The Unbelievably Good Low Carb Diet Thread

[QueenStromba]

The previous thread was getting a bit full so I thought I should start a new one while we could still link between them.

Oh, I meant to also say that I have lost an inch around the middle in the 2 months or so that I have pretty much plateaued. I have some size 14 trousers from New Look that I could get on in January but were far too tight to look good or be comfortable but now I'd be happy to wear them out even though I'm the exact same weight give or take a pound. This means that I must have lost fat and gained muscle despite my only exercise being walking. Another surprising thing is that I can run now. Just a few months ago if I tried to run for the bus then my lungs would feel like they were burning but now I can run reasonably far and not really be out of breath at all.

londonone thats fine, soft is good, just not lumpy.

Did anyone have any ideas re where to get the coconut flour?

Tesco used to do coconut flour according to their website but they don't have it listed anymore. A few people are selling it on Amazon and ebay though. Amazon are surprisingly good for rare food items.

Holland and Barrett or health food shop should stock coconut flour.

Hello - just popping in for a visit from the Couch to 5k thread. I completed the plan, feel loads fitter and a bit more toned but didn't lose any weight - probably because of my biscuit/cake/chocolate problem. So I thought I'd try low-carbing. I did it ages ago, before I had children and lost weight successfully then. I've been following a moderate, John Briffa type approach - ie berries, nuts, cheese, gk yoghurt, the odd square of chocolate and some alcohol in moderate amounts - as well as salad and protein. I've lost 4-5lbs in the first week and got through the horrendous phase of feeling shaky and headachey and really feel pretty good now. But I'm finding running much, much harder. I just don't have the zip and have really slowed down, struggling to complete 30 mins. I've tried having a single oatcake before I go out, which does help a bit. Haven't had time to read the whole thread - you guys are prolific. But any tips for runnng and low carbing. Will it get better with time, or should I have a little bit of carb before I go out?

I don't have any specific expertise here, but I would think that after the first couple of weeks of low carbing your body should get used to it.

Certainly, my trainer advocates a low carb diet, so training must be possible!

Do you run first thing? How about having eggs for breakfast before you go? I do my gym session first thing and have a boiled egg an hour or so before I go. If I can't face it or haven't got the time (especially before my 6.45 session on a Wednesday!) I sometimes have full fat Total Greek yoghurt - so it's a protein/fat combo for fuel as opposed to carbs (although there are a few carbs in the yoghurt).

Hi dotty - I'm struggling a little bit with this. I did my first 5km in November so am probably similar to you in terms of my running. I'm 3 weeks in to low carbing. My runs now tend to be 5-6km/45 mins and I have noticed a drop off in stamina towards the end - I complete the run but slow up a lot. This morning I had my more carby breakfast - I normally have omelette but am allowing myself Greek yoghurt, berries and nuts once or twice a week and I had this. It was a tough run with my group today but I got through ok - still knackered at the end but it was harder than normal so I think the breakfast made a difference. I don't find low carbing a problem before my kettlebells classes, it's just the endurance aerobic stuff that is a problem

On the Idiot Proof Diet which I am doing (which is low carb but then seems to gradually move you to low GI), after a few weeks of the weight loss programme they allow you to have 2 bowls of porridge a week. So when I get round to re-introducing that in a week or two, I'll do it on my run mornings. That way any stalling on the weight loss from the porridge may be countered by the fact that I'm burning the carbs almost straight away. You may want to try that for a week and see if it stalls your weight loss - if it does then stop the porridge and rethink, but if it doesn't then you should be fine to carry on.

Thanks for the suggestions BWIW and lemniscate. I guess it's early days as only a week in, so maybe my body's still getting used to it (plus it's only just 2 weeks today since I gave blood, and I know people say it can take 2 weeks to fully recover from that in terms of red blood cells, so that could be a factor too.) I ran first thing yesterday which was v.hard, and did it on an empty stomach. Slightly better when I went mid day in the middle of the week after a yoghurt breakfast and a snack of some nuts. Will see how it goes - I was just googling and so many runners forums say you can't low carb successfully, but I guess they're really aimed at people doing marathons, not 5k 3 time a week!

Hurray i've lost 1/2 stone so one stone to go.
That was 1/2 a stone in less than 2 weeks - i'm so pleased!
Still gagging for a club sandwich but have resisted!!

Well done Cobblers!

I've stayed the same this week, but that hides the fact that I put 4lbs on over the weekend and then lost 4lbs in 3 days once I was back on track. So I'm pleased with that :)

I've lost 7lbs in 3 weeks and almost as importantly I feel so much better - sleeping better, energy levels staying stable throughout the day, less wind (TMI? :o), much more sensible caffeine intake, and eating way more veg than before as they take the space on my plate that was usually reserved for a mountain of carbs.

I think this diet works well for me because I never drank juice or fizzy drinks, only water and tea, and I really don't much like fruit (apart from berries) and love fish, meat and veg. So I've really only had to give up refined carbs rather than a load of other things and I don't like them as much as I like meat and veg anyway. I think the thing I miss most is rice and pulses (even more than cake!), but once I'm in maintenance on India and Neris I should hopefully be able to have just enough of those to satisfy any cravings.

If you have less wind on a low carb diet then you probably have a wheat sensitivity which is something to think about for if you finish low carbing.

Well done, Cobblers!

Queen - that is really possible. My dad is coeliac and I often get issues when I've had a wheat-fest (big plates of pasta/pizza, although piece of toast or cake is not so bad), which is why I tend to mainly carb up on rice or rice noodles (hence me missing rice more than anything!).

Great loss Cobblers.

Things I have noticed as additional bonuses with low carb is that I barely fart at all & my skin is much better. I get the farting thing, as I have IBS & wheat is one of my key triggers but the skin thing remains a mystery. I know that Taubes says that high sugar/carb diets are inflammatory, so I wonder if maybe that is why I'm less spotty? Before going back on low-carb I was getting very hormonal break-outs. So big acne type spots on my jaw & god forbid in my hair line. Since 2nd Jan - I have only had one small spot. Amazing.

And, I haven't had a single IBS attack either. I love low-carb.

(PBB vows to herself that she must never fall off this way of eating, even when she has lost the remaining flubber.)

2lbs off this week :)
Back to pre mothers day weight

Found ground almonds but no coconut flour yet

how does everyone get their 12-15g of carbs from veg? I am struggling. I have a salad for lunch that fills 1/2 a pasta bowl using mixed lettuce, cherry toms, cucumber and pepper but it only comes to 3g carb. Tea is usually similar. I do get my carbs from greek yoghurt etc but know I am not getting enough from veg especially on the days I have omelette for lunch

Are you sure you're getting your carb counts right vnmum? Five cherry tomatoes is 3g of carbs by themselves.

i weighed my salad today and going off my collins little gem book (which has loads of things lower in carbs than the atkins book, so don't know which is right) it was 3g maybe 3.5. I had 40g mixed leaves (1.4g per 80g serv on packet), 20g green pepper, 25g cherry toms and 20g cucumber. Dressed in toasted sesame oil, which is lush by the way.

I would drop the salad at one of your meals and replace it with denser, and therefore more 'carborific' (if that's a word!) vegetables. Stuff like broccoli, asparagus, cauliflower.

Here is a list of carb counts per 100g:
(sorry the table formatting won't work here!)

Veg (raw)	Carbs per 100g	comments re carbs

1 Mushrooms 0.4
2 Watercress 0.4
3 Spinach 0.8 boiled
4 Celery 0.9
5 Broccoli 1.1
6 Asparagus (raw, boiled or canned) 1.4
7 Cucumber 1.5
8 Lettuce 1.7 iceberg = 1.9
9 Fennel 1.8
10 Courgettes 1.8
11 Cauliflower 1.9
12 Avocado flesh 1.9
13 Turnip 2
14 Pumpkin 2.2
15 Runner beans 2.3
16 Swede 2.3 boiled
17 Celeriac 2.3
18 Bean sprouts 2.5
19 Carrots 2.5 old
20 Green pepper 2.6
21 Baby sweetcorn 2.7
22 Aubergine 2.8
23 Leeks 2.9
24 Okra 3
25 Tomato 3.1
26 Mangetout 3.3 boiled
27 Shallots 3.3
28 Brussels sprouts 3.5
29 French beans 4.7
30 Cabbage 5 white
31 Yellow pepper 5.3
32 Carrots 6 young
33 Orange or red pepper 6.4
34 Ginger (peeled) 7.2
35 Butternut squash 7.5
36 Onions 7.9
37 Beetroot 9.5 boiled
38 Peas (frozen) 9.7 boiled
39 Broad beans 11.7
40 Parsnips 12.5
41 Potato 15.7
42 Garlic 16.3
43 Sweetcorn (canned) 26.6 canned

Yo!Sushi.

Went there to celebrate being my lowest weight in 12 months.

Had two Salmon sashimi with sesame seeds, one tuna sashimi with coriander, and a japanese salad (mostly seaweed and edamame beans). Sashimi is raw fish, for those of you who get mixed up about sushi (all other sushi contains white sticky rice, but these don't).

It was lovely with soy sauce made spicy with wasabi paste, and ginger shavings. I thoroughly recommend it. 'Twas about 15 quid.

Just made raspberry coconut 'muffins' - 3g carb per cake. They look a bit messy but taste quite nice, that's my breakfast sorted. Wondering if I can freeze them.
Lunch was salad/egg/cheese/coleslaw

Hiya,

I've just come to get some advice, I know carbs are the reason why I can't loose weight and sugar! So I've decided to try low carbing!!

The only thing that I don't think is healthy is cutting out fruit, and as I am low carbing and not no carbing then I think I should be able to eat fruit...

So this is an example of what I ate yesterday:

B - grapes, banana, low fat yoghurt
L - Spanish omelette (no potatoes) adds salad
D - homemade veg curry with quorn style chicken (Is quorn ok when low carbing??)

I seem to have lost 1lbs already

Just wanted to ask if you think this will work?

I ate similar today with an apple as well.

Also anyone got any good low carb snack ideas? And what is everyone having for breakfast??

I need to loose 1stone, I've tried ww but I'm not even doing it properly!!

thanks for the list BIWI. I should be able to replace salad in the evning with denser veg, it just means I will have to do seperate veg for me as DH won't eat alot of veg. He pulls a face at broccoli and cauli especially when I make cauli mash.

DH has got his 2nd tub of ben and jerry's in as many days today so he will probably sit and scoff the lot tonight. Just as well I am happy with low carb choc mousse. It really does do the job. It solves the cream cake cravings because it's cream and the chocolate because of the 90% cocoa lindt chocolate I put in and I don't really need alot to feel I've had enough.

I am feeling alot more positive today. My ketostix have been showing dark pink yesterday and today. I know it probably means I need to drink more water but they have never been dark before so it is reassurance that I am doing it right. It could also be due to the fact I have increased my fat intake the past few days by having oil on salad so I hope that doesn't mean I burn too much dietary fat before body fat.

I do find the warm weather spurs me on though. I look at all the skinny women who seem to look nice in any summer style they throw on and I just think "that is what i want to look like"