Are You a Carb Counter? Roll Call for the Carb Conscious.

Hello there!

I thought it might be nice to start a thread to see who else on this site has chosen a carb conscious or carb reduced lifestyle. The carb controlled nutritional approaches can be different then low fat or low calorie. But the tools on this web site work wonderfully no matter what lifestyle you have chosen. And I do think that is the intention of the site creators too!

I had originally started out on the cc site counting calories with great success I might add. However, now I find that a lower carb lifestyle is probably the one to most likely meet my long term needs. My mother who is diabetic also lives low carb. And my husband lost 50lbs on Atkins 5 years ago and has stayed carb conscious ever since. Since I've changed to low carb my hunger has gone away and my urge to binge on sweets is diminishing. For me this seems to have been the perfect switch. I'm very close to reaching my goal so I am hoping this will also help me shed the last 10-15 lbs.

So what are you doing to reduce your carbs?  Why did you chose this manner of nutrition?

Is there anyone who is doing, South Beach? Atkins? The Zone?

Or maybe you are just cutting carbs in general either on your own volition or on the advice of a physician, nutritionist or fitness trainer?

Perhaps if there is enough interest we can form a small forum group someday. But until then it would be nice to get to know each other I think!

I've done Atkins before and lost a lot of weight but did not behave well after I reached my goal so within 2 years I gained it back :-(   

Since then though, whenever I am dieting, I check the carb content in my food and the lower the better for me. It seems like carbs and my body don't get along well (bad carbs to me = absolute weight gain).  But since I joined CC I started enjoying fruits and 100% whole wheat, grain, rye... kinds of breads in moderation and it seems like I am doing ok with that.  I am not losing weight but I am definitely losing inches (went down about a size).

If you open a forum for that count me in... 

Ya I did the same thing on Atkins the first time. I lost a lot and then went back to the old ways. But it was a good learning experience because it taught me what to look for in foods that were low glycemic impact.  Oh congrats on that size drop too!

I think it's great to get a specific support group going -- if you are all working on the same program(s), then you can much better help each other.

good luck . . .

Hi NinaV,

I am a carb conscious eater! I tried (and failed) at Atkins, because the variety of foods was not enough to sustain long-term change for me.

However, last March I started seeing a nutritionist who put me on a plan very similar to South Beach, and I have lost about 50lbs (with about 20 to go!) in the past year. I feel GREAT. I try to cook fresh foods, and have eliminated white breads, white rice, potatoes, refined flour and sugar, and most packaged foods from my diet. That being said, I do indulge in simple carbs about once or twice a month.

I would love to be part of a forum if you are forming one, I have great tasty low-carb recipes (I LOVE to cook!) and pointers, etc.

~Colleen

That's awesome Colleen! Good for you! I think it's such an acheivement for anyone to totally change their lifestyle and stick with it like you did.  I love to cook too. I added you to my friend's list also and look forward to us swapping recipes. :)

I am trying to go low carb too.
I did it once before last year, and lost about 40 pounds in a relatively short amount of time, like the summer or maybe 4 months.

But then winter came back and I wasn't golfing anymore  (too cold) and I went back to my old ways.

I just weighed myself last wednesday and I am heavier then I have ever been in my life and it's time to change.

I quit smoking 22 days ago today and no cheating!!!! I weighed myself last wednesday and I know I have dropped a few pounds at least I will find out when I weigh in for the biggest loser contest on the forums here.
And I joined a gym this weekend with my wife and we had our first workout last night.

So hopefully I can stick to it this time, so if you start a low carb forum count me in.
I am running around 20-29 a day right now.

Wow animalize! You quit smoking! That is totally so awesome! Good for you!!

I quit smoking last year and it was the best thing I did in my life besides get married and have my two kids.

It's a very good thing that you are starting an exercise and nutrition plan at the  same time. It will help you stay on track with quitting. You will see how much better you feel after working out.  The first few months if I thought about smoking,  I just kept taking deep breaths to remind myself how wonderful it felt.

High Five!

Yup....I'm in too. With being hypothyroid it's better to eat low carb because us hypos tend to burn fat better with more protein. My pie chart is around 25% fat, 40-45% protein, and the rest carbs. This works for me. I sure am glad we have more low carb people here!

im with coffee---- cutting carbs some really helps us hypo thyroiders

I cant cut carbs out completely--- too hard.

But i choose whole wheat options and try really hard to limit them and increase veggies :)

would love to be aprt of the group!

Me too. I have to eat some carbs but the Barilla Plus Pasta is better and has extra protein. I love it! I'm not to sure but if you have thyroid problems I think I read we should stay away from wheat as well.  I know for sure no soy but I will research this and get back to you about this.

I too am starting low carb but not totally omitting carbs.  Love my fruit too much.  I Have been choosing the high glycemic carbs but only limiting them to earlier in the day.  At night I eat protein and veggies.  Not sure how to go about this, or how much carbs is too much but maybe I can get better ideas on this board so I will join here too. 

I don't think you can completely cut carbs out. You'd have to eat like meat and eggs and I think that would be it! Not even Atkins recommends doing that for a prolonged period of time. Dr. Atkins advocated adding carbs back in to the individual diet until a tolerance level was met.

I was reading my Atkins book and there is an interesting correlation between the trend of increased carbs and reduced fat in the US and the rise of obesity. You can see the charts near the bottom of this page:
http://www.cdc.gov/MMWR/preview/mmwrhtml/mm53 04a3.htm

Granted there are a lot of factors at play here. Reading the article on the above page talks about people eating more junk food away from home. We are also consuming more and more calories and expending less and less energy. No wonder why we all seem to be struggling to stay behind the upwards trend!

Ya I definately eat more junk when I'm away from home.  I always have to grab something quick cause I have to eat while I'm driving between my cleaning jobs.  I know, not the safest thing to do but it's usually on back roads not the main hwys so I am careful. But it has to be something not to sloppy.  :)