🍳 Cooking 🍳 Low carb diets

Ok, the title says it all, but I'd like to hear some experiences from fellow BL'ers on low carb diets. I always seem to be hearing contradicting evidence on their positive and negative benefits (which isn't really surprising, considering they aren't really an exact science as yet, and the jury is out on their worth).

I've been on one for 3 weeks, and feel pretty good at the moment. Have lost weight, plus generally have more mental energy than previously. There have been negative implications however, as I don't seem to have the same energy for physical exercise.

So ... how about them? I'd be interested to hear.

Yeah, I have no problems with the actual diet. I find it pretty damn easy. It's not really the diet I'm worried about, moreso the consequences of the diet.

Can easily do less than 20g a day, probably fluctuating between that and 40g per day at the moment. I think my recommended daily intake is around 350g, but then again, the diet itself goes against the recommendations of having carbs.

I can sustain the diet, and thanks for sharing your experience. Are there are any other long term low-carb'ers than can share your opinions? Or anyone knowledgable in nutrition.

Being a bodybuilder, I have been on high protien and low carbs for a long time. I haven't had any trouble and works well for me. If you can get past the initial hump, it is pretty easy...

Cool. Thanks for the info :D

I'm with FoxyKel... if you can do it, yeah it works, but I'm far too fond of my carbs.

I think I stuck with it for oh... a week, maybe?.... the lure of pizza and toast got too much :D

I've had far more sucess with Weight Watchers, or jogging. I suppose it's just what suits your individual tastes/physiology.

I have a semi-low-carb diet.

I eat carbs (a decent amount) in the morning and some (small portion) at lunch, but I NEVER eat carbs for dinner. I also try to eat very small (calorie-wise) dinners -- salad, steamed veggies, a little bit of protein etc. I pack most of my fat, protein, and carbs early in the day. I also try never to eat within 5 hours of going to sleep -- and if I eat enough during the day, I find that this is TOTALLY feasible.

As a result, I have for the first time in my life maintained a diet, for nearly a year now. It works because I can eat whatever I want, I only limit HOW much I eat and WHEN I eat it. It has never worked for me to cut out foods -- I end up bingeing when I do that. But allowing myself SMALL portions of everything keeps me satisfied.

My weight never fluctuates more than 3 lbs either direction, which is really good for me (in the past I would fluctuate by 10-15 lbs over a couple months!). I'm never hungry, I feel great, and I look good.

I really think that eating early in the day and limiting carb intake is a great way to lose weight, especially for women.

P.S. If you are trying to lose weight, I suggest that you cook for yourself as opposed to eating out a lot (I eat out 1-2/month max). It's sooo tempting to each huge amounts at restaurants/takeout.

I did this once when I was in the army... it sucked.

I guess I just enjoy my breads and pastas way too much. It was such a pain in the ass changing my eating habits as much... you never realize just how much of your meal is carbs until you have to cut them all out... your left with very little to choose from.

I would never do it again. I lost a lot of weight, but I was basically sick the whole time... I didn't look good. I had no energy and was a raging ass-hole the entire time.

I tried the low-carb thing for about...umm...a day
Actually it was more like a week, but I found myself going NUTS without pasta. I simply LIVE on pasta and bagels, and it was straight-up HELL without them. Plus, I felt like I had NO energy when I was at the gym...after like 10 mins of cardio i felt like I was about to die. I'd rather be able to eat the pasta and bread and have to work out more than not eat it and go to the gym less...I think it's more healthy that way too. For some reason, I just dont trust a diet that goes against the way my body NATURALLY wants to eat. But if it works for ya, kudos. Just make sure you're eating healthy.

If you mean something like the Atkins Diet (low-carb, hi-fat) then mainstream medical opinion is dead set against it (recent review of popular fad diets by some US physicians gave Atkins zero stars - potentially dangerous - this was published in The Physician and Sportsmedicine, a well-respected journal).

Remember that just because you lose weight on a diet, doesn't mean its healthy - could still have negative side effects.

Just cut your fat intake and do some cardiovascular exercise. It amazing what you can achieve!

If you mean something like the Atkins Diet (low-carb, hi-fat) then mainstream medical opinion is dead set against it (recent review of popular fad diets by some US physicians gave Atkins zero stars - potentially dangerous - this was published in The Physician and Sportsmedicine, a well-respected journal).

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I did a lot of research on this topic. I read a lot of negative reviews. Almost invariably, though, they quoted each other, and none quoted anything even close to recent research. It seemed as if the idea that the diet was bad has become so cemented that most doctors simpy don't question it.

However, I was able to find a great many recent studies showing the diet is not harmful to your health, and I know from my own experience that it works very well.

Here: http://forum.lowcarber.org/t71545.html <- a large number of links to studies.

I lost 130 pounds, most of it NOT on the low carb diet, but I learned in the process that when it comes to diet and exercise, even the people getting published in journals generally don't know their ass from a hole in the ground (as my father would say).

^^^^
no offence, if I toss up between trusting mainstream medical opinion and trusting a web forum for low-carbers, I'm-a gonna stick with the mainstream...

I'll look through those citations, though. thanks.

[edit] I looked through the citations. You do realise that they are all links to popular press coverage of *one* piece of research? I did actually see that study reported (on Reuters Health, which is probably the best daily news source for health news), and I was quite surprised by it. But you have to realise that there are a hell of a lot more studies which show the opposite.

Another crucial point to be aware of: there haven't been any long-term studies into the benefits/faults of Atkins. Not one. That study reported results over six months, which is interesting, but I'd love to see the results of a longer-term study. [/edit]

I cut out most carbs that were avoidable..

went on the protein diet... nothing but eggs and bacon and steak hehe was really good lost some weight but I would have killed anyone for a bread roll.

actually i lost about 10 kgs but when i was going to the gym as well it wasnt a healthy way to live.

Yeah, I haven't completely cut them out - but it's a good idea to have some in the morning as it gets the metabolism going, and then cut them out (or minimise consumption) throughout the day.

Personally, I don't really believe any of the 'for' or 'against' arguments as neither side as presented any real factual evidence (obviously because there is none).

Cheers for your experiences

^^^^
I'm going to have to drop out here because I'm too busy to give this the time it deserves, but there is a fair bit of factual evidence out there.

I'd recommend checking out www.webmd.com (a quick search on Atkins came back with some useful hits, including a good summary of his diet).

http://www.reutershealth.com/en/index.html (go into search, then Health ELine) carries some good summaries of research, written at a non-professional level, but only the last five weeks of stories are available on the site - I searched on Atkins and on low carb, but all the interesting articles were gone from the site.

www.pubmed.com is a great service provided by the US govt which offers free access to the abstracts of articles in medical journals - a lot of it is really technical, but you can pick up an idea of what research is out there (it's good for MDMA research, too). Try a search on "low carbohydrate diets" (with the quote marks). Interestingly, the latest reference is from the Journal of the American Medical Association, and says there still isn't enough evidence either way....

But hey, do some reading and see what you think

Cheers, much appreciated :D :D

no offence, if I toss up between trusting mainstream medical opinion and trusting a web forum for low-carbers, I'm-a gonna stick with the mainstream...

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I wouldn't trust the forums either. The link was useful only because it contains links to many articles.

What does keep cropping up repeatedly is that the negative press in the past with regards to low carb diets is more and more being disproven.

What is also coming up repeatedly is that the things the low carb diets eliminate - refined sugars, complex carbohydrates - are quite clearly a large cause of obesity.

My question to decryers of the Atkins diet is - is it more harmful to lose the weight the low carb way, or to remain overweight, the long term negative effects of which are well documented?

Interesting read. http://mediresource.sympatico.ca/health_news_detail.asp?channel_id=8&news_id=767

Which is more harmful? - good question.

I think the main argument against Atkins goes: yes, you lose weight while on the diet, but do you keep it off if you stop the diet? [answer - nobody knows, no studies have been done]. Also, you are putting your body at risk of heart disease through eating all those fats, and you're putting strain on your kidneys too. [whether that's more dangerous than staying obese, I don't know - and I don't think anyone does].

But its easy to avoid those problems - don't diet as such, but change your lifestyle - exercise a bit more, eat a bit less, and eat more fruit and vegetables, and less fats AND sugars. This does work

[as an aside: I think Atkins gained popularity partly because he correctly pointed out that eating lots of sugar wasn't a good idea. In the 70s the message from diet experts was 'don't eat fat' - now they failed to point out that eating lots of sugar was just as bad, and that eating big portions would make you fat, too. So you had lots of food being sold as low-fat, which it was, but it was also high in sugar and calories - people bought it because they had picked up on the 'low fat' message. So Atkins could correctly point out that eating lots of sugar wasn't a good idea. Where I think he's wrong is in advocating lots of fat instead....]

(Btw thanks for that second link, interesting}

i agree with the fact that there are key pieces that are great in the atkins diet....eat less carbs (cause most of us don't understand what real portion sizes are anyway) and cut down on the sugar....if you do that---even if you don't follow the high protein directives..you'll lose weight

i tend to follow the more "natural" food type diets, so i like whole wheat thigns, and non diet-soda plans...but these can follow low-carb diets as well...in reality there are a lot of eating plans that can go low-carb in different ways

i like bread...i eat it...i just try to either bake it, or buy fresh baked...and i try to get whole wheat pasta and flour, etc and low sugar varieties of desserts ALTHOUGH i don't get the sugar substitutes of stuff...it just depends on what your idea of health is...to me sugar free isn't as helpful if it still has aspartame in it (but i love diet coke!)

you just have to decide what your views on health are, and have your decisions match those