I enjoy trying out different Diets, and my personal style is to "carve out my own path". Therefore,  I'm usually involved in some type of dieting Experiment-of-One.

"Good Calories Bad Calories", by Gary Taubes, published in 2007. is an excellent book, however, it is about 500 pages long with more than 100 reference pages, and was written primarily for medical professionals.

I’ve read it at least 5 times, and I still haven’t absorbed it all because it is really hard. I have a doctorate in law, with an extensive history in legal research, but I still found it to be difficult reading.

The new book by Taubes, "Why we get fat and what to do about it", (2011) was written geared to people like me…those who are not medical professionals.  It is 250 pages and is a far easier to read. Although it isn't what I would call a quick read. This is the book that DietHobby is now featuring in BOOKTALK

This year, I am experimenting with Low-Carb because I have not yet found a Way of Eating to maintain my weight-loss that I enjoy enough to continuing doing for the rest of my life.

Low Carb is one of the few ways of eating that I have very little personal experience with. My body desperately wants to regain its lost weight, and maintenance takes constant vigilance. I’m hoping that low-carb will help eliminate some of my food cravings, as well as some of my hunger.

I’ve also spent a lot of time experimenting with Intermittent Fasting, and some of that was by using the 24 hr fasting method suggested by Brad Pilon. in his e-book, "Eat Stop Eat".  I own that book as well; have read it thoroughly several times; and think it is probably the best book around that addresses Intermittent Fasting at this point in time.

I will probably do more experimentation of Intermittent Fasting in the future. Neither Calorie Counting, Low-Carb or Intermittent Fasting are mutually-exclusive. A 24 hr fast is one way to further reduce insulin, and many low-carb people use it for that purpose.

My primary purpose for Intermittent Fasting has been to reduce my calories for up to one to three days a week, in order to drop my calorie averages. For me, the primary difficulty with Eat Stop Eat, or any Intermittent Fast, is not keeping my calories low on a fast day. I can do that. On Fast days my practice is to eat dinner only, around 350 to 400 calories, with no snacks after dinner.          

However, on “normal” days, the days before and after an intermittent fast, I have great difficulty eating only normal amounts, and not compensating by eating more food than my normal calorie allotment, and sometimes those fasts will trigger binge behavior for me. This might not be the case IF I were eating low-carb, since it is the sugars --refined carbs, and starches—complex carbs that allegedly trigger those cravings and binges.

Low-carb eating is different for everyone, andon pages 204 and 205 of his new book, WWGF,Taubes clarifies his position on this matter.

“The fewer carbohydrates we consume, the leaner we will be.
This is clear. But there’s no guarantee that the leanest we can be
will ever be as lean as we’d like. This is a reality to be faced.

As I discussed, there are genetic variations in fatness and leanness
that are independent of diet. Multiple hormones and enzymes affect
our fat accumulation, and insulin happens to be the one hormone
that we can consciously control through our dietary choices.
Minimizing the carbohydrates we consume and eliminating the sugars
will lower our insulin levels as low as is safe,
but it won’t necessarily undo the effects of other hormones….

This means that there’s no one-size-fits-all prescription
for the quantity of carbohydrates we can eat and still lose fat or remain lean.

For some, staying lean or getting back to being lean might be a matter
of merely avoiding sugars and eating the other carbohydrates in the diet,
even the fattening ones, in moderation; pasta dinners once a week,
say, instead of every other day.

For others, moderation in carbohydrate consumption might not be sufficient,
and far stricter adherence is necessary. And for some, weight will be lost
only on a diet of virtually zero carbohydrates, and even this may not be
sufficient to eliminate all our accumulated fat, or even most of it.

Whichever group you fall into, though, if you’re not actively losing fat
and yet want to be leaner still, the only viable option…
...is to eat still fewer carbohydrates, identify and avoid other foods
that might stimulate significant insulin secretion…and have more patience.
(Anecdotal evidence suggests that occasional or intermittent fasting
for eighteen or twenty-four hours might work to break through
these plateaus of weight loss, but this, too, has not been adequately tested) “

Eggs taste good.
They can be boiled, fried, scrambled, made into an omlet
and are a necessary basic ingredient in a great many recipes.

On the issue of nutrition, eggs are an excellent source of protein.

According to food nutrition facts, eggs are grouped under meats,
considering the fact that they contain a high percentage of protein
and choline (a B complex vitamin). Thus, eggs are included in a
high protein diet for muscle building and losing weight.

Containing all essential amino acids,
the protein present in egg is termed as perfect protein.
It is used as a standard for comparing other protein sources.

As far as the actual amount of egg protein is concerned,
the percentage in egg white (albumin) is higher than that of the yolk part.
The egg white extracted from a large egg contains approximately 4 g of protein.
In comparison to this, the total protein content in a whole egg accounts to
6 g (or slightly more). In a hard boiled egg, protein amount remains the same,
about 6 g.  Eggs provide essential amino acids, vitamins and trace minerals.

A large whole egg has about 80 calories,
while one egg-white has about 15 calories.
Except for protein, the egg-white (albumin part) is devoid of nutrients,
Therefore...aside from the calorie issue....
consuming a whole egg is a better way to get all the healthy nutrients.

Eggs are one of the staples of my food plan. I eat them all the time,
and I've already posted some of my favorite egg recipes here at DietHobby
in my RECIPES section.

Some of those recipes are:

Scrambled Egg & Buttered Bagel
Poached Egg & Buttered Toast
Egg, Bacon & Veggie Scramble
Eggbeater Custard
Egg White Pancakes

Below is another video egg recipe:  Eggs Benedict For One.  

                              
Take a look at your priorities and your goals.
Where did they come from?

Are they the products of soul-searching, self-analysis, and careful planning?
Or are they a reaction to pressures from other people?
Did you find them within yourself or within the pages of a magazine?

The answers to these questions are important
because they tell you if the person you're becoming
is someone you want to be.
Here's another way to look at a goal:
do you want it, or do you just think you should want it?

It's not easy to follow your own direction in life.
But it's more possible than you may think.

Question everything.
Every priority in your life needs to justify why it's there.
If you can't come up with a good reason
that actually comes from YOU, maybe it doesn't belong
. 

"To be nobody but yourself
--in a world which is doing its best, night and day,
to make you everybody else—

means to fight the hardest battle
which any human being can fight;
and never stop fighting."

...................by EE Cummings, poet

Anyone who has read very many of my prior posts should be aware that
I am a 5'0" tall medium-to-small-boned woman
who spent most of my adult life over 200 lbs, with a high of 271 lbs.

I have gained and lost over 100 lbs three separate times in my life.
Usually these this re-gains happened within about a 6 month time period,
simply by choosing to eat whatever I wanted, whenever I wanted.

Total freedom with food exacts a high price.

There are tall, large-boned women who can be attractive
and in good physical health at 200 lbs or more.
However, I am not one of these women.

I learned to accept and love myself, (through many years of therapy)
even when I was extremely obese.
That does not mean that I liked being enormously fat.

It has taken a great deal of very hard work to arrive at my current size,
and it takes a great deal of hard work to stay here.

I am very aware . . .from my own history. . .
that if I decide to allow myself to simply eat what I want whenever I want, 
that within 6 months to a year, I again will be 200, 270, or higher.

The only thing that would stop my body's weight ascent,
would be a return to controlled eating.
Then, I would have to control what I eat. . .
…to diet. . .just to stay 200, 250, or 300 lbs.
I know for a fact that there is no limit to how many lbs I can gain.
Therefore, I remain viligent and committed.

Like everyone else, I also want to be happy, healthy and free.
But for me, freedom with food, exacts a price I no longer want to pay.
In order to stay happy and healthy, I have to be willing to limit and control my eating.

Every Diet requires limits and controls over food intake.
In a perfect world, I could eat whatever I want, whenever I want to
and my body would adapt to a reasonable size.
But this is not a perfect world.

Sometimes I see inconsistencies between different Food Authorities
about the exact calorie count of a specific food.
I don’t think there is a way to really know which one of them is the most accurate.

It is always important to remember that Calorie Counts are ALL estimates,
even when they are written in books, online, or on menus and food labels.

I don't think it makes much difference which calorie counting source one uses.
Unless the calories are listed on the labels of the foods I use,

I ordinarily use the calorie counts listed in my software food journal, DietPower,
The source of which is a National Base. If it isn't in DietPower,
and I have no food label, there then I look at Calorie King,
or some other online source for a similar type of food.

I am doing the best I can to maintain my current weight,
or lose a few pounds. The idea of calorie counting
is just to do one's best to keep track of one’s food intake.
It is impossible to be totally accurate for a great many reasons.

First, my food measurements might not always be totally accurate,
for example, when I measure out 1/4 cup of dry oatmeal,
I fill a 1/4 cup as full as it goes.
The Oatmeal label says 1/4 cup equals x calories,
but it also says 1/4 cup is x grams...
Weighing out the grams shows that 1/4 cup is Less than full.
It is a very small difference, but these things can make quite a difference over time.

Another thing to be aware of is that the FDA only requires
food labels to be up to 20% accurate.
The reason those weights and measures laws exist
is to make certain the consumer isn’t shortchanged...
that is to make certain he/she gets at least that minimum amount of food.
Almost always, an inaccuracy is going to result in the consumer
getting MORE food ….which means a HIGHER calorie count that the label says.

Furthermore, labels aren't regulated very closely,
and there is a difference in accuracy between companies.
The very large food companies tend to be no more than 20% inaccurate,
but the smaller, mom and pop companies, can easily have up to a 50% error rate.

As a further example, fruit is now bred to be both larger and sweeter
than it used to be, but the calorie counts for fruits haven’t been increased.

What this means is,
no matter how closely one watches one's calories,
one is not going to be PERFECTLY accurate.
However, careful weighing and measuring food, and keeping track
in my food journal gives me the best chance of knowing my calorie number.

Those BMR or RMR numbers given by the charts showing the number of calories
that each of us burns, are based on either the Harris-Benedict or the Mifflin formulas.
These formulas were created from Averages, and are not necessarily accurate
for any one particular individual.

No matter what the Charts say my body's calorie burn rate should be,
if, over time, I gain weight on a specific calorie number,
I have to work to eat less than that calorie number.

Maybe I'm taking in more calories than I know,
Maybe I'm burning less calories than I know,
Bottom line, if...over time... I am gaining weight,
I have to...EAT LESS and move around a bit more.