Low carb diet
perez5628
Posts: 5 Member
Hello! I am new to the low carb world and I have been doing great lately!( about 50 grams of carbs max a day) I'm proud of my results but do I deserve a cheat day (as they say) or should I just stick with it. Any advice is helpful! Looking to lose another 10 lbs still!
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Replies
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I am pretty new to it as well. It does work that's for sure.1
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It is impossible to deserve to cheat, by definition.
However, you could have a plan in place for what occassions you consider it acceptable to go over your new 50g limit.8 -
Thank you, instead of "cheating " The other day I found a substitute for mash potatoes and ate mash cauliflower instead. So I think I'll stick to that plan!1
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I liked mashed cauliflower yum1
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Thank you, instead of "cheating " The other day I found a substitute for mash potatoes and ate mash cauliflower instead. So I think I'll stick to that plan!
Eating potato is not cheating. You could easily eat mash potatoes and fit them in to your calorie allowance for a day. Sticking to low carb is a choice, choosing to eat a different way is not bad or cheating.
Perhaps if you want to have more calories to spend on a meal, considering your weekly calories rather than daily calories would be beneficial - if you save up exercise cals, or eat a little less during the week, you will have more calories to use on something that may not ordinarily fit in to your daily goal.7 -
In March, I had been doing hard core keto, 20 or less carbs a day and around 1300 cals. After initially losing 18 lbs in 3 weeks, I then stalled for 2 weeks, though still being very strict with zero cheats. After a ton of research, I decided to switch to just low carb and staying under 50 carbs so I could eat more of a variety of food I liked, and keeping my cal range between 1200-1400ish. I now also do a once a week cheat night meal (typically on Friday night) and eat whatever and how ever much I want
Last Friday, an entire frozen pizza, a coke and a big double scoop ice cream cone! By giving myself a carb refeed night, the weight started moving again and I have lost 2 lbs each week since (14 lbs from goal weight) and with no regular exercise.
Ck out this website www.carbnite.com - this guy does a great job explaining why our bodies need the carb refeed to keep the weight loss going and to prevent plateaus 14 -
That's exactly what I'm doing 1200 calories a day, and it has been rewarding with 1 lb a week the past 3 weeks. I'd love to see 2 lbs! I will try this carb refeed and hope it helps! I have been having a hard time staying full lately, not sure if that's related to less of carbs. Thank you, that was so motivating!2
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You're welcome! It def makes it so much easier to stick to clean eating for 6.5 days a week when you can have 1 night a week to indulge in the food you love and still lose!
Another thing to try that I recently started doing also is whats called "zig zagging" calories.
Zig zagging is basically NOT eating the same amount of calories every day. It prevents your body from going into a state of homeostasis; i.e., if your body is used to eating 1200 cals/day, it will reach homeostasis and lower metabolism so it doesn't have to expend as much energy living on a reduced intake in food. My mom ran into this problem by eating too little like 800-1000 cals a day and kept stalling. I told her to up her cals by a few hundred at least a couple days a week and the weight started moving for her
You can use this link to put in your stats to see what cals you need to maintain, for fat loss, or extreme fat loss and there is a blue button under that chart for a 7 day calorie zig zag cycle
http://www.freedieting.com/tools/calorie_calculator.htm14 -
And as for not feeling full, from what I've recently read, a person should up their daily cals enough to just feel content, but not too full. If after eating and you never really feel content throughout the day, it prob means your eating too little calories. Just add in a little more cals til you hit that sweet spot cal range where you do feel satisfied! 12
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so by limiting your carbs to about 50 g while eating 1300 calories you lost weight?0
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Heatherann78 wrote: »And as for not feeling full, from what I've recently read, a person should up their daily cals enough to just feel content, but not too full. If after eating and you never really feel content throughout the day, it prob means your eating too little calories. Just add in a little more cals til you hit that sweet spot cal range where you do feel satisfied!
It could also mean that you're eating too many calorie-dense foods, which can have a significant effect upon satiety. How much you eat (in terms of calories) is what matters for weight loss; what you eat (in terms of macro- and micronutrients) matters for satiety, adherence, energy levels, overall nutrition, workout performance, body composition, etc.11 -
I’m currently on a 1200 calories diet and I don’t limit myself. I eat carbs. Fruits,
veggies, rice, those are carbs. I tried to avoid eating processed foods though but I don’t want to restrict myself too much and as long as I’m eating in my calorie limit, I still lose weight.7 -
altairego21 wrote: »so by limiting your carbs to about 50 g while eating 1300 calories you lost weight?
By limiting to 1300 cals they lost weight.6 -
Depends on your definition of cheat. My little brothers birthday was last Sunday, I had birthday cake, I ate Keto as usual all day and carried on eating keto as usual after. It's just cake, I may have dipped out of ketosis but give it a day I'll be back in it again. No biggy.
If you make it a bigger issue than it really is, you're likely to de-rail. Once in a while it's fine, as long as you don't go all out crazy. There is also a thing called Carb-cycling where people will have a carb-dense day, I think most people who do it lift-weights or do intensive training. So if you can't live without your sunday roast, or pizza Fridays then look into that. At the end of the day as long as you stick to your calorie limit, you're on the right track.1 -
altairego21 wrote: »so by limiting your carbs to about 50 g while eating 1300 calories you lost weight?
eating 1300 cals is why they lost weight. carbs has nohing to do with it. i eat 1350 cals and lose 2 lb/ week and have lost 100. i do not limit carbs0 -
so much woocrap in these posts.... ugh7
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do you want a cheat day? That's the only thing you need to ask. Is there something you miss so badly you want an occasional indulgence?0
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Heatherann78 wrote: »You're welcome! It def makes it so much easier to stick to clean eating for 6.5 days a week when you can have 1 night a week to indulge in the food you love and still lose! Another thing to try that I recently started doing also is whats called "zig zagging" calories.
Zig zagging is basically NOT eating the same amount of calories every day. It prevents your body from going into a state of homeostasis; i.e., if your body is used to eating 1200 cals/day, it will reach homeostasis and lower metabolism so it doesn't have to expend as much energy living on a reduced intake in food. My mom ran into this problem by eating too little like 800-1000 cals a day and kept stalling. I told her to up her cals by a few hundred at least a couple days a week and the weight started moving for her
You can use this link to put in your stats to see what cals you need to maintain, for fat loss, or extreme fat loss and there is a blue button under that chart for a 7 day calorie zig zag cycle
http://www.freedieting.com/tools/calorie_calculator.htm
ZigZagging calories does not do that, and neither does a carb refeed one night. The current body of evidence suggest a refeed must be very high carb (~2x/bw), high protein (1g/lb) low fat for two consecutive days while at maintenance to have an impact on Ghrelin and Leptin levels; the leaner you are the more frequent it should be. But keep in mind, that if you are very low carb, a carb refeed will add weight as you will be replenishing glycogen stores. Refeeds are a very usual tool, not only from a physiological perspective, but also from a physiological perspective.
Carbnite was also based on only a few studies. The main one was a done on police officers where it compare ad litibum eating habits. And it was noticed that those who carb loaded at night, lost a little bit more weight (not statistically significant though compared to the control group). The below video talks about it.
https://youtu.be/LImFpkaEFxQ 7 -
OP, if you find this lifestyle too restrictive, just realize that you should be eating in a manor that is sustainable. The approach I do is focus on protein and work on whole foods. I don't have many limits outside of that. But controlling calories is what is important. So is exercise.3
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My nutritionist advised me to raise net carbs one day a week in order to avoid metabolism stalling. For instance adding 1 starchy veggie or small portion of a favorite dessert. Try it. It works.8
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My nutritionist advised me to raise net carbs one day a week in order to avoid metabolism stalling. For instance adding 1 starchy veggie or small portion of a favorite dessert. Try it. It works.
That is not how the refeed science works. It's more than just increasing carbs one day. It's multiple consecutive days, along with, eating at maintenance. But one should also be consuming adequate protein (1.5-2.2g/kg) daily and doing some sort of resistance training.3 -
Heatherann78 wrote: »And as for not feeling full, from what I've recently read, a person should up their daily cals enough to just feel content, but not too full. If after eating and you never really feel content throughout the day, it prob means your eating too little calories. Just add in a little more cals til you hit that sweet spot cal range where you do feel satisfied!
That might help my situation as well. I'm eating a lot of veggies for snacking during the day and salads for lunch, I'll add some protein throughout the day maybe that will Help.2 -
altairego21 wrote: »so by limiting your carbs to about 50 g while eating 1300 calories you lost weight?
No I lost weight by going to a 1200 calories and the low carb is now my health goal1 -
livingleanlivingclean wrote: »altairego21 wrote: »so by limiting your carbs to about 50 g while eating 1300 calories you lost weight?
By limiting to 1300 cals they lost weight.
or this..........................
By limiting to calories to anything less than maintenance they lost weight3 -
Hey mate. I've been keto for the last 3 months - I've been on calorie restricted diets, high protein, low fat, the whole gamut... what works for my body composition is keto (11kg or 24lbs in 13 weeks). That's not to say that it works for everyone and I know people who lose purely using CICO, but that's not the case for me. Every month or so, I have a pre-arranged high carb day - mostly because my friendship group does High Tea as our catch up's and I'm not not going to those. I don't worry about it, but I go straight back onto keto and monitor more closely for the 3-4 days after. If it doesn't work for you, that's fine - keep searching until you find what does. And don't get discouraged by people whose bodies do follow the simple CICO rules and who make out like it should be that simple for everyone. Sometimes, it's not, and that's OK. You'll find what works.7
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