for heavens sake, I STILL EAT BREAD AND LOSE WEIGHT!

claireyf12

i eat everything dont restrict anything and i'm losing!!!!

CShepherd91

I eat carbs. And a lot of them. wholewheat pasta, wholewheat bread, wholewheat noodles, granary baps, muesli.

you get the idea.

I REFUSE TO CUT OUT ANYTHING, because this isn't just a fad diet, y'know? if you want any hope of being able to maintain your goal weight for (hopefully) the rest of your life you need to also be losing weight in a way that is managable, and balanced.

mariagabriella

I'm Italian... so there is no way I would ever give up bread or carbs!
I eat 40% carbs... they make me feel good and work good

REET420

I eat white bread I can't stand the sandy taste of whole wheat

j_emerson

I saw this topic and couldn't pass it up. I've lost almost 40 lbs in a little over 3 months and haven't deprived myself of anything, even chocolate and ice cream (although I have converted to frozen yogurt). I just make sure I have enough calories for the day and have what I want. I don't see any reason in depriving yourself because when you do eat those items again, in my opinion, you will be more likely to overindulge. It's all about moderation and exercise!!

Elf_Princess1210

I eat carbs and have lost 32 lbs in 6 months.

10KEyes

I don't see any reason in depriving yourself because when you do eat those items again, in my opinion, you will be more likely to overindulge. It's all about moderation and exercise!!

Just because I do not eat grains, I am depriving myself? How absurd! However, if I said I don't eat veggies, I would agree with you.

Overindulge? That just shows the addictive nature of sugar.

Moderation? For some people certain types of food is like crack, usually these are sugary foods. Would you tell a cocaine addict, "It's all about moderation."? Whatever works for you, nobody is trying to get you to switch your game plan.

LondonEliza

seen a lot of posts lately regarding "whole grain/wheat" bread/brown rice.. and such.. I am not understand why alot of people choose to cut them out COMPLETELY... I have lost weight with still eating bread, at a deficit.. eating healthy and working out...

please tell me I am not the only one? share YOUR success so we can put the "bad carbs" posts to rest!

So do I, yay us
(dairy open)

cassblue21

I just hope more people read this and know that carbs are not the enemy! lol Great post!

p.s I have lost 85 lbs total and all I do is portion control and better snacks than junk food. Just had a bagel sandwich for supper last night as well!

pitbulllover

No need to be a jerk about it. Celiac and gluten intolerance is still woefully underdiagnosed, and a lot of people aren't even aware that such a thing exists. The same goes with insulin resistance in the absense of full-blown diabetes or PCOS.

To the OP - Carbs get a bad rap because the body can use them efficiently, and the foods that contain them tend to be calorie-dense (particularly the grain based carb sources). So, in otherwise healthy people, it's as simple as being far too easy to overeat when such products are involved.

Basically (note - this is highly simplified for basic understanding, I'm sure someone with a biochemical background will rake me over the coals for errors borne out of such simplification, but we're talking layman's terms and general ideas, here):

The body runs primarily on glucose, a form of sugar. The other fuel sources (except protein, which breaks down mostly into amino acids) ultimately get metabolized into glucose or glucose-like substitutes at some point or another. How long and how much energy it takes depends on the exact source. Pure glucose takes no time or energy, sucrose (table sugar) takes minimal, complex carbs take a little more (but it's just breaking stuff down, like taking a Lego structure apart), fats get broken down into the glucose-like fuel (glucose-like in that they don't need to be broken down any more and the body can use it directly if needed) that can't be used as efficiently and takes more energy to break down.

The body is built to run as efficiently as possible, which includes choosing the best fuel source to run on. Therefore, if you eat a lot of carbs and/or sugar, your body will use it before anything else, because it takes little to no energy to convert it to something useable. Like so many other things in nature - the body choses the path of least resistance.

Therefore, if you cut out carbs completely (such as the first phase of Atkins), you put your body into what's called ketosis, which is the release of ketones by the body. Ketones help break down fat to use as fuel in the absense of sugars. (Note: This is different from Ketoacidosis, which can be deadly.) This is why Atkins works at jump-starting weight loss, it forces the body to use a different fuel source, which requires more energy to convert (more calories burned).

Grain-based carbs are becoming vilified because there is growing evidence that humans as a whole have a relatively low tolerance for gluten, as evidenced by the rise in Celiac and gluten intolerance diagnoses. However, it's still really hard to diagnose, because it isn't always obvious (the symptoms are often flu-like or just a general feeling of "blah" that can't really be pinpointed). Therefore, it's possible to be intolerant and not know it or never be diagnosed. For those that are intolerant, it can lead to bloating and derail weight loss.

Additionally, many people become insulin resistant over time if they have a carb-heavy diet. Insulin aids in the absorption of glucose from the blood by the muscles and other cells and is released when there is a certain amount of glucose in the blood stream. In the presence of too much sugar over the long term, the cells stop responding to the insulin, leaving more sugar in the blood. In many/most cases, this follows hand in hand with Type 2 Diabetes (whether IR necessarily causes T2D is somewhat debated, but I don't doubt that it can). Women with PCOS also tend to be insulin resistant, making it damn near impossible to lose weight on a "typical" diet. Without a Diabetes or PCOS diagnosis, and especially if you don't get bloodwork done regularly, insulin resistance is easy to miss, because it doesn't really have any symptoms for the most part. Your body gets used to your normal levels of blood sugar, so until you reach the thresholds of blood sugar that put the body into a Diabetic coma, you may not even know you have it.

What these two groups have in common is that they will often have a hard time losing weight on the relatiely carb-heavy diet that many people can do just fine on. They may not have energy (because their body literally sees gluten as a threat and launches a white blood cell army to attack it), or they may feel ill, or they may simply be unable to lose weight and easy to plateau. Switching to something like Paleo or Atkins, then, works WONDERS for these types of people. The catch is, though, that unless you've gotten a diagnosis, you may not even know that you fall into one of these categories (or, you may be borderline - just close enough to have some of the effects, but not enough for a diagnosis).

This entire post is superb. Right on.

+!

THANK YOU for saying this. I have PCOS, insulin resistance, slow thyroid... I am over 100 pounds overweight and was not able to lose weight doing nutrisystem, weight watchers, low calorie diets, nothing. As soon as I started seeing a certified nutritionist, he gave me supplements for my IR (mainly cinnamon and chromium, and I take a lot of it), and he put me on a fairly low carb diet. I dropped 20 pounds in the first month... so I'm sold.

I just don't understand why people think that everyone is the same. If something works for one person, it won't necessarily work someone else!!

gatorginger

I eat some type of bread every day and yep I've lost weight doing it

Skeebee

37lbs down and most of what I eat is carbohydrate-based.

32 here and same deal! 50% of my daily intake is carbs. bread is my fwend. :-)

Skeebee

I just don't understand why people think that everyone is the same. If something works for one person, it won't necessarily work someone else!!

Exactly! Good point!!!!

lavieboheme1229

Thank you for posting this. I am a little concerned about people who come on here and don't eat something and then "binge" on it once a week. That is not a lifestyle, it is a crash course! You have a certain number of calories a day. How you allocate them is your choice! If you have 1450 calories and choose to use it all on pizza, go for it. As long as you are in your caloric and fat and carb intake goals!

dls06

I eat healthier breads and watch portion size. Lost all the weight I wanted and have been keeping it off for over a year.

10KEyes

I started on Feb 20th 2012 and I eat meat, veggies, and occasionally fruit and I am down 26lbs. I DON'T eat grains or processed sugars.


Oh, I don't binge, I don't have cravings anymore, and I am enjoying life! AND I don't have to do chronic cardio to lose weight. Just saying.

tayteetots

Carbs are a good source of tryptophan which is the essential amino acid needed to form serotonin. Low serotonin = depression/mood disorders.

Total bunk! Sugar activates the same region of the brain as cocaine. When these regions are activated serotonin levels are increased (body produces it). Imagine how moody a cocaine addict would be without anymore cocaine...

Sex increases serotonin levels, I don't think consuming carbs are involved with that.

But for the record, I eat carbs too, just they come from veggies and fruit!

In fact I just ate 21 grams of carbs with my breakfast and didn't consume any grains, imagine that! All 21 grams came from whole veggies. That works for me, YMMV.

Sugar and cocaine activate the mesolimbic dopamine pathway and have absolutely nothing to do with serotonin. Dopamine is your reward neurotransmitter which works through the ventral tegmental area and the nucleus accumbens to produce that feeling of reward and pleasure.

Further, simple carbs such as bread/pasta pass through the blood brain barrier easier than most sources of tryptophan. A low protein high carb meal is most likely to increase the tryptophan crossing the blood brain barrier because the amino acids present in protein interfere with tryptophan, as they are larger and inhibit tryptophan from crossing the blood brain barrier.

So no it's not total bunk that eating carbs increases tryptophan in the brain which is needed to form serotonin.

Also, the majority of your serotonin in your body is within your gut and is important for digestion.

neanderthin

Carbs are a good source of tryptophan which is the essential amino acid needed to form serotonin. Low serotonin = depression/mood disorders.

Total bunk! Sugar activates the same region of the brain as cocaine. When these regions are activated serotonin levels are increased (body produces it). Imagine how moody a cocaine addict would be without anymore cocaine...

Sex increases serotonin levels, I don't think consuming carbs are involved with that.

But for the record, I eat carbs too, just they come from veggies and fruit!

In fact I just ate 21 grams of carbs with my breakfast and didn't consume any grains, imagine that! All 21 grams came from whole veggies. That works for me, YMMV.

Sugar and cocaine activate the mesolimbic dopamine pathway and have absolutely nothing to do with serotonin. Dopamine is your reward neurotransmitter which works through the ventral tegmental area and the nucleus accumbens to produce that feeling of reward and pleasure.

Further, simple carbs such as bread/pasta pass through the blood brain barrier easier than most sources of tryptophan. A low protein high carb meal is most likely to increase the tryptophan crossing the blood brain barrier because the amino acids present in protein interfere with tryptophan, as they are larger and inhibit tryptophan from crossing the blood brain barrier.

So no it's not total bunk that eating carbs increases tryptophan in the brain which is needed to form serotonin.

Also, the majority of your serotonin in your body is within your gut and is important for digestion.

just thought I'd mention that bread and pasta are complex carbs, not simple carbs if one is inclinded to think it makes a difference.

Rshaw18244

I find I lose more weight, lose more quickly and have far less cravings (especially for sweets) when I eat less bread (or other carb heavy food) but I don't cut it out completely. I use the whole grain variety (good fiber) for any kind of bread or pasta, subsitute the sweet potato for white potatoes and brown rice instead of white.

HelloSweetie4

I eat pretty much whatever I want, just in different portions. I load up on veggies and fruits more but I still enjoy my carbs. I really haven't cut anything completely out of my diet since joining MFP.