Going to go for 30 or less carbs a day

professionalHobbyist

i am thinking about taking a solid couple weeks and do old school low carb as a change up to kick off a few pounds.

I am thinking a month and 7 pounds would work. It would get me halfway to my final goal.

A month is something I can grind out and go back to moderate carb for a while again.

I am not a starch eater anyway so this arena is where I stay.


Anyone else ever live moderate carb for months at a time and then hit it hard low carb for a while to drop a few pounds quick?

DAM5412

Yep, I do. but my "moderate carb" days tend to creep up to high carb a lot more often then not. When I get myself on track, I drop down to keto level carbs, 20g a day is goal, but I don't kill myself if it creeps closer to 30g or lower than 10g. Best of luck, if you can stick to it through the first few weeks, you'll be just fine!

professionalHobbyist

I try and do 60

I notice certain snack foods creep in.

Mixed nuts are bad and so are those dang Quest bars!!

I have been looking over my buying habits and I have been buying more of the moderate carb foods and then letting them get too high in the mix

I have been losing a pound or so a month and gaining some strength and muscle..

But it is 15 lbs of body fat to go for goal. I'm ready to nuke off that fat and be done with it. Go to what seems to be maintenance level I have found

You know how sometimes people go to maintenance before getting to goal?

Ha!

I don't want to be that guy!!

Thanks for the reminder

wabmester

Do it, man! And post your results here during the experiment. I'm interested to see if it impacts your exercise at all.

In theory, not a lot of difference between 60 and 30, but your muscles may like the ketone boost.

professionalHobbyist

I am planning to not lift hard at all. Just weights at low weight low reps.

What has worked for me is the dreaded HIIT. I do it for 24 minutes and it whips my behind. I know I burn out my glycogen and am burning off fat and get that ammonia smelling sweat. The HIIT wipes out my carbs I have eaten anyway. I have never done HIIT on really low carb. I don't know if it will work. I will do it at maybe high cardio level. At either rate I anticipate a mitochondria efficiency boost in fat burning mix. That is one well documented effect of HIIT and burning out the available glycogen and needing to source fat for a greater mix of fuel.

Getting ready to go do a HIIT interval now. Had about 20 carbs so far today. They will be gone soon if not already !

professionalHobbyist

Well after a weekend of low carb and lots of cardio to burn out my glycogen...

Jumped on the scale and lost 3.2 pounds of water/glycogen. Probably 1/2 lb of fat in all that.

But I have decided to go easy on hard lifting. In the past that is what made me feel tired when dropping carbs a good bit.

I'm feeling pretty normal. No carb drop hangover.

So far so good. I will do 30-40 carbs and get my 10000 steps in to burn out the carbs I eat.

So far so good!

Sabine_Stroehm

professionalHobbyist wrote: »

Well after a weekend of low carb and lots of cardio to burn out my glycogen...

Jumped on the scale and lost 3.2 pounds of water/glycogen. Probably 1/2 lb of fat in all that.

But I have decided to go easy on hard lifting. In the past that is what made me feel tired when dropping carbs a good bit.

I'm feeling pretty normal. No carb drop hangover.

So far so good. I will do 30-40 carbs and get my 10000 steps in to burn out the carbs I eat.

So far so good!

Keep posting here. I want to follow your progress.

mlinton_mesapark

Hear, hear! Beat of luck with your experiment. I am curious about the metabolic difference between 30-60g carbs, too. HIIT intimates me, I admit. I get flashbacks of getting overheated, dizzy and vomiting, but maybe I need to figure out how to pace myself in that scenario.

DAM5412

I'm not very fit, and in the past I've only used Calorie restriction, keto or workouts to lose weight, never combined the workouts with diet changes. I had moderate success on each, but as I've gotten older, I see I need to do both and a long term sustainable way, to really feel healthy and make progress. So I've just actually gotten back on track with keto and starting to exercise more. For me, for now, what means cardio-- lots of walking! I plan on signing up for a 5k in September, so that will motivate me start running again and I know I need to add in strength. I actually loved HIIT when I did it in the past, but don't have the money for a gym/program right now, but am keeping my eyes open for groupons to gyms in my area and will hope to score a deal on one soon.

I've never been able to do maintenance as I gave myself too much freedom and gained weight. I'm working now to lose about 20 lbs, and then try maintenance, but my real goals have to do with eating keto consistently, staying active, running that 5k and gaining strength.

I'm gonna follow your thread and see how you do.

Couchpotato39

When you say under 30 carbs, do you mean net or total?

wabmester

professionalHobbyist wrote: »

But I have decided to go easy on hard lifting. In the past that is what made me feel tired when dropping carbs a good bit.

Your muscles may adapt to the stress. New mitochondia, new enzymes. I'm considering doing the same experiment just for the added stress.

professionalHobbyist

I was talking net carbs. I just had a big lunch of two chicken breasts and green beans and some bell peppers.

For the HIIT it is only :45 seconds sprint and 2:15 jog pace. 3 minutes of warm up and cool down with 6 cycles. So it is only 24 minutes.

I am counting on some slight increase in mitochondrial efficiency. It works for all sorts of athletes. Sound science behind it.

As far as getting into a keto state I will buy some keto strips. I have always just burnt out my carbs. I don't eat as low as many but burn them out consistently.

I got up this morning and hit the treadmill hard. Goal of forcing keto on quickly

A little over 10,000 steps in by lunch.

Since I am trying to get rid of gut... I need to measure and see how this experiment works on waistline and tummy area.

I know I can't spot reduce but I have never really monitored things very close as I see other members of our little low carb family.

You guys and gals are very organized. I need to pick up some of your good habits !

professionalHobbyist

Well a week in to the lower carb was good!

Before I started I was eating at maint and lifting hard so I was actually up about 3 pounds from my last recorded weigh in

In two days all of that was gone. In a week I was down 2.3 pounds more.

To be fair to the low carb diet, I messed up my weigh in this morning by having a salty chicken wing dinner last night. This morning I weighed 2 pounds more than yesterday mornin and had wicked dry mouth from all the salt

I have to give the hard low carb diet with lots of low leve cardio a high grade.

I ate about 1900 calories with 10-15% carbs and not subtracting fiber or sugar alcohols. Fat and protein were close to even. I did lift for 3 of the days and felt pretty much the same.

I think I will cycle in a week once in a while of very low carbs like once every month or so. It seems to have a good effect on me. Plus I like those carnivore days!

And this weekend will be a few steaks!

New digital scale on the way too!

I'm gonna start weighing what I don't eat too. I weigh a cooked steak but cut out gristle and fat. Be interesting and more accurate.

Have a great weekend and thank you to all the people that share so much info on the Low Carb lifestyle.

toadqueen

Great job on doing this and reporting. I cannot exercise right now until I get the approval from my doctor but I used to HIIT while eating very low carb and had excellent results too. I also lifted moderately 3 times per week. I lost weight while toning my muscles.

You should cut the gristle but enjoy the yummy fat. Just my 2 cents

wabmester

professionalHobbyist wrote: »

I did lift for 3 of the days and felt pretty much the same.

Good to hear. I suspect you're already fat adapted. Your old 60g-carb diet was very ketogenic, especially with exercise.

professionalHobbyist

wabmester wrote: »

professionalHobbyist wrote: »

I did lift for 3 of the days and felt pretty much the same.

Good to hear. I suspect you're already fat adapted. Your old 60g-carb diet was very ketogenic, especially with exercise.

I will be buying some keto sticks.

It seems that they are a yes or no sort of indicator.

wabmester

professionalHobbyist wrote: »

wabmester wrote: »

professionalHobbyist wrote: »

I did lift for 3 of the days and felt pretty much the same.

Good to hear. I suspect you're already fat adapted. Your old 60g-carb diet was very ketogenic, especially with exercise.

I will be buying some keto sticks.

It seems that they are a yes or no sort of indicator.

Sort of. They only measure ketones wasted in the urine, and you tend to waste less as you adapt to utilize more. You're already utilizing a bunch and have been for a while.

Here's a study I posted recently:
http://www.plosone.org/article/fetchObject.action?uri=info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0113605&representation=PDF

Compared to baseline,
serum ketones increased approximately 5-fold during C1, 3-fold after C2, 2-fold
after C4 and returned to baseline levels by C5.

baseline = 0.11 mmol/l ketones -- everybody makes some, especially at night.
C4 = 179g/d carbs
C3 = 131
C2 = 83
C1 = 47

So, you were previously between C1 and C2, maybe around 0.4 mmol/L ketones.

professionalHobbyist

Still rolling along

Today was a dat to go do a massive glycogen burn off and try to push my mitochondria to adapt for better fat uptake for fuel

Did a long bike ride at a pretty decent pace to exhaust my glycogen and burn fat.

Exercise was done on a fast since yesterday dinner time.

I was tired on mile 1. Miles 2-19 seemed good. Mile 20 was hard.... And it was slightly uphill to kick a guy when he is down!

Anyway a 1500 calorie burn on an empty stomach

The ride

wabmester

Yeah, I find the first mile is the hardest. That seems to be when you need some glucose before you switch over to steady-state fat burning.

If you did 80 minutes of fasted exercise without bonking, you're fat adapted, d00d! Congrats!

professionalHobbyist

Weird thing is I honestly was not hungry

I knew to eat protein to spare my muscle mass but I do think you are right.

Once you get fat as fuel adapted it gets easier.

That seems to be the promised land of low carb dieting. Many that try and quit don't get there and then blame the program as being flawed.

It isn't flawed. It just isn't exactly easy to get there

Thanks for your input and ideas Wab Mester. I have taken many items you have shared and put them in my toolbox.