Support NeoGAF

[Souldriver]

three simple rules

No (or very few) grain, NO sugar, and No (or very few) processed foods


No, Ketosis isnt necessary to lose weight. I lost about 25 pounds (dont really need to lose more) just cutting grains and sugars. I still eat plenty of dairy and fruits, which definitely does not put me in ketosis

You don't have to but it is generally much more effective. Atkins shoots to have you find the max amount of carbs you can eat and still be in ketosis (this is during phase 2). For some people they can stay in ketosis under 80g of carbs, but most need to be around 40-60. Under 20 is nearly 100% (I want to say 100% but I imagine there HAS to be some people that simply can't get into it for whatever reason) go into ketosis, thus what phase 1 of atkins is all about.

Good to hear though that even if you don't reach ketosis the diet can still have a positive effect. I was under the assumption that if you change your diet to a low carb one, but don't reach ketosis, you're actually screwing yourself over, considering you eat more fatty foods generally, yet haven't reached the stage where your body burns more calories.

 

[Kisaya]

Giving up carbs is the worst thing ever in a diet

 

[Deleted member 17706]

If it works for you I guess. I have a hard time understanding how somebody can't miss bread, pasta and rice but to each their own I guess. Pizza is something I could NEVER live without.

Sure you could. Go without it for a month or two and you'll forget about it completely. It helps if you don't watch TV at all so you aren't bombarded with food advertisements constantly.

Every time I eat carbs now I fart like a fucking banshee. That alone is reason enough to keep them restricted.

I literally haven't farted in well over a year since I cut out grains, sugars, and processed junk.

 

[Piecake]

If it works for you I guess. I have a hard time understanding how somebody can't miss bread, pasta and rice but to each their own I guess. Pizza is something I could NEVER live without.

Go without it for a while (grains), and then try it again. Trust me, you wont miss it

 

[Xeke]

Sure you could. Go without it for a month or two and you'll forget about it completely. It helps if you don't watch TV at all so you aren't bombarded with food advertisements constantly.

Sorry dude, I love food and all kinds of it. I'll work out as much as I need to to be able to enjoy all kinds. I'd rather work out a lot than just say fuck you to thousands of different foods.

Go without it for a while (grains), and then try it again. Trust me, you wont miss it

Beer is made from grains.

 

[SquiddyCracker]

I personally like to go with low-carb during the weekdays, and then load up with carbs during the weekends.
Need to do some heavy exercize alongside that diet though, I do cardio three times a week and lift weights three times a week now.

 

[Gary Whitta]

I literally haven't farted in well over a year since I cut out grains, sugars, and processed junk.

This is one of the lesser-known benefits that low-carb enthusiasts should push more. A fart-free life!

 

[negreenfield]

Good to hear though that even if you don't reach ketosis the diet can still have a positive effect. I was under the assumption that if you change your diet to a low carb one, but don't reach ketosis, you're actually screwing yourself over, considering you eat more fatty foods generally, yet haven't reached the stage where your body burns more calories.

For another point of reference, Mark Sisson (the Primal diet guy) believes that < 100 g is slow weight loss, < 50g is rapid weight loss, 100-150g is maintaining, >150 is constant slow weight gain and >300 is danger area. I know this varies for people but I think in general it's a pretty good rule to follow.

http://www.marksdailyapple.com/the-primal-carbohydrate-continuum/#axzz1yx75wWtc

 

[Piecake]

So what do you eat instead of carbs? They're so cheap and accessible. I can imagine its quite hard for poor people to cut them out.

Meat, Veggies, fruit, and dairy

Its probably a bit more expensive, but you will eat less on this diet (fat is more filling and makes you full longer), so id imagine that makes up some of the cost

This is one of the lesser-known benefits that low-carb enthusiasts should push more. A fart-free life!

Only downside is that I get constipated a lot easier now. Gotta eat those leafy green veggies!

 

[Deleted member 17706]

Sorry dude, I love food and all kinds of it. I'll work out as much as I need to to be able to enjoy all kinds. I'd rather work out a lot than just say fuck you to thousands of different foods.



Beer is made from grains.

Fine, but don't push your method on everyone else, like it appears you are trying to do in this thread. It's okay if you don't want to give up those foods, just don't go saying that everyone else should follow your example of waking up at the crack of dawn and running 5 miles so you can enjoy chips and beer after work.

Yes because we all know that the Japanese and Chinese are the least healthy nations on earth because of the massive amounts of rice they eat...Wait.

Please put this tired-ass shit away. Look at the traditional Japanese diet. It works because, besides the rice, it's extremely healthy. Not a whole lot of sugar and other bullshit in it.

 

[Cooter]

This is news? I've known this for a while now.

 

[UrokeJoe]

This is one of the lesser-known benefits that low-carb enthusiasts should push more. A fart-free life!

When I was on it for a while I gotta say my stuff was pretty solid. Pushing was a must.

 

[Xeke]

Fine, but don't push your method on everyone else, like it appears you are trying to do in this thread. It's okay if you don't want to give up those foods, just don't go saying that everyone else should follow your example of waking up at the crack of dawn and running 5 miles so you can enjoy chips and beer after work.

Everyone should be exercising daily.

Please put this tired-ass shit away. Look at the traditional Japanese diet. It works because, besides the rice, it's extremely healthy. Not a whole lot of sugar and other bullshit in it.

Wait. So you can have a healthy diet with a lot of carbs like the Japanese do?

 

[Gary Whitta]

Carbs can definitely be tough to avoid if you're not paying attention. When I started paying closer attention to the nutrition facts on food labels after I went low-carb I was astounded by just how omnipresent they are, and in scarily huge amounts. The way our diet culture is set up it doesn't matter how many carbs are in food so long as they can slap LOW FAT on the packaging.

One of the great benefits of eating low carb is that it pushes you away from packaged and processed foods in general and toward whole, natural foods.

 

[ToxicAdam]

My bread and meth diet is the most efficient one.

 

[slit]

I literally haven't farted in well over a year since I cut out grains, sugars, and processed junk.

Not possible.

 

[Shadybiz]

A lot of my carb intake came from beer last year. I mostly gave up the beer, and have seen good results. I try to keep the carbs low for regular meals, but sometimes it's hard when you go out to lunch with coworkers, etc.

 

[Subitai]

Feel free to look up the huge amounts of it that already exists, this is hardly the first study to reach this conclusion.

Many of which are also limited in the same way.


I'm just saying this study can in no way conclusively say low-carb is better than the other diets.

 

[Felix Lighter]

My plan is to limit my carbs as much as possible while I'm trying to drop the weight but when I hit my target, I plan to bring some carbs back into my diet. I never plan going back to eating sugary foods and I never plan on going back to eating the amount of carbs I have in the past but I can certainly see myself eating pizza occasionally.

I don't know, maybe I'm setting myself up for disappointment.

 

[FallingEdge]

Everyone should be exercising daily.



Wait. So you can have a healthy diet with a lot of carbs like the Japanese do?

Of course. Carbs are never a bad thing.

 

[Nephix]

This isn't new. You gotta cut out the carbs or you will get nowhere.

False.

Although I can only speak from my own experience as I've gone from 120kg to 69kg in around a year or so without obsessing over any specific diet. Basically all I did was stop eating fast food and anything containing sugar.
Well that and lots of weight-lifting and some cardio and focusing on eating lots of meat for that precious protein. Have to say I'm pretty pleased with the results as I've been able to retain muscle mass and I'm currently as healthy as can be.

 

[Gary Whitta]

A lot of my carb intake came from beer last year. I mostly gave up the beer, and have seen good results. I try to keep the carbs low for regular meals, but sometimes it's hard when you go out to lunch with coworkers, etc.

Beer is the fucking worst of all, nothing but liquid carbohydrate going straight into your system with nothing to slow down its absorption.

I'm lucky that I quit drinking separately from going low-carb (about a year before) or I probably would have found the adjustment much harder.

 

[teh_pwn]

Yes because we all know that the Japanese and Chinese are the least healthy nations on earth because of the massive amounts of rice they eat...Wait.

Low carb works in the United States because it's relatively very low food reward compared to the standard American diet of gogurt, pizza, tator tots, and nachos.

Japanese diet works because it's very low food reward. They eat lightly seasoned rice, vegetables, meat, and seafood. I bet obesity is rising in Japan in areas that are eating US fast food chains just like China is.

Also I don't get why so many compare obesity rates to China. They had a generation of famine and most of the nation is still living in the middle ages in rural areas. Not exactly easy to get obese, but also not healthy.

 

[Cosmic Bus]

My mind reels at the insistence that you'll just "forget" all about wanting grains or sweets after you go a while without them. In the past, I've only made it about two months on low carb before the cravings become too much; they were literally all I could think about at times. Didn't help that being a smaller person with slow metabolism, low carb never gave me results anywhere near what many highly overweight people see... I lost maybe a few pounds in those months, but that was it.

 

[BigDug13]

Beer is made from grains.

I've done this diet successfully and with moderate exercise, I've lost 20 lbs in a month. (I don't recommend that speed of weight loss to anyone, but I'm currently in a job that is able to tell me that I'm too fat to hold that job, so I did what I had to.)

But Beer was the hardest thing to cut out. I love me some quality beers.

 

[Korey]

Low carb is REALLY hard to do because literally everything in this world that tastes good has carbs

So it's hard to stay on and you'll waste your time

My advice: consume less calories

 

[Gary Whitta]

Low carb is REALLY hard to do because literally everything in this world that tastes good has carbs

 

[Cooter]

Low carb is REALLY hard to do because literally everything in this world that tastes good has carbs

So it's hard to stay on and you'll waste your time

My advice: consume less calories

Just allow yourself cheat days to eat whatever you desire and it's really not very difficult to stay on the path.

 

[Gary Whitta]

Just allow yourself cheat days to eat whatever you desire and it's really not very difficult to stay on the path.

Yup, I allow myself one day a week when I can eat anything I want without restriction.

 

[UrokeJoe]

Give up beer?

Did you know that beer was critical to the birth of civilization? That’s right – beer.
Scientists and historians line up to tell the amazing, untold story of how beer helped create math, poetry, pyramids, modern medicine, labor laws, and America.
If you think beer is just something cold and filling to drink during sporting matches or in the kind of bars that you probably shouldn’t order wine in, then, boy, are you ever in the dark.
It turns out beer is responsible for, like, all the greatest things on earth.

 

[Xeke]

Low carb is REALLY hard to do because literally everything in this world that tastes good has carbs

So it's hard to stay on and you'll waste your time

My advice: consume less calories

I agree with you on the less calorie point because in the end your weight is determined by calories in vs calories burned but there are some really simple low carb meals to make that taste amazing. A simple vegetable stirfry is a quick meal and very low carb, eggs are low carb, grilled veggies, steak, etc...

 

[marathonfool]

Nobody read the article? Low-glycemic diet is the winner.

Ludwig says that restricting carbohydrates over the long term may be hard for many people. If you're trying to lose weight, "you can get a jump start with a low-carb diet, but over the long term, a low-glycemic index diet may be better than severely restricting carbohydrates."

"The low-glycemic index diet seems to be the happy medium," says Cara Ebbeling, associate director of the Obesity Prevention Center. "It didn't slow metabolism as much as the low-fat diet, and it didn't seem to have some of the negative effects on cardiovascular disease risk."

On a low-glycemic index diet, you would avoid highly processed carbs such as white bread, white rice, many snack foods, prepared breakfast cereals, sugary desserts and sugary beverages, she says.

 

[negreenfield]

Give up beer?

Ha, trust me, that was the hardest carb for me to give up. But the way I look at it is when you are trying to lose weight, you just have to make that sacrifice, but a beer every other day or a few one day a week are certainly acceptable when you are just trying to maintain weight.

 

[Felix Lighter]

Nobody read the article? Low-glycemic diet is the winner.

That sounds good because ultimately thats where I plan to maintain.

 

[Subitai]

Give up beer?

It was a cheaper way to ensure a disease free beverage than making wine when clean water wasn't available.

 

[gatti-man]

Nobody read the article? Low-glycemic diet is the winner.

I dont diet long term yet. Maybe when i get older and am forced to. I like my diets a month long or less.

 

[Chris R]

I've lost a ton (50+) pounds on a low carb diet when I'd lose maybe 5 pounds on a typical low fat diet before. Don't think I'll stay low carb forever, but I'm sticking with what is working until I'm at my goal weight.

 

[Kaizer]

I lost like 6 lbs. in one week sitting on the couch while just eating low-carb, specifically "Keto" - 20G or less of carbs a day.

 

[Xeke]

I lost like 6 lbs. in one week sitting on the couch while just eating low-carb, specifically "Keto" - 20G or less of carbs a day.

Losing 6 pounds in a week is incredibly unhealthy.

 

[Gary Whitta]

Losing 6 pounds in a week is incredibly unhealthy.

If you're starting off on the heavier side that is not an unreasonable amount of weight to lose per week in the initial weeks.

 

[Plasmid]

Just started a low-carb diet. Seems mad easy so far. Is it really just as simple as being like "lol bread, pasta, crackers, etc" ?

bread, rice, pasta, chips, taco shells, popcorn, any form of corn. it's so awful.

I have a lot of success when i stick to my low carb diets. I'm on keto right now.

 

[rezuth]

bread, rice, pasta, chips, taco shells, popcorn, any form of corn. it's so awful.

I have a lot of success when i stick to my low carb diets. I'm on keto right now.

wait, I can't have just normal lightly-salted popcorns?

 

[Gary Whitta]

wait, I can't have just normal lightly-salted popcorns?

How does putting less salt on it mitigate the fact that it's corn, and therefore a carbohydrate?

You can have it, just not a lot if you want to be low-carb. Also a recent study suggests popcorn is very high in antioxidants.

http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/health/2012/03/26/popcorn-packs-antioxidants-study-finds/

 

[Chris R]

Plus, why would you want to eat popcorn when you can have almonds? So gooooood.

 

[rezuth]

How does putting less salt on it mitigate the fact that it's corn, and therefore a carbohydrate?

You can have it, just not a lot if you want to be low-carb. Also a recent study suggests popcorn is very high in antioxidants.

http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/health/2012/03/26/popcorn-packs-antioxidants-study-finds/

How about nuts? I love me some cashews

 

[IceCold]

So what are some of the foods that are high in carbs? Potato, rice, bread, pasta?

What about hard liquor?

 

[Gary Whitta]

How about nuts? I love me some cashews

Nuts are all good!

 

[shadyspace]

Could I drink like a six pack of beer once a week or should I switch to vodka.

 

[Deleted member 17706]

Not possible.

Totally possible. Unless there is some way that gas is passing through my body without my knowing it and without creating any smell.

 

[Deleted member 17706]

Give up beer?

Never give up beer. Just severely limit its intake. I have maybe two pints per week (if at all) now, when I used to drink 3 or 4 bottles daily.

It certainly made me appreciate it even more, and I only buy the really good stuff now. $15 for some super interesting craft beer? Why not?

Nobody read the article? Low-glycemic diet is the winner.

Not in terms of weight loss. Only in terms of their bullshit "cardiovascular disease risk indicators". By which they almost certainly mean cholesterol levels, which they are almost certainly completely wrong about.