Why did I tell my son that?!!??!!?

[livenraw]

Our oldest is in the military and just recently had to do his yearly physical, so for a week, he basically starved himself to drop 10 lbs to get his body fat % below 24% (since that's what they go by) Well, he told the dh that he was eating protein for lunch and then just a can of tuna for dinner, and that's how he dropped that fast in a week...

Well, I did something similar about a year ago when I was trying to break through a stall and dropped 6 lbs in 3 days and the dh dropped 10 lbs in 4 days but we weren't starving ourselves. We just lived off of meat, eggs and butter for those days...so yeah...high protein. high fat...and eventually, the appetite suppressant kicked in so we weren't as hungry, so I told our oldest he didn't have to starve himself for a week to drop 10 lbs and told him what the dh and I did for a few days.

So now I'm chastising myself for even bringing this up to him when it's not a healthy way to eat nor lose weight. Why did I do this? I want so badly to go back on my word of what I said and tell him to eat raw for a week to really see great results and more health benefits. He's still trying to drop around 30 lbs, and I want to mention raw to him, but I'm not sure how he'll take it or if he'll be accepting of it. He knows this is what I do, and he knows my results (but he won't actually see them until October when he comes up for a visit)

I'm just at a loss if I should say something or just let it go...

[Helen Of Tennessee]

Hi Livinraw,

I would share some info with him. Tell him what he did for the 1 week wasn't going to do much harm to him but he needs to be aware if he continues doing this that he is going to damage his liver, kidneys, etc. You just wanted to help him the quickest way you knew how, but now he has to learn a better, long term way of lowering his body fat. Here is an website, by MD doctors that explain why you don't want to do a high protein diet:

High Protein Diet Alert
http://www.atkinsdietalert.org/

<>< Helen of Tennessee

[StrawberryFields]

I agree with the above post. Don't beat yourself up over what you said in the past. Thank goodness you do know a better way now. Just give him the infomation and when he sees you, the proof will be in the pudding, the raw pudding, that is!

[Werevegan]

I've tried low carb before, too. And yes, I did lose a few lbs. But I couldn't stick with it for more than a few days at a time.

The common perception is that people who follow low carb diets become constipated. My experience was the exact opposite. :confused: I had serious runs almost immediately, and they lasted the entire time I ate low-carb.

Not to mention the lack of energy, fatigue, inability to focus, ad um.. ad nauseum. :p

Having said that, I don't believe you can drop 10 lbs. of body fat in one week. You can drop WEIGHT, but its highly unlikely that you will lose that kind of fat.

Carbohyrdates help the body retain water. In the absence of CHO in the diet, the body loses a lot of this excess water, which gives the appearance of lost body weight. Yes, its real weight, I mean weight is weight, but I don't know how it might have lowered your son's actual BF %. My experience, every time I tried the low-carb diet, was a loss of weight and an INCREASE in BF%, because my lean and fat "weight" remained the same, but my OVERALL weight had decreased, thereby increasing the % of that weight which was either lean or fat, although the actual amount of each was the same. I hope I'm explaining this well enough.

Of course, in the long run, you can lose body fat for real because ultimately low-carb dieting can be a low-calorie diet, too.

If your son did not have his body fat readings taken shortly before he went low carb, there is no objective way to say whether his short stint on low carb was water loss or fat loss. I'd be willing to bet water.

Perhaps you can explain this to him, if you're hoping to turn him off of low carb eating as a lifestyle.

[Arky]

Although I understand your reasons for reproaching yourself, provided you re-educate your son now, then he'll eat more sensibly in the future.

Don't be too hard on yourself - I even saw, to my utter disgust, this method being directly promoted on an episode of 'Fat Nation', a year ago, on BBC2 - a show that purported to be a promoter of healthy living (specifically diet, aimed at reducing the number of obese people in the UK population).

Furthermore, I was in Boots (the largest chain of chemists / drug stores in the UK) only last week, and saw multiple copies of Atkins' book distributed around the pharmacy area, as if it were the healthiest thing in the world to be promoted to ill and sick people of all ages. I can only imagine the justification might have been that the side-effects of following the high-protein, low carb, Atkins diet could drum up business for pharmaceuticals to 'smother' them.

In a local doctor's surgery a few months back, I picked up a leaflet on 'The Health Benefits of Green Tea', and read, to my horror, that it explicitly promoted the drinking of Green Tea as a specific means of achieving a 'healthy daily intake of flouride'!!! Flouride is a poison.

UNBELIEVABLE.

Then there's the soy industry, who insist that soy is a wonderfood that protects against cancer and assists those with hormaone problems. We'd best not get into this here, though, since it really does appall me!! ;)

Your supposed 'misdemeanour' wasn't great, but it was, at least, inadvertent - not a deliberate attempt to send your son's health astray. The above three examples demonstrate DELIBERATE misleading of the public, and direct and cyncial perversion of public health.


J.