Low Carb Diet - Page 3

GREAT VIDEOS!!! 100% True... 

Sugar is 50%/50% glucose to fructose

HFCS is 45%/55% glucose to fructose, so really you think, oh it doesn't have HFCS its not as bad, 5% wont save you...

Ditch all sugars, ditch all processed foods. My rule of thumb, eat things closest to what they came from the ground. Im not a raw eater, meaning i cook veggies, i cook meat, but i try to keep boxed foods, processed foods away from me.. 

I do not believe oats are processed beyond hulling, cleaning,  steaming and chopping. Yes, avoid certain oatey breakfast mixes loaded with sugar. Oats are also high, 12%, in protein.  For me, i avoid greatly all bovine fats, like butter, cheese, milk and beef. Clogs the arteries badly but even worse is lamb and sheep meat. I may give the low carbs a good try. Now i eat whole grains, love all vegies, but eat very little processed food. Steam chicken, seldom fry any foods. Eggs maybe 4 per week. Beer maybe 12 cans a week. Corn chips a weakness after a sweaty day.  Could cut both of those  down. Have been doing well knocking back white sugar and will continue that path. Do like canned sardines with brown rice and green steamed veggies. Do eat some fruits mostly apples, oranges, kiwis. Do like olives and avocados but a bit expensive. Been doing yoga 33 yrs so pretty healthy except for recent knee troubles (doc says too much Lotus posture).  Will spend more time on my head.  Will plan to lose 5 kg, about 11 lbs, by October, or 6% of body weight. This will not be easy for me. Golf? Yes, but each time must pay US$100.  No choice where i live.

Wow, so much BAD info in this thread...

Stay away from Oats? Uhhhhh.... NO.

Stay Away from pasta? Only if its not whole grain.

Your body needs carbs, it needs protein, and it needs fats. If your diet has no carbs, or very low amounts of carbs, you are on the wrong diet./..

Try a proper diet, WITH EXERCISE!

Now, im off to play golf. Lots of energy, because i've had plenty of carbs today.

I did a zero carb diet (Atkins) for about a month and a half. I lost 12 pounds of beer belly. The diet is successful as far as weight loss goes, but I felt myself lacking nutrients from fruit, for example (high in sugar). It is also a difficult diet, practically speaking. Restaurants are forever off limits and eating on the go is very difficult unless you like hamburgers minus the bun. In all, I'd recommend it for a short period of time for someone trying to lose weight, but I would be surprised if they could maintain that lifestyle for very long (if you are one of those who can, more power to you).

We are saying Low Carb, NOT NO CARB.. Eat fruits in moderation, eat vaggies, eat things like sweet potato or a potato (in moderation). Just don't eat pasta's, grains, rice, processed foods, anything with high sugar content.. 

Eating at restaurants are not off limits, there are usually meat and veggie offerings, and you can usually substitute the starch for a different side. My mom always substitutes any starch for the veggie of the day. Its possible. 

Used no carb - low carb diet to lose 200 lbs, combined with cardio and weight training.  Restaurants are tricky, but if you don't mind paying for steak or chicken breast dinners they work okay.  I've kept the weight off for 4 years, so the idea that a no carb - low carb diet results in weight gain afterward is a fallacy as far as I'm concerned. 

Quote:

Originally Posted by lostmyballs 

I did a zero carb diet (Atkins) for about a month and a half. I lost 12 pounds of beer belly. The diet is successful as far as weight loss goes, but I felt myself lacking nutrients from fruit, for example (high in sugar). It is also a difficult diet, practically speaking. Restaurants are forever off limits and eating on the go is very difficult unless you like hamburgers minus the bun. In all, I'd recommend it for a short period of time for someone trying to lose weight, but I would be surprised if they could maintain that lifestyle for very long (if you are one of those who can, more power to you).

For those of you doing low carb diets I'd recommend checking out the 4 Hour Body by Tim Ferris. http://www.amazon.com/The-4-Hour-Body-Incredible-Superhuman/dp/030746363X/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1339091273&sr=1-1

He prescribes a "slow carb" diet that is very easy to follow. Basically eliminate all white carbs (anything that is white and has carbs except cauliflower), lots of protein from beans & meat, and green veggies. One of the interesting things about this diet is there is a built in "cheat day" where you are allowed to eat anything you want for one day a week (must be 6 days of slow carb diet before each binge day). The theory is the binge day with the huge jump in calories keeps your body from going into starvation mode. Plus having a planned cheat day makes it easier to stay on the diet during the week. Lots of interesting info.

Quote:

Originally Posted by 1puttit 

For those of you doing low carb diets I'd recommend checking out the 4 Hour Body by Tim Ferris. http://www.amazon.com/The-4-Hour-Body-Incredible-Superhuman/dp/030746363X/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1339091273&sr=1-1

 

He prescribes a "slow carb" diet that is very easy to follow. Basically eliminate all white carbs (anything that is white and has carbs except cauliflower), lots of protein from beans & meat, and green veggies. One of the interesting things about this diet is there is a built in "cheat day" where you are allowed to eat anything you want for one day a week (must be 6 days of slow carb diet before each binge day). The theory is the binge day with the huge jump in calories keeps your body from going into starvation mode. Plus having a planned cheat day makes it easier to stay on the diet during the week. Lots of interesting info.

If I was going to recommend any book on nutrition, it would be Macrobolic Nutrition by Gerard Dente. He goes into a lot more detail. This '4 hour Body"is nothing more than a simplified version of a diet athletes have been using for 40 years.

Quote:

Originally Posted by ApocG10 

If I was going to recommend any book on nutrition, it would be Macrobolic Nutrition by Gerard Dente. He goes into a lot more detail. This '4 hour Body"is nothing more than a simplified version of a diet athletes have been using for 40 years.

I'll check that book out. If athletes have been doing the "4 hour body" diet for 40 years then it must work.

Harvard, and several other research institutions have released research publications on the subject matter.  They're easy enough to find if you look for them.  I read several of them in college (I majored in excercise physiology for a couple years).

The whole theory behind the atkins diet is based on the glycemic index, which essentially is trying to measure the affect foods have blood sugar and insulin levels.  When insulin levels are higher, your body stores more fat/energy.  However, it also helps your body process protien.  So insulin an spike is not entirely bad, depending on what your going for.  If you're an endurance athlete getting ready for an event (let's just say a marathon), storing energy is your friend (i.e. carb loading).  If you're a bodybuilder and you're trying to pack on some lean mass, you want higher insulin levels when you consume protien.  On the flip side, if you are trying to lose weight, you obviously want to stay away from storing any extra energy.

High glycemic foods are not the only thing that increase insulin levels.  A body naturally produces more insulin when in a state of sleep.

I think the key when it comes to high glycemic index... it all depends on what you're trying to get out of it.

And bottom line... simple physics!  Conservation of Energy!  Don't consume more energy than you use.  Otherwise, your body will store it.  A well balanced diet and exercise program is the way to go to achieve the right balance.

Also, check out the Harris-Benedict Equation for a calculation of what your general calorie consumption should be (if you're into keeping track of calories and doing all the calulation yourself that is).

Well the difference is really negligiable, Basically people shouldn't be eating high level's of sugar in a short time. Really you should only be eating fruits in small moderation, like one banana, or a few graps, or one apple. Thats about as much sugar someone should have at one time, and fruits have better nutrients to go along with it than sugar. So if you have a sweet tooth, just eat a single serving of fruit. Don't go reaching for a pop (soda), or donut, ect...

I lost 40-50 pounds on a low carb diet in 6 months about ten years ago.  My blood work improved dramatically, and my sleep improved as well.

The down side: incredible constipation, and monotonous meal plans. 

However, I have been thinking about starting low carb again. 

Research shows (Stanford study, Albert Einstein University Study) indicates that low carb does promote weightloss, and improves blood chemistry.

Low carb diets are totally unnecessary. Carbohydrates can really help in maintenance of muscle in the long term and have no effect on fat loss when calories are kept the same. 

High protein is always a good idea, but low carb - why why why. Next you'll be telling me I'll get fat if I eat carbs after 6pm

To Adam: The theory behind low carb diets is that, because the body burns carbs before it burns fat, if there are few carbs available to burn the body will burn fat for energy instead. This is of course in direct contrast to calorie counter diets, but it sounds like you've got your mind made up already!

Quote:

Originally Posted by lostmyballs 

To Adam: The theory behind low carb diets is that, because the body burns carbs before it burns fat, if there are few carbs available to burn the body will burn fat for energy instead. This is of course in direct contrast to calorie counter diets, but it sounds like you've got your mind made up already!

Even if it were true that the body burns carbs before it burns fat, it still wouldn't make a difference at the end of the day. you are looking at it only from the point of burning, whereas total fat gain is a result of how much is burned and gained. Just because you are spending lots of money doesn't not make you poor. You could have a lot of money going in.

It is true that if you are not eating carbs your body will be burning fat. But if you are not eating carbohydrates, what re you eating? Fats and protein. Fats will get stored as fat by a very direct method, and protein will also get stored as fat if you eat more than your body is burning.

For example, if I burn 2000 calories in a day but eat 3,000. If all of that came in the form of carbohydrates, the body would use 2,000 of those ingested carbs as fuel (therefore they wouldnt get stored as fat) and I would store the remaining 1,000 in the form of fat.

The same person eating their 3,000 calories in the form of fat, they may burn 2,000 calories of fat, but they would also store 3,000 calories. Net result - 1,000 calorie gain in fat.

If the same person ate 3,000 in the form of protein, again some of it would be burned as fuel (perhaps 1000 cals of the protein used, 1000 claories from fat stores), the rest would be stored as fat. Net gain = 1000 calories. IT IS THE SAME RESULT EITHER WAY.

Now protein does have some slight thermogenic effects and some of it goes to muscle maintenance. But we are talking about low carb, not low protein. I do advocate high protein in the diet, but once proetin requirements are met, there is no advanatge to cutting out carbohydrates. I am even taking extreme examples here of purely taking all your energy in one form. In reality that doesn't happen, which further goes for my argument.

Anyway, all this is going on the premise that the body only uses fat when there are no carbs present. This is not true. Fat loss does not just switch off when carbs are present, it's a sliding scale. In a human body it is not a case of black and white - fat is being broken down and stored all the time. It is the balance between the two which creates weight gain or weight loss.

Weight gain/loss has and always will be a case of energy in vs energy out to the largest extent 

Body burns fat depending on how much Oxygen is in the blood stream. Basically lower the heart rate, more fat is burned, higher the heart rate the more Glycogen is burned, because Fat needs Oxygen to burn. 

Also its not as simple as taking in and taking out. Metabolic rates have a huge key to play. Its also why its hard to tell actually how many calories we burn in a day. I personally have a very good Vo2 and heart rate. My standing heart rate is very low, it can get into the low to mid 60's. Yet i am about 21%-23% body fat. It takes forever for my heart rate to get going when i run. i could do 5 all out sprints for a minute each and still not struggle to catch my breath. Someone could be the same weight and couldn't be in shape as i am. So, it hard to go through general rules of thumb on this. I am very healthy, but not by looks. So the numbers can lie there are a lot of things going on. That's why going by what machines say you burn is tough to go by. 

I agree if your exercising a lot carbs have been shown to help in repairing the muscles. But its not as much as you think, maybe about 10-20 grams of carbs after you exercise is all you need. The best source would be maybe a protein shake made from fresh fruits.

But not everything is as simple as calories. What you eat MATTERS!!! If you have read any of the books coming out about Carbs, its not that simple. Especially if you think all carbs are the same, there not. They are the same in energy expenditure, yes they are, but on other functions in the body, no there not. Especially when talking about sugar. 

Sugar, when it enter's your body, it forces your body to produce insulin, to maintain a blood sugar balance. This is known, but it puts the body into over drive (sugar high/crash). If you keep doing this over time, you will develop a resistance to sugar, meaning you wont get the high/low as before. I have experienced this being a pop drinking for 20+ years then stopping then having a can of pop again. I was totally wired and then crashed. But 5 years ago one pop wouldn't effect me like that. Its because i was insulin resistant, meaning that my body overproduced insulin. This has a nasty side effect, insulin regulates how much fat is being stored in our body. More insulin, means more fat will be stored, beyond energy expenditure. Also a nasty side effect with sugar is that it release pleasure hormones from the brain and will cause us to crave it. Anyone who has tried to kick sugar, will get this, you start thinking about a candy bar or pop, your brain will tell you, that is some good stuff, and you have to really try not to eat it. This creates a nasty cycle that has lead to a rise is obesity and type 2 diabetes, as well as other host of diseases and health problems. 

So if i had to rank carbs, i would eat veggies first, then sweet potato, then potato, then brown rice, then rice, then pasta, then bread, NO SUGAR

Believe me, i tried it all. I've done the crash diet for 6 months, 500 calories a day. I lost 40 lbs, then i was stuck there for 2 years. I was eating 50% carbs, and split on fat and protein. I ran 3 times a week and lifted weights the other two days. I was eating less than what i was working out, DID NOT LOOSE WEIGHT. Then i stopped drinking pop, and i started going low carb, and i dropped 30 lbs to were i am at now, 200 lbs. My diet is about 15% carbs, 40% fat, and 55% protein, roughly. I feel great, i am not bloated anymore, i just kept loosing weight. Guess what, i am eating the same calorie expenditure as i was when i was stuck at 230. 

So let me ask you, explain that please?