High Protein/Lo Carbers...Recipes and info

[Martina]

How many carbs a day do you all shoot for? I make 50 the ceiling, and most days i am around 30. I've just been doing this for about four months. There have been maybe three days when i went above 50.

I am a recently diagnosed type 2 diabetic, and eating low carb has meant i don't have to take meds for the diabetes. That makes me pretty faithful. I tried the med (a pill), and it made me sick as a dog. So low carb it is. I am also losing weight.

I can't say I've had many of the other purported benefits of low carb. I do feel less fuzzy, more clear headed. But i don't have loads of extra energy. That is probably because of other health conditions i have.

[girl_dee]

Originally Posted by Martina

How many carbs a day do you all shoot for? I make 50 the ceiling, and most days i am around 30. I've just been doing this for about four months. There have been maybe three days when i went above 50.

I am a recently diagnosed type 2 diabetic, and eating low carb has meant i don't have to take meds for the diabetes. That makes me pretty faithful. I tried the med (a pill), and it made me sick as a dog. So low carb it is. I am also losing weight.

I can't say I've had many of the other purported benefits of low carb. I do feel less fuzzy, more clear headed. But i don't have loads of extra energy. That is probably because of other health conditions i have.

20! ........i usually stay at around 20

[Martina]

Wow. 20. I admire people who can do 20. I see them on YouTube. I can't. I don't think i ever will be able to. I am happy with my 30 carb days. 20 to me means no fruit. I eat an apple or some berries almost every day. If i eat a low carb tortilla with cheese and sour cream or something like that and things just start adding up, I'll skip the fruit. But i don't want to live without it.

[*Anya*]

I had been screwing around with keto for almost two years.

I was on it strictly when I first started and was lazy keto around 30 carbs or less a day and lost weight very painlesslessly. Then I fell off the wagon.

I ate bread one day and that was it. I started craving it again and ate carbs for a while. It used to be sweets that would start a craving but I can't even eat them any longer- they are too sweet!

Anyway, when I first got really sick, probably in January, I just could not eat. I had to force myself to eat (new experience!).

I usually had 2 Atkins shakes a day (2 net carbs each) and one Sargentos balanced breaks with 12 grams of carbs.

Weight flowing off. No hunger.

I don't recommend this as an eating plan! I had a tumor that made me very, very sick.

After surgery, my appetite has come back somewhat and I am strictly keto (except for that banana bread Breathless )

I have not been counting carbs with everything that I eat. I stick to meat, low carb veggies, salads, avocados, eggs, and still drink my Atkins shakes when I don't feel like eating. I do keto sticks so that helps reinforce that I am the right track.

Keto is now almost in my DNA. I really can't imagine going back to my old way of eating.

I just got my labs back and my blood work has never been better. My doctor called me and was delighted. She took me off the statin that I had been on for a long time. My total cholesterol dropped from 200 to 156 and my triglycerides dropped from 136 to 95. The rest was great too.

In a lot of blogs and articles online, people talk about what an unhealthy diet low carb/keto is. I have not found it to be true in any way.

[Martina]

Well i am losing weight at staying under 50 carbs. I have lost 32 pounds, but it hasn't been fast. I assume that's cause I'm sedentary. I was put on statins but didn't fill the script. It was at the beginning of my low carb eating, and i wanted to see what food would do. Four months later, i no longer qualified for statins although my numbers weren't perfect. I also was diagnosed with diabetes five or so months ago, which is what caused me to begin this, and because of low carb, i do not have to take any diabetes medications. I think i said that before.

I don't think 30 grams is lazy keto. I saw a guy on YouTube who said the craze for 20 came about mostly through people getting competitive about it and that those people were not experts -- although i saw one Duke doctor on YouTube who has his patients do it. The point is if you're in ketosis, you're in ketosis. You don't get more in ketosis for eating fewer carbs. Now you might lose more weight if eating fewer carbs puts you in calorie deficit, but usually that is not the case. For low carbers the calories are in the fat.

I still haven't started tinkering with percentage of protein vs percentage of fat. I may not. I am losing weight. I am not hungry. Most of the food i eat is food food, meaning meat or fresh veg and a small amount of fruit. I do eat the occasional low carb tortilla. I love sour cream and eat some cheese. And i eat some almond butter. But most of my carbs come from fresh veg and fruit. And I'm losing. So i have no intention of cutting back on the healthiest foods on Earth.

My next effort to improve health is exercise. I have some health issues that make it harder, but I'm doing it. This was my first week, and i exercised three times. Twice i swam, and once i went to the gym.

When i see these people on YouTube eating 20 or under, they're not eating foods. They are pouring oils and supplements into a blender and calling it a meal. I will never be one of those folks.

[*Anya*]

I don't aim for 20 carbs a day either. When I posted that I was doing lazy keto before, I just wasn't more careful with how I ate. My cholesterol dropped but not as much as it did now.

As long as we are in ketosis, we are using fat for energy instead of carbohydrates. As I said, I use keto sticks instead of strictly counting carbs now. I pretty much know when I have eaten more than I should.

I eat a piece of cheese, I eat sour cream and creme cheese too. Sour cream has 0.3 grams of carbs and for example, cheddar cheese has 0.4 grams a slice. If I did not include these each day, I would never get enough fat in my diet. My cholesterol was worse on a low fat diet than it is now.

When I say that I am strict now, that means no sugar, no processed carbohydrates, all "real" food.

[Martina]

That's awesome. Sorry if i sounded defensive. It wasn't you. It's cause i watch these YouTube videos with self-righteous skinny folk, usually young guys, preaching at me about the right way to do keto. I'd love to kick one of them in a tender area.

I imagine my low carb tortillas are processed carbohydrates, but i sure do love them. I don't eat them that often. I also eat the breaded chicken sold at my neighborhood Publix. I've tested and tested, and eating it barely budges my blood glucose. And it's such a yummy treat. I tried KFC extra crispy and that did not go well. Live and learn.

I think i get most of my fats from Olive oil in salad dressings, from meat, and from the butter i so liberally apply to my vegetables. Oh some olive oil mayo too. That's processed. I love Cole slaw.

[girl_dee]

Originally Posted by Martina

Wow. 20. I admire people who can do 20. I see them on YouTube. I can't. I don't think i ever will be able to. I am happy with my 30 carb days. 20 to me means no fruit. I eat an apple or some berries almost every day. If i eat a low carb tortilla with cheese and sour cream or something like that and things just start adding up, I'll skip the fruit. But i don't want to live without it.

i am not as hard on myself about the 20 as of today (i blame Mel) than i have been. i stopped adding on a carb counter and just wing it. Not good advice but right now i have too much going on to stress about eating 21 carbs. i have been adding a little fruit here and there, and allowing myself some goodness.