Lchf?????

[1eah0livia]

I was just wondering if anybody follows the lchf diet and what tips and advice anybody has. Thank you x

[Penel]

Hi Leah

Like Concerned I follow a lowish carb, full fat diet. The best advice is probably to lower your carb intake gradually, otherwise you can feel a bit rubbish (low carb flu).

If you are going to try this way of eating you may find that you need to cook most of your meals from scratch, as you will need to cut out all products containing sugar.

Don't be tempted by the commercially produced low-carb products as they are just another form of junk food.

Everyone has their own level of carb/fat balance, so you may have to experiment a little to get it right. There is a lot of information out there, this is one place to start.

dietdoctor.com/lchf

This is a site with useful information on carb levels.

authoritynutrition.com/how-...

Good luck, if you go ahead. The low carb diet has stopped my husband from developing type 2 diabetes, and helped us both lose weight, so for us it's a way of life.

[1eah0livia in reply to Penel]

Thank you for your reply! I read about bloating to start off with and read about dropping carb intake and that lead to reading about a low carb high fat lifestyle. I can't get my head around the high fat part as it just seems wrong! I have always had a sweet tooth and have always loved bread, pasta, potatoes etc and over the last few years ive started having to watch my weight but struggle by just counting calories. I'm seriously thinking of giving it a go, it just sounds wrong to be allowed sausage and cheese on a cocktail stick as a snack.

[Penel in reply to 1eah0livia]

Not sure that I could eat too much sausage and cheese!

Perhaps just try cutting out the sugar and cutting down on the foods made from flour? Balance your carb intake with the amount of exercise you do.

The basic idea behind it, is to eat food that hasn't been processed or refined, so it includes things like butter and olive oil.

There's a lot of info out there! Do some research and see what you think. Good luck.

[1eah0livia in reply to Penel]

Thank you penel, I will x

[1eah0livia]

Hi there! I'm seriously thinking of giving it a go but as I said earlier, the amount of fat just seems wrong as I guess we have been brainwashed to believe too much fat us no good for us. I'm going to keep reading up and sleep on it for a couple is day's and change gradually and see what happens.

[OlsBean]

I follow the LCHF lifestyle.

For me it's all about the satiety it brings after maintaining for well over a year by continuing to eat a healthy but carbohydrate rich diet just left me feeling hungry all the time, which meant I had employ a moderate level of will power each day just to maintain. I decided I had to try something else as I did not want to revert to what I was pre-weight loss and looking to the future I just could not work out how I was realistically going to continue it for the rest of my life, as I was also having to do insane levels of cardio each day.

I started researching the myths and facts behind both sides of the argument about Fat, satisfied myself personally that it's healthy to eat more saturated fat and I switched to the LCHF way of eating 12 months ago and so far hand on my heart I have not looked back, it works very well for me, it may not work for someone else but it does work for me I think the fact I had been on a long weight-loss journey of several years before hand, stood me in good stead, so I was disciplined, fairly knowledgeable and organised with my eating, this helped tremendously with the change because the thing with LCHF is if you are using it for weight control, there is very very little room to cheat. If you are eating reasonable levels of Fat and you throw some unplanned rich carbohydrate into the mix you then create from your metabolisms point of view the perfect bio-chemical environment to drive some pretty big fat storage numbers.

For success as well as cutting carbohydrate, you have to moderate protein (important) and eating high levels of fat without the protein is by far the hardest part to achieve in my personal opinion, this takes some practice as it's not all about just eating Steaks, Bacon and Chicken.

It's not a one size fits all type of diet either as different people are able to eat different levels of Carbohydrate daily and still stay "Fat Adaptive", it can depend on Sex, Age, Activity Level, Genetics and Metabolic Health/Damage. Also intolerances to food can play a part, something like Dairy can be a great source of fat but lots of people are intolerant (though they may not realise) to one degree or another and this can raise Blood Sugar and therefore insulin, especially with milk. Personally I don't seem to have an issue with dairy thankfully. I've found I can also eat things like porridge oats (which I do a few times a week) and be back in Ketosis a few hours later, so I guess that means I am now quite fat adaptive.

Contrary to popular belief you don't have less energy with limited carbohydrate (if you are doing it correctly) I run regularly and I also do an Elevated Sprint workout which requires a considerable burst of energy and I've not noticed a difference in my energy levels or performance. Eating more fat does not make you necessarily fatter either, (once again if done correctly) a much larger percentage of my diet is now fat and my Fat Composition (as accurately as I can measure it) is below 10% (I am a man though).

Anyway it's something worth trying but it does take some work initially but like lots of things it does become easier the longer you are doing it.

Good Luck.

[1eah0livia in reply to OlsBean]

Thank you for your reply. I'm still at the research stage however I don't feel that a lchf is for me! Im thinking that I'm just going to cut out sugar, chocolate, processed foods, potatoes and eat only small amounts of my homemade wholemeal bread. I feel having to check that balancing my levels of carbs, fat and protein is focusing too much on food. I'm going to watch my portion sizes and see how it goes. I have always followed a low fat diet and have lived off weight watchers food in the past and I've learnt a lot about low fat products and how harmful they are. I'm thinking of only eating stuff that's been interfered with as little as possible. I've turned over half my lawn to grow veg, brought a greenhouse for salad and stated making my own butter. I live in the middle of nowhere and it's hilly so that's my exercise! Who knows lol.......... good luck in your journey!

[OlsBean in reply to 1eah0livia]

Sounds like a plan, I don't think you can go far wrong with having "Eat Only Real Food" at the heart of your Mantra.

Good Luck

[teri54 6lbs]

HI I follow the LCHF keeping my carbs below 50g,like you at first felt a bit sceptical but 2 1/2 stone lighter and not feeling hungry.I found it difficult at first to eat butter and cream,so I changed my diet over 3-4 weeks I will cook salmon with a small portion of butter and single cream to coffee.The one thing Im pleased about is I have found a low carb bread called Hi-Lo it lasts for 2 weeks in the fridge but you can only get it in sainsburys. Also you need to lookat the carb intake and take the fibre count off to get the total carbs,for an accurate measure.hope this helps good luck from reading futher down they have given you sites with further info......