Anyone on a no / low carb diet? Does it work? What meals do you eat?

[MaggsS]

Hi,

I need to lose around 2 stone and a friend of my husband has said the best way to lose weight is to cut out carbs.(He is a football trainer)

Has anyone done this?

Does it really work?

Would be interested in your opinions please

The main thing about diets is - will it fit in with your life? can you live without eating carbs? what would you have for breakfast, dinner and tea evreyday? if you can come up with answers for all of that then go for it. If you can't then there is no way it could work.

I lost 2 stone last year with Slimming World and am now just trying to get rid of the last stone or so with calorie counting using www.foodfocus.co.uk - you may of seen quite a few threads about it here over the weeks there is a thread here if you decide you can't face no carbing and fancy giving it a go.

I must admit I do eat a lot of rice, pasta, bread and potatoes so was wondering what I could do to replace them.

The thought of meat and veg doesn't excactly excite me

I've reduced the amount of carbs I eat and a standard day will be:

Breafast - fruit and natural yog
Lunch - ham/fish salad
Dinner - new pots and fish/meat and salad or ratatouille.

I only eat rice once or twice a week, but if you switch to brown rice its much more filling.

Maybe start by cutting down on your portion sizes of carbs then you won't miss it so much when you finally cut them out of your diet.

What do you normally eat?

maggs

• you can't replace pasta etc. The secret of low carb s the two week opening detox which cuts off your carb craving. The no carb thing absoloutely def works but if you fall off the wagon the weight comes back really really quickly. And just a quick 'cheat' will bring back all your cravings. the good thing about it for me is that I have realised that my carb addiction and my persistent depression are linked. When i eat carbs i get listless and depressed so trying a weight loss diet has actually 'cured' the depression I have been fighting for 20 years.

No carb is also the only diet that has ever removed my cellulite

So very hard initially and life long not a quick fix. But does work. Def

I have tried making carbs the smallest part of my meal, with a slightly bigger portion of protein and a large portion of veg. Have lost 2 stone this way. I don't think any faddy diet works long term. Are you really never going to eat pasta or bread again?

Mrs Mattie
I know. It sounds like a life not worth living
TBH i very very rarely want bread or pasta now but will eat if if I fancy it - or when on occasions there is no option.
I am pretty much a weight I am happy with now so I don't really think about it. But I still avoid carbs for the sake of my temperment and my energy levels.

Good idea.

Breakfast - cereal or porridge

Lunch - Soup and roll, fish or chicken salad or jacket potato

Dinner - pasta, stir frys, meat and 2 veg

Tend to snack on fruit, breadsticks and hommous, veg sticks.

I have been losing weight slowly just eating healthy food but this guy just got me thinking.

He reckons if I exercise and cut out carbs the weight will fall off.

I do suffer badly with tiredness and just a feeling of no energy.

Could that be carb related then?

I have learned the hard way not to start the day with toast. If I do, I am starving and ratty by mid morning and crave carbs and sugar all day. Porridge & banana or muesli with plain yoghurt and fruit seem to give me loads more energy and start me off on the right foot for eating all day. I don't know if it's partly [psychological or purely physiological or what. I've also learned that I do need some carbs at lunchtime, or I end up snacking on crap eventually. So a jacket potato, some rice or bread as a side dish etc - definitely required. I try to have something carbsy later afternoon, too, and then only a small amount at dinner. This works really well for me, in terms of maintaining/losing weight and energy levels.

Hi Maggs, Im currently on the cambridge diet to give myself a weigh loss kick start, its certainly doing that but it is the hardest, most boring diet in the world but needs must.

The good thing about it though is the overall carb value of what Im 'eating' is low, about 45g a day and prev I was a complete carb a holic and its true my appetite has decreased vastly and I dont feel hungry.

I have been researching low carb diets, atkins and the like and have found a book on amazon by charles clarke, its called the new high protein diet.

It allows you up to 40g of carbs a day so you can still have a peice of toast, small packet of crisps etc but the bulk of your diet is made up from protein, veggies etc.

The reviews look good on amazon, Ill let you know once it arrives if it is any good.

I beleive a low carb diet would work well for me, now if I can just get through the next 2 weeks of cambridge diet hell, Ill join you!

Thanks

Porridge is a good start for me too.

I have to eat little and often or I end up craving and eating whatever I can find

Good luck flourybaps.

My neighbour did it and lost a lot of weight (man)

Not sure about it myself as I'm not sure I have that much willpower

It's really good to know what your bottom line is before you start trying to lose weight@MaggsS. I've learnt this the hard way. So if you know you need to eat little and often (which is basically like a low GI type diet), then do it, and work your plans to lose weight around that. So much better to be flexible and realistic than to try to follow some sort of impossible, dictatorial regime! Keeping a food diary helps, i find. It's boring and makes you feel like an obssessive, but it does help you see patterns emerging. I realised that I do need a late afternoon snack or I start craving sweet stuff, however, I don't need a snack between breakfast and lunch, as it just starts me off on an eating frenzy

Thanks Mags, I lost 11lbs in the first week which is great but my reslove weakens every day Im just doing 4 weeks of it hence why I need a plan of what to do next so I dont just pile it all back on!

Wow!!!!!!!!!

Can I be really nosey and ask how much you have to lose and how much it costs??

Oh Ive got a lot to loose! Want to loose 5 stone

It costs 39.90 per week but it is a total meal replacement thing, no food, no booze, nowt! Difficult but it does work, my worry is putting all the weight back on that I have lost when the end of my 4 weeks is up but ill have to cross that bridge when I come to it.

There is a lighter life/ cambridge diet support thread on here which has been great.

Tbh though as your a slim jim with only 2 stone to loose I wouldnt put yourself through it

I wish I was a slim jim!!!

My hubby has a lot more than me to lose and the guy next door floated the idea with him.

TBH I'm a bit worried about him doing it.

I'll think we'll try the cutting down / out carbs first

Good luck though. I really hope you get the results you want

Thanks, I hope so too. Gonna be a long road for me but Im on my way.

Good luck with your diet, keep us posted.

MaggsS, if you decide to try low carbing, www.low-carbdiet.co.uk is a useful site. Good luck with your weight loss.

Oh thanks MavisG. I'll take a look

hi maggs it does work but only whilst you stay away from the carbs once you go back to them the weight can come back even more than you lost, depends on your willpower too... a friend of mine has lost 4 stone with limited carbs & phase 2 which is a carb blocker its a tablet made from kidney bean extract which helps to block the starch its totally safe & you can buy it in most heath shops over the counter. It works if you can stick to it tho...good luck!!
Watch out for Cambridge tho i lost 11lb in 2 weeks on it but put it back on plus 9lb when i came off it..........(shock)

Hi MaggsS. I've done the low-carb thing a few times (did the South Beach diet, which was marginally nicer than Atkins and a little healthier). Low carb diets work very quickly and effectively - you can lose a pound per day if you stick to the diet, but, the weight loss is very difficult to maintain and you have to be extremely committed to sticking to the diet.

Low points of low carb include dizziness, palpitations and feeling light headed. Also, it can be quite expensive since you're living on tons of meat! Also, unless you feel you're happy to stick to a permanent low-carb diet, then as soon as you start eating 'normally', the weight quickly goes back on.

I joined Slimming World about a year ago and lost two stones within four months, easily, happily and could still eat unlimited amounts of pasta and potatoes! I've kept the weight off without too much difficulty and would definitely recommend going down that route if you're happy to take a little longer to lose the weight.

Thank you for the advice.

I must admit I am still thinking about it as the cupboards are full of pasta, rice etc and it's the end of the month so we are eating out of the cupboards and freezer

Would you really recommend Slimming World?

I am not an expert but IMHO I am convinced that there are 3 reasons why no carb diets work:

-most of us generally have a habit of consuming much larger of portions of carbs than we need to, and they contain lots of calories!

-we usually accompany those carbs with fattening things, such as butter with potatoes/bread, sauces with pasta etc. By cutting out the carbs, the calories in the sauce etc are also eliminated

-protein makes you feel full more quickly than carbs (and certain types are lower calorie than most carbs, eg lean meat/fish/eggs, cooked healthily) so again, you cut out calories and don't feel like you are starving yourself.

HOWEVER like any diet, once you come off it, you will put weight back on...and any diet that eliminates an entire food group can't possibly be healthy. Also, if like me you adore most carbs, you will find it very difficult to stick to.

As a compromise, why not just try cutting out carbs after, say 3pm - so afternoon snack and evening meal is just protein and fruit/veg, maybe a bit of chocolate/glass of wine as treat. I have found this really effective in the past and it avoids the horrible side effects and feeling of deprivation that a no carb diet would involve. Have plenty of porridge/granola/low GI carb based breakfast and low GI carbs at lunch time with healthy accompaniments and snacks and you will probably notice a difference pretty quickly, especially if you are exercising too (when you definitely need carbs).

Thanks Sleepwhenidie. That sounds really good advice

What sort of things do you eat instead of carbs then?