Prediabetes Evil on low carbs

Are you eating enough? In particular, eating enough fat? There is no need to starve yourself.

I don't know much about Atkin's but LCHF works fine for me and I suppose they are similar?

Well when I started low carbing I ate lots of low carb veg to fill myself up. I drank a lot of water too. It's not good to be feeling hungry, it's really hard to stick to a diet if you are hungry.

Have you looked at LCHF? It's not so strict as Atkins and I found it kinder and easier.

http://www.diabetes.co.uk/forum/threads/a-new-low-carb-guide-for-beginners.68695/

www.dietdoctor.com/lchf

I haven't followed The Atkins Diet though I have read some of the books and cooked some of the recipes. I follow LCHF. Atkins Phase I is pretty tough.

I just threw out anything over 10g carbs per 100g and wouldn't buy more. I looked for lists of lowest carb veg and fruit online and only bought those. I photocopied library books on low carb and hunted in charity shops to find recipes that were 10g carbs per serving or less. They, with the lists of fruit & veg, gave me the basics, to then go through my recipe notebooks and cookbooks, marking anything that could be adapted LC.

I figured that 10g per meal gave me three meals plus two snacks if I wanted.

You may be thinking OMG what can I eat, but though you lose a lot of things you also gain new veg, full fat milk. cream, butter, yogurt, eggs, olive oil, nuts, pork scratchings, fish, seafood - all sorts of things.

When it comes down to it, if you've been eating a lot of carby food eg Chinese. pizza, sweets, chocolate, kebabs etc whatever diet you do will be tough. Doesn't matter which diet you do, dieting is not great.

With LCHF, provided you eat the right stuff, you can eat as much as you like. No counting calories or points. Booze isn't off limits either.

Exercise is great, it diminishes insulin resistance. Maybe you've had a lot of insulin circulating in your blood and once that begins to lower you'll be able to lose weight.

A blood glucose meter would be really helpful. It will show you which foods send your BG up. Some people on this forum can eat rolls, toast, biscuits and others can't.

People on here will offer a lot of encouragement and support. You can ask how to make 'mash' from cauliflower, low carb 'pizza' all sorts. If your BG doesn't spike ypu can eat all that stuff.

alisonbigbird said:

I have a real problem with over-eating, so i am trying to follow the diets recommended portion sizes. Atkins is really the original low carb diet and i prefer it coz it produces its own 'looky-likey' products - cereal bars, shakes and choc etc. So i can try to fool my emotional obsession with food, that i am eating carbs. Thing is i am getting sooo emotionally up and down, i feel like im gonna fail at the first hurdle!

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So it's different from LCHF then as LCHF is about eating proper unprocessed food with minimal amounts of carbs but generous amounts of fat until you are full, then you repeat when hungry again. No cereal bars, obviously as few on LCHF would put any cereal into their mouths and in general not much of merchandise to have.

Do you get counselling? There was this lovely lady who had binge eating problems and found a really good counsellor but haven't seen her around for a while.

I went to Slimming World but found their diet wasn't that good really as it allowed all sorts of junk food, so I just went for the weigh in and then followed LCHF.

Totto said:

So it's different from LCHF then as LCHF is about eating proper unprocessed food with minimal amounts of carbs but generous amounts of fat until you are full, then you repeat when hungry again. No cereal bars, obviously as few on LCHF would put any cereal into their mouths and in general not much of merchandise to have.

Do you get counselling? There was this lovely lady who had binge eating problems and found a really good counsellor but haven't seen her around for a while.

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I thought lchf meant low carb high fat?
So it's about the right type of low carb high fat as well?
And Atkins bars are out?

I found that the problem with any kind of manufactured bar is that it doesn't get you out of the habit of grabbing a pack of something in a weak moment.

There have been low carb diets around long before Dr Atkins popularized them with his version. Atkins bars unfortunately are nothing to do with him and his original low carb diet plan, and he never would have used them as part of his diet. Since his death his business has been taken over by a large commercial enterprise, and their bars are full of chemicals rather than proper foods (see here), and generally contain sweeteners in the form of maltitol, which is known to cause stomach and bowel issues. So I suspect that if you are eating these, rather than real low carb food, they will be the cause of any issues.

There are plenty of real, nutritional low carb foods that can be eaten as treats in place of high carb ones. Just have a look at our own forum member, Ewelina's low carb baking blog.

Robbity

SunnyExpat said:

I thought lchf meant low carb high fat?
So it's about the right type of low carb high fat as well?
And Atkins bars are out?

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Yes, it's about eating healthy, nutritional low carb higher fat food, not just about reducing carbs. It's quite possible to eat so called "low carb" versions of junk food too, and there's plenty of this manufactured to help us continue eating an unhealthy diet. Atkins bars are a good example, and diabetic chocolate's usually another. See the link in my previous post, which gives a list of Atkins bar contents. That's not what LCHF eating is about!

Robbity

Hi. I would forget costly Atkins branded foods and just go Low-carb with enough protein and fats to keep you full. Note that I haven't used the lchf acronym as it ignores the important protein. Any cereal bar is likely to be fairly high in carbs? have you read the ingredients on the packaging?

Robbity said:

Yes, it's about eating healthy, nutritional low carb higher fat food, not just about reducing carbs. It's quite possible to eat so called "low carb" versions of junk food too, and there's plenty of this manufactured to help us continue eating an unhealthy diet. Atkins bars are a good example, and diabetic chocolate's usually another. See the link in my previous post, which gives a list of Atkins bar contents. That's not what LCHF eating is about!

Robbity

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There'll be some disappointed people on here tonight.

(Fortunately, for me at least, my diet's about what I want to eat though. )

Just a thought but it seems like you are making this too much of 'a diet' (and diet = no fun and lots of deprivation which sets you up to fail before you start) rather than thinking about all the lovely things you can now eat because on low carb high fat you can enjoy things that you may have been told were off limits before. For example I eat dessert every day now (which I could never do before) and my dessert is a lovely bowl of raspberries and blueberries with a generous portion of double cream. I often also add a square of dark chocolate (I even cheat a bit and have the Lindt 70% dark chocolate with orange called orange intense) It's expensive but as Im only eating at most 2 squares a day it is worth it. If you enjoy bacon and eggs then that's a great breakfast and how can that feel like deprivation? For lunch i do usually have salad with dressing (lots of olive oil or occasionally a manufactured one if it 's fairly low in carbs and I'm not using much). Dinner can be fish or chicken or whatever you like with lots of veggies smothered in butter whci makes them taste delicious. I thought I didn't like veg but that's because you used to be told to have plain veg no butter or sauces - urrgh! Smother them in butter or a sauce made by adding creme fraiche and a little mustard and some spices and wow fantastic and filling.
For snacks have some nuts, a bit of cheese, a glob of pate etc.
and wash it down with a lovely glass of red wine.
I don't feel deprived at all and am thrilled to have found a new way of eating I really enjoy and it helps me lose weight and keeps blood sugars in check.