Thread: low carb diet

Spend a little time looking at some of the other no carb discussion that are currently at the top of the diet forum.

Straight "low carb" is not a viable diet. All it means is that you're not going to be providing sufficient energy source for your body's needs.

You either need to do a carb cycle, keeping out of ketosis, or doing a full-on keto diet where you go into ketosis but do refeeds. Research CKD (cylclic ketogenic diet) or carb cycling / carb rotation.

Originally Posted by harryson9890

The following diet and health program is said to have been developed for the employees of General Motors and is very popular with dieters. This diet Plan allows you to loose upto 5 Kgs, but you will probably gain back some of it. Yet this low carb diet plan leaves you slimmer and glowing. Try and see the difference. For the vegeatrian GM diet visit the link. Remember its easier to follow the diet below with modifications than the one given in the link.

This plan can be used as often as you like without any fear of complications. It is designed to flush your system of impurities and give you a feeling of well being. After seven days you will begin to feel lighter and full of energy.

During the first seven days you must abstain from all alcohol and must drink 10 glasses of water each day.

Day One
All fruits except bananas. Your first day will consist of all the fruits you want. It is strongly suggested that you consume lots of melons the first day. Especially watermelon. If you limit your fruit consumption to melons, your chances of losing 1-2 Kgs on the first day are very good.

Day Two
All vegetables. You are encouraged to eat until you are stuffed with all the raw or cooked vegetables of your choice. There is no limit on the amount or type. For your complex carbohydrate, you will start day two with a large baked potato for breakfast. You may top the potato with one pat of butter.

Day Three
A mixture of fruits and vegetables of your choice. Any amount, any quantity. No bananas yet. No potatoes today.

Day Four
Bananas and milk. Today you will eat as many as eight bananas and drink three glasses of milk. This will be combined with the special soup which may be eaten in limited quantities.

Day Five
Today is feast day. You will eat beef and tomatoes. Eat two 10 oz. portions of lean beef. Hamburger is OK. Combine this with six whole tomatoes. On day five you must increase your water intake by one quart. This is to cleanse your system of the uric acid you will be producing. Note: For Indians the beef may be replaced with chicken or mutton. For vegetarians you could replace the protiens to Rajama,chole, panneer or Soya nuggets cooked to your taste.Remember to limit yourself to only one protien on a given day.

Day Six
Beef and vegetables. Today you may eat an unlimited amount of beef and vegetables. Eat to your hearts content.

Day Seven
Today your food intake will consist of brown rice, fruit juices and all the vegetables you care to consume.

Only two days of meats? Where's the fats?

Oh and the best part "but you will probably gain back some of it."....LOL.

Excellent idea - no protein for most of this diet means you'll lose weight FAST - a pound of fat stores about 3500 calories but a pound of muscle only holds about 500-600. For the same deficit, you can lose weight six times as fast on low protein!

Sassy, why don't you think low carb is a viable option? Lots of people are perfectly comfortable on very low carb diets for years.

Originally Posted by Built

Excellent idea - no protein for most of this diet means you'll lose weight FAST - a pound of fat stores about 3500 calories but a pound of muscle only holds about 500-600. For the same deficit, you can lose weight six times as fast on low protein!

Sassy, why don't you think low carb is a viable option? Lots of people are perfectly comfortable on very low carb diets for years.

Very low carb but not into ketosis? How low carb are we talking? If your body has no sufficient energy source, be it carbs or ketones, its hard to accomplish much of anything.

I was trying to clearly distinguish between "low carb" w/ no refeeds and intending to go into ketosis.

I would limit myself to eating around the workout, especially after.

On non-training days consume your carbs preferably in the morning and stop eating them in the afternoon/evening. Instead, ramp up fat intake and protein in the evening.

BTW that diet posted above, looks absolute crap to me. "special soup" lol, I guess thats only for the very "special" bodybuilders.

Originally Posted by sassy69

Very low carb but not into ketosis? How low carb are we talking? If your body has no sufficient energy source, be it carbs or ketones, its hard to accomplish much of anything.

I was trying to clearly distinguish between "low carb" w/ no refeeds and intending to go into ketosis.

Dunno. I've never done low carb where I haven't gone into ketosis.

???

Originally Posted by Built

Dunno. I've never done low carb where I haven't gone into ketosis.

???

It matters how low carb we're talking. W/o anyone actually calling out specific amounts in this thread, many people say they're gonna do a low carb diet and then stay at like 50 g of carbs and then wonder why they are lethargic and their weight loss stalled. Because they are too low carb to actually have enough carb to use for sufficient fueling of their activities, but not enough to go into ketosis actually leverage a ketogenic diet. Its fine if you go 'low carb' but not down ketosis, but you would ideally be doing some sort of a refeed regularly or a carb cycle so you are getting enough carb to run on.

Odd. And not my experience at all.

Originally Posted by Built

Odd. And not my experience at all.

Not mine either.

Don't cut out vegetables, they aren't going to impact blood sugar too much and affect results. I'd include vegetables/salad with at least 2-3 meals or you risk getting constipated too. Cut out fruits for the first 2 weeks. Have dairy but only no added sugar, Greek yogurt is a good option. I eat one called Sophie yogurt which has fiber added/no added sugar. So cut out the refined carbs - sugary/junk foods and 'white' carbs like bread and pasta.

Originally Posted by Built

Odd. And not my experience at all.

Please define "low carb".

Well, I lost the weight on the Atkins diet originally, which started at 20g of carb (total, including fibre) and crept up the carb ladder 5g at a time until fat-loss stalled (read: until I was eating too many calories because the carbs were making me hungry). Now that I understand it's not just carbs, but total calories that matter (d'uh!) I don't run into these problems - at any carb-level.

When I carb-cycle, I do "under a hundred / over a hundred" and find this very easy to manage.

I can get into ketosis easily even on a day where I've eaten bagels for breakfast by going for a two-hour hike up The Chief. And I don't run into lethargy or energy problems regardless of the carb level. I do lean out better if I run my carbs low (as in "under a hundred") most of the time simply because it kills hunger better than any other strategy. When I've run a significant deficit for a few weeks, I find my body craving carbs and that's when I do a refeed - I've gotten to where I can do it by feel. But as you know, I don't compete so I'm not on a deadline. If I set a target for a bodyfat level and I don't make it until a month later, it's fine. For a competitor, I can appreciate the rules need to be considerably tighter and there may well be more of an energy problem than I've encountered.

So this is my point. The OP said "I would like to do a low carb diet. I would do zero carb ...."

Many people don't understand what "low carb" is and will simply choose to cut out all carbs. And then wonder why, after a couple of weeks they have no energy because they are scared shitless of any carbs, but also have no understanding being in ketosis either.

That is the only point I was trying to make. There is an often uninformed approach to "low carb diets" that people completely miss the point on. I was suggesting to the OP to do more research on "low carb" and understand the differences. "Zero carb" gets you nowhere. Therefore you need to either choose to do a ketogenic diet where you can do "zero carb" but need to have the appropriate total cals & fats consideration (as most people tend to ignore fats and usually only think about protein & carbs) and still will need some refeeds in there, OR do include carbs but at an amount MORE then going into ketosis, but if you want to be very judicious w/ your carbs, then do a carb rotation.

When I did the Atkins diet, I was under 40g of carb daily for about eight months. The lower my carbs, the better I feel. I only ran into trouble when I increased the carbs. And on Atkins, there are no refeeds.

I'm not sure this ties in with your point or not.

Originally Posted by sassy69

So this is my point. The OP said "I would like to do a low carb diet. I would do zero carb ...."

Many people don't understand what "low carb" is and will simply choose to cut out all carbs.

I apologize in advance for my pedanticism, but I've never actually known anyone to do "zero" carbs - to do that you'd have to avoid eggs, butter, and other trace sources of carbs. I agree with you though, having seen this many times myself - people don't understand what low carb means, why it works, and just figure the fat will magically melt off for no particular reason as soon as they are eschewed from the diet. They don't realize that ultimately it's cals in, cals out - and of course there's a multi-billion dollar industry hell-bent on keeping this information secret (oh, now I've told you - that means I'll have to kill you...) so the misconceptions are understandable. Anyone reading this who finds this information novel is lucky that you posted it.

Originally Posted by sassy69

And then wonder why, after a couple of weeks they have no energy because they are scared shitless of any carbs, but also have no understanding being in ketosis either.

See, this is the part that doesn't match my experience. It only became an issue when I got lean enough to see delt veins. While I was somewhat juicy, I had no problems at all.

Mind you, I understood the need to ensure that most of my calories came not from protein, but from fat. On Atkins, a typical day for me on Atkins might have been 120g protein, 120g fat and maybe 20-30g carb. I'm not a "percentages" gal, but this works out to about 65% of my calories coming from fat and about 5% from carb. In LBM-based figures, this just over a gram of protein and just over a gram of fat per pound lean mass.

If my fats dropped too low I felt really crummy. I notice this same feeling when I do Lyle's PSMF - on a low-fat, low-carb diet I need refeeds, and crave fat like there's no tomorrow. On high fats, I'd be just fine - even if my carbs were in fact to drop to zero.

Originally Posted by sassy69

That is the only point I was trying to make. There is an often uninformed approach to "low carb diets" that people completely miss the point on. I was suggesting to the OP to do more research on "low carb" and understand the differences. "Zero carb" gets you nowhere. Therefore you need to either choose to do a ketogenic diet where you can do "zero carb" but need to have the appropriate total cals & fats consideration (as most people tend to ignore fats and usually only think about protein & carbs) and still will need some refeeds in there, OR do include carbs but at an amount MORE then going into ketosis, but if you want to be very judicious w/ your carbs, then do a carb rotation.

I agree completely that anyone trying to diet in any other way than running a modest (<20%) deficit via portion control needs to do some targeted reading.

The interesting thing to me is just how differently satiety and comfort vary across the population of dieters.

In general, I like to see people figure out how to find a comfortable maintenance diet before they start cutting; in practice, nobody wants to do this. They just want the weight off NOW, dammit!

This desire keeps people like us engaged in the endless unpaid support we provide.

My definition of a "low carb diet" is simply an insulin modulation (or maybe control would be a better word) diet.
On days you need more energy; eat more carbs keeping other macro values the same so that what you've consumed isn't pushed into fatcells by insulin. Lower energy demand days would be lower carb days.

Originally Posted by harryson9890

The following diet and health program is said to have been developed for the employees of General Motors and is very popular with dieters. This diet Plan allows you to loose upto 5 Kgs, but you will probably gain back some of it. Yet this low carb diet plan leaves you slimmer and glowing. Try and see the difference. For the vegeatrian GM diet visit the link. Remember its easier to follow the diet below with modifications than the one given in the link.

This plan can be used as often as you like without any fear of complications. It is designed to flush your system of impurities and give you a feeling of well being. After seven days you will begin to feel lighter and full of energy.

During the first seven days you must abstain from all alcohol and must drink 10 glasses of water each day.

Day One
All fruits except bananas. Your first day will consist of all the fruits you want. It is strongly suggested that you consume lots of melons the first day. Especially watermelon. If you limit your fruit consumption to melons, your chances of losing 1-2 Kgs on the first day are very good.

Day Two
All vegetables. You are encouraged to eat until you are stuffed with all the raw or cooked vegetables of your choice. There is no limit on the amount or type. For your complex carbohydrate, you will start day two with a large baked potato for breakfast. You may top the potato with one pat of butter.

Day Three
A mixture of fruits and vegetables of your choice. Any amount, any quantity. No bananas yet. No potatoes today.

Day Four
Bananas and milk. Today you will eat as many as eight bananas and drink three glasses of milk. This will be combined with the special soup which may be eaten in limited quantities.

Day Five
Today is feast day. You will eat beef and tomatoes. Eat two 10 oz. portions of lean beef. Hamburger is OK. Combine this with six whole tomatoes. On day five you must increase your water intake by one quart. This is to cleanse your system of the uric acid you will be producing. Note: For Indians the beef may be replaced with chicken or mutton. For vegetarians you could replace the protiens to Rajama,chole, panneer or Soya nuggets cooked to your taste.Remember to limit yourself to only one protien on a given day.

Day Six
Beef and vegetables. Today you may eat an unlimited amount of beef and vegetables. Eat to your hearts content.

Day Seven
Today your food intake will consist of brown rice, fruit juices and all the vegetables you care to consume.

The Hell is this shit?

Originally Posted by mike456

going to do a low carb diet.. I would do zero carb, but I feel the carbs give me energy for the workout. What foods should i use to supply the carbs? are whole grains necessary in a diet, or should I just eat vegetables.

Meats, especially beef.
Green vegetables (any garden type vegetable)
Nuts and seeds between meals if you are hungry or need more calories.
No grains or anything made from grain.

Don't make the mistake that many make of eating too much protein and not enough fat on this...that is a sure way to fail. DO NOT AVOID FAT.

Do this for 5 days then the day before your heaviest day in the gym, add carbs. Preferably safe starches like potatoes, winter squashes, and a little fruit (if you have a woman in your life that you are intimate with, she'll appreciate the fruit)... carb load the day before your heaviest day right up until your workout the day of your heaviest day.

The lean muscle you build will thank you...the fat you DON'T add will thank you.

You're welcome.

^ This.

+1 funny thing is this is the way my parents ate (less the carb loading before workout, because they didn't workout) and no one in my family was ever fat.

Originally Posted by .V.

Meats, especially beef.
Green vegetables (any garden type vegetable)
Nuts and seeds between meals if you are hungry or need more calories.
No grains or anything made from grain.

Don't make the mistake that many make of eating too much protein and not enough fat on this...that is a sure way to fail. DO NOT AVOID FAT.

Do this for 5 days then the day before your heaviest day in the gym, add carbs. Preferably safe starches like potatoes, winter squashes, and a little fruit (if you have a woman in your life that you are intimate with, she'll appreciate the fruit)... carb load the day before your heaviest day right up until your workout the day of your heaviest day.

The lean muscle you build will thank you...the fat you DON'T add will thank you.

You're welcome.

why no grains? this means no whole wheat or whole grain bread?
what type of bread should i eat?

Originally Posted by mike456

why no grains? this means no whole wheat or whole grain bread?
what type of bread should i eat?

None at all. Grains being good for you is marketing hype.

Originally Posted by .V.

Meats, especially beef.
Green vegetables (any garden type vegetable)
Nuts and seeds between meals if you are hungry or need more calories.
No grains or anything made from grain.

Don't make the mistake that many make of eating too much protein and not enough fat on this...that is a sure way to fail. DO NOT AVOID FAT.

Do this for 5 days then the day before your heaviest day in the gym, add carbs. Preferably safe starches like potatoes, winter squashes, and a little fruit (if you have a woman in your life that you are intimate with, she'll appreciate the fruit)... carb load the day before your heaviest day right up until your workout the day of your heaviest day.

The lean muscle you build will thank you...the fat you DON'T add will thank you.

You're welcome.

So ezekiel grains, or oatmeal is bad? When did this come about?

so carbs should only be consumed strictly through fruits and vegetables? no brown rice or any cereals, etc.?

Originally Posted by Built

Excellent idea - no protein for most of this diet means you'll lose weight FAST - a pound of fat stores about 3500 calories but a pound of muscle only holds about 500-600. For the same deficit, you can lose weight six times as fast on low protein!

Sassy, why don't you think low carb is a viable option? Lots of people are perfectly comfortable on very low carb diets for years.

This confuses me because low carb diets are high fat correct ? If a pound of fat stores 3500 calories shouldnt we be cutting out fat instead of carbs ? Sorry if this is derailing the tread im just confused by this.

i am so sick of trying to cut, I am just going to bulk and hopefully I can add so much muscle that the fat will eventually reduce on its own.

Originally Posted by mike456

i am so sick of trying to cut, I am just going to bulk and hopefully I can add so much muscle that the fat will eventually reduce on its own.

^^^


I wish that was the case...

Originally Posted by mike456

i am so sick of trying to cut, I am just going to bulk and hopefully I can add so much muscle that the fat will eventually reduce on its own.

Instead of trying to go into drastic measures such as "zero carb", you should focus more on eating basic foods- as the above posters mentioned. It's not rocket science bro, just be sure to get your protein in (1g:1lb of lean mass), and then look at getting your carbs in. Starchy carbs, vegetables.. basically anything that isn't processed. Throw in a little peanut butter, almonds, or olive oil- whatever you prefer and you should be good on fats. Over complicating your diet is a really bad idea, especially if you're just starting off. In a couple months when you discover what foods work best for you, then you could learn about carb cycling, keto, etc. Just keep it simple- you can't go wrong with that.

Originally Posted by Moneytoblow

So ezekiel grains, or oatmeal is bad? When did this come about?

I'm pushed for time right now. I've written some articles that are on my site...but this quy quite honestly did a much better job because he backs his up with research where I only interpret and simplify the research for the uninitiated and those who, unlike us who actually try to eat healthy and train, don't understand nutrition...

He's dead wrong about a few things...but the general guidelines and the grain information are 100% accurate. Mark's Daily Apple go do some reading my friend. His site is full of good info. Some you will find helpful, some you will not...

enjoy.