But I continued eating sugar and still lost weight.

I am doing it again!

Loosing weight is extremely difficult. Yet, our society keeps pushing us to loose weight. We constantly hear that we should loose weight because it is healthier to be thin. However, from my observations in life, many moderately overweight people live into their eighties. So, health may play some role in staying thin, but it only plays a small role. The main reason to be thin is that our society judges that thinner people are better looking.

Yes! That is it! I don't know if you realize it, but being good looking is really much more important that they let us know. Do you realize that thinner, taller, better looking people have a much better chance at getting that coveted job than the rest of the pack? Better looking people are treated better when they go to the service window. Better looking people are treated better at the restaurant table. The world treats better looking people better!

This is why we want to be thinner. If we are fat, we do not get the best from others. So, in our private moments we imagine how much greater things could get if we looked better. However, the longer we have been overweight, the more difficult loosing weight gets. So, as we realize what an effort it will take to loose weight, we give ourselves all the justifications to stay fat: "I am too old", "I don't look so bad", "I just can't focus on dieting right now"...

Consequently, with all the excellent "reasons" not to get thinner and the humongous effort it takes to loose weight, we just stay overweight and attempt to cover our fat with clothes that don't really cover it. Yet, if we avoid thinking about it and accept with resignation that better looking people are treated better than we are, then we can live with certain contentment.

The fact is that I am an expert at the different ways in which the world treats people, depending on their looks. I have been thin and fat many times in my life. And I have experienced the ways of the world from both perspectives. Additionally, I am right now in one of my fat stages. Actually, I am right now at the verge of switching from fat to thin. I just started my super diet. I invented this super diet five years ago, when I got in a real diet for the first time. Before, I had always managed to loose weight with exercise only. But trying to loose weight at 49 was not the same as before, in my early forties or in my thirties. Exercising was not enough anymore. Indeed, I was still gaining weight even with an hour of exercise a day.

I had always hated dieting. My problem is that I am a sugar maniac. I love sugar. I can have sweets several times a day and still want more. I put 8 packs of sugar in my espresso, 12 in my cappuccino, 6 in my american coffee. I also love chocolate, moose, meringue, croasants, and milk shakes. So, a diet really seemed to be too much of an effort. Thus, I had to come up with a diet that would be enjoyable. I came up with a sugar diet!

A diet that allows us to loose weight and still enjoy sweets! that is what this is all about.

The first time I went into a full blown diet I was 49. I had gotten quite fat at the time. Since I was 42, I had been gaining about 10 lb per year. So, by then, I was 260 lb. at 5' 10", I was near 100 lb overweight according to the doctors charts. I went to buy pants and my size was 42 width, 30 length. In other words, I had a near barrel shape. When I walked down the street, if I dared look at a good looking girl, she would turn her face away, showing disgust in her expression. It got to the point in which I became shy about looking at girls. One day, I was riding my bicycle and fell for no reason. I got worried and went to the doctor. He told me I was in extremely bad shape. My triglycerides were at about 540 and my cholesterol was very high too. Every thing in my blood chart was totally off. He said that I could drop dead while walking.

That was the day I started my diet !

I lost 20 lb the first month. In 6 months, I lost 60 lb. By the end of the diet I was 194 lb. My waist was size 30, and I looked really great. Further, I managed to maintain the weight for 2 years and gained the weight very slowly through out the next two years.  But by now, I have gained most of the weight again. I started dieting again at 245 lb. In one week, I went down to 236 in one week, and will probably be 196 lb within 5 months.

As we age, staying thin and in shape becomes more difficult, while getting fat and out of shape becomes much easier. There are many reasons for this, and I spent several years studying them. But at the time I explored what diet I should follow, I had the following idea about aging:

"Being old is more a product of incomplete nutrition, poor habits, and fluid obstructions through our body than of age. Blockages and narrowing are not limited to our arteries. Our digestive and circulatory systems reduce performance as narrowing and blockages accumulate."

With this in mind, I thought that fat itself was a key ingredient in age deterioration. So, I came up with the idea of consumming less than 50 grams of fat per day. The standards I found were 50 for men and 30 grams for women. Since I am of average size and build, I thought 50 grams would be good. So, the task left was to figure out how to know the amount of fat in food. Thank the US government for the incredible information they offer.The link in the next box offers information on food composition for everything you can imagine. I can make a list of the contents of fat for most common foods. I may add it later, but for now, anyone can just go to the bellow link and search the content of whatever they want to eat.

Researching about fat metabolism, I came up with some basic ideas that have served as the foundation for the design of my diet. These ideas challenge most common beleifs about eating. I'll list them separately, to debate them individually if people comment on them.

After reading lots of complementary and contradictory information, I decided that there is a hierarchy of fats and carbohydrates that make us fat in varying degrees. I don't know about how this works for everyone, but I know how this works for me. Ideally, you can test what I say and develop your own hierarchy.

First and most important, I think that whoever came up with the idea that there are "empty calories" with no nutritional value has no idea about metabolism and the way our body operates. Calories are what keeps us alive. NOBODY CAN LIVE WITHOUT CALORIES!!!So, calories are not empty. Especially, calories that come from glucose are not empty. These are ESSENTIAL calories. Our body works very hard turning many foods we eat into glucose. There is a very good reason for this. Glucose is the burning ingredient our body uses to work. glucose is the fuel used for all other processes. We need glucose to walk, to digest, to think, to pump our heart, to move our longs. Moreover, we need glucose for something just as important. We need glucose to make glucosamine.

Glucosamine is not just some supplement that we take for arthritis. Glucosamine is the most important ingredient in the production of collagen; and collagen is the bases for all the components of our body. Collagen makes our skin, our bones, and our muscles. Collagen is the fundamental fiber that builds our body. Thus, sugar calories are not empty. they are essential. In fact, contrary to what I read often, white sugar is good for you. White sugar is also called sucrose. It is a chemically purified crystal that has no other significant components. Sucrose becomes glucose immediately as it is consumed. Sugar in itself is not fattening at all. What is fattening is to consume more calories than you use. A teaspoon of sugar has only 15 calories. A sugar bag of the kind to get with your coffee has between 15 and 16 calories. You would have to eat 100 teaspoons of sugar to get your calories for the day. One teaspoon of butter has 34 calories. So, according to calorie counting, you could have 50 teaspoons of butter to get all the calories for the day. Or you could have 25 teaspoons of butter with 50 teaspoons of sugar.

Counting calories does not make any sense to me. What makes more sense is to distribute what I eat according to what I feel my body needs. As a hyperactive adult, I definitely need glucose. As a person who works out, I need glucose. As a person who does intellectual work, I also need glucose. Overall, I need glucose for too many reasons to list. So, here is my list of things that I am giving up: all starches, except for French bread. Why except for French bread? French bread is the most delicious thing since eggs were invented. How can any body give up French bread and eggs for a long time? That is the big question.

So, how do we decide what calories to cut?

This is how I did it! I created a hierarchy of calories, from least fattening to most fattening:

1. Breaded, fried fatty meats.
2. Breaded, fried non-fatty meats, like chicken breast or fish.
3. Fried fatty meats.
4. Fried lean meats.
5. Churned dairy products.
6. Heavy cream dairy products.
7. Sweets made with cream or hydrogenated oils.
8. Sweets made with fried dough, like doughnuts.
9. Any other fried thing.
10. Any sauces made with cream, flower, oils,
11. Potatoes.
12. Pasta
13. Fried rice or rice made with soups.
14. Sauteed non-fatty foods, such as shrimp, fish, or vegetables.
15. White rice.

White rice is not fattening. Adding butter, oils, or having it with fattening meals is fatty. Sauteed food become much more fattening than it would be boiled or grilled without fats. Why spoil the seafood or vegetables with fat?

The fact is that reducing fats to a small amount can get you thin fast. Starches can turn into sugar or fat. If you already eat sugar, then the starches are fattening. But if you are going to have starches, have them without fat. Else, the starches will get you really fat.

Thinking about my taste was a major part on how I decided to design my weight loss program.

• I like some fats, but I can live without them.
• I need milk to survive, so I had to continue drinking as much milk as I wanted. 2% milk is good.
• I love French bread. French bread has to stay.
• Sugar is essential. It must stay. As I am heavily into sugar, I am not cutting it down. But I'll cut out all sugar - fat mixes.
• Potatos, pasta, and other dough products can go.
• No more pastries.
• Salads with olive oil are delicious.

Combination of food with less than 50 gr. of fat through the day.

Meats:

• Chicken breast, fillet Mignon (cow's back and lower back) no bacon. Lean pork medalions. Each cut should not excede 8 gr of fat (about 100 gr. of meat or less before cooking).

Starches:

• Bread, preffer French bread, but cheap white sandwich bread is OK. 1 gr of fat per slice, max 2 gr of fat from bread per meal.
• Cookies, Lady fingers (1 gr fat per 6 or 7 cookies)
• Angel food cake (0 gr of fat per cake)

Sugar:

• White sugar has no fat, so as much as I want.

Others:

• Fruits, yogurt (low fat with no more than 1.5 gr. of fat per cup), milk, cheese and cold cups with no more than 2 gr. of fat per portion.

 Weight yourselve always at the same time, under the same conditions, with no clothes, in the same scale.

I weight myself at 7:00 AM, in my bedroom scale, before breakfast, in my underware, with my glasses on. I need the glasses to see the numbers on the scale.