Low carb difficulties - help

speedy2007

Hey

Ive started a low carb diet..this is day 3. The first two days i had a dull headache which didnt bother me too much. Thats now gone only to be replaced with leg cramps, which are pretty bad. Ive googled and the results say to take a multi-vitamin as its possibly due to a lack of potassium.
My question is this - is it healthy to be cutting so many foods out of my diet if i then need to take a supplement to replace them?

Im abroad right now too, and all the vitamin tablets over here are the size of bullets im crap at swallowing huge tablets.
Im finding it really difficult so far. I dont eat meat or chicken, so i am restricted to fish, eggs and tofu. Im also hungry a lot. Perhaps this is a sign this isnt the diet for me, although my stomach feels so much flatter already, so at the same time i want to push through. This phase is only 2 weeks after all
Does it get better?

Kimia

Why aren't you eating all the different types of veg too? Also what about nuts, dark chocolate? There are SO many types of fish I don't know how you're finding it restrictive tbh!

As far as I know you don't need a supplement to replace sugar, which is essentially what you're cutting out by doing the lower carb way of eating.

Post up what you have been eating for the last 3 days..

EileenG

What are you eating?

Cramps are often a sign of lack of salt. Low carb diets tend to cut out the main sources of hidden salt (bread, cereal and ready meals) and if you are restricting table salt in hot weather, it's quite likely that cramps will result.

For added potassium, the easiest way is to look for low sodium salt, they replace the sodium with potassium.

A good low carb diet should not be deficient in anything. I took part in a five year study on low carb diets, where they analyised my food to see what I was deficient in. The answer was: not a damn thing. And I don't claim to eat a super healthy low carb diet, I go for what is handy and cheap. But cutting out things like sweets and biscuits and bread and pasta is likely to improve your health no matter what diet you are on.

One of the classic mistakes people make when low carbing is thinking that you have to restrict vegetables. No you don't. Eat lots of them. And when you are eating salad, pour on plenty of olive oil for your dressing.

speedy2007

hey, thanks for the replies.
The one im following is a low-carb for vegetarians (i add the fish myself). It says no chocolate, no caffeine drinks (which i assume was the reason for the headaches) and to eat mainly green veg for this 2 week period. The menus arent very inspiring - a lot of tofu which isnt something id want to eat every day, so i find myself trying to come up with things on my own.

So day 1:
brek: 2 egg omelette and 2 veggie sausages, half a tomato

dinner: 2 fillets of salmon and asparagus with dressing i made from olive oil, red wine vinegar and dijon mustard

snacks - about 3 tbsp peanut butter throughout the day, couple of handfuls of pecans

supper - i had porridge. Not allowed but i figured i hadnt eaten a lot of carbs throughout the day so i went for it.

day 2:
Brek -1 kipper fillet, 100g broccoli, 100g courgette - baked everything in the oven

Dinner - Salad made from lettuce, tomatoes, goats cheese and roasted almonds and pecans. Same dressing as day one.

snack - 1 tbsp of peanut butter

Supper - 3 egg omelette, some asparagus with salad dressing. Greek yoghurt with walnuts and i did put a little bit of honey on it, but it was just a little.

day 3 - well its early afternoon where i am and ive just had some greek yoghurt with walnuts so far. I havent been up long - i had a bad nights sleep last night with the leg cramps.

I should say that i had given up bread, pasta, rice, potatoes before starting this. That i found easy. I decided to do this diet cos my weight loss had stalled. I thought being that i had already cut down the starchy carbs id find this easy, but i miss lentils, beans, fruit, veg like carrots, sweetcorn and sweet potatoes. I thought id have chocolate cravings but im actually dying to eat some fruit instead. I find sticking to green veg only quite tough, but perhaps i just need to get used to it for it a bit.

Kimia

That looks pretty good! I wouldn't beat yourself up over it, you seem to be doing well and keeping it varied. It does seem on the restrictive side though..

Ok, so here are more ideas for meals:

More fish ideas:

• Prawns
• Tuna
• Sole
• Mackerel
• Smoked salmon
• Smoked Mackerel
• Plaice
• Cod
• Trout

Try this website for excellent recipe ideas: http://kalynskitchen.blogspot.com/

I found it slightly tough to begin with because it is such a change, but you'll get there. It gets easier and nowadays I don't even think about adding any kind of starchy stuff. Btw adding the porridge on day 1 kinda got rid of that day so you're really only on day 2. A large bowl of porridge could have 60-100g of carbs so that's that day gone - not the best choice for extremely low carb (which it looks like you're doing at the mo)

Hope that helps

speedy2007

Thanks for the link Kimia, ill check that out. Yeah for the first 2 weeks im restricted to only 20g of carbs a day, so its pretty tough. I just hope i wont feel this bad for long more, cos i dont think ill be able to keep it up if i do....even the headache has creeped back over the last hour :rolleyes:

Kimia wrote: »

Btw adding the porridge on day 1 kinda got rid of that day so you're really only on day 2. A large bowl of porridge could have 60-100g of carbs so that's that day gone - not the best choice for extremely low carb (which it looks like you're doing at the mo)

crappppp lol...i knew oats were carby but i didnt think they had that much. I buy the oats loose so they didnt come with any nutritional info. I love porridge...thats another thing to add to my 'miss list'.

ApeXaviour

speedy2007 wrote: »

Im also hungry a lot. Perhaps this is a sign this isnt the diet for me, although my stomach feels so much flatter already, so at the same time i want to push through. This phase is only 2 weeks after all
Does it get better?

You have to give it a chance. The transition to low-carb is a pain (not as bad as the transition to intermittent fasting, but that's another kettle of fish). I found the first time I tried it, it took about a week of muggy headedness, cramps, and weird hunger before I adapted. Friends of mine you've gone on report the same, some stick it for two weeks and then realise how much better they feel. Others of lower constitution decide after a few days that its not for them.

The benefits you'll hopefully notice in a week or so time will be things like regulated blood sugar... ie grouchy hunger and hunger pains will disappear, you could easily skip meals if you wanted and not be bothered. Better gut/bowels all round, more energy, lowered bodyfat (though this takes a few more weeks)

Your body takes time to adapt to new things no-matter how well it might be originally designed to deal with ithem. You could be a triathlete, but go train one evening in a boxing gym and you're sore as hell the next day.

And you think that's bad? Try transitioning to a "normal" (high carb) diet after a long time low carb one. Bloatedness, heartburn, irregular bowel movements, low blood sugar level "OMFG GIVE ME FOOD NOW" hunger, and (personally) I start getting some serious pudge on.

For now it's just habit forming, experiment, find what meals work for you. There are millions of things you can do with eggs. Buy a kilo of almonds (from the asia-market on drury st if you're in dublin). Walnuts, frozen berries (they're okay on low carb), olive oil, cheese cheese and more cheese. Tesco frozen salmon. Buy a fish-cookbook (not italian) and see what kind of things you can do.

Kimia

You speak the truth ApeX. I had a giant bag of crisps lately, after about 3 months passing since the last bag, and my stomach took about 3 days to get over it. So sad, i love crisps so much

someday2010

How many grams of carbs per day is low-carb?

ApeXaviour

someday2010 wrote: »

How many grams of carbs per day is low-carb?

That depends, many consider the Zone diet low carb... but your average man might be eating 250g of carbs per day on that. Granted they'd generally come a very (very) large amount of vegetables with some fruit and little in the way of grain/starch/processed-sugar so it still feels habitually low carb.

Other diets appear to insist you go into ketosis (0-50g carbs per day). I suppose it's a nice biological indicator that you are eating low carb but it really isn't necessary to be that strict in order to reap the many benefits. Personally I'd say, (and a good few diet gurus would say the same) a nice round figure of 100g or so (or below) is pretty unambiguously low-carb. It keeps your insulin levels at a nice low constant level, which is pretty much the whole idea behind it. If you're a 45kg woman though you'd probably want to lower that a good bit.

someday2010

Im consuming between 70 to 100 grams a day and Im not one bit hungry at all but kind of tired. I am a carb addict in that if I eat loads of carbs I get hooked on them like someone on heroin but if I cut down to 70 to 100 grams from vegatables I wouldnt even think about sweet things

speedy2007

ApeXaviour wrote: »

The benefits you'll hopefully notice in a week or so time will be things like regulated blood sugar... ie grouchy hunger and hunger pains will disappear, you could easily skip meals if you wanted and not be bothered. Better gut/bowels all round, more energy, lowered bodyfat (though this takes a few more weeks)

thanks for this...i should stick it up on my fridge to help me keep going
Things have got a bit better - leg cramps are gone (i took some magnesium supplements, that did the trick). I still have a permanent dull headache, its fine when i wake up but seems to creep back about an hour later.

The best thing so far is that its helping me have more control over my eating. I used to eat supper just out of habit, but now i stop and ask myself 'am i actually that hungry?' and the answer is usually no.

Other diets appear to insist you go into ketosis (0-50g carbs per day). I suppose it's a nice biological indicator that you are eating low carb but it really isn't necessary to be that strict in order to reap the many benefits. Personally I'd say, (and a good few diet gurus would say the same) a nice round figure of 100g or so (or below) is pretty unambiguously low-carb. It keeps your insulin levels at a nice low constant level, which is pretty much the whole idea behind it. If you're a 45kg woman though you'd probably want to lower that a good bit.

this is interesting. This diet is 20g a day, which is hard. No oats, no berries, no veg like carrots, parsips etc..none of which are junk food. 100g i think id find doable on a permanent basis - but can you still lose weight at that level, or is that more about maintenance? I only have few pounds to lose, half a stone max. Its my thighs and a bit of belly flab (i know i cant spot reduce, but thats where most of my fat is now).

also, i was wondering this - lets say sometime in the future i eat a bar of chocolate or have a can of coke or go out for italian food, which will spike my insulin - does that mean im back where i started? I know im not going to put on all the weight straight away, but will my body start storing fat again and trying to burn carbs. Im not too clear on how that part works. Ideally, i know you shouldnt eat choc etc...but i lovvvvve choc and the cinema just isnt as much fun without a coke and popcorn

banshee_bones

ApeXaviour wrote: »

You have to give it a chance. The transition to low-carb is a pain (not as bad as the transition to intermittent fasting, but that's another kettle of fish). I found the first time I tried it, it took about a week of muggy headedness, cramps, and weird hunger before I adapted.

I recently started majorly cutting back on carbs and I had the exact same weird muggy-type headaches and I could not for the life of me figure out what it was! Deffo was not contributing it to cutting way back on the refined stuff! Least I know now

EileenG

speedy2007 wrote: »

also, i was wondering this - lets say sometime in the future i eat a bar of chocolate or have a can of coke or go out for italian food, which will spike my insulin - does that mean im back where i started? I know im not going to put on all the weight straight away, but will my body start storing fat again and trying to burn carbs. Im not too clear on how that part works. Ideally, i know you shouldnt eat choc etc...but i lovvvvve choc and the cinema just isnt as much fun without a coke and popcorn

You are not back at the start, but you'll probably feel pretty rubbish if you are normally low carbing, and then you eat a significant amount of refined sugary carbs. Like someone who normally doesn't drink, and then has a double brandy. If you use it as a kickstart for a tough workout, it can be beneficial.

Eat good dark chocolate, but limit the amount, and eat it slowly and consciously. Have a couple of squares of nice chocolate with a leisurely cup of coffee, not while you are watching trailers for rubbish films.

Personally, I reckon if you are going to eat junk, you should at least feel you are enjoying it, rather than just munching blindly at the cinema. Take a stick of chewing gum to the cinema if you feel you must chew.

ApeXaviour

speedy2007 wrote: »

this is interesting. This diet is 20g a day, which is hard. No oats, no berries, no veg like carrots, parsips etc..none of which are junk food. 100g i think id find doable on a permanent basis - but can you still lose weight at that level, or is that more about maintenance? I only have few pounds to lose, half a stone max.

Maintenance and active dieting are more about calorie intake. You can still lose weight on ~100g carbs per day. Assume your maintenance is 2200 cals. Then 100g carbs, 125g protein, 55g fat (calorie ratio 30:40:40) is 1900 cals which is a decent deficit. Lowering the carbs will allow you to lose weight more aggressively with greater ease. Just keep your protein half decent while in a deficit and don't be afraid of some good fats (fish oils, olive oil, avocados, almonds, walnuts, coconut oil etc. butter and animal fats in moderation too). Stay away from peanuts, seed oils, margarines or vegetable oil... awful awful things really, especially the last one.

speedy2007 wrote: »

Its my thighs and a bit of belly flab (i know i cant spot reduce, but thats where most of my fat is now).

That's genetics/hormones. Men often get it around their midsection (love handles, belly, lower back). If you find your upper body is getting too skinny for you in comparison as you lose weight, don't be afraid to lift some actual weights... I recall one lady on here saying "I fear my arms will go skeletal before I lose the fat on my thighs". Don't panic, you're not going to get all muscley (it's difficult, even for men who are full of testosterone!), but you will "tone up" a misnomer as you actually are building some muscle. But you will acquire that sought-after "toned" look anyway.