Low carb doesn't work for me anymore
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Jestinia
Posts: 1,153 Member
I know it's no miracle of food composition, subtracting calories like some kind of steak fairy. It was all about appetite control, and when I was very overweight, it worked great. I lost over 50 pounds with it. But now I'm in the normal weight range, and when I did low carb for three weeks, I either maintained or actually gained instead of losing any of those ten vanity pounds (hard to tell if I gained or lost due to water weight loss).
Before I give up entirely and attempt to become a vegetarian again, I'd like to know if anyone has experience with appetite issues at normal weight range and ways to tackle those as a low carb eater.
Before I give up entirely and attempt to become a vegetarian again, I'd like to know if anyone has experience with appetite issues at normal weight range and ways to tackle those as a low carb eater.
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Replies
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Are you willing to open your food diary so that we can look at it and make recommendations?0
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J,
Nice work getting to a healthy weight. Take a look at my blog. Scroll to the sugar article. It's not just carbs...it's the hidden sugar that causes most hunger and out of control eating for people of any size. Keep your sugar intake to 10-15 teaspoons a day.
Formula: Carbs-minus fiber-divided by 5
You can do this at the end of the day using MFP ....it will show you where you may be getting the hunger triggers.0 -
Are you willing to open your food diary so that we can look at it and make recommendations?
This. And did you recaculate your TDEE and BMR when you got to the lower weight?0 -
I don't eat low carb, but LORD, yes. When will folks realize how much sugar, and worse, how much high fructose corn syrup is added to their store bought convenience foods???J,
Nice work getting to a healthy weight. Take a look at my blog. Scroll to the sugar article. It's not just carbs...it's the hidden sugar that causes most hunger and out of control eating for people of any size. Keep your sugar intake to 10-15 teaspoons a day.
Formula: Carbs-minus fiber-divided by 5
You can do this at the end of the day using MFP ....it will show you where you may be getting the hunger triggers.
I bet we can CHART the addition of sugar, CS, and HFCS to foods, with the increase in America's waist line.
It's in everything!0 -
Marie: can you link your blog? I'm not able to find it.0
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I think I'll try veggies, milk, and nuts for awhile and still leave out the bread and sugar treats, see how that goes. I started eating potatoes this week, was surprised they kept me full for hours. I thought they were blood sugar spikers!0
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All sugar is bad, whether it comes from corn, beets, sugar canes, etc. So much is added to food. I try not to eat processed foods and stay away from fruit.0
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Milk is bad. My doctor says that it is used to 'fatten up the calf' and I don't need to be fattened up! Lol.0
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I know it's no miracle of food composition, subtracting calories like some kind of steak fairy. It was all about appetite control, and when I was very overweight, it worked great. I lost over 50 pounds with it. But now I'm in the normal weight range, and when I did low carb for three weeks, I either maintained or actually gained instead of losing any of those ten vanity pounds (hard to tell if I gained or lost due to water weight loss).
That doesn't sound like failure to me. Yeah, you're not at the weight you think you should be at, but that doesn't mean you're not at the weight you should be. You said yourself that you're in the healthy range. That means that odds are, you won't be able to lose that weight easily if at all on any diet.
This is not a bad thing.
Instead, it would probably be better to ditch the goal weight altogether and instead look at body composition. What's your body fat percentage? Start incorporating some strength training and start working on building muscle and losing fat. The scale won't move, or may even go up some, but that's ok as long as your body fat goes down to a healthy level.
Also, low carb should not be treated as some fad diet, where you do it until you reach a certain weight, then go off of it. It should be a lifestyle change, as useful for maintaining weight as it is for losing weight. And besides, no diet is going to give you results in three weeks when you're talking "vanity pounds."0 -
Congrats on getting to a healthy weight!
as for staying low carb...you shouldn't! In fact everyone should be cycling the VLC diet plan in ensure that they remain in good mental health.
Like all diet plans where you cut one of the three macro nutrients out severely, it is detrimental. I'm all for low carb, as long as it is really a normal eating plan. VLC should only be done for 4 - 6 weeks at a time.0 -
as for your need to "give up, and become a vegitarian again" I have to say that is a bad Idea!
vegitarian diet plan is just that, another diet plan - you are cutting out allot of necessary macronutrients. Most importantly, complete proteins and the best source of B3 and all of your B vitamins.
I have been in maintence mode for a year. I have no problem with appetite. I do get cravings, but I follow them, listening to my body. If I am craving protein, then I eat a higher protein meal. If I am craving salt, I ensure that I eat a meal full of electrolyte rich, nutrient dense foods - like a reciepe that includes beef heart, green leafy veggies, and I up my mineral water intake.
Are you sure that your appetite control issue isn't really normal bodily cravings for minerals and vitamins?0 -
I know it's no miracle of food composition, subtracting calories like some kind of steak fairy. It was all about appetite control, and when I was very overweight, it worked great. I lost over 50 pounds with it. But now I'm in the normal weight range, and when I did low carb for three weeks, I either maintained or actually gained instead of losing any of those ten vanity pounds (hard to tell if I gained or lost due to water weight loss).
That doesn't sound like failure to me. Yeah, you're not at the weight you think you should be at, but that doesn't mean you're not at the weight you should be. You said yourself that you're in the healthy range. That means that odds are, you won't be able to lose that weight easily if at all on any diet.
This is not a bad thing.
Instead, it would probably be better to ditch the goal weight altogether and instead look at body composition. What's your body fat percentage? Start incorporating some strength training and start working on building muscle and losing fat. The scale won't move, or may even go up some, but that's ok as long as your body fat goes down to a healthy level.
Also, low carb should not be treated as some fad diet, where you do it until you reach a certain weight, then go off of it. It should be a lifestyle change, as useful for maintaining weight as it is for losing weight. And besides, no diet is going to give you results in three weeks when you're talking "vanity pounds."
^^ I concur^^0 -
Congrats on getting to a healthy weight!
as for staying low carb...you shouldn't! In fact everyone should be cycling the VLC diet plan in ensure that they remain in good mental health.
Like all diet plans where you cut one of the three macro nutrients out severely, it is detrimental. I'm all for low carb, as long as it is really a normal eating plan. VLC should only be done for 4 - 6 weeks at a time.
I think I'll go with Phinney and Volek's research on this instead. I've been doing very low carb for nearly 18 months. Being keto adapted feels great, and I'm the healthiest I've ever been. For those of us that are sensitive to carbs, we will likely always need to moderate our intake.0 -
Congrats on getting to a healthy weight!
as for staying low carb...you shouldn't! In fact everyone should be cycling the VLC diet plan in ensure that they remain in good mental health.
Like all diet plans where you cut one of the three macro nutrients out severely, it is detrimental. I'm all for low carb, as long as it is really a normal eating plan. VLC should only be done for 4 - 6 weeks at a time.
If you're going to state such claims as fact, it would be wise to cite the research to back them up. As it stands, the research points in quite the opposite direction, given things like the fact that the ketogenic diet was developed specifically for people suffering from seizures (in other words, ketogenic is arguably neurologically better for you), the evidence that suggests Alzheimer's is essentially another form of Diabetes, the prevalence of disorders that are mitigated, if not reversed entirely by reducing carbs, and the fact that the Inuit and other polar groups, when on their traditional diets, live on about 0-20g of carbs and have far fewer health problems than their Westernized counterparts.
Oh, and, from the below-linked NIH article:The ketogenic diet has been studied in an animal model of depression. Murphy et al. [52] used a testing paradigm called the Porsolt test (a forced choice model) to study the ketogenic diet. Their findings suggest that the ketogenic diet can result in behavioral changes similar to those seen after antidepressants are administered.
...
A growing body of literature suggests the ketogenic diet may be beneficial in certain neurodegenerative diseases, including Alzheimer disease, Parkinson’s disease, and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. In these disorders, the ketogenic diet appears to be neuroprotective, promoting enhanced mitochondrial function and rescuing adenosine triphosphate production.
http://discovermagazine.com/2004/oct/inuit-paradox
http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg22029453.400-are-alzheimers-and-diabetes-the-same-disease.html
http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/evolutionary-psychiatry/201104/your-brain-ketones
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2898565/0 -
I know it's no miracle of food composition, subtracting calories like some kind of steak fairy. It was all about appetite control, and when I was very overweight, it worked great. I lost over 50 pounds with it. But now I'm in the normal weight range, and when I did low carb for three weeks, I either maintained or actually gained instead of losing any of those ten vanity pounds (hard to tell if I gained or lost due to water weight loss).
That doesn't sound like failure to me. Yeah, you're not at the weight you think you should be at, but that doesn't mean you're not at the weight you should be. You said yourself that you're in the healthy range. That means that odds are, you won't be able to lose that weight easily if at all on any diet.
This is not a bad thing.
Instead, it would probably be better to ditch the goal weight altogether and instead look at body composition. What's your body fat percentage? Start incorporating some strength training and start working on building muscle and losing fat. The scale won't move, or may even go up some, but that's ok as long as your body fat goes down to a healthy level.
Also, low carb should not be treated as some fad diet, where you do it until you reach a certain weight, then go off of it. It should be a lifestyle change, as useful for maintaining weight as it is for losing weight. And besides, no diet is going to give you results in three weeks when you're talking "vanity pounds."
This makes way too much sense, even though I don't want to hear it. Normal weight range is still a range, and I am not happy with how I look at the higher end of it, so I'm certainly not stopping, but I guess it makes sense it will be more difficult. I don't think I helped my cause going back on and off low carb several times over the last year and gaining and losing the same 10 pounds over and over, either.
Still, if low carb isn't going to cut my hunger and cravings like it did before, I wonder why I should put up with the morning dragon breath, assuming I can find a group of foods that work as well and don't leave me with breath that kills at 20 paces. Which I'm not sure I have found yet. I've been having digestive issues with my current attempt even though, from all I've read, it's a very balanced diet.0 -
You can be eating low carb and still be eating at maintenance or higher. Decrease your intake or increase your activity. The amount you eat matters. I don't understand the dragon breath part. Good hygiene and hydration should be the answer to that.0
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You can be eating low carb and still be eating at maintenance or higher. Decrease your intake or increase your activity. The amount you eat matters. I don't understand the dragon breath part. Good hygiene and hydration should be the answer to that.
My keto breath in the morning before I brush my teeth is so lethal even I run away from it. Maybe not everyone has that issue.
Anyway, I'll give what I'm doing another week or so, but my belly doesn't seem too happy with this. I think it liked the meat based diet better.
Edit: I do know it's still calories in, calories out, but I'm always looking for the best way to curb cravings and hunger. I was frustrated when low carb didn't do the job this last time.0 -
Maybe you need more fat to help with hunger.
Meat based diet? Sounds good to me......good luck and let us know how it goes and what changes you make!0 -
Maybe you need more fat to help with hunger.
Meat based diet? Sounds good to me......good luck and let us know how it goes and what changes you make!
It's a good suggestion, but I was happily eating fatty cuts of meat with the fat still on it and coconut oil, too. The more I think about this, the more I realize I was just getting discouraged too easily by expecting it to be too easy.
Still, it can't hurt to try a higher fiber, more roughage based diet for a few weeks and see if my stomach settles in. I've been avoiding my veggies since childhood, except for onions and whatever comes in a spice rack, so why not give it a real go? I was vegetarian for awhile but I ate all the crappy processed fake hamburger and fake chicken patties plus lots and lots of candy and soda, so I never did give it a real try. This time before I call it quits I'm determined to stick it out a bit longer. If my belly decides it really does hate these foods, at least I'll know I gave it a good try and I can go back to being mostly carnivorous.0 -
While I've never done Keto, the dragon breath is a pretty commonly discussed side effect. Heck, they call it keto breath.You can be eating low carb and still be eating at maintenance or higher. Decrease your intake or increase your activity. The amount you eat matters. I don't understand the dragon breath part. Good hygiene and hydration should be the answer to that.0
