7 Brutal Ways Low-Carb Dieters Torture Themselves

7 Brutal Ways Low-Carb Dieters Torture Themselves

The Brutal Way

7 Brutal Ways Low-Carb Dieters Torture Themselves

What's up with low-carb dieters these days?

I really need someone to explain it to me. I'm at a total loss to understand.

I realize that dieting is difficult, that it requires you to give up a lot of your favorite foods, revamp your lifestyle, and substitute those old food habits with healthier alternatives, but c'mon.

• I mean, do you really expect to drop 15 pounds in only a couple of weeks?
• Do you enjoy all of the pain and misery you are bringing upon yourself due to these false expectations and fantasies?
• Did someone, somewhere, tell you that low-carb diets are a quick weight-loss scheme?

Or what?

Where did that idea actually come from?

Why are so many people coming here to this blog with the idea that if they don't shed some water weight and perhaps a little muscle tissue during the first week or two, then low carb isn't worth the effort?

This self-torture doesn't make sense to me.

Whether its 3 days, 8 days, 2 weeks, or a month, choosing to torture yourself about what your body is or isn't doing won't make the body fat come off any faster.

Low carb diets are not crash diets!

The only way you “might” lose 15 pounds in 2 weeks is if you're seriously obese and have never gone on a diet before in your entire life. While some people do experience those types of results, they are the exception to the rule. They are not the norm.

So how about you?

• Are you torturing yourself by being miserable because you don't like what your bathroom scale is saying today?
• Are you letting that number on the scale control how you feel and act?
• Is that number so important to you that you're allowing it to determine your self worth?

This isn't something that just popped up this week. It's been going on for a while now, but I'm really struggling to understand where your head is at, so please help me:

Here are 7 brutal ways that low carbers have been torturing themselves lately. See if you can recognize yourself doing any of these things. If so, please tell me why living in the misery of self-pity just for the sake of weight loss is so appealing to you.

I really want to understand what's going on here.

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What Halloween Traditions Can Teach Us About Dieting

What Halloween Traditions Can Teach Us About Dieting

Special Event Diet

What Can Halloween Traditions
Teach Us About Ourselves?

Halloween traditions have disintegrated for us. 

Since we live in a basement apartment right now, we no longer have kids knocking on our front door, yelling, “Trick or Treat.”

There's just silence.

Up to this point in our lives, hubby would purchase enough Halloween candy to over-spill a huge popcorn bowl, kick back in his hefty easy chair, watch the History channel, and eagerly listen for the tiny patter of footsteps and chatter to make its way to the front porch and ring the doorbell.

Each year, however, that pattering and chatter has grown more distant, until last year – when Halloween totally evaporated into the nothing.

Now, instead of a dozen kids bringing a smile to hubby's face on Halloween night, there is just us. October 31st will be like any other night now.

Halloween traditions will probably be rekindled once we move to Texas, where our granddaughter lives, but for right now, they are simmering on the back burner. These annual traditions are history for us, but not forgotten.

When you decide to enter a carbohydrate-restricted lifestyle, your old way of doing things disintegrates. The ideals, if you care to create them, change in substance, but not necessarily in purpose.

Purpose rarely changes unless you reach a point in life's journey where you are ready to look at the real motivations for what you do and re-evaluate those motivations. What people call purpose, such as going on a diet, is simply an ideal they have set up to wear over the top of their purpose like a Halloween costume.

That costume's purpose might be to help us look different to others, and possibly even different to ourselves, but wearing a mask doesn't change what we are.

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Make 2016 the Best Low-Carb Thanksgiving Ever

Make 2016 the Best Low-Carb Thanksgiving Ever

Low Carb Styles Special Event Diet

Make 2016 the Best Low-Carb Thanksgiving Ever

Celebrations and food go hand in hand.

Whether it's a:

• graduation party
• special anniversary
• birthday
• or holiday

There always seems to be plenty of carby desserts, potatoes, pastry, and chocolate goodies around to try and coax you into going off plan.

Over the centuries, human nature has turned a vital fuel source into a culturally-endorsed feast of gluttony, but if you keep your wits about you and stay mindful of your aims and true desires, you can still make a low-carb diet work, even in difficult circumstances.

All you need are these tips, tricks, and keto-friendly recipes to help you make 2016 the best low-carb Thanksgiving ever. With the right attitude, focus, and purpose, you can make the holiday fun and memorable, even without the carbs.

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How to Lose Weight Faster on Your Low-Carb Diet

How to Lose Weight Faster on Your Low-Carb Diet

Low Carb Diet

How to Lose Weight Faster on Your Low-Carb Diet

Are you looking for the secret to losing weight faster on your low-carb diet?

Yes, there's a way.

But first:

In general, a low-carb diet doesn't cause you to lose weight any faster than a low-calorie diet does, unless you have a lot of body fat to get rid of.

People who fall into the obese category can lose a bucket-load of body fat during the first few months, on any diet, but there is a biological reason for that. For most folks, the body limits the amount of body fat it is willing to take out of storage because it doesn't know how long your dietary restriction is going to last.

If you have a 100 pounds, or more, to lose, the body will be more willing to give up a large portion of its fat stores than if you only need to shed 20 or 30 pounds. People lose weight at various rates, even on low carb.

Sound disappointing?

It doesn't have to be. 

Not if you're willing to do whatever it takes to speed things up.

While some people won't be willing to incorporate the following tips and tricks for faster weight loss into their diet plan, if you have only been losing a half a pound of body fat per week, you might be feeling frustrated and totally lost by now.

I know, I was.

After the first 4 weeks on the Atkins Diet in January of 2007, I had lost only 2 pounds. 

That's it! 

And, the same thing happened again the following month. In fact, by the end of the first 6 months, I was only down a mere 30 pounds total.

I knew that 30 pounds was a lot of body fat to shed, but when I looked at how far I still had to go, I also knew that losing only 2 pounds a month, on average, wasn't going to give me enough motivation to stick it out long-term.

That's when I decided to go on a research mission to see why there was so much variability within the low-carb community. 

What made the difference? 

Was the speed at which you drop the weight only about individual metabolism, or was there a secret to shedding the pounds that no one wanted to talk about?

Here's what I found out:

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Still Hungry on Low Carb? Top 10 Reasons Why Hunger Hangs Around

Still Hungry on Low Carb? Top 10 Reasons Why Hunger Hangs Around

Questions??

Low-Carb is Good Eating,
So Why Are You
Still Hungry?

One of the major benefits of choosing a low-carb lifestyle is the way that restricting carbohydrates dramatically curtails your hunger pangs.

Instead of:

• being obsessed with food
• plotting out your next meal
• fighting with your sweet tooth
• and white knuckling your way through the afternoon munchies

most people who lower their carbohydrate load find themselves with a dwindling desire to eat. Hunger on a low-carb diet is relatively rare.

If you've never experienced being too busy to stop for lunch or forgetting to eat, a low-carb diet can introduce you to that pleasurable phenomenon. Many, many people report that they lose all interest in food once they enter into the state of ketosis.

But what if that doesn't happen?

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What to Expect if You Cheat On Your Low-Carb Diet

What to Expect if You Cheat On Your Low-Carb Diet

Low Carb Diet

I've been digging into the archives here at Kickin' Carb Clutter and came across this old blog post about the various consequences you can expect to experience if you cheat on your low-carb diet.

I don't really like the word cheat.

If low carb is truly your way of life, if you have actually committed to a low-carb lifestyle, there really isn't any cheating going on. You might have days where you eat more carbohydrates than you planned, but plans are like that.

No matter how structured or detailed your low-carb intentions are, resistance of some kind is going to rise up to oppose what you really want to do. If you're like most folks, the pleasure of the moment often supersedes your long-term target.

Success on any low-carb plan is tightly connected to how well you follow the program. While that might sound obvious, it's much more difficult to pull off, so take a few minutes and think about that.

Success isn't about setting goals or having lots of willpower to push through temptation.

Nope.

Success is a mindset you develop over time.

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9 Creative Ways to Make Your Low-Carb Diet More Fun (and Less Boring!)

9 Creative Ways to Make Your Low-Carb Diet More Fun (and Less Boring!)

Low Carb Styles The Brutal Way

How to Make Your Low-Carb Diet
More Fun and exciting!

Bacon and eggs, meat, salad, and veggies – day after day.

Sounds boring, doesn't it?

Whether you're just cutting carbohydrates or keeping tract of those calories too, eating a low-carb diet can really feel restricting if you're the only one you know eating that way. Low-carb rules make your so-called healthy lifestyle feel like you're on a diet, no matter how many times you try to tell yourself it's not.

When you're starring down at another baked chicken leg or piece of fish, some mushy green beans or broccoli, and a pile of lettuce, thinking about eating this way for the rest of your life can feel depressing. If you allow yourself to get bored with the menu, your emotions will go in search of comfort and tasty treats.

Not good, especially if you're new to this way of eating or don't feel creative in the kitchen because an up-kick in emotions almost always means an increase in emotional hunger and cravings. Limited food choices gets boring fast, but it doesn't have to. There is no reason why you can't make your low-carb diet fun, day after day.

Boredom is rarely about the food. It's more about your attitude and perspective on life, so here are 9 creative ways to make your low-carb diet more fun and exciting.

But before we do that, let's first take a look at the excuses that keep us from being creative in the kitchen and examine why people really get bored with food:

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A Beginner's Guide to Low-Carb Diets

A Beginner's Guide to Low-Carb Diets

Low Carb Diet

Everything You Need to Know
Before Starting a Low-Carb Diet!

If you're thinking about entering into the low-carb lifestyle, you are going to need a reliable guide you can depend on to help you get started.

Whether you want to shed the fat that's clinging to your hips and belly, lower your risk for heart disease, or eliminate those nasty cravings that always strike as soon as you sit down to watch your favorite television show, this easy guide to low-carb diets will eliminate a lot of the confusion and misconceptions you might have.

There are many low-carb programs to choose from, and each plan has different restrictions. That can easily get confusing, especially if you try to start a low-carb diet by just winging it, using the bits and pieces you've collected from various places. You can really get yourself into a mess.

Before you begin, you need a strong understanding of why carbohydrate restriction works and what you can expect to achieve in the first month or two.

In addition, this basic guide will clear up any misconceptions you may have about dietary ketosis, insulin, protein, and calories. It will walk you step-by-step through the foods you can eat and offer advise on how to incorporate each food group into your life.

While no single diet program is right for everyone, the following beginner's guide will give you a great head start on the basics of low-carb eating, so you can go on to fine-tune the diet to fit your particular needs later on.

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Heard About the Egg Fast to Break a Stall? (It Works!)

Heard About the Egg Fast to Break a Stall? (It Works!)

Questions??

Egg Fast is the Hottest
Low-Carb Stall Buster

If you've stalled on your low-carb diet, or you just want to give yourself a hefty shove in the right direction, you might consider doing an egg fast. An egg fast is a short-term dieting intervention method created by Jimmy Moore in 2010. Originally called a Low-Carb Eggfest, by following the protocols he set up for himself, Jimmy was able to lose 28 pounds in 30 days.

You do need to like eggs, of course.

That's a no-brainer, as the majority of your protein on this fast comes from eggs. Jimmy did allow himself a little bit of hard cheese, some grass-fed butter, and a diet soda here and there, but for the most part, this is a low-carb egg diet that's specifically designed to get the scales moving in the right direction again. It wasn't set up to be a crash diet, although some people have used it that way.

Over the past week, I've read a lot of material on this highly effective weight-loss fast. I was more than a little curious as to the science behind why the egg diet works, and why most of the people who do this fast for 3 to 5 days are seeing so much success, without regaining a lot of it once they transfer back to a regular low-carb diet.

I have a few ideas about why this works and what might be really going on, which would be useful for those who don't particularly want to eat eggs three times a day, but first, let's take a close-up view of the original egg fast itself.

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The Danger in Setting Weight-Loss Goals

The Danger in Setting Weight-Loss Goals

Low Carb Styles Special Event Diet The Brutal Way

Setting Weight Loss Goals
 Can Cause You to Crash and Burn

From the moment we entered this world, people have been pushing their ideas and suggestions at us.

One of these suggestions is that we need to set goals.

The idea of setting weight-loss goals is driven by the belief that we will receive a certain reward for having achieved the goal. Being different than we are now is supposed to bring approval and relieve our feelings of anxiety and insecurity.

We hate where we are now, so we have a low-carb weight-loss action plan that will enable us to get the fast results we're hoping for.

Whether that happens or not, that's what we believe, so we experience this insatiable desire to achieve our goal. It's almost like an obsession, at times. The urge to get what we want, when we want it, in return for our efforts, is just that strong.

Goals can motivate you to stick to your weight-loss plan. That's what we've been told. The reward factor will give us that little boost in courage we need to keep going. However, there are several negative effects that occur when you grasp onto the iron rod of goal setting, and these effects can be dangerous to your low-carb diet.

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Yummy Eggplant Lasagna Recipe – Low Carb and Gluten Free

Yummy Eggplant Lasagna Recipe – Low Carb and Gluten Free

How to Make Lasagna
 With Eggplant Instead of Noodles

Turning low carb into a lifestyle won't work very well unless you can find new dishes that are just as tasty, or more so, than the ones you left behind. Chucking the breads, cereals, tortillas, and pasta dishes can also bring a lot of emotional upheaval for those who are severely attached to sandwiches, burritos, tacos, and spaghetti.

The trick to making a low-carb diet work better for you is to find healthy ways to bring back the foods you miss the most, such as lasagna.

While that process might be quick and simple if you can tolerate the wheat-protein based low-carb pastas on the market today, switching out those gummy noodles for healthy slices of eggplant can be a tastier option.

No, really.

You can make a yummy eggplant lasagna without the noodles by simply substituting ultra-thin slices of partially-baked eggplant and covering them in a traditional, spicy meat sauce and cheese. Once you get the hang of making this unforgettable eggplant lasagna with ground beef or turkey, family and guests won't be able to tell the difference between your low-carb gluten-free version and the real thing.

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Are You Falling for One of These 3 Low-Carb Lies?

Are You Falling for One of These 3 Low-Carb Lies?

Questions??

Weight Loss Isn't a Smooth Path

A low-carb diet offers you many potential health benefits, but it doesn't always live up to its reputation as a quick weight-loss diet. I know that can be frustrating when the pounds don't come off as quickly as you had hoped.

Although the diet regime is sound advice and has lots of scientific evidence to back it up, many people eventually find themselves sitting on a plateau. For others, the diet stops working completely.

Weight loss is never a smooth ride.

The body always strives to maintain balance. Restricting carbohydrates upsets the body's normal metabolic rhythm. It doesn't like change, and it doesn't like having to do things the hard way.

In addition, many low-carb gurus present miraculous claims to their readers, but those claims often fall short of the truth. In their excitement to share their own experiences or coax you into giving Atkins Induction or Nutritional Ketosis a fair chance, low-carb supporters often repeat things they've heard so many times that now they believe those myths are true.

It's not that those in the low-carb spotlight are deliberately trying to mislead you. Most of them believe what they're saying. However, when you're staring down at a bathroom scale that won't budge, all of a sudden, those low-carb lies begin to matter.

If you've reached a point in your low-carb journey where you appear to be stuck, take a moment and give your low-carb beliefs a thorough evaluation. Are you falling for one of these 3 low-carb lies?

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How to Make the Perfect Low-Carb Salad

How to Make the Perfect Low-Carb Salad

Low Carb Styles Special Event Diet The Brutal Way

Need an Easter Short Cut?
 Toss Vegetables into Your Salad!
(photo: Zaskoda, CC BY 2.0)

Easter is right around the corner. Do you have your low-carb menu all set up and ready to go? Done your shopping yet?

Me neither.

Our holiday plans for this year are a bit up in the air. We have a close friend that is in the midst of buying a house and was hoping it would close before Easter. If so, then we won't be cooking at home this year, so I've been dragging my feet, waiting to hear . . .

Low-carb Easter menus are not that difficult though. With ham the traditional centerpiece and lots of hard-boiled eggs around, all you need to round out your low-carb meal is a super-nice salad and vegetables with a little bit of extra perk.

If that sounds like too much work this year and you're looking for a holiday short-cut, simply skip the extras and toss those lightly steamed or leftover roasted veggies into the salad. Chill it all together and you'll have an extra-special mega-salad treat. When topped with a creamy homemade dressing, you can't help but have a memorable meal the whole family can enjoy together.

But I confess.

I have a hard time dragging out the salad fixings in the dead of winter. Winter and hot food just go hand-in-hand, but with spring knocking at the door and summer on the horizon, it's time to start thinking about how to make the perfect low-carb salad.

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Kicked Out of Ketosis? The Dirty Little Secret About Ketone Testing Strips

Kicked Out of Ketosis? The Dirty Little Secret About Ketone Testing Strips

Questions??

Kicked Out of Ketosis?
Ketone Testing Strip Secrets

If you hang out at low-carb forums for any length of time, you're bound to hear again and again how someone recently got kicked out of the state of ketosis and is looking for a fast way to get back in. Out of all the issues that you can have with a low-carb lifestyle, understanding ketone testing strips is one of the biggies.

“I got kicked out of ketosis,” is one of the most common complaints I hear.

And while that may or may not be true, depending on the situation, there are a lot of misconceptions about the role that ketones and ketone testing strips play in a low-carb diet.

If you think that you've been kicked out of ketosis, listen up. Here's the dirty little secrets about ketone testing strips that you probably won't hear in a low-carb forum.

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Does the Paleo Diet Actually Cause Weight Gain? (What the Researchers Did to Get that Result Will Surprise You)

Does the Paleo Diet Actually Cause Weight Gain? (What the Researchers Did to Get that Result Will Surprise You)

Questions??

Can You Gain Weight
Eating Salmon and Fried Eggs?

The latest study on the Paleo Diet coming out of Australia is sending shock waves through the media here in the U.S. Reporters are tripping all over themselves trying to get the word out that a Paleo Diet, defined by the researchers as a very low-carb high-fat diet, causes weight gain even though the Paleo Diet is NOT a low-carb nor high-fat diet.

On the surface, the study published on February 15th in Nutrition & Diabetes appears to look into the benefits that a low-carb high-fat diet has on beta cell degeneration and function in mice, but the methods used in the study are so shocking and contrary to low-carb, Paleo, and even diabetic diets that it's hard to believe that anyone is actually taking the study seriously.

But they are.

War has been declared on the Paleo Diet, with journalists insisting that the Paleo Diet causes weight gain, all because some researchers in Australia came to an erroneous conclusion after feeding pre-diabetic mice a Paleo diet that they defined as being low-carb high-fat.

“We are told to eat zero carbs and lots of fat on the Paleo Diet,” Associated Professor Sof Andrikopoulos told the Telegraph. “Our model tried to mimic that.”

Instead of reading the diabetic journal article for themselves to see what the Australia researchers did to create that result -- and the what is so outrageous that I was literally dumbfounded when I read the journal article myself -- journalists are reacting to the conclusions presented by the article, accepting them on faith.

While I'm used to researchers using their own definition of what a low-carb diet is when designing their research studies, the design of this particular Paleo study will really blow your mind . . .

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12 Low-Carb Breakfast Ideas to Make Your Mornings Easier

12 Low-Carb Breakfast Ideas to Make Your Mornings Easier

Low Carb Styles Special Event Diet The Brutal Way

Egg Fried in the Center
of a Bell Pepper Ring
Makes Great LC Breakfast!

Breakfast is hubby's favorite meal of the day. He loves a hearty, filling breakfast in the morning. In fact, when we used to go out to eat before I went gluten free, we almost always went out to eat on Saturday or Sunday morning. He loves all of the basics you normally find at a cafe:

• bacon and eggs
• sausage and eggs
• ham and eggs
• omelets with salsa
• fried potatoes
• french toast
• pancakes
• biscuits and gravy

When we went gluten free, going out to eat stopped, but eating a hearty breakfast did not. We simply started making a big breakfast at home on the weekends. During the week, hubby didn't eat breakfast. He simply took a large lunch with him to work. However, his latest job change has dramatically affected the way we eat now.

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What is the Easiest Way to Go Low Carb?

What is the Easiest Way to Go Low Carb?

Questions??

Here's the Secret for 
Making a Low-Carb Diet 
More Successful

January always brings a rush of folks to the low-carb fold. Some of them are new and are interested in the quick fat-loss claims that ketogenic diets are known to produce and want to see if they can lose weight as quickly themselves. Others have come back to Atkins Induction for a second or third time because it worked so well for them in the past.

Stories that second-timers tell vary in the details, of course, but most of the stories have the same thread running throughout the tale:

Something stressful popped up in your life, and you didn't know how to handle the challenge without eating all of your favorite foods.

Ketogenic diets work. Maybe not as quickly as you're hoping it will, but it's one of the easiest ways to lose weight due to the way it eliminates the hunger that is so typical on low-calorie diets. Even so, making it work takes a strong mental attitude adjustment. You have to want to change your lifestyle, but the easiest way to go low carb takes more than desire.

Whether you're brand new to a low-carb lifestyle or you've been around the block a time or two, 2016 can be the year that you decide to finally take back your health.

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How to Choose the Best Low-Carb Weight-Loss Program for You

How to Choose the Best Low-Carb Weight-Loss Program for You

Low Carb Diet

Choose the Best 
Low-Carb Diet for You

When searching for the best diet to lose weight, there are a lot of things to consider before taking the plunge. For example, health issues, such as celiac disease, metabolic syndrome, food sensitivities, or diabetes can greatly affect the results you get. Your food preferences, lifestyle, family support or struggles, and even your basic beliefs play a role in how well a low-carb diet plan will work for you.

If your concern is finding a lose-weight-fast diet, rather than choosing a plan that will teach you how to switch to a more healthy lifestyle, then that goal will narrow your choices.

Few really good weight-loss plans are designed to help you lose weight quickly.

That's the bitter truth. Most diets that work well don't work fast unless you are brand new to dieting. Although low-carb diets often allow you to drop several pounds during the first few days, most of those pounds won't be body fat. Weight loss during the first week is typically glycogen, the storage form of carbohydrates, water, and muscle tissue.

Fat-burning diets require a special combination of foods to correct hormone irregularities while eliminating foods that interfere with the body's ability to mobilize fat stores. Healing takes adequate nutrition, and correcting malnutrition and insulin resistance takes time. Sometimes, a lot of time.

In addition, weight-loss diets that work are not temporary. Since you can't go back to your old style of eating, returning to what you used to eat before is not an option if you want to reach goal weight and stay there. Making permanent changes is the only way to shed the excess fat for good.

Over the years, I've experimented with several low-carb diets. They all resulted in weight loss, but some plans worked better than others. If you need help in choosing the best low-carb weight-loss program for you, here's what I've learned from following some of the low-carb plans available today:

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