No carbs?

CelticChick

If I stayed off all carbs for 2-3 weeks do you think I would see a good loss? I'm desperate for a quick boost before the end of october in my loss and I know it would probably go straight back on as soon as I ate normally but would anyone recommend it or has anyone done it?

Collumbo

No you won't see much of a loss. Whether you'll put it back on depends on your metabolism, age, hormones, and generally bodilly stuff I don't want want to get into now...

Seriously - don't completely ban carbs - you need at least a little bit to merely allow your brain to think properly. The Atkins heads will kill me for saying that but... whatever - if you want to look healthy, don't avoid carbs. Cut back if it makes you feel better.

If you really must diet, make fruit the no.1 tummy filler.... like pineapples, grapes - have you seen the size of those seedless grapes in Lidl?!! 1/2 a bag would stuff you! oranges.. all that sort of stuff. It'll eventually give your skin a healthy glow. As will greens.... give it 2-3 weeks before you start to even feel any difference.

And a huge bowl of porridge for breakfast can be most or your carb quota for the day if you want to reduce your carb intake. (Ask Paula Radcliffe)

And after all that, you won't notice much in 3 weeks unless you get some bit of gentle exercise... walk to/from work if you can. The above also won't do much for you if you drink. So if you think it's ok to diet and then have a few vodka and diet cokes, the short answer it's not. You might aswell not diet at all.

And avoid eating crap... you know what i mean!

There's my rant!

Good luck!

CelticChick

Thanks for the reply. I think I will just keep to my healthy eating and forget about the no carb thing- think I would find it impossible anyway!

joc_06

the only way to lose weight is to eat less calories than you burn every day. It doesnt matter if you only eat lettuce. If you eat a tonne of it you'll still get fat

read everything on this site esp this one:
http://johnberardi.com/articles/nutrition/masseating_1.htm

dudara

I've done the no-carb thing, well more like low-carb, and weight will fall off. I lost 2 stone over 2 months, and have kept if off.

However, I'm not advocating Atkins here. My advice is to dump all processed foods, white flour and so on. Replace with healty alternatives. Take your inspiration more from the GI diet.

Eating protein rich foods means that you feel fuller faster, meaning that you don't eat as much, meeting the requirement of taking in less calories than you need.

jman0

I believe it may take more that 2 or 3 weeks but i could be wrong.
The real weightloss people experience on the Atkins diet is by starving the body of carbs, it goes into a state of ketosis.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ketosis

ErinGoBrath

Has anybody tried a low-carb diet while in intensive training?

Did you find you had energy to train to your full potential?

dudara

I don't know if what training I do is intensive, but I found myself to be less sluggish when not eating all that wheat and sugar. Plus, losing the weight meant that I could push myself harder in training.

Transform

jman0 wrote:

I believe it may take more that 2 or 3 weeks but i could be wrong.
The real weightloss people experience on the Atkins diet is by starving the body of carbs, it goes into a state of ketosis.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ketosis

Let me get this right the 'real weight loss people' and 'starving the body of carbs'

if you can't give good advice then do not even start!!


To the original question - do more cardio and get up off your butt to burn those calories rather than looking for a short cut.

jman0

Transform wrote:

Let me get this right the 'real weight loss people' and 'starving the body of carbs'

if you can't give good advice then do not even start!!


To the original question - do more cardio and get up off your butt to burn those calories rather than looking for a short cut.

Since you misunderstand my post i'll try and make it clearer for you:
The objective of weight loss while on the Atkins diet, is realised most, when the body enters ketosis.

It is called "information", not advice.

Blondie86Star

Do NOT do Atkins, while you may loose a lot of weight in the short hall you more than likely will put it back on. I did it a few yrs ago and lost a stone in 2 weeks, completely unhealthy.

If you wanna loose weight start eating more fruit and veg, drink more water. cut out white brad, processed carbs n stuff and take up exercise. Even if its just a 30 min walk.

Doing it the healthy way is so much better. I lost 2 n a half st in 6 months a year ago n have kept it off!

Good Luck!

CelticChick

Transform: To the original question - do more cardio and get up off your butt to burn those calories rather than looking for a short cut.


I'm not looking for a short cut, I'm losing weight the proper way at the moment, through healthy eating and exercise but I have an event coming up in 3 weeks that I would like a boost in my loss for and just thought it would help short term. As I originally said I know full well it would go back on as soon as I started eating normally I'm not stupid! I'm not looking for a quick fix long term, just wondering if 3 weeks on such restrictions would be worth the effort.

dudara

Doing a low-carb diet will give you a real boost. It will help you weight quickly and losing a stone is easily realisable in 3 weeks. Just be aware of what you're doing.

AFAIK, the ketosis theory has been questioned severly at this stage (See BBC's Horizon documentary on Atkins), but there is no doubt that the Atkins diet works somehow. Personally, and I will state clearly that this is only my own opinion, it works by regulating your blood sugar, and by making you feel fuller. Removing sugary processed foods from your diet will mean that your blood sugars will be more stable. Sudden drops in blood sugar cause you to feel hungry, and we often reach for the quick sugary fix, however, this sugar causes a blood sugar spike followed by drop, causing you to feel hungry and so on..

By bannings carbs altogether, Atkins aims to break you of your dependance on sugar. Reaching for sugary things is an easy habit to fall into, and it's something we all need to watch out for, dieting or not. I also think that by putting a total ban in place for the first few weeks, that the resulting weight loss then encourages you to keep going. Remember that no-carb ban is not permanent on Atkins, you introduce "good" or low-GI carbs at later stages. What happened with me was after a while, I completely lost interest in eating wheat and such items. They make me feel sluggish now.

Secondly, the emphasis placed by Atkins on protein has some merit. When you eat protein-rich foods, you feel fuller faster, and the feeling lasts longer.

Basically, there are worse ways of dieting if you want to lose some weight fast. Just be sensible about it, drink tonnes of water and keep exercising.

Yook

ErinGoBrath wrote:

Has anybody tried a low-carb diet while in intensive training?

Did you find you had energy to train to your full potential?

Thats what i've been doing for 2 months or so. I've lost 29 pounds in that time. I never once felt low on energy!

I'm doing South Beach diet, so its low net carb, not no carb/low carb.

Duck Soup

If you're looking for a quick fix, a low carb diet will work. Not by the miracle of 'ketosis', but because a lot of the initial weight loss is water loss. The best explanation I could find of this as follows:

“Firstly, because little carbohydrate is arriving from the diet the body starts to rely on its carbohydrate stores known as glycogen. Glycogen is bound to water in the body and this water is eliminated as the glycogen is used up. This means that the initial dramatic weight loss when starting a low carbohydrate diet is largely due to water loss not fat loss.”

Restrict carbs for two weeks and do as much walking or cardio as you can. In the final week, bring the carbs right down. It's extraordinarily unhealthy - bodybuilders use this kind of extreme carb restriction to get in shape for a show - and you will gain it all back afterwards and then some.

Short term, if there's some event you want to go to looking svelte, it'll work. Long term it's a pile of dog doo doo, linked to high blood cholesterol, heart disease and kidney stones.

Transform

jman0 wrote:

Since you misunderstand my post i'll try and make it clearer for you:
The objective of weight loss while on the Atkins diet, is realised most, when the body enters ketosis.

It is called "information", not advice.

Well said jman0 and thats your 2 cents worth.

Atkins or any of its like do not teach people to break the habit of overeating and the relationship they have with food.

Celticchick - yes i encourage you to keep it up and by all means try anything you can to get to your goal. I would first address many aspects of the diet before you do anything so if you want a proper answer post a typical FULL day of what you are currently eating.

Finally, when ever i hear anyone say 'i used this diet' or 'i am on that diet', i shudder!!
When you think like this all i hear is 'short term fix' rather than addressing the fact that most people basically eat tooooooo much and not enough healthy food while following a GI approach with lots of efa's