To think low carb is just another faddy diet?

[trilobiterevival]

(And it works for some people, much the same as other diets. We know this. And some people are sensitive to carbs, so I am not including them in this AIBU).

But I think most naturally slim/fit people eat carbs. They just don't gorge on them.
Many who go low carb began quite overweight and were probably eating large portions before. Changing their diet and becoming more mindful is likely the reason for weight loss, not the total annihilation of all carbs.
It's all a bit evangelical isn't it?

Plenty cultures enjoy rice, bread and pasta. But I have seen these foods described on MN as.... and I quote.... "nasties'. What utter, utter tripe. There is a huge difference between a serving of wholegrain rice and a sugar festooned donut!

There are healthier carbs than others, like most foods, but it is very easy to locate bread made with only a few ingredients, similarly to what you could make at home. The excuse that all bread is full of sugar and oil is a cop out IMO.

Most people I know who are slim and healthy eat bread or pasta, or both. It isn't the work of satan. It is quite easy to incorporate healthy carbs into one's diet, whether daily or weekly and stay healthy and slim. I wonder if those who claim they can't eat carbs or else they gain a ton of weight immediately are not able to them it in moderation, so it's easier for them to just quit.

For the record I don't favour low fat diets either, I also believe that fat is good for us.

Unless you have a health related issue that requires you to reduce carbs, then I think YABU!

To think low carb is just another faddy diet?

Maybe it is but its the only way of eating that controls my weight, and makes me look and feel much better. So I'm happy with it as a way of life.

There's a difference between low carb and no carbs, doesnt have to be extremes involved.

I think the key is unprocessed food.

Bread with sugar in it etc just leads to trouble

I know for me on a personal level if I eat certain cars I'm left starving. But if I have lentil soup, baked sweet potato etc I'm not.

So it's on a case by case basis

"I am one of the aforementioned people and I can’t eat carbs with every meal unless I calorie count which is miserable and triggering. I am currently 8.5 months pregnant with morning sickness still and I am eating whatever I can stomach- but I’m looking forward to going back to my way of eating. You call it ‘faddy’ but my diet of Greek yogurt and berries, salads with avo oil and protein and meat and veg for dinner is much more nutritious than one completely reliant on grains."

Who said that diet completely reliant on grains is something considered healthy and sustainable? You're missing the point.

I know for me on a personal level if I eat certain cars I'm left starving

Minis and Polos never fill me up.

I've always eaten complex carbs, beans, pulses, rye bread etc. Along with being vegetarian for 30 years and exercise often. I'm 5'9" and have been 64 kg since I was 18. Am now 51.

There are so many low carb people on MN who don't distinguish between simple and complex and label all carbs as "bad".

A lot of the people who have resorted to Keto are not naturally slim people. They have previously been obese and overweight

I do agree with this, and if it work and is healthy, then obviously that's great. I am opposed to people calling healthy carbs 'nasties'.

Another weird thing on MN is how evangelical people become about low carb, but last week one woman posted about being bored with her non-processed food diet/lifestyle.
She was advised to see a therapist for orthorexia, because she had omitted processed junk.
If she'd said she avoided all carbs, i bet people would have agreed with her.

I have also noticed on 'style&beauty' that if a slim woman posts pics and asks for style or fitness help, she must have body dysmorphia and her post attracts insults. If a size 20 woman posts pics and asks for help everyone calls her awesome and offers tons of friendly advice.

It's a strange place sometimes.

You said it yourself, naturally slim - and therefore metabolically healthy - people eat carbs. What's good for them isn't necessarily what's good for overweight, metabolically damaged people with insulin resistance. They don't overeat because they can't judge how much many calories they're eating or they're lacking in willpower. They overeat because their hunger hormones have become dysregulated. The low carb high fat diet has science behind it that it reduces blood glucose and therefore insulin levels. Once that has happened it becomes easier to eat to hunger and to burn fat and lose weight. A reduced calorie diet might work equally well for weight loss but it requires more effort since you're attempting to overcome the effects of hormones instead of working with them.

If a ‘diet’ is going to be sustainable it has to be a way of eating that can be maintained long term. For some that will be a low carb diet. For some a Slimming World style plan. For some intermittent fasting. For some calorie tracking. But everyone’s body is different, everyone’s mind is different and what works for one person won’t work for another.

I do find the demonisation of carbs, and especially white carbs, on here wearing though. Someone waded onto a rice cooking thread earlier to provide an alternative to unhealthy white rice (which no one asked for). White rice is carb dense and poorer in vitamins than brown rice. But it’s a perfectly acceptable part of a balanced diet.

Low carb has worked for me and is sustainable for me too. I’m low carb, rather than no carb though. Dr originally recommended it to reverse diabetes & it worked, so no it isn’t really a fad.

It isn’t sustainable or healthy. But I think a lot of overweight people are overweight (and would agree that they are overweight) because they crave and eat a lot of carbs and sugar and their diet is grain-based and carb heavy: a typical days’ food for many British people is toast or cereal or both for breakfast; sandwich and crisps for lunch; and something almost always involving either pasta, potatoes or bread for dinner. Once you moderate those, it forces people to think about how they change their diet long term.

Mixed feelings about this. I stopped dieting years and years ago because I felt it was destructive and a miserable way to live. I also found it hard to lose weight - calorie deficit just didn’t seem to work well for me - the weight crawled off but we are talking maybe 2lbs per month. Slimming World made it come off faster but I hated that way of eating.

A couple of years ago I was recommended to start a low carb high fat diet to treat a health condition. I did it and it helped my health massively. I had a lot more energy and felt better than I had done for a long while. As a side effect of eating that way, weight fell off me very quickly. I wasn’t doing it to lose weight but I did have a stone or two to lose so it wasn’t unwelcome. And it felt fine - I felt less restricted than I had on weight loss diets as I was eating loads of good fats so felt nice and full. I enjoyed the food I could eat. I only stopped it when I caught covid as it made me crave carbs and sugar. Since then I’ve eaten carbs (about 6 months now) and have put three quarters of the weight back on even though I make healthy choices. I also feel terrible with bad energy slumps and various health problems. My health condition has flared up again and I don’t feel good. I think low carb high fat really suits me. However, I think if you have a tendency towards eating disorders it should be avoided as people doing it purely for weight loss do seem to get very obsessed with it, and that is never mentally healthy.

Most people are able to separate sin from syns don’t be so bloody dramatic. Yes let’s ban something that’s helped thousands of people I clueing myself with my bulimia.

I'm sure that lots of people do eat too many carbs, and when I have dipped my toe into low carbing I have lost weight and felt quite good.

But it's just sustainable for me. I just can't get on board long term with a 'way of eating' where a carrot, tomato or apple might be 'too carby'.

Sorry that should say 'just not sustainable for me'

It's also a bit boring after a while
Yogurt and berries
Eggs with mushroom and spinach fried in butter
Coffee with cream
Cauliflower rice and courgette
Celeriac

It's all great and novel to start with but it's quite dull trying to constantly think of interesting things that are very low carb.

You will soon get the Keto evanaglists in soon, it's almost like a religion to them.

For most people it's calories in Vs calorie out that makes you lose weight, dress any diet up and most are based on that even when they pretend they aren't.

I am not comfortable with diets that cut a food group out.

I eat low carb. Not Keto as that is too low at 30g of carb a day. I eat around 50g and as a diabetic this life style change has bought my blood sugar back down to the normal range and kept them there. I have lost 3 stone of mainly belly fat and my weight is now what it could be for my 5 ft height. As I eat 50g of carb a day I still eat some carbs but they are good carbs in low GI fruit and veg. Not carbs in bread, pasta or rice all of which spike my blood sugar. And as for thinking Asians eat a very carb heavy diet and they don’t have a problem with it well that is untrue diabetes is a rising problem in south Asian with not only people being diagnosed younger but also at a lower weight than westerners. China has a massive diabetes population probably the largest in the world and even italy the home of pasta has doubled their number of diabetics in the last 30 years.

I do believe that if it works for you and keeps you healthy (mentally and physically) then all's good. It's the spouting off about food like religion that get's on my nerves.
But I also think things come in and out of fashion, too. And soon there will be another to replace this particular flavour of evangelicalism.

I've seen vegans on youtube with hundred of thousands of fans recommending a lifestyle of plastic packaged chemicals because someone slapped 'organic' all over it. It's like everyone needs a new obsession to fill up the void where God (purity and cleanliness) used to sit

If I make my homemade pine nut, spinach and pesto pasta salad one person will say "OMG CARBZ!"
And another person would say "Give yourself a break, your non-processed meals are so restrictive!"

Exactly. The only way to lose fat is to create a calorie deficit... some diets do this by omitting entire food groups, some by replacing meals with low calorie shakes, etc etc.
Carbs absolutely have their place in a healthy diet, as do fats and protein. Depending on your goals/lifestyle you might lean heavier towards a certain food group by preference.
Obviously some people do Keto/low carb etc for specific health concerns and are advised to by a dr - that's a whole separate thing! Most people who don't have any health issues, who are looking to lose weight don't need to fear carbs.

I agree that anyone evangelising about any way of eating is annoying but low carb diets work for a lot of people and are definitely sustainable. Things like diabetes and pcos are helped without the insulin spikes of carbs. Losing weight isn't always as simple as calories in vs calories out for a lot of people and you are lucky if it is. There are many conditions that create hunger and low carbing is the only way that can be controlled.

I have been overweight my entire adult life, also very fit, do a lot of exercise and ate controlled calories. Nothing ever helped me lose weight till I tried low carb high fat diet. It works for me, I'm happy, I've maintained my weight for over a year and I'm not hungry all the time time anymore. That said I literally don't care what anyone else chooses to eat. I'll do me and you do you.

I am with you!
I hate all these diets. Slimming world, WW, Atkins, keto etc. they all create disordered eating, by the fact you have to either cut a food group out or point/syn ‘bad foods’

I have genuine sympathy for people who think these work. Research calorie deficit, it’s what all these diets create if you do them ‘right’ basically consuming less calories than what you burn out in a day. I am 5ft 8in, do 10k steps a day, and with my current weight my maintenance calories are 2200, meaning I can eat that many and not lose or gain. 1800 calories is my deficit amount, meaning only eating this means I lose 1lb a week. Yes people say ‘I struggle to track my calories’ but a week or 2 with a digital scale and a consistent diet and you quickly pick up how many calories are in meals for it not to add work to your day. I also have chocolate most days and definitely eat carbs everyday.

Fad diets make me rant.

@trilobiterevival
OP your opening post is so, so SO judgemental.

'naturally slim/fit people'
'gorge'
'began quite overweight'
'large portions'
'not able to eat them in moderation'

These words are not about carbs, they are about eating habits and a little about genetics.

Of course, yes, there is a difference between a serving of wholegrain rice and a sugar festooned do[ugh]nut they have completely different nutritional profiles. On any low carb discussion I have never seen anyone disputing that. IF you're going to eat 50g carbs, it's clear where it should come from. Unprocessed or low preocessed food.

Sure, bread can be made with 4 or 5 or 6 ingredients. I've been there, done that, bloody delicious. But most bread is bought from shops. It has upward of 20 ingredients. Cheap bread has even more, including an 'inert' ingredient that is added to clean the bread making machines. If you're time and money poor then that is the bread you will buy. I challenge you to find affordable bread made with 'a few ingredients'.

Carbs ARE necessary. Any healthy diet will include them. But where do they come from? I'd rather get carbs from a locally grown cauliflower than from rice produced in Asia. I'd rather eat mushrooms, tomatoes, cheese, that come from my local farmer than avocado or mango. I'd rather have minimally processed carbs from a turnip (swede) or brussel sprouts, than from Mr Kellog's sweetened All Bran. I'd rather have a locally caught mackerel than Tiger Prawns from Indonesia.

I try to eat a diet that has less meat and more vegetable, but I would never eat the highly processed 'fake meat' stuff that is promoted as healthy eating.

I am going to disagree massively. I lost almost 5 stone doing keto. At first very strictly, then just keeping my carbs low. I have maintained the weight loss for almost 3 years now and although I’m not zero carbs, I do try to eat healthier breads and pasta keep them low. I also only eat them in the evenings.
So for me, carbs were evil. They were definitely what was causing my weight issue. This might not be the case for all, but for me it really was!