Low Carb Dieting....what are rules?

[NoCalMike 0]

Well I opened a gym membership for a brand new state of the art gym right next to my house that opens in March(For signing up early, we get a month free). Anyways, instead of just showing up one day, I decided to at least try and start some type of diet before I start going that way I already have some type of routine and hopefully have some results that way the gym will be a method to accelerate those results.....

 

So I basically know how the diet works, no bread, rice, pasta, potatoes, starches, sugars etc etc......

 

However I also know it is a LOW CARB, not NO CARB diet......so when I am reading labels, sometimes I am not sure if the food is ok or not. For example, smoked salmon says "Carbohydrates less than 1 g"

 

Or something like Season Salt says 0 Carb, but it has sugar listed in the ingredients.......

 

Anyone else on this type of diet? Getting results? Pros, Cons?

 

The main reason I picked this diet, is because I can still basically make the same dinners I do now, just not the rice or potatoes or bread.....so before I would make, Steak, Potatoes and Veggies, and I don't see it being hard to just not make the potatoes......

 

This diet isn't a "life-style" change perse, because once I start the gym routine and get results, I plan on adding some of the banned stuff back into my diet in moderation. I will basically switch to more of a portion control diet mixed with going to the gym.

[Mik 0]

This was in vogue a few years ago but all of the research that has some out since hasn't exactly been in its favor.

[NoCalMike 0]

This was in vogue a few years ago but all of the research that has some out since hasn't exactly been in its favor.

 

 

Well like I said, this isn't going to be a permanent change for me, it isn't a new "life-style" of eating. I just want to do some type of diet that way once I start the gym routine in another month or so, I will have already been attempting to start some sort of eating routine.

 

Also, whether or not it is healthy to do or not, it definately does work, I have seen it with my own eyes from people I work with. It works, but shouldn't be relied on for life.

 

My sister is a registered nutritionist and she is not in favor of this diet because she says carbs is how we get energy. Basically our body needs carbs, but she doesn't deny that cutting out carbs will make you lose weight.

 

I started it today, and one thing is for sure, it is going to take some time getting used to drinking Iced Tea without any sugar....

[Nighthawk 0]

Yeah, I'm in ok shape and getting better, and I eat a shitload of carbs. If you combine them with exercise, it seems to really produce results. I eat two or sometimes even three pasta meals a day.

[NoCalMike 0]

Yeah, I'm in ok shape and getting better, and I eat a shitload of carbs. If you combine them with exercise, it seems to really produce results. I eat two or sometimes even three pasta meals a day.

 

Yeah, once I start the gym I am definately eating pasta and garlic bread again.

 

My diet will be more about portion control in order for me to not have to be at the gym three hours a day to work it all off.

[Canadian Brandon 0]

Yeah...I started back to the gym a couple of weeks ago and have been doing the low carb thing. It definitely takes the gut off quick, but it is hard to keep yourself going sometimes. The supplements I take have tons of caffine in it so it kind of balances out. I'm planning on getting carbs back into my diet within the next week. Some good advice would be to eat as much lean chicken breast as possible. That and unbreaded fish. Tons of protein.

[Bruiser Chong 0]

It's all about carb timing. Your body needs carbs. It's just a matter of intaking them at the right time. As a broad rule of thumb, you should limit starchy carbs (i.e. breads and pasta) to breakfast and post-workout. The former gives you fuel for your day, while the latter is essential for muscle development. Protein's the main building block for developing lean muscle, but you actually need a 2:1 ration of carbs to protein following a workout. In other words, after a workout is the ideal time to break out the (whole wheat) pasta, breads, and stuff like that.

 

Don't completely eliminate carbs from the rest of your diet, though. Just keep them more or less limited to fruit and vegetable intake. These things vary depending on your goals, but sounds like you're more for fat loss than anything else. Keeping your starchy carbs in check is going to be the key.

 

As an aside, if you want truly lasting results, this will have to be a lifestyle change. Again, this varies according to your personal goals, but if you dream of sporting a six-pack without looking like you always need to eat a sandwich, junk food is going to have to become the exception and not the rule.

[EVIL~! alkeiper 0]

I can't see combining low/no-carbs with a gym workout. Like mentioned before, you need energy.

 

Being diabetic (type 1), I've had to adopt this type of eating regiment. Basically, you want to watch out for high starch foods, potatoes are death. Avoid french fries entirely, and watch how much pasta you eat. Most of the sugar stuff is common sense and stuff you want to avoid eating anyway.

[Guest Vitamin X]

Yeah, you HAVE to have a lifestyle change if you want to lose weight. Bruiser Chong has some good tips there, in fact, pretty much everything I was going to say.

 

Remember that whatever eating habits you have now contributed to you being the way you are (like the expression says, you are what you eat), so the only way to change that is to change your eating habits. For me eliminating carbs felt like a cheap way to try and lose weight, so I just became a pesco-vegetarian since the fat/protein I intake from fish and related foods is good stuff. Oh, and limit sugar. It's worked pretty well for me.

 

Plus, you don't necessarily need a gym. Start driving less, walk more, bike more, run more- aerobic exercise is what will help you lose weight, not just lifting weights. I know several weight-lifter dudes who have big muscles but are still overall pretty fat and are thus in poor health. My parents are both athletes (mom's a marathoner, and dad was a triathlete, although I haven't spoken to him in several years so I don't know how he is now) and I'm a bicyclist and rugby/football player, so I can tell you that cabrs are EXTREMELY important to working out. I eat a lot of pasta, and limit the sauce and especially the butter or anything else. Garlic and basil fucking rock.

[Nighthawk 0]

You know, what with the holidays being recently, and my not working steady for a while, I have put on some weight. Not a lot, and I've shed some of it, but I should speed this up.

 

I actually wanted to try going pesco-vegetarian myself a while back, but I was basically too broke to be picky. Now I'm in a better position, I should try again.

[Guest Vitamin X]

To be honest, vegetarianism in general is cheaper, and less time-consuming when it comes to cooking as well.

[Nighthawk 0]

Seems like it would be true, but I have a moral objection to not killing things. I'll probably be primarily vegetarian, but I have to leave myself a safety valve.

Maybe once I get used to it, I'll switch all the way. Some of my heroes are vegetarian. Like Alan Moore, and... Weird Al.

[Guest Tzar Lysergic]

My miracle weight loss foods are prunes and fish in cans. Sardines and Tuna on crackers. Spagetti and ramen. I lost sixty pounds eating nothing but that.

[Guest Vitamin X]

Agent went pesco-veg like me to lose weight. Ha!

 

If you absolutely must, cottage cheese is a pretty awesome food to get used to, as well. SHITLOAD of protein, almost no fat, and tastes great. If you need a quick snack, bust that out on a piece of toast and a light bit of fruit jam. Good for post-workout meals.

[NoCalMike 0]

Well going to the gym 3-4 days a week is going to be a lifestyle change in itself, as I do plan of keeping my gym membership regardless of what diet I am on or not on.

 

I mean, I will probably always keep some sort of altered diet once I lose the desired amount of weight, but I am not saying that I will never eat ice cream again, or never eat garlic bread again.

 

I do plan on working carbs back into my diet in moderation once I start the gym because I know you do need energy to work out. I think they do sell vitamin pills that give you energy.

 

[Nighthawk 0]

Jesus Christ, I'm fat!

 

It doesn't show as much because it's coming in evenly, but I've gained way more weight than I thought. Yep, pesco vegetarian for sure, and eating only what I need to survive. I can't be having this shit.

[Mik 0]

It's hard to eat cottage cheese at first but mix in some fruit and it's pretty decent. There is a product called Breakstone Cottage Doubles that is pretty good.

 

I sometimes just straight up crave plain low fat cottage cheese, though, which I'll admit is weird.

 

Here's the thing NoCalMike - diets don't work. If you want to eat that stuff, that's fine...then never cut them out. Just limit your calories to about 2000-2200, work out 3-4 times a week and in a month or two you'll see a big improvement. Unless you're eating lard or drinking crisco, the actual food that comprises those calories doesn't matter (unless you're trying to do something more serious then just lose a few pounds). The problem with a diet mentality is that people want results now and then when they haven't lost 15 pounds in two weeks they quit being healthy at all and then it's fucking over.

[Nighthawk 0]

You can get results now, though. Just fast, or become bulemic.

 

 

[Big Ol' Smitty 0]

Eat a shitload of nachos.

[NoCalMike 0]

It's hard to eat cottage cheese at first but mix in some fruit and it's pretty decent. There is a product called Breakstone Cottage Doubles that is pretty good.

 

I sometimes just straight up crave plain low fat cottage cheese, though, which I'll admit is weird.

 

Here's the thing NoCalMike - diets don't work. If you want to eat that stuff, that's fine...then never cut them out. Just limit your calories to about 2000-2200, work out 3-4 times a week and in a month or two you'll see a big improvement. Unless you're eating lard or drinking crisco, the actual food that comprises those calories doesn't matter (unless you're trying to do something more serious then just lose a few pounds). The problem with a diet mentality is that people want results now and then when they haven't lost 15 pounds in two weeks they quit being healthy at all and then it's fucking over.

 

I don't think it is so much that diets themselves don't work, I think either one, people don't supplement them with excersizing, two, people lose the desired amount of weight and then stop the diet altogether and go back to their bad eating habits, or lastly, don't even stick to the diet and/or "cheat" Plenty of people I know have dieted and had a lot of success, the problem is once they get to the desired weight they figured they were "done" and just went back to the old way of eating, so it isn't the diet itself that didn't work, rather the mindset that a diet is something that expires one day.

 

I am going to be supplementing this with excersize. Going to the gym 3-4 times a week is 3-4 more times then I do now, and like I said, that is going to continue beyond any diet I am doing. It's not like I am just saying "I won't eat bread, but other then that I am throwing caution to the wind"

[Canadian Brandon 0]

So I think I'm going to start with the carb timing method instead of low carbing all day. It's not that I miss bread and such, but it just doesn't seem very healthy. Also, who here works out in a gym regularly? Anyone had any luck with any particular supplements?

[Mik 0]

It's hard to eat cottage cheese at first but mix in some fruit and it's pretty decent. There is a product called Breakstone Cottage Doubles that is pretty good.

 

I sometimes just straight up crave plain low fat cottage cheese, though, which I'll admit is weird.

 

Here's the thing NoCalMike - diets don't work. If you want to eat that stuff, that's fine...then never cut them out. Just limit your calories to about 2000-2200, work out 3-4 times a week and in a month or two you'll see a big improvement. Unless you're eating lard or drinking crisco, the actual food that comprises those calories doesn't matter (unless you're trying to do something more serious then just lose a few pounds). The problem with a diet mentality is that people want results now and then when they haven't lost 15 pounds in two weeks they quit being healthy at all and then it's fucking over.

 

I don't think it is so much that diets themselves don't work, I think either one, people don't supplement them with excersizing, two, people lose the desired amount of weight and then stop the diet altogether and go back to their bad eating habits, or lastly, don't even stick to the diet and/or "cheat" Plenty of people I know have dieted and had a lot of success, the problem is once they get to the desired weight they figured they were "done" and just went back to the old way of eating, so it isn't the diet itself that didn't work, rather the mindset that a diet is something that expires one day.

 

I am going to be supplementing this with excersize. Going to the gym 3-4 times a week is 3-4 more times then I do now, and like I said, that is going to continue beyond any diet I am doing. It's not like I am just saying "I won't eat bread, but other then that I am throwing caution to the wind"

 

You obviously don't get it. If they lose weight then slack because they lost weight and go back to eating bad then gain the weight, then IT DIDN'T WORK. Diets don't work for that VERY reason. You're going for a short fix. If you want to lose weight then dieting is not the answer.

 

Low carb diet is something that nearly no one can do for an entire lifetime... so you're going for a short fix also and I guarantee that shit's going to go bad for you. And I'm not just some dude on a message board talking about shit he doesn't know about.... I have a degree in Nutritional Science.

[Guest Tzar Lysergic]

Agent went pesco-veg like me to lose weight. Ha!

 

If you absolutely must, cottage cheese is a pretty awesome food to get used to, as well. SHITLOAD of protein, almost no fat, and tastes great. If you need a quick snack, bust that out on a piece of toast and a light bit of fruit jam. Good for post-workout meals.

 

Wow, that's technically true, now that it's laid out like that. Never thought about it that way. All I know is I had two weeks of the most vile smelling bowel movements on the planet before things evened out.

 

I'm going to go snort a line of shredded beef jerky.

[EricMM 0]

Dieting doesn't work unless you actually change your fucking diet.

 

Cutting out soda does wonders. Sure you can always splurge on junk food here and there, socially, but if you just stop buying those twelve packs of soda or whatever, it'll help.

[Canadian Brandon 0]

Dieting doesn't work unless you actually change your fucking diet.

 

Cutting out soda does wonders. Sure you can always splurge on junk food here and there, socially, but if you just stop buying those twelve packs of soda or whatever, it'll help.

 

 

How about diet soda? How bad is it for you really? I have a buddy that swears that it is almost as bad as regular soda. I'm addicted to Diet Mountain Dew, but I have really been drinking alot more water lately.

[Nighthawk 0]

What's the deal with your stomach shrinking? If you diet and lose weight, and your stomach shrinks, then even if you go back to eating junk, wouldn't you naturally eat less of it? I don't know, I'm actually asking.

 

By the way, I haven't actually gained as much weight as I thought. I panicked before realizing I stepped on the scale with my coat and boots on, with full pockets. Not much of a difference, but I'm a sensitive fuck. I freak out if I cross into a new multiple of ten. 201 to 209 is all fine, but 210 is a disgrace. (Although I'm now actually around 215). Strangely I look much healthier than I did the last time I was 215... around this time last year.

 

I'm still eating sardines.

[Mik 0]

It doesn't take long for your stomach to regrow. That's why gastric bypass is turning out to be a failing enterprise.

[UseTheSledgehammerUh 0]

Your body has a harder time breaking down the fake sugars in diet soda than it does with water, so drink water for the best results, even though they are both "0 calorie" drinks. Plus, too much Splenda, as in "all I'll drink is DIET DIET DIET soda b/c it's 0 calories" is bad for your bones.

[The Buzz 0]

Go to T-nation.com and look at the physique clinic for the bigger guys at the bottom of the main page. It has some good low carb/dieting info mixed in with the shameless shills. Hell the whole website is good even if you aren't interested in the supplements.

[dubq 0]

Your body has a harder time breaking down the fake sugars in diet soda than it does with water, so drink water for the best results, even though they are both "0 calorie" drinks. Plus, too much Splenda, as in "all I'll drink is DIET DIET DIET soda b/c it's 0 calories" is bad for your bones.

 

And isn't long term consumption of Aspartame thought to cause memory loss or something to that effect?