I’ve read a ton of books on health, nutrition, and specifically “low carb” over the years.

The one’s I’ve re-read the most are by Fung/Taubes/etc., for example:

I don’t spam friends/family about eating low carb (my wife is already on-board), but I am asked why I re-read books on the topic so often, especially since I’m not involved in health/nutrition in any way.

And I’m not obese, far from it, I have a trim runners build. I weigh as much as I did as a grad student who ran 20km 3-4/per week.

So Why? Why do I keep re-reading these books every year?

I have a subjective experience: eating carbs makes me fatten, really fast.

It might even be true.

I know, carbs are in everything, let’s go with simple carbs/starchy carbs/sugar and friends. Junk-food at a stretch.

A week abroad or at a resort with the family and eating what/when I want results in an easy 5+/kg gain when I return. Even if I do daily 5km runs.

An ad libitum feast like Christmas or Chinese new year is dangerous and must be managed so that it does not bleed into the subsequent days, e.g. give away/throw out all “bad” leftovers or have the event away from the home so someone else can deal with what’s left.

Yeah, water weight, I know. But also, more.

It takes a 1-2 weeks to “recover” from a week away. I’ve tracked my weight/meals/etc. in a google sheet for 10+ years. I have the graphs and linear models :)

Also, there’s a psychological+physiological thing going on. I get “hacked”:

Eating sweet food makes me want to eat more sweet food, like clockwork. Cause and effect. It’s a physical thing I feel in my stomach, an ache, like hunger, but I know from experience it’s not. The bugs in my stomach want more sugar and are telling me all about it (that’s the story I tell myself). If not killed off (with water, coffee, protein), it turns into a “head hunger” (e.g. intrusive thoughts, mouthwatering, talking about food). Bad.

I’m an addict (not really). The solution for me is abstinence.

My wife offers me an ad hoc spoon of ice cream and I have to reminder her I’m an addict animal. One spoon won’t be enough. I’ll need to finish the tub, or jump in the car and purchase another (not joking, this has happened).

  • 1 spoon -> 1 tub
  • 1 slice -> 1 cake
  • 1 cookie -> 1 package
  • you get the idea… I’m a beast.

There’s no “have a taste”. I’m all in.

The books are a reminder that I have a “problem” and to “stay on the path”. I am using quotes, because this is soft compared to people with real problems and real addictions and the consequences thereof.

I brainwash myself annually that I am “carbohydrate intolerant”. Maybe I am. Who cares.

This scientific-sounding story around “insulin sensitivity” is helpful.

It doesn’t have to be true, but it helps and I get the result I want: to stay slim and (I think) healthy.

I stick to a whole foods diet generally with high-ish protein (e.g. red meat, eggs, nuts). Carbs are allowed in of course, but only via fresh salad/fruit/veg, with all fiber in-tact. If I want something sweet: I eat seasonal fruit, and it’s always awesome. I mostly eat the same meals over and over and over.

This optimized scheme works really well for me.

Time-restriction works for me, but fasting doesn’t.

I’ll eat too much at the next meal. Also, I love to exercise (lift, run, sauna), and the more I do, the more hungry I am, and I need to satiate the hunger, not wait a day.

Anyway, why? Why isn’t one read of the books enough.

Also, I can’t “talk myself down” when I go off the rails for a day/week.

Each time I get off track, I write about it in various docs, and this does not help. I have a github full of what to do and how to do it right and it does nothing.

The reflection does nothing.

I have to re-brainwash myself about the evils of “insulin resistance” (as though I have any idea what it’s all about from pop-sci books).

I have to “be told” and it has to be dressed up in (pseudo-)scientific garb for me to swallow it.

Maybe it’s just spaced repetition at book-sized cards. Could be.

It’s been a decade of this nonsense. How long can this go on? Probably another 40 years.