Low-Carb Diets?
Are they safe? Healthy? Successful?
What foods should you avoid? Which foods should you eat?
The quality of the food you eat is MUCH more important than the macronutrient breakdown. Low carb diets can be safe, or not. They can be healthy, or not. They can be successful, or not, it all depends on the quality of the food.
Avoid food that comes out of a factory, eat food that comes from nature.
I eat mostly natural foods lots of fruit, veggies, miks and cheese, and lean protein. I don’t limit fruit of vegetables which are high in natural sugar. When it comes to bread and grains, I stick with whole grains, nothing white, nothing processed (expect for the occasional treat).
I stick w lean meats and fish, beef weekly, full-fat cheese and natural yogurt with no added sugar.
Good luck.
I follow a low carb diet and the research I have done on it makes me feel that it is the most healthy and safe way to live.
I eat meat, eggs, veggies, fruit, nuts and cheese. I avoid bread, potatos, rice and legumes.
low-carb diets work the same way every other diet does, by providing less calories than your body burns.
it is important to know that there is ABSOLUTELY NO SCIENTIFIC EVIDENCE that a low-carb diet is healthy. extreme low-carb diets like atkins are, in my opinion, icky. they also encourage dieters to eat foods that are high in cholestorol (hello, heart attack) including red meat (oh, hi colon cancer).
what there IS scientific evidence for is the health value of a low-fat, plant-based diet with little or no animal protein and LOTS of whole, unprocessed foods.
i know i am not in the vegetarian forum here, but this really is TRUTH. if you want to live a healthier life (and lose weight!) concentrate on cutting out processed foods and increasing vegetables, fruits and whole grains.
acarr, I agree with some of your advice but I thought that the evidence was that a plant-based diet (not necessarily vegetarian but primarily plant-based) was healthiest. Not that a "low-fat plant-based diet" was healthiest. I've never read anything to indicate that consuming high fat plant-based foods like avocado or nuts was bad for you.
Original Post by acarr:it is important to know that there is ABSOLUTELY NO SCIENTIFIC EVIDENCE that a low-carb diet is healthy.
Define 'healthy', there is scientific evidence that low carb diets are better for weight loss, improving cholesterol and heart health than low fat diets.
Original Post by acarr:extreme low-carb diets like atkins are, in my opinion, icky. they also encourage dieters to eat foods that are high in cholestorol (hello, heart attack) including red meat (oh, hi colon cancer).
Foods high in cholesterol do not increase your blood cholesterol
Original Post by acarr:what there IS scientific evidence for is the health value of a low-fat, plant-based diet with little or no animal protein and LOTS of whole, unprocessed foods.
See the studies above, the evidence points to high fat/low carb diets being healthier than low fat/high carb diets.
Original Post by susiecue:
acarr, I agree with some of your advice but I thought that the evidence was that a plant-based diet (not necessarily vegetarian but primarily plant-based) was healthiest. Not that a "low-fat plant-based diet" was healthiest. I've never read anything to indicate that consuming high fat plant-based foods like avocado or nuts was bad for you.
i meant "low-fat" as in low in animal protein/fat... i think fat from avocados/nuts is great and i eat TONS.
low-carb as in low-calorie will of course produce weight-loss, which will improve your general health in terms of heart health, cancer risk etc.
but diets high in animal protein are just not good for you or the planet.
a plant-based diet offers benefits beyond those of weight-loss.
Original Post by acarr:
low-carb as in low-calorie will of course produce weight-loss, which will improve your general health in terms of heart health, cancer risk etc.
If you bothered to look at the studies I linked you see that a high fat diet has been shown to yeild more weight and fat loss than a high carb diet even when the people on the high fat diet ate significanly more calories than those on the low fat diet.
Original Post by acarr:
but diets high in animal protein are just not good for you or the planet.
So, a diet that improves weight loss, cardiovascular health and decreases your cholesterol just isn't good for you? There are also some pretty interesting arguments for diets high in animal products (for people in certain parts of the world) being better for the planet than plant based diets.
Original Post by acarr:
a plant-based diet offers benefits beyond those of weight-loss.
Of course it does, but diets that include animal products offer those same benefits, only to a higher degree.
Original Post by acarr:i meant "low-fat" as in low in animal protein/fat... i think fat from avocados/nuts is great and i eat TONS.
But that's not how most people will interpret your post - and it may put them off good high-fat plant foods like avocados/nuts. I think just saying "plant-based" gets the same message across. (I've read this phrase from you in a few different posts, so figured it was worth mentioning.)
I think that low carb has a bad reputation because people automatically think Atkins.
Original Post by susiecue:
Original Post by acarr:i meant "low-fat" as in low in animal protein/fat... i think fat from avocados/nuts is great and i eat TONS.
But that's not how most people will interpret your post - and it may put them off good high-fat plant foods like avocados/nuts. I think just saying "plant-based" gets the same message across. (I've read this phrase from you in a few different posts, so figured it was worth mentioning.)
glad you are here to clarify, then.
AVOID: white flour, enriched flour, wheat flour, sugar (in all of it's forms), hydrogenated fats, high sugar fruits, candy of all kinds, soda pop, juice, cereal, ice cream, starchy carbs (potatoes, peas, carrots, turnips, etc)
EAT: Non-starchy veggies (leafy greens, broccoli, cauliflower, eggplant, onions, peppers, tomatoes, squash, asparagus, artichokes, etc), high quality protein (grass-fed red meats, wild caught fish, fatty fish, poultry breast, eggs & egg whites), healthy fats (avocados, olives, olive oil, fish, nuts, seeds), herbal/green/black/white/oolong tea, stevia, herbs & spices, seaweed
*I live a very low carb life... I mean low low carb - and I have had tons of blood work done recently... along with tests for my blood pressure, etc... and guess what: I am 100% healthy!!
I have 2 problems with "low-carb" diets.
- "Low-carb" itself. Foods contain many macro- and micro-nutrients, some of which we don't even have the technology to measure. Any food that comes whole from nature has the potential to be a healthy choice unless one is allergic to some compound in the food. No real food is just carbohydrate or just protein, they all have other components that may contribute to health.
- Diet. Diets are doomed to failure if they are approached in an all-or-nothing fashion that eliminates entire food groups or items that the individual loves and will start eating again as soon as goal weight or complete boredom with dieting occur.
Much better to make gradual lifestyle changes that include reasonable portions of real food and a sustainable amount of exercise. And the odd "treat" keeps the process fun instead of an endurance trial.
i was on one because i needed to lose weight a bit quick..
im not here to tell you the science im sure youve looked that up ;).. but just from personal experience..
its is by no means easy to stick with.. i was extremely low carb though.. under 10 a day..
and if you decide its too hard to stick with forever.. you will gain very fast.. as i am in that stage right now and hate it..
think about how long you plan on sticking it.. if your thought is "ill lose the 10 pounds and then ill be ok to eat normal again"... dont do it..
do something you are positive you can stick with..
whichever you decide.. good luck!
Go on a "low-processed food" diet, not a "low-carb" diet. Eliminate as many processed foods as you possibly can. As kerridingle said above, the weight loss from the "low carb" diets comes right back, always! Eliminate as many processed foods as you can - this include all white flours, most commercial cereals and bread products, almost all frozen and canned foods (read the labels), and anything that comes in little plastic pouches by the checkout (candy bars). The key is to find the right amount of calories for your weight loss - not too many, not too few. And to eat healthy, complex carbs.
The thing that is so often overlooked is we need carbs - from fruit, veggies, whole grains and legumes. Find your calorie mix, and try to spread out meals to 6 a day, throughout the day. You could even have light meals, and healthy snacks (fresh fruit and a small amount of raw nuts, low-fat cottage cheese and veggies, etc), just spread out your food intake all day. This keeps you out of the dreaded "starvation mode" where your body is clinging to every calorie that comes in, fearing no food will be coming for some time.
When you go to the store, just use the produce section, a small portion of the dairy section (the low fat areas), whole grains and lean meats. Do as much of your own cooking as you can. But remember, eating a lot of fresh, raw fruit and veggies is very good for you, and may promote weight loss (makes your digestive system work all the harder).
Low carb is a way of life, not a quick fix. If you go on a low carb "diet" and then return to eating chips and fries and bread 2 weeks later, then yes, you will replenish all the water weight you have lost in those two weeks.
However, when you live a low carb life, and your body is used to converting fat into fuel, you are actually burning fat and you lose real weight. our bodies can only hold so much water weight, so the majority of the weight you lose when eating low carb is fat.
Living a low carn life does allow for slipups, and you might gain a few pounds of water weight after a major cheat, but if you go right back to it, that water weight will fall off in a few days.
That being said, you can't slip up every other day and think you are living a low carb life.
Original Post by nicole318:
Low carb is a way of life, not a quick fix. If you go on a low carb "diet" and then return to eating chips and fries and bread 2 weeks later, then yes, you will replenish all the water weight you have lost in those two weeks.
However, when you live a low carb life, and your body is used to converting fat into fuel, you are actually burning fat and you lose real weight. our bodies can only hold so much water weight, so the majority of the weight you lose when eating low carb is fat.
Living a low carn life does allow for slipups, and you might gain a few pounds of water weight after a major cheat, but if you go right back to it, that water weight will fall off in a few days.
That being said, you can't slip up every other day and think you are living a low carb life.
Low carb really is not a way of life, it's a fad diet. An unhealthy one at that. The problem is that so many people have done low carb diets and lost weight quickly and now people think that it's a nutritional standard for losing weight. What isn't said about low carb diets is that 90% of the people that are on them can't stick to it and all gain the weight back. New people come to this site and the first thing they post about is low carbs and low fat. Neither have anything to do with healthy weight loss. Your body needs carbs every day, to fuel it's self to have the energy you need. Any diet that promotes eliminating an entire food group is just wrong. Fruit is full of carbs, do you honestly believe that eliminating them from your diet is healthy?
Will you lose weight cutting all the carbs out of your diet? Probably. Will you gain all the weight back if you fall off of it? Probably. With those kind of odds, why not just do Hydroxycut? or the Acai berry diet, or the hollywood drink diet. It's all BS. Learn how to eat balanced, healthy diet consisting of natural, unprocessed foods and it will be much easier to stay within your calorie allowances and lose the weight you want to lose. Learn about macronutrient ratios, what your body needs and WHY it needs it and stop following dumb advice and fad diets.
1. Say NO to the breadbasket in restaurants
2. Choose slow-cooking brown rice or quinoa instead of Minute Rice
3. Choose steel cut oatmeal instead of packets of instant oatmeal
4. Choose whole-grain bread (where you can see seeds) instead of Wonderbread.
No matter what diet you follow, if you go back to eating "bread and chips" after weight loss you are sure to gain everything back.
This regiment is NOT hard to live by and all "diets" should lead to lyfestyle changes.
It depends what people call 'low' .... .
The Atkins craze had people on 20g carbohydrates initially, rising to about 70g if I remember rightly. On a typical 2000 cal daily diet (female) that equates to between 4% and 14%... meaning the rest of the calories are by default coming from fat and protein. The original low-carbers were having to supplement their diet with fibre and other nutrients..... that suggests it was not a healthy diet at heart. And a diet 80-90% fat and protein is very heavy on the kidneys and why doctors have raised concerns
If you take the CC recommendation of carbohydrate content being between 40 and 65% then 40% would be the definition of 'low'..... and that's about 200g carbohydrates on a 2000 cals diet. Still quite a stretch, I would suggest, but 'low' without being 'unhealthy' or 'imbalanced'. It would allow a reasonable amount of grains, pulses/legumes, fruit and vegetables. You wouldn't have to take supplements for example.
As regards 'successful'.... a successful diet is one that you can happily maintain a healthy weight with for life and be able to live normally. I would not call it successful, for example, if the only way you could maintain your weight would be to turn up at parties with a little baggie of 'acceptable' low-carb foods or have to swallow packets of psyllium husks on a daily basis. 
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