Finding balance of calories to eat to lose weight while training (Read 1230 times)

there is NOTHING inherent in calorie counting that prevents that.

Totally agree. The problem is, its actual realization in the world is one in which all calories are treated equal. If one learns the full tenets: count calories, eat a responsible amount, make sure the calories are from healthy food, then this approach makes sense and is fairly similar to Pollan.

I also think it is unrealistic to expect that one would NEVER eat non-food.

Totally agree. But we sould not define our lifestyle by the exceptions.

Not my grandma...maker of "doorstop banana bread" that never tasted of bananas and was dry as hard tack and vegetables that had been boiled until they were no longer recognizable. I'll bet Grandpa would have been glad to get grandma FAR away from any kitchen and food preparation responsibilities. (though her Limpa bread was da bomb!)

Ha! Good point. I had one grandmother who was an incredible cook. The other, yikes-ola.

Not my grandma...maker of "doorstop banana bread" that never tasted of bananas and was dry as hard tack and vegetables that had been boiled until they were no longer recognizable. I'll bet Grandpa would have been glad to get grandma FAR away from any kitchen and food preparation responsibilities. (though her Limpa bread was da bomb!)

You also have to go pretty far back to avoid refined. Home-made yes, but white flour and white sugar have been around for quite awhile. I have (can't believe I am admitting this) the Laura Ingalls Wilder cookbook (ok I was a fan AND I collect cookbooks). Man...there wasnt anything moderately caloric in that. White flour biscuits and gravy. Chicken pot pie. Fried Chicken. Pie with white flour and white sugar. The list of the "typical Sunday brunch" was incredible. The cookbook has photos of them and their Farm (this is later after the books, when she was married) Her husband is skinny as a whip, probably from farming and from all reports he was always thin with a very large appetite. She is heavy. But she lived a pretty healthy life. Not many older matrons were thin. Even overweight, my guess is that the kind of food, even if it was a bit much at times combined with the harder physical labor of being a farm wife the weight gain was probably slow and steady, not rocket roller coaster like today. People got heavier as they aged, not heavy in their childhood and teens. Probably more fat in the extremities and less packing around the internal organs. I'm guessing obesity diseases dont hit as hard with gradual late in life obesity vs current. Plus we are talking maybe 40 lbs over weight and active.

Ann- no, there is more to it than that, but the topic was about losing weight....originally. It also is not anti-Pollan And I was wrong, it wasnt Sunday brunch. This is the description of the workday farm breakfast Laura made as described by her daughter "Here are bowls of oatmeal with whole pints of cream, large dishes of baked apples, the blue platter full of sizzling ham with many eggs disposed upon it; here are hot cakes piled by tens and dozens with melting butter and brown sugar between them, and hashed brown potatoes,, Graham bread and white bread, fresh butter, honey, jam, milk and the steaming pot of coffee...Doughnuts or gingerbread accompany the coffee cups' second filling, and then - for he was a boy in New England - my father likes just one medium size wedge of apple pie to top off the meal and finish the foundation for a good day's work"

My mouth actually watered while reading this.

A little food porn for ya!