Low fat/protein, high carb diets?

Factual Questions
1

Is there such a thing as this?

Because I use to be somewhat overweight. I was at about 170lbs. Over about a year I started working out a little and eating allot less protein rich foods and reduced, if not completely eliminated my fat intake. I went down to the 140lbs that I am now by doing this. I’m pretty slim and feel better then I ever have. I’m a younger person (19) and am just wondering if this will work forever.

I don’t eat any sugar, stay away from any butter or oils, avoid snack foods like chips, popcorn, cant, ect. It seems to be working so far and im happy with the results. About the only things I eat now are breads, pastas, rice, fruit/veggies, and cereal. Only drink diet coke and sometimes skim milk. I run and lift about two-three times a week. I take my vitamins.

Are there any downsides to a diet like this?
If I stoped working out would I gain allot of weight?

Anyway, just wondering because I’m allways reading about low carb high fat diets.

Hope I posted this in the right place.

2

Your actually close to a decent way of eating, but you need to add in lean protein, like poultry and fish.

So, the downside is that you are protein deficient. Three easy ways to get lots of protein and have almost no impact on your weight (but you’ll look fitter because you’ll preserve muscle mass):

fish
chicken (trimmed of fat - broiled, grilled, etc)
turkey
pork -lean
soy
even lean red meat

You are smart to keep sugar out, as long as you keep out just the 'refined ’ sugars, like those in soda/pop/candy bars, etc.

Keep some natural sugars from fruits in your diet. An Apple or a banana have sugar, sure, but are very low in calories, and should be part of a balanced diet.

Keeping out oils, fats, cheap sugars and fatty foods is a good idea. I would recommend you boost your protein intake with something I mentioned and keep some fruit in your diet. Both are lean sources in a healthy diet.

3

You don’t hear of such diet because protein are important for your body and won’t make you take weight. Well, that’s not entirely true. In fact, if you train and eat a lot of protein you’ll gain weight but as muscle not fat. For fat, well, lipid are fat and are good for you, in fact their very healty. What’s very bad is animal fat. Then again, some of it won’t hurt you.

As long as you take all the energy/vitamin/mineral/protein/fat your body need their is no danger.

So, some white meat would not be that bad… don’t you think :wink:

Maybe i get this wrong, but i think the AHA suggest that as long as your meal contain less then 25% of saturated fat your on the way for good health.

4

Vegetarians don’t eat any meat at all. Strict vegetarians don’t consume meat, chicken, fish, eggs, etc. As long as their diet includes vegetables containing all the essential amino acids in a day, they’re OK. You need only 0.8 grams of protein per kg (2.2 pounds) of body weight. If you are working out, you may have to increase that slightly. This is very easy to do.

Your diet contains all the essential amino acids (those the body cannot synthesize). Anytime you combine grains (rice, cereal, and bread) with beans, you’ve got it. Although you didn’t mention any legumes, pasta, fruit and veggies will do it. It may not be a bad idea to occasionally eat legumes also.

Unsaturated fatty acids, especially those containing omega-3s, as in cold-water fish, are healthy. I’m not going to get into any long dissertation on this, by there are monounsaturated fats and polyunsaturated fats, along with transfats. Mono’s are the good ones, relatively speaking, and can be found in olive oil, canola oil, etc. The most healthy are those containing omega 3’s.

Your diet sounds good and you feel well. You can gain weight with excess protein. One gram of protein contains 4.5 calories, same as carbs. You need some protein for muscle building, but not much more than the 0.8 grams per kg of body weight. Excess will be deposited in the fat cells, as any other excess calories are.

5

Vegetarians don’t eat any meat at all. Strict vegetarians don’t consume meat, chicken, fish, eggs, etc. As long as their diet includes vegetables containing all the essential amino acids in a day, they’re OK. You need only 0.8 grams of protein per kg (2.2 pounds) of body weight. If you are working out, you may have to increase that slightly. This is very easy to do.

Your diet contains all the essential amino acids (those the body cannot synthesize). Anytime you combine grains (rice, cereal, and bread) with beans, you’ve got it. Although you didn’t mention any legumes, pasta, fruit and veggies will do it. It may not be a bad idea to occasionally eat legumes also.

Unsaturated fatty acids, especially those containing omega-3s, as in cold-water fish, are healthy. I’m not going to get into any long dissertation on this, but there are monounsaturated fats and polyunsaturated fats, along with transfats. Mono’s are the good ones, relatively speaking, and can be found in olive oil, canola oil, etc. The most healthy are those containing omega 3’s.

Your diet sounds good and you feel well. You can gain weight with excess protein. One gram of protein contains 4.5 calories, same as carbs. You need some protein for muscle building, but not much more than the 0.8 grams per kg of body weight. Excess will be deposited in the fat cells, as any other excess calories are.

6

Thats this has been very helpfull to say the least.

One more quick question…

I have read allot about the Atkins diet where getting rid of carbs almost completely helps in losing allot of weight. Would the opposite work? Like getting rid of everything but carbs?

I am just somewhat curious about these things.

7

Meso - 3500 calories is one pound of body fat, so if you cut out calories, be it fat/carbs/protein, you will lose weight.

Say you eat almost nothing but carbs, and eat 1800 calories of carbs per day, but you are very active and burn about 2800 calories per day based on your exercise level/height/weight. In seven days, you have burned 7000 calories more than you consumed, so you can kiss two pounds of body fat goodbye. If protein intake is low, you will lose two pounds of body weight, yes, but it might be some muscle mass that you lost as well.

In terms of body weight, a calorie is a calorie is a calorie.

Remember the 3500 calorie rule and it’ll all make sense: Create a healthy 3500 calorie deficit between what you eat and what you burn and your body will be forced to get 3500 calories off your body - hopefully from the fat stores.

BTW, muscles get a little smaller even when burning just fat, because human muscle, like the animals we consume, has fat that is marbled into the muscle for on demand energy.

8

You need some fat in your diet. As I said before, some fats are actually beneficial. But in addition, vitamins A, D, E, and K are fat soluble, which means that you cannot absorb them without fat in your intestines. As I also said, you need 0.8 grams of protein per kg of body weight. If you are working out hard, raise it to 1.2-1.5. ** PHILSTER ** explained that the calories in - calories out = net gain or loss.

9

The Atkins/Lo carb diets produce singificant initial weight loss in a different way than most: The weight is lost by your body seeking the necessary glycogen from where it is stored in your body - the muscle & liver. It isn’t burning any fat.

When the glycogen leaves the muscle tissue, it doesn’t come alone, it brings 3 parts water to every part glycogen, so the majority of the weight loss is the necessary fluid component of lean muscle tissue - the type of tissue you want to promote, not lose.

This is why you must force fluids during the diet, and why muscle cramping is so common.

Dr. Atkins’ theory begins with a falacy: He believes that carbohydrates, by themselves, cause diabetes (Type II). Science has proven that Type II diabetes is not caused by one type of food, but that obesity is a prime instigator.

This diet isn’t healthy to remain on for any length of time. You’re starving your body of carbohydrates, which it needs for proper blood cell and brain tissue life (they’re two types of cells which can utilize un-metabolized blood sugar).

Your body needs protein, fat (and animal fat isn’t necessarily bad for you, and is better than some forms of vegetable or the new trans-fats), and carbohydrates of the complex variety.

Whole grain breads (don’t be fooled by many mass-produced “whole grain” breads, they are made up mostly of white flour too) and pastas are better than sugary or white-flour products, so you have to choose wisely.

10

What can I say…dieting doesn’t work. It’s eating well and correctly. Everyones body is different.

If people that can lose weight want to lose weight, they get on a regular exercise schedule and quite eating shit foods. Some people do have metabolism problems, don’t knock that idea.

It really is that simple. More veggies, leaner meats (yes you can eat beef,) getting the proper nutrients.

As long as you don’t feed at the trough 24/7 and get a little exercise, you can lose weight. As long as you don’t eat empty calories like chips, pop, candy bars and other crap, you should be able to lose and maintain a decent weight.

This idea of a “diet” makes me ill.

Change how you eat a little and get out a little more and you have just made a serious change in your life.

A simple lifestyle change helped me lose 10 pounds in a month.

Go figure. It didn’t hurt and I still eat the foods I love and enjoy.

BTW, it was cutting back on my carbs at night that mostly did it. since we tend not to burn sugar at night.

Learn up on it more and you will find the lifestyle, not diet, for you. Carbs at night, bad for most people.

Look at the word DIET and you have DIE in it. It’s all about changing your thoughts about eating. I have a burger about once every six months. Many here know I can’t eat pizza without feeling like I ate glue and cardboard.

Change your idea about food and you have found a lifestyle you can live with full time.

11

Yes, you can definitely continue on that sort of diet for the rest of your life. A high-carb vegetarian diet has been proven to dramatically reduce your chances of cancer, heart failure, and obesity.

If you’re working out, you should try and sneak in a little more protein, yes. But it definitely doesn’t require eating meat. You can get more than enough protein from tofu, legumes, and nuts. Vegetarian sources of protein have a high amount of fiber, which is terribly important. Also, NO plant foods contain cholesterol! Cholesterol is only found in animal foods, ie: meat and dairy.

As you can read in the other posts, the Atkins diet, one of the more popular “no-carb” diets, is utterly ridiculous, and you can read about where it got Dr. Atkins himself here. (Though he denies that his diet has anything to do with his heart problems, he isn’t fooling anyone. His diet is based around your body inducing keiosis, a state your body enters only when there is a huge imbalance in fat metabolism, such as either becoming diabetic, or literally starvation. Dr. Atkins has never published a single study in a medical journal, and not a single study has been published that substantiates the claims he makes. And the good doctor, who claims that he’s been on a no-carb diet for 36 years, is overweight.)

If you want a great book, which really gets into the nitty-gritty of high-carb non-meat bassed diet, check out Becoming Vegan here by Brenda Davis RD and Vesanto Melina MS RD. It’s helped me out quite a bit. I’ve been a vegetarian for 7 years, now, and am perfectly healthy. I thought I knew everything I needed to know about vegan/vegetarian nutrition, but I learned quite a bit from this book.

Another great book, which is NOT just another crazy fad diet, is Dr. Dean Ornish’s Eat More Weigh Less (click here or here for info.) It’s basically the same diet you’re already following. The book advocates eating essentially (but not literally) as many carbs as you want, as long as you stay away from animal foods and animal proteins.

Two quick important things, be sure to take vitamin B-12 supplements a few times a week. Contrary to popular belief, there ARE plant sources of B-12, but it’s a certain type of algae that you probably wouldn’t want to eat for lunch. But, many companies make vegetarian B-12 supplements. Also, as someone already mentioned, be sure to get sufficient Omega-3s and Omega-6s. Nuts, seeds, and oils are great sources of these essential fatty acids, especially walnuts, sesame seeds/oil, flaxs seed, canola oil, and pumpkin seeds.

Just to close, there are many world-famous athletes who are strict vegetarians, and eat a diet very similar to the one you described. Martina Navratilova (tennis champion), Art Still (Kansas City Chiefs Hall of Famer), Murry Rose (gold medalist Olympic swimmer), and Dave Scott (six-time winner of the Ironman triathalon).

Good luck!

12

These are excellent posts, and I’m glad someone has finally posted some of the defects of the Atkins diet. However, The May issue of Tufts U. Health & Nutrition Letter states that the best sources of Omega-3 are cold-water fish, such as salmon, halibut, and sardines. Fish also are the only sources of mega-3s called EPA and DHA. A number of other foods also contain omega-3 fatty acids, albeit not as “powerful” as those in fish. Among them: flaxseed oil, pecans, walnuts, tofu, and, to a lesser degree, green leafy vegetables.

The type of Omega-3 (alpha-linolenic acid) in flaxseed oil is not easily converted by most of us to the higher chain fats, EPA and DHA, which appear to have most of the cardiovascular and cancer protection benefits. (Source: U. of California, Berkeley * Wellness Letter *)