Low carb diets
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rckk18
Posts: 27 Member
Following the program I have lost 17lbs in 40 something days. I now have cut my carbs down to under 100 closer to 50 a day. After a few days 2 more lbs have come off. ( not posted yet) Has anyone else done this ? and what is the good and bad of this ? --- I miss my small piece of Lasagna.
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Replies
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The good is that it becomes pretty easy to keep within your calories as you're swapping out heavy pasta, bread and potatoes etc for veggie alternatives, and like you say the weight pretty much falls off. I never found that I had less energy or some of the other things people mention.
The bad is that you miss a lot of foods (pizza, lasagna etc) and you find yourself trying to come up with alternatives or modified meals (I guess that could be a good thing if you enjoy a challenge.)
You might end up putting a fair amount of the weight back on when you end your low carb diet as you might not have sorted the initial issue that caused you to gain the weight to begin with (portion control probably!) so you put the same amounts of pasta/whatever in your meals again and start creeping back up on the scales.
Good luck with it though. I always find it a good way to kick start a bit of weight loss and then watch my portions of heavy carb stuff after that.
Most people will tell you cutting out a whole food group is bad, you need to make your own choice. I personally couldn't live without carby food forever!2 -
Thousands of people on this site have done it. If it works for you, keep doing it, if it isn't doable, stop. You'll have plenty of people coming in here to convince you you're doing it wrong, it's up to you if you're looking for a reason to quit or not.0
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There are low carb lasagna recipes online. You could try some of those out if it isn't culinary heresy to you.0
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I used sliced aubergine instead of pastas sheets in mine - it worked really well but it really still isn't the same lol0
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Loss from cutting carbs is loss from water weight (shown by a significant drop in the beginning) and a calorie deficit due to a lower calorie intake by replacing the high carb high calorie foods with lower carb lower calorie options. Barring a medical condition, you don't have to go low carb to lose weight.
I'm eating a very low carb diet and love it. I've lost 24ish lbs since October. My weight-loss has slowed because I haven't exercised since Thanksgiving and January wasn't the best month for me. However, I am still losing about 1-.5lbs per week. But..because of the calorie deficit. The good points for me are related to my hypoglycemia. My blood glucose levels are stable so I can only assume my insulin levels have decreased (I have not had a blood draw to prove this yet)..abd hopefully my high cortisol is no longer as high. I feel better. I'm able to lose weight. Excess insulin kind of hinders that.
The bad..if this isn't a lifestyle change, the weight could pack back on after you stop if you don't watch your calories. You could end up binging on carbs.
If you're going to go lower with your carbs..make sure you're eating adequate fat, drinking enough water, and getting enough sodium, magnesium, and potassium.1 -
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herculean1982 wrote: »The good is that it becomes pretty easy to keep within your calories as you're swapping out heavy pasta, bread and potatoes etc for veggie alternatives, and like you say the weight pretty much falls off. I never found that I had less energy or some of the other things people mention.
The bad is that you miss a lot of foods (pizza, lasagna etc) and you find yourself trying to come up with alternatives or modified meals (I guess that could be a good thing if you enjoy a challenge.)
You might end up putting a fair amount of the weight back on when you end your low carb diet as you might not have sorted the initial issue that caused you to gain the weight to begin with (portion control probably!) so you put the same amounts of pasta/whatever in your meals again and start creeping back up on the scales.
Good luck with it though. I always find it a good way to kick start a bit of weight loss and then watch my portions of heavy carb stuff after that.
Most people will tell you cutting out a whole food group is bad, you need to make your own choice. I personally couldn't live without carby food forever!
I agree with what you said, but for me I have to live without lots of carby foods forever. I am diabetic. I can live on what I eat now for the rest of my life (open food diary). I do not do the keto though. I get between 80 to 100 carbs (not net) a day,
My down fall is pizza cravings big time. I have learned to put shredded cheese on a plate, add some pepperoni, mushrooms and then nuke it in the microwave till the cheese gets hard. Cuts my craving asap, taste like pizza without the carb crust that will raise my sugar to the roof.0 -
I agree with what you said, but for me I have to live without lots of carby foods forever. I am diabetic. I can live on what I eat now for the rest of my life (open food diary). I do not do the keto though. I get between 80 to 100 carbs (not net) a day,
My down fall is pizza cravings big time. I have learned to put shredded cheese on a plate, add some pepperoni, mushrooms and then nuke it in the microwave till the cheese gets hard. Cuts my craving asap, taste like pizza without the carb crust that will raise my sugar to the roof.
Ah yes nightmare
You've got a good alternative getting around the pizza cravings. I made a soy flour pizza base the other day - it was 16g of carb per 100g of flour and I used 78g. I could only eat half of it but it was amazing and I topped it with pure heaven. It wasn't soggy. It's basically the first Google result for soya flour pizza base.
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herculean1982 wrote: »I agree with what you said, but for me I have to live without lots of carby foods forever. I am diabetic. I can live on what I eat now for the rest of my life (open food diary). I do not do the keto though. I get between 80 to 100 carbs (not net) a day,
My down fall is pizza cravings big time. I have learned to put shredded cheese on a plate, add some pepperoni, mushrooms and then nuke it in the microwave till the cheese gets hard. Cuts my craving asap, taste like pizza without the carb crust that will raise my sugar to the roof.
Ah yes nightmare You've got a good alternative getting around the pizza cravings. I made a soy flour pizza base the other day - it was 16g of carb per 100g of flour and I used 78g. I could only eat half of it but it was amazing and I topped it with pure heaven. It wasn't soggy. It's basically the first Google result for soya flour pizza base.
AS a diabetic, I do not eat flour. I will use a very small amount at times of soy flour if I want to coat my chicken or meat... but it is very little amount0 -
herculean1982 wrote: »I agree with what you said, but for me I have to live without lots of carby foods forever. I am diabetic. I can live on what I eat now for the rest of my life (open food diary). I do not do the keto though. I get between 80 to 100 carbs (not net) a day,
My down fall is pizza cravings big time. I have learned to put shredded cheese on a plate, add some pepperoni, mushrooms and then nuke it in the microwave till the cheese gets hard. Cuts my craving asap, taste like pizza without the carb crust that will raise my sugar to the roof.
Ah yes nightmare You've got a good alternative getting around the pizza cravings. I made a soy flour pizza base the other day - it was 16g of carb per 100g of flour and I used 78g. I could only eat half of it but it was amazing and I topped it with pure heaven. It wasn't soggy. It's basically the first Google result for soya flour pizza base.
AS a diabetic, I do not eat flour. I will use a very small amount at times of soy flour if I want to coat my chicken or meat... but it is very little amount
Cauliflower crust? I don't eat flour either and have had success with cauliflower. I'll have to try your recipe with just cheese!0 -
blktngldhrt wrote: »
AS a diabetic, I do not eat flour. I will use a very small amount at times of soy flour if I want to coat my chicken or meat... but it is very little amount
Cauliflower crust? I don't eat flour either and have had success with cauliflower. I'll have to try your recipe with just cheese!
I liked cauliflower base, it wasn't sturdy but it was tasty.0 -
blktngldhrt wrote: »herculean1982 wrote: »I agree with what you said, but for me I have to live without lots of carby foods forever. I am diabetic. I can live on what I eat now for the rest of my life (open food diary). I do not do the keto though. I get between 80 to 100 carbs (not net) a day,
My down fall is pizza cravings big time. I have learned to put shredded cheese on a plate, add some pepperoni, mushrooms and then nuke it in the microwave till the cheese gets hard. Cuts my craving asap, taste like pizza without the carb crust that will raise my sugar to the roof.
Ah yes nightmare You've got a good alternative getting around the pizza cravings. I made a soy flour pizza base the other day - it was 16g of carb per 100g of flour and I used 78g. I could only eat half of it but it was amazing and I topped it with pure heaven. It wasn't soggy. It's basically the first Google result for soya flour pizza base.
AS a diabetic, I do not eat flour. I will use a very small amount at times of soy flour if I want to coat my chicken or meat... but it is very little amount
Cauliflower crust? I don't eat flour either and have had success with cauliflower. I'll have to try your recipe with just cheese!
I haven't tried the cauliflower crust yet, (want to some day), but I have had cauliflower rice and that really fools the mind into thinking you are eating white rice.. weird I know, but hey it works).0 -
Since OP asked for opinions, I'll share mine. I low-carbed for about a year and a half. It worked but I found it too boring and too much of a hassle to stick to long term. I got really really tired of having to prepare my own "special" food every day while the rest of my family ate something else. Eating out requires pre-planning since approximately 95% of the menu is off limits. Kinda kills spontaneity. Ultimately, I gained everything back and then some. On the good side, low carbing really does curb your appetite and cravings. Although I don't follow it anymore, even today I tend to avoid high carb snacks since the cravings they induce are more likely to lead me to overeat.
Today I just count calories. I eat anything and everything. I just eat less of it than before. I've been at my goal weight for over 2 years now and I've been counting for so long that I don't even bother to record my food on the weekends anymore. Instead I eat at a (small) deficit during the week to save up calories for the weekend. I then eyeball portion sizes on the weekend and guestimate to stay within the ballpark. You can't really do that in low-carb land. It's an everyday regimen. Some of the diets like Atkins have a very restrictive induction phase that you must subject yourself to when you start and anytime you fall off the wagon. Nowadays, if I happen to overeat on one day, I can simply make it up over the next day or two. I personally find this much easier and much more flexible.
Of course, the best diet is the one you can stick for the rest of your life.1 -
People do low carb diets for long term. If it works for you and you like it, continue to do so. You could try subbing out the pasta noodles for zucchini (I'm sure there are lots of recipes on the internet or Pinterest) for the taste of lasagna.
Although this isn't a popular opinion around here, you can always use a low carb diet to lose, and then stick to regular calorie counting to stay at maintenance. Of course you can't go back to how you ate before low carbing...that's how you gained weight in the first place. You will gain back some water weight, but stick to maintenance and it won't be a problem (as long as you aren't low carbing for a medical condition). I did this a few years back...using low carb/Atkins-ish to lose and then I started introducing carbs. Stayed relatively within my low weight. If I saw my weight creep up too much, I would cut back on the carbs (which cut back on calories) and lose again. I stopped doing this when I had my son which brought me to MFP.0 -
Thank you Everyone that posted. It really helped.0
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The secret to sturdy califlour crust is to squeeze all the water out after you cook the califlour and add an extra egg. I did this last time and it stood up to holding like regular crust.0
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Following the program I have lost 17lbs in 40 something days. I now have cut my carbs down to under 100 closer to 50 a day. After a few days 2 more lbs have come off. ( not posted yet) Has anyone else done this ? and what is the good and bad of this ? --- I miss my small piece of Lasagna.
The 2lbs is most likely water weight from reducing carbs, and not actual fat loss. If you up your carbs again at some point you'll see a bump on the scale as this evens back out.
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Donkey is low carb.1
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Whoa, just realized this was a really old thread, but it showed up in the recent posts area??
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