Low Carbohydrate diet- what I found
Created | Updated May 25, 2004
Here are my experiences on a low Carbohydrate diet and how I got it to work for me! As with any diet, you suffer, but I found it less painful than (shudder) "excercise" or "eating less". It's use in my opinion is to kick start weight loss- I wouldn't bother with it for more than about 6 weeks in a row maximum, personally.
REMEMBER This is just my experience, I'm not recommending this or not, one way or the other! Always take care when messing with your diet, and ideally, proper medical advice!
The science bit:
Theory is that your body will not burn stored fat, while there is a supply of carbs to go at instead. Carbs are easier to burn, see.
Therefore, cut the carbs, burn the fat. 2 stones and 4 belt notches lost in a month later, I can say it seems to work.
What happens is, it takes about 3 days for your blood to clear of sugar. THEN you go over to stored fat burning (called ketosis). There are diagnostic sticks you can get which test your urine, if they turn purple you are in ketosis. Another way to tell is that you get a chronic headache, and become tired for 24 hours or so. This is a sign, I am told, that your insulin levels are levelling out rather than shooting up and down as they usually do.
IF you then eat a significant amount of Carbs, (more than 20grams in one day) you trigger an insulin response. Then it'll take 3 days to get back into ketosis again.
What I ate:
Breakfast
Bacon, and or eggs.
Lunch
Green leaf salad with bacon/sausage or chicken bits in.
Evening Meal
Burgers (100% Beef) or Chicken, or Turkey, or steak...you get the idea, WITH peas (stick to the little peas) or sprouts
Snacks
Rice cakes with sugar free jam (bought through mail order)
Sugar free jelly
Any of the new "LOW CARB" snacks that have come on the market recently... in High Street chemists
"Designed for Diabetics" products, (chocolate, biscuits, etc-good way of retaining sanity)
Drinks
Diet Cola or anything diet fizzy
Sugar free "dilute to taste" fruit squashes/juices
Tea coffee with sweetners if you need 'em- ideally with powder whitener rather than milk
Water (Eeeuwww yuck)
Other stuff I ate:
MEAT, meat, meat, Cheese, butter, meat, whole grain rice cakes, cream, and meat. If you can't give up milk stick with full fat milk. Preferably with meat
AVOID:
Anything with Carbs (sugar) in, i.e. Bread, potatoes, pasta, cereals, milk, Vinegar, normal cakes or biscuits,crisps,chips, most low fat products (these are often stuffed with sugar to make up for the missing fat).
Any vegetable that is not green. I.E: Carrots, Tomatoes, beetroot... these have natural sugar. Go for peas, sprouts, spinach, cabbage, lettuce, cucumber instead
Avoid Sauasages. These have no sugar, but the sheer amount of fat calories in them will halt the weight loss process for a day or so.
NO BOOZE. Alchohol on it's own doesn't cause an insulin response, but is otherwise treated by the body in a similar manner to sugar, so if you drink, you will stop the ketosis for a couple of days. Most beers have sugar in them as well.
Side Effects I encountered:
Here're the downsides I had: Initially I got a really bad headache (2 or 3 days in). Drink a ton of water, and go to bed early is the best cure I found. You may also feel very tired generally at this point.
You can't really drink much alchohol if you want it to work.
Ketosis: makes your breath stink... well mine did anyway!
POLYOLS: watch out for eating too many polyols (sugar subsitute found in the "low carb" snacks and some diabetic products) as any more than 25g polyols in one day can have a VERY nasty "Laxative effect" - exactly as it says on the packet.
REMEMBER This is just my experience, I'm not recommending this one way or the other! Always take care when messing with your diet, and ideally, proper medical advice!
REMEMBER This is just my experience, I'm not recommending this or not, one way or the other! Always take care when messing with your diet, and ideally, proper medical advice!
The science bit:
Theory is that your body will not burn stored fat, while there is a supply of carbs to go at instead. Carbs are easier to burn, see.
Therefore, cut the carbs, burn the fat. 2 stones and 4 belt notches lost in a month later, I can say it seems to work.
What happens is, it takes about 3 days for your blood to clear of sugar. THEN you go over to stored fat burning (called ketosis). There are diagnostic sticks you can get which test your urine, if they turn purple you are in ketosis. Another way to tell is that you get a chronic headache, and become tired for 24 hours or so. This is a sign, I am told, that your insulin levels are levelling out rather than shooting up and down as they usually do.
IF you then eat a significant amount of Carbs, (more than 20grams in one day) you trigger an insulin response. Then it'll take 3 days to get back into ketosis again.
What I ate:
Breakfast
Bacon, and or eggs.
Lunch
Green leaf salad with bacon/sausage or chicken bits in.
Evening Meal
Burgers (100% Beef) or Chicken, or Turkey, or steak...you get the idea, WITH peas (stick to the little peas) or sprouts
Snacks
Rice cakes with sugar free jam (bought through mail order)
Sugar free jelly
Any of the new "LOW CARB" snacks that have come on the market recently... in High Street chemists
"Designed for Diabetics" products, (chocolate, biscuits, etc-good way of retaining sanity)
Drinks
Diet Cola or anything diet fizzy
Sugar free "dilute to taste" fruit squashes/juices
Tea coffee with sweetners if you need 'em- ideally with powder whitener rather than milk
Water (Eeeuwww yuck)
Other stuff I ate:
MEAT, meat, meat, Cheese, butter, meat, whole grain rice cakes, cream, and meat. If you can't give up milk stick with full fat milk. Preferably with meat
AVOID:
Anything with Carbs (sugar) in, i.e. Bread, potatoes, pasta, cereals, milk, Vinegar, normal cakes or biscuits,crisps,chips, most low fat products (these are often stuffed with sugar to make up for the missing fat).
Any vegetable that is not green. I.E: Carrots, Tomatoes, beetroot... these have natural sugar. Go for peas, sprouts, spinach, cabbage, lettuce, cucumber instead
Avoid Sauasages. These have no sugar, but the sheer amount of fat calories in them will halt the weight loss process for a day or so.
NO BOOZE. Alchohol on it's own doesn't cause an insulin response, but is otherwise treated by the body in a similar manner to sugar, so if you drink, you will stop the ketosis for a couple of days. Most beers have sugar in them as well.
Side Effects I encountered:
Here're the downsides I had: Initially I got a really bad headache (2 or 3 days in). Drink a ton of water, and go to bed early is the best cure I found. You may also feel very tired generally at this point.
You can't really drink much alchohol if you want it to work.
Ketosis: makes your breath stink... well mine did anyway!
POLYOLS: watch out for eating too many polyols (sugar subsitute found in the "low carb" snacks and some diabetic products) as any more than 25g polyols in one day can have a VERY nasty "Laxative effect" - exactly as it says on the packet.
REMEMBER This is just my experience, I'm not recommending this one way or the other! Always take care when messing with your diet, and ideally, proper medical advice!
