I was just reading a chapter in Gary Taubes’ book, Good calories, Bad Calories, about how a high carb diet forces your body to hold onto excess fluid, resulting in higher blood pressure.

Carrie,

I have to admit that I don’t know very much about water retention. Could you throw a little info / science my way?

I’d like to add to this discussion. I talk in depth on my blog about Water Retention. It is not well understood by western medicine, and is a huge contributor to heart disease, and heart failure. My newest post talks about how to tell if you are retaining water and what to do about it.

If water is your issue rather than fat, you will be frustrated with traditional dieting, and the excess fluid in your system will over burden your heart muscle!

Be well,
Many blessings.

I have to disagree with you.

On one level, you are right. If I fast or reduce carbs, I will lose weight. So will most people.

But when I go back to my “normal” way of eating, I will gain the weight back, plus I will have lost muscle mass from the fast.

Less muscle and more fat…a pretty bad combination.

These are the type of people that I work with every day.

Trying to find a lifestyle that works for them and helps them burn of fat and get healthy is a lot more complex than just dropping calories or carbs.

Thanks for the comment

Looking forward to hearing more from you.

Cheers,

-Yavor

His approach is totally different to anybody else’s that I have ever seen. Basically, rather than counting callories or exercising, etc; it is about how to adapt your lifestyle to speed up your body’s matabalism so that you burn things of naturally.

Many diets put the body into “famine” mode, where the body thinks that there is not enough food to go around. The body therefore stores as much as it can in case the “famine” lasts.

Everytime you don’t eat when you ARE ACTUALLY HUNGERY, in order to keep the calories down; you are pushing your body deeper into “famine” mode.

I have a great respect for Paul McKenna’s work. In fact, you’ve given me an idea for a posting on my own blog

PS: In the UK, most of Paul McKenna’s book are on Ebay. Have a look in your country’s Ebay.

Looking forward to the next post.

I think I need a more all-encompassing title than mental strategies.

I think that our conscious and unconscious thoughts are so tied up with our emotions, that they are virtually inseparable.

Maybe I should call it mind-body, but that may be too much of a cliche.

Any suggestions?

Nice post, I look forward to the additions!