The title means Low Carbohydrate High Fat / Intermittent fasting. Both are ways of eating that can help people loose weight without the need to count calories or eat less and without the need to go hungry. Both ways of eating can also help to ease several health conditions. IF and LCHF work very well together as the aims for the body are similar… and LCHF tends to make it easier to go for longer periods without a meal.
As there are quite a few people using the weight loss forum who already eat this way, and maybe some who would like to give it go, I wondered if a post to discuss these ways of eating would be useful. I was inspired by Hopalong1 ’s boot camp posts.
Thought this might be a useful place to share recipes, meal photos, progress updates, struggles, question about LCHF or IF, information, and also the potential risks and disadvantages of this way of eating….
If you are new to this way of eating and want to find out some background information the Dietdoctor website is a really useful place to start;
Yay, awesome post, Professor-Yaffle! Check this out Lytham Progressoverperfect Hidden Momo53 harii amykp Scaffie Rusty15 Hidden just1me JiminyCricket Grigid lovefabric jennilou EveryoneKnows
I try to eat at the lower end of low carb, below 50g carbs per day, 30g if I can. I eat once or twice a day. Finding the cravings for food are less in this way of eating. Although people say there is no calorie counting just eating when hungry, I do track my calories/macros from time to time.
Try to avoid bread, potatoes, rice and pasta, root veg, pulses, legumes, fruit(eating berries), milk. What can you eat? Yes to meat, skin, fish, eggs, cheese, butter, cream and above ground veg.
Some cracking recipes there. I’m a massive fan of the courgette bread. It’s really nice toasted!!! Please send photos. I’ll be interested to hear your thoughts on the brownies. I love a brownie but have never tried to make Keto ones. I’m a bit stuck in berries and clotted cream as a low carb dessert for a special occasion, but I think I should start being more adventurous.
I try to stick with under 20g carbs in the week but I no longer count anything, so it’s just guesstimating really; I could be eating more or less than 20g on any day. In the week I don’t eat things that are over 5g per 100g of carbs and I presume that keeps me pretty low. At the weekend I let things go a bit more … maybe trying to stick under 50g but actually ending up under 100g.
I saw on the boot camp post that you were thinking of increasing your fasted periods a little - will be interested to hear how it goes.
Pretty much every week I do a 24-48 hour fast (usually from Sunday night to either Monday or Tuesday evening) and it’s got so much easier as I have got into the habit more. I don’t water fast though, I do have decaf coffee and tea, sometimes with a bit of double cream.
Looking forward to more low carb chat this month. 🫒🥚🍗🥥🥑🥩🐟🥦🧀🧀
I am eating 23:1 five days a week and a bigger window for eating 2-4 hours on two days. I have done a 50/60 hour mimicking fast with bone broth, but my doctor had a cow. I have medicine that has to be fairly constant in the blood. I have enough success with 23:1.
My loaf is just cooling so I will toast it and have a sandwich tomorrow, cheese and tomato is in my dreams. I have to confess I pinched the recipe off your page 🙂🙂 All the best x
I imagine 23:1 is beneficial enough. It’s a pattern that works really well I think and is quite sustainable.
I only really extend my fasts beyond 24 hours if I don’t feel like eating or I’m too busy. Monday is a busy day for me and I started fasting longer by simply not having time for dinner really.
I’m a big fan of bone broth and about once a month turn my kitchen into a bone broth factory - then i freeze it in portions. It’s really economical to buy the bones and carcasses and make it yourself - but it is quite time consuming and also I think probably expensive on the energy bills as it needs to stay on the hob a long time. You can often get quite a lot of meat off of bones and caracsses too so it’s a very cheap way to get extra protein. Free range and or organic chicken carcasses are relatively cheap and I get enough meat off each of about 1.5 - 2 meals.
Having said that I also love the ease of a pre-made bone broth and I like the ones they add a bit of chilli or lemongrass or rosemary or whatever. Do you buy or make yours?
As a relative newbie to LCHF, I am moderate low carb with a 80-100g limit. I can live without bread, but do struggle with pasta! As runner who is steadily increasing distance ( I have a 16.3 mile race in October I'm currently training for) what should I be fuelling my runs with? My weekend long run is done in the morning and I don't eat anything beforehand. ( long runs are anything from 8 -15 miles) my midweek runs are usually done in the evening where I tend to have salad and a protein ( usually ham,cheese and egg) early afternoon. Any advice / recipes would be greatly appreciated 😊
I’m going to call my low carb week days and medium carb weekend days carb cycling from now on. Makes me sound like an athlete when in fact it’s actually all about drinking wine on Friday and Saturday so need a higher carb limit. 😂
Completely agree. I like wine because it loosens me up but being too loosened-up can be a problem.
If I’m planning to have wine I try to have low carb things like boiled eggs and cold meat or fish around and ready to eat… better for a late night snack than the massive volume of cheese I would other wise be wolfing down. I also eat a greater quantity of food for dinner if I’m having wine with it. Doesn’t always work for staying on track but often it does.
Long distance running and very low carb diets seems to be much debated topic…. I just did a google. If you google “Keto long distance runnning” there are lots of people sharing experiences.
I do find I can exercise ok without carbs but these days I don’t run loads and if I do seldom more than 5km - my knees are a bit buggered. When I was running on a more regular basis I would often run better fasted i.e before my first meal of the day. But I suspect this is quite a person thing. I like feeling emptier when I’m running and don’t seem to struggle with energy.
In theory if your body is used to running off fat rather than carbohydrate then a low carb diet should increase you ability to run for longer because your liver will run out of carbs much quicker than your body will run out of fat.
In practice I don’t suppose it always works like this. Stuff online seems to suggest that if you are used to eating carbs then going very low carb whilst training it will make it quite difficult…. but if you were not used to eating so many carbs and your body is running mainly from fat/ your body can switch to fat more readily, then a low carb diet may help your running.
Thanks for this, Prof, great idea. I did keep an eye on Hopalong1 's Boot camp and felt bad for not joining in but I need to know I'm in the right frame of mind to commit to something, and I wasn't then.
Up for giving this a go - to a certain extent. When I discovered LCHF, one big part of that was eating when you're hungry, stopping when you're full/ I find that a more intuitive approach than IF in the sense of setting certain hours/ I discovered I'm not hungry in the morning so I don't eat until 1-2pm. I have a couple of coffees when I get up. I eat in the evening between 7 and 8. That's my usual pattern.
I don't count anything. I find Diet Doctor's visual low carb guides very useful and aim for the LC end of the scale in each food group.
TheTabbyCat 's mother-in-law's bolognese/ragu is a huge favourite of mine -though sometimes I do add some extras like chopped peppers and mushrooms and herbs - she'll be turning in her grave healthunlocked.com/weight-l... I make a huge pot and freeze it in portions. Tonight I had it with shredded butter cabbage and topped with shaved Parmesan. It was delicious, as ever.
Your eating window is actually less than the 16/8 with your 18/6 window. I tend to eat lunch around 12 and dinner around 4ish which makes it 20/4 but my HUGE salads take about an hour to munch through! X lol
“shredded butter cabbage and topped with shaved Parmesan” is like poetry for my stomach. I think i sometime forget about cabbage as a base for meals and rely too heavily on cauliflower, broccoli and spinach. Before the month is out I’m going to make some cabbage spaghetti. Thanks.
Cauliflower is my favourite veg but cabbage is very versatile.
I've also been reminded on the DD of cabbage thoran: I have some coconut in the freezer so I shall resurrect a recipe for that, probably something along these lines maunikagowardhan.co.uk/cook...
I like beetroot too, and have a bunch so that will raise my carb level. I love roast root veg, just don't have them too often
Hopalong1 thanks for the heads up I've done 16:8 ,I.F a few times and it has worked for me. I'm going to do the 72 hr at the end of the month. We'll try it's the full autophagy reset. I know there are benefits from 4-8 hrs on but it's like a deep clean xx
I’ve fasted for 4-5 days a few time before - I never done a strict water fast as I have decaf coffee every morning and sometimes in the evenings I have bone broth, a cup of hot salty water or half a teaspoon of marmite dissolved in water. I continue to take medication and supplements too.
I do sometimes have quite a bit of gastrointestinal distress when I start eating solid food again. I find broth helps so I now drink quite a lot of broth on the last day of any fast and then solid food the next day at lunchtime but gentle stuff - then I usually have a normal ish dinner. This has helped a bit but I do sometime still get discomfort. Foods that others recommend for “re feeding” often don’t work out well for me so I just experiemented. Strange things like chicken livers and peanut butter seem to be ok in my empty stomach but other things like vegetable soup or tomatoes cause some bother. Iv’e never been able to make sense of any of it TBH.
I reckon your right though that very small portions are important to start with.
A 72-hour fast doesn’t take just 3 days, it takes 4.5 days. That’s because you want to reintroduce foods carefully to avoid stomachaches afterward.The rule of thumb is to take the number of days you fasted and divide it by two. That’s the number of days you should still be careful with eating, particularly with simple carbohydrates, before resuming your normal diet. From article I read Professor-Yaffle xx
Thanks MaidMarion. Yes good advice. I take slightly less time and it’s mostly ok… I like to get plenty of protein back in my diet quite quickly. I don’t eat simple carbohydrates in my usual life so going from Keto-ish to fasted back to Keto-ish is probably quite a bit easier on my tummy and blood sugar/insulin levels . I think a bit of broth every other evening or every evening helps to keep the tummy online a little more so it’s not such a stark restart with solid food. Although apparently broth is enough to halt autophagy - and it sounds like that’s one of your aims?
Yes we are doing the 72 hrs fir full autophagy, doing a 24 stint just to see how we go, as I said I've never done it but I'll try my damdest and see what I can achieve love your name by the way. Big fan of bagpuss xx
I still watch Bagpuss on YouTube sometimes, I remember all the songs that the little mice sing 😂
Great work! I love Jason Fung’s philosphy, give it a go and if you feel you need to eat then just eat. I found the not eating bit easier than i was expecting and I did get the strange mental clarity that people rave about online too ….
As MaidMarion and I are chatting about long fasts, for anyone not familiar with the topic I feel the need to have a disclaimer to balance things out; Long fasting is probably not recommend for quite a lot of different people and it’s probably not something one can comfortably or safely dive into without practicing a bit of intermittent fasting or low carb eating first. Check with your doctor first too - it’s not safe with some health conditions. It’s not usually safe for people who have disordered eating (binge eating or under eating type behaviours) or a history of diagnosed eating disorder as it can make these patterns worse. It’s hard to do if you have children in your household because you risk sending un-useful messages about food. On the other hand… Intermittent fasting usually reaps a lot of the same benefits as long fasting and it’s less disruptive, most people probably wouldn’t need to go beyhond intermittent fasting for blood sugar regulation/weight loss. dietdoctor.com/intermittent...
To be honest Yaffle , I had read both your post and the replies that came after it and was concerned that no disclaimers had been added from the beginning.I believe that it would be more helpful if you added the caveats about checking whether this type of dieting is appropriate for your health conditions and medical treatments with your GP ,and the appropriate health charity websites ,before beginning any diet on your original post.
This is especially important for diets that involve more extreme reductions of carbs and intermittent fasting.
Although these diets can be suitable for limited periods for the generally healthy members of the population, there are many groups whom can become ill by choosing these diets without guidance. Especially if they are new to their illnesses or medications.
I realise this is a forum to encourage weight loss for all, and the specifics for each individual health issue can't be added to every post.
But this forum is used by many people with health issues who have little or no experience about the need to take care with their weight loss options.
In fact, people are often encouraged to look at the forum by health care providers whom may not realise that these warnings are not be included in many posts on here and would not recommend many of the options that are discussed in general by forum members for their individual patients.
Often many people with chronic health issues can be desperate to loose weight to help their health , and will just take advice and links without doing any further checks which could cause them harm because they don't realise that ; what is a miracle for one person , could be a curse for another.
This is why any post recommending a diet type , especially one that includes links ,or is encouraging people to join a forum led diet, like Boot Camp, should always include the advice that people need to be checked by their GP before beginning a diet and check if a diet plan is suitable for their individual medical needs before starting it.
I'm really not a grouch , and I truly support everybody's efforts in making positive dietary changes and achieving their weight loss goals.
Yet, I know that it's important for us all to be responsible in the way we advice others and diligent about our warnings. Just so people are safe in their choices.
I hadn’t meant for this post to become about longer fasts, rather just IF and LCHF, which is why I added the bit about risks because I wouldn’t particularly advocate long fasting - although it does work quite well for me, used sporadically. However I also don’t see the harm in replying to people and sharing personal experiences about longer fasts. I am conscious of what you say about vulnerable people using these forums though which is why I have seldom ever talked about longer fasting without a linked reference to eating disorders.
I could say the same things you have said above to people following very low calorie eating plans and discussing it here. Or people who eat a diet of processed food and discuss it online more generally. There’s potential psychological and bodily risks in these situations too, for people with or without prior illness. In fact there are risks attached to all sorts of different ways of eating whether they are commonly thought of as “fads” or not. Does that mean we shouldn’t discuss eating at all without a disclaimer? It’s an interesting question. My understanding is that the whole sight is sort of generally disclaimed anyway because it’s just for discussion?
Of course you are completely correct that the discussion of things like fasting, which is arguable pretty extreme (and I’m conscious some people would think the act of skipping breakfast daily is also relatively extreme) should proceed very cautiously.
Many people would believe that the whole concept of weighing and publishing weight loss is dangerous in a world where eating disorders are hugely on the increase. Part of me agrees with this but part of me also knows that here are lots of people doing just that and it’s presumably mostly to their benefit.
Personally, sometimes in the modern world, I do wish that people would just presume a common sense disclaimer about everything they are exposed to …. But you are right that this is not the case and perhaps I haven’t taken the need for caution so seriously as I should. So I do take onboard your points.
There are lots of posts in the weight loss forum discussing different ways of eating. And lots of people here already safely following a LCHF and/or IF way of eating and this post was primarily meant as a discussion place for those people to join together and share. Obviously other’s may read too….. With hindsight I would remove the line in my original post about others who might want to give it go…. But I won’t remove it now or the flow of this conversation won’t make sense. However, I have edited the post to say that we should also discuss the potential risks of this way of eating, that feels constructive and useful to me. So obviously feel free to post more about the risks if you feel moved to.
I think we need to take it as read that if a member has a specific health concern and needs to lose weight, they should discuss their options with a member of their health care team. It would be very cumbersome if every post suggesting a particular approach to weight loss came with a disclaimer. The opening post does refer to 'potential risks and disadvantages' so there is scope for those to be raised.
Fasting isn't for me, though I know many find it effective. My only reservation is when someone is praised for fasting/extended fasting. It's simply a choice and doesn't call for approval or disapproval
To have any social life in the UK it is difficult to keep to any complex eating plan. After hiatus hernia operation and gall bladder removal I have to be careful what I eat . Loads of fat is a no no and I need things like porridge and brown carbs for my digestive system . What I concentrate on is unprocessed and plenty of fruit , veg and I rarely eat anything with the words 'low fat' on them . I have maintained an 18kg weight loss for over 5 years except after surgery when I piled on 5kg - now lost as back to Zumba , swimming . Tried running but hated it so do long walks . Aged 63 I do have to be cautious about restrictive eating .I work long hours too . I am sure it would also be easier if I worked from home but mainly I don't .
Boot Camp ran for two weeks last month, following a group in Weigh In wanting to reduce sugar, biscuits, brownies, doughnuts, alcohol, milk chocolate and support each other. There was interest in LCHF and the Admin staff provided some links and guidance. Thank you for your concern.
As a Newbie to LC/HF I am finding it easier than I thought. With the heads up from Hopalong I am getting loads of info from dietdoctor.com. Only on my 4th day but doing fine so far.
I have had mainly berries bacon eggs tomatoes, peppers, mushrooms plenty of green salad and veg. Steak, chicken, ham cheeseand cream. I did a chicken casserole last night. I enjoy salads at this time of year. I don't eat much fruit but I like my berries and vegetables, I am still finding my way around LC/HF I was counting calories before but had reached a plateau. I have seen some great recipes I intend to try when I get chance but I have a busy time ahead of me.
Here’s a side discussion. Lot’s of LCHF followers have a little dash of double cream in hot drinks. I have been experimenting recently with Matcha tea with a small amount of full fat cream cheese instead of a dash of milk or cream. Also hot chocolate (100% cocoa), made primarily with water but with a little bit of full fat sour cream. Both add different flavours and textures. I realise these combos would probably make some people 🤮
I see that some people have butter or MCT oil in hot drinks. I’ve never tried either. But would be interested to hear from those who have….
I’m just ordering some cocoa fat as I’ve read that a tiny bit is nice dissolved in a matcha tea.
I don’t add sweeteners but there are plenty of low carb friendly ones… my understanding is that erythritol is a popular choice?
I have drunk bulletproof coffee with cream and butter. It was tasty, it worked, filled a gap in fasting and I lost weight. But now I drink black tea and coffee and herbal tea, water too. I follow Eat like a bear on Facebook and their founder, Amanda Rose, promotes burning the fat on the body, rather than added fat in bpc or fat bombs. Amanda also says if you want dessert then you haven't eaten enough salad. I am not quite as strict as Amanda, but have learnt a great deal from her eating model, one or two meals a day.
I got this dish from Keto Clarity book by Jimmy Moore with Dr Eric Westman published 2014. There is a 21 day kick start keto meal plan in the back of the book which I have found helpful. Truly this book blew my mind when I first read it, talking about diseases that could be alleviated by eating low carb.
It wasn’t too bad - I had slow cooked the pork in a splash of wine and some water before crisping it up so it was still quite tender in the middle, but still a bit more crispy than I would have liked on the outside.
The blob on the salad is a slice of burrata - very runny mozzarella type cheese with virtually no carbs- I thought it was needed something runny with the overcooked pork.
Hi sweetie I've done it on and off for a while but I've kickstarted back up now. I feel great my window is 9-5 most days and relaxed on weekends. I did a 24hr as I'm doing full autophagy fast for 72 hrs at end of month and want to break myself in gently xx
I feel fine, I don't really do a set meal plan but I will have some fruit for breakfast and a piece of sourdough with a bit of avacado, I'm going to stay light on carbs today xx
This a great post and its good see someone promoting LCHF and hopefully some newer members will benefit from some help and advice. When I joined in 2018 there were a number of people who knew a lot about LCHF and really helped me. Sadly they have disappeared now but I hope sharing ideas here will encourage more people to follow LCHF and dispel some of the myths about it.
When I joined I had high blood pressure and prediabetes. By following LCHF I reduced by BP and blood sugars to normal and have continued to maintain ever since although I am more relaxed about carbs now. However in recent weeks a lot of family events and celebrations on top of a stressful term at work have resulted in a lot of small gains which are adding up. I missed the boot camp as I was too busy and unfocused to stick to it.
I am late to the party as usual but following my son's wedding two weeks ago and my grandsons birthday last weekend I promised myself a reboot. I have two weeks now until I go on holiday so I intend to go back to LCHF and keep the carbs low and cut out the snacks and treats which have been creeping in and try and turn the gains around. Its good to see some yummy meal ideas here and I will be trying them. I will try and stick with IF for the two weeks too. LCHF led me into IF in the past and it worked but my work doesn't lend itself to IF so I found it difficult to stick to but I am on school holidays now so no excuses.
I do like eating when I'm hungry but you can't do that if you're in the workplace. No point fancying an omelette mid-afternoon when there's work to be done. Make the best of these two weeks and see where that gets you 😊
LCHF worked well for me when I was losing weight. However although I have been trying to reduce the carbs and snacks I am still struggling to lose any weight. Is it true that the body adapts when you have been following it for a long time and you stop losing weight? It seems to be happening to me. I maintained around the same weight for some time but recently regained a bit which I need to lose. I'm not sure what to do now.
I'm off on holiday tomorrow so I will enjoy it and when I get back and am back to work and normal routine I will try again.
I actually had it for dinner last Friday but haven’t had time to post since. I made some h/m mayo for the sauce and added garlic and paprika. I actually stuffed the burger patties with Stilton and then topped them with smoked mozzarella. Thanks Hopalong1 , I will definitely make this again!
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What LCHF looks like for me...
What do people mean when they say….
LCHF
