[Zefah]

Here we go.

You don't like bro-science?

[O.DOGG]

That's a good idea but a low-carb diet is very hard to follow when you're a vegetarian and most of your protein sources contain carbs as well.

[Cubsfan23]

Even if you love carbs, it's not that hard to restrict yourself to something like 150g a day. I'm not a fan of the "very little or no carbs" approach, so I probably average 100g a day.


the 300g recommended on the food pyramid is laughable.

[FallingEdge]

Your best bet is to cycle your carbs. Go a few days staying pretty low then have a binge day. Also the biggest thing is calorie count. You need to eat less than you need to lose weight.

This is my thought on the matter. I prefer going going low carb then have carb ups. Calories out > Calories in.

There really is a ton of ways to get to your final goal. No one way is better than the other.

[Deadly Cyclone]

First of all, Whitta your meals plan looks like it comes from a 5 star restaurant. Dat Book of Eli money. :P

Second, I do pretty well during the week. Usually under 80 carbs per day. Weekends are harder though, as I tend to binge more. I've lost 30 pounds over the past year, but have 15 more to go and it's not going anywhere. What am I to do? Heck, I'm doing Insanity now too.

[Dosia]

I love my carbs. Lost 35 lbs eating carbs just eating less calories. Gaining muscle now eating carbs and body fat still decreasing. Eating minimal carbs is a horrible feeling and I will never do that shit again.

[Gary Whitta]

First of all, Whitta your meals plan looks like it comes from a 5 star restaurant. Dat Book of Eli money. :P

Ha, not really. Most of the stuff I buy comes from Trader Joe's or Fresh & Easy, both of which are pretty cheap.

[cryptic]

I understand why a lot of the people here have issues withdrawing from bread. It was literally like a drug withdrawal for me where I'd keep going back. After over a year, I have no desire for bread and it doesn't really seem like a food anymore.

This article goes into detail about how modern wheat binds with the opiate receptors in your brain and how this make's it truly addictive.
http://blog.trackyourplaque.com/2012...he-masses.html

[Phoenix]

Atkins vindicated from beyond the grave

Atkins is lunatic fringe. You can lower your carb intake substantially while never being in the same ballpark as an Atkins diet. I am down 35 pounds so far from last year with fairly simple tweaks to lower carbs/sugar intake and I've been able to keep the weight off fairly easily... most of it is just identifying bad habits and finding suitable alternatives (that's the part that most diets fail on).

[Gary Whitta]

Even if you can't live a low-carb life cutting out sugar is a great positive step. It's frightening how many calories in the American diet come from soda alone. Fucking SODA. Nothing but junk corn syrup. Cut that shit out.

http://www.sciencenews.org/view/gene...alorie_Culprit

Fruit juice is almost as bad. People think it's healthy because it's "fruit", but the juice is just the liquified sugar that's left after the wholesome part of the fruit is removed.

[catfish]

I'm in the same boat yo. Wake up a half an hour early and do pushups and situps. Run 5 miles every day and just eat less. I hate the attack against food that dieters have. Brown rice is not unhealthy. Carbs are not unhealthy. Maybe not conducive to quick weight loss but not unhealthy. Moderation in all things.

I think it's more the fact that carbs aren't suited to the western way of life. They're amazing, if you take a vacation and go do daily activities like hiking.

However, office work + rice and potatoes every night.... which fucking sucks, because I LOVE potatoes. I started insanity and followed the 5 meal a day thing, dropped weight like crazy, something like 5 kilo in 7 weeks.

it really does work. Portion control in general is extremely important I think.

[Mistle]

I've lost 40lb in 5 months from just watching my calories (plus doing exercise) and trying to make healthy choices as much as possible. I don't pay too much attention to carbs/fat/whatever. Just calories in and out. Maybe not the best way, but it's working.

[Phoenix]

Even if you can't live a low-carb life cutting out sugar is a great positive step. It's frightening how many calories in the American diet come from soda alone. Fucking SODA. Nothing but junk corn syrup. Cut that shit out. http://www.sciencenews.org/view/gene...alorie_Culprit Fruit juice is almost as bad. People think it's healthy because it's fruit, but the juice is just the liquified sugar that's left after the wholesome part of the fruit is taken away.

Yep. And its all concentrate with insufficient fiber. Fruit juice is actually pretty terrible for anyone trying to lose weight.

[Etrian Oddity]

A shit-ton of weight loss from low carb is due to water weight (a carb is what, 2g water?). Just saying.

Calories in vs. calories out and eating whole/unprocessed foods, a lot of veggies, and only sugar from whole fruit has been way greater for me and not as ascetic.

The low-carb cult here on gaf has kind of made me dislike the diet, although I was moving to a caloric restriction intake with controlled carbs.

[Zefah]

A shit-ton of weight loss from low carb is due to water weight (a carb is what, 2g water?). Just saying. Calories in vs. calories out and eating whole/unprocessed foods, a lot of veggies, and only sugar from whole fruit has been way greater for me and not as ascetic. The low-carb cult here on gaf has kind of made me dislike the diet, although I was moving to a caloric restriction intake with controlled carbs.

No, not really. Sure, in the first week or two you will see huge drops on the scale due to a drop in water weight after shifting to low-carb. By saying "a shit-ton" you are completely ignoring all of the amazing results so many people have. We've got guys in the weight-loss thread who dropped over 200 pounds in less than two years. I went from 225 lbs to 145 lbs in less than a year myself. This was with almost zero exercise and no intentional cardio. I've since integrated resistance training, as well as deadlifts using a barbell, but my major weight loss came from simple diet changes.

Calories in vs. calories out is a gross oversimplification that ignores all sorts of things about the human body. It's accurate in an extreme sense. You cannot get fatter without consuming, and you will lose weight if you don't consume. That's about as far as it goes, though.

[rhfb]

A shit-ton of weight loss from low carb is due to water weight (a carb is what, 2g water?). Just saying. Calories in vs. calories out and eating whole/unprocessed foods, a lot of veggies, and only sugar from whole fruit has been way greater for me and not as ascetic. The low-carb cult here on gaf has kind of made me dislike the diet, although I was moving to a caloric restriction intake with controlled carbs.

I wouldn't call it a cult. I'm just happy to finally have found a diet that is actually making me lose weight. I've been a lard ass since 3rd grade, it is actually making my life not suck ass, so if I come off as sounding a little too preachy I'm sorry. It just sucks to take being a fat ass as a normal thing in life, something that you can try to change but that wont, no matter what you do. Failing with diets that other people have made work is terrible because you think there is something wrong with your body, or that you are just a failure and not working hard enough at it.

Again, I just want to get to my goal weight with the low carb diet, then I'll be back to eating a sensible diet that includes some carbs. Need to actually try to force the rest of my family to try it since they are all obese as well, and it sucks seeing them being so large now that I'm just "overweight" instead of obese.

[teh_pwn]

A shit-ton of weight loss from low carb is due to water weight (a carb is what, 2g water?). Just saying.

Like 4-5 lbs if you enter ketosis. Lowers insulin, which lowers kidney's salt retention, which lowers water weight.

If you keep track of your weight over weeks and it keeps going down 2 lbs a week it isn't water weight.

[Eschaton]

A shit-ton of weight loss from low carb is due to water weight (a carb is what, 2g water?). Just saying. Calories in vs. calories out and eating whole/unprocessed foods, a lot of veggies, and only sugar from whole fruit has been way greater for me and not as ascetic. The low-carb cult here on gaf has kind of made me dislike the diet, although I was moving to a caloric restriction intake with controlled carbs.

thermic

effect

of

food

[Soneet]

Sorry dude, I love food and all kinds of it. I'll work out as much as I need to to be able to enjoy all kinds. I'd rather work out a lot than just say fuck you to thousands of different foods. Beer is made from grains.

People should definitely not listen to you when it comes to dieting. Hell, you're promoting pizza and beer here. That's just freaking ridiculous.

I also think that most low-carbers, including me, get a bit emotional when people say that low-carb has no benefits compared to other diets, because most people who do the low-carb diet (which is a pretty drastic step if you do it right the first time) have probably tried everything else before it. Almost everything makes you feel like shit and like you're completely struggling for little results. To hear "nah, normal diets are fine, it's just as good" reminds me personally of all the pain that came with every food related thing in the past, shrugging it off. It doesn't help that most people who say that low-carb isn't any better are the ones who haven't done it.

A calorie restricting diet is tough as hell and bounces you right up once you stop with it. Seriously tough as hell. If you exercise while doing it, you get even more hungry. The burden on your mind is reason enough not to do it. Not to mention, this diet probably eats up a lot of muscle as well unless you exercise like crazy: if you don't you'll just end up being a smaller fat person.

A low carbohydrates diet is super easy if you just do it. Heck, you can do it with or without exercise (or whenever you feel like it), at least your weight won't swing like a pendulum. It's effective from any weight you're at. Most people can attest to that losing the last bit of fat is one of the hardest part of weight loss: when you're at the right BMI, don't look fat on the outside, but still have fat on random spots you don't like. This diet targets that. You can't say that about other diets.

[Zefah]

I wouldn't call it a cult. I'm just happy to finally have found a diet that is actually making me lose weight. I've been a lard ass since 3rd grade, it is actually making my life not suck ass, so if I come off as sounding a little too preachy I'm sorry. It just sucks to take being a fat ass as a normal thing in life, something that you can try to change but that wont, no matter what you do. Failing with diets that other people have made work is terrible because you think there is something wrong with your body, or that you are just a failure and not working hard enough at it. Again, I just want to get to my goal weight with the low carb diet, then I'll be back to eating a sensible diet that includes some carbs. Need to actually try to force the rest of my family to try it since they are all obese as well, and it sucks seeing them being so large now that I'm just "overweight" instead of obese.

I think most people come to low-carb diets as a sort of last result after having tried all sorts of "conventional wisdom" diets. After all, the conventional wisdom demonizes fats and promotes plentiful consumption of whole grains and other carb-heavy foods. Taking the step into low-carbdom is an eye-opening experience for a lot of people. They read through the literature and gradually realize how much bullshit they have been fed for years. They realize how misled they have been all these years and how they've been combating obesity when there was a simple solution the entire time.

Most of these people will effortlessly lose a lot of weight on low-carb diets and become increasingly flabbergasted at the fact that they had no idea how easy weight management actually is. It's only natural that they will turn into evangelists. After all, if they are in America or many other developed countries, a large portion of their peers will surely be suffering from similar weight problems. They just want to share the revelation and help their friends and family.

[Zolf]

Lost 50 lbs on a low carb ketogenic diet.

Meat, cheese, vegetables and hard liquor.

[squidyj]

Go without it for a while (grains), and then try it again. Trust me, you wont miss it

....hahahahahah this is the most unintentionally hilarious thing i've read.

[Karsticles]

A shit-ton of weight loss from low carb is due to water weight (a carb is what, 2g water?). Just saying. Calories in vs. calories out and eating whole/unprocessed foods, a lot of veggies, and only sugar from whole fruit has been way greater for me and not as ascetic. The low-carb cult here on gaf has kind of made me dislike the diet, although I was moving to a caloric restriction intake with controlled carbs.

I'm sure the people who are reporting 50+lbs lost just lost a ton of water weight.

[Zefah]

....hahahahahah this is the most unintentionally hilarious thing i've read.

It's certainly been true in my experience. Delicious, sure, but it's not worth the bloated/gassy feeling you get afterward.

[ZackieChan]

Sorry dude, I love food and all kinds of it. I'll work out as much as I need to to be able to enjoy all kinds. I'd rather work out a lot than just say fuck you to thousands of different foods. Beer is made from grains.

Like the other guy said, your diet advice is shit. Eating all of that crap is probably making you super unhealthy inside, regardless of what you may look like outside. It's not sustainable for people other than yourself, and it's mischaracterizing low carb dieting. Cheat days are allowed, and some diets even encourage them. Primal, for instance, only requires 80% of your time to be truly Primal. All of them work in flexibility. Yours, however, does not. Miss some workouts, etc, and you're completely fucked.

....hahahahahah this is the most unintentionally hilarious thing i've read.

Spoken like someone who's never actually tried it.

[FallingEdge]

Like the other guy said, your diet advice is shit. Eating all of that crap is probably making you super unhealthy inside, regardless of what you may look like outside. It's not sustainable for people other than yourself, and it's mischaracterizing low carb dieting. Cheat days are allowed, and some diets even encourage them. Primal, for instance, only requires 80% of your time to be truly Primal. All of them work in flexibility. Yours, however, does not. Miss some workouts, etc, and you're completely fucked.

That's not the case at all. You can eat plenty of carbs and still lose lots of weight. It isn't one and done.

[bangladesh]

Low carb is miserable, weird and unsustainable. Stay active and eat reasonably dude. If my grandfather saw me going low carb he'd slap the shit out of me and tell me to get real lmao.

[ZackieChan]

That's not the case at all. You can eat plenty of carbs and still lose lots of weight. It isn't one and done.

But that's not what he's advocating. He's advocating a diet full of pizza and beer, and unbelievable amounts of exercise to balance it out. I have a friend who does this, who is super ripped and in shape, but it must be exhausting.

Also, I bet he's pretty young, and that way of eating/exercising will bite him in the ass (I'm just making a blind judgment. Feel free to correct me if I'm wrong).

[Enco]

The best combo is:

Eat less carbs (not extremely low but under 150g a day)
Eat less calories than you use (cutting down carbs will help a lot but you'll probably have to cut down on other stuff. Find your BMR)
Exercise 3-4 times a week

BOOM!

The above is completely sustainable for life.

[ZackieChan]

Low carb is miserable, weird and unsustainable. Stay active and eat reasonably dude. If my grandfather saw me going low carb he'd slap the shit out of me and tell me to get real lmao.

You're wrong on all counts, man. I'm never miserable eating low carb. The food is amazing. It's not weird if you actually read about it. It is absolutely sustainable. Primal eating in particular is super easy to do, and makes you feel great.

And who the hell cares what your grandfather would say? That's an appeal to...old people? Well argued, my friend.

[blackflag]

I love low carb. Especially CKD Keto.

Eat 20-30 g carbs or less Monday through Friday. Lift hard and heavy with compound lifts.

Eat a shit ton of carbs on Saturday afternoon and all day Sunday. By a shit ton, I mean 800 grams.

Pass go and collect 2 lbs of fat loss for the week while maintaining or slightly increasing your muscle mass.

[SteveWD40]

The best combo is: Eat less carbs (not extremely low but under 150g a day) Eat less calories than you use (cutting down carbs will help a lot but you'll probably have to cut down on other stuff. Find your BMR) Exercise 3-4 times a week BOOM! The above is completely sustainable for life.

Yep, been on this for a while now and over a year lost 30 pounds, never felt like I was on a "diet" just switched out things like bagels and white pasta for alternatives.

[bangladesh]

You're wrong on all counts, man. I'm never miserable eating low carb. The food is amazing. It's not weird if you actually read about it. It is absolutely sustainable. Primal eating in particular is super easy to do, and makes you feel great. And who the hell cares what your grandfather would say? That's an appeal to...old people? Well argued, my friend.

What kind of food do you eat?

[i nerini del buio]

I love my carbs. Lost 35 lbs eating carbs just eating less calories. Gaining muscle now eating carbs and body fat still decreasing. Eating minimal carbs is a horrible feeling and I will never do that shit again.

Really? Last summer I did a two months long low-carb diet and lost 26lbs without even doing any exercise. And oh boy did it felt like I was a frigging God. I had like 5x the energy, slept better, looked better, my brain was more active, etc. Oh and no farts!

[shadyspace]

Really? Last summer I did a two months long low-carb diet and lost 26lbs without even doing any exercise. And oh boy did it felt like I was a frigging God. I had like 5x the energy, slept better, my brain was more active, etc. Oh and no farts!

How many grams a day?

[i nerini del buio]

How many grams a day?

I don't really know, never did any counting. Just removed pasta, pizza, bread, sugar and the likes from my diet and switched to a lot of fruit, tuna, chicken, eggs, milk and veggies. I really was godlike, believe me. I just felt and looked better, healthier. And I didn't even lose any muscles, just fat.

[ZackieChan]

What kind of food do you eat?

Check out Gary Whitta's post a few pages back of his weekly meal schedule. You get some meat (a steak, chicken, carnitas, pork chops, bacon, eggs, etc), have a huge helping of vegetables with it. There's a meal. Cook with butter. Drink full fat milk or half and half if you want. Super delicious. Check out Mark's Daily Apple for lots of great meal ideas.

Then once a week, or once every two weeks, you get to go nuts. Eat a pizza. Eat a cheesesteak. Whatever you want. Keeps you happy. There's many different programs that do basically the same thing. The weight loss thread here is fully of ideas and success stories.

[gohepcat]

So? Make yourself lose weight through exercise. If you are just maintaining from what you are doing now do more.

Exercise makes you healthy. Diet changes your weight.

[bangladesh]

Check out Gary Whitta's post a few pages back of his weekly meal schedule. You get some meat (a steak, chicken, carnitas, pork chops, bacon, eggs, etc), have a huge helping of vegetables with it. There's a meal. Cook with butter. Drink full fat milk or half and half if you want. Super delicious. Check out Mark's Daily Apple for lots of great meal ideas. Then once a week, or once every two weeks, you get to go nuts. Eat a pizza. Eat a cheesesteak. Whatever you want. Keeps you happy. There's many different programs that do basically the same thing. The weight loss thread here is fully of ideas and success stories.

All those are even more delicious with a helping of grains/carbs though. Don't you ever get a feeling of something missing with nothing but proteins and fats? And it's doable without over-consuming.

I still do go nuts once a week with fast food with grains in my diet.

[harSon]

I've been eating 20g or less for nearly a year now. I got over not being able to have rice, grains and pasta a week in, and now the routine is simply second nature.

[SquiddyCracker]

That's a good idea but a low-carb diet is very hard to follow when you're a vegetarian and most of your protein sources contain carbs as well.

Eggs, Milk, Beans, Lentiles, Legumes, Quinoa, Soy products (Tofu, Tempeh, TVP, soy milk), nuts, seitan, quorn and other vegetarian "meat" replacements.

And that's pretty much it.

[mrklaw]

Food becomes nothing more than sustenance and you can move on to things that actually matter in life. At least thats what it did for me.

doesn't sound very much fun.

[Dreams-Visions]

Shit, I need to do the opposite of this. I'm about 10lbs underweight. Changed the eating habits a bit and lost damn near 20lbs. Mind you, at my heaviest, I was 170lbs @ 5'10.

[ConvenientBox]

Fast food, sugary drinks, and alcohol are what people need to stop gorging on in order to keep weight off. Eating a bowl of all bran in the morning isn't going to make you gain weight. Fart yes, but the no effort ghost shits are so worth it.

[zatara]

a low carb diet has me at 132lbs lost so far in 13 months.

[Bulbo Urethral Baggins]

I'm making this up, but this would be typical for me: MONDAY Breakfast: Smoked salmon and eggs Lunch: Stir-fried chicken and peppers Dinner: Ribeye steak and spinach TUESDAY Breakfast: Bacon and eggs Lunch: Tuna on a low-carb flatbread wrap with some almonds Dinner: Pork chop with beans or peas WEDNESDAY Breakfast: Ham and cheese omelette Lunch: Split pea and ham soup Dinner: Roast chicken and creamed spinach THURSDAY Breakfast: Chicken sausage and eggs Lunch: Grilled cajun salmon with mixed nuts Dinner: Italian sausage and peppers FRIDAY Breakfast: Some kind of egg scramble with ham and peppers Lunch: Yellowfin tuna poke with onions and soy sauce Dinner: Lamb chops with lentils and mushy peas WEEKEND Anything I want.

You eat a lot of peas. Aren't they high in carbs and generally avoided on a low carb diet?

[mrklaw]

You eat a lot of peas. Aren't they high in carbs and generally avoided on a low carb diet?

and a lot of eggs, aren't they bad for you if you eat a lot?

[blackflag]

and a lot of eggs, aren't they bad for you if you eat a lot?

Why would you think they'd be bad for you?

[AdrianWerner]

Isn't a low carb diet relatively unhealthy since they're your primary source of energy?

The whole problem is that they became the primary source of energy, while in reality human body evolved to use fat and protein as energy instead.

[AdrianWerner]

and a lot of eggs, aren't they bad for you if you eat a lot?

THat's a myth.