Interesting. I probably get between 15 and 25 now. Where should the other 25 come from? I’d really rather not choke down another 25 of veggies. Fruits? Yogurt? Whole grain?
I think it depends heavily on the type of low-carb diet. Paleo/primal people have differing opinions, based on whether you think people should only eat what the average hunter-gatherer ate, or if some modern conveniences are okay.
Also, the half and half and sweeter (caloric or otherwise) are a bit controversial. Half-and-half I believe has 1 g of carbs per serving (don’t quote me on that) and some low-carbers avoid dairy.
For most people, the actual coffee is itself okay.
Dr. Atkins pimped tons of products before his death. The commercialization of his diet was his doing, not something done to his good name after his death. Not just the grocery store products, but also many panacea vitamin-mineral supplements through his institute.
Not a nut eater–they never make me feel full and I tend to over-eat.
I love dairy; however, most of the full-fat stuff is actually low in carbs. The full-fat sour cream, for example, is only one gram of carbs/2 tbsps.
You don’t need 50g daily if you are in ketosis, which you certainly are at that level of intake. Since you want to lose some fat, if you’re feeling good with what you’re eating now, no need to change things. Ketosis seems to really speed fat loss for many people.
However if you don’t get over these ‘low-carb flu’ symptoms you’re having in the next month, I would suggest adding more carbs back in and seeing if that helps the depression, etc and you can still lose weight. Yogurt/Greek yogurt has quite a lot of carbs, also protein and good fats and helpful bacteria.
‘Low carb’ is defined as less than 45% or so of your daily calories from carbohydrates. You don’t need to eat zero carbohydrates, or be in ketosis (less than 50g or so/day for most people) to eat low carb. There is a lot of wiggle room! Less if you have weight to lose, even less if you have a lot of weight to lose, and if you have issues with uncontrolled eating or binging on carb foods, maybe not so much (this is a huge issue for a lot of people doing low-carb for weight loss, and for them it’s healthier to restrict carbs to nothing since eating any will lead to binging). But I include potatoes, sweet potatoes, white rice, and chocolate in my diet on a regular basis, and still eat only about 150g carbs daily these days, as along with 200g of fat and 70-100g of protein.
Also, if you are planning on exercising, many people do much better with adding starches to fuel workouts and speed recovery. Some people do just fine working out on zero carb, though. It’s a long process of eating better and finding out what makes you feel and look your best.
Thanks rhubarbarin.
Is eating very little for a day or two terrible for you on this diet? I’ve had a cold for a couple of days and the only low-carb stuff I can force down are cheese sticks. And it pretty much makes me feel gross as soon as I eat it.
Sorry I was snippy, but I was explaining ketosis earlier in the thread. I could have been clearer with this particular explanation though! What I meant was ‘if you don’t have minimum glucose intake of approximately 50g per day, your body will begin ketosis to fulfill the needs of the brain etc’.
I do it every now and then–when my work cafeteria doesn’t have any suitable low-carb options I skip lunch. Before, when I would skip meals, my blood sugar would plummet and I’d feel awful. Now, I barely even notice. I had a physical last Friday afternoon and I had to be fasting for 8 hours. I went from dinner Thursday to about 4:00 Friday without eating anything (I did have black coffee and water, but that’s it), and I was just starting to get hungry.
Re: Fasting.
After reaching my goal weight on Dukan, I really wanted to occasionally have a few beers. But I feel guilty when I do. So on days where I’m likely to go out for a few drinks, I fast all day. Note, however, that after abstaining from alcohol for a while, then not eating all day, 3 beers = 6 beers as far as cerebral effect.
I must have been under that impression because wasn’t there a huge explosion of “Atkins Bars” and the like in the few years after his death? Maybe that just happened to coincide with an upsurge in the popularity of low-carb.
I’m not doing “low-carb” in the sense of following a specific “diet”, but I cut out all grains (legumes and sugar, too, more or less), way upped my saturated fat and protein intake, and have never felt more fantastic in my life. Suddenly, all the crappy GI issues and other mild, but chronic, health issues I had started to clear up. Even a patch of eczema is clearing up after fifteen years or so.
I tried (well-supported) vegan diets and low-fat, whole-grain diets my whole life and would lose weight for a while then would get depressed and gain weight in a wild swing in the other direction, without having strayed from the “plan”. I never ate much fast- or processed food, yet doing everything “right” always left me feeling hungry and eventually turning obsessive/compulsive about food while putting on a bunch of extra weight. This is the first time in my life I can ever remember feeling “satiated” by food. And I’m not doing anything fancy–just eating tons of veggies and lots of good, fatty, pasture-raised meat, free range eggs, raw dairy, that sort of thing. Just nixed the brown rice, hulled barley, oatmeal, and wheat products. We do get “carbs” from starchy veggies here and there, so it’s not like Atkins or anything, but compared to our carb intake before it’s pretty insignificant. And checking up on my food intake once in a while, I’m finding that I’m easily falling into the recommended calorie range for weight loss without any particular effort or counting–just eating until satiated and then stopping. It’s weirdly a new experience for me for my brain to recognize “enough” without reaching “full”, but I attribute it to getting dense nutrition and plenty of good, saturated fat for the first time in my life.
I may come crawling back in a while and tell you all how it didn’t work out, but so far at least it’s been no effort at all, and astounding how much better I feel. I’d way rather have a pile of asparagus and broccoli with butter than some equivalent serving of whole grains and bread. And full permission to enjoy blue-rare ribeye and hazelnut-fed pork chops? Best “diet” evar ;0).
I just learned something new that I’m trying to understand better regarding insulin’s effect. Does anyone have a good citation for more in depth info about how elevated insulin requires the body to burn carbohydrates for fuel, actually preventing the burning of fat? And I mean “in-depth” because I’m trying to put together how that operates exactly in relation to calories of given nutrients eaten and when.
Anyway, just a solid source for insulin and carb and fat metabolism. I’ve checked The Google and gotten some things, but I’m still hazy on some others.
I’m also curious about the potential for artificial sweeteners to raise insulin levels even though they are extremely low carb, any cites about that, apart from anecdotal experience?
Ain’t it though? Bring on the macadamias, please! Can I have another slice of that ham? What? Crispy chicken wings? Yes, please.
One thing is true: I am eating hardly any butter, because most starchy carbohydrates really exist primarily is butter-delivery systems: bread, potatoes, pancakes, waffles, pasta (cheese raviolis with brown butter and sage… I gotta figure out a good pasta replacement, cus otherwise that’s an awesome dish…)
Were it me, I’d be using the butter and sage on just about any green veggies you care to mention. Then drizzling the rest over my flash-seared pork loin chop
I think I’m bidding a fond adieu to ravioli and tortellini except perhaps on rare special occasions. Using a mandoline slicer to shred zucchini into fine julienne strips and giving ‘em a quick saute’ has worked great as a pasta-sauce carrier. I like the texture very much, surprisingly nicely al dente.
When Adkins first came out 5 of us engineering types who tend to gain weight due to low energy jobs took it on. All lost weight. It was easy and you did not have to starve. One guy I saw about 6 years later and he kept it off. He said he just checked his weight ,when he saw it going up he went full Adkins for a few days.
