May 8th, 2012 : The first day of the rest of my life.

[+Warwagon MVC]

May 8th, 2012 : The first day of the rest of my life.

The Low Carbohydrate Diet (The New Me Part II)

Disclaimer: I'm not a doctor, nor have I ever played one on TV.

Back in January 2009, when I weighed in at 216 LBS my goal was to get down to 179 pounds. During the 3 year duration of riding the exercise bike, I got down to 180. Then Crept back up to 194 while still ridding the bike. 2 years later on July 4th 2011 when I stopped ridding the bike and replaced it with a 3.5 mile daily walk, I got down to 182lbs during the entire year thus far of walking. On my 1st week of trying out the low carbohydrate diet and combining it with walking, I got my weight down to 181. Now after 4 months of low carb I am down to 168lbs. I have removed the walking and am going to main tain my diet via low carb. I stopped walking on July 4th 2012. Since that time my weight has stayed between 168 -171lbs.

On May 7th 2012, I started listening to a 2 part TWIT live special featuring "Steve Gibson" talking about a low / No carbohydrate diet he has taken part in. I learned some very interesting things about carbohydrates, things I thought I would share with all of you.

The muscles and cells in our body are able to burn 3 different types of things for energy.

1) Glucose, which typically comes from carbohydrates and also from protein

2) Fat

3) Ketones

While our body can burn all 3 of those things for energy, it prioritizes carbohydrates above all others. Meaning, If you eat a a lot of carbohydrates (Which isn't hard to do because carbohydrates are in almost everything) and then go for a nightly walk, the body will burn off all of the carbohydrates first, before moving onto fat. This means one of 3 things.

1) You will burn off only what carbs you have consumed and no fat.

2) You will burn off more than you've consumed, in which case the body then moves onto fat.

3) You haven't burned off more than you've consumed, so the carbs you have left over turn to fat and the fat you've consumed also turns to fat.

For a very long time, I was still eating a bowl of rice for supper almost every night. Which is why my body weight stayed

the same and I was never losing any more weight. If I was lucky my walking was burning off only what I consumed.

Now let's think about someone who eats a lot of carbs (not hard to do), fats and does zero exercising. You can then see why most of what they consume throughout the day turns to fat and why obesity has turned into a very serious issue.

So what happens when you eat very little carbs? How does your body survive?

After about a week of eating around 60g's of carbs or 200 calories, your brain tells your body

"Scotty!! I'm running out of glucose, I need more energy". In which your body responds with "Captain, I'm trying, I JUST DON'T HAVE THE CARBS!"

At this point your liver flips a switch and goes into a mode called "Ketosis". Ketosis is when the liver starts burning fat as your single source of energy and in return produces something called "ketones".

This solves a very big problem. Our brain needs glucose but is very lazy and never stores any glucose for a rainy day. A brain without glucose = coma!". Luckily our brains can also use ketones for fuel.

So now our body is in the process of burning fat as fuel and giving us some very nice benefits in the process.

In Gibons case, his appetite went away, to the point where he wasn't craving food anymore. In fact he really wasn't hungry at all. He still ate daily meals, he just didn't have an urge to eat all the time. His heart rate before going on the low / no carb was 153.

He said " When my heart rate was 153 I was utterly exhausted. I stop, I rest on the bars of the stair climber and catch my breath. Then, after I've cooled off and stopped perspiring, and I shower, I'm a little shaky. I mean, I've just - I've worked so hard during that period of time that I'm used to being a little, not really fragile, but I've got to make sure when I'm washing my feet I don't slip in the shower because, I mean, I'm not all there yet.

Now his heart rate was the same 153 but this time something was different.

He said " I didn't even notice it. I mean, I wasn't distracted by how hard this was. And, I mean, as a consequence of having all this instrumentation, I've established broad baselines for how I feel, when and where. And this is a change. This was phenomenal."

Turns out there is a reason for this. " We breathe for two reasons: to get oxygen in and to get rid of CO2. Carbohydrates, sugar, has a respiratory coefficient of 1:1, which is the amount of CO2 produced versus oxygen consumed. Protein is 0.85, so you only produce 85 percent as much CO2 as oxygen. So when you're burning fat, you're producing only 70 percent as much CO2. Thus the respiration is completely changed."

So a low carb diet is very interesting to me. Just today I went to the store to buy low carb food. It was fun looking on the back of packages to see just how much carbohydrates a particular food has. It was surprising to find out hotdogs only have 1g of carbohydrates per hot dog as does cheese. So I bought some hotdogs, cheese, Lettus, Carrots, I also bought a small turkey which has Zero carbs. I'm interested on how this might turn out. You never know, I might finally reach my weight within a very short time.

So look around your house and what is in your kitchen and see just how many carbohydrates you are consuming on a daily basis.

I would recommend everyone download or stream the 2 episodes of the TWIT live special. The links can be found below

http://twit.tv/show/...ve-specials/125

Update 6/15/2012

So as all of you know by now, I've been doing the low carb thing for about a month. Today I went to Wal-mart to buy myself some low carb snacks. But first I made a stop at the blood pressure machine. Now in the past (pre low carb) when I would read the results on the machine I felt like just standing up might make me stroke out! It usually said 140 / 80 with a heart rate of 75. Today after almost a month of Low carbs it told me 115 / 60 with a heart rate of 69. Hurray! Then I tested myself again and the 1st number was at 123, but that's still the lowest i've ever seen it. Low carb FTW!

Update 8/20/2012

I've been doing low carb now for about 4 months. I'm no longer trying the no carb, just low carb. Thus far I am now down to 168lbs, with a BMI of 25 (was 34). I feel great and the low carb diet has been going great. I don't see why I would stop doing it.

Update 12/1/2012

Well so far so good. I haven't walked since July 4th 2012, and i'm still just doing the low carb. My weight is still staying between 168 - 172. I'm very happy with that. Included in this update is a before an after photo. The before photo was probably 7 - 8 years ago. it's funny because I look younger in the after photo which was taken today. Low carb the fountain of youth! :D

[DrJohnSmitherson]

I think I'm a little confused. By cutting out carbs he was exhausted but then got used to it?

[+Warwagon MVC]

I think I'm a little confused. By cutting out carbs he was exhausted but then got used to it?

With carbs he was exhausted. without carbs he was much better.

[ArKeYa]

I'm currently on a low carb diet myself. I keep it simple. What comes in should be less or equal of what I will use.

[surrealvortex]

Nothing with a "die" in it can be good for you.

[MorganX]

FWIW, the body does not normally use or generate Ketones for energy. Ketones are a byproduct of burning protein (muscle, which the heart is) for energy. A person generally enteres Ketosis during starvation or carb restriction/depletion.

Weight loss from Ketosis is temporary as you will gain most if not all or more of it back once you begin eating like a normal human being again.

[+Warwagon MVC]

FWIW, the body does not normally use or generate Ketones for energy. Ketones are a byproduct of burning protein (muscle, which the heart is) for energy. A person generally enteres Ketosis during starvation or carb restriction/depletion.

Weight loss from Ketosis is temporary as you will gain most if not all or more of it back once you begin eating like a normal human being again.

Or 60g of Carbs per day or less.

[nominak]

What would you say a daily meal plan would look like for a low carb diet?

I'm at about 216 lbs myself and I haven't done anything really to change the way I eat and I drink at least 2L of pepsi a day which isn't helping... I really need to change, so low carb would be a good start :p

[conan_2000]

What would you say a daily meal plan would look like for a low carb diet?

I'm at about 216 lbs myself and I haven't done anything really to change the way I eat and I drink at least 2L of pepsi a day which isn't helping... I really need to change, so low carb would be a good start :p

Just drink 2l of water instead of 2l of pepsi! That's probably at a guess, 180g of sugar a day removed from your diet!

[srbeen]

What would you say a daily meal plan would look like for a low carb diet?

I'm at about 216 lbs myself and I haven't done anything really to change the way I eat and I drink at least 2L of pepsi a day which isn't helping... I really need to change, so low carb would be a good start :p

but dude.... 2 litres of pepsi. seriously.

you should log all the food you eat in the next 48 hr. EVERYTHING.

then count the calories, carbs, fats, protein.. you will likely be disgusted with yourself. I was, and I am your weight, 180CM.

Its incredible. I don`t drink anything now but water and milk, and 1% chocolate because im stubborn. a vice. and of course beer. no more than a case a month, should be hard liquors though...beeer is the chocolate of alcohols!

almost every drink has carbs, and lots of them.

if you want more literature, watch fat head, its on netflix - documentary to contrast super size me, where buddy eats at mcdonalds every day and loses a lot of weight. His principal was based off this. ate eggs and bacon and McDonalds almost every day.. with a salad and like 7K of walking...

for the meal plans, well, http://lowcarbdiets.about.com/od/whattoeat/ig/Low-Carb-Food-Pyramid/lowcarbpyramid1-IG.htm

[nominak]

but dude.... 2 litres of pepsi. seriously.

you should log all the food you eat in the next 48 hr. EVERYTHING.

then count the calories, carbs, fats, protein.. you will likely be disgusted with yourself. I was, and I am your weight, 180CM.

Its incredible. I don`t drink anything now but water and milk, and 1% chocolate because im stubborn. a vice. and of course beer. no more than a case a month, should be hard liquors though...beeer is the chocolate of alcohols!

almost every drink has carbs, and lots of them.

if you want more literature, watch fat head, its on netflix - documentary to contrast super size me, where buddy eats at mcdonalds every day and loses a lot of weight. His principal was based off this. ate eggs and bacon and McDonalds almost every day.. with a salad and like 7K of walking...

for the meal plans, well, http://lowcarbdiets....pyramid1-IG.htm

Yeah I know, I dont even know why I got in the habit of 2L of pepsi a day.. I think starting tomorrow i'm gonna start on a healthier diet, hopefully cut out all the pepsi and start walking at least 5-10 km a day hopefully that'll help me feel better and at least lost a little weight.

I'll preface with, I quit pepsi last year and did the walking thing, which was great, then I started work again and that went to crap.. but hopefully I'll stick with it.

[andrewbares]

FWIW, the body does not normally use or generate Ketones for energy. Ketones are a byproduct of burning protein (muscle, which the heart is) for energy. A person generally enteres Ketosis during starvation or carb restriction/depletion.

Weight loss from Ketosis is temporary as you will gain most if not all or more of it back once you begin eating like a normal human being again.

Correct. Doing this diet is a bad idea! It's essentially starving your body, forcing it into survival mode.

If you eat way too many carbs, you should lower your amount. But don't go extreme.

You never want to be burning protein (your own muscles). If the health factor doesn't tell you it's bad, the pain you will be in will! Your body eating its own muscles will hurt (starvation hurts)

[ArKeYa]

Wait, I though Ketosis burns fat first?

Ketosis is a good technique if you know what you are doing.

[DomZ]

I've recently started a low carb diet (ala atkins) where for the first two weeks your meant to limit your carb intake to around 15gs, and then gradually add more carbs back to your diet to find out what the optimum number of carbs is for your body in order to continue weight loss and eventually maintain it.

I was getting some headaches because my carb intake was so low and as my body adjusted to using ketosis, so I've scrapped the 15gs and I'm aiming for <50gs with the majority of my carbs coming from a bowl of porridge in the morning (roughly 30gs) which is a slow releasing carb so won't make my insulin spike.

For anyone interested on why a low carb diet works and why our bodies aren't used to the high amount of carbs that westerners tend to eat nowadays check out this article - http://www.youmeworks.com/whylowcarb.html

Also for the people saying ketosis is going to start burning your muscle away - on a low carb diet your eating a lot more meat and eggs etc (and therefore protein and fat) so your body uses this as a source of fuel first and then will start releasing fat from the fat cells to turn that into fuel.

[gnuman]

This is what Atkins has been attesting to the whole time. Carbs is what causes us to crave food because carbs get broken down into sugar and your body produces insulin. In a normal person say it take x insulin to absorb y carbs you're fine in my case my body produces too much insulin for y carbs you store fat.

If you stick to one energy your body will burn that energy but high carb diet low protein diet isn't a healthy one at all. Your body is made up of proteins.

When I switched to very low carb diet (modified Atkins) getting rid of sugar makes you go crazy. It took 8 days for me to stop craving sugar and resulted in bad headaches. I didn't eat rice or bread or potatoes for a whole 6 months the weight dropped off without any exercise routine. I also did not experience much hunger either but did have times where I did pig out on high protein only and it took a while for my stomach to stop the hunger pains.

Warwagon I'd strongly advise you don't consume too many hotdogs those nitrates aren't good for you and hotdogs also contain fillers like potato starch which is a carb.

What I suggest is to look at one of those diabetic sites to see the glycemic index of foods and avoid those because it will hinder your weight loss. Remember you want to eat foods that won't spike your sugar levels.

[+Warwagon MVC]

Warwagon I'd strongly advise you don't consume too many hotdogs those nitrates aren't good for you and hotdogs also contain fillers like potato starch which is a carb.

Correct they do contain carbs, but 1g per hotdog.

sodium 720 mg

Carbs 1g

Protein 6g

Total Fat 15g

[irina.antonia]

I have had SUCH GOOD LUCK wit low carb. And I highly recommend Gary Taubes books on the topic of fat gain and fat loss. He has researched everything in this field since the 1800?s and puts it all together for us.

[Warlock6669]

I've started a similar low-carb / gluten free diet last month, after reading this book: http://www.amazon.co...h/dp/1609611543

Basically by going gluten free, and not falling into the traps of eating foods labeled as gluten free which spike glucose and subsequently insulin, I've managed to lose 17 lbs in 7 weeks without changing anything else. I was already working out 3-5 days per week and not losing weight, plus I was hungry all of the time. Now, I've got much more energy, I can eat normal portions of food, and I'm not looking for something else to eat 20 minutes after a meal. As with any diet plan, YMMV. If nothing else, the book is an interesting read on the current state of the links between food and obesity in the world.

[gnuman]

@warwagon, the problem is the salt content as well. 750mg for a hot dog is high and if you eat 3 it's 2.3grams of salt and nitrates which is not good.

You'll start retaining water and put on water weight.

Eat some real meat instead of cured ones it'll be a lot better for you

[+Warwagon MVC]

Yes but when you are jetosus you go throw a lot more salt. To the point where they recommend you consume extra salt.

[+Warwagon MVC]

Nm

[sanctified Veteran]

Also an alimentary regime based on low carbs (low, not none) and high protein can improve your mood.

[+Warwagon MVC]

As all of you know by now, I've been doing the low carb thing for about a month. Today I went to Wal-mart to buy myself some low carb snacks. But first I made a stop at the blood pressure machine. Now in the past (pre low carb) when I would read the results on the machine I felt like just standing up might make me stroke out! It usually said 140 / 80 with a heart rate of 75. Today after almost a month of Low carbs it told me 115 / 60 with a heart rate of 69. Hurray! Then I tested myself again and the 1st number was at 123, but that's still the lowest i've ever seen it. Low carb FTW!

[+Warwagon MVC]

I've been doing low carb now for about 4 months. I'm no longer trying the no carb, just low carb. Thus far I am now down to 168lbs, with a BMI of 25 (was 34). I feel great and the low carb diet has been going great. I don't see why I would stop doing it.

[nominak]

What would you say is your daily food consumption? What do you eat all day?