low-carb diet: side-effects?

My sister recently began an Atkins-esque low-carb diet, wherein she restricts her carb intake to less than 30 grams per day (this is phase one). She's taking vitamins and drinking lots of water and is nearing the one month mark, having lost around 8lbs and 4 inches. BUT, eight days ago, she began heavily spotting and has basically had her period since (though she is on the pill and not scheduled to). In researching online, we're reading about spotting - sometimes constant - as a side-effect of "extreme" low-carb diets, but we can't find any real medical advice (or suggestions about how long this will last!).

Has anyone here done a low-carb, phased diet and dealt with this - any advice? Do the effects go away as your body adjusts to the change?

Also... suggestions/thoughts about low-carb phase diets in general? My sister (who feels that she has 50 or so lbs to lose, carried mostly around her middle) has read that low-carb is the way to go for her body shape (apple?). I have a small build and ascribe to different eating habits, so I don't know how best to support her. I'd love some help here...

Thanks!

Well I can tell you that I did Atkins off and on for 2 yrs.  And yes, its a quick way to lose weight, however, its a vicious cycle.  Once you stop doing atkins and go back to eating carbs again, the weight comes back on and then some....  It will totally screw up ones metabolism.  I would suggest losing weight the healthy way, by watching what you eat and counting calories and excercise.  It may take longer, but you will look better and feel better in the long run.  It's all about making a lifestyle change.... Because with Atkins, sure its great at first, but trust me, she is going to start feeling soooooo deprived.... Atleast I did.  And that leads to binging... One thing with the Atkins diet is that one taste of something with more carbs then you are allowed is the kiss of death.. By this I mean, if she cheats on one small thing, it will throw the body out of ketosis and she has to start over again....And it does mess up the females menstrual cycle.  It took me about 5 months after I stopped doing it for good before mine returned to normal. 

Good luck! 

i totally agree, i did Atkind for 1 month, lost 16 lbs, got really bored, little by little started eating carbs, BAM gained it back in no time flat! gained 25 back as a mater of fact, ,its not worth it, its so much better to learn to eat healthy instead

Is it Lyndora?

I have a friend who did Lindora and lost over 100 lbs very quickly. One of the side effects she had was blood in her urine. She never did find out why and it passed, but is that something your sister wants to worry about?

counting calories is so easy I don't understand why people want to try something else.

My friend had a tummy tuck and gained back the 100 lbs in 3 months. When she tried to do the low carb thing the second time she couldn't lose the weight. She now weighs 260 lbs and refuses to believe that counting calories works.

Im just curious how old you are and how many calories you have per day, im always tempted to eat

Original Post by fringe1000:

 

Im just curious how many calories you allow yourself per day, when im just counting calories, im tempted to still eat stuff thats not too healthy, I guess that is the idea behind weight watchers, counting points ie calories

Is it Lyndora?

I have a friend who did Lindora and lost over 100 lbs very quickly. One of the side effects she had was blood in her urine. She never did find out why and it passed, but is that something your sister wants to worry about?

counting calories is so easy I don't understand why people want to try something else.

My friend had a tummy tuck and gained back the 100 lbs in 3 months. When she tried to do the low carb thing the second time she couldn't lose the weight. She now weighs 260 lbs and refuses to believe that counting calories works.

 

Of course counting calories works but so does low carb.

 Low carbing does not only consist of 30 carbs, that is only the detox phase that lasts for 2 weeks to cleanse your body of the bad carbs that people have consumed most of their lives due to the American way of eating.However after that initial cleanse you can begin adding back in healthy natural carbs such as good fruits, nuts, and certain whole grains. You find out how many you can add in and still lose weight and then you eat that way for the duration of the diet. Once the weight is lost you begin to add back in all of the rest of the healthy carbs. The only things you dont add back in are the things that people should not be eating anyway like refined sugar and refined grains and flour.

Low carb diets are in fact some of the healthiest diets around becuase they promote healthy clean and natrual eating devoid of sugar and processed foods. The problem comes in when 1) people dont fully read up on their given diet 2) they change the diet to accomadate current trends (as the new atkins did, the origional atkins was extremely healthy) and 3) people dont follow the rules of the diet, they want fast results and forgoe safety for vanity.

Low-carb diets have some inherent problems.   The body needs carbohydrates to function normally.  On 30g carbohydrates a day your sister will be missing out on a raft of nutrition and there are side-effects.  Bad tastes in the mouth, constipation, menstrual problems, heartburn.   The Atkins devotees will tell people to 'work through them' but it's so wrong..... a healthy diet should leave someone feeling energised and healthy, not experiencing minor medical problems and needing to take supplements.

The biggest drawback of low-carb is that it's impractical for most people.  Traditional healthy food the world over revolves around carbohydrates of some description and, unless you're prepared to live in a bubble, taking chicken legs and hardboiled eggs along in your handbag (!) it's a pain in the rear. And that's when the regains happen.  These can be alarmingly fast, be warned.

I'm sure your sister will find all this out for herself so just keep an eye on her.  She could probably have lost 8lbs in 4 weeks on a traditional calorie-controlled diet....   There's really no advantage to low-carb over any other diet programme.