Anyone Doing Low-Carb High-Fat?

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  • sallyaj
    sallyaj Posts: 207 Member
    I was exercising 5 days a week and watching my diet religously and could not drop a pound as I don't have much to lose. In fact I seemed to be gaining. After switching to a low carb high fat diet 2 weeks ago I have lost 3 pounds and my cravings are completely gone! I'm not constantly thinking about food anymore and I feel fantastic.

    This was my experience exactly. After decades trying to eat low fat, semi-vegetarian, whole-grain-based diet and exercising five days a week, the scale wouldn't budge - until I went LCHF.

    Three weeks in I am down 8 pounds and 3 inches off my waist. And never hungry.

    I eat 5% carb/25% protein/70% fat, and I'm losing weight.

    I'm not advocating this for everyone. But for those who are healthy people who are exercising and eating "right" - that is a low fat grain-based diet, according to our nations food guidelines -- but still gaining weight, I would certainly say give this a try.
  • GlassslippersAndFairyDust
    GlassslippersAndFairyDust Posts: 518 Member
    45% fat for me/ 25% protein/ 30% carbs.

    It works really well for me. I'm in maintenance, and it's how I prefer to eat anyway. I just fell into it naturally.

    this....working like a charm
  • Lupercalia
    Lupercalia Posts: 1,857 Member
    I eat 60% fat, 25% protein, 15% carbs (but usually go under on those with the calories spilling into fat intake).

    I eat according to paleo or primal principles. It's been great for me--it doesn't even feel like i'm dieting or restricting anything. I actually eat MORE and feel happier with my food now than I did when I was eating the way I was before.

    I don't have trouble getting through my workouts. I train with kettlebells 4 times weekly, lift heavy twice a week, and walk everywhere. On my two big lifting days, I have found it necessary to eat a bit more carbs. I have a baked sweet potato with a bit of coconut oil and cinnamon. Not tons of carbs or anything like that, just enough to keep me chugging along. I'm also not opposed to having a sweet potato whenever I feel the need.

    Eating this way has made me so much more sensitive to my body's actual needs as opposed to just eating whatever I was craving in the moment. By the way, I was a veggie/vegan/raw vegan for about half my life. Around 20 years! :laugh: Even in my overweight state today, I'm much healthier and happier than I was during those years.

    If anyone wants to add me, please feel free to do so. I log my foods and keep my diary open for my friends to view.
  • SanteMulberry
    SanteMulberry Posts: 3,202 Member
    Late to the discussion here and ran into this thread looking for suggestions on my issue: I am 5 pounds from reaching my target weight but really want to see a flatter belly. My belly is not budging much.

    My question for the LCHF group is this: if you are working out on a daily basis, can you still do LCHF successfully. More specifically, if you are lifting weights to add muscle, carbs seem to help a lot with that. I dont know if fat can help me be as efficient at the gym. So Im thinking this LCHF is for people who are ONLY using diet to reach goals, and not adding exercise to the program.

    Thoughts?
    If your goal is purely weight loss, then LCHF and no exercise is the best bet. If your goal is primal fitness, then LCHF and exercise is what you want. Seriously, cavemen were seriously fit dudes to be able to hunt and kill a wooly mammoth in an ice age. And they weren't exactly munching on a bunch of pasta and bread.

    Your carbs probably should go up from the 20g of net carbs that really hardcore LCHF types are doing, but 50g of carbs a day can easily be done WITHOUT eating whole grains, pasta, bread, potatoes, rice, etc. That's probably more daily carbs than the typical paleolithic wooly mammoth hunter got. I'm pretty sure I wouldn't want to go toe to toe with him.

    Have you seen the Flintstones? Fred Flintstone is not exactly in prime condition.

    That's because they made him a Jackie Gleason doppelganger. :laugh:
  • Liz_Mfp
    Liz_Mfp Posts: 172 Member

    The biggest benefit is I'm not hungry/no cravings.
    .

    I hadn't been tracking so I don't know how to answer but I will begin by counting Carbs
  • shabbychick81
    shabbychick81 Posts: 168 Member
    http://www.webmd.com/diet/high-protein-low-carbohydrate-diets

    Please read this.

    Many people are not aware of the strain in puts on your body to eat SO low in carb, as your diary suggests.

    Thanks for the link, but WebMD is just repeating the party line by quoting the AHA. The fact is, no study has ever proven the cholesterol theory. The real poison to the body that spikes insulin is sugar / simple carbs -- and docs have known this for a long time.

    Gary Taubes explains this well in his book Why We Get Fat.


    amen!
  • shabbychick81
    shabbychick81 Posts: 168 Member
    i am eating primal/paleo. nothing processed except my choc chips. i am losing, my pcos is under control and i feel great. 100 days and i have lost almost 38 lbs. i don't ever see me going back to eating crap again. we eat wild game of grass fed meats and wild caught sea food
    its about what type of food you eat. stay away from things that are fake. my diary is open to anyone who wants to see what i eat. i also do not count cals or eat back my exercise cals unless i am hungry. most of the time i don't log my exercise i just put it in the notes my diet is a s follows 70% fat 10%carb 20%protein. you should read primal body primal mind, i learned that too much protein can turn to sugar also
  • shabbychick81
    shabbychick81 Posts: 168 Member
    i do weight training every day. i do ripped in 30 3 days a week, and the other days i do planks, push ups and squats. i have never toned up this fast. i am heavier than i was 2 years ago before i gained all my weight back and i am wearing smaller clothes.
  • willnorton
    willnorton Posts: 995 Member
    bump
  • GrannyGwen1
    GrannyGwen1 Posts: 212 Member
    Topic: Anyone Doing Low-Carb High-Fat?
    http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/890527-anyone-doing-low-carb-high-fat?hl=LOW+CARB+HI+FAT

    THANK YOU BUMP FOR LATER
  • hookilau
    hookilau Posts: 3,134 Member
    That is so great to hear -- it's a bit scary when the fat % starts to climb. But I think it's because I've been brainwashed all these years into thinking fat is the enemy.

    Now that I've increased fat, protein is just taking care of itself (I find it hard to overeat protein) and the carbs are all coming from green veggies and trace carbs that are in cheese.

    This is how it is for me too. I eat HFLC/keto and it almost effortless for me. It's been 6 months and I lost 22#'s in the first 8 weeks. The last 15 pounds started coming off only within the last couple of days because I fell victim to 'carb creep' (oops) but was able to maintain effortlessly.

    I wish I'd done this long ago.
  • soyasee
    soyasee Posts: 19 Member
    Hi, I just started a LCHF diet a few days ago, I feel it will work. I lost 2 lbs from the 2 lbs I put back on, so, we shall see. How's it going for you?
  • QuilterInVA
    QuilterInVA Posts: 672 Member
    If you are not doing low-carb high-fat, your input was not asked for. especially when there are hundreds of websites that refute what you posted.
  • Twargo3
    Twargo3 Posts: 8
    Yes I started with Atkins and found LCHF through a lot of research... i basically tell people its like Atkins on Steroids... lol. Its wonderful! 45 pounds down... 10 more to go. I think I need to be better about measuring though for this last 10.... i have fell victim to Carb Creep... such a creep. But maintaining has been a breeze!
  • grimmwrath
    grimmwrath Posts: 3
    I do a modified Atkins/Paleo diet, 15% carbs / 30% protein / 55% fat. I was edging up on type II diabetes and met all the criteria for metabolic syndrome, so it made sense to me. I've dropped 22 lbs in about 7 weeks (admittedly, that's not all from the diet, there's a lot of exercise in there as well), and I've lost 3 inches off my waistline.

    I realize it's not the best diet around, but it works for me.
  • MrGonzo05
    MrGonzo05 Posts: 1,120 Member
    No, I'm eating this crazy 'balanced diet.' I'm not smart enough to understand how avoiding a long list of common and tasty foods is good for me.
  • mmapags
    mmapags Posts: 8,934 Member
    If you are not doing low-carb high-fat, your input was not asked for. especially when there are hundreds of websites that refute what you posted.
    Your not the boss of the internet! :laugh:
  • Dragonwolf
    Dragonwolf Posts: 5,600 Member
    but it is important to get at least 75-100 grams of carbohydrate a day to avoid ketosis

    Ketosis is good, it is the result of fat being utilized. Ketoacidosis is bad.

    It is true that ketoacidosis can quickly kill you. However, the jury is still out on whether or not it is safe to be in ketosis for extended periods of time. To stay in ketosis would likely require severe restrictions on vegetables and fruits and that is an unhealthy diet over time.

    No it doesn't. It depends entirely on the person. Some people can get into ketosis once they get under 100g of carbs, and that's actually quite a bit. I, myself, hover around 100g without much effort, and yesterday, that included a salad with about 4 cups of lettuce and a cup of various other veggies, some lasagna with zucchini noodles, and 24 oz of milk. It's very easy to get enough nutrients on as low as about 50g of carbs. Any lower than that, and you do have to start cutting out vegetables, but with some careful planning, you can still do it and get the nutrients you need.
  • Dragonwolf
    Dragonwolf Posts: 5,600 Member
    Just make sure you are fulfilling your need for fiber. High fat/low carb diets are often lacking in fiber unless you specifically track it.

    Shoot for 20-30g daily.

    Actually, fiber isn't as necessary as most people think, and the types of fiber that our gut bacteria can't process do little but add bulk to our stools. In fact, the guy that pushed fiber the most, Dr. John Harvey Kellogg (brother to the cereal company founder), was kind of a nutjob. He was obsessed with constipation and had this idea that it caused people to want to have sex (he was obsessed with chastity, to the point the he advocated circumcision without anesthetic, and male and female genital mutilaton). His solution? Prescribe high amounts of fiber to keep the stool extremely loose.
  • Dragonwolf
    Dragonwolf Posts: 5,600 Member
    45% fat for me/ 25% protein/ 30% carbs.

    It works really well for me. I'm in maintenance, and it's how I prefer to eat anyway. I just fell into it naturally.

    That is such great news! It's hard to wrap my brain around the fact that this is working for me. How much weight did you have to lose?

    Things that are too good to be true usually are. Just wait until you slip up one week and eat "normal" . You'll gain all the weight back so fast your brain won't be able to wrap itself around that either. It's not how the human body is designed to operate and it has horrible long term results across the board. It's great for a crash diet to drop 10 lbs before a vacation, not so great if you want to be an active healthy adult and learn how to properly take care of yourself.

    The quick drop at the beginning, and the quick rise if you eat high carb, are both water/glycogen weight. Go back to your new normal (ie LCHF), and the weight comes back off.

    The human body is very much designed to operate on a low carb, high fat diet. If it wasn't, we wouldn't be able to survive in cold climates prior to global food networks. Likewise, we can also operate on a high carb diet. We're omnivores, we're adaptive like that.

    LCHF isn't all about weight, either. Just like many people can handle lactose, many people do better overall on LCHF, including reversing the symptoms of metabolic disorder or Diabetes, eliminating migraines or seizures, clearing up eczema or acne, and a number of other benefits.
  • toyb0_x
    toyb0_x Posts: 2
    I have type 1 diabetes and a few weeks ago I thought I'd try out a ketogenic diet, where you eat no more than 50g of carbs and about 75% of energy from fat. I complicated matters by also switching to a vegan diet at the same time... I thought if I'm going to do an overhaul, let's do it all in one go :)

    I'm following mostly Drs. Volek and Phinney's "The Art and Science of Low Carbohydrate Performance", which is mostly an add-on to their "The Art and Science of Low Carbohydrate Living" but written specifically for endurance athletes. I like to run and would like to be able to do so without having to worry about carbs, insulin and hypoglycaemia during exercise. Also, now I can run at any time during the day not just when my insulin level is lowest. Before heading out for a run I don't need to consume the carbs I will be burning during the run, but I do take in protein before which does get converted to glucose somewhat.

    Which brings me to a point they were making in the book: If you eat too much protein, it will get converted to glucose (or otherwise the kidneys will have to clean up after...) and you won't go into ketosis (fat-burning mode). So if you eat too much protein, instead of burning fat your body will use protein for fuel, which it might decide to get them from your muscles.
  • Dragonwolf
    Dragonwolf Posts: 5,600 Member
    What are the benefits of adding it? Avoiding constipation?
    coconut oil is composed of 65% medium chain triglycerides. Unlike long chain triglycerides, which make up the majority of the fat in common cooking oils, MCT's can be easily processed by the body for nutrition. Lots of evidence out there that coconut oil is good for you as a source of energy and good, healthy fats for your diet. I have a cup of coffee with butter and coconut oil every morning as my breakfast, as odd as that sounds.

    Um--coffee with butter? Why not have coffee with cream? My husband is allergic to dairy and has full-fat coconut milk in his coffee every morning (he has lost 10 pounds without even trying since he started the coconut milk).

    Butter has less lactose and whey than (dairy) cream (the whey is what keeps cream a liquid, because the fats in milk are semi-solid at room temperature). And clarified butter (aka ghee) has almost none at all. Generally speaking, the purpose of bulletproof coffee (coffee with butter and coconut oil) is to provide energy without causing an insulin response.
  • Dragonwolf
    Dragonwolf Posts: 5,600 Member
    What works is the calorie deficit, and no for me if I did what your saying I'd die quite young...
    Take another look at your food pyramid hunny I think deep down you know that's not reason your losing weight.. You prob feel it is which Is fine but try eating healthily and fats Snd treats in moderation and log away and I think you'll find doesn't really matter what the f you eat
    :-) trust me

    Not everyone does well on the high-carb diet that is the USDA food pyramid, or low fat/high carb in general. A large portion of the people who go LCHF do so for health reasons at least as much as for weight loss. For those that are doing is as a means to lose weight, no one's arguing that a calorie deficit is involved. However, it does make it a lot easier to stay within one's calorie goals when not riding the insulin roller coaster.

    Also, most people who do LCHF find that they don't have to log every bite they take, because they self-regulate at the amount they need.
  • looseal
    looseal Posts: 27 Member

    The biggest benefit is I'm not hungry/no cravings.
    .

    This is my biggest benefit too. Ate dinner 4 hours ago and not hungry for a snack...more like a second dinner. That late night eating was killing my weight loss. I may actually go back to eating 3 meals a day like when I was younger. And I have a full feeling after eating a normal serving.
  • hookilau
    hookilau Posts: 3,134 Member

    The biggest benefit is I'm not hungry/no cravings.
    .

    This is my biggest benefit too. Ate dinner 4 hours ago and not hungry for a snack...more like a second dinner. That late night eating was killing my weight loss. I may actually go back to eating 3 meals a day like when I was younger. And I have a full feeling after eating a normal serving.

    Indeed. Carbs. Blech.
    That's the same reason we eat this way too.
  • MissKriss3
    MissKriss3 Posts: 117 Member
    I've been LCHF (YUM) for 3 months I'm doing stronglifts 5x5 3 times a week and cardio twice a week.

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