I'm too fat to post in the How To Wear Pants thread

You can do low purine and low carb. Stay away from turkey and beans (anything that grows in a pod).

What am I missing?

 

Back in 2000, I ran a low grade fever for a month. My big toe felt like it was shot full of Novocain (numb, not painful). I went to the doctor and after a blood test, he told me I had gout. Rich man's disease, he said. Rich foods, men get gout. My cholesterol levels were sky high - ~370. Before putting me on medication, he suggested I try treating it with diet. I asked him how, and he told me to eat less beef and more white meat.

He was no help. I ended up buying books and reading what could be found on the Internet back then.

For 90 days I ate 1200-1600 calories and severely restricted my fat and especially saturated fat. No more than 25% of calories from fat, no more than 6% from saturated fat.

I lost 30 lbs, cured the gout, and my cholesterol level fell to 160.

I ate plenty of pork and chicken, but no turkey. No peanuts or green beans or legumes of any kind.

Considering the doctor said gout is chronic, I say I'm cured because I've had no further signs of gout, either painful joints or in blood tests, since.

Those were my only macros.

I ate pretty well, the meals were quite good. Low calorie pasta with ground chicken meat sauce. Egg beater omelettes with fat free cheese and turkey spam or ham, a half slice of ham, and a fat free eggo waffle with 10 calorie syrup and 3/4 cup of hash browns for ~400 calories. A footling roast beef with no cheese or oil or mayo (mostly anything else) is under 600 calories.

From that point until I quit smoking, my weight fluctuated no more than 10 lbs over my 165 preferred weight.

Going back to this diet after gaining 40lbs after I quit smoking just did not work for me. That's how I got disillusioned about the low fat, low calorie, boost exercise scheme.

Hope this helps.

 

So we did go out for our anniversary and I ate 3 slices of deep dish pizza. Overdoing the carbs definitely kicked my weight loss into a higher gear for a bit. I didn't enjoy the food as much as I thought I would, though.

Speaking of enjoying low carb food... You know you want to:

http://lowcarbcoach.com/peanut-butter-fat-bombs/

 

Sorta. I wish I did enjoy the pizza so the cheat would have been more worth it. I think the pizza just wasn't very good.

I also didn't eat the bones (crust).

 

You only got a little bit of the science right. People don't eliminate carbs. No more than they eliminate fat on a low fat diet.

It doesn't boil down to calories, unless you do low carb and eat a ridiculous number of calories.

 

I've been doing less than 30 carbs since July.

I have gone from wearing size 38 to size 34 (down 3 sizes) and the 34s are getting baggy on me.

I am sure I am eating many more calories than I was eating on the low fat/low calorie diet I was on prior. I wasn't losing weight on the low fat diet, even at 1600 calories.

The science is that by restricting carbs, your body gets into a metabolic state called Ketosis. The diet coerces your liver to create high concentration of ketones in the blood and low levels of insulin. The idea of the diet is to starve the liver of glycogen to cause it to create the ketones. While in glycolysis, the body generates high amounts of insulin which converts carbs to body fat. While in ketosis, the fat reserves are burned for energy.

The diet is not just the reduction (not elimination) of carbs, it is the change of your diet from traditional most of your calories from carbs to one that is most of your calories from FAT. You will not lose weight if you do not eat enough fat. This is contrary to the low fat/low calorie diet school of thinking.

My main sources of fat are red meat, nuts, butter, oils, etc. If you go back a few posts, I shared the recipe for "fat bombs" that are 16g of fat and 1 carb (if I remember right) chocolate/peanut butter candies. 16g of fat. Fat bombs. They're a big deal to those dedicated to the diet.

While in ketosis, you don't have to exercise to burn calories, count calories, etc. This kind of diet is often called a "sedentary diet" as you burn fat while doing nothing. Ketosis happens naturally overnight since you aren't eating carbs while you sleep... so you wake up weighing less than when you went to bed.

That said, I have been walking at least 30 miles a week and running maybe another 3-5. My weight loss has been steady, but not as dramatic as some claim. I think it's because I'm adding a lot of muscle at the same time, and muscle is dense (weighs a lot). That my waste has reduced by 3 sizes is a pretty good indication the diet is working incredibly well.

The notion that you somehow stop doing low carb when you hit your target weight is a bad one. Most people I know (from reading keto-diet blogs and message boards, etc.) simply see it as a lifestyle choice and don't miss non-keto friendly foods. I know I don't miss them, and I don't expect to stop eating low carb ever. As I've gradually migrated my kitchen from high carb foods and condiments to low carb ones, I am not suffering for food choices. I've found bread substitutes, pancakes, fax meal muffins, etc., that make me plenty happy. The challenge of creating recipes that are low carb is part of the fun of it all, as well.

I will end up changing the meaning of "low carb" for my meals. When I want to stop losing weight and maintain my target weight, I will gradually increase the number of carbs I eat a day. Right now I'm eating < 30 (it is REALLY hard to eat < 20). I'll probably end up eating as many as 100g per day. Anything less than 150g is considered "low carb" by dieticians/nutritionists.

 

My weight loss:

 

Yes, I have walked 30+ miles a week since last november. It did not help me lose weight at 1600 calories and a low fat diet.

Edit: I logged every bit of food I put in my mouth every day during that diet, using myfitnesspal.com.

Unfortunately, MFP isn't geared very well to low carb diet (counting net carbs). A net carb (for me) is grams of carbs minus grams of fiber. For Atkins, you subtract grams of sugar alcohols, too.