I Like My Carbs
 

Why is everything low or no carbs nowadays?? Am I the only person out there who likes carbs??

Re: I Like My Carbs
 

Sign me up for my bread, pasta, sugar, etc.

I'm SO sick of all the restaurants and their "low-carb" wraps and pizza. Ew.

No. I could not live w/o eating pasta. I swear I eat pasta 3 or 4 times a week. And bread. mmmmm..... and cheese too.

Re: I Like My Carbs
 

Try reducing it for a month...you realize how addicted to it you are and after a while you stop needing it. That can't be natural the way you want to eat a loaf of bread after a while.

-Rudey
--It's even worse when you really love dining out.

I totally agree with Rudey! I am on the South Beach Diet....well I was and still kind of follow it (and I lost 15 lbs by the way)....in Phase 1 you realize how addicted to carbs you are and it is bad...but remember there are good carbs and bad carbs--and anything with white flour in it is bad!! Butttt do not get me wrong...I have worked carbs back into my life but just not as much as before....and believe me, if I was naturally stick skinny I would have never given them up...but fast food 2-3 times a day was making for a giant ass!!

I love carbs and won't give them up completely but I have cut back on them a lot. Especially with anything that is not 100% whole wheat.
Plus most of the "low carb" foods you can get are so high in fat that it is disgusting

You know what though...I was always a fat-free eater before I started in on this low-carb kick and I never lost weight like I have now!! You just have to look--which is part of the pain....but if you are serious about low-carbin' its not to bad! Plus you learn after a while!! If anyone wants suggestions on good things that are low-carb let me know!

I reduced my carb intake about 18 months ago. I haven't eliminated carbs. I was on Atkins, lost the weight I wanted to, slowly increased my carb intake, and continued to lose weight. I have maintained my weight for over a year now.

I don't follow any diet now. I just reduced my carb intake especially sugar. I feel like I have more energy now. I tried those low carb snacks and they were pretty gross in my opinion.

Have u tried the new low-carb cereals? The Special K low-carb is awesome!! My mom said the Total low-carb was not very good!!


Man this thread has been totally high-jacked by low carbers!! Sorry!

No, I haven't tried low carb cereals. I always like regular Special K. If low carb tastes the same, I would like it.

This thread makes me want chocolate, real chocolate, not that low carb stuff. :p

The low-carb stuff is out there for one reason: It sells. There are a lot of people out there (myself included) who are on low-carb regimens, ranging from Atkins to South Beach to just not eating simple sugars. If you're really craving a bowl of cereal or a piece of toast or some ice cream, it's good to have a low-carb alternative available (though, of course, it is best not to give in to temptation at all).

Some of the low-carb things I've tried are pretty decent (the Subway wraps, for instance). Others are nasty.

IMO, a lot of these things are very dangerous. You must pay attention to the serving size that the carb count is based on; sometimes it's half or less of what you would actually be eating. You must watch the fat content (the Atkins diet says not to, that you can eat all the fat you want, but I'm leery of that). And you must stop. This can be the hardest thing - you decide "The serving size says 3 carbs for one cookie, so I'll just have one cookie" and before you know it, the box is empty. Worse, the low-carb sweets may set off a carb craving that leaves you eating high-carb sweets! So you have to be very careful... but they have their place.

*takes last bite of Mac & Cheese*

I LOVE my Carbs.

I will make a giant pot of Spaghetti and have it for lunch for the next week. But then again, I'm pregnant and spaghetti is something I crave alot and it's more healthy then alot of the other stuff I crave, so why not?

Love my carbs. Recently started riding, so they're not a big deal for me. :D

I like carbs.

I'm also cannot do Atkins (I'm hypoglycemic) and I'm too poor to try South Beach

But I've lost weight because I'm eating moderately. I'll have 5-6 small meals/snacks a day but I also exercise.

I like sugary stuff but when these 2 cinnamon rolls are gone I'll be done with white flour/white sugar products for 2 weeks. I eat much more fruit, more protein. Except for the occasional sweet I dont eat white flour/white sugar. But whenever I want to eat carbs I'll eat them but instead of my days where I would go through a half-gallon of ice cream, I'll eat like a fourth of a pint.

I love my carbs.

I try to eat when ever possible, breads and pastas that are 100% whole wheat.

I loooove carbs.

I will be happy when the low-carb craze runs its course.

potential low-carb issues:

-esp on atkins, 'low-carb' can often equal 'high-fat' . . . look at that advantEDGE bar next time . . . 15 g protein, but more than 25% of your RDI for fat

-lack of variety for some people in their diet - one of the most important things when sticking to a diet is to shake up your meals, which helps increase metabolism and keep nutrient levels solid across the board . . . many on low-carb diets follow specific plans well, but don't mix up the actual meals.

-finally, the worst of them all: lack of fiber in the diet, which some in the medical community have predicted will lead to an increase in colon cancer etc.


Low-carb diets are fantastic in theory, just make sure you keep these three elements in mind, and regularly exercise. Many would reach the same results by just cutting out simple carbs in the form of juice, soda, snacks, etc and walking up and down some stairs for 30 min 5 times a week.

Doing South Beach...down 20 lbs so far. It takes learning and after the Phase I, making sensible choices is so much easier.

Good points ksigrc. You know the fad has become a craze when everyone is trying to get in on the act. What's up with this low carb peanut butter and mayonaise and milk? Were any of those things really all that high card to begin with? Stop the madness!

I understand the Atkins, as written in the book is a decent plan. I'm just worried about all the people who don't research it and just start eliminating carbs. I also wonder how many people on Atkins think it's a substitute for getting enough exercise. Oh well.

So glad to know I am not alone!! hugs to all my carb lovers!

I'm sick of low carb everything.

My dad did it for a while, and his doctor, my doctor, and my mom's doctor all said that it's really not healthy... especially when it comes to heart disease. Eating all that fat and red meat increases your risk for that, no matter what you weigh.

I went out to dinner with my family last night, and the waitress handed us a "low carb menu." At a steakhouse. I told her to take it right back.

Lol. That is too funny about the steakhouse!

One of my atty's here at work says that these low carb diets are good if you need to lose a few pounds to squeeze into that suit/dress/whatever for the weekend. But as far as long-term results, it's really very easy to gain it right back, and you're depriving your body of something it needs, so you need to be careful.

Easy to gain it all back?

-Rudey

Oh this Atkins shit just makes me mad. People in history have ate bread for too long for it suddenly to be the reason Americans are so fat!

The trick is MODERATION. If people need to lose weight, I agree, cut down on carbs. But also learn which ones are good, and eat them in moderation. I lost 50 pounds a few years ago...while eating....bread, pasta, and rice! *gasp*

I've seen people lose a ton of weight and improve their overall health with the low-carb diets...and I've seen people who just couldn't stick to them.

If you have the time, exercise is really the best way to go - combine it with a sensible diet (not too much sugar, simple carbs, etc.) and you should be fine.

I am REALLY sick of low carb everything and all the "Atkins friendly" stuff I see everywhere. The whole fad diet thing just doesn't make sense to me at all -- the only thing that makes sense is eating the most natural, unprocessed foods possible and everything in moderation (not that I necessarily do that, but I try). I'm a vegetarian anyway, so you're never going to see me doing a "high protein" diet.

I think a lot of companies are marketing low carb things because people hear all this buzz about LC dieting, so they'll buy it even though they have no idea what they're doing. I was in Subway and I saw a woman get on of their Atkins wraps and then a bag of Baked Lays. They think it's eating healthy but they don't know how the diet works. It's like a weight loss buzzword, sort of.

Actually Americans weren't so fat because Americans didn't have money. With time Americans have become less hungry as the hunger situation has been tackled. So what are you talking about?

Nobody said other diets don't work. You did what you did, great. This diet has been used for a long long time - first by people who were sick and then later by bodybuilders and certain athletes. Those people understand how to use it. They understand that they can't just eat liquid lard. They understand how to supplement fiber without increasing their net carbs.

And most people do not know how to even get their body into ketosis. They don't even know how it works and don't understand a bit about it. It's like the morons who drink diet cokes with their big macs.

-Rudey

totally agree with Rudey.

I heard on the radio this morning that some people are taking this too far and are ending up with I believe they said Type 2 Diabetes...

oh my god. i tried the atkins diet for a few weeks. it was horrible!!! all the low carb stuff tastes like crap! my bf and i started it one night. threw out all of our high carb stuff and went grocery shopping and got meat and stuff. after a few days, we were going crazy. so i looked on the atkins website and found that they sold food, so we bougth a ton of it. hell, they had cake, cheesecake, cookies, candy, etc. we wanted the good stuff any way we could. as soon as we got it and tried it, we spit it out, and sent it all back! it tasted like saw dust. and the candy, they say there's something in it that's like a laxative. :eek:

I LOVE MY CARBS!!!

i'd rather work out 4-5 days a week, than go back on that damn diet!

oh yeah, when i was on the atkins, you lost weight at first, but that was just water weight. and after awhile, we were both tired and VERY cranky.

I think it might be Sorbitol that's in the candy (or something like it). I know that's what they put in the sugar free candy and if you eat too much...well you know...

Try La Nouba. Its the only decent low carb chocolate that i've found.

Re: I Like My Carbs
 

Everyone loves carbs, its just that most carbs are bad for you.

I've been on Atkins since late September, and I've lost 45 pounds.

I have more energy than I've ever had.

I don't get sick anymore.

It may not be for you, but its great for me and millions of other people.

Umm it's not just water weight. Yes you do lose water weight but it's not just. People all of a sudden don't become cut by dropping all their water weight. As for all the crap you ordered, congratulations you did everything wrong. That was generally all stuff mass produced to appeal to people in later staged of the diet. I highly doubt your candy had laxatives unless you bought them. So again, if you actually read into it and did it right...

Oh and by the way, people work out while doing this. I really find it funny to see all these chubbies who don't work out, don't get their vitamins and nutrients, just eat the high fat crap, and gorge on the "atkins candies" and expect to lose all their weight asap. And then they complain about being tired and not losing anything but water weight, why??

-Rudey

Agreed.

If you want to lose weight, do it the old-fashioned way -- count your damn calories. The time in my life where I was losing the most weight, I was eating complete trash -- doughnuts, ice cream, bagels loaded with cream cheese, grilled cheese sandwiches. I just didn't eat a lot of it. Did I lose weight? Sure, lots of it. Was it good for me? No way.

Most recent study I read compared a group of dieters on a low-fat diet and one on a low-carb diet. The low-carb group lost faster at the beginning, but actually put some of that weight back on by the end of the study. By the end each group averaged the exact same amount of weight loss. But I think it's the fact that you tend to lose fast at the beginning that keeps a lot of people on Atkins -- because they see results. And if that works for them, great. It's just not going to work for me. I've spent way too long screwing around with diets and disordered eating and exercise patterns to go on a diet that I can't live with. The most important thing for me is to make permanent changes that I can sustain.

And I'm sick of people ripping on those who drink diet Cokes with Big Macs. I mean, yeah, obviously it's not a good way to diet. But if you replace regular Coke with diet and you're drinking one can a day (lots of people drink more than one can) you're saving, what, 150 calories a day? Over a thousand calories a week? It adds up.

I agree w/ this...to an extent. I think a lot of the problem is also our lifestyle. People today are much more "on the go" than our grandparents were - it's all about convenience. Who has time for a home-cooked meal when you have to drop the kids off at soccer practice and gymnastics and piano lessons after a long day at work? It's much more convenient to just swing through the drive-through on your way home than it is to go home, cook and then clean up the mess in the kitchen.

My grandparents lived very long and healthy lives - my grandfather passed away in 2001 two weeks before his 97th birthday (my grandmother, although she is still alive at 91, is in very poor health b/c of her myastheniagravis - no clue if that's spelled right. :(). Everything they ate, they grew in their garden. For years any meat they ate (chicken, beef, pork), they slaughtered themselves. Everything that was canned, was picked from the garden and canned themselves. Every meal they ate was homecooked. Bread, dumplings, and jelly was homemade. They did not live on McD's, BK or microwave dinners. Sure, they were alive during the depression, but they continued these habits far beyond the point of not being poor anymore. It was a lifestyle that stuck w/ them.

edited for clarity

I think the idea is that we generally don't eat enough vegies in our diets. The south beach diet is good not because it makes you not eat carbs (because your body actually can't live without glucose), but becasue you are forced to eat vegetbles. You could get the same results if you simply lowered the number of calories and tried adding veggies.

It might add up but when you're inhaling your daily caloric and fat intake in one meal. It would be better if you could just stop eating the big mac and drinking regular coke.

Do what works for you. You don't see people on here telling you that your diet is wrong and how you work out is wrong. Either you're healthy or you're not. Either you're overweight or you're not. If you can be healthy and not overweight by juggling and eating fried twinkies...great.

-Rudey

Oh, and we don't have enough fiber in our diets either. veggies and high fiber foods are keys to eating well and feeling your best.

A Big Mac + a diet Coke = 600 calories, 33 fat grams. That sure as hell ain't your daily caloric intake unless you're anorexic or live in a third world country. The fat content leaves a lot to be desired but it still doesn't surpass the daily recommended limit. (The difficult part is, of course, not consuming too much more fat for the rest of the day.) A Big Mac and a large Coke, however, is 910 calories . . . that's gonna put a much more significant dent in your diet.

I'm fine with people doing Atkins -- hey, whatever works. This country's got a big obesity problem and if Atkins is going to cut back on that, great. So far, though, I've seen few reports that it has . . . maybe in the next ten years that'll change. The biggest thing about Atkins is that, like you and Rob are saying, there are too many idiots out there who don't know how to do it right. The reason why so many obese Americans claim they're obese is because there's too much conflicting diet advice out there. Whenever I hear that, it just blows my mind -- how hard can it be? Eat fewer calories and less fat, eat your fruit and veggies, do cardio 3-5 times a week and lift weights 2-3 times . . . it's not too tough. You have no idea how many times I've heard obese people say, "I've done every diet -- Atkins, South Beach, low-fat, etc. etc. etc. -- and I'm still fat." You know what most of them haven't done? Worked out. Learned about portion sizes. Learned to count calories. People like Atkins because they don't like the idea of having to cut back on food -- and lots of them think that on Atkins you can eat whatever you want as long as it's low-carb.

The only thing that bothers me about Atkins from a personal standpoint is when the food I like gets replaced at the grocery store or at restaurants with low carb versions (which usually have more fat or calories).