How have I only just realised how great low-carb is?!

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  • bostonwolf
    bostonwolf Posts: 3,038 Member
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    I have been dieting and detoxing and praying and starving and binge eating for about 8 years now.. And I have just come to the realisation that low-carb is absolutely heaven-sent. I don't know why I have over-looked this so much in the past! I can eat MAYONNAISE! What diet lets you eat mayonnaise? It started off as Paleo but I found it was way too expensive for me, and it seemed crazy trying to buy separate food for me and my daughter. I have saved £13 this week on groceries by going low-carb, and I have lost 2.3 KG / 5.07 LBS in just one week! Okay I know most of that is water but seriously I'm on such a high! I even ate Doritos and still managed to lose weight. I'm eating between 40-50g of carbs a day just to lose weight, and then when I hit my target, I can up that to 150g for maintenance, which is a ton of food. I can mix my diet up so much too with this which is what I like about it. I am eating tons of meat, vegetables, fruits, high-fat dairy etc. and the best part is I can "cheat" and not put on weight, I'm even baking a caramel chocolate cake with low-carbs! Who couldn't love this lifestyle?!

    Just wanted to show my low-carb appreciation!! (Also I'm looking for new friends please, I didn't log on for a really long time and I seem to lost most of mine :sad: )

    Good for you, and I would say this. Paleo is not a diet, per say. It's a life style/way of eating. I think you have the right idea. The 40-50g range is ideal for burning fat, but that part can be tough to stick to. Don't kill yourself if you ramp up to 150 or even 200g in a day (especially if you work out that day, you need the extra carbs in that case.)

    Keep up the good work!
  • radmack
    radmack Posts: 272 Member
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    By the way, I don't see how CICO (calories in, calories out) invalidates a low carb approach, as the way I see it low carb is simply a good way to maintain a calorie deficit as most peoples calorie intakes will drop by cutting out a decent portion of carbs, most of which are filler foods anyway in my opinion (added sugar, bread, and also grains to an extent).

    I think this is true.
  • SweatpantsRebellion
    SweatpantsRebellion Posts: 754 Member
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    "CICO" is a mind-numbingly trivial observation. Losing weight is about HOW you as an individual can actually get to expending more calories than you take in and if low-carb is how you can do it, then that's fantastic.

    So trivial, and yet it works too.

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    You've lost a bit of weight and given your allegiance to CICO, I would guess that's what worked for you. Please don't assume that everyone else's body responds to CICO the way yours does. There are quite a few of us who did CICO religiously and accurately (along with a proper amount of exercise) for years with little to no success. We experienced the level of success you have when switching from a CICO mindset to a low carb mindset.

    I am sold on low carb, not as a fad diet, but as a way of life for me now. Not just for weight loss. My hormones balanced after starting a ketogenic diet (low carb), my blood sugar stabilized, and I was able to lose weight. CICO will NOT work for someone whose hormones and blood sugar levels are out of whack for whatever reason.

    Are there people who use low carb as a fad diet, meaning it's something they do short term, give up, start binging, and regain? Yes. I'm sure there are...just as there are people who go by CICO and have the same pattern. That certainly doesn't make CICO a fad diet.

    What works for one person isn't necessarily going to work for another.
  • skittle316
    skittle316 Posts: 128 Member
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    I've had so much success with low carb, it's honestly a permanent lifestyle for me. Though I plan on doing Keto and Paleo put together. Basically 50g of carbs a day, no dairy but I can eat processed low carb foods (Mayo and salad dressing :]) until i learn to make my own. I'm so happy with how far i've gotten, and slowly starting to truly love my body. All I need is 3-5 months and I swear i'll be at my goal body/weight.
  • skittle316
    skittle316 Posts: 128 Member
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    So you keep trying fad diets and failing until you find a new fad diet to try?
    Low carb is not a fad. Was that your point?
    Haters gonna hate.
  • TheSatinPumpkin
    TheSatinPumpkin Posts: 948 Member
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    OP - Congrats on your progress.

    Been doing DANDR for almost a year its working for me.
  • SweatpantsRebellion
    SweatpantsRebellion Posts: 754 Member
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    OP - Congrats on your progress.

    Been doing DANDR for almost a year its working for me.

    What is DANDR?
  • Sabine_Stroehm
    Sabine_Stroehm Posts: 19,263 Member
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    OP - Congrats on your progress.

    Been doing DANDR for almost a year its working for me.

    What is DANDR?
    I'm gonna guess: Dr Atkins New Diet Revolution?
  • LivingDonna
    LivingDonna Posts: 5 Member
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    Hi I started Low-Carbing a week ago and have lost the 7lbs of water weight. I really enjoy this diet, I feel energised all of the time, everything seems clearer and my body feels leaner already. I have 50lbs to loose in total. One thing that I anticipate that I will struggle with is keeping my meals interesting, as I only eat fish, seafood, eggs and cheese. I tried eating chicken, but I really do not enjoy meat. If you have any recipes, especially for lunches, please share.:happy:
  • SweatpantsRebellion
    SweatpantsRebellion Posts: 754 Member
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    Hi I started Low-Carbing a week ago and have lost the 7lbs of water weight. I really enjoy this diet, I feel energised all of the time, everything seems clearer and my body feels leaner already. I have 50lbs to loose in total. One thing that I anticipate that I will struggle with is keeping my meals interesting, as I only eat fish, seafood, eggs and cheese. I tried eating chicken, but I really do not enjoy meat. If you have any recipes, especially for lunches, please share.:happy:

    If you're on facebook, look up groups for Low Carb High Fat. Also, there are a ton of blogs out there with great recipes.

    www.mariamindbodyhealth.com
    http://alldayidreamaboutfood.com/category/low-carb

    There's a LOT more, just can't think of them off of the top of my head. One thing I've done is google some of my favorite foods, but just stick low carb in front and see what kind of recipes I come up with. There are low carb alternatives for pretty much anything you'd want!

    Are you a bread person? There's even low carb alternatives out there for breads, pancakes, waffles, you name it.

    It may be a bit more challenging to keep it interesting with fish and seafood, but I still think it's feasible.
  • TheSatinPumpkin
    TheSatinPumpkin Posts: 948 Member
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    Yes it is. Sorry for the delayed response.
    OP - Congrats on your progress.

    Been doing DANDR for almost a year its working for me.

    What is DANDR?
    I'm gonna guess: Dr Atkins New Diet Revolution?
  • LivingDonna
    LivingDonna Posts: 5 Member
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    Thank you those are great suggestions, I especially like the one about putting low carb in front of your recipe name search.
  • hollymodified
    hollymodified Posts: 6 Member
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    I completely agree with you! I started a low carb/healthy fats/CICO lifestyle three weeks ago, and I am in love with it. For the first time in my life, after all the many many diets and fad diets I have attempted, I am loving this one. I don't feel deprived or hungry. I still enjoy treats once or twice a week by having a reward meal, usually on the weekend, for obvious reasons. I don't count carbs, I just eat most of my carbs from fruit and veggies. And I managed to lose 16 lbs in 3 weeks (I have not logged 3 of those pounds in MFP, yet). I'm feeling so much better. The first two weeks were the hardest as I was detoxing from sugar and carbs. But now I have almost zero sugar/carb cravings.

    What saddens me is how many unsupportive MFP people there are on here. We are all on the same journey, to get healthier. And discouraging one another isn't ok. You can offer opinions in positive ways, without putting one another down. We all want to succeed, and we are here to get support. This journey is a tough one for all of us, in different ways, and by being discouraging to one another defeats the purpose of this forum. Please be kind to one another.
  • ES110791
    ES110791 Posts: 43 Member
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    I've no doubt that you lose weight on a low carb diet and the appeal is that you lose quickly and that's exciting. But, I would love some testimonials of people who have had LONG TERM results on this diet/lifestyle. I personally know a lot of people who yoyo on this diet. The key to long term success is that the diet or lifestyle is something you can maintain forever, and for most people eating low carb, or restricting any macronutrient, is not maintainable. Yeah it's great for losing weight quickly, but when you inevitably go back to carbs you gain lots of weight back (mostly water) really quickly. I've noticed that with real life friends. Isn't it better and more maintainable just to eat a balanced calorie deficit and change your lifestyle to eating whole, unprocessed, healthy food? You're more likely to keep the weight if it's an overall lifestyle change and not a diet.

    I love carbs have no intention of cutting them in the near future because I do a lot of long distance running. I do wonder though whether it might be effective for long term weightloss maybe in the future.
  • parkscs
    parkscs Posts: 1,639 Member
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    I've no doubt that you lose weight on a low carb diet and the appeal is that you lose quickly and that's exciting. But, I would love some testimonials of people who have had LONG TERM results on this diet/lifestyle. I personally know a lot of people who yoyo on this diet. The key to long term success is that the diet or lifestyle is something you can maintain forever, and for most people eating low carb, or restricting any macronutrient, is not maintainable. Yeah it's great for losing weight quickly, but when you inevitably go back to carbs you gain lots of weight back (mostly water) really quickly. I've noticed that with real life friends. Isn't it better and more maintainable just to eat a balanced calorie deficit and change your lifestyle to eating whole, unprocessed, healthy food? You're more likely to keep the weight if it's an overall lifestyle change and not a diet.

    Why do people keep repeating this nonsense? The way you lose weight has no bearing whatsoever on your long term results (provided you take steps to preserve LBM, which applies to any way of losing weight). You do NOT have to follow the same macros until the day you die if you want to keep the weight off. When someone says "I want to do IIFYM," do you tell them to choose their macronutrient composition very carefully because they have to maintain that exact macronutrient ratio until the end of their life if they want even a prayer of long term success? There's absolutely no reason people can't transition from a low carb diet to a higher carb diet at some point in the future, and people you might have known that yo-yo'd in the past would have done the same regardless of how they lost the weight.

    Calling it a lifestyle change and saying you'll do it forever might make people feel warm and fuzzy inside, but it honestly won't prevent you from regaining the weight tomorrow. It doesn't matter what macronutrients you ate yesterday or what label you want to slap on your way of eating/exercising. The only way to have long term success is to wake up every day and focus on doing the right thing on that day. That's it. It doesn't matter if you do low carb, NEAT, TDEE, vegan or whatever else you do to lose weight. People should stop trying to control the future - because you can't - and focus instead on trying to find a way to lose weight that works for them and that they enjoy.
  • ES110791
    ES110791 Posts: 43 Member
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    That's all very true but the point is that people go on a diet that they can only maintain for the short term and then eventually revert back to their old habits (and gain the weight back) because they haven't actually changed their lifestyle and only know how to eat in a way that is either not maintainable or the way they used to.

    Especially when people do low carb in the way where they go too far and eat too few carbs which can to reactive eating because glucose is your main source of energy. And most of the immediate weightloss you see is water weight anyway.
  • parkscs
    parkscs Posts: 1,639 Member
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    That's all very true but the point is that people go on a diet that they can only maintain for the short term and then eventually revert back to their old habits (and gain the weight back) because they haven't actually changed their lifestyle and only know how to eat in a way that is either not maintainable or the way they used to.

    Especially when people do low carb in the way where they go too far and eat too few carbs which can to reactive eating because glucose is your main source of energy. And most of the immediate weightloss you see is water weight anyway.

    No clue what reactive eating is and glucose is no longer your main source of energy when carbs are kept very low. Yes, you lose some water weight but that's neither really here nor there. Many people follow low carb diets because of the effects on their satiety, their energy levels being decoupled from their carb intake, their insulin levels, their blood sugar, and so on. As far as people regaining weight, go read up on long-term success statistics and you'll quickly find that regardless of how you lose the weight, odds are bleak that you will succeed in keeping it off in the long-term. So while what you're saying is true, it's not at all specific to low carb diets and thus is hardly a fair critique of a low carb diet. It applies to everyone who manages to lose weight, regardless of how they pull it off.

    And I'll add that there's no real data to support the notion that you'll somehow be more likely to revert to your old habits if you do low carb vs. balanced macros. You're also assuming that people who eat low carb are ignorant and only know 2 ways to eat, but plenty of people who do low carb (particularly on this site) still weigh their food, log their food, track their macros and calories and so on. They have every tool people who follow balanced macros have; they just have a low carb macro.

    I'll shut up at this point because I suppose I'm just ranting, but it just gets old with people saying the same irrational things about low carb diets over and over again.
  • FitnessWeb34
    FitnessWeb34 Posts: 67 Member
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    I always used too stay away from anything low carb thinking I wouldn't like it as well. Recently have changed my mind on that. There are some really great low carb foods out there. Just goes to show how much of the problem really is in our minds. Any good low carb recipes out there please do share. :)
  • ES110791
    ES110791 Posts: 43 Member
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    Obviously of yor body doesn't have glucose it's not the main source of energy but then you crave it and that's what makes people break their diet. I do know what reactive eating is, please don't lecture me about that. You're just more likely, in my observation, to engage in it after low carbing. I'm only stating what I've observed in many people I know who have struggled with their weight, on and off low carb diets, over the years. That's why I asked if people could send some long term success stories my way. I'm not writing it off, I'm just curious because I see many posts here like 'I've been low carbing for 3 months and it's great!' which is so in line with what I've observed in my friends. I'm sure it is, but come back to me in three years and I might be more convinced.
  • silentKayak
    silentKayak Posts: 658 Member
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    CICO fanatics hate the whole idea of low-carb because low-carb is a "cheat' to the CICO model. You can eat more calories on low-carb as long as you keep your carbs so low that you're in ketosis. You're still 'outputting' excess calories, but you're doing it in the form of unburned fat in your urine (ketones ARE half-burned fat cells). Personally, I'd rather burn 100 calories and pee out an extra 100 rather than burn all 200 with exercise, but that's just me ;)

    The downside is, in order for this to work, you have to keep your carbs super-low. For me, any more than about 30/day would knock me right out of ketosis. That's a really hard way to live, so after a year or so I gave up.

    The other problem is, once you're not in ketosis anymore, you are still eating all those excess calories. What used to be "good habits" for weight loss (bacon, eggs, mayo, cream, meat) are now BAD habits, because they're calorie dense. So yes, once you go off low-carb your weight is far more likely to spiral out of control very very quickly.

    And finally, there's more to health than weight (gasp!) Taking in more saturated fat is bad for you any way you slice it. Weight loss is good for you if you're heavy, but switching to more meat, dairy, and saturated fats is not a great replacement for the fruit you have to almost completely give up. (although the rest of the starchy garbage like potatoes, pasta, rice, and SUGAR can stay in the trash where it belongs!)

    Even though I had great success on low-carb, I didn't find it long-term sustainable. I got bored with the limited foods and found it hard to integrate with my family life. I'm on low-cal now, which I think is overall more sustainable and also healthier.

    Glad it's working for you - good luck!

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