Low Carb High Fat Diet

I tried it for a minute.. I didn't have much energy and felt super bloated.

I tend to do better with clean carbs, solid protein, and a lower fat.

I know people who do well high fat/protein tho. Most who do are heavy lifters, and already have a pretty low bf%.

Limiting my carbs to 150 grams per day, and eating more protein and fat lowered my blood sugar from the high normal range to the healthy normal range. My blood lipids are still outrageously healthy. Also, I'm less hungry, which isn't a big deal since I'm not trying to lose weight.

The only bad fats are trans fats, which I never ate anyway. I eat more saturated fat than I used to, by eating more meat, more eggs, and more full fat dairy.

eating more protein and fat lowered my blood sugar

Works for me too. For those without a metabolic condition I wouldn't see the need to limit carbs.

1) I do not have diabetes, or a metabolic condition. I wanted to lower my blood sugar well into the normal range, and keep it there, because high blood sugar damages blood vessels, eyes, kidneys, and the brain. The more time you spend with elevated blood sugar, the more damage you're doing.

2) The best way to lower blood sugar with diet is not to eat more protein and fat. It's to eat less carbohydrate.

3) I was already exercising, so more exercise wasn't the best option.

So, anyone who has a fasting glucose reading in the high normal range, approximately 87 - 100, might consider eating a lower carb diet now. It won't necessarily prevent you from ever having diabetes, but it might, and if you do get diabetes, it will be later in life, with fewer years of damage to your body, and fewer years needing medication.

Worked for me in getting over 56 pounds off my body. I tend to eat a reasonably amount of protein, low carbohydrate and the rest is fats (60 to 70% of calories). My diary tends not to be complete of late. Total calorie intake is modest as I don't get hungry.

Rationale ? Well we need proteins and fats to give us stuff we don't need. Fats are high calorie to provide the energy that isn't taken from my fat stores, but obviously I want to use the latter as much as possible - so I'm looking for maximum lipolysis or release of fats from storage. Insulin impairs fat release from storage, insulin levels rise in response to carbohydrates, so I eat less carbohydrate. That's the "logic". I am probably insulin resistant with blood sugars that would be elevated if I weren't low carbing, and can be if I eat too much protein or maybe too much in total.

Why limit carbs ? they create the insulin response, there aren't any we have to eat to live, not eating them removes most of my blood sugar swings and hunger signals.

Usually I eat less than 20 grams of carbohydrate, in the UK we measure fibre separately and there's perhaps 12-15 grams of that too. At least 10 grams of carbs comes from low carb green vegetables.

I no longer have issues with bleeding gums, leg pains, incidents of hypoglycemia and my appetite is under control for the first time in almost ten years. It turns out that I'm not an "emotional eater" after all and I wasn't "sabotaging" my weight loss because of some unconscious fear -- that hunger and uncontrollable eating was was all carb/sugar induced.

I've maintained my 65 pound weight loss by logging my weight several times a week, marking a calendar with an X any time I indulge for a special occasions (or just because) and most importantly by eating a low carb, high fat real food based diet. I don't count carbs or calories and as long as I eat low carb, real food I can trust my hunger and simply eat as much as I want until I'm completely full and satisfied. I exercise for pleasure when I feel like it; there's no strict schedule I have to follow to maintain my weight loss.

I've been eating this way for over a year and a half now; I love it and will never go back to moderation or eat less, move more that was a struggle every single day for me to follow because I was always hungry. And even when I wasn't physically hungry I was obsessed with food, planning out snacks and eating every couple of hours. Looking back now it's absolutely absurd that I thought that was normal. I eat delicious full fat/flavorful food that's satisfying every single day -- you can keep your daily breads, pasta, and desserts along with the calorie counting and manic exercising that goes along with them. Even without the negative impacts they were having on my health they're still not worth the loss of control and impact they have on my appetite. I'm much happier following a extremely restricted diet (that doesn't feel restrictive at all) and saving the sugary/starchy foods for special occasions and celebrations.

Currently eating this way for three main reason.

1. Ease of compliance. Carb calories, like bread and doughnuts, are just the easiest ones for me to drop without leaving myself hungry and maintaining my deficit.
2. Taste. This is a simple one, and ties with the first; a higher fat, lower carb diet just tastes better to me than a low-fat, high carb one. Now don't get me wrong, I like pasta dishes, I like bread, I like doughnuts, but I don't like them to the same degree I like bratwurst and beef burgers and peanuts and almonds and the like.
3. Protein needs; Chicken is good and forms a good chunk of my diet, but man cannot live on chicken alone; To hit my (slightly elevated for muscle sparing) protein goal need other heavy sources of protein. The higher fat Higher protein options (to tie with the second and first points) taste better and fill me longer than the lower fat options (excepting chicken and turkey).

Now, this low carb part, like the calorie restriction, is absolutely a diet, a temporary plan to reach a specific goal. I don't plan on eating at a deficit forever, and I won't need as high a relative protein level, since I won't need to worry about maintaining LBM in the face of that deficit. The calories freed up from these factors will put less pressure on me to maximize every single calorie, granting me leeway to add less filling (but perhaps better micro-profiled) carb heavy foods during maintenance. Aside from a MIn. 20% fats and 20% protein, I don't really care what the macro comp of my maintenance calories are, as long as I stay under my maintenance limit. Portion control and calorie counting would be permanent changes made post diet, rather than a specific food regime or macro emphasis.

Lowered my carbs to below 50 most days tried to keep it under 40. Lost 150 pounds doing it. Still doing it because I got used to it. After two years I am upping my carbs a little but trying to stay between 50 to 100. The only thing I miss are potato chips and Pizza and once in a while I will sneak those in. :bigsmile:

I spent about a year on the Carb Addict's Diet and lost 60 pounds (with the help of running). However, I didn't find the diet to be sustainable and ended up gaining all of the weight back. These days, my main dietary change is a turn away from most processed foods and eating much more in the way of fresh produce.

CAD did a great job of decreasing my cravings. Cutting out processed foods has had the same effect.

I am pre-diabetic with severe PCOS. High fat and low carb has been the only approach that has actually moved the scale and kept my blood glucose under control. I no longer feel the compulsion to eat for the sake of eating. I keep my protein to adequate levels because I am not currently lifting and too much protein actually spikes my blood glucose.

The debate or quest in understanding merits of consuming more fat than carbs and it seems that blood sugar control is the primary benefit of making such a choice.

It seems to me that you asked the question with the above already your chosen answer.

You appear blind to the influence of elevated blood sugar on insulin and hence on fat loss - many people restrict carbs in order to lose weight via this mechanism without being concerned about blood sugar levels which they are unaware of anyway. Let's call them Group A. Another set of people, Group B, are concerned about blood sugar per se because they have insulin resistance, diabetes, etc and wish to avoid or minimise the well known negative effects of prolonged high blood sugar.

Peter at http://high-fat-nutrition.blogspot.co.uk/ is probably in another Group C where he chooses to eat low carb and is not seeking to lose weight or control blood sugar. Tommy at http://www.eatlowcarbhighfat.com/ is another, though he was previously in Group A.

Perhaps dividing up the thinking into distinct groups will help.

The continuous glucose monitor data with controlled meals gives us solid data rather than apocryphal feelings. The excursions in blood sugar from "complex carbs" is clear. I'll look for a starch vs glucose curve.

I started the lchf diet because it was said to be helpful with ibs. Only been on it a fortnight be it definitely seems to be helping. Then discovered a very pleasant side effect of the diet......weight drops off you whilst you eat foods you love and never feel hungry.

The complex vs simple carbs blood sugar response (bread vs glucose) :-



Insulin response :-



http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/9881888 found that "in normal subjects, as carbohydrate intake is increased from 0 to 100 g, plasma insulin responses increase at a greater rate than plasma glucose responses. The insulinaemic responses elicited by glucose, sucrose or fructose are similar to those that would be expected from a starchy food with the same glycaemic index"

So this is why I eat low carb, and to replace the calories I eat high fat.
I can eat a pound of veg daily and get all the nutrients I need on my carb allowance, fruit is overrated.