No carbs ???

GiGiBeans

I've been on MFP for about 3 years and have noticed a lot of talk about eating no carbs or attempting to eat no carbs lately. And now there is a May challenge to this end as well.

I'm curious as to the why. Are you so insulin resistant that any carbs stall your weight loss? Is it an aversion to fruits and veggies? Is it a matter of simplicity? Do you do it because you've seen others successfully lose weight this way?

As a fruit & veggie lover I'm very curious as to why some chose to eat this way. No condemnation, different things work for different people - I totally get that. Low carb was a last resort in my case - it was the only thing that curbed my appetite so that I could shed unwanted pounds. In my dream world though I'd be able to eat a fruit basket a day, heh.

Looking forward to having a better understanding!

Lrdoflamancha

Nothing to track and no need to track.. No hunger pretty much ever. I eat all the Rib Eyes and Bacon I want. Oh yes and I am losing weight consistantly at the rate of 1/3 lb per day.

Twibbly

I'm the sort who says she ate a vegetable because she ate a pickle. I'm also having issues with craving things (like cornbread, toast, sugar, etc) and have read that it can help with that. I figure it's only 30 days, and I can always decide to end it if need be.

glossbones

LCHF freed me from a lot of cravings, and I suspect that going ZC will aid in that even more. I've also had some carb creep lately, so it would be a bit of a reset.

wabmester

There were a couple of discussion threads before the May challenge was spawned. Example:
http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10132952/so-zero-carb-folks/p1

GiGiBeans

wabmester wrote: »

There were a couple of discussion threads before the May challenge was spawned. Example:
http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10132952/so-zero-carb-folks/p1

Thank you. Interesting thread but doesn't really address what I'm curious about. I am interested in people's own personal reasons for it.

@octobubbles - I know all about carb creep. After a bulking period that included more carbs I found myself reluctant to cut them and kept adding a bit more. My "fluffy" pants were getting super snug so it's time to do something about it!

KarlaYP

I have found that the lower carb I go, the better I feel (I have Fibromyalgia and other health challenges). I want to see if it will help me even more!

minties82

So all you eat is meat? How expensive does that end up getting?

KarlaYP

When you aren't buying all the other stuff it's not that expensive. But no, I am going to do the challenge starting May 1st.

Meeezonajourney

For me personally when I eat carbs I want more and more. And not vegetable carbs but like pasta and rice and bread. I eat that stuff and I am ravenously hungry shortly afterward. I now eat plenty of veggies and the occasional fruit and can look at a big plate of pasta and not have to devour it. It just works for me. Plus as an added bonus my skin is clear, I sleep like a baby, I have energy, I think clearer, and I've lost 30 lbs so far. I guess it's not for everyone but it has been a true blessing for me.

Meeezonajourney

Oh and my grocery bill has actually gone down and I'm eating real food nothing out of a box.

FIT_Goat

minties82 wrote: »

So all you eat is meat? How expensive does that end up getting?

Typically, it runs me about $38-$47 a week. While not super-duper, rice-and-beans cheap, it isn't as bad as you would expect.

FIT_Goat

• Are you so insulin resistant that any carbs stall your weight loss?

  Not really. I lost plenty of weight doing your pretty standard keto. In fact, I didn't really get to the zero carb level until I was already at what I considered my goal weight (anything under 75 kg).

• Is it an aversion to fruits and veggies?

  Not at all. I love vegetables. I'm apathetic towards fruit, but vegetables have always been one of my favorite food groups. One of my early frustrations with keto was that it didn't seem to give me enough vegetables to eat, even counting just net carbs.
  
  I ended up eating very few, mainly because they complicated things. But, there's really no vegetable I don't like.

• Is it a matter of simplicity?

  In a small way, this does apply. It boils down to, "meat and water are the absolute minimum needed for good health. Everything else is just a complicating factor."

• Do you do it because you've seen others successfully lose weight this way?

  No. When I started this, I didn't know anyone else who had done it or lost weight doing it. The only reference material I had was a year long study of two men who were roughly at an ideal weight when they started and lost an insignificant amount over the year.
  
  So, weight loss wasn't a motivating factor. I figured I would still be able to lose weight, if I needed to.

There's more. Like my current belief that vegetables are not only "not healthy" by default, but in many cases they can be downright harmful. I tend to rank most vegetables on a scale from "horrible for you" down to "neutral towards your health" although the more I learn, the fewer vegetables make it down into neutral territory.

I have found my digestion benefits from having no fiber gumming things up. I don't get gas or cramps. I don't get constipation anymore (although it was always pretty rare). No stomach gurgles and the whole process is just mindless and "normal" these days.

In any case, I believe eating just meat provides the most nutrient dense and complete food source for humans. If you add vegetables to that, you're only reducing the utility of the meat.

Yes, I realize that I am completely insane.

Dragonwolf

GiGiBeans wrote: »

Are you so insulin resistant that any carbs stall your weight loss?

In a way, yes. I have PCOS with insulin resistance. I've been struggling to lose weight for close to a decade, and have been overweight since I hit puberty. When I was in jr high and high school, I played basketball and would play in both games that I was eligible for. That's upwards of 4 hours of playing, in addition to daily 2-hour practices, plus the general physical activity of living in a small mountain town and walking everywhere to go anywhere. Yet I never dropped below 175 pounds (which is 15-20lbs overweight). In more recent years, there was a time when I was practicing high-intensity martial arts and doing a heavy lifting program, and despite following MFP's guidelines, I wasn't losing any weight. I went to three different doctors a total of about half a dozen times for help, because something has been very obviously wrong, and the best I get is a referral to an endocrinologist three months ago that still hasn't scheduled me, a prescription for metformin that has quit working, and the repeated suggestion to "join Weight Watchers." So, in an effort to find something on my own, I've been experimenting with various ways of eating. I initially went Primal (a version of Paleo) about 2 or 3 years ago. It worked spectacularly well for a lot of my non-scale issues, but I still couldn't get the weight to move. So, I started experimenting with reducing my carbs. Still nothing on the scale front. I gave it time, because I knew my body needed to heal other things. I spent somewhere around 6 months below 75g of carbs and something like 4 months below 50g. When I attempted 20g, I found trying to include certain things became problematic. Even having a salad would risk putting me over carbs. It made compliance more difficult. I had tossed around the idea of going zero carb sometime last year, when I first found out the details of how @FIT_Goat ate, but got talked out of it. Then, when the discussions came up more these past few weeks, I decided to give it a try. I'm now on week 2 and compliance has actually be pretty easy. I've eaten off-plan twice, and both times, I decided afterward that it's not something I really want to put my body through (which is the first step for me for no longer desiring a given food in the long run). In these two weeks, I've lost 10lbs, more than I've lost at all in the past 5 years or so, except for a short stint when I first started Metformin, and even then, it was faster than what the Metformin did (took about a month to drop 10lbs).

Is it an aversion to fruits and veggies?

Not at all! I am a big fan of fruit. My son and I would compete over strawberries and clementines. I regularly get salads when going out to eat, and have been known to eat an entire bag of frozen broccoli or broccoli/cauliflower blend by myself. At a party a few weeks ago (before going zero carb), I was content to munch on the cucumbers in the veggie tray.

Is it a matter of simplicity?

To a degree. It's easier to not have to really pay attention to carbs or figure out what to have for sides or whatever. It's also nice to not feel obligated to have vegetables all the time or figure out what I can or shouldn't have. Is it an animal product? Yes? Then it's pretty much fair game. No? Then it should only be used for garnish, spices, etc.

Do you do it because you've seen others successfully lose weight this way?

Actually, I've decided to do it because I've seen others successfully improve their health eating this way. Not just losing weight (and arguably, several of the testimonials I've seen didn't need to lose weight, I think one even needed to gain weight), but getting rid of chronic issues that nothing else could touch.

ChairmanWow

A few year's ago, my wife and I tried to do the Whole30 thing. Only lasted two weeks. We lost a bunch of weight, but like every diet we had ever tried before, we didn't have the willpower to stick with it. Everything we have ever tried related to dieting has been like that. The whole start-strong, summer-camp excitement of trying a new thing. The inevitable slump in spirit, self-incrimination of failure.

So I decided to do low carb again because I liked how I felt on Whole30, but it was too rigid. I decided that I was going to do it on my own terms, and not obsess too much about it. Simplify things. Not freak out about toxins or whether I can have a diet coke or is-this-the-right-kind-of-oil or butter/ghee. I don't have the willpower to sustain anything that requires that level obsession. What I do have the willpower for is pretty simple changes.

So I can buy a bunch of meat, and just simply cook it, and it is filling. If I want a salad or something one night. I don't worry about it too much. I don't have to navigate an overly complicated array of choices. I've always been the sort of person that prefers a one page menu at a restaurant. And the longer I've done this, the closer I've gone to zero carbs, because it feels better and requires even less attention, which frees up the rest of my mental energies to other things. For the first time in forever, I don't even feel like I'm dieting. I'm just eating a way that I like.

wheatlessgirl66

Dragonwolf wrote: »

Actually, I've decided to do it because I've seen others successfully improve their health eating this way. Not just losing weight (and arguably, several of the testimonials I've seen didn't need to lose weight, I think one even needed to gain weight), but getting rid of chronic issues that nothing else could touch.

"...getting rid of chronic issues that nothing else could touch."

Yes! If zero carb will possibly address chronic issues, it's definitely worth a try. I'm desperate, and I'm in.

sljohnson1207

I don't do zero carb, but I can see how it would benefit folks with chronic inflammation and hormone imbalances. Going low carb sure has helped my Interstitial Cystitis (inflamed bladder lining) chronic inflammation. It has also helped curb cravings for sugars and starches, which I have absolutely no willpower over. I am a sugar junkie. I always want sugar. I haven't felt the need to go zero carb, but if I did, I would try it in a heartbeat with no worries.

GiGiBeans

Ha, I can definitely relate to the PIA of trying to figure what fruits & veggies in what amounts work out. I do sometimes wonder why bother if all I can have is 1/2 cup of spinach in a particular meal. Other times I consider it a fun challenge to make the #s work out. And truth be told I am not suppose to be eating green leafy vegetables or berries or certain nuts (and random things like black pepper) - I'm suppose to be following a low oxalate diet because of calcium oxalate kidney stones. The acceptable low oxalate fruits & veggies tend to be higher carb. I'm ecstatic to see them on the Atkins 40 plan even if the amounts are small.

The thing is, 30 years ago doctors told me to stop eating foods with calcium because of my kidney stones. I thought that was crazy, what about my bones? I didn't want osteoporosis so I ignored it but gave up drinking milk. Now doctors say no, stopping calcium makes it worse, avoid oxalates.

I sometimes don't know what to believe. I've been alive long enough to see opinions change so much but also to know that our bodies don't all function the same. It's been enlightening reading the different responses - thank you!

sljohnson1207

GiGiBeans wrote: »

Ha, I can definitely relate to the PIA of trying to figure what fruits & veggies in what amounts work out. I do sometimes wonder why bother if all I can have is 1/2 cup of spinach in a particular meal. Other times I consider it a fun challenge to make the #s work out. And truth be told I am not suppose to be eating green leafy vegetables or berries or certain nuts (and random things like black pepper) - I'm suppose to be following a low oxalate diet because of calcium oxalate kidney stones. The acceptable low oxalate fruits & veggies tend to be higher carb. I'm ecstatic to see them on the Atkins 40 plan even if the amounts are small.

The thing is, 30 years ago doctors told me to stop eating foods with calcium because of my kidney stones. I thought that was crazy, what about my bones? I didn't want osteoporosis so I ignored it but gave up drinking milk. Now doctors say no, stopping calcium makes it worse, avoid oxalates.

I sometimes don't know what to believe. I've been alive long enough to see opinions change so much but also to know that our bodies don't all function the same. It's been enlightening reading the different responses - thank you!

My mother was told the same as you and did end up with osteoporosis. However, she has more than CO stones. She has CKD, and has recently been on a transplant list. It's genetic, not due to HBP or Diabetes II, but she lost one kidney 35 years ago, and the other is not working right. The calcium oxalate stones wreak havoc on her. Some are in the kidney and cannot be broken with sound waves due to her only have 1 kidney and the risks associated. It's tough to be on a low oxalate diet. Interestingly enough, I am on a fairly low oxalate diet due to Interstitial Cystitis. A lot of the high oxalate foods cause a lot of pain to my tender, messed up bladder lining. It's interesting how certain compounds that are natural can affect our health in such a negative way. I wish you well!

zeinmr

Low cab high fat is not a must for everyone. It is for people who have carb intolerance which statistically counts more than 2/3 of the population. The way to find if you are Carb intolerant is indirectly by verifying your HDL and triglycerides. TG excess is due to the inabilty of our body to metabolize carb excess. Hope this help