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Just got this from facebook

@Robbity , as I understand it, less than 130gr of carb per day can be called low carb. It's not where I would put to break off point for terminology, but that's where it is, I gather.
 
serenity648 said:
as i understand it, carb calculation means the total amount of carbs you eat during the day, regardless of what foods those carbs come from.

Are you confusing it with low or high GI foods?

If someone has 50g of carbs as potato, or as any other carb containing food or drink, it is still 50g of carbs. Isnt it?

what do you mean by a high carb food? There may be more carbs, weight for weight, in some foods than other foods, but 50g of carbs is still 50g, regardless of how you choose to make up that amount.

I dont understand how some people can say they eat no carb foods if you are right that they actually do eat some. I thought that no-carbers do exactly that - they eat no carbs.

I do not agree that it is confusing and befuddling or counter productive to clarify these terms and understand exactly what is meant.
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I'm with @Robbity here. I would class high carb foods as those that are more than say 10% carb and would include pasta, potatoes, bread and rice in that range and would avoid them. I personally only eat carbs in the form of cream and green veg and salad and a few here and there from other foodstuffs. I do describe my diet as ultra low carb though and would certainly target less than 20g of carbs per day. Yes I guess I could eat 20g of carbs in the form of pasta in a day but that would a very small portion and seems a bit pointless to me when I could have a whole cauliflower instead. Just one perspective but one which has worked very well for me. I guess I would describe my way of eating now as Ketogenic rather than LCHF although that is a recent modification for me. I have always been very low carb though.
 
Rice, pasta, bananas, potatoes and a glaring lack of fat in that photo - not very close to LCHF.
But, it's probably not easy to find a stock photo that closely reflects LCHF.
 
Yes, but it is a low carb programme being discussed in the article. Not a low carb high fat one.

Getting the word out, and spreading a healthier diet happens in step changes. It is a gradual process. There will always be some (like me) who need to take things further than just low carb (into keto territory, and with 'high' fat), but that isn't the subject of the article. Plus, of course, the magnificent success of the Low Carb Programme shows how effective just cutting carbs can be.

Once people have discovered how effective 130g carbs or below is, they get to choose whether to go lower.
 
AndBreathe said:
@Robbity , as I understand it, less than 130gr of carb per day can be called low carb. It's not where I would put to break off point for terminology, but that's where it is, I gather.
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I agree - I wasn't actually disputing that actual carbs per day figure for a low carb diet, but querying the type of high carb food food that appears to be gaining popularity as acceptable now. When I first started looking into low carb diets at the start of 2014, I never found any reference to potatoes, rice, pasta. bread, cereals, etc being acceptable foods to include in such a diet - all high carb food was definitely on all the avoid lists. And this guidance has been pretty consistent until fairly recently - our own Low Carb forum has Viv's modified Atkins diet as a good example.

Robbity
 
NoCrbs4Me said:
So it's low carb high protein? If you cut carbs, either fat or protein intake need to go up, relatively.
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Have a look at the programme.
https://www.diabetes.co.uk/lowcarb/
It is a gentle 10 week step by step guide, allowing people to gradually learn where carbs can be found and counted, then cut down and controlled. There are weekly lessons. It is a brilliant intro for people who have not previously had to get their heads around any of this stuff. No extremism, no High Fat, just sensible food awareness and the option to take it as far as the individual would like.

Now, a fair few people are going to think 'well, if this works, I will take it to the next step', but that isn't what the programme is about. It is intended as an intro. And it works - witness the lowered blood glucose and HbA1cs, the reduced meds, and the weight loss.

Hopefully @Administrator will be able to post the talk here, and we can get to see the stats. :)
 
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Brunneria said:
Have a look at the programme. It is a gentle 10 week step by step guide, allowing people to gradually learn where carbs can be found and counted, then cut down and controlled. There are weekly lessons. It is a brilliant intro for people who have not previously had to get their heads around any of this stuff. No extremism, no High Fat, just sensible food awareness and the option to take it as far as the individual would like.

Now, a fair few people are going to think 'well, if this works, I will take it to the next step', but that isn't what the programme is about. It is intended as an intro. And it works - witness the lowered blood glucose and HbA1cs, the reduced meds, and the weight loss.

Hopefully @Administrator will be able to post the talk here, and we can get to see the stats. :)
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I looked at week 1. They said 120 - 150 grams of carbs (so about 480 to 600 calories a day from carbs), but nothing about fat or protein. I'm guessing they tell people to avoid saturated fat and red meat and eat lots of vegetables. I don't consider a diet high in fat extreme. I'm at around 200 grams of fat a day, all animal fat. Still, I have no doubt this programme is better than the healthy plate guideline or whatever it's called these days.
 
serenity648 said:
as i understand it, carb calculation means the total amount of carbs you eat during the day, regardless of what foods those carbs come from.

Are you confusing it with low or high GI foods?

If someone has 50g of carbs as potato, or as any other carb containing food or drink, it is still 50g of carbs. Isnt it?

what do you mean by a high carb food? There may be more carbs, weight for weight, in some foods than other foods, but 50g of carbs is still 50g, regardless of how you choose to make up that amount.
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I agree. To me, it is all down to portion size. I am low carb, around 30g a day, mostly less, but I have none at breakfast, very very few at lunch and the rest at evening meal. This works for me and means I can, and do, eat a couple of small potatoes incorporated in my 30g. If I had been told absolutely no potatoes right at the beginning of my journey I would have given up there and then. I see many people on here who are low carb incorporating bread in their total carbs. There will be others who include small amounts of pasta or rice, and many who eat porridge or other cereals. Not everyone is hardcore on what we call high carbs. It is only high carb if there is no portion control.
 
NoCrbs4Me said:
. . . . . either fat or protein intake need to go up . . . . .
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Probably not if you want to lose weight as well. I was told to increase my calorie intake by my GP and I increased my fat and protein intake. Guess what? I gained weight and my BG went up. That's just me though, others will have different experiences.
 
DavidGrahamJones said:
Probably not if you want to lose weight as well. I was told to increase my calorie intake by my GP and I increased my fat and protein intake. Guess what? I gained weight and my BG went up. That's just me though, others will have different experiences.
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It also depends on how much carbohydrate your eating. If you're gaining weight, try reducing carbs, rather than calories.
 
NoCrbs4Me said:
If you're gaining weight, try reducing carbs, rather than calories.
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Down to 40 gms to 80 gms, I'd have to forgo the vegetable matter that I eat to get lower, wouldn't leave much. I eat peppers, mushrooms, courgette, egg plant, onion, cauliflower, cabbage, broccoli. Basically no vegetable that grows underground, might have sweet potato occasionally.

Many moons ago I tried the Atkins zero carb approach, very tricky, even if only for a few days.
 
My problem at the moment is by going LCHF and restricting calories I lost a lot of weight and brought BG levels down to normal but I lost in the process a lot of muscle mass that I now need to try and replace.

Having a discussion about this with my grandson he made the observation that to put weight on whether that be fat or muscle you need to be in calorific surplus so will I have to increase calories and risk getting fat again in order to develop some muscle mass back, he recons if I don't I will just keep burning fat and more muscle tissue for energy.
 
DavidGrahamJones said:
Down to 40 gms to 80 gms, I'd have to forgo the vegetable matter that I eat to get lower, wouldn't leave much. I eat peppers, mushrooms, courgette, egg plant, onion, cauliflower, cabbage, broccoli. Basically no vegetable that grows underground, might have sweet potato occasionally.

Many moons ago I tried the Atkins zero carb approach, very tricky, even if only for a few days.
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I haven't eaten a vegetable or fruit since June 2015.
 
Obviously! Now that I've done some googling I can only say, how interesting. Just reading https://healthimpactnews.com/2013/w...-who-ate-nothing-but-meat-for-an-entire-year/ is very interesting. Glad to see you're doing so well on it.

I'm tempted, when I consider that I gave up sugar 50 years ago (everyone put it in tea/coffee in those days) also chocolate, biscuits and cake, I gave up smoking 35 years ago, alcohol 10 years ago and then gave up most bread/pasta/rice/potato 4 years ago, giving up vegetables as well? . . . . Going to have to think on that one, obviously not impossible.
 
Each to their own, we all do what works best for us. As to the calories question, I stopped counting them over a month ago and carried on with my LCHF diet. I'm still losing weight and feel fitter and brighter than I have done for years.
 
DavidGrahamJones said:
Obviously! Now that I've done some googling I can only say, how interesting. Just reading https://healthimpactnews.com/2013/w...-who-ate-nothing-but-meat-for-an-entire-year/ is very interesting. Glad to see you're doing so well on it.

I'm tempted, when I consider that I gave up sugar 50 years ago (everyone put it in tea/coffee in those days) also chocolate, biscuits and cake, I gave up smoking 35 years ago, alcohol 10 years ago and then gave up most bread/pasta/rice/potato 4 years ago, giving up vegetables as well? . . . . Going to have to think on that one, obviously not impossible.
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Not just possible, quite easy to do.
 
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