LCHF - Low Carb High Fat Diet Ver 2

[htone]

And me...!!

Hey, hey. Seems like you missed a whole lot actually, where you been ???

[Stevief]

HI Guys

 

I have just started this LCHF diet and have been on it for 4 days now. Im trying to drop about 5-6kg

 

A few questions

 

What veggies are high in carbs that i need to avoid?

Is the fat in meat ok to eat and the skin on chicken?

Must i completely cut out sugar in my tea? (i normally have a 2 - 3 cups a day with one teaspoon)

At night i have been craving sweet ( i used to eat half a slab of chocoloate evrynight whats a good alternative?

What,s the deal with fruit can i have an apple a day or are they bad?

When i cycle can i eat bananas ?

 

I seem to be eating a lot of protein (mainly chicken and meat) must i focus more on fats?

 

Thanks for the info guys? Any help would be great.

[htone]

Just had two poached eggs, somme did them in the Microwave. I have a massive egg craving the last couple of days!

 

My wife boils eggs, 6 at a time and keeps them handy as snacks in the fridge, which she does with home-made mayo and cheese.

I am SO tempted to exchange one of those cooked eggs with a raw one, but I know that with my luck I will end up getting it

[Roux 1]

Interesting read:::Think sugar is safe? http://circ.ahajournals.org/content/106/4/523.full

[htone]

HI Guys

 

I have just started this LCHF diet and have been on it for 4 days now. Im trying to drop about 5-6kg

 

A few questions

 

What veggies are high in carbs that i need to avoid?

Is the fat in meat ok to eat and the skin on chicken?

Must i completely cut out sugar in my tea? (i normally have a 2 - 3 cups a day with one teaspoon)

At night i have been craving sweet ( i used to eat half a slab of chocoloate evrynight whats a good alternative?

What,s the deal with fruit can i have an apple a day or are they bad?

When i cycle can i eat bananas ?

 

I seem to be eating a lot of protein (mainly chicken and meat) must i focus more on fats?

 

Thanks for the info guys? Any help would be great.

 

Stevief, welcome !

Your first stop should be http://www.dietdoctor.com/lchf as all of your questions are answered there. Go to the very first post on this thread and pick up some of the useful links from there.

 

I will try and answer your questions below, but please give context to your 5-6kg weight loss goal - what is your current weight and height ? Please keep in mind that LCHF as a weight loss tool does not work for everyone and in fact there are people who gain weight on it (although not anyone that I am in direct contact with).

 

What veggies are high in carbs that i need to avoid?

Rule of thumb is eat veggies that grow above ground as the veggies that grow below ground are there for a reason - they have to "hide" themselves as they are usually very high in sugar (carbs).

 

Is the fat in meat ok to eat and the skin on chicken?

Absolutely. Saturated fat in meat (and chicken) is the same fat that your body chooses to store its energy in. Does not make sense that the body would pick a toxic substance to do that with, hey ?

 

Must i completely cut out sugar in my tea? (i normally have a 2 - 3 cups a day with one teaspoon)

Yes, you HAVE to cut out all sugars and sweeteners, for at least the first few (say 4) weeks in order to allow your body to adapt. If you are still eating sugar, your next question will always be there - it is like quitting smoking, but still having the odd cigarette here and there - it just means you haven't really quit smoking.

 

At night i have been craving sweet ( i used to eat half a slab of chocoloate evrynight whats a good alternative?

I use a product called Nomu Skinny Hot Chocolate, it is a powder that contains sucralose (very very low GI) as sweetener and I mix a spoonful of that with either double cream Greek yoghurt or sometimes just warm cream for a nice hot chocolate. You can buy Nomu Skinny at PnP or online from www.nomu.co.za . Once you completely eliminate sugar and sweeteners from your diet, this craving will go away. The time for this to happens varies from person to person, but by week 3 you should be there.

 

What,s the deal with fruit can i have an apple a day or are they bad?

Fruit is not bad at all, but dietdoctor describes it beautifully - "fruit is nature's candy" and you have to treat it as such. If you are very sensitive to carbs (I am) then even a sweet apple will chase your blood sugar up. I cannot remember when last I had a fruit, but I am following LCHF very strictly - lots of the people on this thread happily eat all the fruit they want. What you want to aim for is low-GI fruit, so you will need to look at that dietdoctor website for some pointers.

 

When i cycle can i eat bananas ?

Yes you can, but if you follow the LCHF type eating plan and allow yourself adequate time to adapt, you may never have to eat anything on the bike again - it all depends on how hard and how long you ride when you do. In theory you burn up any carbs that you consume during exercise very quickly so you can eat quite a bit of carbs on the bike without it affecting your low-carb lifestyle, however as with everything else there are limits to that.

 

I seem to be eating a lot of protein (mainly chicken and meat) must i focus more on fats?

Your protein intake should be in the region of 1g - 2g of protein per kg that you weigh. So get that part sorted first as it is the easiest to do. If you take in too much protein in one go, your body treats it almost the same as carbs (I am over-simplifying) and it will also raise your blood glucose levels. If you then keep your carb intake low (as you are supposed to do on LCHF otherwise it is not LCHF), e.g. below 100g or even below 50g as that is most likely what you would have to stick to initially, you have an energy deficit that needs to come from the only other food source available for that - FAT. You will need to get somewhere between 70 - 80% of your energy from fat, otherwise you are soon going to feel like the walking dead.

 

If you are at day 4 and you have really restricted your carbs and sugars down, this is about the time that you are likely going to start feeling horrible and get what many call "Carb-flu". It is quite unpleasant and very similar to proper flu, you feel ill for about 2-5 days and ALL your body wants you to do is to eat carbs again. If you can push through this, you are half-way there. During this difficult transition phase you need to add about a teaspoon of crystal salts to your daily food intake, otherwise you will get headaches. Again, look at some of the links in the first post and read Dr Phinney's work where this is discussed in great detail.

 

The key things to eliminate early on are sugars/sweeteners and wheat. If you can get that done, you will be good to go. Oh, and the bad news is that if you "cheat" or fall off the wagon, you kind of have to start all over again

 

Use this forum to your advantage and ask as many questions as you want, someone on here is bound to have an answer or a workaround for you. And just remember what works for me may not work for you. You need to decide what you use or not use. LCHF is not a silver bullet solution by any means.

 

Namaste.

 

edits : typos

Edited August 15, 2013 by htone

[htone]

Interesting read:::Think sugar is safe? http://circ.ahajourn.../106/4/523.full

Absolutely. If you can live with this line : "High sugar consumption may worsen diabetes control, and the combination of sugar with protein and fats promotes formation of dietary AGEs, which may be especially detrimental to those with diabetes."

[Stevief]

Thanks for the response htone

 

 

With regards to protein. I weigh 77kg and i am 174 cm tall. I want to drop to my old weight of 72kg or even 70kg when i was in my twenties. Im 42 now.

 

You say "Your protein intake should be in the region of 1g - 2g of protein per kg that you weigh. So get that part sorted first as it is the easiest to do. If you take in too much protein in one go, your body treats it almost the same as carbs (I am over-simplifying) and it will also raise your blood glucose levels"

 

Im not into weighing and measuring food so if i eat a 300g steak what is that in protein? or half a chicken? So i must avoid to much meat/chicken and eat more fat?

 

Are eggs fat or protein? or both?

 

Is honey ok?

 

I have completely cut out bread,pasta,potatoes, rice. I havent had any sugar at all.

 

I will carry on reading.

[Helpmytrap]

Are eggs fat or protein? or both?

Eggs are equal in fat and protein weight wise. An XL Free Range egg is 6g fat, 7g protein but calorie wise it is 33% from protein and 67% fat. Roughly

 

Honey, as good as it may seem is majority Fructose and due to high glycemic index spikes blood sugar. (You want to avoid spiking blood sugar.)

 

EDIT: 300g of beef is about 45g of protein. But to alter what htone said, it should be 1.2-2g per kilo of goal weight, not current weight.

Edited August 15, 2013 by Helpmytrap

[krl747]

I have hypothyroidism and it seems that this diet is basically what you would have to follow. Who else has this problem and what are you taking or doing to improve it?

[htone]

Thanks for the response htone

 

 

With regards to protein. I weigh 77kg and i am 174 cm tall. I want to drop to my old weight of 72kg or even 70kg when i was in my twenties. Im 42 now.

 

You say "Your protein intake should be in the region of 1g - 2g of protein per kg that you weigh. So get that part sorted first as it is the easiest to do. If you take in too much protein in one go, your body treats it almost the same as carbs (I am over-simplifying) and it will also raise your blood glucose levels"

 

Im not into weighing and measuring food so if i eat a 300g steak what is that in protein? or half a chicken? So i must avoid to much meat/chicken and eat more fat?

 

Are eggs fat or protein? or both?

 

Is honey ok?

 

I have completely cut out bread,pasta,potatoes, rice. I havent had any sugar at all.

 

I will carry on reading.

(I am hugely rounding up and down below, so please don't hold me to the numbers as exact or correct).

 

Use this site if you want to quickly find out the nutrient content of foods and remember to look at the area just above the table to see the serving size in grams or cups, etc. http://nutritiondata.self.com/

 

The real easy way to figure out protein is as follows: Any meat, fish or chicken is roughly 20% protein by weight. So if you are eating a 300g steak, that is about 60g of protein (which is just 25 - 30g off where you want to be for your daily target, assuming you are aiming for 70kg). Don't overcomplicate things and don't go OTT on measuring foods, you can use these basic guidelines and you should do well.

So if you are going to have that steak and you needed to eat about 90g of protein for the day, you can either make the balance up from whole foods like egg, cheese, etc, or you can supplement with a protein powder, so there's your protein requirement taken care of.

 

Restrict carbs to 50g or below, that's easy enough if you stick to green leafy veggies (spinach, kale, broccoli,

cabbage, cauliflower, etc) and remember to add the "hidden carbs" in most of the other foodstuffs that you eat to that daily total. "Carb-creep" is very easy if you eat a lot of dairy products (or processed foods for that matter). Add the carbs that you eat from fruit to this as well.

 

Now you have to make up the balance of your energy requirement from fat. If I assume that you are moderately active, you will probably need to supply around 3000 kcal of energy per day, so that leaves you with over 200g of fat that you need to eat and this is the trick ! Some of us opt to ingest most of that in the morning in a fatshake (which again is not for everybody) in the form of e.g. coconut oil, butter and cream, whilst others split their fat intake over the day and get it from e.g. fatty meats, biltong, cream on food, mayonnaise, olive oil over salads, butter on everything, etc. You will need to find out what works for you and fine tune that.

 

Honey is fructose + glucose, both sugars, but honey is better than ingesting either of those on their own. If you look at the nutrition content, honey is 84g carbs per 100g, so that will hugely affect your daily carb "allowance"... you decide. Strange thing is, once you become adapted to burning fat and not eating sugars, you may completely lose your taste for sweet stuff like honey.

 

So in a nutshell - YES, eat more fat and don't eat too much meat or chicken. The original Atkins diet was based on large amounts of protein from e.g. meats, but you will see in the New Atkins diet, that has been modified to a large % fat and not so much protein.

 

Helpmytrap answered the rest above.

[Sniffie]

Glad to see this thread back on track!

Almost got derailed by a "mine is better than yours" attitude.

[Stevief]

(I am hugely rounding up and down below, so please don't hold me to the numbers as exact or correct).

 

Use this site if you want to quickly find out the nutrient content of foods and remember to look at the area just above the table to see the serving size in grams or cups, etc. http://nutritiondata.self.com/

 

The real easy way to figure out protein is as follows: Any meat, fish or chicken is roughly 20% protein by weight. So if you are eating a 300g steak, that is about 60g of protein (which is just 25 - 30g off where you want to be for your daily target, assuming you are aiming for 70kg). Don't overcomplicate things and don't go OTT on measuring foods, you can use these basic guidelines and you should do well.

So if you are going to have that steak and you needed to eat about 90g of protein for the day, you can either make the balance up from whole foods like egg, cheese, etc, or you can supplement with a protein powder, so there's your protein requirement taken care of.

 

Restrict carbs to 50g or below, that's easy enough if you stick to green leafy veggies (spinach, kale, broccoli,

cabbage, cauliflower, etc) and remember to add the "hidden carbs" in most of the other foodstuffs that you eat to that daily total. "Carb-creep" is very easy if you eat a lot of dairy products (or processed foods for that matter). Add the carbs that you eat from fruit to this as well.

 

Now you have to make up the balance of your energy requirement from fat. If I assume that you are moderately active, you will probably need to supply around 3000 kcal of energy per day, so that leaves you with over 200g of fat that you need to eat and this is the trick ! Some of us opt to ingest most of that in the morning in a fatshake (which again is not for everybody) in the form of e.g. coconut oil, butter and cream, whilst others split their fat intake over the day and get it from e.g. fatty meats, biltong, cream on food, mayonnaise, olive oil over salads, butter on everything, etc. You will need to find out what works for you and fine tune that.

 

Honey is fructose + glucose, both sugars, but honey is better than ingesting either of those on their own. If you look at the nutrition content, honey is 84g carbs per 100g, so that will hugely affect your daily carb "allowance"... you decide. Strange thing is, once you become adapted to burning fat and not eating sugars, you may completely lose your taste for sweet stuff like honey.

 

So in a nutshell - YES, eat more fat and don't eat too much meat or chicken. The original Atkins diet was based on large amounts of protein from e.g. meats, but you will see in the New Atkins diet, that has been modified to a large % fat and not so much protein.

 

Helpmytrap answered the rest above.

thanks for the advice will really help/

 

Last questions for the week. Peanut Butter good or bad? How do i make a fat shake?

[htone]

thanks for the advice will really help/

 

Last questions for the week. Peanut Butter good or bad? How do i make a fat shake?

 

When in doubt, revert to the first page of this thread (there is a fatshake recipe there).

A fatshake is just a healthy amount of fat, usually coconut oil, butter and/or cream, which you mix with either milk or coffee into a shake, using a blender. Some people add no sweeteners to that, I add a teaspoon of Nomu Skinny and a teaspoon of salt. The shake takes some getting used to, so start with a smallish dose of fat, otherwise your liver and gall bladder will attack you

 

Google peanuts and see the carb content. Now go to your jar of peanut butter and see what that says. I have a old Black Cat jar here and that says 16.3g carbs / 100g which is not too bad. Some varieties of peanut butter have high amounts of sugar added, so just be on the lookout for that.

[P.A.K.]

Here are the details on MyFitnessPal for Black Cat Crunchy, the Sugar free variety

 

I don't know how accurate it is though

[htone]

Here are the details on MyFitnessPal for Black Cat Crunchy, the Sugar free variety

 

I don't know how accurate it is though

Doesn't look quite right... 0 Carbs ?

[Sniffie]

Peanut Butter good or bad?

Peanut butter has nothing unique to offer nutrition wise. Furthermore it has a number of possible negative side effects:

http://www.marksdailyapple.com/how-bad-is-peanut-butter-really/

Rather cut it from your diet at once and if you still feel the need make yourself some mac nut butter. You can do a search for the recipe on this thread (thanks tombeej ) or you can google for a recipe.