Low carb high fat?

glfernandes828 · June 2016

Woah I haven't been here in a year! But I'm glad to be back, it's nice to hear other people's opinions, suggestions and critique. Soo my fitness journey has been a roller coaster. I tried to go vegan last fall and it was very difficult, I'll go into details more later, but after eating a ton of fruit servings per day and continuing to workout as hard as I always did, I realized I wasn't losing any more weight. I've been doing a lot of research and talking to friends and colleagues and decided I'm going to switch to a low-carb, high-fat diet. I plan to eat more protein and way less sugar, that will mean cutting down my fruit intake to 0-1 servings a day

This will be hard for me since I got accustomed to eating so much fruit daily. I'm also cutting out bread, pasta, rice, even whole grain. I know these things aren't bad for you in the whole grains form but I want to lose weight so I'll be cutting them out and sticking to veggies, eggs, chicken and seafood mostly! I plan to make it a lifestyle so I'll be able to maintain my desired weight forever. Tell me your thoughts! Have you tried a low-carb diet?

kommodevaran · June 2016

Why do you think you have to choose another extreme diet, especially when the last one failed? Do you realistically see yourself not eating fruit, bread, pasta etc forever? You can eat everything, even white varieties, if you count calories and hit your goal.

Sabine_Stroehm · June 2016

kommodevaran wrote: »

Why do you think you have to choose another extreme diet, especially when the last one failed? Do you realistically see yourself not eating fruit, bread, pasta etc forever? You can eat everything, even white varieties, if you count calories and hit your goal.

I guess I don't see why it has to be "forever". Maintenance stages (at least) of formal low carb diets include fruit and grains.

OP: do your research. And I'll ask as well: why do you WANT to do low carb? Have you tried calorie counting and eating a balanced, tasty, nutritious diet? It's not something I do, or enjoy, but it seems to be a great fit for many folks here. Your profile says you want to lose TEN pounds. Is that correct?

MelaniaTrump · June 2016

High carb for life here and losing weight.
Lentils, beans, quinoa, oatmeal, barley, bananas, sweet potatoes, chickpeas, and even brown rice.
Not bad foods.

Sabine_Stroehm · June 2016

JanetYellen wrote: »

High carb for life here and losing weight.
Lentils, beans, quinoa, oatmeal, barley, bananas, sweet potatoes, chickpeas, and even brown rice.
Sad to see that you are giving up these great foods

Legumes. I couldn't live without em!

astrampe · June 2016

OP, Why do you insist on making it so complicated?

MelaniaTrump · June 2016

Cutting back on added sugars seems to be common in every diet.
That is "keeping it simple".
I've never seen the high sugar diet.

beatyfamily1 · June 2016

I do low carb high protein. I'm vegetarian, but lean very close to vegan. I like it. Helped with my overall health. I lost 84 pounds.

sandsofarabia · June 2016

I've done keto and.... there's a reason why its gotten some backlash

In my opinion (although everyone's body is different and everyone has different experiences), the keto worked generally. I did keep myself within my calorie goals while doing it FYI and I lost weight just as fast as when I would eat a moderate amount of calories (20 Net grams a day vs. ~100 Net grams a day) (Net grams means excluding the carb grams that come from fiber since it's essentially indigestible).

I did feel fine for most of it (it was only really hard week 2 of my journey). I stuck to it for about 3 months and it was all okay. But then I studied abroad in france and you know how they're obsessed with their bread and carbs.. so I quit keto then.

I wouldn't go back because of two major reasons

1) I didn't lose weight any faster than counting calories 2) It was REALLY expensive. It was expensive because a lot of cheap foods I usually buy are like pastas or rice.. but without that, I had to buy a LOT of greens to compensate. I did however notice a huge correlation between calories and carbs (not that a high calorie food is always filled with carbs but often a high carb food was often filled with a lot of calories. So cutting back on carbs actually made it really difficult for me to even keep the minimum 1200 calories/day goal. (Unless you use a LOT of high fat foods but I ended up doing an even ratio of fats and protein).

I personally think it's worth trying out if you are considering making it a lifestyle choice. I wouldn't go KETO zone on the low carbs but I would try swapping out the major carbs from your meals and seeing how you feel about it. Some people swear to it and others despise it so there's really no telling how your experience would be. I knew starting keto that I was really just doing it to look nice for the summer study abroad program that I went on. A lot of people on this site often criticize people that try diets that aren't your basic "count calories" type but I really think that different diets really can work. I do think its still important to keep calories in check at all times though so I wouldn't just blindly eat less carbs and assume its enough to lose weight. Some people may say that makes the diet insignificant but I think cutting carbs is a great way to cut calories in general.

I say, try it for a month. It wouldn't hurt. After that... think about how much weight you're losing and how difficult (or how easy) it's been to plan and prepare food. For me, it was also too much thinking about what to eat for the next day or week but if you find it enjoyable then there's really no harm done; and as long as you're eating healthy and getting all your nutrients, then you really wouldn't be sacrificing your metabolism either.

Sorry this was a really long post but I thought I'd just give you a thorough run of what my experience was..

JinjoJoey · June 2016

I don't understand why anyone undertakes complicated diets by cutting anything out. Calories in/Calories out. That's the simplest and most basic way to lose and maintain weight. Unless you're a tri-athelete or a body builder whose trying to win the Mr. Universe, there's no reason to not just monitor calories while making sure you eat essential nutrients.

OP, if you found yourself stuck, not losing weight, you were taking in more calories than you burned, the end

extra_medium · June 2016

Weigh your foods, count your calories and learn to eat the stuff you enjoy so you can keep enjoying them for the rest of your life. There's no need to follow any set program, plan or cut anything out.

xmichaelyx · June 2016

OP, I eat basically the way you describe. I didn't really plan to eat like this-- I don't care about Atkins, or paleo, or low-carb, or whatever -- but I tried a lot of different things and this is how my eating habits evolved.

I don't get why commenters here are calling it "extreme" or "complicated." It's really easy to follow, and very filling, making it super easy to stay under your caloric goal. It's not necessary to eat this way, but it's so easy that I've stuck to it for years (cheating liberally on most weekends).

Where I will agree with others is that you seem to be into following trends rather than taking your own preferences into consideration, which is a recipe for failure. Vegan to low-carb is a bizarre shift. It's great that you're trying new things to see what works for you, but the fact that you're committing to something that you may not like (as you did to veganism, apparently) makes me wonder if it wouldn't be better for you to just count calories and try lots of different foods until you find an eating pattern that YOU like, rather than wondering what works for others.

Stop reading about diets and just eat. Discard what doesn't work for you and hold on to what does, and over a few months (or even a year) everything will fall into place.

JinjoJoey · June 2016

xmichaelyx wrote: »

OP, I eat basically the way you describe. I didn't really plan to eat like this-- I don't care about Atkins, or paleo, or low-carb, or whatever -- but I tried a lot of different things and this is how my eating habits evolved.

I don't get why commenters here are calling it "extreme" or "complicated." It's really easy to follow, and very filling, making it super easy to stay under your caloric goal. It's not necessary to eat this way, but it's so easy that I've stuck to it for years (cheating liberally on most weekends).

Where I will agree with others is that you seem to be into following trends rather than taking your own preferences into consideration, which is a recipe for failure. Vegan to low-carb is a bizarre shift. It's great that you're trying new things to see what works for you, but the fact that you're committing to something that you may not like (as you did to veganism, apparently) makes me wonder if it wouldn't be better for you to just count calories and try lots of different foods until you find an eating pattern that YOU like, rather than wondering what works for others.

Stop reading about diets and just eat. Discard what doesn't work for you and hold on to what does, and over a few months (or even a year) everything will fall into place.

I wasn't necessarily saying it's hard to follow, just that, it's already enough work keeping track of calories and behaving yourself for a lot of people, so I don't understand why people choose to follow any specific diet which excludes all kinds of stuff and complicates your diet even further. Again, some might not care, but diets that exclude all kinds of foods or things like carbs or fats just annoy me. I already spend enough time looking over calories in foods, the last thing I want to do is be micro managing carbs, fats, etc... But if it works for someone, more power to them. I just think it's not really necessary to maintaining your weight and health.

kommodevaran · June 2016

She's crying, for god's sake, even before she's started. I'll call that extreme.

edival · June 2016

There are some great keto groups on Facebook with support, recipes, success stories and science. They tend to have great reading materials and links as well. One I really like is called Ketogenic Success. Check it out, if it seems like something you can do, then just do it. If not, it'll still be there for when you're ready. I've been doing it for 17 months and love it. I love the science of it, how it meshes with human evolution and has been proven to be effective when done right in multiple occasions. I especially love how it's been shown to reverse type 2 diabetes, and help with so many other metabolic diseases in this day and age which are escalating out of control.

CaliforniaAJ · June 2016

I have been low carb for about 4 months now, and I feel amazing. I am intolerant to many grains anyway, including wheat. As a Blood Type 0, a high protein, high fat, low grain (carb), diet suits my genetics.
My husband eats the same as I do, but in larger portions. So far this year I have lost over 40lbs and he has lost 65lbs. My diary is open if anyone wants to look. I eat less than 20g carbs a day, usually around 14-15g.
I work out 5 days a week, 45 mins on a treadmill and 20 mins of strength training.
All I can say is low carb works for me in a way that nothing else did. I average about 1050 cals per day and I never feel hungry. I have tons of energy. My skin, hair and nails are better than they have been for 20 years. For me this is a way of life, not a fad diet.

TeaBea · June 2016

kommodevaran wrote: »

Why do you think you have to choose another extreme diet, especially when the last one failed? Do you realistically see yourself not eating fruit, bread, pasta etc forever? You can eat everything, even white varieties, if you count calories and hit your goal.

This^

I don't eliminate anything to lose weight, that I don't intend to give up forever.

I've yo-yo'd in the past. Why take the time to weigh & measure "diet" foods while losing weight, only to get to goal and have no idea what a REAL serving of ice cream looks like because I eliminated that when I was losing. I need to learn portion sizes for all my favorite foods.

Losing weight is just the first step............

glfernandes828 · June 2016

Thank you guys for all the advice I'm going to take everything into consideration for sure! I definitely want to still try this out for a month and see how it goes cuz I don't find it hard or complicated, it's actually kind of fun to try a new plan and analyze the results. I wouldn't say I'm obsessed with trends at all, I went vegan for the ethical purposes after doing a ton of research and realizing how much corruption regarding the effects of meat and dairy farming, but that's another topic. I also tried it because dairy affects my skin pretty bad and I've come to realize that so do sugars, that's another reason I want to try to cut out sugars and carbs. I already do count calories, and have for 2 years now. I'm happy with my weight but would love to lose more that's why I want to try something new. It's not that big of a deal to me. In the end I can see myself going back to my old diet of fruits for breakfast and snacks and mostly veggies and lean proteins for main meals, but for now I really want to experiment with this and see what happens.

glfernandes828 · June 2016

Update: it's been three days since I started my low carb meal plan and I've lost 3 pounds. Weighed in today at 114! So happy to see how my body reacts when I cut out sugar! Lovin it

soldiergrl_101 · June 2016

I do low carb high fat/protein when I want to focus more on body recompisition and it helps me. But you weigh 114lbs you don't need to be on a diet, you just need to lift to build muscle to get your body to look the desired way you want. Loosing more weight could put you at a unhealthy weight.

Hornsby · June 2016

Yes, you lost some water weight which is common with low carb. Everyone's body reacts that way.

Low carb high fat?

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