Help needed with starting Low carb lifestyle

[leolion]

Hi there, just needed some basic advice on where to start with low carbing. I've never been on a diet in my life and I don't necessarily want to lose weight (5ft 9 and about 67kg) but need to overhaul my nutrition. After a bit of reading, low carbing makes the most sense nutritionally to me. I constantly feel that my digestion is sluggish, feel lethargic, bloated etc. I eat fairly well at the moment with limited processed sugars, no caffeine, but I love my carbs and instinct tells me to cut back. Any ideas on where to start would be greatly appreciated.

[seaoflove]

Posting to say I'm in the same boat. Just had a baby and I'm the heaviest I've ever been. Want to start LC but despite lurking on the LC boards I still feel very confused and bombarded with information

[happygirl87]

You need BIWI! Head over to the boot camp thread, it's prob in active convos and think they're on week 4- even if you're not actually doing boot camp BIWI is the goddess of all things LC!

[leolion]

Thanks for the input, Happygirl.

[WineCheeseSleep]

I'd start by reading BIWI's spreadsheet and a few of the weekly threads to get an idea of what people are eating. I've been really pleased with this way of eating from a nutrition perspective, I'm eating plenty of vegetables and natural fats and very little processed ready made food. I always felt low-fat spreads, mayo etc weren't good for you as they replace the natural fat with artificial stuff to try and recreate the taste. I just thought they were the only choice of you wanted to lose weight!

I've been reading The Idiot Proof Diet which is really interesting on the causes of why we overeat and gives some psychological tips. The diets a bit different though so ignore their rules if you're doing this Bootcamp.

Best of luck, I think it's great.

[BIWI]

If you just want to cut back on the carbs, rather than lose weight, then Bootcamp is probably a bit too strict for you.

Instead, just focus on cutting down/out as much as you can of:

bread
pasta
rice
potatoes
fruit
sugar
flour

Make sure that you don't avoid fat, and try and eat fattier cuts of meat.