What I Learned From Diet Breaks, Free Meals and Refeeds

What I Learned From Diet Breaks, Free Meals and Refeeds

(This is part 7 of a multi-part series on How to Tweak a Low Carb Diet. It explains the path I have traveled in my weight loss journey so far. If you didn’t read part 1, you can do so by clicking on the how-to link. Part 1 also includes links to the rest of the series.)

My diet break obviously refilled my glycogen stores, since I was eating more carbohydrates, but that wasn’t a surprise. I was okay with the eight-pound weight regain because everything happened exactly as Lyle McDonald said it would. Although each of us have the potential to hold different amounts of glycogen in our liver and muscles, there was no reason to believe those eight pounds were fat.

I was used to inputting everything I ate into Fitday, and that didn’t stop during my break, so it was easy to keep tabs on my daily calorie count. That helped to keep me zeroed into maintenance. Overall, my complete diet break went well, except that I took my husband’s suggestion and enjoyed a full month off from dieting that December rather than the two weeks I had originally planned.

What I learned during that time was that as long as I didn’t go over my maintenance level of calories – about 2300 calories per day to maintain 180 pounds – once my glycogen stores refilled, my weight stayed stable. I did not gain back my weight, even though I was not following a low carb protocol. Granted, this was only for a short period, one month, but I saw no reason why a lengthier diet break would have made a difference as far as weight regain. I was learning quickly that the bodybuilding community knew what they were talking about.

However, I was hesitant when it came to consistent free meals and refeeds. That went totally against low carb theory, but I wasn’t the only one at Low Carb Friends who was doing the Rapid Fat Loss Diet. There were several of us experimenting with those principles. I found that particularly helpful because as we each weighed ourselves daily and posted those numbers, we could see the water weight fluctuations that occurred from free meals and refeeds and how those fluctuations affected us similarly.

The diet was pretty much what I had done before: very lean meats, protein shakes and veggies. It did have some major differences though. Protein intake depended on the amount of lean body mass you have and the type of activity (aerobic vs weight lifting) you planned to do. Generally, for the average non-bodybuilder low carber, protein needs are about 1 gram per pound of lean body mass. That would place my protein consumption at around 100 grams of protein per day.

Bodybuilders generally use 1-1/2 grams of protein per pound of lean muscle mass. I was doing a small amount of weight lifting around that time, in addition to about 20 minutes of aerobics, and wanted to error on the side of caution – so I upped my protein to 120 grams. I took six extra-strength fish oil capsules per day for essential fatty acids and ate two servings of low-fat cottage cheese. One in my protein shake, and one just before going to bed.

I was also eating more calories and carbohydrates during this period than I was on my modified Kimkins plan, and more than most of the other women at Low Carb Friends were eating. I ate around 1200 calories and 35 grams of carbohydrates, mostly in the form of fibrous vegetables. I did use a little soy sauce, some sugar-free maple syrup, and fresh ginger for marinades to keep my chicken breast tolerable and I used sugar free catsup or mustard to top my burgers.

In addition, Lyle has a strict policy regarding how long you can stay on the plan. This was one of the most important aspects I learned about crash dieting. Taking a maintenance break was opposite to the way Kimmer did things, but my experience with that complete diet break taught me it was best.

I was still quite heavy for my five-foot frame, so I could stay on the program for as long as 12 weeks before I had to take a mandatory two-week diet break. However, about three or four weeks into the diet, I started having what appeared to be severe hypoglycemia attacks. Since I didn’t know what to do about them, I moved to maintenance sooner than I hoped and stayed there for several weeks – allowing my body to recover from whatever was going on.

I tried to return to a low carb diet several times, but my metabolism started crashing much quicker than before. My body wasn’t handling ketosis very well anymore, and I started to experience a reoccurrence of some intestinal issues and nerve inflammation I’d had before I first started the Atkins’ Diet in 2007. In addition, I started having heart palpitations and pain. Now, the easy explanation for all of this was increased insulin due to the refeeds, which many well-meaning low carbers threw at me, but that’s not what it turned out to be. Refeeds do not cause explosive diarrhea and intestinal inflammation.

I am a big believer that nothing happens by accident. Our journey takes us where we need to be at that moment. That’s why I have a more laid back attitude in regards to the whole Kimkins thing. Somewhere around this time, someone discovered that the photos Kimmer had posted of herself at Low Carb Friends and at her website were fake. They were not pictures of her at all. She had never used her own diet plan to lose any weight.

This was a big deal for many low carbers, and they felt angry about her deception, but since many of her dieting principles had saved me from a life of obesity and pain, I took a backseat approach to it all. Mostly, because her size and deception didn’t invalidate what I had learned about myself.

The other thing I was introduced to during this period was wheat intolerance. There were a handful of women doing refeeds at the Beyond Low Carb forum, who had to use carb sources other than wheat. Instead of loading up on breads and cereals, they ate brown rice and sweet potatoes because when they ate wheat, they became inflamed, sick and unable to lose weight. That really struck home with me, and I began investigating the potential for food intolerances and allergies to affect weight.

One of the first things I did was to begin checking my blood glucose levels myself, such as Dr. Bernstein recommends, because I’d been diagnosed with pre-diabetes many years ago. My glucose readings were not at diabetic levels, but high enough to cause Neuropathy. That pointed to metabolic problems, but the solution wasn’t as easy as most low carbers would think because even simple vegetables like zucchini or a meal with absolutely no carbohydrate content were sending my glucose levels high enough to cause nerve damage. Even a two-week return to the Atkins Induction Diet sent my blood sugar soaring.

For me, the problem turned out to be gluten, not carbohydrates, and strangely enough, I owe that discovery to Kimmer and my modified Kimkins Diet. That’s another reason why I’ve remained neutral throughout all of the Kimkins controversy. If I had not gone on that modified Kimkins Diet, I would never have figured out my health problems. I would still weigh over 200 pounds, and I would still be in pain and sick.

On the Kimkins plan, I was eating gluten and dairy free. I felt good. I experienced no hunger. I had no blood glucose issues. So I took that realization and implemented it into my maintenance diet. Surprisingly, when I eliminated all forms of gluten, my blood glucose levels corrected themselves provided I kept within a particular carbohydrate margin. That margin (when compared to low carb dieting) was high: 20 to 40 grams of carbohydrates per meal always resulted in normal blood glucose control.

Later on, that margin widened considerably when I also removed dairy. In fact, as long as I was eating absolutely no gluten or dairy (a GFCF Diet) I could even eat a piece of gluten free chocolate cake and see no rise in blood sugar levels above 95 mg/dl. So my experiences with low carb eating, diet breaks and refeeds have differed from the norm.

I don’t know how my body would respond to refeeds now that I’ve eliminated all of my food intolerances including corn. The refeeds were not what I was focused on then. While many low carbers turned to refeeds because it gave them an opportunity to eat many of the foods they had been missing, my focus has always been on my health and what works for me. However, I still had one more major lesson to learn about weight loss, low carb diets and sustainability.

Part 8: Weight Loss, Low Carb Diets and Sustainability

The K-E Diet: Latest Fad Diet Casts Shadow on Low Carb Diets

The K-E Diet: Latest Fad Diet Casts Shadow on Low Carb Diets

Low Carb Diet Questions??

Tracy Rose, the Topic Editor at Suite101 for the Weight Loss Section, posted a link on Facebook this morning to her latest diet article. This article deals with the latest trend being marketed to brides: the K-E Diet.

Now, we know that low carb diets in general are not new, and we know that when followed correctly, protein-sparing modified fasts are not dangerous. In fact, if you’re relatively free from additional food sensitivities, allergies and health issues, low carb programs are easy to implement and many varieties offer a luxurious living style.

The latest fad diet (the K-E method) casts a dark shadow over low carb and PSMF diets. It involves inserting a feeding tube through your nose and into your stomach. This feeding tube delivers a protein solution that totals about 800 calories per day, so in essence, this diet scheme is a low carbohydrate protein sparing modified fast. You don’t eat. You just take in this solution of protein and fat for 10 days and magically shed 20 pounds before the big day.

So why don’t dieters just drink the solution?

The creators of the K-E plan believe that a continuous infusion of the solution throughout the day will prevent the hunger you would have were you to take the feeding orally. They also believe that tube feedings will cause the body to break down more fat stores and protect more muscle tissue. They claim that their diet plan has been shown to be more effective than a liquid PSMF Diet, and because the solution contains no carbohydrates, it works faster than Atkins or South Beach.

Okay – so it’s a high-priced crash dieting scheme to help these women fit into a smaller wedding dress that must be overseen by a physician. They know that going in. They know this is a temporary fix because they have to take their feeding tube with them everywhere they go throughout those 10 days. They know their eating habits haven’t changed, so they might realistically regain that excess body fat.

So what’s the problem? It puts these women into ketosis, it allows them to drop some excess body fat and it gives them peace of mind that they will be able to fit into their wedding dress. The program only lasts for 10 days, and since we know that ketosis isn’t dangerous, what’s the harm?

Oddly enough, it isn’t the diet itself that’s casting a shadow over low carb programs, although it certainly is a drastic way to go. The problem for low carb diet plans is those who oppose the K-E diet. They are playing to the myths surrounding dietary ketosis that the low carb communities have been trying to correct since Dr. Atkins first published his low carb diet book back in the early 70s.

Those who oppose this K-E dieting style are justifying their position by claiming that ketosis is unhealthy and dangerous. Most of these opponents are pointing to potential kidney and liver problems, potential side effects and secondary conditions that can come from wearing a feeding tube, the dangers of losing weight too quickly and are even going so far as to call ketosis starvation mode.

Ketosis isn’t starvation and it doesn’t create kidney or liver problems unless you already have kidney or liver issues before you go onto a low carb diet plan. Ketosis is an alternative metabolic pathway to glucose metabolism, and it occurs naturally as a life survival mechanism. It keeps blood glucose levels steady. The body turns to its stored body fat for fuel even on standard low calorie diets whenever glucose or calories are in short supply.

But as the warnings against this latest diet fad grows, and we know they will, so will the misconceptions surrounding standard or slightly tweaked low carb diets. Everything we have fought so hard to overcome will be reversed. I can’t help but wonder how far back this is going to push us now.

So, what do you think?

Lyle McDonald’s Rapid Fat Loss Diet – Taking a Full Diet Break

Lyle McDonald’s Rapid Fat Loss Diet – Taking a Full Diet Break

Low Carb Diet Questions??

(This is part 6 of a multi-part series on How to Tweak a Low Carb Diet. It discusses my weight loss journey so far. If you didn’t read part 1, you can do so by clicking on the how-to link. Part 1 also includes links to the rest of this series.)

At one time or another, most dieters get caught up in the desire of wanting to lose weight fast. That actually worked to my advantage because Lyle McDonald originally created his Rapid Fat Loss Plan (a whole foods PSMF Diet) to deal with crash diets safely. While McDonald’s focus is on bodybuilding, muscle retention, and metabolism, maintaining muscle mass during dieting is to everyone’s benefit – quick weight loss or not.

The Kimkins fiasco brought the protein content of a low carb diet into the limelight. Dr. Eades’ did have recommendations for low carbers to shoot for. He talked about large, medium, and small servings of protein (five, four or three ounces) at each meal depending upon how much you currently weigh, getting 35 grams of carbohydrates per day, and keeping your fat intake under control until you reached goal weight – which most people ignored.

Contrary to all of the controversy going on about protein intake, Lyle McDonald uses a more individualized approach. His diet bases protein content on the amount of lean muscle mass you have, plus the amount of activity you plan to do during the diet phase of the program, as well as the type of activity. Weight lifters needed more protein than those doing just aerobics, and both of those categories need more protein than those not exercising at all.

This made much more sense to me, rather than a blanket type of protein intake that was set according to your current body weight because even though I’m only five feet tall, I have a large build. That means I’m carrying around at least 10 to 15 pounds more muscle and bone than the average person. So McDonald’s diet interested me for its individuality as well as its unique angle.

Now, if you just looked at the diet itself, it is very similar to Kimkins. Very lean meat and poultry, fibrous vegetables and little else. However, Lyle McDonald built safety precautions into the diet to keep adequate protein and essential fatty acids in front of each person. The more muscle mass you have, the more very lean protein you eat. The more lean meat you eat, the more calories your diet will have. There is no set calorie limit for Lyle’s plan.

He also drastically cut carbohydrates, allowing only vegetable carbs. Limiting yourself to just vegetable carbs keeps the diet as low in calories as is save for each individual because added fats were also not allowed. Essential fatty acids come from 10 grams of fish oil capsules per day. In addition, two servings of non-fat or low-fat dairy for calcium content is also recommended. We were also cautioned to heavily use what’s known as light salt due to low carb’s tendency towards dehydration. That’s a potassium and salt combination to season your food; but, herbs and spices are also okay. Some people step over the line a little bit and use things like soy sauce as well.

At that time, I still didn’t know I was a celiac. So I was still eating gluten, dairy and corn. That fact is important to the results because Lyle’s diet also incorporates free meals and refeeds. For my size, I wasn’t supposed to do refeeds. I was still too fat. I was supposed to do two free meals a week instead, but I’d been on a low carb diet for so long and was struggling with extreme hunger and mental issues in regards to food, that I KNEW my Leptin levels had crashed.

After reading everything on Lyle’s forum, and three of his books several times, I decided to take the plunge. However, looking back now, I can see that was a mistake. Initially, I totally missed the part about crashed Leptin and HOW to fix it.

I was coming to this new table from a low carb diet point of view – the point of view that believes a diet is a lifestyle – and that totally skewed my thought process and understanding of the principles behind dieting. I hate to say that, but it’s true. We low carbers have a particular mindset when it comes to dieting and switching gears is difficult.

So it took two weeks of following The Rapid Fat Loss Diet before I accepted defeat. Now, I don’t mean defeat in terms of giving up on dieting. What I mean is that by going from Atkins 92 to The Protein Power Lifeplan, to Atkins 72, to Kimkins, to Atkins 2002, to Dr. Eades' liquid protein shake diet, to Lyle’s Rapid Fat Loss program with no diet break in between any of that, I was setting myself up to fail. Why? Because a low carb diet lowers thyroid output for many individuals. A low carb diet can lower your metabolism. A low carb diet can also cause your Leptin levels to crash.

A low carb diet can essentially stop working if you don’t take a break from dieting long enough to reset your hormone levels. That’s the truth that few low carb dieters are willing to face. What hardly anyone ever sees is that Dr. Atkins himself KNEW that. He would personally place his patients on thyroid medication temporarily to get them the rest of the way to goal. Since we don't have that luxury, we have to tweak our low carb diets to make them continue working for us.

I admit, that before I started that two-week diet session, I did take a weekend off from low carb dieting, and I indulged in a weekend-long refeed. I went out for pizza. I ate brownies and homemade bread. I ate things I’d been missing over the prior two years. I did that because I wanted to test Lyle McDonald’s theories. They were different from what I’m been hearing within the low carb community because the low carb folks believe carbohydrates is ALL that matters. Lyle believes calories are all that matters.

Even though Lyle’s ideas sounded logical to me (low carb was failing me, afterall), I didn’t know if what Lyle and his friends believed would hold true for me. So I dove into the deep end of the refeed pool, and I suddenly discovered I could swim -- easily, in fact. So easily, that water weight gain from returning to carbohydrates didn’t even show up on the scale until Monday morning. Plus, I actually felt good for the first time in months!

My downfall was moving from that single weekend refeed into the Rapid Fat Loss Diet on Monday morning because my body had not had enough time to reset my hormone levels. Leptin needs a minimum of a two-week diet break to reset. That means two weeks and sometimes more of eating over 100 carbohydrates per day. During those first two weeks, eating one free meal and refeeding for a five hour period on the weekends, I lost a total of four additional pounds (not counting the water weight I gained from that weekend refeed, which came back off quickly).

So it was enough to know that the diet worked. It was enough to know that something was wrong with a typical low carb diet as written. It was enough to convince me that I needed to take a two-week diet break before returning to the Rapid Fat Loss Plan. So that is what I did. I returned carbohydrates to my diet all at once and ate anything I wanted for a two-week period.

Part 7: What I Learned from Diet Breaks, Free Meals, and Refeeds

How to Tweak a Low Carb Diet to Achieve Success

How to Tweak a Low Carb Diet to Achieve Success

Low Carb Diet Questions??

I’ve received a few questions lately asking me how I managed to make a low carb diet work so well for me. These questions are coming from individuals who have tried The Atkins Diet, as written, but have not found it to work as promised. With all of the various Atkins' diets to choose from – Atkins ‘72, Atkins ‘92, Atkins ’99, Atkins 2002, and the latest version called A New Atkins for a New You – which one did I use? Which version worked best for me?

Other questions have asked how to make a low carb diet work, period. What can people do when Atkins stops working or when it doesn’t work to begin with? How can you tweak a low carb diet to achieve success? So this first post is going to be an introduction to that topic, and then future posts will go more into detail of how I actually lost over 100 pounds following a low carb diet.

The Atkins Diet as written is an attempt to reach the greatest majority of individuals. It is a general guideline that works for most people, but it does not work for everyone. Why? Because we are not personal patients of Dr. Atkins. When Dr. Atkins was still alive, he did a few interviews that shed light on the overall process of low carb weight loss. In those interviews, he clearly stated that low carb products were for maintenance and special occasions only, not for the Ongoing Weight Loss portion of his diet. He also said that he had to place almost all of his patients on temporary thyroid medication to help them reach goal weight.

I saw similar problems in myself. If you have about 50 pounds or less to lose and you are new to a low carb diet, any version of The Atkins Diet will get you to goal. If you are not new to The Atkins Diet, or if you have more than 50 pounds to lose, you might have trouble. That is because the body adapts to the dieting situation we have created for ourselves.

The body quickly learns how many ketones it needs to feed the brain, heart, and other body systems and organs that use ketones for fuel. It remembers that number from dieting attempt to dieting attempt, which is why Induction tends to produce less and less weight loss each time we go on it. In addition, the body slows down metabolism, to protect our fat stores, so we burn fewer calories as the diet continues. If you have developed food sensitivities, allergies or autoimmune problems along the way, those health issues will keep the intestines inflamed and interfere with the way the body absorbs nutrients and converts food and excess body fat into energy.

Once the body learns and adapts, the metabolic advantages of a low carb diet disappear. There is still the advantage of burning a few extra calories that are involved in the breakdown of protein, but over the course of the day, that isn’t very many. What results is a diet that contains no greater metabolic advantage than a general low calorie diet provides. I saw this tendency right from the get-go when I only lost 2 pounds on Induction when I started low carb dieting, yet again, at the beginning of 2007.

That was my fourth attempt to reach goal weight, so I completely stalled out within the first couple of months – even though I still weighed over 250 pounds. Although I’d had good success with the old Weight Watchers’ exchange program several years prior, my heart belonged to low carb dieting. I knew that it worked, because it had worked well for me before. In the ‘70s, I had shed my excess 40 pounds within only a couple of months.

I also knew that the principles being preached within the low carb community in early 2007 were not the same principles that were taught in connection with low carb dieting at the end of 1999. At that time, Dr. Atkins was still alive, so occasionally the members of the Atkins newsgroup would post his personal answers to some of the questions the members had about his diet. That is my background. It differs from those who preach the concepts of high fat and high calories. At 250 pounds, even though I am only five-feet tall and disabled, I was being told by many members of various egroups and forums that I needed to consume over 2,500 calories per day to prevent starvation mode. In fact, whenever anyone had an issue with losing weight, the general consensus is always to eat more fat!

Now, The Atkins Diet was never intended to be the high-fat diet that many within the low carb community have turned it into. Dr. Atkins has repeatedly stated that in his books, plus you can easily see that by picking up any version of The Atkins Diet and looking at the recipes found in the book. For example, in the 2002 version of the diet, the recipe for cauliflower salad uses only a quarter of a cup of mayonnaise to a whole head of cauliflower. Plus, it divides that salad into six servings for 85 calories and eight grams of fat per serving.

Likewise, a typical Induction Diet menu given in that same book consists of an omelet made with lean ham, avocado and tomato for breakfast, a Caesar salad topped with grilled chicken breast strips for lunch, and a juicy steak, roasted asparagus, a small side salad with lemon vinaigrette dressing and diet gelatin made with Splenda for dinner. The snack for the day was a stalk of celery stuffed with some herb cream cheese. While this menu is certainly higher in fat than a typical low calorie diet, it was far less fat and calories than people in the low-carb community were telling me to eat.

A quick glance at some of the weight loss success stories discussed in Dr. Atkins’ books revealed very surprising tendencies. When placed side by side, those who ate fewer calories and less fat lost weight quickly; those who ate more calories and fat lost weight slower. While weight loss isn’t a race, I had reached a point in my weight loss journey where I wasn’t losing any weight at all and needed to know why. The difference in the pattern between the various individuals was clear: The daily calories consumed and the amount of dietary fat in the diet mattered more than the amount of carbohydrate.

So, at that point, I decided that I needed to do a thorough study of all of the Atkins’ books because I realized that what Dr. Atkins taught and what the low carb community in general was saying did not agree. Unfortunately, I do not have all of Dr. Atkins’ books anymore to refer too. A couple of years ago, my sister-in-law set off a couple of flea bombs in our house that contaminated all of my possessions. That included the books in my living room bookshelf. The only possessions I was able to save were the books I had placed in a small, fully-enclosed VCR cabinet in my bedroom, plus whatever was in my bedroom closet or the garage.

That means, I no longer have a copy of the 1992 or 1999 Atkins’ books. At this stage in my journey, however, I don’t feel the need to re-buy them. So I won’t be able to prove what was in them, except for perhaps the quotes I’ve used in previous posts. Since proving my position isn’t what the questions I’ve been receiving lately are about, I plan to just move forward with this series such as things are and be more forthcoming than I was in my previous posts.

At that time, there was a lot of controversy going on within the low carb community regarding safe and unsafe low-carb practices, which isn’t being debated today. Today, there are far more individuals who have found themselves in my same position than there was then. Although low carb as written can help many individuals to reach their goals, perhaps my own personal experiences with tweaking a low carb diet can be of benefit to those who struggle to make them work.


Part 2: My First Attempt at Tweaking: Very Low Carb and Zero Carb Diets
Part 3: Atkins Versus Kimkins: Learning to Tweak My Low Carb Diet
Part 4: My First Experience with Low Fat Low Carb Dieting
Part 5: My First Protein Sparing Modified Fast
Part 6: What I Learned from Diet Breaks
Part 7: Lyle McDonalds Rapid Fast Loss Diet
Part 8: Weight Loss, Low Carb Diets and Sustainability
Part 9: Personalize Your Low Carb Diet with Atkins 72

12 Tricks for Getting Your Cravings Under Control

12 Tricks for Getting Your Cravings Under Control

Low Carb Styles Special Event Diet

Homemade Strawberry Ice Cream

If you hang around low carb circles for more than a couple of days, you’re sure to hear the low carb mantra that says restricting carbohydrates controls cravings. The perspective is that low calorie diets make you hungry and low carb diets do not, but how true is that? Does everyone who follows a low carb diet experience relief from their cravings and excessive hunger? If they did, there wouldn’t be tons of people joining low carb groups and forums saying, “Hi guys…I’m back!”

All of us, short or tall, thin or fat, are hard-wired as infants to seek after pleasure and avoid discomfort at all costs. That’s practically the first rule we create for ourselves. By the time we reach adulthood, seeking comfort and alleviating pain is so deeply ingrained into our subconscious minds, that the steps we take to do that have become an automatic response.

When it comes to diets, all diet programs introduce us to restriction and change. That produces cravings and a strong physical or psychological need to feel pleasure. There’s nothing magical about low carb diets. They can help to control cravings for some people because protein deficiencies, nutritional imbalances and food sensitivities are corrected, but that doesn’t happen for everyone. Learning to spot, analyze and overcome cravings is essential if we want to reach our weight loss goals. Here are 12 tricks for getting your cravings under control:

1. Becoming aware of the craving is always the first step towards solving the problem. If we pretend that the problem doesn’t exist, if we don’t accept and admit that we have a problem, we cannot begin to take the essential steps required to overcome it. Observe yourself for several days to see what you are doing. Don’t self-judge, just watch how you unconsciously strive to feel pleasure and avoid discomfort.

2. Once you admit you have a problem, you are ready to begin discovering what is actually triggering the issue. Many triggers and emotional states cause us to overeat. So the first step after acceptance is to take a good look at your emotional state. Notice how uncomfortable you feel when craving something off plan. In addition, take note of your overall emotional state as well. Are you tired, stressed or frustrated? Emotional triggers can be people, events, the environment or even past memories of a happier time. They do not have to be specific foods.

3. When following a low carb diet, many people like to blame carbohydrates for making them overeat. That tendency to relieve ourselves of the responsibility for submitting to our cravings hinders us from finding constructive ways of dealing with the problem. Although placing blame is another automatic response that comes from our childhood conditioning, we need to stop doing that if we want to find ways to turn low carb dieting into a lifestyle.

4. Once we admit we have a problem, observe our emotional state, and stop blaming carbohydrates, we are ready to seek constructive ways of overcoming our cravings. One of the easiest ways to do that is to start a food journal. Record what you eat, when you eat it, how you feel at the time, and what’s going on around you. The idea is to look for strong repetitive patterns, so give yourself a good month before trying to analyze what you’re doing. The goal is to understand yourself. To know yourself, you must learn how you eat, what you eat, when you eat, and how much.

5. A food journal is a good way to spot trigger foods, events, people, and emotional conditions. Once you learn what is triggering your overeating episodes or binges, you can take logical steps to avoid those problems. For example, one of my trigger foods is mixed nuts. If they are in the house, I will eat them. I can tell myself that I am going to measure them out and stick with just that amount, but within a couple of days, I return to my programmed behavior. If I’m in weight loss mode, I can’t have them in the house. Another way of solving that problem is to just buy a 2oz individual bag when my husband and I travel up North. That turns them into a special treat that I can only have at specific intervals. That way, I don’t completely deprive myself of them, but rationally work them into my plan.

6. Cut down on food stimuli. Thinking about food, seeing it on television or on the web, and searching through recipes all activate the right frontal cortex of the brain that controls motivation and pleasure. Advertizing, snack machines, cooking shows and web videos, Facebook pages, and store displays all bombard our brains with food stimuli. Once those thoughts get into our head, it’s very difficult to get rid of them. They will make us begin to crave the possible pleasure they can bring.

7. Take a good look at the amount of stress you have in your life. Stress affects the hypothalamus. When we are under stress, the body feels threatened, so the hypothalamus signals the adrenals to release stress hormones such as cortisol and adrenaline to help us deal with the issue. When we don’t burn that excess energy physically because the threat was mental or emotional rather than physical, the brain has to find some type of adaption to rebalance the body. Many times, it does that by initiating cravings because eating brings comfort and comfort releases the stress. To combat the problem, we need to find pleasurable ways to comfort ourselves other than food.

8. Watch for food sensitivities. Cravings increase when we eat foods we are sensitive to because they bind themselves to our pleasure centers in the brain. Giving up our favorite foods isn’t easy, but it can be done if you find foods and activities to replace them with. Don’t just cut out cheese or corn derivatives or gluten without seeking ways to replace the pleasure they provide.

9. Observe how you talk to yourself. Often, feelings of deprivation come from the things we say about ourselves. When we use language such as “I can’t have a piece of cake like everyone else is having because I’m on a diet,” we set ourselves up to fail. We have branded what we can’t have as bad and tried to tell ourselves that low carb foods are good. If we hate, or even mildly dislike, vegetables we are doomed. Our inner critique is not on our side. He or she is on the side of pleasure. If we don’t honestly find pleasure in eating meat and vegetables, then our discomfort will eventually win the war. Try restructuring how you talk to yourself into something positive. Instead of telling yourself you can’t have something, tell yourself what type of pleasure you will give yourself instead – and then make sure you follow through.

10. If you have eaten enough, but find yourself craving more, try focusing on something other than food to distract yourself. Take a walk, do the dishes, take a shower or perform some other physical activity that requires mental concentration. When we keep ourselves physically active and busy, we are less hungry throughout the day.

11. Make sure you are drinking enough water. We can easily get the signals for hunger and thirst mixed up. Always go and drink a glass of water first whenever hunger strikes. Give yourself a good ten to twenty minutes, and then if you are still hungry, eat something you particularly like. Don’t try to control a craving with food or activities that are just so-so. Always remember that cravings are because the body and mind are seeking after pleasure. Give it to them.

12. Many times when we set ourselves up with a diet that we think we are going to follow for the rest of our lives, we don’t fill it with things that give us pleasure. The low calorie, low fat mindset is a deprivation mindset, and a deprivation mindset will always be temporary. Always. So if you want to succeed on a low carb diet, fill it with foods, recipes, nonfoods, and activities that you enjoy. If you are enjoying your meals because they are filled with foods you love, if you are enjoying your day because it is filled with activities you love, you will be less tempted to seek for pleasures elsewhere.

We seek after pleasure and do everything in our power to avoid discomfort. That is what we, as mortals, do automatically every single day. It doesn’t matter if we are following a low carb diet, a low calorie diet, or eating at a maintenance level of calories, that tendency still controls what we think, do, and eat. While we cannot short circuit that tendency, we can use it to our advantage. Cravings are a signal that we are somehow feeling deprived. When we feed those cravings in a healthy way, they will disappear.


If you need even more ideas for handling night time cravings, check out JoshKnowsBest's article at Infobarrel: Weight Loss Tips: Late Night Cravings. I particularly liked his idea about eating a 300-calorie diet meal to keep yourself on track.