how low are your carbs?

I don't go above 75 net. That is my limit. Many days I am below 50 net. I get all mine from veggies with maybe 1 fruit serving a day.

I don't do the carb roller coaster well and it doesn't do good things to my insulin levels either. I am much more even keeled on low carbs and have never had issues with tiredness or anything else.

When you're eating under 100g carbs in a day, it's possible that you're going into what's called ketosis, where you body's not getting enough sugar, so your liver takes your fat and converts it to what are called "ketone bodies" that are used instead of sugar for most things. Most people get crabby and fog-headed when they are transitioning in and out of ketosis.

I personally keep myself under 30g net carbs (total carbs - fiber) not counting my post-workout shake that has 35g carbs.

I'm shooting for 30g a day and the vast majority of that should come from veggies and the occasional bit of fruit (I'm largely grain free right now).

I have just overshot by 5g thanks to a Bulla Chocolate Covered Vanilla Ice Cream Bar ... This is the exception rather than the rule and I HAVE been on a cricket pitch all day doing some kind of exercise ...

I second the feeling of not being on a rollercoaster, sometimes I have to remind myself to eat because I am just not hungry.

Bear in mind that if someone wants to go the full ketogenic diet then it can take up to 3 weeks to adapt to being a fat-burner as opposed to a sugar-burner. A salt supplement is said to help fatigue in these cases.

I follow the thinking of Dr. Wolfgang Lutz - he is probably the most well-known dietary scientist in German-speaking countries.

His research suggest humans should stick to exactly:

SEVENTY TWO GRAMS PER DAY

of carbs. If you do so, after as little as a month or two, your pancreas will heal, and you will never again have any carb cravings, or indeed any problems with carbs.

it's the perfect "not too much no too little setting." It's the value you can and should maintain your whole life.

Personally, i lost an incredible amount of weight, and my health improved incredibly - using this system.

But the key point is IT IS PERFECTLY SUSTAINABLE. You feel great constantly, you feel FULL (indeed stuffed) constantly, you eat a lot, everything is basically perfect.

If you are English-speaking you can and should read the English version of his book "Life without bread" written by his USA colleague Dr. Christian Allan.

(Lutz passed away -- aged 95, in perfect health !! -- a few years ago.)

I have tried less than 72 grams a day - goals like 40 grams, 60 grams, 35 grams, 50 grams. But in each case you need "willpower" which is horrible and not sustainable. In the end you lose less fat. On 72 grams a day, everything is a breeze, everything is constantly easy and no problem. On more than 72 grams a day, say 100 or 120, weight loss is slow and you feel hungry/starving/angry all the time (don't forget, it is carbohydrates that MAKE YOU HUNGRY, that is their role in your body. Too much cho, you are always hungry, too little cho, you feel bad. 72 is just right, in my experience.)

So, that's the Dr. Lutz thinking on the matter - read the book and get hard science on your side.

(Interestingly in the book he barely MENTIONS weigh loss, as it is trivially easy to lose weight on that system. the fat just falls off your body, week after week, easily. The book is all about the other extensive benefits of the system.)

exactly 72g per day is great it's so Germanic.

6 servings of 12g according to Lutz I see - wondered where 72 came from - I thought 42 was the answer.

So it HAS to be dished out in 6 servings of 12g?

Hmmmm, sounds like a lot of faff to me. It doesn't quite jibe with my primarily paleo way of doing things (i.e. there are no advantages to regular mealtimes, it's OK to skip breakfast and all the rest of it).

After all, time is an illusion, lunchtime doubly so

So it HAS to be dished out in 6 servings of 12g?

I took that from a review on Amazon - the idea appears to be to have foods identified as portions with 12g of carbs, and have six of these a day. I've seen similar things from Atkins with a "rule of seven" or something similar (obviously not very memorable).

Thanks for the clarification I had not heard of that before.

Looks like I can't get a copy in Oz (other than by import) and there is no iBooks/Kindle version so my usual knee-jerk purchase has been thwarted ... I'll look into it more though, you can't have too many angles to approach good nutrition from ...

ISBN-10: 0658001701
ISBN-13: 978-0658001703

if that helps with the library or whatever.

www.fishpond.com.au/Books/Life-without-Bread-Christopher-Allen-Wolfgang-Lutz/9780658001703

Thanks, that link was the one I was going to use, it's still an import though.

Having read a few reviews I suspect it wouldn't be telling me anything I already know. If I had not read Protein Power, Primal Blueprint, Good Calories, Bad Calories, Atkins, Why We Get Fat, Wheat Belly ... etc, etc (yes, there are more!) then I might be tempted.

I may well try to get a copy from the library though, I'm a bit of a junkie when it comes to nutrition (I hate the word diet) books.

Dear DeadVim --- you aim for 30 grams a day, man that is low ! LOW LOW LOW.

You must be losing fat like crazy ?????????

BTW re "SO IT HAS TO BE DISHED OUT IN 6 x 12 GRAMS" ... absolutely NOT. the one and only reason that is mentioned in the book is for convenience. Many things we eat happen to have about 12 grams of carbs, so the point was just "oh it's six of those." There was another very famous dieting book in German-speaking countries, "THE POINT DIET". Each "point" was 12 carbs. You very simply eat six "points" to get your 72 carbs in a day.

As you say ... "Hmmmm, my primarily paleo way of doing things (i.e. there are no advantages to regular mealtimes, it's OK to skip breakfast and all the rest of it). " .yes, Dr. Lutz AGREES WITH YOU COMPLETELY. In fact the Paleo advocates GOT THEIR IDEAS FROM LUTZ !!!!!!!! You are in 100% agreement with Lutz. He says over and over that "carbos are carbos, no difference".

I urge you to EDIT OR DELETE your post, because nothing spreads faster on the internet than nonsense.

"Having read a few reviews I suspect it wouldn't be telling me anything I already know."

You know.........


""If I had not read Protein Power, Primal Blueprint, Good Calories, Bad Calories, Atkins, Why We Get Fat, Wheat Belly ... etc, etc (yes, there are more!) then I might be tempted. "

Heh !!

You have good taste, but ..

All of those books are just a copy of Lutz ideas.

Taubes has stated that he is a Lutz disciple, and all his books are an extension of Lutz round-breaking work.

Sison and the Eades are just cheap simplifications of Lutz with photos to make it easy for USA readers ;-)

I can see that you're indeed a nutrition science book junkie, like me.

Don't forget Lutz lived UNTIL NINETY-SEVEN, for goodness sake (died recently) - he had been researching since after WW2.

All the books you mention are popularisations of his ideas 30 years afterwards.

His book was only in german for a long time...............

so it was a great opportunity for "celebrity-author-types" in the Usa to capitalise on it -- and a good thing too.

(The open question is whether Atkins was just using Lutz ideas, but got confused and went for NO calories )

For a fascinating early book on the topic, have you read Eat Fat And Grow Slim by Richard Mackarness? Check it out. (You probably have it already.)

Of course the earliest book on the idea is William Banting's book from the 1860s, but you'd know this because all the books you mention which are copies of Lutz work mention it because Lutz researched that and spoke about it

if Lutz had originally written in English, the world would be a different place .. but we had to wait for Taubes in English, and Lutz' translator.

incidentally you're right, when I lived in Aus. the amount of money spent on importing books was unbelievable :-)

I also recommend the fascinating "point diet" (in german) book (ie, another popularisation of Lutz ideas).

Sison, Eades and the like are just novelty talk show hosts, and Health Product TM salespeople for their product companies, so anything they say is irrelevant other than for entertainment value. (But God bless them for helping people - for sure.)

An open question is regarding Taubes ideas, he is NOT certain (unlike Lutz) that there is one "particular" amount of carbs that people should eat. Lutz was certain, and he believed it for three reasons, A from anthropology studies (all of "paleo" is just a Lutz idea), B from a technical rationale he expounds, and C from his huge clinical experience (fifty years of treating fat people with different CHO grams targets).

I, personally (not that that means anything) have tried different target figures, and I found that "about 70" is overwhelmingly the best for all-around ridiculous amounts of health.

Having said all this, I hate "pushing the idea" on to people! there's a well-known phenomenon among Lutz Disciplies that you just get SO healthy, so fast, that you can start to be "religious" about it....and then annoy people! So I'll STFU now !!

(For instance, my wife, my sistsers-in-law, and maybe 5 other people I know have all adopted the "72 grams" approach, because of my out-of-hand improvement in health ... skin, sleeping, sex, fat (it just falls off), health, endurance (from not being able to jog, to 100km a week), mental health, eyesight, sweating, posture (!), nails, hair, coughs and cold, etc etc etc .. so again I try to avoid "preaching" wherever possible. Sorry if I did!!)

I usually store my bread in the basement so its pretty low all the time.

" Do I need extra calories when I am breastfeeding?
Your body is highly efficient at producing milk, so you shouldn't need to take in lots of extra calories. It's best to be guided by your appetite and to eat when you are hungry. Your body may have laid down fat stores during pregnancy, and breastfeeding can help to use up those fat stores . "

no mention of extra or any carbohydrates, 210g of carbs is 840 calories - really ??

TOTALLY INCORRECT. I urge you to delete or edit your post, as nothing spreads faster on the internet than nonsense heh!

Oh, the irony.

Indeed.

Here is were I got that info.

http://www.livestrong.com/article/518321-amount-of-carbs-lipids-and-protein-needed-in-a-day/


I am not diabetic, nor do I have any problems with grain. I know that white breads and pastas aren't good for me, but not truly convinced that whole grains are bad for me. I love love love meat, so that's not an issue, I just don't think eliminating a whole food groups wrong.

Having diverticulitis I think it's harmful to eliminate it.

Today I will eat around 550-600g. Am I not supposed to do that?