Less carbs

Carbs is short for carbohydrates and yes, all of those things you mentioned have them. I do a low carb diet but there are carbs even in fruits and vegetables, just maybe less of them. I eat a lot of veggies and lean meats. I treat myself now and again to a sweet potato but I have pretty much eliminated bread, pasta and rice from my day-to-day diet. I do have some on rare occasions. You just have to fit them into your calories for the day and not go over. It will be hard at first but you will be amazed at what you get used to.
You can google a list of foods and their carb content to get an idea of which are higher or lower.
Good Luck!

Dude. Saw this on your wall. Your main issue with your diet and the one you should be focusing on right now is the calories. Hit your calorie goal.

Carbs vs fat vs protein is something that is always going to be hottly contested around here. My housemate (who has a degree is dietetics) looks at my food diary and proclaims it fine and I average 50% or more carbs.

Its all about what works for you. If you're satiated eating carbs then eat carbs. You may have to switch to more protein based foods when your calorie goal decreases but you can worry about that later.

P.s. I tried a high protein, low carb diet that a trainer put me on. I've never felt worse in my entire life. It doesn't work for me, it might for you.

P.s. carbs equals - starches (bread, pasta etc) and fruit and veg.

I don't agree with worrying to much about carbs right now! You just need to eat more veggies and some protein would be a good thing and not skip meals, to help you stop craving therefore binging, that should be your main focus right now, eating better more fulfilling things.

Reducing carbs is a means to an end. For some people reducing carbs can help them hit their calorie goals while also hitting their protein goals. Personally, I've found that abstaining from cereal grains is a GREAT way to reduce my overall caloric intake and I feel better physically when I omit them from my diet. I'd rather get my carbs in the form of fruit or non-starchy vegetables.. that way I feel like I'm getting more nutritional bang for my buck rather than eating something like say, cold cereal or bread which I can eat infinite amounts of and never feel satisfied AND not really get a lot of quality nutritional benefit from either. Now maybe my problem is just because I have a wheat sensitivity. (I know, I know, I used to roll my eyes whenever anyone would mention their food "sensitivities" I thought it was all a lot of bull**** until it happened to me!) If you don't have sensitivities to these foods, and you don't overeat on them, and you're coming in under your calorie goals while meeting your protein goals, then I see no reason to change.

YES carbs are carbohydrates. BUT there are good carbs and bad carbs. My rule of thumb is the old rule--nothing WHITE---no white potatoes, no white bread, no white rice and absolutely NO refined sugar. Now I do fine.

YES carbs are carbohydrates. BUT there are good carbs and bad carbs. My rule of thumb is the old rule--nothing WHITE---no white potatoes, no white bread, no white rice and absolutely NO refined sugar. Now I do fine.

Not true that. There is nothing bad about "white carbs"; often, they're not even too nutritionally different from more complex carbs, other than fiber content or a 1-2% difference in micronutrients. White potatoes are a particularly maligned food--if you're not eating it as a french fry, it's a pretty darn good COMPLEX carb.

If you're finding you don't get full or have good energy with those carbs, then by all means, go for denser carbs (straight veggies, whole grain, etc.). Otherwise, these are not going to suddenly ruin your goals unless you have another existing issue (like bloating from carbs like some people get, or any sort of insulin issue).

There is nothing wrong with carbs but you might want to look at your whole diet and see how much you are getting of the other macros - fat and protein.

If your intake of these things is low then think about increasing them rather than trying to eliminate carbs, of course while still staying within your calorie goal.

Plan your meals based on protein and fats and then however many calories you have left alloted for that meal, fill the remainder with carbs. Many people find that once they focus on getting their protein intake right, the rest falls into place by itself.

You are going to get 2 very different answers here.
There are the people who have had success on just calorie deficit and lots of excerise, and subscribe to the tranditional ideas of healthy balanced diet.
Then there are people who have read the science behind the ketogenic state, the effects carbs have, and related subjects and then had success on a very low carb diet.
I am in the second group, so as unpopular as this can get, if even one person reads the below and gets interested it might help them I'll be happy for them.


carbs, short for carbohydrates. Turn into sugar in your body. High GI vs Low GI or bad vs good carbs, just effects how quickly it becomes sugar.

When your level of blood sugar rises, this is dangerous for your body, so it releases insulin.
Insulin tells the body to store away any of the sugar it can't use up quickly. It stores it as fat. The thing we are trying to lose here.

So what do you need to do? Well the highly 'unpopular' idea of eat more fat. No matter how many thousands of people lose weight and improve their health dramatically this way I bet you still find it hard to believe but just try it.

So lets see what happens when you eat no carbs and eat fat+protein instead.

Most people still want to avoid fat, so they try just eating lots of protein

If you eat protein, the liver can turn this straight into sugar which will give you the same problem as carbs, but this will also strain your liver. It also then teaches your body to eat protein so your muscles may degrade.

So lets see what happens if you eat a diet made mainly of fat?

Your blood sugar level initially drops, as does your energy as the body looks for carbs to burn to sugar(glocose) as energy.
When it cant find any, it looks to what else you have been eating. Some parts of your body can feed on fat directly so do this.
For other organs that need sugar instead, your body first creates things called 'ketones' in your body. These ketones then can turn the fat into fuel for the body to use as energy.
Blood sugar does not rise, so you do not store any fat.
(also dont get up and down hunger cravings caused by up and down of blood sugar)

Any ketones that are not needed for energy you just pee out.

your body is also then full of ketons and in a 'fat burning mode'
so when you eat under your maintenance calories, it is already used to burning fat, so then moves onto eating the fat on your body. BINGO - just what we want right?


Change your macros to 5% carbs (under 20g) 65% fat and 30% protein
Drink a lot of water as carbs cause you to retain water, without carbs you will drop water weight (literally pee more than you drink) so you need to keep hydrated more as you no longer store in in lumps like a camel haha


google 'keto recipies' for ideas of what to eat.

Basically lots of Cheese, full Cream, Red Meats, Chicken, Fish, Dark Green Veg, and NOTHING that says 'fat free' or 'lo fat'as this just means 'extra sugar' in most products anyway.
aim instead for 'sugar free' foods

You still keep within sensible calories but do not have to be quite as strict, also you can still do cardio if you want but it is more recommended to do bodyweight training. Building muscle increases the amount of calories you use in a day, and improves your body from inside, so is better in the long run. You have to do a LOT of cardio to burn off even a few calories, your body soon gets used to it and burns less and less for the same activity and in the end you put pressure on joints and spend hours and hours on the tredmill for nothing

Hey Joselo - in a nutshell, for me personally, I look at it like I have so many calories to use/spend a day.

The more of those calories that come from protein and fats the more full I stay for longer.
On the other hand, if I use a lot of those calories on carbs then I'm likelier to get hungry sooner and therefore likely to go over my calorie goal.

The problem with this approach is that a lot of 'convenience' foods are carb heavy - Greggs, fish n chips, crisps, pies, ready meals - tend to be made of or full of carbs which don't give you much bang for your calorie buck. And if you're not organised or you're getting food on the run then grabbing a couple of pasties and a butty might be the option you chose. And it might mean for quite a high calorie price you end up hungry quite soon.

It's trial and error honey. you're obviously doing something right - 67lbs! - it's like anything else, you learn more the longer you do it. And you make the choices that fit your lifestyle.

I'd always opt to push more protein into my day if I can because it works for me. But as always there is never one size fits all solution or one right way to do this.

Good luck!

If reducing your carbohydrates helps you keep under your calorie goals and you can sustain eating that way, by all means do it. That's what I'm doing, reducing but not completely removing. Carbs are not inherently good or bad, just usually very calorie dense and one of the easiest ways to reduce overall calories.

They're also a convenient way to pad out your calories if you're having a hard time "eating healthy" and meeting your target. Starchy carbs are the last part of the meal I select, only after I've planned out sufficient quantities of protein, healthy fat, fruit, and veggies. For a given meal it might be anything from a 60 calorie slice of toast to a 135 calorie sweet potato to a 280 calorie bagel, depending on what else I'm eating and how many calories are available. The only time carbs are considered up front is when they're an integral part of the main course, as with pizza or lasagna.