Top 6 Dieting Mistakes Newbies Make

Top 6 Dieting Mistakes Newbies Make

The Brutal Way

You don’t have to be new to low-carb diets in order to make one of these 6 dieting mistakes. They are just as common among those who have been dieting for a while. That’s because as time goes on, we tend to become more relaxed in the way we implement our personal carb-restriction programs, and forget what’s most important. So whether you’re new to the low-carb lifestyle or have been journeying for months, here are the top 6 dieting mistakes you’ll want to avoid.

1. Not Eating Enough Salt

Mistake #1: Not Eating Enough Salt
(Photo by Casey Konstantin)

This mistake cannot be stressed highly enough, because it’s the foundation for the low-carb myth that the Induction Flu is about detoxing from carbohydrates or sugar. It’s not. When you begin a low-carb diet, the body loses most of its glycogen stores. Since there’s 3 or 4 grams of water attached to each gram of glycogen, you’re going to lose a ton of water in the first few days. That will throw your electrolytes out of balance.

Electrolytes are your calcium, magnesium, potassium, and sodium levels in the body. They have to remain balanced in order for you to feel well. When you lose a lot of water, sodium and potassium are flushed out of the body. If you’re eating most of your Atkins Induction carbohydrates in the form of vegetables, potassium levels will probably be replaced, but if you’re not heavily salting your food, you’re going to get dehydrated. That will make you feel sick, nauseated, and give you other flu-like symptoms.

If that happens, simply up your salt intake, and you should begin to feel better right away.

2. Not Eating Enough Protein

Mistake #2: Not Eating Enough Protein
(Photo by Daniel R. Blume)

If you’ve been reading posts on several of the low-carb diet forums, or have been following some of the high-profile low-carb blogs, you might have heard about the latest tend called Nutritional Ketosis. The way these individuals have implemented Nutritional Ketosis is to reduce their protein intake to just above, or just below, the protein intake the body needs to repair itself. What they're doing, is limiting their protein intake, so the body doesn’t convert their excess protein to glucose to feed the brain.

Those following this type of low-carb lifestyle have been dieting for quite a few months or years now, and have stalled part way to their goal weight. They are using this reduced-protein plan to try and kick-start their weight loss. If you’ve just starting a low-carb diet, you don’t want to limit your protein. Until you adapt to the state of ketosis, your brain needs 120 grams of carbohydrates in order to function daily. Although the body can convert the protein you need into that glucose, if you don’t eat enough for your liver to do that, it will pull the amino acids from your muscles instead.

Lyle McDonald, in The Ketogenic Diet, recommends you eat a minimum of 150 grams of protein for the first three weeks, until the brain adapts to using ketone bodies for its energy needs. Once the body switches to using fatty acids and the brain begins to use ketones for fuel, your glucose requirements will go down. As that happens, protein requirements drop as well.

However, there isn’t a set amount of protein that works for everyone. Most low-carb specialists trained in nutrition recommend about 1 gram of protein per pound of lean body mass you have. That’s especially true if you’re following any type of exercise or weight-lifting program, so use that as a guide, and then adjust it later on, as needed.

3. Not Eating Enough Food

Mistake #3: Not Eating Enough Food
(Photo by Lesley Show)

We tend to enter into dieting, any type of dieting, with the mindset that we have to eat less and move more in order to lose weight. While that’s true, the first three to four weeks of a low-carb diet are not about losing weight. It’s about coaxing your body to switch from predominantly burning glucose for fuel to burning fatty acids and ketones instead. You don’t do that by eating less food. You do that by making your body feel secure.

One of the top complaints I hear from beginners is that they’re hungry. This will generally happen once the body begins to run out of glycogen – the storage form of carbohydrates. As your glycogen levels go down, the body will begin to demand you replenish them. It does that by kicking up your hunger quite a bit.

When that happens, eat enough zero-carb foods to satisfy your appetite. Yes, you’ll be eating a lot of calories, and a lot of food until your body makes the switch, but you can worry about portion sizes later on. Generally, this excess hunger only lasts for a day or two because most people who follow a low-carb diet find their hunger significantly goes down once they enter the state of Ketosis.

Until that happens, don’t be afraid to eat!

4. Not Understanding Which Foods Contain Too Many Carbohydrates

Mistake #4: Not Understanding Which Foods Contain Too Many Carbs
(Photo by Sophie Jonasson)

I see this problem quite a bit too. People use the misinformation they see on the web to create their own personalized low-carb diet plan, and then can’t figure out why they are not losing weight. So far, all of the people who have given me sample diet meals to analyze have been eating foods that are not typically eaten during the beginning of a low-carb diet.

Fruit and nuts seem to be the largest offenders, but if you’re sensitive to wheat or gluten, low-carb foods such as low-carb tortillas and breads, Atkins shakes and bars, or other low-carb products can prevent you from entering the state of Ketosis. So will typical low-fat diet foods. Take the time to learn which foods are acceptable on a low-carb diet, and which foods are not.

While a carb is a carb, and there’s nothing magic about which foods you actually choose to eat, provided you stay within your own personal carbohydrate level of tolerance, low-carb programs are designed to help the body quickly lower its insulin levels. Meat, eggs, cheese, and vegetables is the fastest way to do that. Granted, a half a cup of cooked rice and 2 cups of cooked vegetables will provide you with about the same amount of glucose. But if you have Insulin Resistance or pre-diabetes, your body won’t react the same way to each of those foods.

There will be plenty of time later on to experiment. For now, it’s best to stick with low-carb foods.

5. Not Drinking Enough Water

Mistake #5: Not Drinking Enough Water
(Photo by Carnie Lewis)

Dr. Atkins recommended drinking at least 8 cups of water daily in order to help the body flush out incompletely burned ketone fragments. That’s about 2 quarts of pure water. However, most nutritionists and diet experts recommend you drink more than that. The current recommendation is to drink about one-half of your current body weight.

At 190 pounds, for me, that would be 95 ounces of water. Others recommend drinking 64 ounces, and then an extra 8 ounces for each 25 pounds that you are overweight. For me, that would be about 85 ounces or so. Whichever formula you choose to use, the important principle is that this is only talking about pure water. It doesn’t include your morning coffee, diet sodas, low-carb soft drinks, or tea. Just water.

You need the water to process your stored body fat. The liver uses it to break down your fat stores and convert those triglycerides into fatty acids and ketones. It doesn’t just flush them out of the body. If you don’t drink enough water, the liver will have to help your kidneys filter out excess toxins and other stuff that’s common in today’s food supply such as pesticides, rather than mobilizing your fat stores. You’ll feel tired, cranky, and weight loss will be extremely slow, and possibly even stop completely.

While it can be difficult to begin drinking water if you’re not used to it, water is as important to the body and fat-loss process as getting enough protein is. By nature, a low-carb diet is dehydrating, so make sure that you’re drinking enough.

6. Not Following the Rules of Your Low-Carb Diet Plan

Mistake #6: Not Following the Rules of Your Low-Carb Diet Plan

Each low-carb diet program comes with its own rules. Whichever program you have chosen to follow, make sure you give the rules of that plan a chance to work before you begin tweaking your diet. Weight loss won’t be linear, and sometimes, the body freaks out if you’ve lost a large amount of water during the first week or two. That can cause fat loss to be masked. Don’t expect to see a lower number on the scale every week, and especially not every day.

For those who are brand new to the low-carb lifestyle, you’ll find this diet works extremely well. That’s because the body probably has never used this pathway before and there’s a large learning curve for it. That will give you a slight metabolic advantage over those who are not new to low carb, cause the body to mobilize more fat stores than it needs, and dump a ton of unused ketone fragments. You’ll be able to initially eat more, make several dieting mistakes without suffering any repercussions, and lose weight at a fairly quick pace. Often, much quicker than others.

However, it’s always extremely important that you follow the rules of your low-carb diet plan, because your body remembers your dieting patterns and prepares to protect itself against future famines. That means if you choose to leave the low-carb lifestyle and then decide to return to it later on, it won’t work as well as it originally did. There won’t be much of a metabolic advantage. While the program will still work, it will take longer and require much more effort in order to succeed.

So stick to your low-carb diet plan, move into maintenance during periods of turmoil or when you’re in a situation where you don’t have any control over what you eat, but expect the program to work more slowly when you return. It’s having the diet not meet our unrealistic expectations that causes most low-carb diets to fail. Follow the rules, and you’ll do fine. After all, this is a lifestyle change, not a diet.

Related Article:

21 Reasons You're Not Losing Weight on Low Carb
http://www.infobarrel.com/21_Reasons_Youre_Not_Losing_Weight_on_Low_Carb

Cheating On a Low-Carb Diet – Is There Any Hope?

Cheating On a Low-Carb Diet – Is There Any Hope?

Questions??

Low-carb dieters come in several varieties.

1. There are the die-hards who believe you should never ever cheat on a low-carb diet, even on holidays or your birthday. They have a particular list of low-carb foods that they believe everyone should stick to, and if you eat something that is not on their acceptable list, you’re not truly committed to your low-carb lifestyle.

2. Then there are those who take up the low-carb baton, willingly, but aren’t as fanatical about the details. They’re much more flexible about the whole process. They eat what they believe are low-carb foods, but don’t count how many carbohydrates they’re eating. They don’t know if they are within standard low-carb guidelines, but aren’t concerned about it because they’re either losing weight their own way, or they’re happy with their improved health. They will go off plan on holidays, their birthdays, and sometimes during social engagements, but then they’ll climb right back into the wagon and continue their low-carb journey.

3. There are cyclical low-carb dieters that fluctuate between being a die-hard and being overly relaxed. They will strongly stick to Atkins Induction for a few weeks, never cheating, but as the restrictiveness of that very low-carb level begins to wear thin, or the temptation to cheat becomes too strong, they’ll become more flexible. Where the relaxed dieter can easily climb back onto their plan once they’ve satisfied their need to eat normally, the cyclical dieter often finds themselves face down in the carbs. They have so much trouble getting back on plan, however, that they’ve usually gained back part of their weight, if not all, before they try again.

4. And then there is the person who can’t stick with a low-carb diet for more than a few days before the pull to cheat is too strong. They go into an unconscious binge before they wake up and discover what they’ve done. Sometimes it’s cyclical behavior, and sometimes it’s flexible, but they never really get the chance to lose much weight, and sometimes they even gain more, because their mind talks them into refilling their glycogen stores almost as soon as they’ve been emptied.

5. There are also a chosen few who are die-hards for most of the year, but allow themselves the luxury of participating in planned cheats. They are more strict than those who have a relaxed style of dieting because they do count their daily carbohydrates and do eat from a select list of low-carb foods. Their cheats are small and well controlled, because that’s all they need to feel satisfied. Those who practice controlled free meals and refeeds would fit into this category.

Granted, these are exaggerated caricatures, but they do illustrate the wide variety of eating styles that can be found within the low-carb community. Some of these eating styles are more friendly to fat loss than others. I’ve even experienced or purposely tried a few myself. Regardless of a die-hard’s unforgiving attitude, no style is better than any of the others. These are just the patterns that I’m aware of.

Subconscious Mind Drives the Cheating

These patterns are so distant from one another, it makes it difficult (if not impossible) to make solid recommendations in regards to cheating on a low-carb diet, because what drives us to overeat carbohydrates isn’t necessarily something that we can easily control – especially for those who experience a strong famine response to dieting. The mind and body are wired toward survival, and that’s what many of us are fighting against: the mind and body’s determination to survive at all costs.

It can be shocking to come to the realization that the mind and body would rather be fat than thin, but in my low-carb journey so far, that’s the epiphany I’ve sadly come to. The subconscious mind is in control, and when our conscious ideals and goals butt heads with our unconscious programming, the subconscious mind always wins.

ALWAYS!

That doesn’t leave us in a very good position. It feels rather hopeless actually. And that hopelessness and reinforcement only gets stronger when you take the time to actually LOOK at what’s going on within the low-carb community today. Very, very few individuals ever reach their goal weight. That’s reality. Luckily, for those of us who are still trying, there are a handful of low-carb success stories available, such as a man at Low Carb Friends who goes by the name of avid.

I talked about him a little bit in my last post about coffee and heavy cream. He’s gone from 180 pounds to 131. He reached goal weight on June 5, 2013. However, the last five pounds did require him to lower his daily calories, which he chose to do by cutting down on how much coffee he drank, as well as how much heavy cream he was putting in it. While losing 51 pounds is a tremendous accomplishment and should be celebrated, the sad part of this story is that it fits into my 50-Pound Theory.

What is My 50-Pound Theory?

For awhile, I’ve been watching people within the low-carb community that have actually make it all of the way to goal weight, and it has prompted a few questions.

• What sets them apart from the rest of us?
• Why do some of us completely stall out when we’re still so far away from a healthy weight?
• Why does the mind and body do everything in its power to trick us into eating too many carbs?
• Why does someone go from a die-hard eating style to someone who cannot stick to a low-carb diet for more than few days?

At first, I entertained the theory put forth by the BloodSugar 101 website that the body will only allow us to lose a certain percentage of our body fat before it puts on the breaks. But that doesn’t explain how people like avid have been able to succeed. Obviously, he has lost more than 15 or 20 percent of his weight, so what makes him different? What made Dr. Atkins’ success different?

At one time, the popular theory within the low-carb community that tried to explain this phenomena was called the One Golden Shot Theory. Many guessed that a low-carb diet ceased to work if you yo-yo’d back-and-forth between a low-carb diet and a high-carb diet too often. In fact, Dr. Atkins even warned his readers about abusing Induction for that very reason. It could backfire in our face. However, looking at my own weight-loss and weight-gain patterns, I’m now wondering if it’s about absolute poundage lost rather than a percentage.

It seems that when I look at success stories, people that have about 50 to 60 pounds to lose, or less, do very well on a low-carb diet – provided they stick with the plan. That’s because they hit maintenance about the same time that the body catches on and stalls. Those of us who started out with a hundred pounds to lose, or more, tend to stall when we are still far away from goal weight. When we attempt to push the issue, to force our bodies to give up more of its fat stores then those first 50 to 60 pounds, eventually, one of the non-die-hard low-carb eating patterns I described above raises its head to try and stop us from succeeding.

In my own case, I’m sad to say it worked.

Is There Any Hope of Overcoming the Subconscious Mind?

Honestly? I don’t know! Every low-carb diet I’ve attempted since I lost my initial 100 pounds has only left me heavier than I was before. It’s getting very disheartening. I managed to get down to 145 pounds after completing a round of the hHCG diet, but I wasn’t able to maintain that loss. Not because the diet is not sustainable. You move to a low-carb diet after it’s over. But I couldn't maintain the loss because of the amount of calories it takes to sustain 145 pounds. I just couldn’t do it.

When I regained and reached about 160, which was a little less than a 100-pound weight loss, I found that livable. It was maintainable. However, that quickly changed when I attempted to do a low-carb, high-fat diet. Eating high-fat only packed on more pounds. It was a big mistake on my part, because I was following a small low-carb subset, but I had HOPE.

And hope was what I needed at that moment.

Unfortunately, it backfired in my face. I quickly went from 160 pounds to the 190 that I weigh today before my weight stabilized. Not pretty. In fact, I was literally shocked when the DMV recently took my picture for my driver’s license. I had no idea I looked that badly again! But the drop in metabolic rate that the high-fat diet caused has not corrected itself.

So Where Do I Go From Here?

There are so many different low-carb camps today. The low-carb community has severely fractured into many different tribes, with each group standing opposed to the others, and screaming, “We have the truth. We will lead you to salvation.” But I don’t believe that anymore. I have come to realize that no one has the truth. Especially me. The world that existed when Dr. Atkins first started his low-carb revolution no longer exists.

Our food is more genetically altered, contaminated with chemicals, drenched in pesticides, and lacking in nutritional density than it was in 1972. Our meat is full of antibiotics and hormones that have messed with our gut flora and intestinal health. We live in a sterilized, fear-of-germs world.

At the moment, I don’t have any answers other than to continue eating a nutrient-dense diet. That’s quite a bit easier these days because we have moved further north to where my husband currently works. Healthy foods are easy to get here, but those nutrient-dense foods haven’t affected my weight at all. But my right knee and neurological issues are acting up again under the excess weight.

I HAVE TO DO SOMETHING…

I just don’t know what. Maybe a more gentle, backdoor approach that doesn’t trigger the famine response would be best.

Are You Using Too Much Heavy Cream in Your Coffee?

Are You Using Too Much Heavy Cream in Your Coffee?

Questions??

I ran into an interesting thread over at Low Carb Friends today. One of the senior members has lost almost 50 pounds, but he stalled a few pounds above goal weight several weeks ago. Like most of us who have experienced a stall at one time or another, he felt frustrated, but at least he was able to hold onto what he has accomplished so far.

When Stalled, First Take a Serious Look at Your Eating Habits

Although most low carbers don’t want to hear that the last few pounds often require you to take a serious look at your current eating habits, and make adjustments, the man decided to take someone’s advice, and take a look. He carefully weighed out his food and beverages for a few days, and recorded everything he was eating and drinking.

His largest calorie hog?

Heavy whipping cream in his coffee. Considering the way many low carbers fix their coffee in the morning, I wasn’t surprised.

Are You Using Too Much Heavy Cream in Your Coffee?
(Photo by Timothy Boyd)

Are Fat Additives Slowing Down Your Weight Loss?

The calories in heavy whipping cream and sugar substitutes can add up quickly, especially if you drink several cups of coffee a day and you aren’t measuring how much you’re using. In this case, the culprit was 4 to 5 cups of coffee per day. At 50 to 60 calories per tablespoon, depending upon the brand, that added a whopping 800 calories to his daily low-carb diet plan because he discovered he was using 3-1/2 tablespoons of heavy cream per cup of coffee.

Add to that, the extra-virgin olive oil, real butter, and coconut oil that many low-carbers enjoy daily, and it’s easy to be tipping the scales with over 1,000 calories in fat additives. That’s just additives, not the fat that comes with your meat or in your eggs and cheese. So, the man decided to cut back on his use of heavy cream, and report back.

His post encouraged others to come forward, which was unusual for Low Carb Friends, because most of the time the Party Line over there is “up your fats” regardless of what’s wrong. It was nice to see a helpful post for a change. A post that addressed the real issues, instead of some fantasy wish. Our metabolisms and disorders are all so different, and up the fat isn’t always the right answer. Sometimes, the answer is to lower it.

It’s only when you keep a close eye on what you’re eating and drinking,  that you can make educated decisions to benefit your low-carb lifestyle and eating plan. If you don’t know what you’re eating and drinking, you can’t make the necessary changes that will enable you to reach your weight-loss goals.

The Danger of Focusing Only On Carbs

Like most low-carb folks, this particular person lost those 45 pounds mindlessly, by focusing only on carbohydrates. If you only have 30 or 40 pounds to lose, from beginning to end, that might work nicely for you. But for those of us who started out with over a hundred pounds to lose, it’s a completely different ballgame.

From what I’ve seen throughout the years, 50 pounds seems to be about the maximum that works mindlessly. After that, you have to either count calories, start paying attention to quantities or serving sizes, or find some other way to limit the amount of food you’re eating. Why? Because a smaller body needs fewer calories to function, and because dieting itself will lower our metabolisms by at least 10%.

The three nutrients we have to work with are protein, carbohydrates, and fats. Since the amount of protein you eat should be set to maintain your muscle mass, and carbs should be set in line with your insulin sensitivity or resistance, that only leaves dietary fats to play with. Yet, it’s dietary fats that bring the loudest noise and controversy.

It's NORMAL to Have to Lower Your Fats As You Approach Goal Weight
(Photo by Craig Dugas)

People just don’t want to hear that it’s NORMAL to have to lower your dietary fats as you get nearer and nearer to goal. They fell in love with the high fat intake they could get away with when they weighed over 200 pounds, and they want that love affair to continue. The danger in doing that, of course, is that at some point, you will balance your calorie intake and energy output and you’ll hit maintenance before you’re ready to stop dieting.

To Reach Your Dietary Goals, Calories Matter

Most people who have actually reached goal weight doing a low-carb diet will tell you that when you get close to goal weight, calories matter. For me, calories started to matter about 50 pounds into my journey. Although cutting down portion sizes isn’t a fun prospect, the lengths to which you have to go depends on your current dietary habits and tastes.

Cutting calories doesn’t have to be brutal. It can be more like a gentle wave if you can find a bit of wiggle room, such as the amount of heavy cream in your coffee or protein shakes. While some people have switched from heavy cream to organic half-and-half, others prefer to cut down on the amount of coffee they drink instead of going lighter. It’s all a matter of what’s important to you, and what you can live with, of course.

The idea isn’t to cut down to the point to where you feel deprived. The point is to take an honest, realistic look at what you’re doing right now, and make simple, almost unnoticeable adjustments you can live with. For example, this man decided to give up one cup of coffee per day. Instead of four cups, he lowered his coffee drinking to three. He also dropped his 3-1/2 tablespoons of heavy cream per cup to 2 level tablespoons instead.  

 The result? The weight started coming off again, and quickly.

Where Are YOUR Calories Sneaking In?

Where Are YOUR Calories Sneaking In?
(Photo by Yarden Sachs)

Everyone doesn’t abuse the heavy cream they pour into their coffee. Some people use lots of heavy cream in their protein shakes or chocolate pudding. Others mindlessly use high-fat cream sauces with lots of butter and cream cheese, eat coconut oil off of a spoon, pop chunks of cream cheese into their mouths for a snack, or stir a quarter of a cup or more of mayonnaise into their tuna or egg salad. Just because heavy cream in your coffee isn’t your downfall, that doesn’t mean there aren’t excess calories sneaking into your diet.

So, where are YOUR calories sneaking in?

If you’ve made similar discoveries of your own, please take a moment and share what you’ve learned in the comments section below.

Celebrate Cinco de Mayo With a Low-Carb Fiesta!

Celebrate Cinco de Mayo With a Low-Carb Fiesta!

Special Event Diet

Celebrate Cinco de Mayo With a Low-Carb Fiesta!
(Photo by Paul Stein)

I’ve never been able to get too excited about low-carb recipes that try to trick your mind into believing you’re eating something that tastes as good as the high-carb foods and recipes you used to love. Because they don’t. If the mind is craving potato salad, steamed cauliflower mixed with mayo isn’t going to taste like potatoes. Even when you add pickles, olives, chopped hard-boiled eggs, and green onions to make it look like potato salad, it’s still going to taste like cauliflower mixed with mayo. Something similar happens to the taste buds when you try to make your own low-carb tortillas.

Since I don’t eat low-carb tortillas, it has been difficult coming up with a list of decent low-carb substitutes for the tacos, enchiladas, and burritos that are traditionally used to celebrate Cinco de Mayo. If your carbohydrate tolerance has room for an occasional 30 to 35 net-carb dinner, or you can safely eat 60 net carbs per day, you can do alright with a couple of corn tortillas (22 net carbs, 120 calories), salad, and vegetables, but many low-carb dieters cannot afford to eat that many carbs at a single meal.

What is Cinco de Mayo?

Cinco de Mayo means the fifth of May. It’s often confused with Mexican Independence Day, but it celebrates their liberation from European invaders that occurred during the Battle of Puebla in 1862. Surprisingly, Cinco de Mayo isn’t a major holiday in Mexico. It’s only celebrated in the state of Puebla, where the battle took place. It’s a much larger holiday in the U.S. That’s because activists in the ‘60s wanted a way to raise the awareness of the American people for Mexican culture. It worked. Americans love to party! And Cinco de Mayo made a tasty holiday with all of those tacos, enchiladas, and burritos.

Cinco de Mayo Low-Carb Fiesta Ideas

A Mexican feast isn’t a feast without salsa and chips, but on a low-carb diet, tortilla chips are not on the acceptable foods list. That doesn’t mean you can’t enjoy the salsa, but you do have to find something different to dip in it. How about some crunchy pork rinds, homemade cheese chips, or microwaved pepperoni slices? My kids used to open up a package of cream cheese, plop it onto a salad plate, pour some salsa over the top, and then scoop it all up with low-carb almond thins. And while you at it, don’t forget to open up an avocado or two for some delicious guacamole.

Burrito Bowl: Just as sandwiches and burgers can be eaten without the bread, tacos, enchiladas, and burritos can also be eaten in a bowl without the tortillas. To make it easy, and more tasty, simply throw your meat (chicken, beef, or pork) into a crock pot, add some chopped onions, bell peppers, garlic, and a can or two of green chilies, and then let it cook on low heat for the day. You could also add a can of black soybeans, drained, some green salsa, or chopped tomatillos if you want to.

At dinner time, simply smash the mixture into chunks or shreds, and scoop it into a bowl. You can top the burrito filling with salsa, sour cream, grated cheese, diced avocado, sliced olives, green onions, or some chopped jalapenos.

Mexican Fajitas: This is traditionally made with sliced beef or chicken, but you could use pork, turkey breast, or even shrimp if you wanted to. Slice the meat into thin slices (keep shrimp whole), then cut each slice into thick matchsticks. Place in a large bowl. Sprinkle the meat with about 1/2 teaspoon of baking soda. Add 1/4 cup lime juice, 2 tablespoons soy sauce, 1 teaspoon of chili powder, 1 teaspoon cumin, and a little sweet basil. Some garlic and onion powder would also be nice. Allow the meat to marinate for several hours to tenderize.

At serving time, slice up some onions, jalapeno peppers, and sweet bell peppers. It’s prettier if you use a couple of different colored peppers. Drain the meat well, then saute it with the veggies in a large frying pan until it’s as done as you like it. Add some chopped cilantro and continue cooking until the cilantro wilts. Serve with salsa and sour cream.

While you don’t have to stick with traditional Cinco de Mayo foods, my life has been a bit crazy lately, so I haven’t been stepping out of the box too much. Plus, corn tortillas easily fit into my 60-carb meal plan.

How Many Carbohydrates Can You Eat and Still Be Low Carb?

How Many Carbohydrates Can You Eat and Still Be Low Carb?

Questions??

The masses within the low-carb community tend to stick to about 20 to 35 net carbohydrates per day. The current perspective on Ketosis is that it takes 50 grams or less for most people to maintain that metabolic state. You’d think that asking, “How low is low carb?” would be rather silly. Wouldn’t the obvious answer be less than 50 carbohydrates per day?

How Low is Low Carb?

Well, maybe…but maybe not. How low is low carb exactly?

Like almost anything, it all depends on which low-carb expert you ask, and how much weight you place on their theory and belief. It wasn’t very long ago that the same people who are currently trying to talk us into converting to a low protein, low carb, high-fat lifestyle (for our own good, of course) were preaching something very different.

Gluten Exposure Has Resulted in Weight Gain 

Understanding where the line is between a low-carb diet and something else is particularly important to me because I’ve recently found myself in the unwelcomed position of having gained back some of my weight due to a heavy gluten exposure I wasn’t aware of. I knew I was sick. In fact, my husband and I have been sick since Christmas. It felt like I was being glutened on an almost daily basis, but there didn’t seem to be anything out of place.

Still…my blood glucose levels were high. My weight was climbing – all signs of gluten exposure – as well as the gastrointestinal problems, but I couldn’t figure out where the gluten was coming from. I was quite worried because I’d returned dairy and corn back to my diet (corn derivatives, not corn itself) and was doing okay with them until this strange sickness struck. I didn’t want to live without dairy again. Although I’d recovered in January from the flu aspect of what was going on, the gluten-like symptoms never went away and just kept getting worse.

Finding the Gluten

Part of the problem has turned out to be my husband’s beef jerky that he takes in his lunch. He fell at work a few months ago and shattered a tendon in his left thumb, so I’d been cutting up his Teriyaki jerky for him. Normally, the jerky comes into the house factory sealed and leaves in his lunch the same way. Although it isn’t gluten free, I’ve never gotten glutened by it.

After I realized that the jerky had contaminated my serrated knifes, cutting board, and hands, and I stopped using those knifes and bought a new board, I was still sick. Although it has taken me a long time to clue into the fact that my problem was gluten, once I came to that realization, it didn’t take long to find the culprit.

Turned out to be the beef and chicken broth I was using to make chicken-vegetable soup. I have often heard people talk about becoming more lax in buying gluten-free food as time goes on, and that many celiacs have the type of experience I’ve just went through, but I didn’t understand what they were talking about until now. Apparently, I fell into the same trap myself. I forgot to check on the brand of broth I was using, to make sure it was gluten free.

Where Do I Go From Here?

I threw out everything in my kitchen that had been contaminated – everything plastic, my non-metal utensils, and my knives, of course – and started fresh, but now I need to do something about my weight.

• My knee is acting up.
• My neuropathy is back.
• My vertigo has been worse for quite some time now.
• My lipid test results in December were bad,
• And my overall metabolism has tanked.

It’s taken me weeks to figure out that all of that might be gluten related. I’m not a stranger to the idea that gluten causes weight gain, but only recently learned how. Apparently, when the immune system gets confused and starts attacking your small intestine, it accidentally destroys the villi which is how your body absorbs the nutrients you eat. Since you have blunted, short, or no villi (depending on the degree of damage), your body goes into starvation mode. When that happens, your body has two choices:

1. It can let everything you eat pass right through you, or
2. It can drastically slow down your metabolism, so it can store a lot of what you eat as fat.

Currently, my blood glucose levels are excellent, which means that I’ve found all of the gluten sources that were messing with me. But my metabolism is very slow. How slow, I don’t know. The last time I tested my metabolism, it was at 10 calories per pound, but I don’t know if it’s dropped lower than that now, or not. In addition, I have a tendency to go into gluconeogenesis whenever I restrict my carbs too low.

At 20 net carbs per day, my blood glucose levels go up to diabetic levels. The last time I did a clean Atkins Induction, that happened in as little as 10 days. Low-carb, as the low-carb community currently defines it, also causes me to have daily vertigo attacks, which I just don’t want to go through anymore. So it looks like I’m back to experimenting on myself again. However, before I do that, I wanted to know how many carbohydrates make up a low-carb diet? Where's the line? How low is low carb?

Leaning Toward the Old Weight Watcher’s Exchange Program

The definition for a low-carb diet varies a little bit from source to source, but it’s nowhere near the extreme levels of restriction that the low-carb community has always preached it is. In fact, even popular researchers who believe in low-carb diets call anything less than 30 carbs per day a “very” low-carb diet,” not a standard low-carb diet. I was very surprised by that.

I’ve known that I’ve needed to do something about my weight for several weeks now, but wasn’t exactly sure what I wanted to try next. I had good results doing the Old Weight Watcher’s Exchange Program when I was younger, which is what I’ve been talking about at my “After Low Carb Blog” lately, but I stalled at around 160 pounds on Weight Watcher’s, exactly at the same place where I stalled in my low-carb journey.

Today, I know that the symptoms I suffered back then was tanked Leptin levels, but I didn’t know that then. Instead of moving to a maintenance level of calories, which is what I should have done, I quit dieting all together.

Ever since my Nutritional Ketosis fiasco, I’ve been leaning towards doing the old Weight Watcher’s program again, rather than a strict low carb diet. But, I haven’t felt well enough to take on that type of commitment. I did join Weight Watcher’s Online, a few months ago, because several people doing a low carb diet have said how easy it is to combine the two programs, but I didn’t last more than a month there. I couldn't see the advantage in counting Points. I found it quite a hassle, and quite frankly, not worth the money they were charging for what you got. My review of that experience can be found here.

However, with my weight having risen lately to a little less than 195 pounds now, sick or not, I can’t wait much longer. I have to do something fairly soon, but I wanted to first define what a low-carb diet actually is before I started designing something to fit my current metabolism.

What I’m interested in is a good, solid nutritional program, so with that in mind, I did a little research over the past week about carbohydrate levels that still qualify as a low-carb diet. Not that it matters how low a low-carb diet actually is, since I’ve never been one to follow protocol anyway, but I was curious.

How many carbohydrates can I eat and still be able to call what I’m doing a low-carb diet?

Where’s the Line that Divides a Low-Carb Diet from Something Else?

The American Diabetes Association in a position statement they made in January of 2007, took a round-about way of disclosing that their definition of a low-carb diet was any carbohydrate level of less than 130 grams per day. Previous to that, the American Family Physician had published an article on low-carb diets in June of 2006. That article defined a low-carb diet as being 20 to 60 grams per day. That was far less than the ADA and more in line with what the low-carb community preaches.

But more recently, the Nutrition and Metabolism Society in June of 2011 set a range that seemed to include all of these definitions: 30 to 130 grams per day. That range fell right in line with the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition article that Eric Westman, Richard Feinman, Mary Vernon, Jeff Volek, Stephen Phinney, and others participated in where they defined:

• a “very” low-carb diet as being 20 to 50 grams of carbohydrates per day, and
• a low-carb diet as being to 50 to 150 grams per day

Interestingly, the Old Weight Watcher’s Exchange Program comes in at 119 carbs per day, plus whatever you decide to spend your 500 weekly calories on. I don’t know that I would want to start out that high, which is another reason I’ve hesitated just a bit, but with a few slight adjustments – a little more protein and fat, and a little less fruit – it may be a nice foundation from which to build. If nothing more, it would make a great backdoor approach for those who are having trouble sticking to a low-carb diet.

Sources:

• Diabetes Care, "Nutritional Recommendations and Interventions for Diabetes," 30:1, Jan 2007, S48-S65.
• American Family Physician, Allen R. Last, M.D., M.P.H. and Stephen A. Wilson, M.D., M.P.H., "Low-Carbohydrate Diets," 73:11, June 2006, 1942-1948.
• Nutrition in Clinical Practise, Adele H. Hite, MAT, Valerie Goldstein Berkowitz, MS, RD, CDE and Keith Berkowitz, MD, MBA, "Low-Carbohydrate Diet Review: Shifting the Paradigm," 26:3, June 2011, 300-308.
• The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, Eric A. Westman, Richard D. Feinman, John C. Mavropoulos, Mary C. Vernon, Jeff S. Volek, James A. Wortman, William S. Yancy, and Stephen D. Phinney, "Low-Carbohydrate Nutrition and Metabolism," 86:2, 2007, 276-284.