Low-carb eating: reporting in

[MoneyGal]

TS! You are doing AWESOME. It is really inspiring to see your results! (I still need my own Project 42 t-shirt... )

[rosacer]

Hi MoneyGal

What's your low carb cook's book name? I have been thinking at start a low carb diet but I haven't done because I didn't wanted to do it with protein biscuits and all that expensive and unnatural stuff you buy at the protein doctor's cabinets.

Thanks

[MoneyGal]

Low Carb, Quick and Easy. I got a copy from my local library and then ended up buying one (for a buck!) from abe.com (came to just under $10 with shipping). I'm really liking it so far!

[Kiralynx]

MoneyGal,

Don't skip meals. If you skip meals, you cut calories too much. What's wrong with that? Cutting calories too much makes your body think you're in a famine, and it starts conserving energy -- your metabolism drops and you quit losing weight.

I darn near killed myself two and a half years ago after my now-former PCP disregarded the on-going pain, the gut cramps and post menopausal bleeding (which were the first signs of my cancer). He told me, somewhat nastily, that if I would just stop stuffing my face, I could lose weight if I really wanted to.

I was already only doing about 1200 calories a day. I was in pain, and upset (my really nice boss had just been fired) and I cut my calorie intake to about 500.

I know better. I really know better. But I did this for around 4 weeks, and then almost collapsed. My husband yanked what I was doing out of me, then stalked to the refrigerator, got some OJ, and some homemade cheese spread and some nut-bread and made me eat. My husband is one of these laid-back sorts who doesn't lose his temper. He YELLED at me.

And rightly so.

But I frequently think that that episode is why I'm battling the loss of the rest of the weight I want to lose. I lowered my metabolism with that stupid stunt and I haven't (yet) found a way to jack it back up.

So please -- eat a proper amount of calories for your ideal weight -- and don't be an idiot like I was.

[Bob3000]

Another low-carber checking in. My wife and I are doing Atkins, though she's only cutting 20 lbs to look her best, whereas I have to lose about 75 lbs for general health concerns. I've never done a formal diet, but after learning about Atkins (or any very low-carb variant) from a Stanford University professor, I was convinced. For those interested, here's a link to a truly outstanding study of the four major categories of non-crash diets. For those not interested in the research paper, here's a video presentation by the first author. Note that the author himself is vegetarian, and was quite surprised and perhaps disheartened to learn that meat-rich Atkins diet was the only diet significantly better than other diets.

I am only 20 days into Atkins, but so far I like it. I am not very hungry, I have as much energy as an effectively untreated apnea patient can have, and I don't lust after carbs. My weight is down almost 10 lbs, but of course a lot of that is from the low-carb induced depletion of glycogen and water stores, not fat.

[DreamStalker]

MoneyGal,

Don't skip meals. If you skip meals, you cut calories too much. What's wrong with that? Cutting calories too much makes your body think you're in a famine, and it starts conserving energy -- your metabolism drops and you quit losing weight.

I darn near killed myself two and a half years ago after my now-former PCP disregarded the on-going pain, the gut cramps and post menopausal bleeding (which were the first signs of my cancer). He told me, somewhat nastily, that if I would just stop stuffing my face, I could lose weight if I really wanted to.

I was already only doing about 1200 calories a day. I was in pain, and upset (my really nice boss had just been fired) and I cut my calorie intake to about 500.

I know better. I really know better. But I did this for around 4 weeks, and then almost collapsed. My husband yanked what I was doing out of me, then stalked to the refrigerator, got some OJ, and some homemade cheese spread and some nut-bread and made me eat. My husband is one of these laid-back sorts who doesn't lose his temper. He YELLED at me.

And rightly so.

But I frequently think that that episode is why I'm battling the loss of the rest of the weight I want to lose. I lowered my metabolism with that stupid stunt and I haven't (yet) found a way to jack it back up.

So please -- eat a proper amount of calories for your ideal weight -- and don't be an idiot like I was.

While I totally agree that we should eat the proper amount of calories over the long term (ie. weekly cycle). I totally disagree that "If you skip meals, you cut calories too much.". Eating frequent meals is pure fiction propogated by our conventional wisdom friends (FDA, AMA, ADA, AHA) who have been promoting whole grains/foods while taking donations/contributions from big-agra corporations. Our bodies are designed and naturally selected for specifically eating on an infrequent basis. Our bodies are totally self-regulating when it comes to caloric input/output. Eating infrequently is actually a good thing as it helps reset hormonal sensitivities of our tissues and cells.

Basically, if you are eating a low-carb diet, eat when you are hungry and don't eat when you are not. Learn to listen to your body and it will tell you when you need additional nutrients. All you need to do is provide it with high density nutrients (meats and veggies) as opposed to high calorie nutrients (mostly carbs). The body will figure out how to use the nutrients and how much you need to eat if you just let it tell you.

Of course this requires that you avoid foods we were not designed to eat like calorie rich and low-nutrient carbohydrates sourced from grains, fruits, and starchy vegetables (they screw up your hormones and break the normal self-regulating system we are born with). A broken metabolic system results in cravings for and gorging oneself on a frequent basis with high calorie carbs while slowly starving to death from lack of proper nutrients.

RE: fruits, most have very good nutrient profiles but they also have a relatively high carb calorie content as well ... so they should only be eaten in moderation and not at all if trying to lose fat.

[MoneyGal]

KL: I agree that what I wrote about skipping meals sounds alarming. But I have been reading a lot about intermittent fasting. I like what DreamStalker is saying very much.

I was also very, very struck by the evidence in "Good Calories, Bad Calories" about high-fat vs. low-fat (high-carb) diets. When eating the same total number of calories, but from two different sources, the high-fat peeps were completely satiated and could not "overeat." The low-fat peeps could eat 10,000 calories a day and still be hungry. That so describes my life.

Listen, I weigh 230 lbs. (or I did last week; I'm not that hung up on the numbers actually). I am not going to starve by periodically going without food for 20 hours. And more to the point for me, it is amazing how liberating it feels to be unchained from hunger.

Breakfast this morning was full-fat ricotta with a few raspberries. Lunch will be my "traditional" can of sardines. I'm making homemade pork sausage for dinner, with apples and fennel sauteed in duck fat on the side, plus a green salad. Whether or not I lose any weight on this diet - I am feeling VERY well, happy, and not hungry.

[rosacer]

Thank you very much MoneyGal, I will try to find the book.

rosacer

[Kiralynx]

Breakfast this morning was full-fat ricotta with a few raspberries. Lunch will be my "traditional" can of sardines. I'm making homemade pork sausage for dinner, with apples and fennel sauteed in duck fat on the side, plus a green salad. Whether or not I lose any weight on this diet - I am feeling VERY well, happy, and not hungry.

Sounds delicious. And yes, you're right about the 10,000 calories in starches, etc.

The occasional "skip a meal" isn't a bad thing. Or even the occasional planned fast. It's true that hunter-gatherers didn't eat on a daily basis. My chief worry is that it is possible to drop your metabolism if you do the "skip a meal" on a long term basis... which is what I did.

If you feel well, and you aren't hungry, that's great.

[Sleepy Taz]

MoneyGal,

RE: fruits, most have very good nutrient profiles but they also have a relatively high carb calorie content as well ... so they should only be eaten in moderation and not at all if trying to lose fat.

DS

This statement may be true but for me:

Breakfast: 1 whole grapefruit and 1 banana at 6 am
1 piece of kiwi at 8 am
1 plumb at 10 am
Lunch salad with either chunks of chicken breast of a hard boiled egg chopped up topped with homemade dressing at 12 noon
1 apple at 2:30 pm
10 roasted unsalted peanuts at 4:30 pm
Supper 4 oz piece of pork or fish or chicken with either broccoli or cauliflower and an apple 6:PM

With this as a model of what I eat daily with a couple of cheat days I have dropped 32 lbs since the 1st of the year and my blood sugar stays a consistent 90-100 instead of 150 – 200. Last week for the first time in 3 years my cholesterol and A1C were perfect and my blood pressure was at 120 over 66. This has always run around 130 over 80. As you can see most of my diet consists of fruits and vegetables and for a man who at this time last year weighed 350 LBS I am not hungry and feel better than I have in years. I love red meat and thought I would miss it but when I went to a buffet with my wife on a cheat day the roast beef didn’t make my mouth water like it used to so I miss it less.

[Kiralynx]

While I totally agree that we should eat the proper amount of calories over the long term (ie. weekly cycle). I totally disagree that "If you skip meals, you cut calories too much.". Eating frequent meals is pure fiction propogated by our conventional wisdom friends (FDA, AMA, ADA, AHA) who have been promoting whole grains/foods while taking donations/contributions from big-agra corporations. Our bodies are designed and naturally selected for specifically eating on an infrequent basis. Our bodies are totally self-regulating when it comes to caloric input/output. Eating infrequently is actually a good thing as it helps reset hormonal sensitivities of our tissues and cells.

Basically, if you are eating a low-carb diet, eat when you are hungry and don't eat when you are not. Learn to listen to your body and it will tell you when you need additional nutrients. All you need to do is provide it with high density nutrients (meats and veggies) as opposed to high calorie nutrients (mostly carbs). The body will figure out how to use the nutrients and how much you need to eat if you just let it tell you.

Of course this requires that you avoid foods we were not designed to eat like calorie rich and low-nutrient carbohydrates sourced from grains, fruits, and starchy vegetables (they screw up your hormones and break the normal self-regulating system we are born with). A broken metabolic system results in cravings for and gorging oneself on a frequent basis with high calorie carbs while slowly starving to death from lack of proper nutrients.

RE: fruits, most have very good nutrient profiles but they also have a relatively high carb calorie content as well ... so they should only be eaten in moderation and not at all if trying to lose fat.

DS,

As you know, I don't eat grains at all, or potatoes, or other starchy vegetables, and haven't since 2001. The closest I come to "high carb" anything is a 12 ounce can of tomato juice, on an infrequent basis.

I should have clarified the "eat enough calories" to be "balance over time," which is generally my mantra.

The incident I cited was brought on by a PCP who did NOT want to give the handicapped tag I needed, and who was rather vicious about it, blaming me for the obesity issues. I wouldn't need the handicapped tag, he said, if I'd just lose weight. That I had lost 180 pounds doing what I was doing was irrelevant to him. I was still FAT, and if I was fat, that meant I was stuffing my face and refusing to control myself.

Fattie, after all, is a socially acceptable pejorative. It can be used viciously and hatefully, and if anyone tries to call the person on it, the perpetrator can shrug and say, "But it's for your own good."

I know people who were so desperate to lose weight that they starved themselves into the hospital -- all without losing weight. The horrid thing about my experience, and the reason I know the calorie-in calorie-out is generally a lie, is that in a month of eating 500 calories a day, I was sick and weak and gained 17 pounds.

Which is why I've quit trying to lose weight. I eat when I'm hungry, and don't eat when I'm not.

[DoriC]

MoneyGal,

RE: fruits, most have very good nutrient profiles but they also have a relatively high carb calorie content as well ... so they should only be eaten in moderation and not at all if trying to lose fat.

DS

This statement may be true but for me:

Breakfast: 1 whole grapefruit and 1 banana at 6 am
1 piece of kiwi at 8 am
1 plumb at 10 am
Lunch salad with either chunks of chicken breast of a hard boiled egg chopped up topped with homemade dressing at 12 noon
1 apple at 2:30 pm
10 roasted unsalted peanuts at 4:30 pm
Supper 4 oz piece of pork or fish or chicken with either broccoli or cauliflower and an apple 6:PM

With this as a model of what I eat daily with a couple of cheat days I have dropped 32 lbs since the 1st of the year and my blood sugar stays a consistent 90-100 instead of 150 – 200. Last week for the first time in 3 years my cholesterol and A1C were perfect and my blood pressure was at 120 over 66. This has always run around 130 over 80. As you can see most of my diet consists of fruits and vegetables and for a man who at this time last year weighed 350 LBS I am not hungry and feel better than I have in years. I love red meat and thought I would miss it but when I went to a buffet with my wife on a cheat day the roast beef didn’t make my mouth water like it used to so I miss it less.

Sleepy, Can you tell me approximately how many calories you're taking in daily based on your sample menu?

[DreamStalker]

MoneyGal,

RE: fruits, most have very good nutrient profiles but they also have a relatively high carb calorie content as well ... so they should only be eaten in moderation and not at all if trying to lose fat.

DS

This statement may be true but for me:

Breakfast: 1 whole grapefruit and 1 banana at 6 am
1 piece of kiwi at 8 am
1 plumb at 10 am
Lunch salad with either chunks of chicken breast of a hard boiled egg chopped up topped with homemade dressing at 12 noon
1 apple at 2:30 pm
10 roasted unsalted peanuts at 4:30 pm
Supper 4 oz piece of pork or fish or chicken with either broccoli or cauliflower and an apple 6:PM

With this as a model of what I eat daily with a couple of cheat days I have dropped 32 lbs since the 1st of the year and my blood sugar stays a consistent 90-100 instead of 150 – 200. Last week for the first time in 3 years my cholesterol and A1C were perfect and my blood pressure was at 120 over 66. This has always run around 130 over 80. As you can see most of my diet consists of fruits and vegetables and for a man who at this time last year weighed 350 LBS I am not hungry and feel better than I have in years. I love red meat and thought I would miss it but when I went to a buffet with my wife on a cheat day the roast beef didn’t make my mouth water like it used to so I miss it less.

If that is a sample of your daily menu, you are on a low-fat/low-calorie diet. What you are doing to your body is forcing it to adapt into a very efficient metabolism. In other words, your body is learning to run on fewer calories than normal. There are studies which suggest that low calorie diets increase longevity ... precisely because a very low calorie diet decreases life-long insulin production which is well correlated with longevity.

However, you can maintain low insulin production with a normal or even high calorie diet as long as you avoid carbs. High calorie fat does not trigger a large insulin response the way ALL carbs do. So one can also increase longevity without the low calorie diet.

But whatever works for you is great. Just know that if you ever plan to go back to eating a normal caloric menu, your body will be well adapted to store the excess calories into fat.

I did a very low calorie diet once back in winter of 89 ... it was a zero calorie diet ... a 21-day water only fast and I lost 65 lbs (so yes one can lose weight on a low calorie diet ... but is it a wise way of doing it?). It was a stupid thing for me to do but that is a whole different story and the 21-day fast was not done as an effort to lose weight nor to achieve good health. Anyway, after the 21 days, I decided to become a vegetarian and started that phase of my life out as a fruitarian. I regained about 20 lbs back over a one week period just eating apples and oranges and grapes and V8 juice (and I'm certain it was all fat and no muscle since there was no protein). I remained a vegetarian for an additional 3 and a half years eating mostly veggies, legumes, grains, and fruits and gradually gained back another 30 lbs during that time, despite being a very physically active period for me too as I was heavily involved in backing the American desert southwest and also southern Mexico as a vegetarian and poorly paid grad student. In the mid 90's I went back to a normal American diet and though I remained fairly active, I continued to gain more weight (~ 10 to 15 lbs per year). By the late 90's I had become much more sedentary and the OSA really began to kick in and all snow balled into a death spiral of degenerative health and morbid obesity.

Anyway fast forward to now and I have done a ton of health research over the last 2 to 3 years since achieving optimal CPAP treatment (thanks to the great members of this forum), and I have gradually but surely reversed much of my bad health and I'm now very close to a 100 lb weight loss. My BP is about 110/60, BG remains between 70 and mid 90s on a 24/7 basis. The first big step in the process to better health was effective CPAP treatment. The next big step was the low-carb diet. The last two steps are in progress and consist of optimal exercise and stress management.

If I were you, I would do some research and learn not to fear the quality fats. If your objective is to lose weight, then fear the carb rich, low-fat, low-cal foods and seek the nutrient dense ones like meats and veggies and quality fats that provide your body with food it was genetically designed to eat in order for optimal genetic expression that leads to optimal health and optimal body weight and composition as a result. Everyone is different and able to tolerate various amounts of carbs during their life time (more in youth and less as we age). However the majority of us are similar enough that a meat and veggie diet will work quite well for all of us any time during our lives (regardless of age, gender, or ancestry) not just for weight loss, but also for good health. But do what you will and good luck to you regardless of your path.

And here is a timely blog post by Dr. BG over at Animal Pharm.

[TSSleepy]

...

Congrats, great progress! Have you seen your 90thcentile pressure drop yet? Took about 45#s loss for that to start for me but I still have a lot of wt to lose.

I finally remembered to download my data and take a lok. I've been so focused on weightloss that I've ignored my APAP data.

It looks like going to a low carb diet on 12/19/09 had a profound and immediate effect on my Vibratory Snore index, but I'm not sure it's helping my AHI any. But it does look like my 10-12 APAP is spending less time at 12...

[Sleepy Taz]

MoneyGal,

Sleepy, Can you tell me approximately how many calories you're taking in daily based on your sample menu?

Doric,

I am not sure of the exact total but I believe it is somewhere between 1200 and 1500 calories a day. I always thought that I would starve with this amount but have adapted to it well and feel better than I have in over 20 years. Before I started this I could safely say that I was consuming over 5000 a day.

DS,

This is not a diet plan for me it is a lifestyle change that I plan to live for the rest of my life. When it comes to starchy and high carb foods I have never in my life been able to eat them in moderation so my best plan is to avoid them. At 16 I could down a 16” pizza in about 10 minutes and be looking for more and I weighed only 170 LBS at 5’ 11”. I crave more carbs as I eat them and have very little willpower when they are available to me. Just last month my office brought in pizza from my favorite pizza parlor and it took a lot to sit there and eat my salad while the others enjoyed themselves. I do allow myself a cheat day as I reach a level of 10 lbs weight loss but even then I stay away from grain products. I was considering the Atkins diet but I love the taste of meat so much that I could never stop when I am full, only when I couldn’t eat anymore because I was stuffed. I truly lack self discipline and have tendencies to overindulge in most everything that I do. When I drink (which at this time in my life is only once a year maybe) I can go drink for drink with most anybody. Before I quit smoking 3 years ago I went through 2-3 packs a day and under stress a pack in 3-4 hours. I have the same problem with food and am attacking this problem with the same conviction that I did when I quit smoking. What you are advocating is a great lifestyle and I am glad that you have been able to lose that weight and keep it off. I am not discounting what you are saying, I am only saying what is working for me and, because it is working I will continue not only until I reach my ultimate goal but for the rest of my life. I will also continue to look at advice likes yours and utilize the internet to educate myself further to find ways to improve what I am doing and may yet end up where you are today.