Lower carbs......

I was thinking that may be fruits and veggies would be unlimited!

Not for low carb. Banana and oatmeal or far from low carb.

Then what would be low carb cause I have read that bananas are excellent to eat in the morning and so is oatmeal. I just looked at my oatmeal and it says that it's about 27g of carbs with 4g of fiber and the 1% milk has 13g of carbs. Wow.... now that I look at it, the milk is what does it! Hmmmm.... I thought oatmeal was healthy. Anyways, I usually eat around 150-200g of carbs a day, so I was thinking that if I cut that in half, maybe I would be taking in low carbs.

Regarding the oatmeal, read this. And no, I am not hocking a book. Someone gave me this link, and has been helping me through the program for free.... IT IS WORKING. It really is! I am as surprised as anyone, but I say again, if you are going to do it, do it all the way. The results are awesome!

http://www.dangerouslyhardcore.com/2031/18-months-of-carb-back-loading-with-julia-ladewski/

When I started really tracking my calories and exercising a month and a half ago I had a belly. People asked if I was pregnant. Since then I am down 12 lbs and the belly is barely noticeable. I have 24 lbs to go, but it's moving steadily. I have slightly lowered my carbs, but I know that for ME a true low carb/no carb diet is not a sustainable lifestyle change. For ME this is about a lifestyle change I can continue so I am allowing myself to eat pretty much anything I want as long as it fits my calories and macros for the day. If I want something and it doesn't fit then I exercise more so that I can have it. Sometimes I decide the item I want isn't worth the extra exercise time, lol, so I don't have it. I focus on increasing my protein amounts because that helps me feel full longer.

On any given day I eat the following:

Breakfast
Oatmeal with fruit (whenever possible) and 1 full glass of water - This leaves me feeling full and satisfied until lunch. If I'm in a rush I grab a protein bar instead.

Lunch
Sandwich Thins (less bread but still 2 pieces) with turkey or chicken and cheese, some sort of veggie, and fruit.

Dinner - I eat whatever I want as long as it fits my calories and is close to my macros.

I have very limited time for breakfast and lunch so I usually have small meals then with small snacks that are either fruits, veggies, or protein throughout the day. My favorite snack is a cheese stick or baby carrots. However, I often snack on the whole wheat goldfish the kids that the students in my class have during snack time.

It's not low carb or no carb, but it works because I'm losing and the belly has significantly gone down. I also had gestational diabetes with one of my pregnancies. The important thing is that you find a diet you can sustain. If you think you can cut carbs significantly or completely and sustain that diet forever then do that. If that isn't what you want to do or what you think you can sustain then try tracking calories and increasing exercise when necessary. No or low carb does work for lots of people, however, so does exercise combined with a calorie deficit. If you want to add me as a friend you can.

I checked it out and she is behind on the reserch. If you don't "Break your fast", your metabolism slows down. Many studies show more overweight people skip breakfast. Too low carbs is not good for your body, (not talking about processed foods), you need them. When extreme no carb diets are followed, your body burns muscle- what you need to keep a higher metabolism.

This is what I have always believed as well. I have been putting cream in my coffee so that I get some calories and fat to start the day, but no carbohydrates. I am definitely not losing muscle, I am a fitness instructor and my classes have been stronger and more energized than ever. But the plan I am following is called "Carb Nite Solution," and it does shock your system with one carb meal a week. I have not gotten to that one meal yet....to tell you the truth is is a little scary to break from what has been working so well. But it is in place for a reason, so I will follow what I am supposed to do.

Though studies show that more overweight people skip breakfast, there is no proof that the actual meal of breakfast has anything to do with it. It could just as likely have more to do with lifestyle habits, and how and what those people are eating. They have shown correlation, but not cause. And this particular plan is designed for athletes (specifically weight lifters) so that dip in metabolism would be a non-issue. Exercise in the morning would be more effective at stimulating metabolism than a meal, and then you are burning what is stored on your body rather than what you just put into your stomach, AND by actively building muscle through exercise, the body will go after the fat, not the muscle, that is stored.

I used to have carbs and almost every meal, every day, but for the last 55 days I have been on a lower carb diet and I have lost a substantial amount of weight and consistently seeing a drop in the scales every week. I allow myself bread or cereal at breakfast but after that, the only carbs I eat are from vegetables, try to eat veges that have at least half the amount of fibre as they do carbs, so if a carrot (not actual figure, just so you get the idea) has 2grams of carbs per carrot, and 1g of fibre, then the net carbs are only 1, so if a tomato (Again, not actual figures here) had 20g of carbs but 10g of fibre, the net carbs are only 10g and it is the NET carbs that affect weight loss/gain the most (at least in my experience anyway). feel free to add me and look at my diary for menu ideas but an average day looks something like this

Wait a min! So you're telling me that, for example, even though my cottage cheese has 5g of carbs, I'm not really getting 5g of carbs because it also has 5g of protein?! I love the chocolate and oats fiber one bars. It says that there is 29g of carbs in one. But it also has 9g of fiber and 2g of protein. Now I know that you can minus the fiber from the carbs, or atleast that's what I was told when I had to take a gestational diabetes class. BUT I can also minus the protein too??? So in reality, I would only be eatting 18g of carbs???

Net carbs is total carbs minus fiber and sugar alcohols. Protein will keep you full longer, but is not part of the carb equation.

i'm not sure where you got the idea that you can subtract the protein grams, NET carbs are total carbs MINUS dietary fibre, so for your fibre one bars net carbs would be 29 minus 9(fibre) = 20g NET carbs.

hope that clears things up for you a bit. :-)

I have lost 19 lbs since The first of August eating less than 100 grams of carbs per day. I don't find this difficult, get my carbs from almond milk, the lower carb fruit & vegetables. I stay away from all of the starchy vegetables & most breads. I have had an occasional grilled cheese sandwich on whole wheat & I always have a few chips at any Mexican rest. we go to. My doctor put me on this plan to control tryclerides & said she did not know if I would lose or not, but I have. I have one small piece of dark choc. every night too. This is something I can live with and I think that is the key to losing weight & then keeping it off. There is a low carb group on MFP and you can get some great friends & meal ideas. I hope you have great success.

I read something that said "fat doesn't make you fat, carbs do." Is that true?

Yes, for some people they do. Whether it's because they increase hunger, aren't as satiating, "carbs" being used as another word for junk food, there's a metabolic advantage like some studies show, the alternative hypothesis... The list can go on and on but regardless of the reason for it in the real world, for a lot of people, carbs DO make them fat.

Calories in, calories out is a simplistic explanation that does nothing to explain why people overeat and what's causing it.