If you go to the other side of the world, there’s a good chance your actions won’t be understood or might even convey the opposite meaning. Namely, mixing western and Asian body language is messy, depending on how much British colonization happened in the Asian half of the dialogue.

Source: I’ve been to India with Americans that believed they could communicate if they repeated their English statement slower, with the same verbal shortcuts, and angrier. This works in the big cities at customer service. The success rate drops as population density drops.

For my most successful keto run, it was 6 months of picking one weekend per month to party on beer and simple carbs (supposed to focus on whole grains monthly). I had places to go, foods to experience. But I went from 235 to 195. Using a whole weekend to carb up all the wrong ways ties into me using this diet somewhat carelessly but still effectively. Carbing smartly would smooth out the weight loss but, instead, my chart looks like a slinky falling down stairs. After I hit the bottom for my big day, I gained about half back in the following year. I’d like to get a 3+ month run started in a few weeks. I started Jan 1 but work trips tripped me up, sending me to places where it was impossible to go carb free.

From what I remember, the bad cholesterol was high and good was average. My blood pressure reduced somewhat over that 6 months, although the dramatic weight loss also promoted more physical activity. I didn’t really add exercise, but I was able to do all the random daily stuff for longer before overheating.

It’s the same as Wendy’s having a department just to write sarcastic tweets. It’s makes you think of them as Corporation the Person instead of Corporation the Corporation. It’s brand imaging. It makes you form a sentimental attachment to a corporation so you choose them over competitors, alternatives, or not buying anything at all.

A beer belly, despite the name, is not exactly from beer. A beer belly isn’t specifically from the caloric spikes associated with heavy beer drinking (where a certain amount of alcohol for a certain inebriation is accompanied by a massive intake of simple carbs compared to liquor). It’s due in part by genetics. It’s called visceral fat, meaning it’s intertwined with your torso’s organs and muscles. The concern here, particularly when beer-bellied people are heavy enough to show notable fat between their knees, elbows, and faces, is there’s likely fat/cholestoral buildup in the circulatory system. The beer belly is a heart attack predictor (but please understand overall weight is part of that indicator, not just location of fat). Some people are prone to adding fat relatively evenly across their body while some are prone to a beer belly. This variance in fat distribution is why skin-pinch based BMI tests are not accurate for health (testing arm skin misses beer bellies) and why weight/height BMI charts aren’t either (can categorize distributed-fat risks a little too closely to beer bellied fat).

As for a solution, I support low-carb diets as you’ve indicated you’ll try. They come with risks and peculiarities. As someone with sizable forearms and calves but about 40lbs of beer belly, keto has worked great for weight loss. The consequence of not being careful with eating (counting carbs but not calories to types of fat) is my cholestoral is still high when I do keto stints.

As you consider a low carb diet, I want to point out some misconceptions for keto, since that’s mostly what you’ll find. Atkins and Weight Watchers are close to keto. Paleo has a similar major component by prohibiting simple processed grain (white flour) but isn’t the same otherwise. It’s not a high protein diet - eat a normal amount. It’s not a high fat diet - higher than the sugar industry-funded diet studies blaming fats will recommend, but still a normal amount. It does push you to choose better fats (nuts, avocado) rather than bad fats (bacon, butter) but fats fare a little better as a snack than proteins.

A major misconception is that fats make you fat and dietary cholestoral gives you coronary cholestoral. Both are indirectly related by directly false. Your belly is not stuffed with butter and cashew oil. It’s stuffed with human fat. Fat is a category, not a particular substance. Your body has to convert food into body fat. When you eat lots of sugars or simple carbs (which quickly turn into sugar in your stomach), your body is happy to waste energy converting the other food into body fat because you’re rapidly adding energy (sugar) to your blood. While sugar highs aren’t exactly real, sugar crashes absolutely are. It’s why a big pasta meal can leave you hungry in an hour. So what if you stop eating sugar and simple carbs? You can’t put walnuts in your bloodstream. Your body has to take that fat and convert it into body fat, and then that body fat gets converted into blood sugar. It’s a lengthy process that costs a lot of energy. It takes a week of dedication to make it work. When you get ketosis in full swing, your body will fuel itself with body fat as it takes time to convert dietary fat into body fat for later. Similarly for dietary cholestoral, you can’t take egg yolks and coat your arteries. Your personal cholestoral is produced by your body and is related more to total dietary calorie intake, dietary proportion of saturated fats, and genetic disposition for fat distribution.

Personally, a major benefit from keto is simply being able to confidently turn down all sugar and simple carbs. Beer, cake, cookies, sugary drinks, chips, bread, ice cream, and candy. I can easily convince myself that a little treat won’t hurt in a non-keto month but I have poor self control. A little becomes a lot. Part of that is because I’m “cleaning up” carby foods I abstained form during a keto month. But on keto? It’s an easy rule to follow since I’m as happy with cheddar as I am with ice cream. While I’ll come off for a few months to a year, the monthly keto cycles make my weight chart look like a slinky going down stairs.