[Closed] Started my low carb diet today, 21 stone, going to update weekly.

More Poop.Less scoops.

I'm genuinely interested in how it goes. Thanks for posting.

Good luck!

Good luck dude..

I am not personally a fan of low carb diets, particularly ones that put you in ketosis. I just really don’t think they are sustainable or necessary. 

You might want to reassess once you up your activity and get on Zwift

I went from over 114kg down to 88kg. Consistency is key

All the best.

“<span style="color: #444444; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;">More </span><span class="skimlinks-unlinked" style="background-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #444444; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;">Poop.Less</span><span style="color: #444444; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"> scoops“</span>

Neck a litre of Sunsweet Prune Juice FTW. Go on, give it a try, I dare you!

Not tempted to visit us fatties in the Corpulent thread then?

Thanks for the comments guys, on the whole! Lol

<span style="font-size: 0.8rem;">Looks like the forum is throwing a few glitches up with quotes etc.</span>

Hopefully my diet didn't do the same!

Ok,quote function is broken?

I'll dip my toes mate (corpulent thread) but my diet is going to be a little unconventional as will be evident over the weeks to come. 😉

We have people eating dust in there.....plus the usual low carb bods 🙂

Doesn't matter what your diet is - Chub Club is there for motivation.

We're all taking different approaches

<span style="font-size: 12.8px;">

49 years old and spend far too much time sitting down. Also eat and drink too much!

Why do you think you need a low carb diet? Just eat and drink a bit less and move about more. Especially at 21 stone you're not exactly struggling to get rid of the last 5% body fat.

All the best Poopscoop.  One tip I thought I'd share is try not to get hung up on what the scales say on any given day.  Some days it will be higher than the last weigh-in, other times it will be lower.  The key is to look at it over a longer time scale and hopefully see a downwards trend, despite daily/weekly/whatever ups and downs.

When my wife was trying to lose some post-baby unwanted shapely bits she would often be quite elated at having lost a couple of pounds compared to the week before, and a bit dejected at having put on similar over a week.  It took some doing (and she still struggles to get past it sometimes) to point out that over the last year she has actually lost a fair bit of weight and is doing well.

Poopscoop ...

I went from 141 kgs to 106 kgs ....

I followed a very low calorie diet for 10 weeks .... the aim was to reverse diabetes... which it did.   I have drifted up to a 111 kg over the last year , so back of a fast ....

The Diest I follow is not healthy ... it is 600 calories a day ... but for a very short period of time.   And despite all negative comments , the results are sustainable but rely on a review of life style ... I now run and cycle every other day.

Alcohol is a real weight trigger for me , as is eating snacks ... so you have to learn not too eat them. If you save them fro treat then that is fine.

Tell everyone what you are doing and it is for health reasons .... then people are not tempted to make you break the diet.  And TBH, your friends, work colleagues, people you meet will be complete arseholes ... " just have one drink with me", "have a little bit of cake" etc... for them it becomes entertainment.

I made the statement that I was trying cure diabetes and didn't want my legs cut off .... after the initial reaction everyone became very supportive .... I travel a lot for work long haul, and even people entertaining me in Japan/US/ Singapore were really good.  The best thing was that everyone joined in in wanting to now how I was doing.

My diet was low everything ... done via slimfast and eating vegetable soup... boy , it makes your breath smell ..

Do what works for you

I try to follow low carb or low GI. If have something higher GI like bread or cereal that sets me off and I start craving food.

Thanks for posting the Tim Noakes vidoes. Done some interesting research on hydration also (actually he mentions it in the vid)

<span style="color: #444444; font-size: 12.8px;">then people are not tempted to make you break the diet.  And TBH, your friends, work colleagues, people you meet will be complete arseholes … ” just have one drink with me”, “have a little bit of cake” etc… for them it becomes entertainment.</span>

I'm not someone who "needs" to diet and always find when I do (so I don't end up having to) that even those who mean well try and derail me.

https://www.health24.com/Diet-and-nutrition/Weight-loss/The-golden-rules-of-Banting-20140409

https://www.biznews.com/health/2016/12/26/complete-idiots-guide-tim-noakes-diet-banting-lchf/

http://foodmed.net/2016/04/noakes-the-idiots-guide-to-lchf-and-banting/

<span style="font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif;">I have been following the wild diet which is low carb/GI.</span>

<span style="font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif;">Since the 2nd Jan I have lost 21lbs with relatively little exercise. My plan is to focus on the diet mainly now while the weather is rubbish and will up my exercise as the weather improves and adjust my carb intake if I feel I need to.</span>

<span style="font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif;">I have found that eating less carbs means I am less hungry so can easliy fast now till lunch time.</span>

Loads of great info at  http://fatburningman.com/

all the best.

Ok guys,

First weeks update!

Weight measured same time of day, similar clothes.

20 stone 3lb.

Physiologically feel better to have started rather than putting the diet off.

Had a big omelette earlier with lots of cheese. Will have 3 burgers in a bit with cheese, mayo and a tonne of veg. No buns obvs.

Hunger not been an issue as expected having done is carb in the past.

Thanks for links/vids above by the way guys !

Good luck been their done it. Pleased with the results. Lost about 5 stone. Easy to maintain as well. My carbs consist mainly of veg. No pasta bread, potatoes or pastry. No added sugar. Have upped my protein a bit. Don’t feel hungry no hunger pangs.

well done mate. I weighed less than you and didn't need to lose so much but I did low carb last January and lost a stone and a half which got me below my target weight.

I've kept that weight off despite now eating carbs again. Mainly I find that I just can't eat as many as I could before.

well done poop, keep it up!!

Second week update.

About 9lb lost, currently 19st 9lb...

Has hoped to lose a little more than that but still not bad!

I suspect some rather large cheese laced omelettes might have had an effect but shouldn't have in theory. Odd.

Will be cutting them down next week to see!

Hunger not an issue and drinking lots of fluids still.

Well done for sticking with it so far, it may help you with weight loss/fat as a fuel source if you supplement your diet with additional exogenous ketones, for more info check out  https://blog.bulletproof.com/85-in-a-state-of-ketosis-with-dominic-dagostino-podcast/

Has hoped to lose a little more than that but still not bad!

Not bad?  Nine pounds in a week is hardly insubstantial.  That's two 2-litre pop bottles. If I did that I'd probably be in hospital now.

Losing weight too fast isn't healthy, you're here for the long game and not a quick fix remember.

My boss is doing something similar. So far he has lost maybe 75 lbs in the first year. 20lbs in the first month.

He was eating once a day originally now he only eats 5-6 times a week. Still we went out to lunch and he ate 2lbs of meat (after cooking) for his meal... no sodas ever even diet, no snacks or sweets...

i think secretly he dreams of being a lion feasting once a week on a gazelle...

<span style="background-color: #eeeeee; color: #444444; font-size: 16px;">I suspect some rather large cheese laced omelettes might have had an effect but shouldn’t have in theory. Odd.

It's not that odd. Reducing carbs is a method of calorie reduction. Ketosis, Atkins, IF etc are all methods that reduce your calorie intake.

If you replace 3000 calories of bread with 3000 calories of cheese what's going to change? You eluded to the underlying issue in your first post - sitting down, eating too much - calories in v calories out in it's simplest form.

If you've found a method that works, has motivated you to eat less and do more and you can stick to it then great but don't be disheartened if you find the weight loss slows - it's about changing your attitude to food and activity as much as it is what you eat.

Fantastic work fella.... 9lb in a week even at a big start weight is absolutely EPIC ! Well done !

Tim Noakes - typical scientist.

"Don't eat fat, eat carbs"

"Don't eat eggs"

"Don't eat carbs"

"Stay hydrated"

"Eat eggs"

"Don't drink too much, drink to thirst"

Honestly, I don't know why people pay so much attention to him. By his own admission he doesn't know why this or that works. Pseudo-science that SEEMS to make sense to the gullible.

Re cheese - I find it *very* filling and satisfying, and reduces carb cravings.

By his own admission he doesn’t know why this or that works.

Typical non-scientist expecting simple answers to complex problems then whining when they don't exist 🙂

Read, understand principles, and experiment.  Lots of ways to solve the problem, and loads of personal variables.  Figure out what works.  To the OP - nearly 18lbs in 2 weeks is very good, keep at it until it stops working then start making adjustments.

If you replace 3000 calories of bread with 3000 calories of cheese what’s going to change?

Lots of things.  Insulin response, also satiety and appetite.  Try eating a plateful of chips - nom nom, they go down very easily.  Now try eating a plateful of carrots - you'd get fed up after about 1/4 of it, and have consumed fewer calories.

Satiety is a very complex thing.  Humans aren't simple machines.  As shown by the OP - he's lost 18lbs in two weeks.  According to simple theory that would mean a 4500 calorie deficit PER DAY, which is clearly not possible unless he's been on an arctic expedition at the same time.

Cougar
Losing weight too fast isn’t healthy

Why's that Cougar?

Interested in how you plan to keep the weight off once the low -carb thing is done, or target weight reached. Mate of mine did the Atkins years ago, worked really well, bought new trousers etc... Stopped the diet and put it all back on again (pretty much the story with fad diets, IME).

Is the low-carb thing sustainable long term, or will you just eat sensibly once the crash is complete?

If you replace 3000 calories of bread with 3000 calories of cheese what’s going to change?

There are metabolic differences in the type of calories you eat. Did you know fructose can only be processed in the liver

"fructose can only be metabolized by your liver, because your liver is the only organ that has the transporter for it.3

Take a look at this image:

[img] [/img]

This shows the metabolic pathways for food. pretty complicated i'd say.

For me it's quite simple. Insulin is responsible for fat storage and fat utilisation. Reduce the amount of insulin then you'll reduce the amount of fat you store. The added benefit of low carb is it increases satiety.It's often hard to over eat on low carb. it's very easy to overeat on high carb.

"Our body gains or loses fat according to detailed hormonal instructions from our brain. The rise and fall of insulin is the main stimulus to weight gain. So, food that stimulate insulin are typically more fattening (cookies). Those that do not (kale) are typically not fattening at all. If the body cares about insulin (and other hormones too, but mostly insulin), then we need to use the common currency, speak the common language of the body. Insulin."

https://medium.com/personal-growth/the-useless-concept-of-calories-50831730cc81

[url= https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18175736 ]Effects of a high-protein ketogenic diet on hunger, appetite, and weight loss in obese men feeding ad libitum[/url]

"In the short term, high-protein, low-carbohydrate ketogenic diets reduce hunger and lower food intake significantly more than do high-protein, medium-carbohydrate nonketogenic diets."

Well done OP!

so are pork scratchings dietary supplements now?

I'm in........

Just as a bit of an idea I've been low-(ish) on the carbs since Jan 2nd

Jan 5-11th 932g of Carbs

12-18th 558g of Carbs

19-25th 828g of Carbs

26-1st Feb 873g of Carbs

this week 838g of Carbs

So thats ~120g of carbs a day and none of that is from Bread / Pasta / Potatoes etc...

Since 2nd of Jan I've dropped 1st 7lbs so far....

Stopped the diet and put it all back on again (pretty much the story with fad diets, IME).

Nothing faddy about it.  You eat the amount of carbs you need, no need to start stuffing them in your face again just because that's what everyone else does.  Even if you re-introduce carbs it's easy to keep them reasonably low volume and low GI.

Stopped the diet

+ Nothing faddy about it

"the diet" was referring to the Atkins Diet, clearly. Where is it now? It was a fad. If it's going outside of eating a normal, balanced diet, it's a fad diet.

And the rest of your reply is what I was asking. Well, I was asking poopscoop how he was going to continue.

“the diet” was referring to the Atkins Diet, clearly. Where is it now? It was a fad. If it’s going outside of eating a normal, balanced diet, it’s a fad diet.

The atkins diet was based on the Banting diet which was 1800's so not exactly a fad. Atkins is essentially low carb (low insulin)

Huge populations thrive on low carb diets like the inuits and masai tribes

<span style="color: #444444; font-size: 12px; background-color: #eeeeee;">Why’s that Cougar?</span>

AIUI, 'crash dieting' or 'losing weight too fast' will result in essential minerals and vitamins being in short supply, which in turn can lead to health problems.  as well as the bad skin and hair issues, there can be heart problems too.

i think your metabolism also slows down ('starvation mode') which in turn makes it harder to lose weight as your body clings to what fat it can.  somethings to do with leptin is it?  not sure.....

anyways, slow and steady wins the race 😉

I'm not convinced that 'slow n steady wins the race' captures the full picture. Rapid weight loss is a perfectly viable proposition - but........

In the end, what you do has to be sustained. If you return to old eating habits you'll return to your old shape as well. For those that crash diet, whether it's based on specific eating plans or just drastic calorie reduction, you can't sustain that for ever and you have to have a plan B. For that reason most of these diets have a maintenance program and the question is whether that is sustainable longer term.  If it is, then no reason why it can't then be successful.  I think the reason that 'slow and steady wins the race' in reality is because the 'diet' is also broadly speaking the long term program, so there is no need to switch - your calorie intake while dieting and the calorie requirement as a result of your reducing metabolism just start to converge so you end up maintaining in that way.

We've got a weight loss competition going on at work.

5 weeks in and I've nearly lost a stone.

From experience (I previously went from 13 1/4 stone down to 11 when younger) I would recommend the Withings/Nokia Body scales - they hook up to your wifi to send off readings which you can see on their app.

Weigh yourself every day and you will be able to see the trend amongst the 'noise' of the daily readings - quite motivational and has been shown by trials to be so.

Stick to the same diet each day and vary one thing and then after a while, courtesy of the scales, you can see which of your weight loss measures works best.

I have found that riding 30 miles on the turbo trainer at a heart rate of about 125 to 135 as quite effective if I eat early. Not too stressful so I can do it every day and long enough to watch most movies on Netflix or Amazon.

Those high protein yoghurts seem good for recovery but surpringly 'filling'.

The atkins diet was based on the Banting diet which was 1800’s so not exactly a fad. Atkins is essentially low carb (low insulin)

The Atkins diet was a fad. But THAT NOT WHAT MY POST WAS ABOUT! Jeez.

It was the same as this -

theotherjonv

I’m not convinced that ‘slow n steady wins the race’ captures the full picture. Rapid weight loss is a perfectly viable proposition – but……..

In the end, what you do has to be sustained.

Brilliant explanation, trickydisco.

I'm a fan of the iDiet (avoiding cereal, dairy, fruit, spuds, sugar, fizzy drinks etc. 6 days a week) which is basically avoiding food which gives an insulin response,

I've long wanted a more scientific answer than "insulin determines how you store and use fat and an insulin spike leads to a blood sugar crash which makes you crave sweet and fatty food in a way that willpower can't overcome".

AIUI, ‘crash dieting’ or ‘losing weight too fast’ will result in essential minerals and vitamins being in short supply

Only if he starves himself.  But he's not - on a low carb diet you only cut out the stuff with little nutritional value, and replace it with lots of the things that have high nutritional value i.e. vegetables.  I've never eaten so many vegetables in my life.

i think your metabolism also slows down (‘starvation mode’) which in turn makes it harder to lose weight as your body clings to what fat it can.  somethings to do with leptin is it?

Well, your metabolism slows down if you reduce calories lots, but not if you eat well but just have fewer carbs.  Couple of good articles about leptin and grehlin:

https://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/refeeds-for-fat-loss-the-science-behind-leptin.html

https://www.precisionnutrition.com/leptin-ghrelin-weight-loss

Same as above, fantastic explanation trickydisco.

I started my low carb plan 3 weeks ago I’ve lost a stone already,

my energy levels have gone through the roof, i sleep much better,concentration levels have really improved.

70% of my calories come from fat, 20% from protein 5% from carbohydrates. or

185 grams of Fat per day, 84 grams of protein a day 15 grams of carbs a day.

Im now down to one meal a day, which was strange at first, but i found as the days went by i started to need fewer meals.

Something else i didnt know about was the “Insulin index for food” this has been my biggest help.

one thing to remember is, its not a diet its a lifestyle change,

How much riding are you doing, Merchant Banker?

DezB

Interested in how you plan to keep the weight off once the low -carb thing is done, or target weight reached. Mate of mine did the Atkins years ago, worked really well, bought new trousers etc… Stopped the diet and put it all back on again (pretty much the story with fad diets, IME).

Is the low-carb thing sustainable long term, or will you just eat sensibly once the crash is complete?

Good question!

From doing low carb in the past I found that doing 15 carbs max during the week and having a beer and pizza at the weekend, for instance, kept my weight stable.

However, I've found that if life gets a bit challenging I extend that weekend treat more and more to other days. Then you're back to square one!

That is a coping habit I am determined to change and is the fundamental battle I MUST win.

@merchant banker, poopscoop, Molgrips.....

what does a typical day's meal list look like?

I'm plateauing at weight loss currently, albeit at about 13st 8 whereas i was 16st 4 years ago and 15st all but in January last - but would like to get into the 12's really

I don't try to eat low carb, but just through a process of MFP and other stuff, learning what fills me up for relatively little calories, my diet is broadly what i would think of as relatively low carb.  So lots of lean protein like chicken, fish, etc., and generally not too much fat (where it is it's mainly oily fish like salmon, mackerel, sardines, etc.), reasonably good amount of mixed vegetables, some fruit although I'm not a major fan (banana, apple, I do like to get my hands on a juicy pear every now and then 😉 ) and relatively minimal intake of starchy carbs like pasta, rice, spuds, bread, although as per the 2 weetabix below I don't avoid totally.

So breakfast was 2 weetabix with skimmed milk

Lunch, mackerel with a green salad (lambs lettuce FWIW)

Dinner - turkey breast steaks with mixed veg (brocolli / carrots / cauli)

Skimmed milk sparingly in tea and coffee, no fizz, no sweets, I try and stay off the biscuits.....

How do i need to modify that to achieve the kinds of weight losses you guys are reporting (and at 5'11" and 13.8 / 86kg, trust me while I might not be 'massive' there's plenty to shift still). A stone in 3 weeks - I'd happily take half that in 6!!

oh, and cheese. I can be a bugger for that.......

Well done OP. sound like your body is responding well to a low carb diet

just finished listening to this which has loads of good info about selecting fats for low card diets and some cool stuff about how your brain responds to sugar and fat.

http://fatburningman.com/dr-mithu-storoni-the-ketogenic-diet-brain-boosting-fats-how-to-avoid-low-carb-mistakes/

Jonv - you are my height and weight.  I have around 15% body fat according to the calipers.  If that's accurate I only have a realistic goal of 80-82kg.  Although having been 83kg relatively recently I think there's more going on there than those numbers suggest - I may have more visceral fat that the calipers aren't reading.

When I was successfully dieting the first time and losing lots of weight (92-82kg) I was eating:

Eggs and sausages in the morning

30km flat fast ride to work approx 3 days out of 5

3 scoops carbs during the ride

Roasted veg/root veg and meat for lunch

More carbs on the ride home

Something bean related for dinner e.g. chilli, no rice

I went down to 84kg doing that, then plateaued for a few weeks.  So I'd have a coke and a twix (yes, really) an hour before riding home and I lost another two kgs.  In between the riding I did some running and plenty of KB swings.

However, I think this really works much better the first time you do it.  Each time I've fallen off the wagon and got back on it's been harder and harder to shift anything.  Maybe due to the fact I'm trying to ride as well, so the more riding I do the harder it is to not eat carbs.

I'm stable at between 85-86 now which is an improvement, two years ago it was 91.  But I'm doubling down again now with a few new ideas:

1) If I can't face eggs in the morning I'm having mixed nuts and a banana, or in an emergency full fat yoghurt and some crunch oats - seems to not be too damaging.

2) Sod cauliflower rice - cauliflower cheese is far nicer, and immensely filling and satisfying.  And good for you.

3) A piece or two of brown toast at lunchtime helps to stabilise me and prevent the carb monster from going on a rampage.

4) Tea, lots of tea.

All I'm doing though is maintaining, and looking to inch down half a kg at a time.  If I can have the right carbs post-gym it'll stop me snacking and help me recover.  Went riding today for the first time in a couple of weeks, after doing 3 gym sessions a week and I was utterly wrecked.  Not enough carbs.

molgrips im riding around 8 maybe 12 miles a day i dont ride at weekend due to family. and i ride on an empty stomach. i haven’t bonked either which is nice.

Theotherjonv. tonight i will have

Large greek salad with full fat feta cheese plus 2 tbsp of olive oil.

4 slices of crispy pan fried bacon chopped up put on salad.

1 beef burger made using 80/20 mince. coriander, fresh chilli,white onion.

Slice of full fat cheddar cheese.

Pudding will be a peanut butter cookie.

I also drink a glass of mineral water before I eat,to this I have added 2tsp Apple cider vinegar, 1tsp lemon juice,1tsp cranberry juice. it has something to do with acetic acid.

Tonight I'm having a spice tailor curry with leftover roast lamb in it, a load of lentils and a couple of sweet potatoes in it. No rice.

so sweet potatos?  Carbs but low GL, yes?

Diets don't work, almost everyone who embarks on a look at me i'm dieting diet is doomed to fail.

I have members of my family who have been going to slimming world or something similar for 20 years and they're even fatter now than when they started.

I agree 100%.

A diet by itself is pointless and I need to change some bad habits I have or I'll be back here doing this again next year.

.

so sweet potatos?  Carbs but low GL, yes?

Yes. Also carbs in the lentils. I am aiming for super low GI carbs rather than low carb itself. I choose some carbs cos I am in the gym and riding.

Also sweet potatoes are very filling. I added two very small SPs to the curry and had half a cereal bowl full of it which turned out to be about 1/4 of the total. So I only had half a small SP but I was remarkably full all evening. Good result I think.

Re lifestyle change - I always cook dinners like this nowadays. Where I fall down is snacking. I don't always eat eggs for breakfast now and sometimes lunch without bread is just too damn difficult.

Good question!

I'm glad you thought so!

My theory is - once down to a sensible weight, exercise becomes easier and more enjoyable (especially, dare I say it... [size=6]mountain biking[/size]...). So you can do more of the activities you enjoy and keep the weight off that way. And go back on to a sensible balanced diet. I reckon I should write a book 😆

And go back on to a sensible balanced diet.

Define balanced though?  50g carbs?  150g carbs?  The traditional numbers are what, 400g a day.  That's not balanced in my view and not necessary.

Really? You don't understand the concept of a balanced diet? One where you don't have to measure every gram, carb and calorie like some weird obsession? I feel sorry for you. Unless that's what you're really interested in, then: enjoy.

Where the hell does that come from?  A pretty vicious character assisination just because it wasn't clear what you meant? What war are you fighting?

I just want to know what balanced means.  Do you mean traditional or normal, as in what everyone else eats?

Really? You don’t understand the concept of a balanced diet?

<span style="color: #444444; font-size: 12px;">Define balanced though?  50g carbs?  150g carbs?  The traditional numbers are what, 400g a day.  That’s not balanced in my view and not necessary.</span>

I think getting hung up on numbers can be unhelpful. it really depends on an individual, their activity levels/intensity and their insulin sensitivty.

It sounds a bit vague but you need to experiment on yourself with carbs and see what works. A couple of the people who's podcasts i listen to use blood sugar testing to how whether the carbs are spiking their blood sugars and adjust their carb level up or down to see what the right amount for them is.

At them moment I have potato/sweet potato once a week and that seems to work for my current activity levels and weight loss goals

<span style="color: #444444; font-size: 12px; background-color: #eeeeee;"> ‘balanced’ diet?</span>

I would also add that "balance diet" is up there with "eat less move more". in the unhelpful diet advice list.

“eat less move more”

Sounds like great advice to me 😃

Eat bits of animal and green stuff is better.

<span style="color: #444444; font-size: 12px; background-color: #eeeeee;">I’m also intrigued. What is this ‘balanced’ diet?</span>

If two things weigh the same you can eat them both.

Edit: Good to see quote working well still. GJ.

Interesting to read people’s thoughts and results. Having been through this and losing about 5ish stone my philosophy is quite simple. We survived as a species for thousands of years eating green stuff and meat. Refined carbs as in wheat so bread pasta also white rice are a relatively new food stuff for us as humans. I don’t think we have evolved the capability to process these properly yet. I have probably reduced my carb intake to a quarter of what it was and these are veg based mainly so high fibre. I found it essential to up my  protein, so more lean chicken fish and a decent steak once a week. Eggs are great. This isn’t a diet it’s a way of life.  One piece of advice I would offer is to do more strength work and try and maintain muscle mass. Essential as we get older.

http://garytaubes.com/works/books/good-calories-bad-calories/

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/07/books/review/Kolata-t.html

https://ninateicholz.com/about/the-book/

http://www.nationalobesityforum.org.uk/index.php/publications/707-book-review-big-fat-surprise-by-nina-teicholz.html

This is an interesting thread. I’ve had a modest weight loss down from 80kg to 75kg since Christmas, purely by cutting out processed sugar and milk. I’ve also stopped eating meat but no idea if that’s helped or not. I seem only to have two weights - 75kg if I eat fairly healthily and 80kg if I don’t.

My problem is I find sugar highly addictive and so it has to be all or nothing with me. Doesn’t seem to matter how much rubbish I eat, I don’t go above 80kg, or how “healthily” I eat, I don’t go below 73/74kg. The constant in this is the cardio exercise of in averge 5-7 hours per week of structured training.

I've been on a low carb (keto) diet since October 2016. I absolutely love it.  It has changed my life. Let's skip over the part where I lost loads of weight and kept it off, I also don't crave food anymore, where I would be hungry from about an hour after my porridge until I finally caved and ate my lunch about 11AM before, I can now eat at any sensible time around lunch when it fits in with my day. That may not sound like much to some of you, but to others that should really hit home.

For me a lot of it is psychological.  For example If somebody asked me before if I wanted a slice of cake, I would think about it, and my internal conversation would go something along the lines of, well I do want it, but I'm in training, I shouldn't have it, but I do want it, but it'll prevent me from losing weight and I'm training for XYZ,  but I do want it.  At this point, even if I turned it down this time, I can guarantee that when the next treat was offered I would take it. With this diet the question is not even considered, the answer to "do you want this" is "I can't have it". It's a small change but to me, psychologically, it has made all the difference.

Finally, I don't suffer from an afternoon slump any more, where at 2PM I would have been sitting at my desk trying to keep my eyes open I am now able to work right through with no drop in performance. Similarly on long rides I feel as though I have a steady state of continuous energy, with the only limiting factor being how good my muscular endurance is, not my energy levels.

I realise this makes me sound like one of those transformations you read about in a magazine, but I'm not.  When I started I was a 23 year old, 107kg, 182cm post grad who had just completed a half Ironman, and had been disappointed that despite all the training I couldn't lose any weight due to my diet. I wasn't skinny, but I was still squeeze into a medium size t shirt.

Now, I weigh 95 kg in an untrained state (back injury),  trained I will drop to around 90kg.  I hope this has helped a few people understand what it is the OP is trying to do, and that it is safe, but it is a total turn around of everything you learnt in HE at school.

If it’s going outside of eating a normal, balanced diet, it’s a fad diet.

That all depends on what you call "normal".  The normal diet, by definition, is currently one that is causing people to become fatter and fatter.

Low carb is hardly a "fad" diet.  I'd reserve that tag for stuff like eating nothing but cauliflower for 2 weeks, that kind of weird stuff.

Diets work by creating a calorie deficit.  The mechanism of this could be low carb (atkins), low fat (trad weight watchers style) or variations of these (paleo, zone, etc).

The only thing that has been shown as a consistent factor is that an increased protein intake is linked to better body composition, eg lower body fat, higher lean mass.

Keep your protein high and try to eat high quality actual food, (grass fed meat/wild fish/fruit/veg/tubers/grass fed dairy) and avoid any obvious rubbish foods (milky bars or twinkies).