Low Carb help, please

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  • retirehappy
    retirehappy Posts: 4,752 Member
    edited August 2016
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    If Dr. wants you to do low carb, you might try joining the group for low carb/high fat support, here is the link to the launch pad they use. It has lots of great links, recipes, and books listed. Very knowledgeable group.
    http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10103966/start-here-the-lcd-launch-pad#latest

    Keep in mind if you go too low carb you might not be able to follow the diet for an extended period of time. Some do wonderfully well with 40C/30P/30F. Others much less carb.
    To get an idea of a low carb meal plan check out the atkins.com site, it has a couple of plans for two weeks to get you started on low carb. One is 20 net carbs per week the other, 40 net carbs. It will give you some good ideas on how to construct a decent meal or snack. You will need to adapt to what is available for you where you are at, but I personally found this extremely helpful.

    Also, you must love yourself and your body more. We all need to do that to succeed. We abuse ourselves far too often. That is why so many of us end up losing some then getting back into our abuse behavior and adding them and more lbs. back.

    All the best on your Journey.
  • Sabine_Stroehm
    Sabine_Stroehm Posts: 19,263 Member
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    jennyvalentine4 wrote: »
    Sabine_Stroehm wrote: »
    No offense, but that's a lot of slip ups for low carb. Have you done your research? Are you eating enough healthy fats?
    If you need that much dessert, perhaps low carb isn't for you?

    Thank you for being so positive. If you have to start your comment with "no offense"then your comment is not constructive. I asked for help not insults and yes I've done plenty of research in fact I've seen 2 dietitians and God only knows how many Drs I've seen. Due to medical issues, this is my last resort before a majorly surgery that I would rather not have. Yes I eat and use healthy fats, olive oil and coco nut oil, I even use coconut flour when needed. I sometimes will use butter but rarely and I don't own any vegetable oil. I don't crave sweets but I don't think one dessert per week is bad for someone just starting. I have been out to eat 2 times only, once was for a party, the trip to Popeyes was because we were traveling. I count calories and I count carbs.

    Best of luck on your journey.
  • carmkizzle
    carmkizzle Posts: 211 Member
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    Get yourself a food scale and you will see that you're more than likely eating more than you think. What you "think" or "see" as being a small portion may very well result in double the calories. So you may be recording that you ate 250 calories, but in actuality, it's more like 500. That's a huge difference, obviously.

    Use a food scale for a good 4-6 weeks and see what happens. I bet you will have lost some weight.
  • carmkizzle
    carmkizzle Posts: 211 Member
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    jennyvalentine4 wrote: »
    Just picked up a food scale! :) let the enlightenment begin. Also I found the link on how to log food properly on here very useful!

    Nice!
  • ladipoet
    ladipoet Posts: 4,180 Member
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    OP, I strongly encourage you to check out the following main low carber daily forum group here in MFP. It's where most of us Ketofiles (low carbers) tend to hang out:

    http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/group/discussions/394-low-carber-daily-forum-the-lcd-group
  • BABetter1
    BABetter1 Posts: 618 Member
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    ladipoet wrote: »
    OP, I strongly encourage you to check out the following main low carber daily forum group here in MFP. It's where most of us Ketofiles (low carbers) tend to hang out:

    http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/group/discussions/394-low-carber-daily-forum-the-lcd-group

    There are also a few good ones on FB. Lots of low carb recipes there.
  • jeffkirkwold
    jeffkirkwold Posts: 33 Member
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    I am LC and discovered that yes, total calories matter. Thus I track. But the key to prevent me from cheating was the High Fat. 75-85% to be exact. Protein at 15% and 5-7% in carbs from dark green veggies. So far, this macro balance has been more effective for me than the other methods. Some of the other Macro ratios still worked, but this High Fat thing seems to have eliminated my desire to cheat on sweeties and carbs. Truth in advertising, I'm also mixing in Intermittent fasting to the experiment. But so far, 48lbs lost and 122 to go. My journal is open to the public if you want to see what i'm eating and when.

    Funny story, I heard of people saying if you eat high fat, you cannot overeat. Not really a believer in that yet, but last night was my first time experiencing that exact truth. I was around 75% fat in my meals (I only eat once a day in the evenings) and it was my high calorie day (1900 cals allowed plus 1/2 of my exercise calories) as I alternate 1450 cals 3 days a week and 1900 cals the other days. I could not eat all my calories! I was stuffed! Unreal. HF for me has been really, really satisfying and calming. High energy and steady all day long. No carb induced mood swings up and down anymore.

    Lastly, I think it helps to plan my meals in MFP when I get up in the morning or the night before. Feels like I have a game plan for the day instead of just logging what I eat without really planning it. Seems to help me stay on track. Best to you, keep curious!
  • nhljim
    nhljim Posts: 8 Member
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    I see a lot of info here but not so much the fundamentals of getting your body to work.

    My first question would be asking how many meals are you eating per day? With a sedentary life style, you need to kick up your metabolism. You need to retrain your body that you will consistently feed it so that it will burn the calories properly. If you eat sporadically, you are training your body to conserve as it doesn't know when it will get the energy again so in reality the cells will actually store fat instead of burning it regardless of how little you might eat.

    I eat 6 times per day and use 150-200 calorie snacks that the body has to burn to break up (veggies like celery etc). And a slow calorie burner as your last snack before bed like cottage cheese or yogurt. Slowly but consistently bring in exercise and your metabolism will kick in. Counting steps is a great first step that will reward you with calories, get your metabolism moving and won't make you too sore to do it every day. After a couple weeks you can advance to other cardio workouts.

    But to get the food part down, You need to figure out your total caloric intake and start dividing up into as many meals as you can.

    It takes about 3-4 days to get your body used to it and your family needs to encourage you.

    Anyways, I wish you the best and feel free to reach out.
  • momma712
    momma712 Posts: 79 Member
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    I'm gonna add you! I just started doing a 90 day low can KISS (Keep It Simple Sisster) challenge and at first while ur body is detoxing off all that stuff yes it is hard so the first couple weeks it's more of a mind of matter thing but after that it's much easier! Make sure you are weighing what you eat like has been said and all those little carb thinhs add up quickly and spike ur blood sugar which counteracts the whole low car point
  • markdolanmoore
    markdolanmoore Posts: 19 Member
    edited August 2016
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    OP, I've been on and off the primal/LCHF thing for a while. In a giant nutshell I'd just offer:

    -Until recently, I didn't really track what I ate formally. And when I started, it was clear that my mind had convinced me I was eating less and eating clean. I was probably off over 25%. Over time, our minds have a way of convincing us of things that are more comfortable in our made up worlds than reality. I often have to remind myself to "be honest with myself" with respect to diet.

    -For low carb, don't go "all in". Just don't. I'm still a believer in low/moderate carbs, but have decided to "be honest with myself" and for me, it leads to binges. As a result, I do a macro split of 25%/40%/35% (Carb/Fat/Protein). Most newbies to low or ultra low carb also end up low-fat. This is a recipe for disaster.

    -I recommend you take a look at www.eatlikeanormalperson.com for a different perspective on restriction.

    -Plan for 6 months before you see significant changes. This is where I'm weakest because I drop weight fast and get lazy.

    -Don't walk 5 miles a day for exercise - that's punishment and you've got *kitten* to do. Walk all day during normal activities, take the stairs, walk when you could take a bus, etc. Then, get an idea of where you need to fill in the gaps, and address the balance with exercise. Don't set yourself up for failure (and have patience and appreciation for this important journey).

    -Water. Lots of it. Avoid alcohol (maybe once every week or two it's OK to have a drink), soda (diet or otherwise - it's drinking chemicals and leads to a myriad of systemic problems even if it's "0 calorie"), and other "empty" calories you drink (juices, etc).

    -Cut out all grains (yes, even "whole" grains) except for a treat or occasion. I don't see this as restriction since I strongly belive it's poison. Hence, is it restriction to stop ingesting rat poison? No. I can see you're aware of this, but it looks like you may be slipping or less aware of reality (see my first point about logging).

    -Be good to yourself, this isn't easy. But don't lose accountability, there is nobody in this but you and those who support you. If you win, you get to be proud and feel better than ever. If you don't, your health is in the balance.

    This post was meant solely for the OP. She can take it or not - I'm not here to debate with any of you! :wink:


    Best of luck on the long road.
  • Hornsby
    Hornsby Posts: 10,322 Member
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    nhljim wrote: »
    I see a lot of info here but not so much the fundamentals of getting your body to work.

    My first question would be asking how many meals are you eating per day? With a sedentary life style, you need to kick up your metabolism. You need to retrain your body that you will consistently feed it so that it will burn the calories properly. If you eat sporadically, you are training your body to conserve as it doesn't know when it will get the energy again so in reality the cells will actually store fat instead of burning it regardless of how little you might eat.

    I eat 6 times per day and use 150-200 calorie snacks that the body has to burn to break up (veggies like celery etc). And a slow calorie burner as your last snack before bed like cottage cheese or yogurt. Slowly but consistently bring in exercise and your metabolism will kick in. Counting steps is a great first step that will reward you with calories, get your metabolism moving and won't make you too sore to do it every day. After a couple weeks you can advance to other cardio workouts.

    But to get the food part down, You need to figure out your total caloric intake and start dividing up into as many meals as you can.

    It takes about 3-4 days to get your body used to it and your family needs to encourage you.

    Anyways, I wish you the best and feel free to reach out.

    While this may be your preference, eating more often doesn't "kick up" your metabolism.
  • arditarose
    arditarose Posts: 15,575 Member
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    You need to count your calories.

    And honestly, I'm not even low carb and you have eaten more treats than I have in the month.
  • nhljim
    nhljim Posts: 8 Member
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    Hornsby wrote: »
    nhljim wrote: »
    I see a lot of info here but not so much the fundamentals of getting your body to work.

    My first question would be asking how many meals are you eating per day? With a sedentary life style, you need to kick up your metabolism. You need to retrain your body that you will consistently feed it so that it will burn the calories properly. If you eat sporadically, you are training your body to conserve as it doesn't know when it will get the energy again so in reality the cells will actually store fat instead of burning it regardless of how little you might eat.

    I eat 6 times per day and use 150-200 calorie snacks that the body has to burn to break up (veggies like celery etc). And a slow calorie burner as your last snack before bed like cottage cheese or yogurt. Slowly but consistently bring in exercise and your metabolism will kick in. Counting steps is a great first step that will reward you with calories, get your metabolism moving and won't make you too sore to do it every day. After a couple weeks you can advance to other cardio workouts.

    But to get the food part down, You need to figure out your total caloric intake and start dividing up into as many meals as you can.

    It takes about 3-4 days to get your body used to it and your family needs to encourage you.

    Anyways, I wish you the best and feel free to reach out.

    While this may be your preference, eating more often doesn't "kick up" your metabolism.

    Rereading what I wrote I stand corrected, eating does not kick up the metabolism rather your activities dictate it. Eating many times per day keeps the cells active.

    http://www.m.webmd.com/diet/ss/slideshow-boost-your-metabolism

    However this subject is regularly debated. And I find that by eating smaller meals that better choices are made overall.

    Thanks for the fact check.

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