Low carb dieters.. WHAT do you eat?!

I have to have low carb due to having PCOS, Meat cheese some poatoesand a lot of veggies and things like that. I am limited to 90ish carbs a day. It isnt that bad

Your body needs carbs for fuel with heavy exercise, that doesn't require knowledge of what a low diet carb consists of that's just fact.

Not according to top scientific peer reviewed research on nutritional science. The human body requires very few carbs at all. But hey, you want to follow mainstream mythology, whatever.

To name these "top scientific peer reviewed research" studies?...


Your body doesn't NEED carbs, correct. But prefers them as a source of fuel for intense training, such as weight lifting, HIIT, etc.

Your body prefers them because they convert to fat easier. Your physiology wants to store fat,however, this biology is exactly what we are trying to work against to lose weight.

Also, I am not citing any scientific sources for you. Google it yourself and maybe you will read them. I suggest JSTORE if you have a student account. Otherwise, google scholar is a great source for scholarly articles.

LOL you gotta love it when someone says "according to all the peer reviewed literature...' and then can't even cite said peer reviewed literature. If you were writing a research paper you of just received an F -

Low carb is good for sedentary people, not for people who do intense anaerobic training. If you are not using muscle glycogen, you only need to replace liver glycogen which 50-100g per day can do. If you are lifting heavy, you need to eat more carbs to replace muscle glycogen which can hold about 3x more than your liver.

I eat low carb on my rest days and higher carb on my strength training days. My favorite low carb meal is a spinach salad followed by a huge steak and a heaping side of veggies like broccoli. I have a huge appetite and this is really the only low carb meal that actually fills me up.

Blood glucose doesn't drop to zero- your body intervenes before that (catabolism of liver glycogen, fatty acid conversion, etc etc) There are mechanisms in place to keep your body going in a whole heap of situations- unless something is seriously dysfunctional.

Would I recommend a super low carb diet for anyone and everyone? Nope. Nor would I recommend it for most people... but my intake is fairly low carb because that's what works for me.. but I'm also cautious about adequate nutrient intake, fiber consumption, and macro balance.

I think a lot of people jump on the low-carb diet because of the draw of the initial water losses.. and then when they drop that water weight, they think "hey, this really works for me"... we would all hope that everyone would find a balance in intake, exercise, macros.. in life in general. But we're people.. we're not exactly balanced.. so we do what works for us.. ;-)

:sick: Hi, Low carb diets are very dangerous! I tried this and had lost weight but, I had developed a blood clot in my leg.
I could have had a stroke and died! but I was thin. I would have looked great on my death bed and in my coffin.
It's not a natural way to eat or live. Don't even think of trying this. It is very dangerous!

...and you actually had a doctor tell you that said blood clot was caused by a low carb diet? Or are just just assuming that because they occurred close together that one led to the other?

*This*

loled @ broscientists!

Anyway, I'm in a pretty good mood, and I'm an avid ketoer, so let me dispell all the myths about low carb diets RIGHT NOW! If you actually follow the diet properly like you are supposed to, there will not be any bad side effects after the first 10-20 days. See, a lot of people think low carb diets are bad for you because it makes them feel like crap when they start the diet. That's just because your body has to adapt to a new fuel source, that being fat. Most peoples' bodies are used to burning carbs as the primary fuel source, but low carb diets force the body to burn fat for fuel.

There are so many amazing pluses to eating low carb, high fat, it's hard to even list them all, but let's start with a few:

-Eliminate risk of Type II Diebetes
-Lower your risk of heart disease/stroke
-Highly reduced food cravings
-Eat less naturally, because fat is more filling that carbs (9cals/g fat vs 6cals/g carb).
-You don't feel tired and crappy after any meals
-INCREASED energy, after the induction phase is complete

The list goes on, but this diet is seriously amazing. Oh, I forgot to mention that you will lose weight on it AND retain muscle. We all know (or should know) that burning 1-2lbs/week is how to lose weight, and this diet does that all for you without even tracking your calories, just track your carb intake.

Final argument, bacon and eggs for breakfast. Every. Day.... Yep. "But bacon is bad for you blah blah blah!". Wrong. Bacon has a lot of mono/polyunsaturated (healthy) fats in it. All you need to watch out for really is the salt/nitrates. Just get the "natural" bacon.

Anyway, the thread title was "what do you eat". So here we go. Bacon/sausages and eggs with ranch or salsa every morning with a black coffee, burger patties with mayo or mustard, or hotdogs, or tuna/mayo or egg salad for lunch, steak, chicken or ground beef for dinner. In every meal you try to get some kind of green veggie with it. Personally I like a lot of broccoli and spinach. Obviously there is a lot more stuff to eat, this is just a few things. Just think, meat, cheese, eggs and green vegetables.

Anyway, if anyone wants a better keto guide or a resource for some recipes you can check out my information site on the diet at http://weightlosshiddentruth.com.

Cheers all!

Disclaimer #1: I think ridiculously low carb diets with regular exercise are generally stupid...
... Like I said.. I'm just curious.

If you don't know anything about it, how do you manage to be so opinionated?

A quick google search will give you a list of low carb foods. You could even research keto diets and find out about how intelligent people following low carb diets are managing their macros. It isn't difficult and it certainly isn't stupid.

I should have been more specific, I think it's stupid with strenuous regular exercise. Your body needs carbs for fuel with heavy exercise, that doesn't require knowledge of what a low diet carb consists of that's just fact.

Carbs are not a biological "necessity".............

Yes, of course it CAN be done, by why WOULD you do it? You'd feel a hell of a lot better, could push more weight and do more "jumping pull ups" with carbs than without.

No, some of us don't "feel a hell of a lot better".

Eating more carbs on a regular basis makes me lethargic, crabby, gives me headaches, achey joints, can bring on my depression that went away once I regularly cut down my carb intake, and a host of other negative impacts. Oh, I will get dark circles under my eyes as well. The only time I've ever had heartburn in my life is when I eat too many carbs, especially breads.

I lift heavy, do kettlebell routines with plyometrics, run, steep summit hikes/climbs carrying 25-35# backpacks, snowshoeing, occasional classes like spinning and kickboxing, and do regular long bike rides (33 hilly miles yesterday). And I feel great doing it.

.

Yes, some people don't do so well on carbs. That's true. But I think you'll find most do. If you can do all that stuff you mentioned and recover well then great, more power to you.

It's interesting you mention lethargy, crabbiness, headaches, achey joints and depression and credit that to carbs, then the only carb source you bring up is "breads". These sound like almost trademark symptoms of some kind of gluten-intolerance. Have you tried implementing carbs such as sweet potatoes, fruits and rice in your diet? Just curious.

Yes. While breads do have the worst impact on me, when my carbs creep up too high, it doesn't matter what kinds of foods they are made of. Again, I can eat more carbs on days I have longer, more intense exercise and I frequently do on those days because I enjoy them. But if I make a regular habit of eating more without mitigating with exercise, I pay a heavy penalty with how I feel.

I do find that I need to increase my carbs whenever I'm going to exercise steadily, especially if there are periods of high-intensity, for 2+ hours. For example, on Sunday I did a 33-mile bike ride with lots of hills. Lots. Steep, long ones. So, for that, I did a small carb-load and replenished with small amounts of carbs regularly throughout the ride, and then some carbs after. But if I had eaten that many carbs on a rest day, I would have had all the negative effects I've already described.

But a normal workout of about 60-90 minutes rarely requires an increase in carbs to do fine unless the intensity is pretty extreme. I'm going snowshoeing, back-country on steep slopes, not on groomed trails, on Saturday and find I need more carbs doing that than, for example, I do long bicycling rides, and I think this has something to do with the cold being a factor. Your body burns a lot of calories and carbs just trying to heat itself. Add in some pretty strenuous activity and bonking can happen. The last thing you want to have happen is to bonk when you're 2-3 hours in the back-country, in 20-degree weather, when going super-slow could force you to do an unplanned bivouac for the night or you could need to deal with an unexpected storm bringing on white-outs or avalanche risks. This is a case where carbs help keep you warm to fight off hypothermia. So I'll be carb-loading the day before and during the activity until I'm back to safety. Maybe even after in order to replenish glycogen stores because this is super-intense work compared most other activities I do. This is when I buy two of the giant cinnamon rolls from a local bakery that are the best ever and enjoy ever single bite! Usually eat one that morning and another for when I get home.

Believe me, if my body could handle more carbs every day I would eat more carbs as they are my favorite food items.

Edited to add: I do realize that many people do well on a lot more carbs. That's why you'll never find a post from me stating that anyone should cut their carbs unless they are describing issues that lead me to believe that carbs might be a problem for them. I just wish those who can liberally eat carbs without a problem would give those of us who can't or choose not to the same respect. I have problems with zealots from both sides of the issue.

Disclaimer #1: I think ridiculously low carb diets with regular exercise are generally stupid...
... Like I said.. I'm just curious.

If you don't know anything about it, how do you manage to be so opinionated?

You took the words right out of my mouth!!!

I still don't understand why it's assumed I don't know anything about it. I know the science behind why carbohydrates are important. What I was asking, is what do people who do low carb diets eat day to day? Out of my apparent "passive aggressive" curiosity, lol. I don't see why me defending my opinion makes me so awful, unless a doctor tells you to do so I don't agree with the idea of cutting an important macronutrient (for the most part) out of your diet.

Please cite the science why carbohydrates are important. What is important about this micronutrient?

I tend to eat about 80-100 grams/carb daily. Sometimes less and, occasionally, more.

I lift heavy, do kettlebell routines with plyometrics, run, steep summit hikes/climbs carrying 25-35# backpacks, snowshoeing, occasional classes like spinning and kickboxing, and do regular long bike rides (33 hilly miles yesterday).

My energy levels are great. I feel better, think clearer, have better memory, never get ill, and can go all day without eating a lot of carbs. If I eat more on a regular basis, I tend to get lethargic, headachey, grumpy, and depressed.

Sometimes I do eat more because I want a piece of cake or cookies or a good cinnamon roll but I need to be sure I do this on days when I have had a good, intense workout or I pay a physical/mental/emotional price for it. In other words, I may have such a treat on workout days but never on recovery days. During my 33 mile ride yesterday, one of the stops at this event had some yummy looking baked goods so I had some kind of peanut butter/graham cracker baked concoction that was divine. But I didn't need it for energy.

So, again, please tell me what I'm missing by not regularly ingesting more of this "important" micronutrient.

Extra points if you can avoid the rudeness that you displayed in your OP.

Blood glucose level of zero sounds like it's totally fine

Sure, if it's your goal to be dead.:huh: