Call me convinced: I'm going low carb

Sometimes I think this is more a semantic discussion. What do you mean by low carb? Is that your fundamental goal, and the reason the weight is coming off?

Oftentimes people extol the wonders of low carb "dieting" for weight loss, but when you look at their diet they cut out crap, started eating more meat, fish, lots of healthy veggies, fruits in moderation, etc. Now, yes, that's a low carb diet. But it's also a healthy diet. Or a "common sense" diet. You can just as easily say that you are convinced, and now going on a "common sense diet." My guess is that the food will look very similar... :-)

Don't get me wrong, I, too, eat foods that are typically low carb. I just don't think it's necessary to follow some rigid system to meet your dietary goals.

--P

I am in the "whatever works for you" camp. I don't do well on low carbs so I keep my intake moderate and avoid the white flours. However, I know plenty of people on MFP and in real life who do well on a low carb diet. Like anything, what works for some will not work for others. As long as it works for you and you don't get into the militant "My way is the only way when it comes to weight loss" frame of mind, I say go for it.

Sometimes I think this is more a semantic discussion. What do you mean by low carb? Is that your fundamental goal, and the reason the weight is coming off?

Oftentimes people extol the wonders of low carb "dieting" for weight loss, but when you look at their diet they cut out crap, started eating more meat, fish, lots of healthy veggies, fruits in moderation, etc. Now, yes, that's a low carb diet. But it's also a healthy diet. Or a "common sense" diet. You can just as easily say that you are convinced, and now going on a "common sense diet." My guess is that the food will look very similar... :-)

Don't get me wrong, I, too, eat foods that are typically low carb. I just don't think it's necessary to follow some rigid system to meet your dietary goals.

--P

The problem is that for years people were told bread, pasta, rice, and carbs in general were "health food." So a "common sense" diet ended up being horrible, especially with all the low fat processed carbs people ate.

I don’t think he meant all fruit are bad, but I agree that A LOT of fruit is bad. The problem we have compared to the way it use to be for many years is that all fruit are available all the time whenever we want it and our bodies are not designed to deal with a lot of fructose – the liver can’t process it and turns it into fat. Too much fructose is not good. I eat about 1-2 big portions of fruit a day and lots of veg.
What is fructose?


Fructose is a monosaccharide (simple sugar), which the body can use for energy. Because it does not cause blood sugar rise tremendously (has a low glycemic index), it was once thought that fructose was a good substitute for sucrose (table sugar). However, the American Diabetes Association and nutritional experts have changed their minds about this.
Is fructose bad for me?

A small amount of fructose, such as the amount found in most vegetables and fruits, is not a bad thing. In fact, there is evidence that a little bit may help your body process glucose properly. However, consuming too much fructose at once seems to overwhelm the body's capacity to process it. The diets of our ancestors contained only very small amounts of fructose. These days, estimates are that about 10% of the modern diet comes from fructose.

What happens if I consume too much fructose?
Most of the carbohydrates we eat are made up of chains of glucose. When glucose enters the bloodstream, the body releases insulin to help regulate it. Fructose, on the other hand, is processed in the liver. To greatly simplify the situation: When too much fructose enters the liver, the liver can't process it all fast enough for the body to use as sugar. Instead, it starts making fats from the fructose and sending them off into the bloodstream as triglycerides.

Why is this bad?
This is potentially bad for at least three reasons:
• High blood triglycerides are a risk factor for heart disease.
• Fructose ends up circumventing the normal appetite signaling system, so appetite-regulating hormones aren't triggered--and you're left feeling unsatisfied. This is probably at least part of the reason why excess fructose consumption is associated with weight gain.
• There is growing evidence that excess fructose consumption may facilitate insulin resistance, and eventually type 2 diabetes. However, some of this effect may be from chemicals in soda which reacts with the high fructose corn syrup.

What are the major sources of fructose?
Fruits and vegetables have relatively small, "normal" amounts of fructose that most bodies can handle quite well. The problem comes with added sugars in the modern diet, the volume of which has grown rapidly in recent decades. The blame has often been pinned to high fructose corn syrup (HFCS), which is made up of 55% fructose and 45% glucose. However, sucrose is half fructose and half glucose. So, HFCS actually doesn't have a whole lot more fructose than "regular" sugar, gram for gram.
High fructose corn syrup has become incredibly inexpensive and abundant, partially due to corn subsidies in the United States. So, really, the problem is more that it has become so cheap that it has crept its way into a great number of the foods we eat every day.

Is corn syrup fructose different than fructose found in other foods?
No, all fructose works the same in the body, whether it comes from corn syrup, cane sugar, beet sugar, strawberries, onions, or tomatoes. Only the amounts are different. For example, a cup of chopped tomatoes has 2.5 grams of fructose, a can of regular (non-diet) soda supplies 23 grams, and a super-size soda has about 62 grams.
Which foods have high fructose corn syrup and other sugars?
Today, almost all packaged foods have sugar added in some form, which almost always includes a lot of fructose. Honey has about the same fructose/glucose ratio as high fructose corn syrup. Fruit juice concentrates, sometimes used as "healthy sweeteners," usually have quite a lot of fructose (never mind that the processing of these concentrates strips away most of their nutritional value). Look at the ingredients on packaged food labels and you will probably see sources of fructose. See my article, Sugar's Many Disguises, to learn what to look for.


10 reasons to limit fructose consumption
1. Fructose can only be metabolized by the liver and can’t be used for energy by your body’s cells. It’s therefore not only completely useless for the body, but is also a toxin in high enough amount because the job of the liver is to get rid of it, mainly by transforming it into fat and sending that fat to our fat cells.
2. Excess fructose damages the liver and leads to insulin resistance in the liver as well as fatty liver disease. In fact, fructose has the same effects on the liver as alcohol (ethanol), which is already well known as a liver toxin.
3. Fructose reacts with proteins and polyunsaturated fats in our bodies 7 times more than glucose. This reaction creates AGEs (Advanced glycation end-products), which are compounds that create oxidative damage in our cells and ultimately lead or contribute to inflammation and a host of chronic diseases.
4. Fructose increases uric acid production, which, in excess, can cause gout, kidney stones and precipitate or aggravate hypertension.
5. While most of your body’s cells can’t use fructose as a source of energy, the bacteria in your gut can and excess fructose can create gut flora imbalances, promote bacterial overgrowth and promote the growth of pathogenic bacteria.
6. In part because of the damage done to the liver, chronic excess fructose causes dyslipidemia, which means that your blood lipid markers tend to shift towards numbers that indicate a risk for heart disease.
7. Fructose rapidly causes leptin resistance. Leptin is an hormone that controls appetite and metabolism to maintain a normal weight. Leptin resistant people tend to gain fat and become obese really easily.
8. Excess fructose alone can cause all the problems associated with the metabolic syndrome (diabetes, obesity, heart disease, …).
9. Cancer cells thrive and proliferate very well with fructose as their energy source.
10. Excess fructose also affects brain functioning, especially as it relates to appetite regulation. It has also been shown to impair memory in rats.

Rather than going low carb I go "low glycemic index". Fruit have low glycemic index, so they are fine.

I would love to go low carbs!!! I just don't know how it how to start or what to eat!

Well, about 20 minutes of googling should solve that issue.

--P

I still eat chocolate nearly every day. Just rich dark chocolate, and only a small amount.

Two weeks into low carb diet. I am a celiac, so this diet was not a hard for me, as I do not do processed foods anyway. I have gotten through the "Keto Flu" but am experiencing a strange sensation that I can only describe as that feeling of "lift" that you get when you are riding a rollar coaster or you drive over a hill too fast! Kinda a "skin crawling" sensation. Am getting used to it and it seems to be decreasing somewhat... moves around my body. Mostly in chest and left arm, and sometimes legs. Wierd! I have had the worst time losing weight. Have always been overweight since having kids which is whenI think the Celiac kicked in. On the low carb diet I have found that I am not hungry at all! I used to get bouts of binges where I could not eat enough, and would be eating anything edible just to try and stop the feeling! I am very surprised at how well this is working for me! I am losing inches vs. pounds, and that is probably the hardest part of the whole diet! Instead of going by what the scale says, I go by how my clothes fit, and how I feel. The one thing I have noticed, bacon is one of my "cheats" as the sodium levels swell me up so badly! :happy:

Rather than going low carb I go "low glycemic index". Fruit have low glycemic index, so they are fine.

while some fruit have a low GI that is not the case for all fruit, and in most cases it is purely because the carbs are fructose that doesn't show up in blood glucose measurements.

cherries at 63 and bananas at 52 don't strike me as low GI, nor 72 for water melon

I strongly recommend looking into the South Beach Diet. It's based on sound scientific studies, and although it doesn't cut carbs completely out, it does work to break the carb addiction (physical and psychological) that many of us suffer from.

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THIS !

3+ years ago I was overweight & grumpy that my doctor put me on diabetic meds ...... then I stumbled across the South Beach Diet & started making changes .... lost weight & got off the meds. Found out that certain foods are triggers (for me) including bananas & almost anything "white" ..... they cause cravings, so I seldom eat them. Processed foods are scary with chemicals, so I read labels like crazy. Have even started buying some organics (dairy, fruit & veg). I choose healthy foods when eating out (most of the time LOL) ...... and cooking more & bringing lunches to work. Fast-food places are for black coffee only, IMHO !

SB worked for me ....... Weight Watchers works for others ..... any reasonable diet can probably do the job ..... it's about experimenting to see which foods & what quantities work FOR us, rather than against us ..... and then sticking with it .....

Best of luck to everyone ..... we're all works in progress :drinker: