I'm not sure if this will be much help, but I just wanted to offer a little anecdote.
My dad went to the doctor and his cholesterol, bp, and blood triglycerides were through the roof. Before they put him on medicine they had him TRY to lose weight (which I am sure they tell everyone. but don't expect much). My dad started eating very low fat and literally lost 30 pounds in a month. Now I know drastic weight loss is bad, but he was definitely getting in the calories per day he needed with carbs, protein, and a little fat. It has worked amazingly for him, so I just like to share because I am proud of him!
PS his numbers were awesome when he went back, the doctor couldn't believe it and he's been maintaining for about a year
Wow, how do you get as low as 40 grams of fat? I'm doing 1450 calories/day and find it almost impossible to get under 45g in a day. And that's with almost all veggies/fruit, rye crackers for bread, no more than 1-2 tsp of added fat like olive oil or reduced-fat mayo or cream cheese a day, skim dairy, lean meats and fish, and cooking for myself (no packaged foods).
oh my, I just wrote a long reply, hit the wrong button and LOST it all. Talk about frustration.
I'll start again, and try to keep it simpler.
First of all, petlover congrats on your dad's success. You must be so proud.
bronzeager, I could never get to 40 grams of fat a day eating reduced fat foods. Reduced fat foods are not truly low fat foods. I personally go for the fat free products, like fat free mayo, cream cheese, cottage cheese, nonfat milk, etc. Some low fat products are low enough, like cottage cheese, and some others but not many.
I get my essential fats from fish oil (3 of my monster capsules have 3 grams of fat), and flax meal (2 tb. of my flax meal have 4.5 grams of fat).
We eat the leanest meat like chicken breast, round or sirloin, and pork tenderloin, all excess fat trimmed off. It's amazing how low in fat these meats are, once you cut away the fat. I was a vegetarian, but my husband has convinced me to follow this plan with him, and I'm so excited he wants to lose his weight, I'm just eating the right foods along with him, for ease of preparation.
Lots of beans, which have minimal fats and whole grains which have minimal fats.
It's all explained in the T Factor Diet book. We bought the revised edition in 2001 and finally, due to our ultimate lack of success with calorie counting, low carb diets, and insulin resistance type diets, went back to that book and started following it again, hoping for the same success we achieved in the 90's.
In that book the author talks about the fallacy of the popular media stating that low fat diets are a failure because the public has reduced their fat intake over the years, but gotten fatter. In the book he discusses that lie, that we are still eating almost as much fat as we've ever eaten, but due to certain statistics, it looks like we're eating less fat. Not true. He goes into that in detail, and it's a very impressive read.
Lots of recipes, tips, etc. in the book. Worth it for that alone. He explains why fats are the most calorically dense foods around.
We use a fat gram counter we ordered from the University of Minnesota. It's the most comprehensive fat counter around, but you can buy all sorts of fat gram counters at the local bookstore/amazon.
Well hope this helped! It can be done, and we are doing it. If you are on any of the prescription/over the counter weight loss drugs like Alli or Orlistat (we are not), you MUST eat a very low fat diet, so it can be done.
o.k. one last p.s. The author does state that we will have limited success if we eat too much sugar, processed carbs, and sugar-laden fat free cakes (which were prevalent in the 90's. Anyone remember those Entemann fat free cakes we all binged on?)...so healthy, low fat, minimally processed carbs are the key.
I have recently gotton out my t-factor book and have been reading it. I plan on starting this program tomorrow (Wed). Is anyone else interested in doing this plan at this time.
It seems to make sense not to eat all that fat. Maybe we could encourage one another.
During my teen years (during the 90s) this was all the rage. When I started to get a bit chubby around the age of 15, it was turning to a low-fat, fat-counting diet that helped me. I wasn't overweight though - I probably started doing it when I was about 67kg (so nearly overweight according to my BMI but not quite) and it got me down to 60kg and I stayed that weight for years by watching my fat intake alone. I tried to stay under 20g at first but then went to 30g.
I didn't eat tons of sugar - mostly cereals/grains/veges/fruit. I was vegetarian for a good portion of that time I was a fat counter too.
I was slim, healthy, active and I kept the weight off and only had to actually "count" the fat grams for a few months before I quit that and just "knew" what was high fat and what wasn't. I found it a really easy lifestyle to follow.
Unfortunately I've tried going low fat since - within the last couple of years when I need to lose over twenty kilos just to get to 67kg again - and it just didn't work. I'm counting calories now. I WISH it worked for me still, but it just doesn't seem to agree with me anymore.
Reading this thread made me curious about where my fat intake stands, as I first started watching my weight when lowfat was the way to go. I've been tracking my intake at mypyramidtracker.gov for more than a year so could run statistics on my averages over the last year. I've been averaging 13.2 gms of saturated fat/day (approx 7.4% of daily total calories) and 41.2 gms total fat/day (@23% of daily total).
That stays withing the guidelines that gives me "smiley faces" on that site and in addition to weight loss my annual lipid panel has improved from "borderline" to "very good".
I kinda lean toward this program, although I don't follow it to the letter. Does anyone remember the rule, "no more than 3 fat grams per 100 calories" on this plan? I think I got this from T-Factor. I am on 55 fat grams/day for now and will lower it as I go along.
Heh. After saying earlier in the thread that I don't count fat grams any more, I've been keeping a measure the past two weeks and I've experienced some good results and found it really easy, so I'm going to keep up the fat gram counting for now and see how it goes.
I with ya, Goldenleaf. I'm gonna try to kick off this round of weight-loss with this plan, first, since I had success with it back in the '90s. Last night was rough, for I was starving at 9:00pm and broke down and had a peanut butter sandwich! Need to add some more protien in the mix.
Does anyone have the T-factor recipe for Picadillo & Cornbread?
Does anyone have the T-factor recipe for Picadillo & Cornbread? I went to get my old recipe book but must have lost it in a recent move. It has beans, raisins, cumin, tomato something, red/orange/green bell peppers, and ?????
