What is working for you?

dreamchaser12

Hello,

New here.

I'm curious if anyone else here has found they need to limit the amount of carbs they eat in order to lose the belly? I've been trying to stick to 100g of carbs a day, with my protein at 100-125g. I'm trying to incorporate more fibre as well. Aiming for 25g a day but am lucky when I get close to 20g. I'm not following South Beach, Paleo, or Atkins, nothing like that. Just decreasing the carb intake. Trying to get as much as I can through veggies, and limiting my pasta/rice/bread intake. I do still eat that, but usually with just one meal a day.

My exercise routine is Monday and Wednesday boot camp (cardio and strength circuit training), I walk or run twice a week (Tuesday or Thursday and Saturday or Sunday), sometimes my daughter and I will catch a Zumba class on Tuesday night, and also try and get in a circuit training session at home once a week (Friday night or Saturday).

Would love to know what is working for you?

Celeigh12

Consistency works for me. I eat 1700 calories a day and try to stick close to 40% carbs, 30% fat, 30% protein. Sometimes it is slow to come off, other times the pounds fall off like crazy. I just keep plugging away staying consistent on calories and doing something active each day and let the scale do what it's going to do.

dreamchaser12

Thank you for your reply. Slow and steady is okay with me, it's all about the journey. And when I get to my goal weight/size, I know it doesn't end there. I will have to maintain. Which is why I'm struggling to find what works for me that I can do long term. I try not to let the scale dictate my success. I am going by how I feel, my clothes fitting, and setting fitness challenges to accomplish. I've made so many changes over the past 10 months that I am very proud of! I'm doing things I never thought I'd ever do, like running a 5k! I guess its just that I know weightloss is 80% diet and can't help but wonder if there is something I'm eating (or perhaps not eating) that is the reason for my incredibly slow loss on the scale. You've done an amazing job!!! I appreciate you sharing your recipe for success.

GoddessG

I limit my carbs to under 10/day. I love how much better I feel. I also fear the hunger that I have when I am eating carbs.

I still have occasional hungers on my current food plan, but the hunger feels different. I actually enjoy experiencing it for a while. It's a feeling of empowerment, where my choices are MINE to make - not my body's. But hunger after a slice of bread or a Chinese food buffet is accompanied by fear, and I don't like that kind of hunger. Hunger after carbs comes with a sense of panic that leads to uncontrollable impulse eating.

It reminds me of back in the day when I would smoke a joint and feel hungry. Back then, I knew that I wasn't REALLY hungry, so it was easy enough to discard the message that my body was telling me. I wasn't disconnected from my body like I am when I eat carbs. I could remind myself that I didn't want to get fat, and my bod would be OK with that.

With carbs, it is different. I can know that I can't be hungry, having just eaten - sometimes only a few minutes ago - but I can't control my impulses. I experience something like a panic attack and the only thing that makes it go away is more carbs - which keeps the cycle going. I can't just tell my mind that the hunger is imaginary. It certainly doesn't feel like it. My brain doesn't believe me.

So I have come to fear carbs. I haven't toyed around with too many carbs because I don't like things like rice (though wild rice is tolerable) and I really don't like vegetables that are not carb laden. I can tolerate some lettuce once in a while, and when tomatoes are in season, I love them, but all-in-all, I belong on a low-carb diet.

I figure that I'm OK doing this until I get nearer to my goal weight (in about 90 pounds). At that point, I don't know how I will adjust my food plan. I will hold off experimenting until I'm within 10 pounds of goal weight. I'll probably just add some salads. For now, I don't even eat them unless I go out to dinner. Sometimes they even taste good.

I was never fat until weight started creeping up about 15 years ago. I was always low-carb. In fact, I was always VERY low carb. It's what works for me. I know that if I ate 100g of carb every day, my weight would go in the wrong direction.

I used to control my weight by dieting when I gained 4-8 pounds The weight would come off within 3 days and life would go on. Through this I learned that I am healthiest when my carbs are at a max of 25/day. So that is what works for MY body.

Every body is different.

dreamchaser12

A good friend of mine has been living a low carb lifestyle for a number of years now with great success! I think she limits her carbs to 20g a day. She suspects a wheat intolerance or sensitivity as her cystic acne cleared up when she began eating that way, and it returned when she was pregnant and breastfeeding because she went back to eating breads etc during that time. She follows the Protein Power program. She has talked to me about it alot and encouraged me to try it. I'm curious though, if you don't eat or like veggies, what do you eat? I know my friend eats a tonne of veggies and meat, some dairy, but very little fruit. When she eats fruit its only berries. She also finds that she feels so much better when she eats this way. A couple times a year she will indulge in foods she's not used to eating on a regular basis (like at Christmas etc) and she says she feels so yucky afterwards she doesn't even know why she does it! She calls it a carb hangover.

GoddessG

I'm curious though, if you don't eat or like veggies, what do you eat?

Breakfast = 2-3 egg scramble or omelet fried in butter - with a really REALLY good cheese - not the cheap stuff in the dairy case.
2 cups of coffee lightened with heavy whipping cream I don't limit myself to two. If I want 3 or more I go for it. But 2 is my usual number.

Lunch - meat left over from last night - as much as I want. Sliced - with mustard or horseradish or a low-carb dipping sauce. Protein shake. (I drink the shake a few minutes before I eat the meat. This causes me to feel full when I am done eating). Sometimes I have more eggs in the form of an egg salad. Sometimes I use that as a spread on meat slices. I will sometimes add a cup of coffee with heavy whipping cream here. (I know that's not a food but the cream accounts for calories and carbs)

Afternoon - coffee with heavy whipping cream. It's more of a break than a snack. I call it "ME Time".

Dinner: Meat. Review my nutrition log to be sure I have gotten enough protein.

dreamchaser12

Thank you for sharing GoddessG. I couldn't imagine being so restrictive, that would definitely take some discipline!