Why I eat a Low-Carb Diet

I had a lovely friend ask me about low-carbing. She wasn't very familiar with it and she follows a regular low-fat diet. She loved my recipes but was concerned about all the saturated fat. But she wanted to know more about low-carbing and I wrote this to her. It think it explains why I chose a low-carb diet.

I decided to low-carb for my health. For us, it wasn't just about cutting our carbs down, it was about finally, totally nourishing our bodies. This meant eliminating foods that were unnecessary and unhealthy. That means that we no longer eat anything with High Fructose Corn Syrup or Trans-fat (this mean even if the label says "No Trans Fat" - I read the ingredients. If it says "Hydrogenated _____" it's TRANS FAT. Because of governement guidelines, if it has less than a certain percentage they can sell it as "No Trans Fat" - deceptive huh? We also don't eat anything with any added sugars. Honest to goodness, when you cut those things out, the cravings for them pretty much stop.

Now, I'll add this. I'm not perfect and I DO go to Disney World a few times a year and I'm going to eat the "best I can" while there, but I just won't go crazy.

For the first time in my life, I truly believe this has to do with my health. And honestly even if I stopped losing weight (which would be sad indeed), I would keep eating this way, as I feel it's the best way to eat for our bodies (for us pre-diabetic/IR people in particular).
Unlike what most people think, eating low carb is NOT eating bacon and butter and steak only. You can see by my journels, that I eat fruit and veggies and salad and meat and very little grains. That is usually quoted by people who haven't read Dr. Atkins book or the South Beach Diet (to name a couple). Dr. Atkins, does have you eat very low-carb (under 20 carbs a day for the 1st two weeks) and then you add carbs back until (in increments of 5 carbs a day each week) until you stop losing weight, then you dial it back to the previous week's amount of carbs. As you get close to your goal weight (within 10-15lbs you start adding more carbs back in until you start GAINING weight). Then you dial it back. That is how many carbs you eat the rest of your life. It's different for everyone. Some eat upwards of 150 a day, some eat closer to 50 a day. Once you get past the 1st two weeks, you can add fruit (he recommends berries mostly while losing) and then when you get to goal, you even add some grains back (steel cut oatmeal - not the sugary packets at the store - TRUE whole grain breads - bulgar, even brown rice etc.). It's all about trial and error and if something stalls the weight loss, than we cut it out for now.

So yes, we do eat more fat (because we naturally eat more protein). My diet is normally approximately 60% fat; 20% protein; 20% Carb

Here's a brief synopsis of a study done by the NIH (National Institute of Health). It shows that the low-carb diet has NO affect on cardiovasular risk. There were no harm to the lipid profiles (even though there are high levels of sat. fat eaten):

NIH Study on Cardiovasular Risk from a Low-Carb Diet

Then one of my favorite bloggers. Her hubby is a Doctor and she is SO smart and takes studies and tries to make them more simple to understand for "regular" people (although sometimes it's STILL over my head! LOL). But I love this post about why excessive CARBS are the reason for clogged artries and increasing bad health.

Carbohydrate - How Much is Too Much

This next article was a HUGE study that came out this year in March. It compared 4 major diets to one another, in not only weight loss, but blood values and blood pressure. The 4 diets were: Atkins (low-carb); The Zone, Ornish (Very low fat; Very high Carb); LEARN (typical low-fat diet).

At the 12 month mark not only did the Atkins dieters lose more weight, but even more significant was that they lost way more body fat (because when you are eating a low carb diet, the body tends to burn fat differently - which was recently talked about in another study that showed mice burning fat the way they do on an Atkins diet - it was some hormone they discovered that people on a low-carb diet put out. They are trying to reproduce it for other people to take it in pill/shot form). The Atkins dieters also experienced more favorable overall metabolic effects.

Now I will say, this study also showed, that none of the people keep a signficant weight loss off. You know why?? Because they didn't "get it" that it HAS to be a lifestyle change. No matter what you do, you have to do it for life!

Here is another blog by a RN. I LOVE this lady's blog and she is reporting about a new book called "The Great Cholesterol Con". Very interesting. I bought the book, but have only just cracked the cover. I do know the book, references study after study, proving everything he's trying to say in there. Here's a link to some exerts from it:

The Great Cholesterol Con

I loves this guys approach. As he says at the end "All these different studies show us one thing: No one has all the answers - not the food industry nor state health authorities. The bottom line: find what works for you - and don't get carried away by anyone else's mandate."

Low Carb Diet Health Improvements

And finally, this is one of my FAVORITE reads. He is also coming out with a book this September that's supposed to be AMAZING called "Good Calories, Bad Calories. Challenging the Conventional Wisdom on Diet, Weight Control and Disease". I'm REALLY excited to read this because his writing style is very easy to read and it will go by quickly. It's sort of a long article, but WELL WORTH every word.

What If It's All Been a Big Fat Lie

Again, I'm SOOOO not against what people are doing that works for them. But doing a low-cal, low-fat diet stopped working for me. I know, I've been honest and I really was eating very little and nothing was happening. I was "shaking it up", changing things around. I have done it all and I KNEW after reading the above and WAY more stuff that this was how I needed to live (and my family) for not only weight loss but for our health. And if I'm honest, I lost the last 70lbs not looking at fat EVER. I ate a lower calorie diet mostly, but I was eating less and less and I didn't want to get stuff metabolically where I couldn't eat only 800 calories a day to maintain my weight.

Just regular science says, when you weigh less you need less calories to run the body mass you have. I was already eating as low as 900 calories a day and not losing weight and I was 230lbs. It scared me to think of how little I would have to eat...eventually. But if I changed my style of eating, boosting my metabolism and eating more nutrient dense foods, I found I could eat more.

All three of my primary doctors - my Endocronologist, my Gynocologist and my GP are completely onboard with how we are eating and very encouraging to do it. Our blood work has only gotten better and better. We are all getting ready to go and get new blood work. When I get that back, I'll share - the good bad or ugly how it turns out for the 3 of us. As we've been eating this way for months now - and was eating a bit different when we had our last blood work drawn.