Has anyone managed to sustain eating low-carb in the long term?

[Breakfastatlarrys]

I feel really good eating low carb and lose weight, but always end up eating carbs again (a lot!) and put the weight back on, feel sluggish and ill. Has anyone managed to eat low carb in the long term (and in winter) - and do you have any tips?
I’m willing to be pretty moderate about it ie still eat pulses etc just cut out rice, potatoes, bread, chips etc… I even allow myself treats in restaurants but still always seem to end up sliding back, and it’s not just a weight thing. My skin, sleep and so many things are better when I eat low carb.

I follow a similar approach to @Cozytoesandtoast00 and feel really well on it. I eat healthy carbs and virtually no sugar or UPF. Delicious food and very satisfying.

Excuse my ignorance but does the typical Mediterranean diet not include pasta/potatoes/polenta etc? Or is it just that they are balanced with lots of good stuff?

Two things: the Mediterranean diet includes much more than Italian food. Also, Italians' portions of pasta, gnocchi and polenta tend to be much smaller than most Brits tend to eat.

Secondly, when I think of a Mediterranean diet, I primarily think of middle eastern food, especially Lebanese. Lots of vegetables and salads in all kinds of shape and form, and delicious flavourings, including lots of herbs. It is true that Lebanese people tend to eat a fair bit of rice and bulgur and less meat than I would want to eat - but this is mostly because many cannot afford lots of meat.

A Lebanese Feast is an excellent book of healthy vegetable dishes. Add some lean meat and you have an excellent low-ish carb diet.

Everyone dies of something. So would I rather die of heart disease (the second most common cause) or dementia/Alzheimer's (the first)? Heart disease please. Assuming those happen at the same age.

Because studies that say, "more likely to die" and don't add "early" aren't worth a lot. Statistics and reading articles about them are tricky. You could find that keto cured Alzheimer's and that would make people on keto lots more likely to die of cancer, heart disease or respiratory diseases. Wouldn't be a bad thing though.

If someone can find a study that says people long-term randomly assigned to healthy low carb died earlier than people randomly assigned to healthy high carb, I'll eat my hat.

I said exactly that in my first post. That the main takeaway was they were making their own pasta/bread/wraps and not eating processed food. That was what every area had in common. The minute they introduced a more heavy western processed diet then health suffered. I do think pulses and beans are healthy. If they don’t agree with you then avoid them. It’s really simple.

Sorry I missed your other post.

THIS
Your body is very clever and when you deprive it of essential foods it will do everything to get you to eat them - usually in the form of cravings for totally unhealthy food - which then produces weight increase.
The only way to loose weight is a healthy balanced diet and regular exercise.

I've found the forums on https://www.diabetes.co.uk/forum/ very useful for reading suggestions and support. They convinced me low carb was the way to go. After that I googled for low carb bread recipes , tried loads but the vital wheat gluten was the best tasting. Keto mug cake is worth googling for a sweet treat.

On the whole I don't use special recipes but cook as normal and substitute eg cauliflower rice for rice, mashed cali for potato mash. I avoid root veg , pasta, bread,rice potatoes sugar etc but by eating this way I can eat out but have eg salad instead of chips or rice and cheese plate instead of dessert.

I buy a few things in like low carb tortilla bases so I can have pizza as a treat.

Like other T2 eat a lot of Greek yoghurt, berries , dark chocolate (more than 80%) and nuts.

Again the forum is useful for the things you don't realise are high carb eg porridge , beans/pulses etc.

Once she has the idea you can get a Libre glucose monitor on a free 2 week trial to test out what spikes blood sugar. But best to read forum first to get an idea of a good diabetic diet. Counterintuitively high fat is good to avoid hunger pangs and slow uptake of sugar.

Following this I reduced my hba1c from 88 to 34 in a few months

Sorry above is for ladyoflavalamp.

@Perfect28
Actually the brain cells can use ketones for fuel. There is also mounting evidence that dementia may be related to a problem with the way brain cells use glucose as fuel. Some scientists have called Alzheimer's type 3 diabetes. A keto diet, or mct/ coconut oil may help
zoe.com/learn/could-the-keto-diet-help-treat-dementia.amp

I am the same - so no pasta or bread, but rice and potatoes are ok.

JFC. So much nonsense on this thread.

Your body is very clever and when you deprive it of essential foods it will do everything to get you to eat them - usually in the form of cravings for totally unhealthy food - which then produces weight increase.
The only way to loose weight is a healthy balanced diet and regular exercise.

Where did you read this?

If someone can find a study that says people long-term randomly assigned to healthy low carb died earlier than people randomly assigned to healthy high carb, I'll eat my hat.

@Breakfastatlarrys , I agree with @MrsTerryPratchett . The article that so alarmed you is based on a META-analysis of several studies. You'd have to look at all the individual studies to get a thorough understanding of its validity. Except I bet you'd only confuse yourself more. I am willing to bet that the various cohorts were not matched in terms of their definition of low-carb diets.

And that's before we get to the problem that such data are notoriously difficult to interpret. We do not know how well the study participants adhered to the various diets, how accurately they reported what they ate, and the extent to which they were under medical supervision. That's before you get to factors such as pre-existing conditions, genetics, environmental factors, et cetera. Plus potential bias by the people undertaking the studies.

At the end of the day, a healthy diet should consist of real food as opposed to UPF and refined carbs. How does the saying go: Eat food, not too much, mostly plants. To which I'd add lean protein and healthy fats. And complex carbs!

I think it's also worth saying that there is no, one, agreed definition of what a low carb diet is.

Keto - if you're following it properly - is less than 20g carbs per day, which is very strict.

But there's no such definition of low carb. Hence a whole load of assumptions about what people are/should be eating if they're following a low carb diet.

Very few people understand what the Atkins diet is, for example. They focus (largely because of negative media coverage) on the first couple of weeks which are called Induction, where you keep your carbs under 20g a day. But they never talk about the rest of the plan, which is about increasing your carbs on a daily/weekly basis until you reach the point where your weight loss stops/reverses - which is really important, as everyone has a different amount of carbs that they can tolerate.

A low carb diet is definitely not about cutting out all carbs. A good, nutritious low carb plan will be one that ensures you're getting your carbs from vegetables and salad (and some fruit - and even some pulses/legumes, depending on the plan).

There is also plenty of evidence to say that you can train - hard - on a low carb diet. If in any doubt, read the work of Drs Phinny and Volek who have done a huge amount of research into this.

I've been following a lower carb diet to get my diabetes under control, and after 12 weeks of it I've never felt so well. I think the key is being prepared, something I'm not usually very good at but I've cracked it with a weekly online shop and always having something in the freezer for nights when you don't have a lot of time/energy. My blood sugars have halved, and I'm hoping that when I see my diabetic nurse next month that I can reduce my medication (it's giving me terrible gastric issues).

I'd happily spend the rest of my life eating buttered toast but if I do, I'm taking years off my life. It's a no brainer.

There’s also an overwhelming amount of research linking type 2 diabetes to kidney damage, heart attacks, strokes, loss of vision and nerve damage. So if one is diagnosed with T2 or pre-diabetes, the small risks highlighted in that article are outweighed by the much bigger risks associated with poor blood glucose control.

Yes I do a version of this too. Though I believe white basmati is actually easier on the body. Soaked and well cooked. I do overdo the sourdough toast at times though

Lower carb is easy to sustain.

I do find smaller portions of all good groups easier to maintain personally

I low carbed for 6 months earlier this year, felt great once i got in the zone and I lost more than 2 stone. Slipped on holiday as there weren't many low carb options available and haven't managed to successfully get back into the swing of it again as we've been super busy and bread/potato/carbs are just so quick and handy 🙈 It is possible long term but I have found that I need to do a lot of planning and prep to stay on the wagon. I have also found that it does get boring after a while, and though I wouldn't overtly crave pasta or rice, it does get annoying having to constantly find and make an alternative.

Hoping to get back into the zone between now and Xmas though 🤞

@SkyFullofStars1975 the Waitrose LivLife bread is very low carb and is the nicest low carb bread I’ve tried; it’s really nice with Kerrygold! Mmm… You can only get it in the big Waitroses though, which is v annoying.

Done it for about five years thanks to my Diabetes. I do occasionally have something carby, like today I had a homemade dish that had some pastry and some peas in that I wouldn’t normally eat.

I have also found that it does get boring after a while, and though I wouldn't overtly crave pasta or rice, it does get annoying having to constantly find and make an alternative.

Do look at middle eastern cuisine, @Wozzzzzaa - see my earlier post about A Lebanese Feast. Such delicious food - anything but boring. I'm sure most of these recipes can also be found online or on YouTube.

Excuse my ignorance but does the typical Mediterranean diet not include pasta/potatoes/polenta etc? Or is it just that they are balanced with lots of good stuff?

I absolutely thought a Mediterranean diet was my cue to eat loads of pasta. This was a massive mistake.

I think whenever 'Mediterranean diet' is mentioned, it could be a lot clearer that they mean North African/Lebanese/Palestinian. Lots of veg, pulses, wholegrains, olive oil, fish, some meat.

I don't get bored with a proper Mediterranean diet, there are so many choices and great cook books.

Toast is my downfall, buttery.

I recommend people read Dark Matter or Fibre Fueled for a good understanding of the importance of fibre for the gut microbiome and the gut microbiome for health.

Those that say they can't cope with certain foods such as beans/pulses likely don't have the right gut bacteria to break them down. The problem here is that the presence of these good bacteria are linked to reductions in many of the diseases people associate with aging so you really want to encourage them. I have gradually built up my tolerance for beans over the past few months and also started eating a lot more fermented food (which is a natural probiotic) as a result the weight has fallen off, I have loads of energy and a completely flat tummy for the first time in my life.

My head even feels less foggy. Gut bacteria are even important for the brain.
https://www.health.harvard.edu/staying-healthy/whats-the-connection-between-the-gut-and-brain-health
'Substances made by bacteria in the gut can get into the blood, just like nutrients in our food travel from the gut into the blood. Also, certain nerves connect the brain and the gut: bacteria in the gut can send signals through those nerves to the brain. Finally, gut bacteria can stimulate immune system cells in the wall of the gut, and the immune cells then can send signals though the nerves to the brain.
Research in the past decade has found that gut bacteria may influence our emotions and cognitive capabilities. For example, some bacteria make oxytocin, a hormone our own bodies produce that encourages increased social behavior. Other bacteria make substances that cause symptoms of depression and anxiety. Still others make substances that help us to be calmer under stress. (Yes, I know: I want some more of those bacteria, too.)
Finally, the gut bacteria also have been shown to influence our vulnerability to certain brain diseases, including Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease, and autism. For example, a substance called synuclein, found in the brains of people with Parkinson's disease, is made by gut bacteria and can travel via nerves from the gut to the brain'.

@Delatron where did I say there is research that long distance athletes don't need fuel?