Going low carb after zero weight loss from exercise

smallsfgirl
smallsfgirl Posts: 14
in Health and Weight Loss
I did about a month of careful calorie counting and almost daily exercise and lost nothing. So I was giving it a lot of thought last night, about why calories in/calories out is clearly not working and it occurred to me that I've never successfully lost weight exercising. But I have with either just eating less, or on some special diets which included low carb. And while researching last night, I came across this article:

http://eatingacademy.com/nutrition/why-weight-watchers-is-actually-a-low-carb-diet

I really love this Eating Academy blog ...probably spent 2 hours reading through his posts and comments. So I'm sold, low carb it is. I'm a half a day into it and I feel like I've already lost a few pounds!

So now I need to rethink food and exercise - I do love the energy it gives me...just not counting on it for any weight loss. I'd love some food ideas. Does anyone want to swap low carb food diaries?
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Replies

  • EricCowperthwaite
    EricCowperthwaite Posts: 450
    There is a forum just for us low carb types: http://www.myfitnesspal.com/groups/home/394-low-carber-daily-forum-the-group

    join in the fun there, too
  • RatherBeInTheShire
    RatherBeInTheShire Posts: 561 Member
    I just started Low carb too! feel free to friend me!
  • cubbies77
    cubbies77 Posts: 607 Member
    If you were really spot-on with calories and exercise and didn't lose anything, you may want to have blood tests done for thyroid issues and/or insulin resistance. It never hurts to rule that out. I have IR, and I don't lose weight unless I eat low-carb and exercise. The second I go back to just counting calories, the weight loss stops for weeks on end.
  • sallyaj
    sallyaj Posts: 207 Member
    I came across this article:

    http://eatingacademy.com/nutrition/why-weight-watchers-is-actually-a-low-carb-diet

    That's Dr. Peter Attia. I am a follower of his blog. It seems like for docs to really dig in and understand the issues of why CI/CO doesn't work for some of us they have to BE one of us. Attia is a triathlete who was working out 4 hours a day and still gaining weight until he tried Keto.

    I found the food plan that works for me at Dr. Andreas Eenfeldt's site. Google LCHF and it's the first link that comes up. He just makes it so easy, no tracking (though I still track because I want to understand what's working).

    Feel free to look at my food diary -- I keep it open.
  • psuLemon
    psuLemon Posts: 38,427 MFP Moderator
    How many calories are you eating and how much do you exercise? Also, what are your stats. Going low carb alone will only make you lose some water weight, unless you end up having a insulin resistance or other medical issue. It is no uncommon for people to not lose weight because they eat too little. Or they just started a routine.
  • amculver1
    amculver1 Posts: 36 Member
    BUMP
  • taso42
    taso42 Posts: 8,980 Member
    What if you went with ample protein, ample fat, and a good calorie target? Whatever carbs you get while keeping the other parameters in check will be optimal.
  • sallyaj
    sallyaj Posts: 207 Member
    If you were really spot-on with calories and exercise and didn't lose anything, you may want to have blood tests done for thyroid issues and/or insulin resistance. It never hurts to rule that out. I have IR, and I don't lose weight unless I eat low-carb and exercise. The second I go back to just counting calories, the weight loss stops for weeks on end.

    I second this. I didn't think I was IR until my brother got diagnosed. I have an appointment next month for my annual physical and will make it a point to discuss with my doc the fact that my fasting gjucose is always hovering at the top of the normal range.
  • celebrity328
    celebrity328 Posts: 377 Member
    Insulin resistance and pcos can cause you to not lose weight like that. I worked out/ate right for 5 months lost 3lbs in that time. Went to the doctor and found out I have IR/PCOS got put on a low carb diet/low GI diet and Im down 70+ pounds this year :) A tall tell sign of IR is an apple shaped body type, but you can also get the test done. The good news is after losing as little as 10% BF the symptoms will reduce and you can bring back foods into your diet that are higher in carbs :)

    Hope this helps :)!
  • runningfataway
    runningfataway Posts: 262
    All I know is carbs don't do my body good. They leave me hungrier than before and never satisfied.
  • sallyaj
    sallyaj Posts: 207 Member
    What if you went with ample protein, ample fat, and a good calorie target? Whatever carbs you get while keeping the other parameters in check will be optimal.

    That sounds like a good way to start. I started with 20 carbs, medium protein, high fat. Now I'm adding a few more carbs each week and adjusting the others accordingly. I'm eating about 1800 calories a day -- more than I ever was able to on any other diet -- and still losing about half a pound a day.
  • sallyaj
    sallyaj Posts: 207 Member
    All I know is carbs don't do my body good. They leave me hungrier than before and never satisfied.

    Amen to that!
  • taso42
    taso42 Posts: 8,980 Member
    What if you went with ample protein, ample fat, and a good calorie target? Whatever carbs you get while keeping the other parameters in check will be optimal.

    That sounds like a good way to start. I started with 20 carbs, medium protein, high fat. Now I'm adding a few more carbs each week and adjusting the others accordingly. I'm eating about 1800 calories a day -- more than I ever was able to on any other diet -- and still losing about half a pound a day.

    20g of carbs, yikes!! When I work out my numbers using this methodology, I get an allowance of like 300g+ of carbs. In practice, I usually only get in the mid 200's, because I tend to take in more than the minimum fat.
  • missmegan831
    missmegan831 Posts: 824 Member
    I'm under 20 grams per day low carb and lost 37 pounds in little over 3 months, its a lifestyle thou not a 'diet' feel free to add me if you like
  • smallsfgirl
    smallsfgirl Posts: 14
    I don't believe I have insulin resistance, or at least I didn't a couple of years ago when I was testing my own blood glucose levels every day. In fact, I think it was on the low side. It's possible I have thyroid issues. I was slightly hypo a number of years ago but haven't been tested in awhile. Guess I'll get that all checked out next time I see a doc.

    Wow, I'm so excited about this! I just feel so confident I'm going to be 20 lbs lighter in a few months and it's going to be easy peasy...I hope :) However I do need to conquer a mini vacation next week. What happens when you "hiatus" from low carb for 3-4 days? Balloon back up or just not continue to lose? Not going to go crazy with calories, but low carb is going to be difficult being at the hotel.

    editing to add:
    I was exercising daily, mostly cardio. Fitbit says I was burning300-400 but the machines at the gym would say more like 450-600. Total daily calorie burn was usually somewhere between 1900-2200. Calorie intake was usually between 1100-1400 with a couple 1800-2100 cheat days. Almost all days I was under my calorie goal. Some might say I didn't eat enough. I guess I'm ready to stop expecting exercise to help me lose weight at this point and switch to something I know will work. I was planning to be in smaller jeans weeks ago! :D
  • darleyschroeder
    darleyschroeder Posts: 322
    All I know is carbs don't do my body good. They leave me hungrier than before and never satisfied.

    ^^^^^^THIS! Even whole grains, like 100% whole wheat. The only carb I know of that keeps me okay is veggies and oatmeal. I get screwed over by carbs all the time.
  • EricCowperthwaite
    EricCowperthwaite Posts: 450
    However I do need to conquer a mini vacation next week. What happens when you "hiatus" from low carb for 3-4 days? Balloon back up or just not continue to lose?
    I started my low carb journey 1 week before our annual summer vacation, which was to Hollywood, Beverly Hills and Disneyland. I just did odd things, like order a hamburger and then take the meat off the bun and eat the burger patty, veggies and cheese. It worked.

    As far as what happens .... Here's what very low carb and ketosis does

    1. You immediately burn up your glycogen stores cause you are not getting fructose. This is a couple pounds
    2. You then lose 3-4 pounds of "water weight" from your kidneys
    3. As your blood sugar levels drop, your body looks for other sources of energy and begin converting fat to energy.
    4. Your body produces less insulin, which means you burn less carbs, store less fat, burn more fat for energy

    So, if you eat carbs, your body essentially reverses that process. You will gain a few lbs because your kidneys store up some water and you produce glycogen again. Glycogen is a store of fructose, essentially, that your body keeps on hand for high intensity situations.

    Once you come back from vacation, you can reverse this process again by going back to very low carbs and you will lose the water weight and glycogen in a week, or so. Or you can figure out how to stay low carb even on vacation. I just didn't eat hamburger buns and french fries ;-)
  • cubbies77
    cubbies77 Posts: 607 Member
    IR won't necessarily affect your glucose level. My A1C is always normal, and my glucose is spot-on whenever my diabetic mother asks if she can stick me. :)

    For my IR test, I had to fast for 12 hours. I went in, and they drew blood to check my insulin level. It was WAY high, even though I hadn't eaten in 14 hours by the time I went in. In fact, it was twice the level of someone who has just eaten a meal, and that was on an empty stomach.

    Then, they had me eat a specific list of food and told me to come back exactly two hours after I ate the last bite. The results from the two-hour post-meal test were 3-4 times the high end of normal.

    With IR, your body produces insulin, but it doesn't process the glucose and turn it into energy. We can't use carbs for energy like athletes and other people. The glucose heads on over to the liver and becomes fat. That's why people with IR gain weight so quickly and so easily.

    Meanwhile, the insulin is still hanging out in your blood, wondering what's up. Your body thinks it needs food because there's all this insulin. So you get hungry even though you just ate, your glucose goes up, the glucose doesn't process, etc, etc, etc.

    If I had known this years ago, I could have stopped the cycle. I remember one summer when I gained 60 pounds in three months. The doctors just assumed I was lying about what I ate. I also felt like a slave to food. I carried food everywhere because I was hungry all the time. I envied people who could eat a high-protein breakfast and go two hours without a snack. Two hours felt like forever to me.

    Anyway, now I'm on metformin, which helps my body process the glucose and keep the liver from staying/becoming fatty. Additionally, I have to eat low-carb. Most people with IR find that eating 80-100 carbs per day works best. Some have to go lower. I also have to exercise. The exercise helps clear the glucose by using it for energy right away. If I don't exercise, my weight loss stalls. Even with the medicine, low-carb, and exercise, there are still weeks I gain or stall. It's a constant fight, and it sucks, but I've accepted it.
  • Acg67
    Acg67 Posts: 12,142 Member
    I came across this article:

    http://eatingacademy.com/nutrition/why-weight-watchers-is-actually-a-low-carb-diet

    That's Dr. Peter Attia. I am a follower of his blog. It seems like for docs to really dig in and understand the issues of why CI/CO doesn't work for some of us they have to BE one of us. Attia is a triathlete who was working out 4 hours a day and still gaining weight until he tried Keto.

    I found the food plan that works for me at Dr. Andreas Eenfeldt's site. Google LCHF and it's the first link that comes up. He just makes it so easy, no tracking (though I still track because I want to understand what's working).

    Feel free to look at my food diary -- I keep it open.

    Care to explain how one acclimates fat in a deficit?
  • MaraDiaz
    MaraDiaz Posts: 4,604 Member
    Don't give up exercise though, it helps a lot. But until you're firmly in ketosis (a couple weeks) it might help to dial back on it. Transitioning can be rough at first.
  • psuLemon
    psuLemon Posts: 38,427 MFP Moderator
    I don't believe I have insulin resistance, or at least I didn't a couple of years ago when I was testing my own blood glucose levels every day. In fact, I think it was on the low side. It's possible I have thyroid issues. I was slightly hypo a number of years ago but haven't been tested in awhile. Guess I'll get that all checked out next time I see a doc.

    Wow, I'm so excited about this! I just feel so confident I'm going to be 20 lbs lighter in a few months and it's going to be easy peasy...I hope :) However I do need to conquer a mini vacation next week. What happens when you "hiatus" from low carb for 3-4 days? Balloon back up or just not continue to lose? Not going to go crazy with calories, but low carb is going to be difficult being at the hotel.

    editing to add:
    I was exercising daily, mostly cardio. Fitbit says I was burning300-400 but the machines at the gym would say more like 450-600. Total daily calorie burn was usually somewhere between 1900-2200. Calorie intake was usually between 1100-1400 with a couple 1800-2100 cheat days. Almost all days I was under my calorie goal. Some might say I didn't eat enough. I guess I'm ready to stop expecting exercise to help me lose weight at this point and switch to something I know will work. I was planning to be in smaller jeans weeks ago! :D

    So in a given week, what is your average calories (meaning how many cheat days)? Can you open your diary to public. Also, how much weight do you have to lose?
  • desiv2
    desiv2 Posts: 651 Member
    I went low carb, and I feel so much more satisfied. I actually eat less food, but since it's more fat and some protein than carbs It lasts me so much longer. I don't even miss carbs! (Note: Less food but still around the same calories, though I could easily eat less calories and not miss it, when I ate really high carb I got hungry an hour to two hours later, and I always ended up snacking after I finished logging and feeling bad about it, that problem has been solved!)

    Feel free to friend me, I'm still learning low carb as well and we can help each other. :)
  • smallsfgirl
    smallsfgirl Posts: 14
    So interesting! And I'm so impressed with everyone's knowledge about this stuff. I should get checked at the doctor's. But I never had an unexplained sudden weight gain. It's just that I have an extremely stubborn set point! I also don't feel like I have to snack all day. With a higher protein + coffee diet lately I can go long periods without eating much.

    At this point I'm on the high end of my set point weight, which has been pretty stable for 12 years, minus two pregnancies. However, I am about 25-30 lbs heavier than I was in college (~20 years ago). If I lose 20-25 lbs, I'll be thrilled. That would probably put me in about a size 8 pants. Right now I'm a clear 12. Mid-November, I was down to a larger 10 and then the holidays + bad weather did me in. I actually joined the gym because I was getting kinda depressed, not being able to go outside for walks, no sun. We moved to the East Coast from California a year ago and this weather takes some getting used to! So I'm not depressed any more, and I don't want to sit around and eat all day, so that's good. But I'm not going to expect it to drop some pounds for me any more.
  • GenesisandEden
    GenesisandEden Posts: 338 Member
    I am low carb because of diabetes and after almost a year my A1c and cholestol numbers are fab! Off most meds Plus I have lost a little weight =)
    Good Luck and keep us posted
  • Danger2OneSelf
    Danger2OneSelf Posts: 883 Member
    When I'm cutting I usually do my own variation of a low carb diet, and I love it. I don't know if it's got more to do with the total calorie deficit or the actual source of my calories but it works for me every time. My body is always really quick to respond to the carb shock. This week I've lost 5lbs just from eating about 1600 cals all protein and little fat. I do the low carb thing just because it's easier to get more protein sources in there If I'm avoiding all that starch. Everybody's body is different though, you gotta play around with different diets and routines before you can really find what works well for you. Best of luck I hope you find what will work for you!
  • sallyaj
    sallyaj Posts: 207 Member
    I am low carb because of diabetes and after almost a year my A1c and cholestol numbers are fab! Off most meds Plus I have lost a little weight =)
    Good Luck and keep us posted

    That is awesome!
  • sallyaj
    sallyaj Posts: 207 Member
    Everybody's body is different though, you gotta play around with different diets and routines before you can really find what works well for you. Best of luck I hope you find what will work for you!

    Amen to that!
  • lovelylittlegiggles
    lovelylittlegiggles Posts: 117 Member
    If you were really spot-on with calories and exercise and didn't lose anything, you may want to have blood tests done for thyroid issues and/or insulin resistance. It never hurts to rule that out. I have IR, and I don't lose weight unless I eat low-carb and exercise. The second I go back to just counting calories, the weight loss stops for weeks on end.

    agree
  • vwpyland
    vwpyland Posts: 6 Member
    For those of you eating 1600 or 1800 cals a day, what are you eating, might I ask? I am eating low carb, but seem to often end up hovering between 1200-1400. I'm not really hungry, though. Wondering if I should pad what I am eating a bit more, but if so, with what.
  • lovelylittlegiggles
    lovelylittlegiggles Posts: 117 Member
    I do believe that Low Carb works. It seems that when I eat green veggies, strawberries, blueberries, lean proteins (when I eat meat)... stuff like that... I am not bloated, nor do I crave carbs. AND I lose a pound or two.

    For me, I had to go to doc and find out why exercise, eating properly, none of these things were working. Answer: Thyroid.

    So, go get checked out. And know that even if the panels come back ok... trust your body.

    I wish you all the best.

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