Does Low Carb = Weight Loss?

[DumfriesDik]

I have put a few posts out this morning, just happy with my bloods for once.

For the last three months, I have been working hard on reducing my carb intake to very low. Certainly, no bread, pasta, rice or potatoes. Anything with 5% carb or above I avoid. I do eat fruit and veg.

My portion size hasn't changed much, just the make up of the food on the plate.

I have started doing a bit of exercise as well, but nothing 'serious', just going for a bike ride now and then.

I have lost a bit of weight over the same period, 6kg, which is great, it wasn't my intention but do you think I can expect to keep loosing weight with very low carb diet alone?

Do I need to reduce portion size, stop snacking and do more exercise to keep the weight going down??

 

[Listlad]

It lost weight in my case. About 12kg since february. The loss in weight has levelled off a bit now though. To do that I might reduce fats a little as I have been eating a lot of fat in recent months.

 

[Antechinus]

My take is that the first 6kg is visceral fat. After that it's subcutaneous fat and that is harder to shift. Lots of things can interfere with shifting this fat. So no, not guaranteed that you will continue to lose more weight after you lose visceral fat on low carb diet.

However, I do think that LCHF/ keto is best way if you want to lose weight. My experience is that food intolerances and insulin resistance or hyperinsulinaemia will prevent ongoing weight lose.

Good article on why people stop losing weight on keto, this may give you an idea of what to look for.

www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/326484.php

 

[Goonergal]

Hi there

The short answer to that is ‘it depends’. For some people low carb leads to weight loss, for others it doesn’t.

I’d urge you to look at things from the point of view of blood sugar reduction and increasing insulin sensitivity as those things will impact most on your health.

For both of those things the keys are what you eat - and low carb is ideal- and when/how often you eat. So cutting out snacks will be helpful and if you can manage it, some intermittent fasting so that you extend the period of the day in which you don’t eat will also help. For me a side effect of both those strategies was weight loss.

Reducing portion size can be a difficult path to take. The great thing about low carb (and particularly Keto) is the ability to eat to satiety with the ability to feel full for longer. If you cut down on portion size then you risk being over hungry and/or impacting your metabolism making it difficult to achieve or maintain weight loss.

I’d recommend a read of Dr Jason Fung’s book the Obesity Code or the more recent Diabetes Code.

 

[jpscloud]

Congrats on the weight loss, and the healthy changes!

 

[Quinn1066]

low carb helps manage blood sugars, and low enough puts one in a state of ketosis, burning fat for fuel. However one has to eat at a calorie deficit to lose weight, eat less calories than you burn and you lose weight. It's a myth that a low carb diet needs to be a high fat one, that just makes weight loss harder.

 

[NicoleC1971]

I have put a few posts out this morning, just happy with my bloods for once.

For the last three months, I have been working hard on reducing my carb intake to very low. Certainly, no bread, pasta, rice or potatoes. Anything with 5% carb or above I avoid. I do eat fruit and veg.

My portion size hasn't changed much, just the make up of the food on the plate.

I have started doing a bit of exercise as well, but nothing 'serious', just going for a bike ride now and then.

I have lost a bit of weight over the same period, 6kg, which is great, it wasn't my intention but do you think I can expect to keep loosing weight with very low carb diet alone?

Do I need to reduce portion size, stop snacking and do more exercise to keep the weight going down??

Well done again on the massive blood sugar reduction.
Re weight loss, I would advise less focus on the scales and more on body fat reduction which will continue to be achieved by keeping off starch and reducing snacks that elevate your insulin levels or snacks that you are not really hungry for. I find that I will tend to over eat cheese and uuts which means my body doesn't have to tap into my fat stores to fuel itself thus leading to a stall in weight loss.
Building muscles up will also help change body composition more than long bouts of walking/cycling/treadmill work.
Incidentally a good measure of body fat is to aim for your waist (narrowest bit of you between ribs and hips NOT your trouser size) to be half of your height.

 

[jpscloud]

low carb helps manage blood sugars, and low enough puts one in a state of ketosis, burning fat for fuel. However one has to eat at a calorie deficit to lose weight, eat less calories than you burn and you lose weight. It's a myth that a low carb diet needs to be a high fat one, that just makes weight loss harder.

From my reading I understand that a low carb diet does need to be higher in healthy fat than protein, your two remaining macronutrients, since high protein can raise BG, having a significant insulin response and being converted to glucose. Fat is insulin neutral. My sources are Jason Fung, Jimmy Moore and their reference lists.

 

[ralphwtaylor]

I have put a few posts out this morning, just happy with my bloods for once.

For the last three months, I have been working hard on reducing my carb intake to very low. Certainly, no bread, pasta, rice or potatoes. Anything with 5% carb or above I avoid. I do eat fruit and veg.

My portion size hasn't changed much, just the make up of the food on the plate.

I have started doing a bit of exercise as well, but nothing 'serious', just going for a bike ride now and then.

I have lost a bit of weight over the same period, 6kg, which is great, it wasn't my intention but do you think I can expect to keep loosing weight with very low carb diet alone?

Do I need to reduce portion size, stop snacking and do more exercise to keep the weight going down??

I'd say that you should continue to keep it very low carb and, in spite of what people say, keep an eye on calories. If you can, definitely stop snacking. Try adding Intermittent Fasting by limiting the window when you eat (look up 16:8). And gentle aerobic exercise I understand is best for fat burning so keep doing that. Personally, I have lost a ton of weight on low carb, To be fair when I started this journey back July 2018 I started just doing 16:8 intermittent fasting but after a couple of months discovered low carb and, like you, cut out glucose completely, so no carbs or sugar in any form other than from green vegetables. I stopped snacking between meals and did not find that hard as with insulin production being really low I wasn't hungry between meals any more. To date I've lost 60 lbs through diet alone and just the gentlest of exercise. I've evolved (can I say that?) to just one meal a day at the moment, again naturally without any real effort, plus nearly all of my metabolic syndrome markers have been reversed and am off all diabetic meds HbA1C down to 33. I do watch calories but still eat between 1700-2000 per day to keep the metabolism going. Bringing blood glucose down happens faster than moving from insulin resistance to insulin sensitivity so keep at it.

 

[bulkbiker]

I have lost a bit of weight over the same period, 6kg, which is great, it wasn't my intention but do you think I can expect to keep loosing weight with very low carb diet alone?

Do I need to reduce portion size, stop snacking and do more exercise to keep the weight going down??

I think a bit more info about how you are currently eating might be helpful here..?
When, how often and what...

 

[DumfriesDik]

@bulkbiker Thanks for replying. Typically a day might look like this:

Wake up at 4am.
Breakfast 2 rashers, 2 fried eggs, 2 fried tomatoes at 7.30am
Snack - 2 slices Dairy Lea 9.30am
Lunch - 4 Belly Pork rashers 1pm
Snack - 2 Peperoni sticks 3pm
Snack - 2 Hard boiled eggs and Mayo 4pm
Dinner - Roast chicken (Leg), 2 pigs in blankets, 1 1/2 roasted carrots, handful of fine beans, sprouts and cabbage + gravy 6.30pm
Bed at 9pm

 

[Listlad]

Well done again on the massive blood sugar reduction.
Re weight loss, I would advise less focus on the scales and more on body fat reduction which will continue to be achieved by keeping off starch and reducing snacks that elevate your insulin levels or snacks that you are not really hungry for. I find that I will tend to over eat cheese and uuts which means my body doesn't have to tap into my fat stores to fuel itself thus leading to a stall in weight loss.
Building muscles up will also help change body composition more than long bouts of walking/cycling/treadmill work.
Incidentally a good measure of body fat is to aim for your waist (narrowest bit of you between ribs and hips NOT your trouser size) to be half of your height.

This I personally identify with as although my weight loss has slowed my physical activity levels have changed radically and more muscle has developed.

 

[ralphwtaylor]

@bulkbiker Thanks for replying. Typically a day might look like this:

Wake up at 4am.
Breakfast 2 rashers, 2 fried eggs, 2 fried tomatoes at 7.30am
Snack - 2 slices Dairy Lea 9.30am
Lunch - 4 Belly Pork rashers 1pm
Snack - 2 Pepperoni sticks 3pm
Snack - 2 Hard boiled eggs and Mayo 4pm
Dinner - Roast chicken (Leg), 2 pigs in blankets, 1 1/2 roasted carrots, handful of fine beans, sprouts and cabbage + gravy 6.30pm
Bed at 9pm

Would be good to know how active you are but I'd say from your eating pattern that in spite of being low carb you are eating too frequently to get into fat burning seriously. Basically, in spite of what you're eating being mainly protein and fat I'd take a punt at saying you're continually in insulin production. I'd guess that your calories are too high. That's from my understanding of how the body works but others should jump in to give their perspectives also.

 

[bulkbiker]

@bulkbiker Thanks for replying. Typically a day might look like this:

Wake up at 4am.
Breakfast 2 rashers, 2 fried eggs, 2 fried tomatoes at 7.30am
Snack - 2 slices Dairy Lea 9.30am
Lunch - 4 Belly Pork rashers 1pm
Snack - 2 Peperoni sticks 3pm
Snack - 2 Hard boiled eggs and Mayo 4pm
Dinner - Roast chicken (Leg), 2 pigs in blankets, 1 1/2 roasted carrots, handful of fine beans, sprouts and cabbage + gravy 6.30pm
Bed at 9pm

OK well thats quite a lot of "meals".
I try not to eat before 1 pm but have coffee with double cream in the mornings.
Then have 1 or 2 decent sized (large) meals without the snacks. If you eat large, fatty meals twice a day you'll be inducing insulin production less and should soon start to see more stable blood sugar levels.
Maybe for a week try eating your breakfast and lunch food quantities at lunchtime and then dinner. Personally I'd skip the carrots and have 2 chicken legs instead or thighs.
That's what worked for me at the start.. usually these days I'm down to one large meal a day.

 

[DumfriesDik]

Hi @ralphwtaylor, I am a wheelchair user so fairly sedentary. I do a bit of handcycling and sailing/paddling in the summer.

I agree with you and @bulkbiker , in that my calories may be too high. You both mentioned 'insulin production' and this is something I don't know about. Is the aim to increase insulin production by eating fewer carbs?

Thanks for your help

 

[Brunneria]

Hi @ralphwtaylor, I am a wheelchair user so fairly sedentary. I do a bit of handcycling and sailing/paddling in the summer.

I agree with you and @bulkbiker , in that my calories may be too high. You both mentioned 'insulin production' and this is something I don't know about. Is the aim to increase insulin production by eating fewer carbs?

Thanks for your help

Here you go

 

[DumfriesDik]

Thanks @Brunneria
I have just bought one of his books funnily enough. I need to get my head around this. Thanks for your help

 

[bulkbiker]

Thanks @Brunneria
I have just bought one of his books funnily enough. I need to get my head around this. Thanks for your help

If it's the Diabetes Code you'll find it very useful.