Low carb support & friends!

Hey there,

It's nice to see a fellow low-carber! First of all I would recommend buying 'Escape the Diet Trap by Dr John Briffa', it's pretty cheap on amazon. It explains just why low-carb is so good and it goes in to quite a lot of detail with regards to scientific research papers and refutes some of the commonly held myths surrounding weight loss advice that's perpetuated by the media and even doctors.

I've just finished reading it and it's reinforced the idea of low-carb to me. But even before I read that book, I was looking around online and read about low-carb so gave it a try and i've lost over a stone in a month (i've never stuck to a diet this long or lost that much weight in one go)

I'm not a expert on recipes and as a student who's never done much cooking I probably wouldn't want to dish out recipes in fear of food poisoning or something haha!

But i'll impart some of the most essential tips that are helping me:
1. Water is amazing - I have a pretty bad sweet tooth so it's been hard to cut out all the fizzy drinks but I can definitely feel the difference and water appears to sate my appetite most of the time
2. Cut out all bread, rice, pasta and potatoes - no matter how healthy it appears, carbs are pretty useless in these forms
3. Pile up the vegetables - have a look round to see which vegetables are low carb, I love carrots but theyr'e quite high in carbs
4. Load up on protein - I've invested in protein shakes because my timetable is pretty hectic as a medical student and it's hard to prepare nice fancy meals sometimes so having protein shakes is an ideal way to avoid carbs, load up on protein and fill myself up to avoid unnecessary snacking. As long as you're not vegetarian, eat all the meat you can find haha! (and if you read the book i suggested, it should alleviate any fears you might have on some of the things the media portrays about red meat eating!)
5. Snacking - this has been one of the hardest to get my head round because i'm a sweetaholic (i could easily devour a big bag of skittles mindlessly and not even realise.. and then open up a second bag ) So that's been hard to give up and it gets harder when you realise that fruit is carb loaded too and so in the early stages of low carb it's quite useful to even lower intake of fruit (sounds crazy right??) but try to load up on protein rich snacks like nuts or jerky or raw carrots, just try and avoid crisps and biscuits

There's a lot more to low-carb than that but I just thought i'd reply to you to tell you that low-carb does work and give some of my advice.

Feel free to add me and ask me any more questions you might have!

Andy

I have lost 50 lbs over the last year, I have another 70 I'd like to lose. Mostly I just cut out a lot of carbs and junk food. It's not easy I'm a carboholic , bread and potatoes serious down fall. I had someone turn me on to mashed cauliflower if I throw some garlic and other seasonings in I can make myself believe I'm getting my carb fix. vanilla Greek yogurt, fresh blueberries and strawberries cure my sweet tooth. I think it's true what they say, you don't crave it as much after you start cutting it out, but I need to keep it out of the house, because if I buy it, I will eat it!

I am also trying to keep my carbs below 50 having a bit of a problem, not from starches but from veggies...I have lost 30 pounds since March so it does work..Please feel free to add me as a friend.

What diet are you doing? Atkins, keto or generally low carb. Im doing atkins, and its going well so far. Have been at it for six week now. Feel free to add me.

Hello, I also am new to this board and low carb dieting. I lost three pounds the first week and am plenty happy! What is the maximum carbs allow to keep up the weight loss? One site suggested 12-15 grams, but I've found that impossible. Shooting for 25-30 grams unless someone has other ideas. Also on MFP should I change the calorie max or should I watch those as well?

For most, 20 net carbs is the magic number, but for others, it can be 50 net carbs. There is no set number really. It just depends on your body. Mine works best when under 30, but I aim for 20 or less.

Hi. I'm low-carb as well, actually LCHF/keto. I generally aim to keep my carbs below 15g a day, which is pretty hardcore I guess. If anyone wants to add me, please do