Trying to do zero carbs

[phoenix31]

Yes I've seen a lecture from UCLA on this... but the issue is added sugars, not naturally occurring sugars. The fiber content in foods with naturally occurring fructose affects the absorption of sugar, so you don't get the same kind of spike. That's my clunky layman's explanation.

Interestingly, the FDA is responding to this by making added sugars a new part of nutrition labels, starting sometime in 2018 (not sure if you're American and that applies or not).

Also somewhat interesting, those "blue zone" areas of the world, where people live really long and have the lowest rates of heart disease (although certainly other aspects of lifestyle come into play, not just diet), often are rather high carb diets (lots of veggies, fruits and some starch staple like rice or wheat). They are often much lower in meat and animal products, and of course processed foods. Quite the opposite of the low carb, high protein fad....

It is my understanding that any carbohydrates, even carbohydrates with fiber that have a lower GI, do impact blood sugar. (Whole wheat bread and white bread impact the blood sugar similarly.) When blood sugar is raised, the body pumps out higher levels of insulin, which, in turn, cues the body to store fat. The general idea behind cutting carbohydrates is to stop triggering the insulin, which is why it may prove beneficial for many diabetics.

 

[xenaprincess]

when I eat carbs such as rice and pasta, I can eat a TON of it. I simply do not feel full.
I tend to eat those things when stressed out because they are soothing.

As I wrote elsewhere, be sure to eat a lot of fat, otherwise you will get hungry, then you may cave into carbs more easily. The fat makes you feel sated. Fry stuff up in coconut oil.

Try cheeses and cold cuts as snacks. Also, raw veggies, such as cucumber slices or baby carrots with ranch dressing as a dip.
My latest thing is cauliflower rice that I make myself. You can also purchase it frozen. It makes a great fried rice with celery, scrambled egg and a protein. Add some soy sauce and hot sauce. Or do this kind of stir fry with cabbage, veg and a protein:

Garbage Stir-Fry with Curried Cabbage - Nom Nom Paleo(R)

Also, use MCT oil. I add some to my morning coffee and skip breakfast altogether, or I may have a slice of cheese. It keeps me fine until 1pm. Ease into the oil slowly. it can upset your stomach.
MCT Oil: What you Need to Know | Paleo Leap

 

[BAD1973]

I've been Ketogenic for 9 months (am down 115 pounds so far and lowered A1C). Zero carbs are impossible. You'd have to survive solely on fresh, unprocessed meat. Vegetables have carbs. Cheese and eggs have carbs (very low, but they're there). Eliminating the unhealthy carbs (sugar, pasta, bread, potatoes) has helped me break my food addiction and has begun to heal my body from years of abuse. Being keto, I've eliminated healthier carbs as well like rice, quinoa, beans, carrots, chickpeas, and most of my fruits. This is because they are higher in carbs than other healthy foods. Once I reach my goals, I'll slowly add these healthier carbs back. I hope never to have the addiction to sugar and fast food that I used to have!! I tend to go to extremes, so my careless eating habits led to being ridiculously obese. Now my tendency to extremes has me dieting, exercising and dropping fat. I feel great. But low carb is actually what you are doing. It is quite impossible to eat zero carbohydrates.

 

[Norrsken]

I've been Ketogenic for 9 months (am down 115 pounds so far and lowered A1C). Zero carbs are impossible. You'd have to survive solely on fresh, unprocessed meat. Vegetables have carbs. Cheese and eggs have carbs (very low, but they're there). Eliminating the unhealthy carbs (sugar, pasta, bread, potatoes) has helped me break my food addiction and has begun to heal my body from years of abuse. Being keto, I've eliminated healthier carbs as well like rice, quinoa, beans, carrots, chickpeas, and most of my fruits. This is because they are higher in carbs than other healthy foods. Once I reach my goals, I'll slowly add these healthier carbs back. I hope never to have the addiction to sugar and fast food that I used to have!! I tend to go to extremes, so my careless eating habits led to being ridiculously obese. Now my tendency to extremes has me dieting, exercising and dropping fat. I feel great. But low carb is actually what you are doing. It is quite impossible to eat zero carbohydrates.

I second this. I've been impulsive and I've been eating more carbs than usual because of teh holidayz and these aren't even healthy carbs at all. But I will cut back again soon and I have gone down the low carb lifestyle before with success and I looked and felt way better than even when I was eating a diet high in so called healthy carbs. My weight and blood sugar stabilized and even my skin glowed a little. It helps to look for those lists of foods you can eat rather than obsessing over the foods you can't eat because then you'll end up depressed. Plus, there's many fun meals and treats and even desserts that call for low carb ingredients that are just as delicious as traditional junk food minus the health consequences.

To the OP, just pack on the proteins and fat! It'll really help with the hunger. Learn how to read the labels. Opt for fresh food over canned and boxed food.

Edit: You can also buy a carb blocker from a health store, such as Ultra Carb Control C-120X by Swanson, as you wean yourself off of the refined carbs from your diet.

 

[Jaq]

Finding it really, really difficult, I love potatoes but I've managed to go without them, pasta, not a problem, rice, not a problem, though bread, bread is really difficult.

I need to figure out if dairy is permitted or not, I know its not in a strict paleo diet, I've reduced my dairy intake but I do love different sorts of cheese and cheese boards, since I've become diabetic cheese boards are actually my alternative to having a sweet course after a meal.

I don't mean to be that person, but what are the problems with carbs? Also, what is a paleo diet?

 

[Lark]

I don't mean to be that person, but what are the problems with carbs? Also, what is a paleo diet?

Paleo diet is pre-modern farming, the hunter-gatherer or cave man diet. Its also similar to some protein heavy weight lifting diets or the Atkins diet. Though there's some other sides to it too, minimums in terms of strenous exercise.

Carbs, particularly complex carbs such as white bread, are apt to increase blood sugar and cause sugar spikes, which is bad for my diabetes.

I've also got to lose a couple of stone in fat.

 

[phoenix31]

Paleo diet is pre-modern farming, the hunter-gatherer or cave man diet. Its also similar to some protein heavy weight lifting diets or the Atkins diet. Though there's some other sides to it too, minimums in terms of strenous exercise.

Carbs, particularly complex carbs such as white bread, are apt to increase blood sugar and cause sugar spikes, which is bad for my diabetes.

I've also got to lose a couple of stone in fat.

If I understand properly, the Paleo diet is not really like the Atkins diet because it cuts out dairy (which Atkins does not) and it allows fruits and carbohydrates like sweet potatoes, which Atkins also does not, for the most part.

 

[BAD1973]

That's pretty accurate.

Paleo allows fruits, sweet potatoes and other natural carby foods, but zero dairy.

Keto and Atkins allow cheese, sour cream, heavy whipping cream and other lower-carb dairy options, but only low glycemic fruits like berries.

 

[biohazard]

This video could help you guys out since y'all seem a little confused.

 

[biohazard]

I don't mean to be that person, but what are the problems with carbs? Also, what is a paleo diet?

So a carb is a type of macro molecule found in food. You can get it from: starchy veggies (like potatoes), processed starches (corn, bread, pasta), fruits (apples, peaches, mangos, etc), grains (rice, quinoa, wheat), sugar, HFCS, and non starchy veggies (like spinach or Swiss chard). Even sugar and grains are considered carbs. The more complex carbs will release slower but can still cause fat gain if your cells are insulin resistant.

There is no such thing as "healthy carbs" because grains like rice, quinoa and beans/legumes can still have high glycemic loads, which is how high your food increases your blood sugar.

Most fruit is also poor for fat loss because they release fructose which the body has a hard time using. It can still increase your insulin, especially if you have a metabolic syndrome... which most people do.

One of the worst thing you could do is have TOO much protein than fat. Because too much protein breaks down into glucose (same as most carbs). Protein or carbs are not an efficient form of energy since they lead to insulin resistance in the long term.

It's also not good to pair high fat with high carbs because your body will focus on the carbs first and try to break down or store those carbs as fat. Then you will not get the vitamins and minerals benefits from the dietary fats.

So...

Protein breaks down into amino acids in the body,
Starchy carbs break down into glucose in the body,
Sugar breaks down as fructose or a form of a saccharide. These molecules attach to glucose molecules and can exponentially increase your blood sugar.

Dietary fat turns into fatty acids and in the absence of starchy carbs/sugar, they create ketones for fuel. They're most efficient since they help the person stay fuller for longer. Plus fatty acids help us to break down fat soluble vitamins and minerals for fuel. Fatty acids also help increase human growth hormone, help our blood transport throughout our bodies, and help with our body using potassium. Our bodies are made up of like 85% fatty acids.

If I wasn't clear anywhere above, please let me know. I'm going on little sleep, lol. I hope this helps.

 

[Lark]

If I understand properly, the Paleo diet is not really like the Atkins diet because it cuts out dairy (which Atkins does not) and it allows fruits and carbohydrates like sweet potatoes, which Atkins also does not, for the most part.

Yeah, I was talking in the broader terms, ie fats are not the devil, carbs are.

 

[kyuuei]

I'm always an advocate for baby steps, as I think going from zero to hero usually results in resentment and rebounding for many people. Everyone's different, and their drives are different, but majority of people end up with one of those two issues.

For those picky ones out there: I'm referring to the pastas, breads, potatoes, etc. that the OP mentioned as 'carbs' here, not ALL technical carbs.

As far as cheese goes, dude, the more restrictive you get the less you'll enjoy food and find devils in it everywhere you turn to... If it's a matter of losing weight, that's one thing, if you're just avoiding carbs for your blood sugars, I'd say cheeses are perfectly fine.

You might start by cutting your carb intake by the week (i.e. no carbs for snacks anymore on the first week, then none during lunch the second week, add breakfast the third week, etc.) until you end up with 1 meal a week (a dinner, a breakfast, an event's snacks, etc.) that allows carbs. Keep a food diary (easy to do with a pen and pencil at the table, or via emails/myfitnesspal if you're more on-the-go) that objectively demonstrates what you've actually eaten, and how you felt about the meal (still hungry? groggy? had a headache? felt fine?) at least to start with.

Having a meal plan helps a lot of people transition to various food lifestyles. Knowing what you're eating/cooking ahead of time and having it prepped already if not fully cooked and ready to re-heat. I super agree with the other poster that even type 1 diabetics need carbs, a very low carb diet is attainable. Counting the carbs is not difficult to do, and giving one some wiggle room every day really changes the whole game from super strict (probably fine in the short term at least) to sustainable (i.e. something you can realistically do the rest of your life).

I would suggest looking up simple recipes online for diabetics that have no/low carb meals that you really like and make a meal plan for the next month and see how it goes. I would also suggest keeping a stock of substitution items in the house--more friendly carbs for diabetics. For example, there are very low GI (glycemic index) pastas, breads, tortillas, cereals, etc. out there now, it truly is easier than ever to be diabetic. An 8 carb tortilla to wrap a sandwich around or a 10 carb cereal can sometimes make the difference between binging and not. There are even pastas made with 17-18 carbs a serving in them, do-able on a low carb diet if that's your big bang for the day.

A lot of people don't realize you subtract protein and fiber from those carb counts as well, you're not always getting the full carbs in each item you eat. My dad uses (begrudgingly) black bean pastas that only have 5 net carbs a serving--making spaghetti doable again when using those + zucchini noodles.

Creamy Chicken Vegetable Soup - Betty Rocker this is a soup made with a creamy texture nearly entirely out of a blender + vegetables. You might decide to have a soup and salad for the next 4 days for lunches or breakfasts. But let's say you're craving potato. Adding one potato to an entire pot of soup, blended up like that or simply boiled and chopped up into bite sized pieces to add in, could give you some of that potato fix without breaking the bank. The average potato has about 60 carbs in it, divided by 4 servings is only ~12 carbs a serving. Really not bad at all for getting some full potato flavor.. so you can play it either way.

If you're the type of person to fall a part from 20 carbs a day, you're likely to be the person to fall a part by cutting out all the carbs every day. Maybe not now. But when lots of events show up, and holidays, or life gets busy, those carbs become harder to avoid entirely. It doesn't seem very sustainable particularly if you are already missing bread like crazy and feel 20 carbs will open some magical floodgate. A low carb no-sugar-added bread like Eziekiel bread only has 14 carbs a slice in it, very do-able as a morning piece of toast with your eggs or as an open-faced sandwich.

 

[Ace_]

Just start swimming every day. Michael Phelps eats like 8000 calories a day and he's lean AF.

He eats pancakes and fries.

 

[xenaprincess]

Carbs affect your blood sugar so you feel hungry.

Fat makes you feel full.

Eat more fat, eat fewer carbs. As a result, you will eat fewer calories.

I started lower carbs in the beginning of Sept this year. Now it's three months later and I'm down about two pants sizes. I haven't weighed myself. I wasn't obese to begin with (not that there's anything wrong with it) just needed to lose a few pounds.

Now I'm eating a little rice each day but will cut it out again, because I'm noticeably hungrier (the blood sugar).
My staples - cheese, hard salami, coconut milk, MCT oil

How is your progress, Survive?

 

[Amethyst]

I tried doing this earlier this month. I couldn't have picked a worse month to start. I gave up once there was a pizza day, and a cookie week at work, etc.

Instead I think I'll just be more balanced and workout a lot more (the pounds just shred off just doing intense 30 minute workouts three times a week for me). I don't care for bread, but corn tortillas and rice? There's no point in living if I can't have those.

 

[Lark]

Carbs affect your blood sugar so you feel hungry.

Fat makes you feel full.

Eat more fat, eat fewer carbs. As a result, you will eat fewer calories.

I started lower carbs in the beginning of Sept this year. Now it's three months later and I'm down about two pants sizes. I haven't weighed myself. I wasn't obese to begin with (not that there's anything wrong with it) just needed to lose a few pounds.

Now I'm eating a little rice each day but will cut it out again, because I'm noticeably hungrier (the blood sugar).
My staples - cheese, hard salami, coconut milk, MCT oil

How is your progress, Survive?

Not good if I'm honest, I have cut down a lot but bread and crisps I have not been able to eliminate completely, Christmas is a difficult time to have either diabetes or try to cut out carbs.

I love roast potatos.

 

[biohazard]

If you're the type of person to fall a part from 20 carbs a day, you're likely to be the person to fall a part by cutting out all the carbs every day. Maybe not now. But when lots of events show up, and holidays, or life gets busy, those carbs become harder to avoid entirely. It doesn't seem very sustainable particularly if you are already missing bread like crazy and feel 20 carbs will open some magical floodgate. A low carb no-sugar-added bread like Eziekiel bread only has 14 carbs a slice in it, very do-able as a morning piece of toast with your eggs or as an open-faced sandwich.

Are you talking about the keto flu??? 'Cause it's incredibly easy to exist on 50-20g of carbs. Thats called the ketogenic diet. Some people get the "keto flu" and can feel like poop for up to 2 weeks (or more) since their body is changing from one system to another. But there are ways to speed up the process and make it easier. Then after about 2-4 months in people get "fat adapted" and have no problems running off less than 50-20g of carbs a day. Their bodies start to learn and get used to utilizing fat as fuel (aka convert to ketones). Anyone could do keto and benefit from it. Even diabetics, it was actually designed for diabetics, epilepsy, and many autistic children. It also cures many forms of cancer.

 

[Lead Guitar Wankery]

Carbs, particularly complex carbs such as white bread, are apt to increase blood sugar and cause sugar spikes, which is bad for my diabetes.

White bread is a simple carb. Complex carbs have fiber and thereby help regulate blood sugar. Also the person upthread who referred to potatoes as junk food is dead wrong. I don't have diabetes but I'm hypoglycemic and eat a high carb diet. I don't have blood sugar issues as long as I don't go for a long time without eating.

I've also lost weight—with barely any weight on me to lose, so it was not an easy diet—on a high carb, low fat, low protein diet: uncooked oat bran for breakfast, brown rice for lunch, and red potatoes for dinner. What that other person said about eating more fat and less carbs to lose weight probably helps some people, but not all. Fat is filling to some people, but fiber is also filling. To me it is more filling than fat and protein.

I'm just commenting because I like people in general to know that high-fat is not necessarily the best way to diet (which I've noticed a lot of people suggesting online).

 

[biohazard]

I'm just commenting because I like people in general to know that high-fat is not necessarily the best way to diet (which I've noticed a lot of people suggesting online).

High fat IS the best way to eat though because using ketones for fuel is the most efficient way for the body to use energy. That has been proven many times over and the diet has so many benefits. Actually, the fact that you have hypoglycemia is attributed to your high carb eating style. So you eat a high carb meal and soon after your insulin increases and your stores can get burnt out. Then you are hungry for more carbs, feeling jittery, feel anxiety, etc.

On keto, that is not the case. You eat a high fat/mod protein/low carb meal and you can go for HOURS without food. Heck, sometimes I go 48 hours. And you have CONSISTENT energy during the whole time because your body is in a fasting stage. It breaks down your own body fat and uses it for energy (called autophagy). And you're still at a consistent energy level with level-headedness, mental clarity, and emotional stability.

Fiber is not filling long-term... maybe for an hour or so. The more fiber you have, the more energy your body will need to break it down. I'm talking soluble fiber though, which is utilized in the colon. As for insoluble fiber, it's just a bulking agent. The more insoluble fiber you eat, the more you have to poop out. So it doesn't do much.

Maybe these could explain better.:

 

[phoenix31]

Are you talking about the keto flu??? 'Cause it's incredibly easy to exist on 50-20g of carbs. Thats called the ketogenic diet. Some people get the "keto flu" and can feel like poop for up to 2 weeks (or more) since their body is changing from one system to another. But there are ways to speed up the process and make it easier. Then after about 2-4 months in people get "fat adapted" and have no problems running off less than 50-20g of carbs a day. Their bodies start to learn and get used to utilizing fat as fuel (aka convert to ketones). Anyone could do keto and benefit from it. Even diabetics, it was actually designed for diabetics, epilepsy, and many autistic children. It also cures many forms of cancer.

I agree that the process of switching over to fat adaptation can cause some people to feel terrible but once you get fat adapted, at least in my experience, you feel fantastic and have a ton of energy and mental clarity. However, I would be cautious to claim that a ketogenic diet cures many forms of cancer.