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Gaining weight on low carb

lcarter

lcarter

Well-Known Member
Messages
513
Location
Nottingham
Type of diabetes
Type 2
Treatment type
Tablets (oral)
Dislikes
My pancreas
Guys,

Sorry to sound stupid but here we go.

I've been trying to keep under 30gs of carbs a day. I started at 100g a day and reduced it slowly over the course of 4 weeks to under 30g. I was not monitoring my macros or calories until I realised I was gaining weight rapidly. I was cooking everything in butter, oil on salads and cheese wherever I could get it! I did indulge in creamy coffees. Double cream. Regularly to keep my hunger at bay. I was still hungry so added even more healthy fats. Hunger did subside and I managed a while on under 30g carbs. My sugar levels were predictable and within my target range of under 8. I even did low carb baking and made carrot cakes etc. Fab stuff.

But I've gained weight, nearly 10lbs in the space of time I've been doing this.

I'm not sure what I'm doing wrong- someone told me to watch my calories- what?!

I've since gone back to eating about 200g carbs a day over past few days and boom/ tiredness and sluggish feeling returned.

Any advice would be good. I've got dr b's book and I'm going to spend some time tomorrow watching YouTube videos to help.

I'm pretty depressed that people who do low carb high fat lose tonnes of weight yet I've gained?

Thanks in advance
 
I gained about 7 or 8 kilos, but discovered that cutting out dairy has brought me back down to where I was. Other fats don't seem to make such a difference, so might be worth trying alternatives. I also seem to need less bolus insulin :)
 
Consider skipping breakfast and lunch on a few days of the week andor doing a 36hr fast each week.

Your carrot cake make have more carbs in it then you expect, so use your meter and if a meal makes your BG go up by more then 2 or a snack by more then 1, don't have them again.
 
Its a bit of a myth that you can eat as much as you like on a low carb high fat diet. The reason you can do this is because on average people are satiated quickly on a high fat diet and therefore eat LESS total calories than they would on a low fat diet.
The basic laws still apply - i.e. eat too much and you put on weight.

Most people of an LCHF diet actually eat less fat on that diet than they did in their pre-dieting low fat high carb. diets just that the fats are more easily identifiable rather than being hidden in other processed foods.

It sounds like you need to find way to break the cycle of being used to eating too much - I know for me finding a good portion size was/is really difficult.

You may also find you are making your protein portion sizes too big as well - 3-4 oz of meat is quite sufficient (i/e 100 grams) this is not much at all - a singles 10oz restaurant steak ( which is quite small) is enough for two and a half meals) .

Oftentimes the amount of food required is less than half, sometimes a third of what I was eating before. I took to making my new meals as normal, then halving them, leaving that second half in the fridge, most times if I really listened to what my stomach was telling me then I realised I could eat that second half tomorrow. There are actually quite a few diets around which suggest that lunch the next day can be the leftovers from dinner the previous day. Couple that with skipping breakfast and you should find that you can start to cope with reduced portion sizes and the idea of fasting becomes a little less worrisome .
Overall you should be aiming to eat 1g of protein per kg of lean body weight - which for a woman is often not that much. Maybe you should think about weighing a measuring stuff for a little while until you get the hang of the right sizings ? it may be that because excess proteins still convert into sugar, if you are eating too much protein , then this is itself is preventing ketosis kicking in and as such you are not getting the benefits of nutritional ketosis ( which you should be at 30g carbs and trying to lose weight.

The ketosis would remove the hunger pangs and thus allow you to run a calorie deficit as you will still need to do to lose weight. Good luck in finding an answer for you.
 
Hi @lcarter - that sounds frustrating!

I've got nothing much to add to the excellent advice and suggestions already made except to keep a food diary that lists specific times you eat, what you eat and the content of what you eat, but if you're down to 30g carbs a day, you're likely already doing that.

The tired / sluggish feeling you report since moving back to 200g carbs a day could well be your body struggling to readjust to the sudden mad increase in sugar. You've been going for 4 weeks - and have made a cracking start. Don't undo your hard work just yet; the answer's there somewhere. I think a diary could help you unlock the secret.

Good luck,

Sock x
 
CherryAA said:
Its a bit of a myth that you can eat as much as you like on a low carb high fat diet. The reason you can do this is because on average people are satiated quickly on a high fat diet and therefore eat LESS total calories than they would on a low fat diet.
The basic laws still apply - i.e. eat too much and you put on weight.

Most people of an LCHF diet actually eat less fat on that diet than they did in their pre-dieting low fat high carb. diets just that the fats are more easily identifiable rather than being hidden in other processed foods.

It sounds like you need to find way to break the cycle of being used to eating too much - I know for me finding a good portion size was/is really difficult.

You may also find you are making your protein portion sizes too big as well - 3-4 oz of meat is quite sufficient (i/e 100 grams) this is not much at all - a singles 10oz restaurant steak ( which is quite small) is enough for two and a half meals) .

Oftentimes the amount of food required is less than half, sometimes a third of what I was eating before. I took to making my new meals as normal, then halving them, leaving that second half in the fridge, most times if I really listened to what my stomach was telling me then I realised I could eat that second half tomorrow. There are actually quite a few diets around which suggest that lunch the next day can be the leftovers from dinner the previous day. Couple that with skipping breakfast and you should find that you can start to cope with reduced portion sizes and the idea of fasting becomes a little less worrisome .
Overall you should be aiming to eat 1g of protein per kg of lean body weight - which for a woman is often not that much. Maybe you should think about weighing a measuring stuff for a little while until you get the hang of the right sizings ? it may be that because excess proteins still convert into sugar, if you are eating too much protein , then this is itself is preventing ketosis kicking in and as such you are not getting the benefits of nutritional ketosis ( which you should be at 30g carbs and trying to lose weight.

The ketosis would remove the hunger pangs and thus allow you to run a calorie deficit as you will still need to do to lose weight. Good luck in finding an answer for you.
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All excellent advice. Calories and portions still matter a lot. Get the scale. Do t over eat protein or carbs and eat just enough fat to SATISFY. Dairy can cause weight gain for some of us. As well as insulin resistance. I really minimize mine. I also need to stay under 20 c per day to stay in ketosis.
 
I Think the way to go is to eat High fibre Greens in higher amount of cause the kind that are low in carbs compared to their seize. Like cucumbers tomatoes lots of green salats Onions and berries for treats . I use a lower calories cream for my berries

Worth knowing is that 1 gram fat is around 8 calories and 1 gram carbs or protein is only 4 calories so fat very easily climbs up the numbers of calories
 
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