New & uncertain
suzzi_can
Posts: 20 Member
Hi thanks for having me here..
I have known for some time that carbs don't like me.. When I eat them especially breads, pastas that kind of thing I feel bloated, sluggish and just crave more.. And I now weigh the most I ever have..
I want to go low carb - I am unsure whether 50 or 100 is the most reasonable number..
I have read a little about high fat and while it makes sense it just goes against all that I have ever learned and I am a bit fearful..
For health and weight loss do I just try to limit my carbs or do I go HF also??
What is going to give me the best and quickest results?
Thanks for any help or advice
I have known for some time that carbs don't like me.. When I eat them especially breads, pastas that kind of thing I feel bloated, sluggish and just crave more.. And I now weigh the most I ever have..
I want to go low carb - I am unsure whether 50 or 100 is the most reasonable number..
I have read a little about high fat and while it makes sense it just goes against all that I have ever learned and I am a bit fearful..
For health and weight loss do I just try to limit my carbs or do I go HF also??
What is going to give me the best and quickest results?
Thanks for any help or advice
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Replies
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I think lots of people were skeptical at first but it really works! There are a lot of people who are a testament to this way of eating and are having great success.
I think that if you lower your carbs, one of the other macronutrients (protein or fat) just increase naturally. I myself think that higher fat is better than higher protein because fat keeps you fuller longer and is more satisfying.0 -
Welcome, @suzzi_can! I highly recommend reading the "start here" thread and checking out the links in it. I also can't say enough good things about including healthy fat in your diet. It's essential to long term success with low carb. Protein is important, too, but not as much as fat, and you can overdo it.
Best of luck! Even just cutting out all wheat can make a huge difference in your health and well-being.0 -
Fat definitely helps you feel full longer. And from what I understand, fat will not convert over to glucose (like excess protein) and your body will use what it wants and discard the rest. However, I'm still pretty new to this myself.0
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ruffneck813 wrote: »Fat definitely helps you feel full longer. And from what I understand, fat will not convert over to glucose (like excess protein) and your body will use what it wants and discard the rest. However, I'm still pretty new to this myself.
This is a question that has dogged me for some time. If we eat excess protein, does it convert to glucose and then stored body fat? My understanding is yes. Likewise, if we eat excess fat, does it also convert to glucose and then stored body fat? Again, my understanding is yes.
To my understanding - limited as it is - the LCHF lifestyle encourages us to eat fewer calories with greater satiety, which results in weight loss - after all, butter is fat but without carbs to spread it on, we're unlikely to eat a stick of butter, and just tasting butter might make us feel full. So that's my understanding.
Any gurus here have the answers? If so, please accept my appreciation in advance. Also, if you have any links to articles/studies/etc regarding this, I'd be happy to peruse those too.
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Hello!
Start by plugging in your numbers into a keto calculator like this one: http://keto-calculator.ankerl.com/
This tool should help you with knowing how many carbs, protein and fat you should be getting. Don't be afraid of fat - our bodies need it to run and stay full
For myself I stay between 20 - 50g of NET carbs. This means subtract fiber and sugar alcohols from your carb totals because your body doesn't absorb those carbs. So if I have an avocado that's 13g of carbs I subtract 10 because 10g are pure fiber, leaving me with 3 net carbs.
It's very confusing at first but check out these forums, /r/keto on Reddit or Keto Karma on youtube. She's very helpful!0 -
Hi @suzzi_can Welcome aboard the LCHF train!
I ate low carb low fat for years and it was a futile effort for me. I was able to lose some weight, but I was always hungry and cheated on my diet constantly because I wasn't satisfied with my food. The fat was definitely the missing ingredient and it has changed my life in so many positive ways.
I've lost more weight in the last 70 days eating LCHF than I did in the last 5 years of eating LCLF.
I totally understand how crazy it seems. I feel like I'm part of a cult some days when I try to explain to people how I'm losing so much weight lol. But, hey, we used to think the world was flat 0 -
Congrats @PaleoInScotland !0
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blacktie347 wrote: »If we eat excess protein, does it convert to glucose and then stored body fat? My understanding is yes. Likewise, if we eat excess fat, does it also convert to glucose and then stored body fat? Again, my understanding is yes.
It's complicated.
Fat is pretty simple. All fat intake, except for some shorter chain lengths, gets stored pretty efficiently.
What, all fat gets stored!? Yes, but the fat is always in flux. Sort of like blood glucose, we always have some fat circulating in our blood, even if we haven't eaten recently.
Can fat get converted to glucose? Not really, but the glycerol that holds fat chains together (remember triglyceride = 3 fats + glycerol) can be converted to glucose, and that will spare some protein if we run low on glucose.
We don't have any storage facility for protein except for muscle tissue (and maybe a little in the gut), so protein in excess will first convert to glucose and then that glucose (if excess) gets converted to fat, but that process is very inefficient, and we have a limited ability to handle protein, so it's virtually impossible to get fat from eating too much protein.
Protein is also in flux, and there's always some available for whatever cells may need it.0 -
Welcome. I recommend watching the six part YouTube videos made by Dr. Jason Fung called the Etiology of Obesity. He does a very good job of explaining how this WOE works to help burn fat. I too found it hard to change my mindset after so many years of being told that dietary fat was the devil, but I can tell you that I have never had weight come off so fast in my entire life since eating LCHF (55LBS in 4 months...but keep in mind I am a male and I have a lot of weight to lose). I eat bacon at least 3 or 4 days per week. Butter. Cheese. Full-Fat whipping cream. Well marbled steak. Chicken thighs with skin. Basically all of the super tasty, rich foods that we've been told to avoid and I've been steadily/rapidly losing weight the whole time. Because these foods are rich and filling you tend to eat less and are full longer. I sometimes have a hard time eating enough calories even to meet the minimum that MFP requires before allowing me to complete logging for the day. Most days I eat between 1400-1600 calories which for a 6', 250LB man is pretty low - still I am not hungry. I don't think I could physically eat 2500 calories on LCHF.
Finally, you asked for advice on how to lose weight quickly. For me, cutting my carbs to 20g or less has worked wonders. I jumped into this WOE with both feet, but I didn't have any idea what I was doing and just got lucky. I had a couple of days where I didn't feel great but they passed quickly enough. You may find that 50g - 100g works for you (it does for others), but if you really want to see fast results (as you said in the OP) I recommend trying to get down to 20g. It could hurt to start at 50-100 and then slowly decrease. In fact, that's probably a more reasonable approach than the one I took. Again, I didn't know what I was doing at the time (still learning).0 -
blacktie347 wrote: »If we eat excess protein, does it convert to glucose and then stored body fat? My understanding is yes. Likewise, if we eat excess fat, does it also convert to glucose and then stored body fat? Again, my understanding is yes.
It's complicated.
Fat is pretty simple. All fat intake, except for some shorter chain lengths, gets stored pretty efficiently.
What, all fat gets stored!? Yes, but the fat is always in flux. Sort of like blood glucose, we always have some fat circulating in our blood, even if we haven't eaten recently.
Can fat get converted to glucose? Not really, but the glycerol that holds fat chains together (remember triglyceride = 3 fats + glycerol) can be converted to glucose, and that will spare some protein if we run low on glucose.
We don't have any storage facility for protein except for muscle tissue (and maybe a little in the gut), so protein in excess will first convert to glucose and then that glucose (if excess) gets converted to fat, but that process is very inefficient, and we have a limited ability to handle protein, so it's virtually impossible to get fat from eating too much protein.
Protein is also in flux, and there's always some available for whatever cells may need it.
Thank you!
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Hi thanks for having me here..
I have known for some time that carbs don't like me.. When I eat them especially breads, pastas that kind of thing I feel bloated, sluggish and just crave more.. And I now weigh the most I ever have..
I want to go low carb - I am unsure whether 50 or 100 is the most reasonable number..
I have read a little about high fat and while it makes sense it just goes against all that I have ever learned and I am a bit fearful..
For health and weight loss do I just try to limit my carbs or do I go HF also??
What is going to give me the best and quickest results?
Thanks for any help or advice
i was terrified, too. my entire life, all i've heard is avoid fats. i am doing <25g/carbs per day and I have lost 5 pounds since Friday. so far, so good on my end. good luck with your loss 0 -
For myself I stay between 20 - 50g of NET carbs. This means subtract fiber and sugar alcohols from your carb totals because your body doesn't absorb those carbs. So if I have an avocado that's 13g of carbs I subtract 10 because 10g are pure fiber, leaving me with 3 net carbs.
^^^ i agree with above. i do NET CARBS as well ^^^
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PaleoInScotland wrote: »Hi @suzzi_can Welcome aboard the LCHF train!
I ate low carb low fat for years and it was a futile effort for me. I was able to lose some weight, but I was always hungry and cheated on my diet constantly because I wasn't satisfied with my food. The fat was definitely the missing ingredient and it has changed my life in so many positive ways.
My experience is similar. I did Low carb but high protein, I had good results, but ate a ton of food (like 40 chicken wings in a setting) and developed a voracious appetite which remained when I came off.
I have only been doing LCHF for a month though. I'm happy with the results so far (~16lbs). I was surprised at how satisfied I am. I do not make a concerted effort to stay below my MFP allotted calorie intake, but I find that I am below it on most days.
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[Late Edit] in my reply I said it "could hurt" to decrease from 50-100 down to 20. I meant to say it "couldn't" hurt. Meaning, it would seem reasonable to me to start out at 50-100 and see how that goes for a while. You can always go down further after a while. I just went VLC right from the start because I was feeling like that's what I need to do for me.0
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As an RN I was very reluctant, scared, you name it, of fat! OMG, we've been told forever that it's the worst thing to consume, clogs arteries, makes you fat, yada, yada, yada! They are wrong!
Addition of fats like butter, heavy whipping cream, coconut oil....gives you a great satiety that leads to not being hungry (this happens for people!)!
I began by using butter to cook my scrambled eggs, and added hwc to them before cooking. Then I changed all meats to fattier selections (ground beef 80/20, dark meat chicken with skin, pork roast.....), and haven't looked back. I've had my cholesterol checked and it's better numbers than I've ever had!
Try not to be afraid of fat. It's been a life saver, for me! 0 -
Thank you all so much.. I really didn't want to work today because there is just so much I want to know, watch and work out now.. Thanks to some great links of resources..
I to am a RN and previously worked cardiac so I guess I have been programmed but I am all for questioning and trying new things and ideas..
I have tried thinking of how our ancestors would have eaten, carbs would not have been big and fats very much apart of their diet.. What was their obesity rates- very little!! So I am starting to rationalise it.. Big step..
The keto-calculator is great but then I started playing with numbers got myself confused.. Definitely going back to it..
So I'm thinking that I will try the LCHF way, it's a bit exciting.. Without fat n eating carbs I just keep growing so perhaps just maybe I may know the success of people here..
Just need to start planning n thinking how I'm going to get my fat quota.. Use the calculator again and find the right macros for me to start..
I have avoided carbs fairly well so far today though but I'm nowhere near the fat I would need..
Thank you all again.. I am motivated0 -
Try a variety of fats and oils to see what you like. I got pretty fed up with bacon early on, but found I love cheese, cream, avocado, coconut cream/milk and macadamia or olive oil and vinegar poured over bowls of leafy greens - just love my rocket (arugula) - I could drink the stuff.0
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I'm only short so my calorie intake per day is not meant to be high so how do you get enough fats without blowing the calories out to massively??
I hope this isn't a dumb question..0 -
I'm only short so my calorie intake per day is not meant to be high so how do you get enough fats without blowing the calories out to massively??
I hope this isn't a dumb question..
Because that fat is so satisfying that you don't actually eat a lot of food. Many of us just eat 1 or 2 meals a day but still get the calories we need.
I just have Keto coffee for breakfast. About 6am.
Coffee, MCT oil and butter. About 250 calories worth.
Then I eat again around 2pm. Usually 300-400 calories.
Then I get the rest at dinner. I average 1300 calories a day.0 -
ClaireBearOz wrote: »I got pretty fed up with bacon early on,
Fed up with bacon!?! OMG! I could never picture myself saying that! LOL!!0 -
ruffneck813 wrote: »ClaireBearOz wrote: »I got pretty fed up with bacon early on,
Fed up with bacon!?! OMG! I could never picture myself saying that! LOL!!
Agreed!0 -
Thanks Sunny_Bunny that's given me an idea to start.. I'm going to try one of those coffees this morning.. I hope I like it ☕️0
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I'm only short so my calorie intake per day is not meant to be high so how do you get enough fats without blowing the calories out to massively??
I hope this isn't a dumb question..
right now i am not counting calories. i am trying to get used to <25 carbs/day first, then will tweak my calorie intake. even with all i'm eating, i've still lost 5 pounds in less than a week.0 -
I'm only short so my calorie intake per day is not meant to be high so how do you get enough fats without blowing the calories out to massively??
I hope this isn't a dumb question..
MFP and the Keto calculator both calculate your macros based on percentages of your total caloric needs. As a result, if you stick to the recommendations of either of them (MFP's with tweaking of the percentages), you won't go over your calories.
As mentioned, though, fat is very satiating. You will very likely find that you feel like you're eating a ton, but you actually struggle to eat enough in general, or you'll find you're eating the right amount (or close to it).0 -
Oh my gosh I just had my first keto coffee and it was good.. So not what I expected-way way better.. Looking forward to tomorrow morn now.. Just have to work out getting enough fat for the rest of the day0
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