Less carbs

joselo2

Well, conflicting views on this as ever, but thatnks for the input everyone. I do sort of feel that carbs aren't my problem. It's more likely just eating too much and too high fat. And the main reason for that is like Nix say- not being organised enough and planning, so grabbing stuff on the go whichtends to be less healthy.

gigglesinthesun

just stay away from any 'diet' plan that says you can eat whatever meat and fat, but the carbs in fruit and veggies will make you fat ...

dieselbyte

yep it's true. you should limit your carb intake. although there are two different kind of carbs: simple and complex. simple carbs are the ones that have high gi and will spike your insulin (which is a fat storing hormone) and give you a mood crash shortly after you eat as it gets quickly absorbed into your blood stream. you may recognize these in the form of sugar laden food like chocolate, donuts etc. you should also note white bread, white pasta, white flour also falls into this range.
Complex carbs are good for you as they are slowly absorbed into your bloodstream and release energy slowly. complex carbs take in the form of grains (brown rice, quinoa, wholegrain bread) , nuts, vegetables

if you want to lose weight, i definitely encourage you to cut out your simple carbs and replace them with complex carbs. it's quality over quantity over here.
even though counting calories can assist you with weight loss, what you really want to do is feed your body with good food and take care of your body. so the best way to reconcile weight loss and feeding your body with nutrients, limit your intake of simple carbs - chocolate, candy, white rice, white pasta. you may wish to replace this with fruit which despite being a simple carb, will satisfy your sweet tooth cravings. i would stick to 1-2 serves a day to avoid insulin spikes. just substitute your white rice and pasta for brown rice or white bread with wholegrain!

you will hopefully see a difference in your body and your mood by doing so also.

Wrong... just wrong. Weight loss is calories in vs out. Unless there is a medical reason to limit carbs, carb intake and source is irrelevant to weight loss. Caloric deficit will provide weight loss. Over feeding your body anything, even "good food" will lead to weight gain. There is no magic.

dieselbyte

You are going to get 2 very different answers here.
There are the people who have had success on just calorie deficit and lots of excerise, and subscribe to the tranditional ideas of healthy balanced diet.
Then there are people who have read the science behind the ketogenic state, the effects carbs have, and related subjects and then had success on a very low carb diet.
I am in the second group, so as unpopular as this can get, if even one person reads the below and gets interested it might help them I'll be happy for them.


carbs, short for carbohydrates. Turn into sugar in your body. High GI vs Low GI or bad vs good carbs, just effects how quickly it becomes sugar.

When your level of blood sugar rises, this is dangerous for your body, so it releases insulin.
Insulin tells the body to store away any of the sugar it can't use up quickly. It stores it as fat. The thing we are trying to lose here.

So what do you need to do? Well the highly 'unpopular' idea of eat more fat. No matter how many thousands of people lose weight and improve their health dramatically this way I bet you still find it hard to believe but just try it.

So lets see what happens when you eat no carbs and eat fat+protein instead.

Most people still want to avoid fat, so they try just eating lots of protein

If you eat protein, the liver can turn this straight into sugar which will give you the same problem as carbs, but this will also strain your liver. It also then teaches your body to eat protein so your muscles may degrade.

So lets see what happens if you eat a diet made mainly of fat?

Your blood sugar level initially drops, as does your energy as the body looks for carbs to burn to sugar(glocose) as energy.
When it cant find any, it looks to what else you have been eating. Some parts of your body can feed on fat directly so do this.
For other organs that need sugar instead, your body first creates things called 'ketones' in your body. These ketones then can turn the fat into fuel for the body to use as energy.
Blood sugar does not rise, so you do not store any fat.
(also dont get up and down hunger cravings caused by up and down of blood sugar)

Any ketones that are not needed for energy you just pee out.

your body is also then full of ketons and in a 'fat burning mode'
so when you eat under your maintenance calories, it is already used to burning fat, so then moves onto eating the fat on your body. BINGO - just what we want right?


Change your macros to 5% carbs (under 20g) 65% fat and 30% protein
Drink a lot of water as carbs cause you to retain water, without carbs you will drop water weight (literally pee more than you drink) so you need to keep hydrated more as you no longer store in in lumps like a camel haha


google 'keto recipies' for ideas of what to eat.

Basically lots of Cheese, full Cream, Red Meats, Chicken, Fish, Dark Green Veg, and NOTHING that says 'fat free' or 'lo fat'as this just means 'extra sugar' in most products anyway.
aim instead for 'sugar free' foods

You still keep within sensible calories but do not have to be quite as strict, also you can still do cardio if you want but it is more recommended to do bodyweight training. Building muscle increases the amount of calories you use in a day, and improves your body from inside, so is better in the long run. You have to do a LOT of cardio to burn off even a few calories, your body soon gets used to it and burns less and less for the same activity and in the end you put pressure on joints and spend hours and hours on the tredmill for nothing

Do you even understand the role that insulin plays in the body?? Or that protein releases insulin as well, not just carbs? You do realize that your body NEEDS glucose, right? Does the term gluconeogenisis mean anything to you? I'm not knocking the keto diet - but your lack of understanding and blatant misconceptions doesn't help and is scary.

kenzietate

You are going to get 2 very different answers here.
There are the people who have had success on just calorie deficit and lots of excerise, and subscribe to the tranditional ideas of healthy balanced diet.
Then there are people who have read the science behind the ketogenic state, the effects carbs have, and related subjects and then had success on a very low carb diet.
I am in the second group, so as unpopular as this can get, if even one person reads the below and gets interested it might help them I'll be happy for them.


carbs, short for carbohydrates. Turn into sugar in your body. High GI vs Low GI or bad vs good carbs, just effects how quickly it becomes sugar.

When your level of blood sugar rises, this is dangerous for your body, so it releases insulin.
Insulin tells the body to store away any of the sugar it can't use up quickly. It stores it as fat. The thing we are trying to lose here.

So what do you need to do? Well the highly 'unpopular' idea of eat more fat. No matter how many thousands of people lose weight and improve their health dramatically this way I bet you still find it hard to believe but just try it.

So lets see what happens when you eat no carbs and eat fat+protein instead.

Most people still want to avoid fat, so they try just eating lots of protein

If you eat protein, the liver can turn this straight into sugar which will give you the same problem as carbs, but this will also strain your liver. It also then teaches your body to eat protein so your muscles may degrade.

So lets see what happens if you eat a diet made mainly of fat?

Your blood sugar level initially drops, as does your energy as the body looks for carbs to burn to sugar(glocose) as energy.
When it cant find any, it looks to what else you have been eating. Some parts of your body can feed on fat directly so do this.
For other organs that need sugar instead, your body first creates things called 'ketones' in your body. These ketones then can turn the fat into fuel for the body to use as energy.
Blood sugar does not rise, so you do not store any fat.
(also dont get up and down hunger cravings caused by up and down of blood sugar)

Any ketones that are not needed for energy you just pee out.

your body is also then full of ketons and in a 'fat burning mode'
so when you eat under your maintenance calories, it is already used to burning fat, so then moves onto eating the fat on your body. BINGO - just what we want right?


Change your macros to 5% carbs (under 20g) 65% fat and 30% protein
Drink a lot of water as carbs cause you to retain water, without carbs you will drop water weight (literally pee more than you drink) so you need to keep hydrated more as you no longer store in in lumps like a camel haha


google 'keto recipies' for ideas of what to eat.

Basically lots of Cheese, full Cream, Red Meats, Chicken, Fish, Dark Green Veg, and NOTHING that says 'fat free' or 'lo fat'as this just means 'extra sugar' in most products anyway.
aim instead for 'sugar free' foods

You still keep within sensible calories but do not have to be quite as strict, also you can still do cardio if you want but it is more recommended to do bodyweight training. Building muscle increases the amount of calories you use in a day, and improves your body from inside, so is better in the long run. You have to do a LOT of cardio to burn off even a few calories, your body soon gets used to it and burns less and less for the same activity and in the end you put pressure on joints and spend hours and hours on the tredmill for nothing

Do you even understand the role that insulin plays in the body?? Or that protein releases insulin as well, not just carbs? You do realize that your body NEEDS glucose, right? Does the term gluconeogenisis mean anything to you? I'm not knocking the keto diet - but your lack of understanding and blatant misconceptions doesn't help and is scary.

I don't think you have anything against the diet based on your knowledge of the diet, but you are asking for a bit more clarity right?

She points out the roll of insulin is to help the body process the sugar in the system. The ways of doing this are sending it to where it is needed and if it can't be used right away the insulin and sugar are stored in fat.

She specifically said that a protein heavy diet turns the protein to sugar using the liver, thereby causing insulin to be released.

This part was missing but sometimes in threads like this simplicity is better. The brain, not the body, needs glucose but that does not need to come from carbohydrates. The liver processes amino acids and turns them into glucose for the brain to use, this is called gluconeogenesis . However, very little glucose is required for the brain to function properly and the rest of the fuel required is very easily taken from the ketones which the body makes from fat.

I don't really see where she had any true misconceptions. Though possibly a bit oversimplified. But once again, on threads like this, simplification is often best and then further clarify after questioned about one part of the other. Anyway, I just wanted to clarify some of the issues you had and also hope to help clarify questions others might have had.

prettyface55

carbs do not make you gain weight ...over eating makes you gain weight.

if you are eating in a calorie deficit, then you can eat carbs and you will still lose.

A good percent setting for your carb macro is 25% (low end) to 35% (higher end)....Now if you are at 60% carbs a day or something it would not hurt to get down to 35 to 40% range to bring your other macros in line...

If you are eating in a calorie surplus then this will make you gain weight, not carbs...

calories in vs calories out ....there is no one food that makes you "fat", overeating does....


This advice is predicated on no overlying medical condition...

this is great advice.

TheVimFuego

Wrong... just wrong. Weight loss is calories in vs out. Unless there is a medical reason to limit carbs, carb intake and source is irrelevant to weight loss. Caloric deficit will provide weight loss. Over feeding your body anything, even "good food" will lead to weight gain. There is no magic.

Absolutely, there is no magic.

I've been down the Low Carb rabbit hole, there IS no better solution than calories in vs out.

No magic,no raspberry ketones, no insulin = 'fat storage hormone' woo woo.

It all (fat burning) comes back down to burning more energy than is being consumed.

Occam's Razor ... The most simple solution is probably the correct one ...

dieselbyte

You are going to get 2 very different answers here.
There are the people who have had success on just calorie deficit and lots of excerise, and subscribe to the tranditional ideas of healthy balanced diet.
Then there are people who have read the science behind the ketogenic state, the effects carbs have, and related subjects and then had success on a very low carb diet.
I am in the second group, so as unpopular as this can get, if even one person reads the below and gets interested it might help them I'll be happy for them.


carbs, short for carbohydrates. Turn into sugar in your body. High GI vs Low GI or bad vs good carbs, just effects how quickly it becomes sugar.

When your level of blood sugar rises, this is dangerous for your body, so it releases insulin.
Insulin tells the body to store away any of the sugar it can't use up quickly. It stores it as fat. The thing we are trying to lose here.

So what do you need to do? Well the highly 'unpopular' idea of eat more fat. No matter how many thousands of people lose weight and improve their health dramatically this way I bet you still find it hard to believe but just try it.

So lets see what happens when you eat no carbs and eat fat+protein instead.

Most people still want to avoid fat, so they try just eating lots of protein

If you eat protein, the liver can turn this straight into sugar which will give you the same problem as carbs, but this will also strain your liver. It also then teaches your body to eat protein so your muscles may degrade.

So lets see what happens if you eat a diet made mainly of fat?

Your blood sugar level initially drops, as does your energy as the body looks for carbs to burn to sugar(glocose) as energy.
When it cant find any, it looks to what else you have been eating. Some parts of your body can feed on fat directly so do this.
For other organs that need sugar instead, your body first creates things called 'ketones' in your body. These ketones then can turn the fat into fuel for the body to use as energy.
Blood sugar does not rise, so you do not store any fat.
(also dont get up and down hunger cravings caused by up and down of blood sugar)

Any ketones that are not needed for energy you just pee out.

your body is also then full of ketons and in a 'fat burning mode'
so when you eat under your maintenance calories, it is already used to burning fat, so then moves onto eating the fat on your body. BINGO - just what we want right?


Change your macros to 5% carbs (under 20g) 65% fat and 30% protein
Drink a lot of water as carbs cause you to retain water, without carbs you will drop water weight (literally pee more than you drink) so you need to keep hydrated more as you no longer store in in lumps like a camel haha


google 'keto recipies' for ideas of what to eat.

Basically lots of Cheese, full Cream, Red Meats, Chicken, Fish, Dark Green Veg, and NOTHING that says 'fat free' or 'lo fat'as this just means 'extra sugar' in most products anyway.
aim instead for 'sugar free' foods

You still keep within sensible calories but do not have to be quite as strict, also you can still do cardio if you want but it is more recommended to do bodyweight training. Building muscle increases the amount of calories you use in a day, and improves your body from inside, so is better in the long run. You have to do a LOT of cardio to burn off even a few calories, your body soon gets used to it and burns less and less for the same activity and in the end you put pressure on joints and spend hours and hours on the tredmill for nothing

Do you even understand the role that insulin plays in the body?? Or that protein releases insulin as well, not just carbs? You do realize that your body NEEDS glucose, right? Does the term gluconeogenisis mean anything to you? I'm not knocking the keto diet - but your lack of understanding and blatant misconceptions doesn't help and is scary.

I don't think you have anything against the diet based on your knowledge of the diet, but you are asking for a bit more clarity right?

She points out the roll of insulin is to help the body process the sugar in the system. The ways of doing this are sending it to where it is needed and if it can't be used right away the insulin and sugar are stored in fat.

She specifically said that a protein heavy diet turns the protein to sugar using the liver, thereby causing insulin to be released.

This part was missing but sometimes in threads like this simplicity is better. The brain, not the body, needs glucose but that does not need to come from carbohydrates. The liver processes amino acids and turns them into glucose for the brain to use, this is called gluconeogenesis . However, very little glucose is required for the brain to function properly and the rest of the fuel required is very easily taken from the ketones which the body makes from fat.

I don't really see where she had any true misconceptions. Though possibly a bit oversimplified. But once again, on threads like this, simplification is often best and then further clarify after questioned about one part of the other. Anyway, I just wanted to clarify some of the issues you had and also hope to help clarify questions others might have had.

You put it more eloquently. The over simplification was one issue I had with the poster. Also, the undertone that the role of insulin is solely a fat storage hormone, and therefore insulin release is bad, is misleading. Labeling glucose as bad or a problem is another issue. Yes, the brain can function on ketones, and some studies suggest it performs better on ketones vs glucose, but your brain needs SOME form of glucose. Glycerol is a byproduct of fat metabolism, and will ALWAYS be used in some part by the brain, even when ketones are present.

Again, nothing against the keto diet. And while you can consume a larger amount of calories when truly in a ketogenic state, overconsumption of fat or protein can still lead to stalled weight loss or weight gain. The satiating properties of a ketogenic diet may make it hard to overeat, but that doesn't mean that it's impossible to gain weight or store fat on keto.

kenzietate

You are going to get 2 very different answers here.
There are the people who have had success on just calorie deficit and lots of excerise, and subscribe to the tranditional ideas of healthy balanced diet.
Then there are people who have read the science behind the ketogenic state, the effects carbs have, and related subjects and then had success on a very low carb diet.
I am in the second group, so as unpopular as this can get, if even one person reads the below and gets interested it might help them I'll be happy for them.


carbs, short for carbohydrates. Turn into sugar in your body. High GI vs Low GI or bad vs good carbs, just effects how quickly it becomes sugar.

When your level of blood sugar rises, this is dangerous for your body, so it releases insulin.
Insulin tells the body to store away any of the sugar it can't use up quickly. It stores it as fat. The thing we are trying to lose here.

So what do you need to do? Well the highly 'unpopular' idea of eat more fat. No matter how many thousands of people lose weight and improve their health dramatically this way I bet you still find it hard to believe but just try it.

So lets see what happens when you eat no carbs and eat fat+protein instead.

Most people still want to avoid fat, so they try just eating lots of protein

If you eat protein, the liver can turn this straight into sugar which will give you the same problem as carbs, but this will also strain your liver. It also then teaches your body to eat protein so your muscles may degrade.

So lets see what happens if you eat a diet made mainly of fat?

Your blood sugar level initially drops, as does your energy as the body looks for carbs to burn to sugar(glocose) as energy.
When it cant find any, it looks to what else you have been eating. Some parts of your body can feed on fat directly so do this.
For other organs that need sugar instead, your body first creates things called 'ketones' in your body. These ketones then can turn the fat into fuel for the body to use as energy.
Blood sugar does not rise, so you do not store any fat.
(also dont get up and down hunger cravings caused by up and down of blood sugar)

Any ketones that are not needed for energy you just pee out.

your body is also then full of ketons and in a 'fat burning mode'
so when you eat under your maintenance calories, it is already used to burning fat, so then moves onto eating the fat on your body. BINGO - just what we want right?


Change your macros to 5% carbs (under 20g) 65% fat and 30% protein
Drink a lot of water as carbs cause you to retain water, without carbs you will drop water weight (literally pee more than you drink) so you need to keep hydrated more as you no longer store in in lumps like a camel haha


google 'keto recipies' for ideas of what to eat.

Basically lots of Cheese, full Cream, Red Meats, Chicken, Fish, Dark Green Veg, and NOTHING that says 'fat free' or 'lo fat'as this just means 'extra sugar' in most products anyway.
aim instead for 'sugar free' foods

You still keep within sensible calories but do not have to be quite as strict, also you can still do cardio if you want but it is more recommended to do bodyweight training. Building muscle increases the amount of calories you use in a day, and improves your body from inside, so is better in the long run. You have to do a LOT of cardio to burn off even a few calories, your body soon gets used to it and burns less and less for the same activity and in the end you put pressure on joints and spend hours and hours on the tredmill for nothing

Do you even understand the role that insulin plays in the body?? Or that protein releases insulin as well, not just carbs? You do realize that your body NEEDS glucose, right? Does the term gluconeogenisis mean anything to you? I'm not knocking the keto diet - but your lack of understanding and blatant misconceptions doesn't help and is scary.

I don't think you have anything against the diet based on your knowledge of the diet, but you are asking for a bit more clarity right?

She points out the roll of insulin is to help the body process the sugar in the system. The ways of doing this are sending it to where it is needed and if it can't be used right away the insulin and sugar are stored in fat.

She specifically said that a protein heavy diet turns the protein to sugar using the liver, thereby causing insulin to be released.

This part was missing but sometimes in threads like this simplicity is better. The brain, not the body, needs glucose but that does not need to come from carbohydrates. The liver processes amino acids and turns them into glucose for the brain to use, this is called gluconeogenesis . However, very little glucose is required for the brain to function properly and the rest of the fuel required is very easily taken from the ketones which the body makes from fat.

I don't really see where she had any true misconceptions. Though possibly a bit oversimplified. But once again, on threads like this, simplification is often best and then further clarify after questioned about one part of the other. Anyway, I just wanted to clarify some of the issues you had and also hope to help clarify questions others might have had.

You put it more eloquently. The over simplification was one issue I had with the poster. Also, the undertone that the role of insulin is solely a fat storage hormone, and therefore insulin release is bad, is misleading. Labeling glucose as bad or a problem is another issue. Yes, the brain can function on ketones, and some studies suggest it performs better on ketones vs glucose, but your brain needs SOME form of glucose. Glycerol is a byproduct of fat metabolism, and will ALWAYS be used in some part by the brain, even when ketones are present.

Again, nothing against the keto diet. And while you can consume a larger amount of calories when truly in a ketogenic state, overconsumption of fat or protein can still lead to stalled weight loss or weight gain. The satiating properties of a ketogenic diet may make it hard to overeat, but that doesn't mean that it's impossible to gain weight or store fat on keto.

I agree wholeheartedly! The calorie counting thing is one of the major misnomers about it. Many people just tell you that if you eat based on a ketogenic diet you won't have to count calories. While some people don't because the just naturally become full at a deficit with this particular, that does not mean that everyone does. Particularly women need to count calories as the deficit is typically a much smaller window to hit.

I also believe that this isn't a lifestyle for everyone! It is a difficult one to stick to and to master. For me, I have medical reasons that require me to be on a low carb diet for the rest of my life. Right now I am pregnant so I am staying closer to 15% of my calories coming from carbs. But as soon as I can I will be back ketogenic because I feel better on it. Also, I have never been able to lose just by calorie restriction and for people who struggle with that for whatever reason, this could be a good option! But a low carb diet should never be started without doing a ton of research first to find out the correct ways to handle different things associated with the diet!