Beware chess makes you fat!.

  Some Americans run marathons, lift weights, ski, snowboard, and so forth, but
we do need to get more people involved.

If you see an attractive woman in Michigan, she is a visitor.

Actually there are doctors today that share my opinion. They have studied ALL their lives and are quite capable of making such statements. Ofc it is your choice to belive that "the opinion and thought of the majority is always the truth". I can't help you with that problem.

1) Uhm, you all are the ones that are saying it is not healthy to eat the way human kind has been eating for 200.000+ years. Why am I the one need to prove my side? I'd like you to show me the proof of something so natural as fat in our diet causing us health problems. It is like asking me to prove that touching rocks is harmful for our health eventhough we have been using rocks as tools for hundreds of thousands of years. Do you see how unreasonable that is?

2) Show me those death causes. People do mix up conditions and cause of deaths. I promise you that not one single case is because of KETOSIS. One thing many do not understand is that Ketosis is not the same thing as KETOACIDOSIS. Ketoacidosis IS extremely dangerous condition that can cause death if not treated.

From wiki "Ketoacidosis is most common in untreated type 1 diabetes mellitus, when the liver breaks down fat and proteins in response to a perceived need for respiratory substrate. Prolonged alcoholism may lead to alcoholic ketoacidosis. Fasting leads to ketosis but not ketoacidosis."

This means, a normal person that is not an alcoholic nor has diabetes can't enter ketoacidosis but will always end up in ketosis wich is harmless.

This is were all the misconception comes from that ketosis (living mainly off fat energy instead of sugar energy) is dangerous.

3) It works for people who work out, I've tried it myself in form of running and lifting weight. There are some interviews with people that do everything from triathlon to body building with low carb diets. Unfortunately it's in swedish though but I bet there is plenty of stuff in english aswell somewhere. It does however take 1-3 weeks for people to adjust to using energy mainly from fat (ketones) instead of carbs (glucos). So it's tough the first weeks but it's no problem at all after that.

Beer does have fair amount of carbs (allthough there are some low carb beers today) but if you don't have a weight problem a few beers won't matter. It's will cause a short break of your ketosis though if that is your aim (ketosis = burning fat = dropping weight). Wine is better but best things to drink if you're trying to keep a ketosis going are pure drinks like vodka, whisky and rom. If you mix them with light products you can basically make zero carb drinks (or no alcohol at all, liver has hard time burning fat if its occupied with burning alcohol). And no, this is another misconception, pure alcohol like vodka does not trigger insuline and does not interfere with ketosis eventhough alcohol is made out of carbs.

Nope, you're talking about ketoacidosis. That is not ketosis = carb starvation.

http://www.medicinenet.com/script/main/art.asp?articlekey=42601

http://women.webmd.com/guide/high-protein-low-carbohydrate-diets

Unhealthy metabolic state (ketosis). Low carb diets can cause your body to go into a dangerous metabolic state called ketosis since your body burns fat instead of glucose for energy. During ketosis, the body forms substances known as ketones, which can cause organs to fail and result in gout, kidney stones, or kidney failure. Ketones can also dull a person's appetite, cause nausea and bad breath. Ketosis is prevented by eating at least 100 grams of carbohydrates a day.

http://www.aakp.org/aakp-library/Low-Carbohydrate-Diets/

Another main concern with this diet approach is a condition known as ketosis. Ketosis is a buildup of partially broken-down fats (ketones) in the bloodstream and may occur if less than 130 grams of carbohydrates are consumed each day. As a result of ketone build-up in the blood, the body may produce high levels of uric acid, which is a risk factor for developing gout and kidney stones. For pregnant women and people with diabetes or kidney disease, ketosis is especially dangerous. 

http://healthfitness.com.au/diet/nutrition/protein-proteins.htm

Protein cannot be stored and needs to be replenished daily. Muscle wasting can occur if protein intake is inadequate as it may be needed for more important body functions. However, most people eat more than they need in terms of protein. The train of though that strength athletes followed is that the more material you supply the body the more it will build. That is not true. The body will only use the precise amount of protein it needs. The rest will be excreted in the urine and excess amount may even cause liver and kidney strain. It can also cause an increase in calcium loss in the urine as well as dehydration.

http://www.dietitian.com/protein.html

Too many to cite here...

OK, thank you for the detailed replies. My objection about your 200,000 years diet was only that it is not necessarily ideal, I didn't mean it was necessarily unhealthy.

I did a little (well, more than a little) homework, and decided to give this more credit. I will limit my carb intake a lot more, but probably not enough to go through a decent ketosis. I'm planning on having approximately 100 gr of carbs (something like 4 slices of brown bread a day), which is not what Atkins wants, but I guess it will turn out OK in the end.

I stopped smoking recently (well, like 5~6 months ago), and I started having a weight problem. I was expecting that, but as I watched my eating routines more closely, I noticed that I was completely nun-functional after a meal of pasta or rice, and specifically, latte with sugar.

I was almost helpless after having those, for like 1~2 hours. I don't know how this is related to stopping smoking though, but it made itself felt a lot more when I went smoke-free. In the first few months I thought these non-functional periods were due to craving for smoking after a good meal or with a nice latte, but in the last weeks I noticed it wasn't. And I noticed I was hungry again, very quickly. I was almost hungry all the time. Give me something and I would eat it.

I now decided to have none of that anymore and low carb seems the most logical way to go at the moment. Maybe not the way a regular low-carb diet would demand (like severe reduction in the first couple of weeks), but still, I'll cut it off considerably. And I think I owe a thanks to you for bringing this to the table.

1) Your first sources saying ketosis causing organ failure is false. Flat out false. I'm not going to bother refuting that even.

2) Your second source also fails to understand that ketosis is not the same thing as ketoacidosis. Ketosis being dangerous for people with diabetes is priceless. Lol. Do you know that the swedish food and drug administration actually changed their recommendations to that it is recommended to treat diabetes with low carb diets?

3) No one said anything about overconsuming protein. You simply replace your carb intake with fat intake instead. So if you once ate 70/20/10 carb/protein/fat before you change that to 5/20/75 instead. Protein is not an issue and no low carb diet says that you need to overconsume proteins.

I recommend you to read here what ketosis actually is http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ketosis instead of searching for dubious sources. Also read up on ketoacidosis aswell while you're at it and you might be able  to tell which of your sources has the terms mixed up and what not http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ketoacidosis .

I've been reading about diets for years, have you? 10 min googling is not the same, trust me.

Thanks for the sources TheGrobe, from what I understand, the heaviest part of the low carb diet isn't prolonged for more than a couple of weeks, and then the carb intake is increased step by step for the next weeks until your body reaches a balance. The problem with kidney seems to be in cases of severe dehydration.

As I pointed out specifically, I have not expressed an opinion or belief on this carbohydrates matter.  I am, to use a common phrase, attacking the messenger, not the message, and rightly so in this instance.  The issue is not whether any researchers also share your opinions.  The issue is that you are absolutely unqualified to be so haughty and dismissive of the vast numbers of researchers who do not agree with you.

Charles Hedbring had your type in mind when he wrote:

Instant Experts and False Authorities are such remarkable people:  They get so great a return of conclusion from the most trifling input of fact (with thanks to Mark Twain).

I thought it did involve some increase in proteins, like eggs for breakfast, some portion of meat & salad for lunch, and meat & vegetable for dinner etc. So how does one increase fat in their diet exactly? You decrease pasta, rice, bread etc. How do you replace that with fat? What do you eat?

I had the exact same problem. When I quit nicotine a few years ago I also replaced my nicotine addiction with sugar/carb addiction (gaining alot of weight). Carbs do cause addiction unlike protein and fat. If you are used to a certain amount each day the body wants it. This is because long time ago carbs were luxury energy and the body had no reason to say no to such an energy form. Today matters are quite different.

100 g a day is a pretty good start. It is alot lower then the normal amount people eat nowadays. Also ketosis is not an on off switch. We all are more or less in ketosis during a day. Depending on how much of a weight problem you have even 100g a day is enough to see significant change in how you feel. You won't get that coma-like state after meals because your blood sugar level will barely move.

You will also see that you won't need as much food on the table to become full because fat and proteins will do that to you unlike carbs. Carbs don't really make you satisfied. Eat something with pure carbs and you know what I mean. You can eat all day and still be kind of hungry.

Not only this but you will definately decrease risk of getting diabetes later in life.

Good luck on your journey to health.

Good question. Let me try explain:

Yes it is true that you eat alot of meat and eggs. They do have fair amount of protein. To these you add fat sauce and some veggies. You get some small amounts of carbs from vegetables and fat from sauces and the meat. The thing is this that since you now added so much fat you won't need alot of food to get full. A short example to make it clearer:

Normal meal (fat/protein/carb):

150g steak (27/36/0)

150g potatoes (5/3/30)

ketchup + veggies

Adds up to 32/39/30 roughly a third of everything and mind this is a good meal for todays highcarb standards. Energy in this meal is (for comparison) 2x32+39+30 = 133 (fat has twice as much energy compared to carb and protein)

Low carb meal

150g steak (27/36/0)

fat sauce (mainly fat for example 20g) + veggies (3 grams of carbs maybe)

Adds up to 47/36/3

This gives total energy of 2x27+36+0 + 2x20 + 3 = 133

This meal will make you feel much better :-) Enjoy. Also get a low carb cook book, its not easy to come up with intresting ways to cook food for longer periods of time.

OK, thanks for the explanation. I don't think I would like fat sauce though. I'm not sure what that is. Does olive oil (for the salad), butter or mayonese count as that? If I don't like to eat a lot of fat, would I end up burning muscle mass?

Well fat sauce can be anything. You should get a book for that. Yes olive oil butter and mayo are good stuff to eat to add fat to your meals. As long as you don't starve yourself by eating too little calories in total or eat too little protein so muscles can't rebuild then you won't lose any muscles. High intake of carbs is not a must to keep muscles.

To read some of these comments you'd think the U.S. is the only nation where some of the citizens are fat.  But I've traveled all over the world and I can personally confirm that the U.S. isn't the only nation battling this problem.

Yes, this is true. The problem of obesity is a problem wide spread in europe aswell.

Absolutely agreed.

Hey! I eat Mcdonalds every week and play chess everyday and my weight is average!

I play chess every day and I carry only 118 lbs. on my 5 ft. 9.5 in. frame. Chess playing doesn't make you fat.  Doing nothing but sitting and eating foods with lots of fat and sugar might perhaps.