I discovered the Zone years ago. I followed that plan and found the higher protein, lower carb way of eating was good for my health. I didn't exercise much though and I started Body for Life in April of 2001.

I now exercise alot and have improved my fitness dramatically. I've lowered my overall cholesterol 40 points as of last October and expect even better results next October. In August 1999 I weighed 275 lbs. (I'm 5'6" tall) and body fat was 48% when I started BFL in April 2001. I now weigh 242 and BF is 41.1%. Obviously I have a long way to go! But I'm workin' on it. My results with BFL have been mostly excellent. I've lost 22-3/4 inches overall but the pounds are coming off very slowly and I get discouraged. I "met" Nat at a BFL site and she suggested I come here with my questions. Overall since BFL, I feel much better, have lots of energy, and am generally healthy.

Here's my questions (and maybe you might want to direct me to the BFLr's??? but anyone who wants to please feel free to answer):

1. As I'm sure you all know, low carb eating has gotten a bad rap. I, too, have been afraid of it, specifically with the higher fat content. Doesn't the higher fat raise cholesterol and isn't it bad for a person (heart, colon, strokes, etc.)?
2. I know I am carbohydrate-sensitive by the way my body and mind react after an even "normal" carbo meal. I don't want to cut out carbs too much (again worried about the health issues), but I'd like to find a happy medium between the BFL plan (40/40/20) and a low-carbohydrate plan. Any suggestions?
3. What about eating for the long-term? I need a plan I can do for the rest of my life, not just one I will quit when I lose all the weight. Can a lower-carb, higher-protein way of eating be safe for the long haul?
4. I eat 6 "meals" a day but because of my work schedule which doesn't allow for breaks longer than 5 minutes (and I cannot eat at my desk), I have to chow down 3 to 4 Zone bars daily during 5-minute potty breaks. Although they are "balanced nutrition (40/30/30)", I'm positive this isn't good for me and doing this is causing me to feel (sometimes) hypoglycemic/shaky/hungry quickly/confused/and generally "not right". I bet they're too high in sugar. Any suggestions for a substitute that is more whole food and can be eaten in 5 minutes on the toilet (LOL)?

I really appreciate any insight you guys can give me. I post at a BFL site and a site at Oprah.com but I really need some "expert" advice on what I can do to tweak my program and improve my health. Thanks so much & looking forward to your comments! Vicki.

Hi Vicki......

First of all.....let me say....Welcome to the forum! I know that you will find lots of information and inspiration here.

Congratulations on doing BFL! There are quite a few of us here doing it as you will see if you peek into the BFL forum and to a thread called "Roll Call". I've been doing BFL since January with one 1-week break and I love it and am thrilled with my improved LBM and newfound strength.

I'm not sure that I have answers to all of your questions, but I think that you would be able to find much of the information that you are looking for here anyway.

1. Higher Fat =Higher Cholestrol? Nope....not in my experience. There are good explanations for this in both DANDR and Protein Power. My first hand experience is that my cholestrol has gone down from high/normal to low/normal, since LCing.

2. I'm doing BFL with a modified version of Atkins. I average about 40g ECC/day with a total of about 50g of carbs including fiber. Most of my carbs come from fruit and vegetables. This amount seems to work out for me as I'm still managing to lose weight and also support BFL. Check out my menus in my journal if you want an idea of how I manage it.

3. I think that YES! we can get along with the higher protein/lower carb way of eating in the long term. I believe that as long as we are getting in fruit and veggies, leaving out the carbs that come from processed foods and from sugar can't possibly be a bad thing. I know that when I get where I want to be, I'll just keep adding in carbs (good ones) a la DANDR's OWL until I stop losing.

4. I'd suggest that you discuss with your employer being able to eat while at work. Your nutrition is very important to keeping your brain in a condition that you can do your work. I don't get very long breaks to eat at work either. I've usually manage to wolf down a can of tuna, premixed with mayo or 1 cup of cottage cheese. Things that don't need much chewing. Protein shakes could be a possibility for you as well. You'll need to be extra careful that you get in your fruit and veggies when you are at home.

Hope this helps some.

Marlaine

I hope I spelled that right--my five-year-old keeps wandering in and out of the office and she's singing at the top of her lungs, so my concentration's *not* the best at the moment.

I've been LCing for over a year (4/1/2001), and BFLing since March 18 2002 (I'm on Week 11--well, it should be week 12, but I was on vacation for a week so I'm behind now). I've lost nearly 50 lbs in that time. I have NOT lost an ounce since the end of February this year, but in that same time (since the end of Feb) I have gone from a size 14 pants to size 12. I know it's gotta be more muscle, less fat! I've also dropped over 12" in that time thanks to BFL.

I'm one of the "bad girls" that doesn't know her blood work numbers, so I can't say that I know for sure my cholesterol count has improved, gotten worse, or changed at all for that matter. I never had any trouble with BP (I'm usually right around 110/70), so that's not an issue. I *can* say that the physical symptoms of imbalanced blood sugar (irritability, "crashes," bingeing, headaches, and so on and so forth) have virtually vanished--the bulk of them having done so within the first month or so that I was LCing as my way of life.

When I do fall off the wagon (and I do, I'm human, after all, you know?) I feel it *right away*. Makes it easier to pick myself up, grab the water bottle, and get back on track.

I too have limited time to eat at work; we get two 10-minute breaks at 9am and 2pm, and a 20-minute lunch break at noon. I usually have a protein shake before I leave home, a serving of protein and one of carbs at break (perhaps cheese and half an apple), a decent lunch of meat and salad or veggies, another snack similar to the first one in the afternoon, and then dinner comes either within the hour after my lifting workouts or more than an hour after my cardio. I'm doing the PPLP nutrition plan, as is Nat; I enjoy having more carbs than I could have on Atkins, and it certainly doesn't seem to be upsetting the apple-cart, so to speak. I don't have wheat, corn, millet, or rye, nor anything containing them (not knowingly anyway); I enjoy the occasional bowl of steel-cut oatmeal (Go McCanns!), or some spelt flakes (thank gods for Arrowhead Mills!) with cream, but that makes for a pretty carb-heavy breakfast so I have to be sure to balance it out later in the day.

Is this a way I can eat for the rest of my life? You bet it is. I feel like a different woman now. I can remember being so tired by mid morning I'd scarf two or three chocolate bars for a pick-me-up--and of course I'd crash a half-hour later when the blood sugar rush wore off. I'd have lunch of a burger and fries and a large shake--but a diet soda, you know, have to watch those calories. (What a joke.) Breakfast? What's that? I didn't have the energy to eat breakfast. Dinner? Whatever's fast and handy--might have protein, might not.

THAT is no way to live. It's a quick trip to the cemetary.

Now it looks more like this:

Protein shake made with whey protein, cream, water, frozen blueberries
1/2 apple and 3 or 4 oz hard cheese, or 1 1/4 cups cottage cheese with 1/2 cup grapes
5oz broiled chicken with a serving of broccoli, or a salad of romaine with grape tomatoes and ranch dressing
(whichever version of the snack I didn't have in the morning, for the afternoon)
5-6 oz smoked salmon with mayonnaise, steamed green beans with butter, a salad with blue cheese dressing, and perhaps a slice of LC cheesecake if I'm being decadent
Another protein shake before bed, perhaps

I add flaxseed oil to the shakes to get in more of that good fat our bodies require, along with glutamine powder to help with muscle growth. I use butter or olive oil for frying *everything* from eggs to tofu to zucchini. I keep Splenda and stevia on hand for sweetening. I try not to drink or eat anything with aspartame in it--although that's tough, as fond as I am of dietetic gelatin. There's *one* brand I can name that doesn't contain aspartame. I'm aiming for 150g of protein a day (1g per lb of LBM, and I'm guesstimating what that is--I honestly am not sure at this time). If I'm wrong there, I know someone will see this and correct me! (It's been a while since I've surfed the boards, you see....)

I hope this rambling has been of some help to you. Don't hesitate to drop me a line in my journal if you have questions--and I know everyone else here feels the same way! It's the most supportive community for LCing I have come across, and it's been a life-saver more than once. Again, welcome!

Hi Vicki

You pretty much know my take on LC and BFL already. You've met Marlaine and Karen, they are both following a LC WOL and are doing BFL (with tremendous success). There are members on this board who have been LCing in some form or another for years, and I'm sure you'll hear from them as well.

Regarding your questions. Cholesterol levels and your overal blood lipid profile tends to improve when you follow a LC WOE (way of eating). When you feed your body the cholesterol and fat that it needs on a daily basis it does not have to manufacture any. 80% of the cholesterol in your body is manufactured by your body, only 15% is from food. The problems with cholesterol happen when it becomes oxidized and it an agreed up on fact that the type that is made by your body is much more easily oxidized.

Low fat diets by themselves actually result in lower HDL and an overal bad ratio of HDL to total cholesterol - it is the exercise you do that raises the HDL. Low Carbhoydrate 'diets' actually have the opposite effect; LDL is lowered, triglycerides are lowered and HDL is raised. The Drs' Eades in Protein Power provide a very detailed and logical explanation of just how this happens - and why it happes. You can read a bit more from them off their FAQ page . Of some interest to you in particular, they supply information on how their Plan resembles / contrasts with The Zone.

Everyone doing BFL by the book will tell you that you need carbs to build muscle. It's just not so. Marlaine, Ruth, Lisaf, Homegirl, DivaDani, Me, KarenB - we are all here to prove them wrong On less than 60g of carbs a day we have lost body fat and built us some impressive shiny new muscle mass. We all have journals and gym logs if you'd like to get a look at what we do in the gym and how we eat on a daily basis. Lisaf is following Schwarzbein - a more moderate carb approach and Karen and I use Protein Power nutrition; Ruth, Bobbie and Dani all eat a la Atkins, but with carbs that are more in keeping with OWL (ongoing weight loss).

I honestly believe this is viable way of eating for the long term. I used to have those hypoglycemic moments. I used to get very tired in the afternoon. I used to be an insomniac. I used to be obese. I'm not anymore. I stopped eating bread and grains and I gave up sugar. I still eat fruits and veggies. That small change in what I put into my mouth has changed the quality of my life like nothing else ever has. It still floors me when I think about it. I have no desire to eat grains/flour/bread ever again.

I do suspect you're right about those Zone bars. Ask anyone around here, they'll tell you, I have a hate on for LC bars and fake foods If you feel different after you eat something, listen to your body. It's trying to tell you something.

I hope we were able to answer some of your questions.
Nat