Ketogenic-low carb diet??

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Replies

  • ndj1979
    ndj1979 Posts: 29,139 Member
    does anyone else think that a diet that gives you a 'flu' is a good thing? I never understood why people want to torture themselves to lose weight when you can just eat in a calorie deficit and work out/move more….

    No, it's clear you don't understand the low carb diet, but that's OK as it doesn't suit you. So why not leave people that want to do it or discuss it alone ?

    People switching to low carb diets do eat less voluntarily, even when told to eat "ad lib". This has been documented countless times. The short term adaptation from a high carb diet to low carb does flush a lot of water and sodium out of your system, giving a temporary effect that is well known and easily avoided or mediated by eating more salt.

    "Working out" to many is a perverse activity that sounds more like torture than eating good quality food. The evidence that "moving more" is a viable weight loss technique is thin on the ground. As you would probably say "are you going to keep that up for the rest of your life ?" (not that you need to, because successful weight loss is an activity of limited duration).

    so the person that sits on the couch all day is equal to the person that goes out and walks the dog for 20 minutes a day - aka move more?
  • ndj1979
    ndj1979 Posts: 29,139 Member
    I've done low carb/Atkins-ish for awhile and it really is what I can stick to for a long amount of time. For some reason I don't binge eat like I do when I don't eat low carb. I've tried low cal and its very difficult for me to stick with it. You may experience the "low carb flu" so don't let that stop you if it's something you seriously want to try to see if it's something for you to get to your goals. I actually have the opposite, when I eat low carb I have more energy and alertness almost right away.

    Good luck! You may want to find a low carb or keto group on MFP that you can join. You also may want to find some ketone strips. (I didn't use them my first round of low carb and had a lot of success but I use them now just to see where I'm at and if I need to cut my sugar/carb intake or if I knocked myself out of ketosis)

    does anyone else think that a diet that gives you a 'flu' is a good thing? I never understood why people want to torture themselves to lose weight when you can just eat in a calorie deficit and work out/move more….
    I suggest you do some reading about what the "low carb flu" is. For some people eating low calorie is torture. If it works for some people great. It doesn't work for everyone. Everyone knows that eating less and working out will get you to lose weight, but its a whole other thing to actually do it.
    Do what works for you. She will do what works for her. If she tries low carb but it doesn't seem to help her cut her calories then she can try harder to limit her cals overall. I will continue to do what works for me. I'm not torturing myself.

    right. so restricting whole food groups is easy, but eating in a moderate 500 per day calorie deficit is hard….sounds legit...
    Seriously? If it was so "easy" and "legit" how do you think people gain weight in the first place? To each their own. Which seems to be a very difficult concept for you to grasp.

    people gain weight for a number of reasons …Eating in a surplus, emotional eaters, just plain old lazy, don't care about what they eat, don't count calories etc…..

    Once you realize that you have come to a point where you have OVEREATEN yourself to obesity and realize that you have to make changes is when you are ready to start making sustainable long term changes. All I am saying is that once you reach that point what sounds easier to you:

    Option 1 - Restrica almost all carbs to the point where you have a "carb flu" and then continue to eat like 10% carbs for the rest of your life and label said food as "bad"…then get a urine stick so that you can check your pee to make sure you are in "ketosis"…


    OR


    Option 2 - Create a 500 calorie daily deficit, hit macros, and work out more more and eat 80% healthy and 20% whatever you want (pizza, ice cream, bread, etc)…

    Whatever you choose is fine with me..I am just saying that I have been doing option 2 for six years now and have had great success with it...

    Well seeing how option 1 isn't how I live my life and not an accurate way of how people live their how lives maintaining their weight on low carb, I see how someone would pick option 2. I actually did low carb for a number of months and once I was getting to my goal I just watched what I ate overall and stayed within 5 pounds of my lowest weight. The carb flu doesn't happen for everyone. It's also temporary so try to be a little more accurate on what keto/low carb diets are like for those who actually stick to it.
    You might as well say "Just eat less cinnamon buns" to the OP. Which I'm assuming she already knows and why she is on MFP, however doing that is VERY difficult to her to actually do. The will power to stop after 1 or to only eat the portion for her to stay within her allotted calories may not be enough for her.

    so you are saying that someone would have the will power to restrict carbs, but that same person would not have the will power to reduce calories to a modest deficit? Really?
  • parkscs
    parkscs Posts: 1,639 Member
    Come on yarwell, stop using logic. It wouldn't be the MFP forums if a shirtless bro didn't come into every diet thread spam posting "HAY BRO YOU COULD BE DOING IIFYM!?" As for doing a keto diet on MFP and "using it as it's intended", I suppose DamePiglet is also against ever changing your preset macros that MFP sets for you. Too bad, since the preset macros aren't great for most people, but I suppose that's how it was intended for use, so we can't change that.

    Putting sarcasm aside, a low carb diet simply comes down to adjusting your macros so that you have moderate protein based on LBM, low carbs, and then whatever caloric deficit you're aiming for. You still weigh and log your food, you still watch calories - you just have a low carb macro. There's no "skills" you aren't learning that IIFYM bros are, you won't be eating pine cones in the yard :laugh: and there's no reason you have to do it forever. Actually, some plans like the one designed by Dr. Atkins have you slowly reintroduce carbohydrates into your diet, week by week, until you find the ideal level for you.

    Transitioning to a higher carb intake is simply a matter of tweaking your macros. In short, questions such as will you do it forever?" are really a red herring. Will the person asking you that question eat the same calories and same macros FOREVER? Of course not. There's simply a lot of misinformation and misunderstanding about these diets, especially on forums like MFP, but they can be a useful tool when losing fat.
  • p4ulmiller
    p4ulmiller Posts: 588 Member
    And your cholesterol may improve on a ketogenic diet. Mine did

    And mine improved without a low-carb diet. It's simply a function of losing weight, no matter how you make your calorie deficit.
  • Mr_Knight
    Mr_Knight Posts: 9,532 Member
    That is where your body goes into your sugar/fat reserves and starts burning it off rather than using it as it comes in and storing the rest.

    Complete and utter nonsense.

    Your body will burn fat reserves anytime it is in a caloric deficit. If you are in keto and eating at a surplus, you will gain fat. If you are not in keto but eating at a deficit, you will burn fat.
  • Rosyone
    Rosyone Posts: 74 Member

    so you are saying that someone would have the will power to restrict carbs, but that same person would not have the will power to reduce calories to a modest deficit? Really?

    I do both in turn. A couple of weeks of South Beach phase 1 will break the sugar craving/binge cycle and reduce the risk that I'll get up in the middle of the night to bake brownies. Then I can ease into a modest deficit with confidence that I'll be able to stick to it.
  • JaceyMarieS
    JaceyMarieS Posts: 692 Member
    Come on yarwell, stop using logic. It wouldn't be the MFP forums if a shirtless bro didn't come into every diet thread spam posting "HAY BRO YOU COULD BE DOING IIFYM!?" As for doing a keto diet on MFP and "using it as it's intended", I suppose DamePiglet is also against ever changing your preset macros that MFP sets for you. Too bad, since the preset macros aren't great for most people, but I suppose that's how it was intended for use, so we can't change that.

    Putting sarcasm aside, a low carb diet simply comes down to adjusting your macros so that you have moderate protein based on LBM, low carbs, and then whatever caloric deficit you're aiming for. You still weigh and log your food, you still watch calories - you just have a low carb macro. There's no "skills" you aren't learning that IIFYM bros are, you won't be eating pine cones in the yard :laugh: and there's no reason you have to do it forever. Actually, some plans like the one designed by Dr. Atkins have you slowly reintroduce carbohydrates into your diet, week by week, until you find the ideal level for you.

    Transitioning to a higher carb intake is simply a matter of tweaking your macros. In short, questions such as will you do it forever?" are really a red herring. Will the person asking you that question eat the same calories and same macros FOREVER? Of course not. There's simply a lot of misinformation and misunderstanding about these diets, especially on forums like MFP, but they can be a useful tool when losing fat.

    *clapping* . Isn't the operative word in IIFYM, YOUR macros? For MY optimal health, macros just happen to be 60% fat, 30% protein and 10% carb, so yeah, I do in fact eat anything that fits within those macros
  • parkscs
    parkscs Posts: 1,639 Member
    That is where your body goes into your sugar/fat reserves and starts burning it off rather than using it as it comes in and storing the rest.

    Complete and utter nonsense.

    Your body will burn fat reserves anytime it is in a caloric deficit. If you are in keto and eating at a surplus, you will gain fat. If you are not in keto but eating at a deficit, you will burn fat.

    There's some truth behind it but it's not like a nutritional ketosis is mandatory to burn fat. A true caloric deficit will achieve that regardless of your macros.

    The more obvious advantage of this type of diet is that the food is very satiating, allowing many people to achieve a caloric deficit without even tracking their food, and allows those who track their food to run a fairly aggressive caloric deficit while being quite satiated. If you can do the same thing with more balanced macros, you may not want to such a restrictive plan.
  • ndj1979
    ndj1979 Posts: 29,139 Member
    Come on yarwell, stop using logic. It wouldn't be the MFP forums if a shirtless bro didn't come into every diet thread spam posting "HAY BRO YOU COULD BE DOING IIFYM!?" As for doing a keto diet on MFP and "using it as it's intended", I suppose DamePiglet is also against ever changing your preset macros that MFP sets for you. Too bad, since the preset macros aren't great for most people, but I suppose that's how it was intended for use, so we can't change that.

    Putting sarcasm aside, a low carb diet simply comes down to adjusting your macros so that you have moderate protein based on LBM, low carbs, and then whatever caloric deficit you're aiming for. You still weigh and log your food, you still watch calories - you just have a low carb macro. There's no "skills" you aren't learning that IIFYM bros are, you won't be eating pine cones in the yard :laugh: and there's no reason you have to do it forever. Actually, some plans like the one designed by Dr. Atkins have you slowly reintroduce carbohydrates into your diet, week by week, until you find the ideal level for you.

    Transitioning to a higher carb intake is simply a matter of tweaking your macros. In short, questions such as will you do it forever?" are really a red herring. Will the person asking you that question eat the same calories and same macros FOREVER? Of course not. There's simply a lot of misinformation and misunderstanding about these diets, especially on forums like MFP, but they can be a useful tool when losing fat.

    thanks for the stereotype...I guess that is an easy way to just brush aside people who have had success and are trying to help other people, and provide them with a balanced approach.

    My point is that it is much simpler to create a calorie deficit, hit your macros, and enjoy the foods you like; rather, then restrict food groups and label them bad, evil whatever...

    If that makes me a "shirtless bro" then sure whatever. I will have the decency and respect to not comment on your profile pic...
  • DamePiglet
    DamePiglet Posts: 3,730 Member
    I've done low carb/Atkins-ish for awhile and it really is what I can stick to for a long amount of time. For some reason I don't binge eat like I do when I don't eat low carb. I've tried low cal and its very difficult for me to stick with it. You may experience the "low carb flu" so don't let that stop you if it's something you seriously want to try to see if it's something for you to get to your goals. I actually have the opposite, when I eat low carb I have more energy and alertness almost right away.

    Good luck! You may want to find a low carb or keto group on MFP that you can join. You also may want to find some ketone strips. (I didn't use them my first round of low carb and had a lot of success but I use them now just to see where I'm at and if I need to cut my sugar/carb intake or if I knocked myself out of ketosis)

    does anyone else think that a diet that gives you a 'flu' is a good thing? I never understood why people want to torture themselves to lose weight when you can just eat in a calorie deficit and work out/move more….
    I suggest you do some reading about what the "low carb flu" is. For some people eating low calorie is torture. If it works for some people great. It doesn't work for everyone. Everyone knows that eating less and working out will get you to lose weight, but its a whole other thing to actually do it.
    Do what works for you. She will do what works for her. If she tries low carb but it doesn't seem to help her cut her calories then she can try harder to limit her cals overall. I will continue to do what works for me. I'm not torturing myself.

    right. so restricting whole food groups is easy, but eating in a moderate 500 per day calorie deficit is hard….sounds legit...
    Seriously? If it was so "easy" and "legit" how do you think people gain weight in the first place? To each their own. Which seems to be a very difficult concept for you to grasp.

    People who use MFP correctly only gain weight if they want to.
    Right and for some people to use it correctly, it means using low carb to not exceed their limits.

    Barring special health concerns, people can consume MFP default values and lose weight.
    Demonizing a food group is doing it wrong.
  • DamePiglet
    DamePiglet Posts: 3,730 Member
    Ok wow. Some good points raised...I ask myself, can I cut out sugar and bread for the rest of my life? no :ohwell:

    BUT - I can cut them down :happy:

    Youre right, Damepiglet, Im here, it works - why over complicate it? LOL

    Thanks again,

    Sarah

    I'm so glad I could help. :flowerforyou:
  • Mr_Knight
    Mr_Knight Posts: 9,532 Member
    The more obvious advantage of this type of diet is that the food is very satiating, allowing many people to achieve a caloric deficit without even tracking their food...

    Paleo/Primal/keto forms are stuffed full of people who thought the same and consequently overate and gained weight because they were stuffing their faces with bacon and dropping sticks of butter in their mugs to make "bulletproof" coffee.

    Across the population as a whole, there is no demonstrable "satiety" advantage to keto over any well-balanced macro ratio.

    Individual experiences may vary - if it works for someone, it works for someone and I don't begrudge them whatever diet they want to eat. But to extrapolate that to people in general is just plain wrong and leads a lot of people down the path to perdition.
  • Scubanana7
    Scubanana7 Posts: 361 Member
    I am no expert either. I am diabetic. In 4 months on LCHF I cut my metformin In half, achieved great blood pressure and dropped 40 points in cholesterol. I was most surprised and thrilled about the cholesterol. However, I did not eat very much animal fats but I did eat 60-80% fat (cheese, sour cream, butter, mayo, eggs, coconut oil, olive oil, olives, avocado, nuts/seeds). I sure enjoyed the full-fat versions of my dairy too! I also lost about 35 pounds doing that.

    To each his own, but just cutting calories does not seem to work well for this almost 60-year old grandma with Type II.

    Good luck.
  • parkscs
    parkscs Posts: 1,639 Member
    thanks for the stereotype...I guess that is an easy way to just brush aside people who have had success and are trying to help other people, and provide them with a balanced approach.

    My point is that it is much simpler to create a calorie deficit, hit your macros, and enjoy the foods you like; rather, then restrict food groups and label them bad, evil whatever...

    If that makes me a "shirtless bro" then sure whatever. I will have the decency and respect to not comment on your profile pic...

    It's one thing to offer advice. It's another to repeatedly post about doing IIFYM every time someone asks about a low carb diet and to argue with people when they say a low carb diet helped them achieve a caloric deficit. For that matter, I don't know how it's helpful to tell people they shouldn't try such a diet to see if it works for them. Rather than just talking about IIFYM and bashing their choice, why not (correctly) encourage them to weigh and log their food while doing their low carb diet, so that they learn the skills you keep referring to that are necessary for long-term success?

    Anyways, no disrespect meant, was just poking fun.
  • parkscs
    parkscs Posts: 1,639 Member
    The more obvious advantage of this type of diet is that the food is very satiating, allowing many people to achieve a caloric deficit without even tracking their food...

    Paleo/Primal/keto forms are stuffed full of people who thought the same and consequently overate and gained weight because they were stuffing their faces with bacon and dropping sticks of butter in their mugs to make "bulletproof" coffee.

    Across the population as a whole, there is no demonstrable "satiety" advantage to keto over any well-balanced macro ratio.

    Individual experiences may vary - if it works for someone, it works for someone and I don't begrudge them whatever diet they want to eat. But to extrapolate that to people in general is just plain wrong and leads a lot of people down the path to perdition.

    I think it's actually a pretty common occurrence if you frequent keto circles that people can easily drop weight, at least for a while, simply due to the satiety of the foods they're eating. It's anecdotal, but I can't even think of a single time I've seen a "help I'm so hungry!" post on forums like /r/keto or /r/ketogains, while I see such posts on here daily. I also see people running much more aggressive caloric deficits successfully on such diets. You can dismiss it if you want, but I'd say there's a clear link between how satiated you feel on a LC diet relative to, say, MFP's default macros.
  • DamePiglet
    DamePiglet Posts: 3,730 Member
    thanks for the stereotype...I guess that is an easy way to just brush aside people who have had success and are trying to help other people, and provide them with a balanced approach.

    My point is that it is much simpler to create a calorie deficit, hit your macros, and enjoy the foods you like; rather, then restrict food groups and label them bad, evil whatever...

    If that makes me a "shirtless bro" then sure whatever. I will have the decency and respect to not comment on your profile pic...

    It's one thing to offer advice. It's another to repeatedly post about doing IIFYM every time someone asks about a low carb diet and to argue with people when they say a low carb diet helped them achieve a caloric deficit. For that matter, I don't know how it's helpful to tell people they shouldn't try such a diet to see if it works for them. Rather than just talking about IIFYM and bashing their choice, why not (correctly) encourage them to weigh and log their food while doing their low carb diet, so that they learn the skills you keep referring to that are necessary for long-term success?

    Anyways, no disrespect meant, was just poking fun.

    Could be because MFP is based around IIFYM. Have you visited the home page? You might want to.

    Kind of like going to an ice cream parlor for a glass of water, but whatever.
  • parkscs
    parkscs Posts: 1,639 Member
    Could be because MFP is based around IIFYM. Have you visited the home page? You might want to.

    What is a low carb diet but for a diet where the carb macro is low? :wink: In any event, the OP just needs to find what works best for her in terms of macros. Low carbs diets aren't magical and if they help you achieve a caloric deficit, consistently, then they're a good fit. If not, why restrict yourself needlessly?

    And I do apologize if I came across as snarky in my earlier posts... I should wait until after I have my coffee to post on the forums. :smile:
  • this is all I have for you ..Keto, Low Carb, IF, etc are not some magical diets that burn through fat….all they are is tools to create a calorie deficit..

    You can accomplish the same thing with a calorie deficit, hitting macro targets, and working out. Sugar is not making you fat. Eating caloric surplus is. I just think it is not a good idea to label certain foods "bad" and then entirely restrict them.

    Ask yourself this. Are you going to eat just about zero carbs/sugar for the rest of your life? I highly doubt it, but I could be wrong...

    ^^^ THIS. This dude knows what he's talking about. Diets are for suckers. Develop lifelong sustainable and enjoyable habits and F the fad diets.
  • ladymiseryali
    ladymiseryali Posts: 2,555 Member
    this is all I have for you ..Keto, Low Carb, IF, etc are not some magical diets that burn through fat….all they are is tools to create a calorie deficit..

    You can accomplish the same thing with a calorie deficit, hitting macro targets, and working out. Sugar is not making you fat. Eating caloric surplus is. I just think it is not a good idea to label certain foods "bad" and then entirely restrict them.

    Ask yourself this. Are you going to eat just about zero carbs/sugar for the rest of your life? I highly doubt it, but I could be wrong...

    ^^^ THIS. This dude knows what he's talking about. Diets are for suckers. Develop lifelong sustainable and enjoyable habits and F the fad diets.

    My eating plan isn't a "diet" or a "fad diet". I do plan to eat low carb for life, with a few cheat meals here and there to shake things up. I'm really getting sick of the keto-bashers on here. NO ONE is forcing any of you to eat keto/paleo/etc, so why come in EVERY thread about low carb and spout your talking points? It's getting bloody ridiculous!
  • Sunka1
    Sunka1 Posts: 217 Member
    I've done low carb/Atkins-ish for awhile and it really is what I can stick to for a long amount of time. For some reason I don't binge eat like I do when I don't eat low carb. I've tried low cal and its very difficult for me to stick with it. You may experience the "low carb flu" so don't let that stop you if it's something you seriously want to try to see if it's something for you to get to your goals. I actually have the opposite, when I eat low carb I have more energy and alertness almost right away.

    Good luck! You may want to find a low carb or keto group on MFP that you can join. You also may want to find some ketone strips. (I didn't use them my first round of low carb and had a lot of success but I use them now just to see where I'm at and if I need to cut my sugar/carb intake or if I knocked myself out of ketosis)

    does anyone else think that a diet that gives you a 'flu' is a good thing? I never understood why people want to torture themselves to lose weight when you can just eat in a calorie deficit and work out/move more….
    I suggest you do some reading about what the "low carb flu" is. For some people eating low calorie is torture. If it works for some people great. It doesn't work for everyone. Everyone knows that eating less and working out will get you to lose weight, but its a whole other thing to actually do it.
    Do what works for you. She will do what works for her. If she tries low carb but it doesn't seem to help her cut her calories then she can try harder to limit her cals overall. I will continue to do what works for me. I'm not torturing myself.

    right. so restricting whole food groups is easy, but eating in a moderate 500 per day calorie deficit is hard….sounds legit...
    Seriously? If it was so "easy" and "legit" how do you think people gain weight in the first place? To each their own. Which seems to be a very difficult concept for you to grasp.

    people gain weight for a number of reasons …Eating in a surplus, emotional eaters, just plain old lazy, don't care about what they eat, don't count calories etc…..

    Once you realize that you have come to a point where you have OVEREATEN yourself to obesity and realize that you have to make changes is when you are ready to start making sustainable long term changes. All I am saying is that once you reach that point what sounds easier to you:

    Option 1 - Restrica almost all carbs to the point where you have a "carb flu" and then continue to eat like 10% carbs for the rest of your life and label said food as "bad"…then get a urine stick so that you can check your pee to make sure you are in "ketosis"…


    OR


    Option 2 - Create a 500 calorie daily deficit, hit macros, and work out more more and eat 80% healthy and 20% whatever you want (pizza, ice cream, bread, etc)…

    Whatever you choose is fine with me..I am just saying that I have been doing option 2 for six years now and have had great success with it...

    Option 1 for sure. But not for everyone.