just started low carb

katekross · September 2013

I know

I did the Brussels sprout recipe on sunday... soooo good!

awtume9 · September 2013

yup!

athenalove46 · September 2013

I just wanted to say good luck! And to remember that even though you are low carb, you still need carbs! Aim for at LEAST 50 grams a day. If you look at Mark Sissons carb curve even 100 grams is within fat loss range. Just wanted to warn you about going too low which can cause ketosis and that is not a pleasant thing to deal with. Usually some juice or something sweet will help you get out, but look up the signs of it and beware. I ate super low carb for 3 years losing tons of weight and even my cycles. Now I'm doing EM2WL and upping my carbs slowly. I'm back up to 150 grams a day and feel better than ever!

I guess it's also important to point out the quality and source of your carbs. Try to avoid processed carbs and stick with natural carbs. Squashes, sweet potato, oatmeal, even white rice is okay.

good luck and remember to listen to your body.

Leone51 · September 2013

Can I ask how many carbs to lose weight please? I need to lose 60 pounds. The reason I want to do low carb is I have a terrible addiction to chocolate and the only way I can curb that is to eat low carb. Then I don't get the cravings. PLEASE HELP.

lilRicki · September 2013

I read that 150g is maintenance, and 50 - 100g is fat loss, anything less is scary lol

bacitracin · September 2013

Ketogenic for a couple years now on and off. Mainly; drink a lot of water, get a lot of potassium and magnesium. If you get dizzy when you stand up, you need more electrolytes, like sodium, because your blood pressure is too LOW.

And you're right, it's not a diet. It's a lifestyle.

bacitracin · September 2013

Umm, you're kind of proving that low-carb is the natural state your body is meant to run on. If you want to sustain it, keep doing the same thing you're doing. Don't radically change your lifestyle and expect your body to run as if the fuel hadn't fluctuated wildly.

ladymiseryali · September 2013

There is no set number of net carbs. Basically you gotta go through trial and error. Personally, I lose best when my net-carbs are under 30. For you, it could be 40 or 20. I would say try to keep your net carbs under 30 and see what happens.

Also, you can kind of have chocolate on low-carb. Basically, you take unsweetened cocoa and add a bit of low-carb sweetener and you got chocolate. Also, some dark chocolate is low-carb. So there's that.

Oh and if you don't know, net carbs are basically total carbs minus any fiber you have.

medic2038 · September 2013

Even that unsweetened baker's chocolate+ splenda I thought was totally gross. My ex was giving keto a try but she wanted chocolate so we experimented with that.

Bac,
I routinely have to dump lite salt on everything, my BP tends to get a bit low on keto (and that's WITH drinking a gallon on water). Lite salt is pretty awesome, it's 50% K and 50% NaCl. I've found it much harder to get K then anything else.

aetzkorn14 · September 2013

Try stevia as your sweetener....it's better in my opinion. And I think you can get chocolate flavored stevia from WF for cooking with. That may help.

medic2038 · September 2013

Aet,
I don't use any of that stuff TBH. I bought splenda to have it, but I don't actually put it in anything. About 95% of what I eat is made out of meat!

GiGiBeans · September 2013

This has pretty much been my experience. Around 75 net for weight loss (it's not all fat, some was water and muscle). Maintenance about 175ish on average. If I go too high or eat chocolate cake 2 days in a row the cravings start and I immediately cut back.

ndj1979 · September 2013

there is no correlation between carbs ate and weight loss ..

eat in a deficit and you will lose..

eat over maintenance and you will gain ..

Fail to see correlation between chocolate addiction and needing to eat low carb...

ginaquinn2 · November 2013

Hi I saw your questions about carbs. I've been doing low carb since September 21 St and I've lost about 16 pounds in that time. I've gone from211.4 to 194.8. I've got a long way to go but I think that's a pretty good start. I'm doing low carb of course to loose weight but like you I too have a problem with chocolate! With low carb fortunately the awful cravings for carbs particularly for sugar has been broken. I'm by no means an expert on low carbs but I understand that starting out many people shoot for between 20 and 25 carbs a day. Sounds pretty tough and you might wonder how the heck can you do that. Good news is that you don't have to do it alone there are a lot of resources available to you.
A good place to go is to www.Atkins.com. There is also a free Atkins App that would give you a great idea of the different foods and their carb count as well as giving you ideas for meals. There are surely a lot of different good sites these are just what I know and have found helpful.
Good news about low carb is you don't have to not have sweets you just learn to do it a little differently. My latest discovery is a product called Ez Sweetz it is a liquid artificial sweetener that has no carbs. Whooo hoooo.
Well I wish you luck I really suggest you spend sometime on the Atkins website to get to understand low carb a bit better. Your just trying to change what your body is using for fuel. Haha of course it's not that simple. Another thing that you might find helpful is to find people here doing low carb who have open food diaries. I learn so much from other people's diaries.
Be well,
Gina

fleetzz · November 2013

There actually is no minimum requirement for carbs. There is a requirement for certain vitamins, minerals, fiber, etc., which only comes from food that also contain carbs.

Ketosis in itself is not harmful, ketoacidosis is harmful, but that is a result of a metabolic abnormality and needs to be addressed immediately to prevent badness (death).

The last paragraph is semi correct--white rice started as basically a great carb, then was processed to death with all the great stuff removed. Skip it--brown rice has more nutrition.

I lost most of my weight doing low carb (< 25 grams per day of all carbs), but then felt comfortable enough to exercise, and it is much easier to exercise when there is glucose and glycogen around. Low carb is hard and since I have a sweet tooth, not as enjoyable as a regular diet. I have been off low carb since June, feel pretty good, exercise (did my personal best in a 5K Saturday), but weight loss is slow!!! I have 10 lbs to go, and if I go back to low carb can probably do it in 2 months. On my current low cal diet I have lost about 8 lbs in 3 months, but my food is yummier and I have more energy to exercise. Also, while doing low carb, make sure you take supplements (especially fiber supplements, which have carbs--count them, actually count everything!)

Good luck!

just started low carb

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