The Tech Guy and low-carb eating

Last updated on July 11th, 2011

I first heard about low-carb way of eating and the work of Gary Taubes from an unlikely source: Leo Laporte, a.k.a The Tech Guy.

Leo lives on the West Coast.  Every Saturday and Sunday, he does his Tech Guy radio broadcast; the rest of the week, he records and live-streams tech-oriented net-casts from his studio in Petaluma, California.  His network is called TWiT, which stands for “This Week in Technology,” the name of his flagship program.

I became a fan of Leo when he was one of the co-hosts of the “Screen Savers” on cable TV.  Now I frequently listen to his live-stream while I’m doing some work on the computer.  This means that I miss 90% of what Leo and his colleagues are talking about, but it’s comforting to have familiar voices in the background.  (Yes, I’m a pathetic loner.  I mostly have virtual friends, and find life less complicated that way.)

Anyway, this past winter, I heard Leo and one of his co-hosts (Paul Thurrott) talking about changing the way that they eat.  Leo was about to go on a geek cruise, and while on the cruise he was planning to eat nothing but meat, seafood, eggs and cheese.  He said he wouldn’t miss pancakes, waffles and bread when he could eat prime rib, bacon and eggs.

He got some flak from the “chat room” (the online text chat that he monitors while doing his live-streaming) about this plan.  The chatters were warning him about the dangers of cutting carbohydrates out of his diet. Some extolled the virtues of high-carb foods.  Some even seemed angry that he was going to do such a crazy thing.  Leo kept saying, “Look, folks, this is what I’m doing for me.  I’m not telling anyone else to do it.”

Leo went on the cruise and followed through on his new way of eating.  As far as I know, he is still eating low-carb.   At some point in the late winter, I heard him mention the name of Gary Taubes and the book Why We Get Fat.  I browsed over to Amazon.com to find the book, bought and downloaded it for my Kindle, and read it right away.

Then I started eating low-carb and losing weight.  Later, I started this blog.

So, it all goes back to the Tech Guy.  Leo is expanding his operation into a larger building, and is selling commemorative  bricks to go on the wall there.  Like a lot of his fans, I bought one.

It’s my way of saying, “Thanks, Tech Guy.”

[Update.  On Thursday, July 7, 2011, I heard Leo chatting with Paul Thurrott, before they began recording their Windows Weekly podcast.  As a sound check, Leo asked Paul what he had eaten for breakfast.  Paul said, “The usual. Three eggs and three pieces of bacon.”  Leo said he had eaten his usual, two eggs and two pieces of bacon.  He asked Paul how his diet was going, and Paul answered, “I’ve lost 26 pounds.”  So apparently both men are still following a low carb eating plan.]