LCHF - Low Carb High Fat Diet Ver 2

[Roux 1]

If it is the tomato-sauce based version of Lucky Star it would make sense - not sure if they put some kind of "sauce" with the unflavoured sardines, but my money would be on some starchy / maltodextrin additive to add flavour - does it not specify anything like that on the ingredients list ?

 

Edit : you said it doesn't list anything additional - perhaps because the quantities are minute ?

 

edit: typos

 

Can't see that anything else is mentioned

[No Name]

My 2nd day of not eating any carbs and I'm feeling much better than yesterday. I wasn't even hungry last night and only had an egg for supper. I'm 0.5kg down in one day, but I'm putting that as water loss. So will see what the scales says after a week.

 

Is bacon ok?

[davetapson]

My 2nd day of not eating any carbs and I'm feeling much better than yesterday. I wasn't even hungry last night and only had an egg for supper. I'm 0.5kg down in one day, but I'm putting that as water loss. So will see what the scales says after a week.

 

Is bacon ok?

 

Bacon is cool...

[thatsme]

Hippopal, I hear you. Hopefully we can tune ourselves back in.

I think I'm just going to re-read some of the stuff I thought I already knew, just to reset myself in case I've started wandering from whats recommended without realising it. And then see how things go. Will reassess in a month.

 

I didn't start this for weight loss, more for the other health benefits, but I guess because the other benefits are less tangible a change in weight is what demotivates. But I suppose it's a bit of a yardstick on how we're doing generally, so maybe we should be grateful it's given us a headsup that not all is as it should be.

Good luck your end, hope you figure it out.

[DaleE]

So, after a long period of 'lurking' and little posting, some of these "I've fallen off the wagon" posts have prompted me to jump in here ....

 

Up until June of this year, my LCHF plan was perfectly on track ... weight down and stable, blood tests awesome, eating controlled, cycling good ... then ... a month long holiday in Oz and a few stressful months at work derailed things. It's been a loooong road to get back on track (mainly changing lazy habits) but things have turned around.

What I did was follow my variation of the "spanish Keto Diet" for a month. http://www.nutritionj.com/content/7/1/30

It's not easy, but really helped me reset the metabolism, BG, ketones, etc, etc. It's something I did when I started LCHF and seems to work well for me.

 

For example diet consists of

breakfast: eggs, rooibos tea, hard cheese, cold meats

lunch: salad, sardines in olive oil (found King Oscar brand at PnP), tuna, ago, etc

supper: meat or fish (no chicken), green veg or salad, ago, more olive oil

alcohol: 1 glass red wine daily - cardiologist insists

snacks: fatty biltong or macadamia nuts

 

Notes on restrictions:

don't count total calories, but listen to your body and eat when hungry ... not when the "book" says you should eat

zero carbs other than from green veggies

no fruit

obviously no junk food

mono and saturated fats are good ... poly are not

no dairy except hard cheese,

no alcohol except red wine,

coffee limited to 2 espresso's per day

eggs are ok

take at least 20ml olive oil or macadamia oil daily ... either on food or medicinally

restrict protein to <90g per day

no dark chocolate during this period

 

Now, all this is obviously very restrictive and it's not sustainable for more than a month or two, but the aim is simply to reset the body (and mind) such that weight is stable and training is good. After that you can then start adding those items like a little more dairy / fruit / coffee / wine slowly once weight / blood tests / etc are stable.

[DaleE]

At the risk of sounding like one of those terrible TV advertorials, I've found a little kitchen device that has made a very nice change to the way I'm able to cook - and therefor eat.

 

It's called a Thermomix. Saw them on Oz on holiday in June, promptly came back and bought one. What makes it useful is that, for the first time I can cook everything from scratch. If the idea of making your own pesto or vegetable stock does not appeal to you, don't bother reading the rest of this

 

So, for the last 2 years, I have been trying to really get back to basics with food, and keep a tight control of what I put in my mouth (recent family encounters with epilepsy, cancer and heart attacks have made me a bit more cautious than most!).

Also, from reading countless food lables, I've become painfully aware that almost any food that is processed in any way seems to have MSG or preservatives or poly fats, etc, etc .... all the things that I prefer not to eat. The Thermomix allows me to make all sauces, stocks, gravy, etc from scratch with the ingredients I can identify.

 

You can go read the blurb here http://www.thermomix.com.au

At R12000 they are certainly not cheap!!! but worth looking at it you want to cook this way.

[No Name]

I'm on day 5 and I'm loving this. I've got low blood pressure. So low that I can't donate blood. I use to turn into a total b!tch if I got hungry and I would not feel well. Since I've been on this eating plan my blood pressure is stable. I can go hungry and not feel like I need to eat NOW. I've got more energy and I went for a run on Saturday and I felt really good. I'm loving this!!! Oh and I've lost 1.1kg in 4 days. :clap:

[davetapson]

Came across Tim Ferris's 4 Hour Body while trying to find out how GLUT4 works. If you are an n = 1 experimenter, his bookd is fascinating as he is the ultimate n = 1 experimenter, and has the time and money to throw at tests to check out what is happening as a result of whatever he is trying to do.

 

Have only just cracked the book, but one of the first things that caught my eye was that plateaus in weightloss can be caused by LACK of protein... I haven't yet got to his 'slow carb' diet yet, but will post what he considers the 'right' amount of protein is.

 

He also says that one of the most effective methods of keeping track of what you are eating is to just take photo's - and that if you post them, you then get peer pressure that adds to staying on track... trying to come up with a plan for us to have a communal food photo place. Any suggestions?

[Paul Ruinaard]

At the risk of sounding like one of those terrible TV advertorials, I've found a little kitchen device that has made a very nice change to the way I'm able to cook - and therefor eat.

 

It's called a Thermomix. Saw them on Oz on holiday in June, promptly came back and bought one. What makes it useful is that, for the first time I can cook everything from scratch. If the idea of making your own pesto or vegetable stock does not appeal to you, don't bother reading the rest of this

 

So, for the last 2 years, I have been trying to really get back to basics with food, and keep a tight control of what I put in my mouth (recent family encounters with epilepsy, cancer and heart attacks have made me a bit more cautious than most!).

Also, from reading countless food lables, I've become painfully aware that almost any food that is processed in any way seems to have MSG or preservatives or poly fats, etc, etc .... all the things that I prefer not to eat. The Thermomix allows me to make all sauces, stocks, gravy, etc from scratch with the ingredients I can identify.

 

You can go read the blurb here http://www.thermomix...rmomix.com.au��

At R12000 they are certainly not cheap!!! but worth looking at it you want to cook this way.

Wow my wife will love you for this and for the free advertising on themomix. She sells them. They are available locally and have a whole ecosystem set up around them.

 

I bought one after a Spanish mate of mine whom I cycled with raved about it. Long story short my wife got involved and she now sells them for exactly the reason you mentioned. They are awesome - can mill wheat in to flour etc etc.

I was making my own Tahini over the weekend. No other mixer I have ever had could do that properly and get it smooth.

 

You will see them being use din Masterchef locally and internationally for sauces etc.

 

Highly recommended. Like you say not cheap but made by ze germans so you will need to give it away to a relative in your will cause they last forever.

[davetapson]

At the risk of getting a lawyers letter from TF... here is his diet. I'm posting it for interests sake - take from it what you want. Remember, he is not a LCHF proponent, he is a 'I have a goal, and that is to have x % body fat, and this is the best diet I could find to do that' proponent:

 

THE SLOW-CARB DIET I

How to Lose 20 Pounds in

30 Days Without Exercise

 

Out of clutter, find simplicity. —Albert Einstein

11:34 A.M. SATURDAY, JUNE 20, 2009,

SAN FRANCISCO

 

Text message from London, eight hours ahead, meant to impress:

This is my dinner. Happy times!

The accompanying photo: a pepperoni and sausage pizza so large it doesn’t fit on the screen.

Chris A., a fellow experimenter, and I were having our weekly virtual date.

Text response from me:

This is my breakfast. BREAKFAST. Can you hear the insulin pouring out of my eyes?

Woohoo! Ante up, fat boy.

My accompanying photo: two bear claws, two chocolate croissants, grapefruit juice, and a

large coffee.

Response from Chris:

LOL … please don’t make me do this …

And so it continued, a text-message eating contest. The truth is, I do some version of this every

Saturday, and thousands of people over the last four years have joined me in doing the same. In

between pizzas and bear claws, the net result is that the average follower has lost 19 pounds of

fat, and a surprising number have lost more than 100 pounds total.

This odd approach has produced something of a small revolution.

Let me explain exactly how Chris and I reach and maintain sub-12% bodyfat, often sub-10%,

by strategically eating like pigs.

 

The Slow-Carb Diet—

Better Fat-Loss Through Simplicity

It is possible to lose 20 pounds of bodyfat in 30 days by optimizing any of three factors:

exercise, diet, or a drug/supplement regimen. Twenty pounds for most people means moving

down at least two clothing sizes, whether that’s going from a size 14 dress to a size 10 or from

an XXL shirt to a large. The waist and hips show an even more dramatic reduction in

circumference.

By April 6, 2007, as an example, I had cut from nearly 180 pounds to 165 pounds in six

By April 6, 2007, as an example, I had cut from nearly 180 pounds to 165 pounds in six

weeks, while adding about 10 pounds of muscle, which means I lost approximately 25 pounds

of fat. The changes aren’t subtle.

The diet that I’ll introduce in this chapter—the Slow-Carb Diet—is the only diet besides the

rather extreme Cyclical Ketogenic Diet (CKD) that has produced veins across my abdomen,

which is the last place I lose fat.

There are just five simple rules to follow:

 

RULE #1: AVOID “WHITE” CARBOHYDRATES.

Avoid any carbohydrate that is, or can be, white. The following foods are prohibited, except for

within 30 minutes of finishing a resistance-training workout like those described in the “From

Geek to Freak” or “Occam’s Protocol” chapters: all bread, rice (including brown), cereal,

potatoes, pasta, tortillas, and fried food with breading. If you avoid eating the aforementioned

foods and anything else white, you’ll be safe.

Just for fun, another reason to avoid the whities: chlorine dioxide, one of the chemicals used

to bleach flour (even if later made brown again, a common trick), combines with residual

protein in most of these foods to form alloxan. Researchers use alloxan in lab rats to induce

diabetes. That’s right—it’s used to produce diabetes. This is bad news if you eat anything white

or “enriched.”

Don’t eat white stuff unless you want to get fatter.

 

RULE #2: EAT THE SAME FEW MEALS OVER AND OVER AGAIN.

The most successful dieters, regardless of whether their goal is muscle gain or fat-loss, eat the

same few meals over and over again. There are 47,000 products in the average U.S. grocery

store, but only a handful of them won’t make you fat.

Mix and match from the following list, constructing each meal with one pick from each of the

three groups. I’ve starred the choices that produce the fastest fat-loss for me:

Proteins

*Egg whites with 1–2 whole eggs for flavor (or, if organic, 2–5 whole eggs, including yolks)

*Chicken breast or thigh

*Beef (preferably grass-fed)

*Fish

Pork

Legumes

*Lentils (also called “dal” or “daal”)

*Black beans

Pinto beans

Red beans

Soybeans

Vegetables

*Spinach

*Mixed vegetables (including broccoli, cauliflower, or any other cruciferous vegetables)

*Sauerkraut, kimchee (full explanation of these later in “Damage Control”)

*Sauerkraut, kimchee (full explanation of these later in “Damage Control”)

Asparagus

Peas

Broccoli

Green beans

Eat as much as you like of the above food items, but keep it simple.

Pick three or four meals and repeat them. Almost all restaurants can give you a salad or

vegetables in place of french fries, potatoes, or rice. Surprisingly, I have found Mexican food

(after swapping out rice for vegetables) to be one of the cuisines most conducive to the Slow-

Carb Diet. If you have to pay an extra $1–3 to substitute at a restaurant, consider it your sixpack

tax, the nominal fee you pay to be lean.

Most people who go on “low”-carbohydrate diets complain of low energy and quit because

they consume insuffcient calories. A half-cup of rice is 300 calories, whereas a half-cup of

spinach is 15 calories! Vegetables are not calorically dense, so it is critical that you add legumes

for caloric load.

Eating more frequently than four times per day might be helpful on higher-carb diets to

prevent gorging, but it’s not necessary with the ingredients we’re using. Eating more frequent

meals also appears to have no enhancing effect on resting metabolic rate, despite claims to the

contrary. Frequent meals can be used in some circumstances (see “The Last Mile”), but not for

this reason.

The following meal schedule is based on a late sleep schedule, as I’m a night owl who gives

up the ghost at 2:00 A.M. at the earliest, usually with wineglass or book still in hand, à la heroin

addict. Adjust your meals to fit your schedule, but make sure to have your first meal within an

hour of waking.

 

Meals are approximately four hours apart.

10:00 A.M.—Breakfast

2:00 P.M.—Lunch

6:30 P.M.—Smaller second lunch

8:00–9:00 P.M.—Recreation or sports training, if scheduled.

10:00 P.M.—Dinner

12:00 A.M.—Glass of red wine and Discovery Channel before bed

 

Here are some of my meals that recur again and again:

• Breakfast (home): Scrambled Eggology® pourable egg whites with one whole egg, black beans,

and mixed vegetables warmed up or cooked in a microwave using Pyrex® containers.

• Lunch (Mexican restaurant): Grass-fed organic beef, pinto beans, mixed vegetables, and extra

guacamole.

• Dinner (home): Grass-fed organic beef (from Trader Joe’s), lentils, and mixed vegetables.

Just remember: this diet is, first and foremost, intended to be effective, not fun. It can be fun

with a few tweaks (the next chapter covers this), but that’s not the goal.

 

RULE #3: DON’T DRINK CALORIES.

Drink massive quantities of water and as much unsweetened tea, coffee (with no more than two

tablespoons of cream; I suggest using cinnamon instead), or other no-calorie/low-calorie

beverages as you like. Do not drink milk (including soy milk), normal soft drinks, or fruit juice.

Limit diet soft drinks to no more than 16 ounces per day if you can, as the aspartame can

stimulate weight gain.

Edited October 7, 2013 by davetapson

[Paul Ruinaard]

So I am not sure if this is the correct place but here goes. Here are some questions and seeking advice.

 

I changed my whole eating pattern based on this thread and removed carbs from my diet. No pasta or potatoes any more, and wife has done the same. I am not religious about it but will not eat carbs if I can avoid it

 

I had a bad day on Saturday - i had changed my drinks mix from normal 32GI to Energade. on Saturday after my normal 40kms around N Farm and a drink of Glutamine and also Rehidrate, at about 11 am I had a massive sugar dip and was craving carbs as well as anything to fill the hole.

 

I ate sugar and was scarfing pies just to fill the gap.

 

That afternoon i was very lethargic and lacked energy.

 

Sunday i was really lethargic. No energy, legs leaden, so i didn't ride. Actually was exhausted. I had the idea that my glycogen stores were totally depleted. I had one glass of wine on Sunday afternoon and felt completely trashed and sleepy.

 

I am now perplexed and actually worried I may be borderline diabetic but have been tested that I am not. So what can be the problem here?

 

The leanings:

 

1.) I had sushi the night before and no real carbs for breakfast so i was low on carbs before i did the ride. Not a good idea.

2.) 32 GI seems to be a greater drink that I had imagined.

3.) Can the glycogen depletion resulting from a sugar bonk result in ongoing lethargy and a feeling of no energy for up to 48 hours, including muscle soreness?

 

I am perplexed and disappointed in the fact that I am pretty unfit and trying to get back in to shape but am struggling.

 

And I am tossing Energade as a drink....

[davetapson]

Part 2

 

I’m a wine fanatic and have one to two glasses of red wine almost every evening. It doesn’t

appear to have any negative impact on my rate of fat-loss. Red wine is by no means required

for this diet to work, but it’s 100% allowed (unlike white wines and beer, both of which should

be avoided).

Up to two glasses of red per night, no more.

 

RULE #4: DON’T EAT FRUIT.

Humans don’t need fruit six days a week, and they certainly don’t need it year-round.

If your ancestors were from Europe, for example, how much fruit did they eat in the winter

500 years ago? Think they had Florida oranges in December? Not a chance. But you’re still

here, so the lineage somehow survived.

The only exceptions to the no-fruit rule are tomatoes and avocadoes, and the latter should be

eaten in moderation (no more than one cup or one meal per day). Otherwise, just say no to

fruit and its principal sugar, fructose, which is converted to glycerol phosphate more effciently

than almost all other carbohydrates. Glycerol phosphate → triglycerides (via the liver) → fat

storage. There are a few biochemical exceptions to this, but avoiding fruit six days per week is

the most reliable policy.

But what’s this “six days a week” business?

It’s the seventh day that allows you, if you so desire, to eat peach crepes and banana bread

until you go into a coma.

 

RULE #5: TAKE ONE DAY OFF PER WEEK.

I recommend Saturdays as your Dieters Gone Wild (DGW) day. I am allowed to eat whatever I

want on Saturdays, and I go out of my way to eat ice cream, Snickers, Take 5, and all of my

other vices in excess. If I drank beer, I’d have a few pints of Paulaner Hefe-Weizen.1

I make myself a little sick each Saturday and don’t want to look at any junk for the rest of the

week. Paradoxically, dramatically spiking caloric intake in this way once per week increases fatloss

by ensuring that your metabolic rate (thyroid function and conversion of T4 to T3, etc.)

doesn’t downshift from extended caloric restriction.

That’s right: eating pure crap can help you lose fat. Welcome to Utopia.

There are no limits or boundaries during this day of gluttonous enjoyment. There is

absolutely no calorie counting on this diet, on this day or any other.

Start the diet at least five days before your designated cheat day. If you choose Saturday, for

example, I would suggest starting your diet on a Monday.

 

That’s All, Folks!

 

If the founding fathers could sum up our government in a six-page constitution, the above is all

we need to summarize rapid fat-loss for 99.99% of the population. Followed to the letter, I’ve

never seen it fail. Never.

never seen it fail. Never.

 

When you feel mired in details or confused by the latest-and-greatest contradictory advice,

return to this short chapter. All you need to remember is:

 

Rule #1: Avoid “white” carbohydrates (or anything that can be white).

Rule #2: Eat the same few meals over and over again.

Rule #3: Don’t drink calories.

Rule #4: Don’t eat fruit.

Rule #5: Take one day off per week and go nuts.

Edited October 7, 2013 by davetapson

[davetapson]

duplicate of last post.

Edited October 7, 2013 by davetapson

[davetapson]

And as for everyone who beats themselves up for 'falling off the wagon', he reckons don't stress. Just start. Or just start again. Just start with breakfast. When you can get breakfasts sorted out, start with lunch as well. But just start.

[davetapson]

So I am not sure if this is the correct place but here goes. Here are some questions and seeking advice.

 

I changed my whole eating pattern based on this thread and removed carbs from my diet. No pasta or potatoes any more, and wife has done the same. I am not religious about it but will not eat carbs if I can avoid it

 

I had a bad day on Saturday - i had changed my drinks mix from normal 32GI to Energade. on Saturday after my normal 40kms around N Farm and a drink of Glutamine and also Rehidrate, at about 11 am I had a massive sugar dip and was craving carbs as well as anything to fill the hole.

 

I ate sugar and was scarfing pies just to fill the gap.

 

That afternoon i was very lethargic and lacked energy.

 

Sunday i was really lethargic. No energy, legs leaden, so i didn't ride. Actually was exhausted. I had the idea that my glycogen stores were totally depleted. I had one glass of wine on Sunday afternoon and felt completely trashed and sleepy.

 

I am now perplexed and actually worried I may be borderline diabetic but have been tested that I am not. So what can be the problem here?

 

The leanings:

 

1.) I had sushi the night before and no real carbs for breakfast so i was low on carbs before i did the ride. Not a good idea.

2.) 32 GI seems to be a greater drink that I had imagined.

3.) Can the glycogen depletion resulting from a sugar bonk result in ongoing lethargy and a feeling of no energy for up to 48 hours, including muscle soreness?

 

I am perplexed and disappointed in the fact that I am pretty unfit and trying to get back in to shape but am struggling.

 

And I am tossing Energade as a drink....

 

One thing you will probably find if you are LCHF'ing, is that if you eat something that is high carb (and energade is high carb) that you will get intense carb cravings. In the beginning, when I got these cravings I'd stick anything that was high carb and not fast enough to escape into my mouth. It's astonishing just how strong the craving is.

 

Noakes claims that carbs are addictive. I'm not sure I agree, but damn, once you're in a carb feeding frenzy, it'd be hard to argue against. I'm not an alcoholic, but if this is how they feel, I can maybe be more understanding.

 

The cravings do lessen over time - now I normally get by with having two or three of the horrible sweet biscuits the kids leave lying around. Which feels really bad, but lets face it, how bad is eating three biscuits every week or two really? If that is as bad as it gets, then things are not bad.

 

Obviously, once you've been in a carb feeding frenzy you are going to get the associated insulin spikes, bloating, farting and all the joys of high carb living, so you will feel k@k for a while.

 

So, long story short - don't sweat. Just keep on keeping on.

 

And know that if you trigger the sugar craving, you gonna be like an alcoholic in a bottle store for a while. (Should that be LC'r in a sweetshop / bakery?) It happens to all of us. But you also start learning that the aftereffects are not worth it, and naturally change to not doing it / doing it less.

[DaleE]

So I am not sure if this is the correct place but here goes. Here are some questions and seeking advice.

 

Some thoughts for you ...

 

The sugar craving is not unusual. I dont know why it happens (have never found a pattern), but the only way for me to deal with it is abstinence, so either get away from the food, or go eat as much biltong as you can find till you are full. What I do know is that if I dont eat, the craving subsides after and hour.

 

In terms of energy drinks, try ditching them for shorter rides ... water should be fine for 1-2hrs. for longer races, try super starch as an energy drink if you are fat adapted. no spike and probably wont even kick you out of ketosis.

Energade is horrible stuff - IMHO

 

The carb-flu effect you experienced sounds a bit extreme. I usually feel lousy for 6-8hrs after pigging out on carbs, but fine after that.