Let's Talk Carbs.

bump. I posted a similar question yesterday about low-carb success and got some great insight. Can't wait to read more firsthand accounts

I am also doing low carb and its really working.. I eat a lot of eggs, baked chicken, cottage cheese and veggies. I know that you gain weight after reintroducing them, but I pretty much plan on never introducing them back they way they dominated my diet before. Its just like alochol and sweets, it needs to be in moderation.

I do this. My carbs come from fruit and veggies and the occassional Chocolite candy. Those are great because they are very low on sugar alcohols (1g per piece) and have a lot of fiber. I stay away from all refined sugar, white carbs and starchy vegetables. My carb intake is usually around 100g/day.

I have found that I only lose weight if I maintain a low carb & low calorie diet. The tipping point seems to be keeping my carbs and proteins level, so about 120g carbs/day. I have tested and proven this to myself several times, over extended periods of time.

To do this I eliminate all the obvious simple and carb-intensive foods (breads, flour products, rice), avoid starchy veggies (carrots, potatoes, beans), limit myself to one fruit per day and oatmeal to 3 times per week. I eat lean meat, many, and many green leafy veggies. When I stick with this I lose and feel wonderful.

I cut out bread and pasta. Tripled the speed of my weight loss. I'm almost ready to reintroduce them - I plan on limiting the amount I eat to try to keep the weight off (as in reintroduce bad carbs slowly). I will start this by keeping my exercise regimen as is, and then tweak that to try to find the magical maintenance zone.

I will toy with intake vs exercise until I find that sweet spot - although I doubt I'll ever be able to eat carbs like I once did, I'm betting i can fit in my wife's home made mac n cheese n a coupla slices of pizza in every week...

Can't wait to try it...almost there!!

The last time I done this, bout 6 days a week it was no carb. One day I allowed myself 100 carbs. I dropped weight quick. But as soon as I introduced carbs, I put it back on. I plan to do this in cycles of 12 weeks.

First 12 weeks low carb for 6 days, 1 day of whatever.
Week 13 I slowly reintroduce breads and potatoes.
Week 14 I eat healthy but with breads and potatoes.
Week 15 I slowly take it out.
Week 16 I'm back to how I was Week 1-12.

I don't know what plan your following, but Week 13 of reintroducing breads and potatoes in the same week is the reason it seems your weight started coming back............it is water weight.

And with the low carb plans I have studied and successfully lost weight and maintained my weight it is taught that you only eat these foods on occasion, not as an everyday staple...............

In order for your eating plan to be successful, it should revolve around meat and veggies first and foremost and if a starch is also eaten, then no breads or vice versa. Some foods are not meant to be every day foods.

I did the Atkins route 0-20g carbs daily. I lost 52 pounds that way from 212 to about 158. BUT I went back to eating pancakes and chocolate galore. I think lowering carbs is helpful, its just the maintining phase, and learning what amount of carbs is adequate for your body to not gain on is key. Good luck! Im lowering my carbs starting today again.

If you did Atkins correctly, then you would know what amount of carbs is adequate for losing, maintaining or gaining weight. If you don't know what they levels are, then you did not work the plan as outlined.

Yea, I didnt do it correctly. I wasnt planning on going straight into eating carbs, but I caved and went on a vacation for a few weeks and it went downhill from there. This time around ill start reintroducing the carbs step by step and learn my correct maintining goal.

Consume a well-balanced diet of wholesome, nutritious foods in sensible portions, drink water, and move your body.
That's how you get healthy and stay healthy for life no matter what the scale says.

Carbs are not "evil"

My opinion:

Low carb is garbage.

You need carbs. Our problem isn't that we eat carbs. Its that we gorge ourselves on too many carbs. I do my best to keep my protein intake around the same as my carb intake. It has worked wonders.

Low carb gives me short term success and then it fails when I stop doing it. It is a fad diet. It is an attempt at a silver bullet or magic potion to make us lose weight really fast, but in the end when we go off of it we bloat up and then some.

When you cut out carbs, your body depletes its store of glycogen (which is how the liver stores carbs). In order to store glycogen, you also store 3 grams of water for every 1 gram of glycogen. That comes out to about 3-4 pounds of water weight depending on your size. So, when you reintroduce carbs into your diet, you WILL gain 3-4 pounds back. BUT, it's mostly water weight you gain back, but not fat. I am doing the low-carb thing right now, so my weight is dropping quickly right now, but I know that when carbs come back into my diet, I will gain 3-4 pounds back and I know not to worry about it when it happens.

Just to clarify, I am on a doctor-supervised diet from a weight loss clinic. I know low-carb isn't a lifestyle I want to keep, but I am losing a lot of fat mass (averaging 0.5-1 pound per day, according to my Withings scale), so I know that it's great for this phase of my weight loss since I am so overweight right now.

Carbs are not "evil"

For me they are! I am doing Atkins and am losing much more rapidly than if I ate carbs along with other good food. Eating good food is fine for nutrition etc, but for me, it takes a ton of exercise and weeks of dieting to lose two or three pounds your way. My way, (20 g carbs daily) works much quicker, and I feel great.

Interesting how some people agree that they lose better with a low carb diet and some people disagree that low carb makes a difference - kinda as if all people aren't different...
I generally do better if I limit my carb intake as part of an overall low calorie diet. If I take in 1200 calories with the majority from carbs, my overall weight loss over time is not as great as if I take in 1200 calories with a lower percentage from Carbs. I believe that all people process different types of calories differently, so it really matters to what works for you - both from a weight loss point of view and from what you can manage in your day to day life.
I have two young boys that need quite few carbs in their dinner so I am limited on how many salads I can make (I prefer for the family to all eat the same dinner). So for myself I have to realize that in order to lose I need to put fewer of the noodles on MY plate and more of the veggies, and the boys get the opposite.
I agree that for some people a low calorie balance works best, but also think that for some people reducing the carb percentage will be a better weight loss strategy.
I also definitely agree it is about moderation in all things.

Whenever you do go for the starchy carbs (bread, potatoes, rice, pasta) go for the whole food. By this I mean whole wheat bread (with as much of the grain as possible), the skin along with the potato - and go for small potatoes, not the giant ones we've been programmed to eat!, whole grain brown rice (cooks with 2.5 to 1 water to rice, for a longer time than white), and whole grain pasta. When you include the whole grain, there are more natural nutrients, meaning you get more benefit from eating them, and more fiber. They satisfy you sooner and longer. And they just taste better (IMO)

About 55% of my calories come from carbs - which usually means I typically eat 200-250g of carbs every day. (I eat 55/15/30) Carbs give me energy. Carbs make me happy. Carbs didn't really seem to slow my weight loss down at all - I lost about 55 pounds in ten months, eating about 2000 calories a day.

That's what worked for me! However, I do believe that different people respond in different ways to different diets. Experiment, and figure out what works best for you.