Having your cravings vanish is not only an complete eye opener to a former carb addict, but it gives you the power to refrain from shoving in food.
this has happened to me very recently. I'm still recovering from post viral fatigue which has been horrible. But about 2 weeks ago i decided to cut out sugar,dairy and wheat followingf advice from a nutritionist. My cravings have completely disappeared. To the point i have to remind myself to eat enough food. This is coming from someone that eats sandwiches everyday followed by chocolate from the vending machine and lots of puddings at home.
bravo trickydisco - thats the feeling I was on about. It's weird having to recalibrate isnt it!?
I found that once you've adjusted, you begin to realise that you are more acutely tuned to 'bad' foodstuff - if you eat a packet of crisps or a sandwich/bread, your whole body feels rough afterwards.
Its as if you have to carb binge, and keep binging through the warning signs, until your body is back to functioning on sugar again - and its hello to the blood sugar roller coaster (and weight gain) all over again.
I firmly believe that white refined flour is one of the worst things that has happened to our diet. Our bodies are just not designed to metabolise gluten properly. Sugar being the second worst thing. It's funny every time I go out for a meal or to a party and they have a buffet or party food it's all pizza, pasta, chips, sandwiches, pies, pastries, bread sticks etc. All carb heavy because it's cheap to produce. So that leaves me with the odd chicken leg and salad.
Our bodies are just not designed to metabolise gluten properly.
Source?
interesting convo.
I've been very lucky in that for 45 years I could eat whatever I wanted and remain thin. I love carbs and white bread and crisps are particular weaknesses and even though I don't have a particularly sweet tooth I'm well know around the office for hoovering up anything/everything food-wise.
It's finally caught up with me though and now I'm 52 I can put on weight quite easily even though I'm still riding 10,000 km p.a.
I'm usually 13st and a few pounds or 82kg to 84kg's which is still a reasonable weight for me at 6'2" or 1.88m but twice over the last 15 months I've hit 14st or 90kg's.
The second time I hit 14 stone was over xmas so during the first three weeks of January I stuck to my main meals (including carbs) which are actually quite healthy as the wife likes our two boys to eat healthily. I had absolutely no snacking/cheating in between meals.
Net loss of weight over 3 weeks? Zero.
So I went on a carb-free/low carb diet and lost 7lb (3kg's) over a long weekend (Friday to Monday inclusive) and carried on losing weight so that I've now lost 12lb or circa 6kg's in three weeks.
As per others above, my food cravings have gone. If I do feel hungry I snack on unsalted nuts, mainly cashews. Yes I know these have carbs in but they are good carbs rather than bad.
I'm well aware of the ketones issue as the wife has been a type 1 diabetic for 40 years. I don't have high ketones.
My opinion based purely on my own assumptions about rising levels of diabetes with obesity levels sky rocketing and the fact that I feel a hell of a lot better since I reduced my wheat intake down to about a tenth of what it was. Since when have facts got in the way on Singletrack! 😉
I eat more fat including nuts seeds avocado cheese, full fat Greek yogurt, olive oil than I ever did. My wife had serious problems coping with fat due to Gaul stones. So we ate low fat high carb meals. This in hindsight for me was the worst thing I could of done. The weight piled on despite riding and being fairly active. I have lost about 5 stone since March last year. All I have really done is cut the carbs right down and reduced my sugar intake to lactose in milk and the sugar in fruit. I never eat cakes or biscuits or Choccy bars. For me it was the carbs and sugar causing the weight gain. The health benefits outway the sense of deprivation.
I agree with the hunger pang feeling. I never feel hungry and have to remember to eat sometimes. I never crash now or bonk when riding and my fluid consumption on a ride has dropped dramatically not quite sure why maybe because I'm not processing carbs for fuel or maybe converting fat to energy releases water? Don't know!
trickydisco, read your link, very interesting thanks for posting
A few people on here are now following a way of eating that shares a number of characteristics with Atkins, but absolutely isn't. And as far as I know we have all kept the weight off.
I'm surprised Ton & Molgrips haven't contributedto this thread yet. And I'm still in touch with Dave.
Inbred - I can completely relate to your last post. My wife had a lot of food issues, mainly with vegetables and had a very unhealthy relationship with food. All our meals were carb heavy. Since cutting back on sugar and starchy carbs we've both lost 1.5 st since xmas.
Source?
Not allowed. Full of sugar.
Oh, and there isn't actually any evidence that saturated fat causes heart disease, apparently.
So another reason to eat more vitamin-rich butter than margarine made out of plastic!
I bought Proteinaholic btw, thanks for the recommendation.
It's like death row here tonight, we're on a 'final weekend blow out' I've got a box of crunchy nut cornflakes to get through and a tub of cookies n cream Haagen daaz before the Monday morning curfew. First up, meatballs and pasta..
Dantsw13 That is great news. Education really is the key here regarding food. I have to say that if I listened to my NHS diabetes nurse and dietician regarding my illness I would still be type 2 and medicating. Metformin stops the liver producing energy from your fat reserves to regulate blood sugar. Exactly what you don't want if you are trying to loose the fat. I disregarded most of their advice and cut out sugar and carbs. I did increase my exercise but it was hard on the metformin because I ran out of energy because I wasn't eating carbs. Catch 22. Agreed with my nurse to cut the metformin dose and bang started to loose the weight very quickly in fact so quickly people thought I was ill!
It's like death row here tonight, we're on a 'final weekend blow out' I've got a box of crunchy nut cornflakes to get through and a tub of cookies n cream Haagen daaz before the Monday morning curfew. First up, meatballs and pasta..
Why not just throw it out and start tomorrow?
I mean...if carbs are evil and all that. 😈
I'm following the 8 week blood sugar diet, which was mainly designed for those with type 2 diabetes, exactly as you say above.
Inbred456 - MemberÂ
I firmly believe that white refined flour is one of the worst things that has happened to our diet. Our bodies are just not designed to metabolise gluten properly.
White refined is not necessarily good, but gluten is in wholemeal also and bucket loads of other things. Going truly gluten free is very tough to do, especially finding enough suitable foods that will deliver the same nutrients, especially fibre, as those that contain gluten.
Jamie - MemberÂ
IHN - MemberÂ
Our bodies are just not designed to metabolise gluten properly.Source?
Not allowed. Full of sugar.
Gluten is not sugar and sugar is gluten-free. Sugary products can contain gluten however.
This often comes up and one source of confusion is probably mistaking gluten (proteins) for glucose (sugar).
Another confusion possibly comes from carbs, which are sugar & starch glucose based. Gluten based products tend to be high carbs products.
If sugar is the concern, careful with gluten free as that doesn't mean no sugar. It may even have sugar as substitute.
Gluten free is only really necessary if you are Celiac and there's little evidence of health benefits for those who aren't.
Sorry.
It was a bad joke.
Source = sauce = tomato sauce = full of sugar
IGMC.
slimjim, I am glad you have bought the book, but bear in mind it wont be telling you what you want to hear, quite the opposite in fact.
I fully understand why people like Atkins style diets, I have done them myself, the initial weight loss (water) makes you feel great and I loved the food, unfortunately it just isn't good for a long life.
Hi Bagstard, not wanting to dismiss the entire book, I flipped to a section I found online regarding comparative studies on other primates and humans and it was more than a little bit inaccurate!
I've ordered it, and will have a read (I suspect as a veggie, it's not directed at folk like me) and I guess it was a matter of time that someone wrote a book demonising protein, after all every other macro nutrient has had it's fair share of muck thrown at it!
Hi nickc, read the book from the start, recipes at the end are pretty crap. I wouldn't say it was demonizing protein, just the fact that we eat far too much of it, especially strength trainers like myself. As I said previously I am now eating a plant based diet as much as possible and feel much better for it.
The book teaches you how to judge studies and is in in my mind very transparent. What was it you found to be inaccurate and can you back it up? Anyway get back to me after reading, I was skeptical at the start.
Another LCHF here, about 3kg off in a month. Sugar cravings etc much reduced.
I'm struggling to get the numbers on the turbo-trainer though, and my RHR is about 10% higher. I've no idea if that's a transient thing, I do hope so.
What was it you found to be inaccurate and can you back it up
yeah, he was talking about the Orang-Utans and Gorilla species eating a diet consisting of mainly veg. In short the other large primates have a vastly different gut composition to humans, they have massive colons (the large primate pot belly) in comparison to humans (and we have a rather more developed small intestine, for digesting the proteins found in meat), now gorillas can eat up to 20kgs of veg a day (including stuff like bark and twigs) and from that colon they digest an awful lot of nutrients, including a considerable amount of proteins (conveniently ignored). Plus, the hunting behaviour of the smaller large primates (Chimpanzee and Bonobo) are widely reported. Its complex and comparatively rare, but it's there, and not just the diet of small insects that the book suggests.
This is pretty standard knowledge I'm surprised it was inaccurate TBH
I'm struggling to get the numbers on the turbo-trainer though
A crude knowledge of how our bodies use the different fuel sources suggests a lack of carbohydrates in the body will always make efforts upwards from threshold pretty hard.
Another LCHF here, about 3kg off in a month.
It's the sustainability of these diets I find interesting. Would be interested to see if you can stick with it for 6 months+. As in my experience very few can. Partly due to the impracticalities of eating sans carbs on the go, etc.
It's the sustainability of these diets I find interesting. Would be interested to see if you can stick with it for 6 months+..
My biggest weakness is beer! Without my carb intake would be very low. 🙂
Partly due to the impracticalities of eating sans carbs on the go, etc.
This is an issue. I travel a lot with work and it really highlights the amount of starchy carb that is sold.
When really stuck I have gone into McDonalds or Burger King and got a burger and then discarded the bread. Not super healthy I know but still better than eating it with the horrible white bread.
Evening meals are generally easier, just ask for extra veg or salad instead of the chips/potatoes with your meat or fish.
It's the sustainability of these diets I find interesting.
Me too ! Although so far I'm only missing beer. TBH I was already low carb before starting this apart from the beer, which is all I've given up (I stopped rice/pasta/bread/spuds etc years ago as they made me bloated). Clearly my turbo efferts were previously beer-fueled !
Medium to high intensity exercise is fueld 70-100% carbs
n short the other large primates have a vastly different gut composition to humans, they have massive colons (the large primate pot belly) in comparison to humans (and we have a rather more developed small intestine
Just to be argumentative, I would say it's similar but as you say the colon is longer in the apes while the small intestine is larger. Vastly different would be a cow lol
Diets fall into one of the following:
Low Carb
Low Fat
Reduced Calories
This is regardless of what they may be called - Slimming World, Atkins, Paleo, 5:2, Cambridge, Keto, Lean in 15, Weight Watchers et al.
Choose which works best for you and combine it with a decent exercise programme. Consistency is the key to sustainable results.
Jamie - MemberÂ
Source = sauce = tomato sauce = full of sugar
I consider tomato sauce an essential food that I cannot survive without. If ever I needed a blood transfusion I think my blood type is Heinz Tomato Ketchup. 😀
Regarding the Protinaholic book. There is a very long and detailed critique on it online that show huge inaccuracies in it content. The critique is a very long read.
In summary it is not a great piece of work.
Difficulty with diets is after restricting yourself for weeks or months, you tend to go back to your old eating habits after the end of the diet. Which means your current weight.
Mayby look at some permanent changes, eat more natural non processed foods, cut out snacking, slightly reduce plate portion etc.
I dislike the word diet because it implies a temporary change. I changed what I ate because of health issues and have found a balance that I can stick with so far, 10 months in. It's not cheap either. Nuts are damned expensive and the amount of salad I eat is really expensive. Have to get a green house going I think!
Simple rules for me are no snacks after tea (dinner for our southern friends) till breakfast. Keeps the old blood sugar stable. After dinner if I'm not riding in the evening I go for a walk 45mins with the pog every night hopefully keeps the old metabolism going.
Would be interested to see if you can stick with it for 6 months+
I'll be giving it 6mths minimum, or 4stone weight loss, whichever comes first. Then gradually switching to a paleo type 'lifestyle' (not diet).
Mayby look at some permanent changes, eat more natural non processed foods, cut out snacking, slightly reduce plate portion etc.
Did all that. Lasted a good couple of years. Worked pretty well. Then a massive family crisis, divorce, job change, house change (x3) happened. It crept up gradually, but chocolate and bread did their thing.
Medium to high intensity exercise is fueled 70-100% carbs
Depends on your adaptation. It tends to be the case in the untrained, but in the highly trained fat is used predominantly. There are a load of Keto-athletes showing how this is done. I intend becoming one of them (and I'm now up to 90% of previous FTP).
[quote=Jamie ]
Another LCHF here, about 3kg off in a month.
It's the sustainability of these diets I find interesting. Would be interested to see if you can stick with it for 6 months+. As in my experience very few can. [i]Partly due to the impracticalities of eating sans carbs on the go, etc.[/i]
That was my downfall. I did stick with it for about 8-9 months (even allowing for the mandatory weekly carb day) even though I love pasta too much. I found that trying to find food in various ad hoc locations made it extremely difficult to avoid carbs.
Can't you only store so much carbohydrate for conversion to energy. Where as your body can keep fuelling you from fat for much longer or so I thought?
Can't you only store so much carbohydrate for conversion to energy.
True which is why portion sizes are important and cutting out all carb is a bit silly, they are a really good source of energy
Where as your body can keep fuelling you from fat for much longer or so I thought?
How much are you burning a day? It's probably a key point of your racing the TdF but not if your off to the office every day.
There are a load of Keto-athletes showing how this is done. I intend becoming one of them (and I'm now up to 90% of previous FTP).
Simple question? Is it worth it? Seems to be a lot of effort to get nearly back to where you were.
I think portion size is the key as you say Mike but even going carb free as in rice pasta and bread you are still getting carbohydrate from veg. The problem is as you say portion control and the fact that it seems to cause a craving due to a spike and crash in blood sugar. I still eat carbohydrate but I've cut it right down to an arbitrary level that I think is about right. Rising obesity levels would suggest that this is really hard to control. I would suggest mixing the carbohydrate with fibre so it takes longer to digest.
Depends on your adaptation. It tends to be the case in the untrained, but in the highly trained fat is used predominantly. There are a load of Keto-athletes showing how this is done. I intend becoming one of them (and I'm now up to 90% of previous FTP).
got any proof for that?
Day 1 - I skipped breakfast, breaking the first Atkins rule of not going longer than 6hrs between meals.
Not sure what im going to do for lunch, probably a couple of eggs and a chicken breast.
I think I have a pre-sugar crash sympathy headache coming on..
There are a load of Keto-athletes showing how this is done
Who are these keto-gods?
My guess is that if it works for anyone then it's limited to ultra-running and endurance swimming... basically only events where the individual dictates the pace and maintains efforts well below threshold.
Just to be argumentative, I would say it's similar
well, you could...You'd be wrong (if we just being argumentative), but you could say it. 😆
