Low carb (very very low carb)

[19Dawn76]

I made a dish last night with cauliflower, caramelized onion and grated cheese. It was really good, kind of like au gratin potatoes.

 

[Southernbelle]

For anyone on here that has those constant and intense sugar cravings - get your insulin levels tested.

A lot of doctors don't test for it, they'll check your blood sugar, but you really should have an insulin test. It's a seperate test and somewhat expensive, but a life saver for me. My blood sugar was always fine, but I turned out to be insulin resistant. My cells lost their sensitivity to insulin, so my system would be flooded with insulin to try to force the cells to respond, but having that much insulin caused intense cravings for sugar to try to balance all that insulin. It was a downward spiral that ultimately leads to diabetes. Mine was caught in time and a few Metformin tablets fixed my insulin resistance and I don't crave sugar like I used to and I'm not diabetic.

 

[Ryu]

And the thing that I hate to admit is that there is a huge mental component to eating well. I picked up a book my sister had about the differences between how people without problems with their weight and those who do not think.

I alot of if was blah blah blah, but what hit home with me is that everything I eat is a choice. When I look at food I now think, am I really just thristy, am I really just upset, am I really just tired, or am I really hungry. Then I ask--how does this food work for me. Is this protein, fiber, fat, carb. how does this fit what I need right now?

I had a really good conversation with a few other women on my van pool the other day. One has been on Weight Watchers for years and has stalled out, one has been trim all her life, one is doing a work sponsored excercise/diet program, and me. The trim lady said that before she eats anything--I mean anything--she rates her hunger on a scale of 1 to 10 (1 is tummy rumbling starving and 10 is Thanksgiving dinner stuffed). She uses this rating to decide if, what, and how much she eats. If she dosen't rate her hunger at less than 5 she chooses not to eat. I was a relevation to the rest of us.

I'm not ready for that much freedom yet. I'm still re-learning what a portion actually is and trying to kick my carb addiction. But I've been practicing rating my hunger, and it starting to feel like I will have to power to make a conscious choice and give my body what it really needs when I hit my target weight.

 

[equine chick]

Quote:
I weighed almost 300 lbs due to a diet low in fat and with multigrains. I ended up pre-diabetic, had reactive hypoglycemia, and high blood pressure.

Sorry.

That is false.

If you are a tiny bit overweight, whole grains MAY be somewhat helpful. If you are more than 20lbs overweight, and have a family history of diabetes, heart disease, alzheimers, gout, obesity, etc... whole grains are STILL a nutritional nightmare.

Any amount of food in excess will eventually make you fat. A sensible diet mixed with whole grains and exercise will produce an effect. Essentially the more you put out(calories burned) vs taking in (calories eaten) you will see weightloss.

 

[equine chick]

If anybody is looking for recipes. There is a website with south beach recipes on www.southbeachdietguide.com Go to the forum to the recipe section. If you are interested in free south beach information you can find it there too.

 

[TXmom]

Quote:
I weighed almost 300 lbs due to a diet low in fat and with multigrains. I ended up pre-diabetic, had reactive hypoglycemia, and high blood pressure.

Sorry.

That is false.

If you are a tiny bit overweight, whole grains MAY be somewhat helpful. If you are more than 20lbs overweight, and have a family history of diabetes, heart disease, alzheimers, gout, obesity, etc... whole grains are STILL a nutritional nightmare.

Any amount of food in excess will eventually make you fat. A sensible diet mixed with whole grains and exercise will produce an effect. Essentially the more you put out(calories burned) vs taking in (calories eaten) you will see weightloss.

I'm with Wifezilla on this one, calories are NOT all created equal. The way your body responds to carbs, even whole grains, is completely different than how it responds to protein and fat. I wish it was about "calories in" vs "calories out", but it's just not that simple.

 

[Sugar Sand Farm]

A very good website for recipes for low carb eating is www.lowcarbfriends.com It has over 4000 recipes . Most of them have the breakdown of carbs, fiber,protein,and calories so it is really a good place to look for new ideas for the diets. I go through and try to make simple meals that are not to high in carbs as we have only been dieting 3 weeks. I made a lowcarb chicken chow mein that DH and I enjoyed and made enough for the family with rice. Everyone loved it and we stayed on the diet.lol Tonight I am making beef and brocilli with cauliflower rice underneath I made it once before and DH loved it.

 

[TXmom]

Sounds good...I'll check out that site for new recipes. I get bored eating the same things, then I don't feel like sticking to my diet. Maybe the excitement of new delicious recipes will help me get motivated again.

 

[Wifezilla]

Any amount of food in excess will eventually make you fat. A sensible diet mixed with whole grains and exercise will produce an effect. Essentially the more you put out(calories burned) vs taking in (calories eaten) you will see weightloss.

Sorry...your info is WAAAYYY out of date.

I eat more calories now on low carb and weigh much less. How is that? Simple. A calorie IS NOT a calorie. The body treat protein, fat and carbohydrates VERY differently.

"The first law of thermodynamics is the conservation of energy law and states that energy can neither be created nor destroyed. Another way of stating this law is to say that the energy of a system plus surroundings is constant in time. This first law is where the mistaken idea that ‘a calorie is a calorie’ that misguided people always want to parrot comes from. And on the surface it seems to make sense. If energy can’t be created or destroyed why wouldn’t a calorie always be a calorie? That’s where the second law comes in.

The second law of thermodynamics says that the entropy of the universe increases during any spontaneous process. What this means is that it is impossible for a system to turn a given amount of energy into an equivalent amount of work. It is this second law that is really the ‘a calorie is a calorie’ law, and, in fact, the second law shows, in terms of weight loss at least, that a calorie isn’t necessarily a calorie."
http://www.proteinpower.com/drmike/metabolism/thermodynamics-and-weight-loss/

I "balanced" my way up to almost 300 lbs remember? I ate low fat, low calories and exercised like a mad person. I got fatter and sicker. The science shows exactly how this happened. It isn't weird or strange, it is endocrinology 101.
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/07/07/magazine/what-if-it-s-all-been-a-big-fat-lie.html?pagewanted=1
http://nymag.com/news/sports/38001/​

 

[Ryu]

I'm going to agree and disagree with you.

A calorie, is a calorie--in the case of food it is DE (Digestible Energy) and it is a unit of measure.

Now, how your body processes types of foods and the metabolic impact of different types of foods is completely different. It requires more energy for your body to process protein and fat into useable units, that it does NSC (Non-Structural Carbohydrates). Foods that spike you blood sugar have an amplified effect on your body because your endocrine system gets involved. High protein and fat diets also have consequences for the body. Organs that process those types of foods (kidneys and liver esp.) take a lot of wear and tear.

If you consume in excess of your Basal Metabolic needs, you will gain weight no matter the source of the DE. Will it take more DE of Protein than Carbohydrate to do it--yes, because of the extra energy needed to break down and process protein.