LCHF - Low Carb High Fat Diet Ver 2

[HappyMartin]

HI,

 

I am in need of advice and some information on diet and LCHF and my slow or no loss of weight.

 

I have moved across to eating LCHF mostly. However I am having mixed results and i am wondering if the issue is the "mostly "" part.

 

I am especially frustrated in that a guy at work who i got on to LCHF has lost 27kgs. Yet i stay stubbornly fat. I am therefore trying to understand the reasons for this. I think that i am doing something wrong, i know i am not exercising enough and i know that i cheat a little too much. But i was expecting better results.

 

Therefore, seen as though the gurus sit on this forum and I want to be like my 27 kg lighter colleague I am asking for advice/comments:

 

 

SO i am wondering should i dump LCHF, or do i need to correct my bad habits and i will get the success my 27 kg lighter friend has.

 

I think the cheating can be an issue. I also think the worst time to cheat is after dinner. That is the one time I am super strict. I might cheat at

Inch or breakfast but you really need to be carb free when sleeping. A lot of fat burning occurs when you are asleep and any sugars in you mess that up totally.

 

I don't know about alcohol. I don't drink at all but I suspect beer and the sugary mixers that go with spirits are going to be a problem.

 

Since you say you have a lot of weight to lose and it's not coming off easily you could be quite severely carb resistant. That will make cheating more of an issue and also mean you need to aim for the lower end of what is allowed in terms of carbs. I am talking in the region of 50g per day.

 

Look we are all different. I have cut out all sodas and deserts and that tipped the balance for me. I am struggling to lose weight at a reasonable rate at the moment and have dropped about 4kg in the past month. Too quick in my experience. I will have a pizza on a Friday and even had a small bowl of icecream on Sunday. Still the weight is coming off.

 

Stick with it. It can work.

[PeterF]

If I understand correctly, if you cheat your body will never go into ketosis which is when you really start burning fat for fuel. It is really important in the beginning to not cheat. Once you have reached your goal you can cheat a bit.

[Paul Ruinaard]

Out of interest, what diet did they come up for you?

Hmm - that is what worries me - there wasn't an actual diet but all of them said as i have a genetic propensity to store fat i would be better off avoiding them.

 

I have lost on LCHF, just not easily.

 

Hence my including it in the question

[Paul Ruinaard]

Chances are that you are derailing yourself with the 'cheats'. Easiest way to find out is to faithfully keep track of what you stick in your mouth for a couple of days / maybe a week.

 

There are online tools that the guys have used - I'm sure they will be mentioned soon enough - I can't even remember which one I used. I think My Fitness Pal. The issue is not to count calories, but to check that the amount of carbs you are eating is at or below your target level.

 

But - what you become aware of pretty damn quick is the effect of 'just a little bit of this and a little bit of that' and it doesn't take too many days of tracking for it to become apparent.

 

Part of the deal with LC'ing is insulin control, and if you keep on spiking insulin by 'cheating', you will be shooting yourself in the foot.

 

To become properly fat adapted, the common consensus on this thread is that you have to take it seriously for at least a couple of months. Once you are adapted, you can cheat - but you can't cheat your way to adaption.

 

Do the food diary thing - it's the first step to finding out what is actually going on.

 

As for the 'should I do it' question, I'd hazard a guess that if you have 27kg to lose that you may have some form of insulin resistance and that it should work for you (standard 'advice you get from a stranger on the web' disclaimers apply )

I did have the insulin resistance thing tested as a start and i came back with no issues there. the blood tets was damned expensive and i was almost hoping that this would explain it.

 

The 27 kg is a pipe dream - the lowest i have been in the last 10 years would be less 27 kg, which was when i was training for the Epic.

 

So the insulin resistance thing is definitely not a factor.

 

Hence even more frustration.

[Paul Ruinaard]

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Lastly, if you go this route and nothing changes, then you may have adrenal issues (thyroid) that are messing with your metabolism.

Hmm - again bells going off as i do have adrenal issue s- I have hashimotos - auto immune where your body is killing your thyroid, so i supplement ditroxin daily to keep my levels normal.

 

I can write a book about Thyroid and how i ended up on ditroxin, so that is another issue. But levels are normal, or within normal parameters, albeit on the low side.

 

Does this or would this have a bearing on the LCHF/Banting way of eating i.e. Banting not recommended for under active thyroid?

[DaleE]

Does this or would this have a bearing on the LCHF/Banting way of eating i.e. Banting not recommended for under active thyroid?

 

Not sure - right out of my depth here It seems to me that thyroid and lchf are often spoken about in the same context - my impression was that lchf was supposed to be good for low thyroid issues, but never really explored it fully.

i remember reading some stuff by Anthony Colpo on why lchf and thyroid don't mix - google him, but be warned his attitude is extremely condescending towards anyone who disagrees with his view and blog language is not for the feint hearted.

Chris Kresser is the other end of the spectrum - uses lchf to control hashimotos

[Vetseun]

If I understand correctly, if you cheat your body will never go into ketosis which is when you really start burning fat for fuel. It is really important in the beginning to not cheat. Once you have reached your goal you can cheat a bit.

Is ketosis when your mouth tastes as if a hobo slept in it?

[DaleE]

Is ketosis when your mouth tastes as if a hobo slept in it?

No, that's called hungover

[Paul Ruinaard]

Not sure - right out of my depth here It seems to me that thyroid and lchf are often spoken about in the same context - my impression was that lchf was supposed to be good for low thyroid issues, but never really explored it fully.

i remember reading some stuff by Anthony Colpo on why lchf and thyroid don't mix - google him, but be warned his attitude is extremely condescending towards anyone who disagrees with his view and blog language is not for the feint hearted.

Chris Kresser is the other end of the spectrum - uses lchf to control hashimotos

Thanks interesting reading - I now have some idea that there may be issues but it honestly seems taht the evidence contradicts itself and gets very technical. It also seems that it relates to polyunstaurated fats rather than saturated.

[tombeej]

Yes, Vetseun, you're right. It's called Keto breath.

[tombeej]

There's no formula for weight loss, no standard response. For me, the first 2 months were almost without any weight loss. Then it started to happen, and it was very linear - about 1 to 1.5 kg per month. When I had lost 17 kg my weight plateaued all by itself and has stayed pretty constant since. Some might lose bags of weight, others hardly any. But weight loss is not the be-all-and-end-all of this thing.

[Sniffie]

After a little 'holiday' I have decided to make a return to this awesome thread. Hello everyone, hope you'll have me back

:clap:

Long overdue my friend welcome Back!

[tombeej]

Dale, what's your 'beef' with saturated fats?

[Helpmytrap]

Dale, what's your 'beef' with saturated fats?

My summary of what he said is that the body prefers to burn saturated fat, thus limiting it in the diet leaves only the stored body fat to utilise (in hope to lose body fat faster.) Kind of like cholesterol, restrict consumption and the body will compensate by producing more on its own.

 

I've got no idea if this is what he meant though.

[DaleE]

Dale, what's your 'beef' with saturated fats?

No 'beef' ...... BUT ..... if you want to kick start weight loss (which was the request from the OP), I believe that limiting sat fats for a while will help in a big way.

[datapolo]

I started the LCHF at around 132kg at the start of March and 11 weeks later I am 119kg. During this period I have a series of illnesses including scabies, malaria, flu and food poisoning - mostly resulting from a trip to the DRC - and the serial nature of these made me weaker and weaker. I did little or no exercise during the whole period and for the past 3 weeks hit a bit of a plateau. About a week ago I was feeling a bit stronger and had a game of golf and started getting some reasonable energy levels back. Last Friday I saw a YouTube video by Dr Pompa that recommended HIIT

 

I started it on Saturday and have done 3 sessions now and surprisingly i have fallen off the plateau and am eating more. I think during my various illnesses my appetite collapsed and I was not eating enough and during the recovery period I cheated a bit - but not much.

 

If you are stalled maybe try Pompa's advice rather than sitting on an IDT for hours. It seems to be working for me based on short term results.