Ok, here’s my problem. I have given up unhealthy things for lent (i.e. the "obviously" unhealthy things like alcohol, chocolate, crisps etc etc) and now find my self with a high carbohydrate diet that I’m worried is going to make me fat.
For example, typical day is 2 bowls of cereal, a piece of unbuttered bread with tuna, a bowl of pasta and tomato sauce and apples inbetween meals.
I know this isnt big calorifically (though the bowls of crunchy nut are probably quite large…) but I’m worried that eating so many carbohydrates is going to make me fat anyway. As the Atkins diet says… Carbs are the enemy.
Is this true?
Carbs are not the enemy. Without carbs your body will feel fatigued, you will feel irritable, and overall you just won’t be yourself. You need carbs not only for daily energy, but also for your body’s functions such as digestion, blood regulation, and breathing. In fact, if you eat below 130 grams of carbs a day, it is proven that your brain can’t even function properly.
Carbs get their bad rep because, if eaten in too much excess, they can cause your body to gain more fat than if you ate too much excess protein. If eaten in insufficient amounts, the lack of carbs will have the negative effects on your body as mentioned before, and your body also goes into a "fat storing mode" because it thinks you are starving yourself.
What all this information means is that you should find a balance when eating carbs, not eating too many and not eating too few. Most dietitians recommend eating a diet consisting of 60% carbs, so if you eat about 2000 calories a day, that is about 1200 calories of carbs, or 300 grams. The other 40% should come from fats and protein, without which your body’s muscles will begin to break down. You should probably look into eating more proteins and healthy fats.
So, basically what I would recommend is to cut back a little on the carbs, and add more proteins and fats to balance everything out a little more. Here is what I do to try and balance things a little:
-It’s really hard to make yourself fat by eating fruits and veggies, so eat a lot of those if you can. I’m sure you hear it a lot, but they make a big difference in daily eating.
-Yogurt is filling and had a great amount of protein in it. It’s healthy and should keep you satisfied.
-Peanut butter sandwiches are great too. You could also eat peanut butter with vegetables or crackers if you like.
-Chicken, Turkey, Beef, and Cheese should be great too. Try looking for recipes that have one of these protein foods as the main dish. Here’s some good websites to use: http://fitnessmagazine.com and http://allrecipes.com/ . You could easily replace your dinner of pasta with one of these meals.
you shall get heart disease
References :
Who cares. The real question is: does it taste good?
References :
I’m in the same boat but I just limit my carbs like pasta and bread and instead eat lots and lots of chicken, yoghurts, some cheese, fruit and have the odd cereal bar. I don’t seem to have gained any weight at all. I need to eat lots to keep weight on in fact as I ate so much chocolate and sweets before I gave it up so I need to compensate for not eating it with lots of other foods. I tend to snack a lot as opposed to eating meals too as I’ve always been a picky eater.
References :
I highly doubt it High carb diet should be giving you added energy hence having just the opposite effect. I run and do the carb thing a day before competition runs.
References :
Atkins in right AND wrong.
Heavily processed carbs are the enemy but good healthy ones, vegetables, fruit and wholegrain sourced low processed foods are VERY good for you.
What you ate there will not have a real impact on you, especially if you under ate that day.
It’s when you consume lots of breads, cakes, sweets, softdrinks etc, on a regular basis, then too many carbs becomes a bad thing.
There’s more to it than that but that’s the bare basics of it.
References :
Mine is probably worse. Don’t worry about it. As long as your not eating unhealthy it’s fine. What I do to stay in shape and eat what I want is I workout. When I workout I make sure I sweat and my heart rate goes up. This goes on for at least 15-30 min a day.
I do cardio instead of weights as well so I don’t bulk.
References :
Well, carbohydrates become fat from the moment you eat more carbohydrates than your body needs.
Actually you should withdraw its menu and junk like candy and chips. This can be eaten as often but not frequently. since all that is good in eeds hurt.
References :
No…carbs do not make you fat! and fat doesn’t even make you fat…too many calories and not enough exercise makes people fat. but I think you need more protein in your diet. what about eating a day like this:
breakfast: scrambled eggs, low fat muffin, half grapefruit
lunch: tuna sandwich, carrot sticks, light ranch dressing dip
dinner: garden burger on 100 calorie bun w/ slice of American cheese, cooked vegetables
snacks:
apple
6oz low fat yogurt
fruit and cereal bar
homemade trail mix: raisins, cashews, peanut nuts, craisins, pretzels
celery w/ peanut butter
banana
carbohydrates are not the enemy..excess calories and not enough exercise is. a healthy balance is important!
References :
it totally depends on whether you keep exceeding your maintenance level on a regular basis-3,500 calories = 1 pound of fat,so basically if you ate 1500 cals per day,you would lose weight,just calorie count to this number and it will literally melt off….
References :
Carbs are not the enemy. Olympic athletes, soccer players and other people who rely on fitness and health eat lots of carbs. Surely they know what is best in terms of diet.
The Atkins diet will work simply because if you stop people eating carbs you stop them eating doughnuts, crisps, chips, hamburgers, toffees, cake, pizza, kebabs, hot dogs, nachos and many other unhealthy foods. The Atkins simply states it as ‘don’t eat carbohydrates’ and makes a lot of money from people who would rather buy books and follow fad diets than eat healthily and exercise.
The maths is simple. If you eat more calories than you burn you will get fatter. Period. It doesn’t matter if they are carbs, proteins, fats or even low-fat-tofu-sandwiches.
The best way is to eat a balanced diet with protein, carbs like brown rice, brown pasta and whole-wheat bread and plenty of fruits and veg. If you want to snack eat fruit, dried or fresh, nuts and grains and drink plenty of water. If you exercise a little too you should stay fit and just as importantly feel healthy.
References :
Carbs are not the enemy. Without carbs your body will feel fatigued, you will feel irritable, and overall you just won’t be yourself. You need carbs not only for daily energy, but also for your body’s functions such as digestion, blood regulation, and breathing. In fact, if you eat below 130 grams of carbs a day, it is proven that your brain can’t even function properly.
Carbs get their bad rep because, if eaten in too much excess, they can cause your body to gain more fat than if you ate too much excess protein. If eaten in insufficient amounts, the lack of carbs will have the negative effects on your body as mentioned before, and your body also goes into a "fat storing mode" because it thinks you are starving yourself.
What all this information means is that you should find a balance when eating carbs, not eating too many and not eating too few. Most dietitians recommend eating a diet consisting of 60% carbs, so if you eat about 2000 calories a day, that is about 1200 calories of carbs, or 300 grams. The other 40% should come from fats and protein, without which your body’s muscles will begin to break down. You should probably look into eating more proteins and healthy fats.
So, basically what I would recommend is to cut back a little on the carbs, and add more proteins and fats to balance everything out a little more. Here is what I do to try and balance things a little:
-It’s really hard to make yourself fat by eating fruits and veggies, so eat a lot of those if you can. I’m sure you hear it a lot, but they make a big difference in daily eating.
-Yogurt is filling and had a great amount of protein in it. It’s healthy and should keep you satisfied.
-Peanut butter sandwiches are great too. You could also eat peanut butter with vegetables or crackers if you like.
-Chicken, Turkey, Beef, and Cheese should be great too. Try looking for recipes that have one of these protein foods as the main dish. Here’s some good websites to use: http://fitnessmagazine.com and http://allrecipes.com/ . You could easily replace your dinner of pasta with one of these meals.
References :
I’ve done lots of research in this field.
GOOD LUCK!
Did you give up vegs?? You want to give up unhealthy chuck the flour products – cereal, bread & pasta.
Fat won’t make you fat, but low fat, high carb diet sure will.
As long as you have <9grams carbs per hour, you will maintain insulin control & shouldn’t gain weight, no matter the calories because insulin, the fat storage hormone is not activated.
You can lose more body fat eating protein & fat (don’t eat protein alone) than not eating AT ALL. To lose weight fast, eat all you want, but nothing but meat, eggs, healthy oils, mayo, butter & half an avocado a day (for added potassium). Keep the calories high & the fat percentage high, at least 65% of calories. Green vegetables & some cheese will continue weight loss but at a slower pace.
The first 2 weeks eat several cups a day of (mostly) lettuce & celery, cucumbers, radishes, mushrooms, peppers & more variety of vegetables thereafter – add 5 grams per day additional every week (20 grams day first 2 weeks, 25grams 3rd week, 30grams 4th week etc) til you gain weight, then subtract 10grams. That will be your personal carb level (everyone is different & depends on how active you are.)
Start with meat, fats & salads for 2 weeks and then slowly add in more green veg, wk4 fresh cheeses, wk5 nuts & seeds, wk6 berries, wk7 legumes, wk8 other fruits, wk9 starchy veg, wk10 whole grains. You will learn how your body reacts to different foods.
The first week is just water weight but fat is lost thereafter if you keep your calories high enough. Otherwise the body will strip it’s own lean tissue for nutrition. Although that may look great on a scale it will make it MUCH easier to accumulate fat in the future (since all that pesky lean tissue burning up calories will be gone). The body won’t release fat stores if you lower calories below what it needs. It will slow metabolism to compensate & store every spare ounce as fat. If you continue lowering calories, it will continue lowering the set point, til it can survive off nothing & store fat on anything. The body will only release it’s fat stores if it knows there is plenty of nutritious food.
Eating carbs while trying to lose body fat is terribly inefficient. When in glycolysis (burning glucose as fuel) you have to lower your calories (which slows your metabolism) & exercise heavily to deplete your glycogen stores before burning body fat.
The core of Atkins program is converting the body from glycolysis (burning glucose as fuel) to ketosis (burning fat as fuel). Dietary fat levels need to be at >65% of total calories, if not, the body will still remain in glycolysis by converting 58% of excess protein into glucose (via gluconeogenesis).
It takes minimum of 3 days to convert a body to ketosis, (but only one bite to convert back to glycolysis). People feel sluggish the first week but most feel better than ever thereafter.
Simple carbohydrates (sugar, flour, bread, cereal, pasta, potatoes, rice) trigger the fat storage hormone insulin. The more protein the more the fat burning hormone glucagon is released.
Simple carbs are addictive & can be disastrous to health. The best way to break the addiction is NO carbs for 3 days. Make a huge batch of deviled eggs, eat one every time you want "something" – have huge omelets with bacon, sausage, peppers, mushrooms & cheese. Pork chops smothered with peppers, mushrooms & cheese – pork rinds & dip or tuna/chicken/turkey/egg salad – steaks – a huge sugar free cheese cake. Eat so much you won’t feel deprived of anything. By the 4th day, the addiction will be gone & you can start making healthy choices.
High insulin levels promote inflammation, weight gain, hunger & unbalance other hormones. Controlling insulin levels will balance out other hormones & allow human growth hormone (HGH) to be produced naturally so lean muscle will be gained even without exercise.
Ground flax seed (2 Tbsp) 1/4 cup water, artificial sweetener, mix in a raw egg – let sit 10 min. to absorb liquid, put some cream cheese in the middle & nuke 2 min for daily fiber needs.
Many people gain weight on high carb, do low carb to lose weight & then are shocked when they return to high carb & gain weight. Many people can return to moderate carb levels but very few can really eat all they want of sugar & maintain weight or health.
I am adamantly opposed to low calorie dieting because most people lose a good portion of lean tissue (including vital organs like the heart) along with fat stores. There is no nutrition in fat stores, only energy. Most people get impatient and lower their calories and increase their exercise to a point where they lose so much lean tissue that when they return to what was maintenance level eating they are now accumulating more fat stores because their caloric needs have dropped due to the loss of this tissue as well as their metabolism slowing down to work more efficiently on fewer calories & it becomes a vicious cycle of dieting and more lo
References :
Dr.Atkins was a cardiologist, low carb was a health plan easier sold as a "diet" Read any of his books for easily understandable science. Normalizing blood pressure, blood sugar, insulin, cholesterol, triglyercerides & hormone levels are all bonus features of doing a low carb way of eating. Lutz "Life without Bread" & Taubes "Good calories, Bad calories" are excellent books that dispel all the nutrition myths.
http://www.atkins.com/Program/Phase1/WhatYouCanEatinthisPhase.aspx
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/07/07/magazine/what-if-it-s-all-been-a-big-fat-lie.html
low carb recipe websites -
http://forum.lowcarber.org/forumdisplay.php?f=2
http://www.lowcarbfriends.com/bbs/low-carb-recipes-menus/
http://www.genaw.com/lowcarb/recipes.html