LOW CARBOHYDRATE way of eating/fasting

This topic contains 5 replies, has 4 voices, and was last updated by mvex 10 years, 2 months ago.

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Femme Anglaise

1:04 pm
14 Sep 14
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I have just discovered, by pure chance, a book by Dr John Briffa entitled ‘Escape The Diet Trap’ and read it in one sitting as it was so enlightening.

Dr Briffa in his Introduction points out that the first 17 chapters are scientific and give detailed research gleaned over many years; however, he kindly states that if the reader is keen to get onto what to do, he recommends starting at chapter 18 ‘Prime Fuel’, and to just read ‘The Bottom Line’ at the end of chapters 1 – 17 to have a brief summary of each chapter.

The overall concensus is that conventional dieting, low-fat dieting, calorie-restricted dieting so often fail to bring lasting weight loss; and that limiting carbohydrates and eating more protein and fat is the most effective way to eat for weight control and for improving our health.

Dr Briffa suggests giving a low carbohydrate regime a go for just 30 days and see how you feel then – that’s just what I am going to do. There is no calorie counting – this I shall find extremely hard as I have spent the last 40 years doing just that, but I shall be writing a food diary (and will restrain myself from jotting down the calories!); on the 2 Fast Days I shall mindfully keep within my 500 calories. I feel very positive about this and know I shall find certain foods hard to resist, i.e. delicious smelling baguettes, which living in France will be at the top of my list to avoid.

Dr Briffa has a chapter entitled ‘Going Lower’ where he discusses the advantages of fasting and how it works with a low carbohydrate WOE; he states that he now on most days only eats two meals, leaving the first one until he is hungry.

I would highly recommend ‘Escape The Diet Trap’, and I can say with all honesty that I have read many books over the years on ‘dieting’, and this book resonated with me immediately.

Why not give the low carbohydrate WOE a go – I’d love to hear your thoughts on this, and whether this is the way you already are eating, etc.

Femme Anglaise

simcoeluv

6:18 pm
14 Sep 14
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Hi Femme:

There are posts on threads all over this site on low carb eating. It used to be the norm – when Dr. Atkins was asked how he came up with his low carb diet in the early 70s he said it was taught to him in medical school (in the 1940s).

The problem we have is that for the last 4 or so decades our government and the doctors have crusaded against low carb eating, predicting that a low fat diet would eliminate obesity, diabetes, heart disease and cancer. The population took the teaching to heart and carb consumption skyrocketed and fat consumption collapsed. So after doing what we were told to do, we have an obesity epidemic, a diabetes epidemic, and heart disease and cancer are at all time highs.

Maybe the government and doctors were wrong?

This link has more information on low carb eating: http://thefastdiet.co.uk/forums/topic/the-basics-for-newbies-your-questions-answered/

Lichtle

7:48 pm
14 Sep 14
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Hi Femme, I have also read Dr Briffa’s book and loved it. I was somehow relieved to read that there was not much that was not already known to me but vey happy to see that he could underpin everything with scientific studies.
In my early forties when I realised, I had to do something to stem the very slow rise in weight that started to creep in, I started a WOE where you eliminate processed food, refined sugar, eat good fat, no margarine or low fat foods There was one rule that appeared always controversial and that was that you should not eat concentrated carbs (bread, potatoes, rice and pasta together with high protein foods. It is called food combining. I always felt much better, healthier, always managed to lose the pounds and my sugar cravings disappeared. It was my go to solution but once I fell off the wagon I found it often hard to go back and forego pizzas, sandwiches, roast potatoes with roast permanently.

I have been doing 5:2 this summer (as I did last year and the year before) and lost most of the weight but just could not shift the last 3lbs. Having just read Dr Briffa’s book it had so many parallels to food combining (bar separating the carbs) that I decided last week to go low carb last week (No concentrated carbs just those in vegetables) I lost the last 3lbs promptly.

5:2 has taught me to eat when I feel hungry rather then eating out of habit. It also taught me that you don’t fall off the “wagon” you start again the next day. I have just had a bit of an indulgent weekend with lots of entertaining but I am resolved to do low carb and 5:2 as of tomorrow and might have the occasional carb only (without protein) meal as I don’t think I could manage to never eat carbs again. For some reason I don’t think to completely cut it out seems not right either – but I believe cutting down is important.

It has long been known that the worst food culprit is refined sugar and I am resolved to conquer this with low carb and 5:2 hopefully for the rest of my life (with occasional exceptions) :-))

Femme Anglaise

8:13 am
15 Sep 14
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Many thanks Simcoeluv for your post – I agree with your comments about how a low-fat diet was the way to go for decades; this was partly backed by huge industries who had a stake in everyone eating a diet high in carbs – particularly the sugar industry. As you say we are now reaping the results.

Your mention of The Atkins Diet reminded me of a paragraph in Dr Briffa’s book – he recalls doing an interview on a national news programme regarding the Atkin’s Diet, which he had broadly supported. A dietician on the programme expressed scepticism. However, off camera, she said that a doctor at the hospital where she worked routinely recommended a low-carb diet to diabetic patients, but preferred to keep this a secret for fear of how it would look to his colleagues!

Lichtle – many thanks for your post – like you I can never imagine the time when I would never eat carbs again – in fact, Dr Briffa advocates eating 80% proteins and fats and 20% carbs, which sounds a good way to go for me.

Femme

Lichtle

2:50 pm
15 Sep 14
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Hi Femme, although this might sound reassuring, 20% carb is really not much, in fact this would probably only account for the carbs in fruit, vegetables (not even potatoes)and nuts.
However, whilst this is definitely important for weight loss eventually we will reach our desired weight. Once maintaining I regard it a matter of experimenting how much carb we can re-introduce without gaining weight or getting caught up in carb/sugar addiction. I am sure this is different for each individual and different for every stage in our life.
So whilst it might be a bit of a bind during the weight loss I am sure it gets a bit easier and occasional carb meals are OK.

mvex

8:00 am
16 Sep 14
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I feel that 5:2 works so much better when you go low carb. I try to steer clear of carbs on fast days and as clear as possible on normal days too, I’m so addicted to the stuff I usually try to restrict simple carbs to breakfast and maybe lunch but no later than that. I feel so much better and less bloated when I eat less carbs it’s mindboggling. Wish more people would have an open mind and just try. They’d be surprised how much better they would feel, let alone how the weight would drop off…