LCHF

Sugarbarez

wow that scares me I never planned on eating like this for life... I want to eat some of the stuff i ate before

yarwell

I've had friends who did Atkins, Keto, Paleo diets. When they decided to quit and go back to regular eating they just ballooned in a matter of weeks. Some putting on more weight from where they originally started...

typically this occurs because after breaking the low fat mantra and going LCHF some people then add in carbs but keep eating elevated levels of fat, so they get an excess of calories and a boost to their insulin levels to promote fat storage.

MCHF isn't a diet anyone favours.

judychicken

Bump

Mr_Knight

Has anyone any experience with LCHF (low car high fat)?

Yep.

How did you feel during the time you followed the program?

Like ****. Low energy, constant cravings.

How much did you lose?

40 pounds.

How long did it take you?

About a year.

Did you have any physical symptoms before or after?

Very poor endurance, reduced strength, reduced cardiovascular fitness.

Did it help you to maintain?

Hell no.

danimalkeys

Has anyone any experience with LCHF (low car high fat)?

Yep.

How did you feel during the time you followed the program?

Like ****. Low energy, constant cravings.

How much did you lose?

40 pounds.

How long did it take you?

About a year.

Did you have any physical symptoms before or after?

Very poor endurance, reduced strength, reduced cardiovascular fitness.

Did it help you to maintain?

Hell no.

I've been low carbing for a little over 3 months, since late July, and I'm down 17lbs.

I must be the opposite of you, because while my energy level at 1st was definitely lower, it's fine now. I have no cravings for carbs at all. My cardio endurance has not suffered- were you doing cardio the whole time you were on the diet? My strength has gone down but I'd expect that to happen no matter what method I use to lose weight. It hasn't gone down a lot, and in a way, I'm lifting a higher % of my bodyweight because I'm lighter. If I got 225x10 on bench when I weighed 230, and now I get 8 reps at 215, I'll take the latter.

endoftheside

Has anyone any experience with LCHF (low car high fat)? I did it for a little less than 3 months.
How did you feel during the time you followed the program? I was not hungry, that was SO nice.
How much did you lose? About 15 pounds.
How long did it take you? Almost 3 months.
Did you have any physical symptoms before or after? Leg cramps, constipation, bonked quickly if I exercised without eating beforehand.
Did it help you to maintain? I gained it all back plus some more when I stopped (and I stopped because it was not sustainable for me). It did get me in the habit of eating more veggies than I used to, and I developed a decent number of meat+veg meals that I enjoy, which comes in handy nowadays when I end up with 300 calories left for dinner and a lot of protein still to eat to meet macros. LCHF was not the right plan for me, but it got me one step closer to a sustainable plan for me (carbs low enough to prevent the carb crazies but high enough that I can have a bit of whatever I would like on a daily basis).

NewToFitness

Has anyone any experience with LCHF (low car high fat)? For the past 2 1/2 months and going.
How did you feel during the time you followed the program? At first it was definitely a transition. I had keto breath. And at first I felt some craving for sugar (since I had a sweet tooth). But after 2 weeks, I was great. I did make sure not to introduce sweeteners until 3-4 weeks into the diet (when I had kicked the sweet tooth).
How much did you lose? 25 pounds and counting.
How long did it take you? 2 1/2 months.
Did you have any physical symptoms before or after? TMI but my stool was pretty loose. Might have been from the sweetener though! :-) Also, sometimes I can be so focused on something I'll forget to eat, but I'll eat eventually when I get hungry.
Did it help you to maintain? Yes, but I've always stayed on the diet. Whenever I strayed (once to do wedding taste-testing, and once for a birthday party) I felt horrible with headaches, stomach upset, etc. When I was back on the diet it would take about a week for 1 days relapse to feel better. This is a diet that isn't a diet -- you don't get off of it. You have to read all the material, and decide that that's the way you're going to eat. If the diet doesn't help you lose weight, it's likely that you're not a good candidate for it anyway so you should do something else.

I've been through a lot of diet/fitness regimes (Nutrisystem, calorie counting, salad diet, smoothie diet, soup diet, work-out-every-day, etc), and always ballooned bigger than when I started. I feel like LCHF isn't a "diet": it's the way I should have always been eating. If you have the signs for "Syndrome X" or "insulin resistance" you should try this eating plan to see if that helps you. If you don't, then the diet may not help you at all.

With LCHF, I've finally found a diet where I:
* Don't have to log any of my food activity (I logged it for the first 2-3 weeks, but after that I never needed to, because I knew what to eat. Except for very specific condiments that I couldn't figure out how to make, I don't eat anything processed. I'm very selective about what I eat and how many carbs it has and what is in it, but typically I can tell by instinct now.
* Can eat out easily and always find something I can eat (even at Dennys. even at Olive Garden. even at a burger joint. my favorite places are kabob joints though.)
* No plaque! My dentist loves that I'm on this diet since I don't eat any sugar/carbs (carbs get converted into sugar and still contribute to plaque). And my sweetener of choice is Xylitol (since its anti-bacterial to s. mutans - the bacteria that causes ENT infections and plaque).
* (Now) Can easily determine by instinct what I should and shouldn't eat by default by what I want. I don't have cravings for carbs anymore.
* Lowered appetite and I don't need a strict eating plan - I eat when I'm hungry, and stop when I'm not. I see eating as a necessity and I don't eat more than I need to, but I still ENJOY food. I don't feel like I'm wasting it because I usually just pack up the rest to-go or put it in the fridge. The only constant in my diet is that I eat 3 supplements: 1 daily vitamin, 1 calcium supplement, and 1 tbsp of fish oil each day.
* I can eat steak! Rack of lamb! Veggies with hollandaise! Quiche! Cheesecake! Mayonnaise! I can even eat my carb-loaded favorites by just removing the carbs (burger replacing bun with 2 portobellos, chicken curry with cauliflower rice instead of normal rice or with cucumber slices, Eggs Bennedict by removing the english muffin, chicken alfredo by replacing the noodles with lots of stove-top veggies and upping the fat on the delicious alfredo sauce, etc.). It's just not restrictive to me. I didn't really care for bread/rice anyway (I just felt like it took up space), so maybe that's the trick.

The only things I actively track using MFP is my blood pressure (weekly) and my weight. I would track my cholesterol (triglycerides, LCL, HCL, and total), but I just haven't bothered to go to the doctor about it (money is tight right now).

I follow Peter Attia's blog regarding LCHF and used some of his meal plans as a starting point while adding some of my own. The reddit keto boards helped quite a bit.

I've lost 25 lbs from the LCHF lifestyle and am never changing it. Ever. The only time I'm going to break it a little is to have half-a-slice of cake at my wedding. I love this diet, lifestyle, what-have-you.

BTW: that's while more than halving my exercise regimen. Work has been crazy and I just haven't had the time to go in as often as I used to over the summer. And yet, I'm losing weight like gangbusters.