Low Carb diet newbie - I have questions!

Kimia

Hi all,

After much reading on these boards and elsewhere, I have decided to give low-carbing a go. Not 'no-carb' but low carb. I am excited! I have some questions though for the wise ones - i really appreciate your help!

1. How do i figure out how many carbs to eat per day? I have read that I could eat anything from 20g to 200g to still be 'low carb'.

2. How much protein should I be eating? 200g per meal?

3. Do you agree that fruit should be removed from my diet, at least at the beginning?

4. Should I completely forget about calorie counting?

Any other tips? It's so counter-intuitive that I feel scared to take the first step without knowing these details! Also for purpose of giving me a carbs total to eat per day, I'm in my late 20's, 5'2 and 145 pounds.

Thanks!

metamorphosis

If you really are interested in doing low carb go out and buy the idiot proof diet and read it. Generally the 1st two weeks (more if you have more weight to lose) is induction where your carb intake is generally 20-40gms a day. An apple alone can have 15+gms carbs. 1 banana will pretty much put you at your daily limit during induction. Following induction there's re introduction phase over a number of weeks where you will slowly increas eyour carb intake until you reach a point where you are maintaining. This carb maintenance is generally anywhere between 40-100gms carbs.

If you really want to low carb - educate yourself by reading about it.

EileenG

I agree, get a good low carb book and read it all. Not just the chapter on induction, but all the stuff about a low carb lifestyle.

The quick and dirty version is that on low carb, you restrict all non-veggies carbs, and don't restrict protein or fat. You eat eggs, fish, meat, chicken, lots of green veg, some dairy, olive oil, nuts, seeds etc to hunger. In other words, if you are hungry, you eat. If you are not hungry, wait until you are. Just because a food is not restricted on low carb doesn't mean you eat as much as you can, only as much as you need.

Most low carb diets start with an induction phase, where you go cold turkey on carbs and only eat leafy green veg and salad for for the first two weeks with your meat etc. After that, you add in low carb options, like berries, higher carb veg. Then gradually add other fruits, milk, root veg, wholegrains.

You do not eat sugar, white flour or processed fats.

If you are doing this for general health, then you don't need to restrict carbs very much, just stick to the fresh whole ones, and avoid grains etc. If you have a lot of weight to lose, then be strict about sticking to fresh greens etc, but you don't need to calorie count. Low carb diets tend to reduce hunger, so you'll be less tempted to cheat.

If you have a small amount of weight to lose, and are close to target, you may have to count calories as well as carbs.

Mellor

And 200g protein per meal is a huge amount, prob should be close to this a day

Kimia

Thanks guys. I only have a small amount of weight to lose - about half a stone - and i keep fluctuating up and down. I think low carb would suit me, I'm not a huge bread eater anyway and i love everything you can eat on a low carb diet.

Thanks a mill. The main thing that's putting me off is the fact that you go high fat - i can logically understand it, but after years of telling myself 'no no that's too high in fat' it's difficult to change the way i think.

EileenG

Don't think in terms of High Fat v Low Fat. Think about eating fresh whole foods, some of which has healthy fat.

I find it quite funny the way nutritional experts will now tell you to eat oily fish, whole eggs, almonds, flaxseed, fresh red meat, extra virgin olive oil, full fat dairy, brazil nuts, dark chocolate, coconut oil etc "As part of your healthy low fat diet".

Try to find the foods which have the most nutritional bang for your buck.