I have dabbled in LCHF and found I generally feel better on this way of eating...I have IBS that is triggered by carbs. I have been tested for coeliacs but thankfully do not have this.
How do you maintain this lifestyle long term? I can do it for a bit then find I go off the rails and on carb frenzy!
Also, my breath become so bad on LFHC, my boyfriend comments on it when I am doing it. I make sure I clean my teeth twice a day and have also bought breath spray but it doesn't seem to combat it. Does anyone else have this and how do you combat it?
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NoMoreJunk
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I've been low carb for 3 years now and have gone from being a carb junkie, to not bothering about them at all. I've found that the memory of them far exceeds the reality of them, but I have to say, I'm strict with myself. I don't have 'days off', because I don't want to return to the person I used to be, just the same as I don't have the odd cigarette, as a treat. Addiction is addiction.
The bad breath isn't great, but it does pass and it's a heck of a lot better than obesity! I think it's a price worth paying
I have it on good authority my breath was (and is) OK on low-carb, so I can't really offer any suggestions. Just wondering if maybe you're eating too much meat? I occasionally get bad breath after a meat-heavy meal, and occasionally it turns out to be inadequate flossing!
The carb frenzy might just be hunger. Make sure you're eating enough fat - you really do need quite a lot, especially during the first few weeks. It takes some getting used to, especially if you've spent years doing low-fat, but it's imperative you give your body enough fuel.
Incidentally, the reported remission of IBS on low-carb is quite phenomenal. It's incredibly common; I personally know someone who used to get terrible intestinal pain and cramps on a carb-based diet, which disappeared within days on LCHF. I wonder how many other people are suffering needlessly...
LCHF is best understood in grams. It gets very confusing if you try to frame it as ratios.
You should be getting an absolute minimum of 1200kCal/day from fat, so 120g+. Aim for 150-200g. It's virtually impossible to eat too much fat - you'll get sick of it long before you "eat too many calories".
Protein isn't critical, but for most people 0.6g per kg is fine. I've seen other recommendations as low as 0.4g/kg. So if your bodyweight is 100kg (for the sake of argument) then you want 60g/day, possibly a bit less. Make sure it's split between multiple meals (your body isn't good at assimilating large amounts of protein in a single hit). Any more than that is superfluous unless you're also doing intense workouts.
Carbs .. well, for obvious reasons, less is better. 25g will reliably keep you in ketosis, 100g is weight-maintenance level.
Everything else on your plate will be water and fibre.
It does sound like a lot, but it's actually easier than you'd think. For example 4 small rashers of bacon, two fried eggs, and a cup of coffee with cream is about 40g of fat already. And that's just breakfast.
oh - don't know why it hasn't come up as a blue link.
It's important to me as I don't eat 3 meals a day (altho I have started eating at least 2x50g of cheese when I'm in during the day just to get the grams up)
PS I've managed average fat to carb ratio of 85g - 18g over past 2 weeks but only by force-feeding e.g. mascarpone last thing at night and adding daft amounts of olive oil to stews!
It's a very good article. I agree with everything there.
The problem with an online forum is that you can't give detailed answers. If you go off on a long explanation in response to a simple question people just get bored and stop reading, so it's best to just boil it down to the essentials.
Any normal person will get enough protein from two meals a day, (a) because the daily requirement is so small and (b) for the reasons explained in the article - I wasn't suggesting that we should all eat five meals a day. I was really just saying that Mr Average will get the most benefit for the least expenditure by not (for example) having no protein for breakfast and then a big glut of it for dinner, although the article points up a study that suggests this might not be always true.
As with most things diet-related, it's complicated. There's a lot of statistical variation in the way different people handle nutrients, and it varies again depending on exactly what you're eating with what. The "split your protein up" meme is simply conservative advice that works for everyone, even in the worst case.
Me personally, I find that I can't gain muscle mass on only two meals a day ... which is my standard habit on low-carb. I have to eat three or four, which is a bit of a pain, but it's the only thing that works. Of course, if one isn't aiming for muscle gains then it all gets a lot easier
How's your progress so far? I must say, I don't think I'd have much of a problem being "force fed" mascarpone
Thanks as usual for informative reply. Mascarpone mashed up with blueberries and/or raspberries is infinitely better than on its own so I bought some (still resisting bananas tho).
I'm reaching the opinion that keto isn't for me - just too many things I don't like or cant eat to sustain as a lifestyle - which is what I want. That said, I'm still sticking to low carb, trying to increase protein to at least 60g a day and will also try to increase fat even more but it's hard work!
I lost 1.6 kilos in the last week (which starts on a Thursday as that's the day I came out of hospital 10 weeks ago). Total loss 13.8kg and I only started recording macros 3 weeks ago so previous new lifestyle cant have all been bad!
I think I might allow myself up to 50g carbs on a day if I feel like it (e.g. our local football team has its first match of the season on Sunday so a beer or 3 might be in order - at 7.7g each!). I also really miss milk and fruit - hence the berries - and a slice of toast and marmite!
As usual I'll end with a question which I need to use calories to explain. My calorie intake averages say 1300 daily and my exercise levels since I started have been pretty consistent and would be hard to increase by much consistently. My metabolic rate goes down as I lose weight so I'll need less calories to do the same and the calorie deficit will keep declining, so I will stop losing weight when the figures are even - true so far? So if as a continuing lifestyle I managed to eat even more fat and therefore the calories go up surely I put on weight? Sorry not sure if I've explained that very well!
But yeah ... get your carbs up a bit. Eating 'keto' just gets boring after a while. 50g a day gives you so many other options. Milk, fruit, and beer (occasionally) at this point in your trajectory are fine. I'd be miserable without my daily latte! I've never been a fan of toast, but I do like an occasional croissant.
I wouldn't fret too much about the fat content. The point of the induction phase is to get your appetite working correctly. If you currently feel uncomfortable adding more fat content, just trust your appetite: you've probably got it right already. Remember, a lot of your daily calories are coming from bodyfat (that is, after all, the whole point!). 1300kCal/day from food might sound low, but at your rapid rate of weight loss you're probably burning through 2000+kCal/day, of which maybe 700kCal/day from bodyfat.
>> So if as a continuing lifestyle I managed to eat even more fat and therefore the calories go up surely I put on weight?
The causality is in the other direction, because the calories-in/calories-out balance is controlled almost entirely by your body's internal homeostatic mechanisms. As your body approaches what it believes is your correct bodyfat ratio, your appetite for fat will increase slightly. That is, you'll be driven to obtain more calories from food because you have less available in fat storage. However, as you correctly said, your requirement for energy will have decreased (not quite the same as a 'slower metabolism' - this relates to metabolic efficiency rather than total energy demand). So the increase in fat-appetite will be pretty minor.
You will stop losing when your body decides it's right to do so. If it "thinks" you need fewer calories, your appetite will decline (and your appetite for certain foods), but it will never ask for "too many calories" ever again; it will be quite literally impossible to get fat as long as you maintain a modest carb intake.
My experience is that there's a direct linear correlation between final bodyfat ratio (the point at which your bodyweight stabilizes after a period of weight loss or gain) and dietary carbs. If you were to stick to your keto diet, you'd only stop losing weight at 15-20% bodyfat (which is about where you get visible abs). At 100g carbs/day you might bottom out at 20-25%. Women regularly consuming 300, 400g carbs/day maintain at 30+%. Consider: most fat people aren't getting fatter, at least not at any rapid rate. They're just "maintaining" at a very high bodyfat ratio.
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