What is a good way to follow this specific diet?

Things high in protein are most meats and protein enriched things, like certain cereals and even whey. It’s definitely a good rule of thumb, but I lost 17lbs just by watching my calorie intake. Of course I tried not to eat many carbs and sodium, but it did happen. Luckily I had my iPhone with an app that calculated my total intake of calories everyday, so I watch my progress. Worked just fine for me.

What is the app called?

I am trying to gain muscle and lose fat. I am lifting every day, obviously alternating which parts of the body I work out.

The app is Lose It! and if your goal is that, than I suggest getting a tub of protein and having that for breakfast and maybe lunch and then a nice meal for dinner. People seem to think protein shakes are meant to build muscle, which isn’t false, but it can also be used to lose weight too. To gain weight, like most people that use the shakes for you’d simply eat a meal with it.

High Protein/::Low Carb Foods:

Meat and Fish (watch some shellfish like clams)
Cheese
Nuts
Nut Butters

High Carb/High Sugar Things to Avoid
Desserts
Chips
Starches like potatoes, rice, corn, beans and pasta

Low Carb High Protein Alternatives to Keep from Going Nuts
Dreamfields Pasta (tastes just like regular but only 5 carbs per serving)
Nature’s Path Flax Plus MultiGrain Cereal
Low-Carb bread

Also eat green vegetables, which are naturally low in carbs. Moderate eating of carrots and onions is OK too.

Fruit is good for you. Limit it to one smal piece. Berries are lowest in carbs and very good for you.

@Marina: Dreamfields doesn’t have 5 carbs per serving. Dreamfields has the normal amount of carbs for pasta, but they claim that only 5 are digestible and the rest are “engineered” to be passed over during digestion. It doesn’t work that way for everyone… I did my research because I thought it was too good to be true, and it was.

I’m on Atkins right now… which is typically less than 20 carbs a day.

You want to read the label on EVERYTHING you buy. I won’t buy anything with more than 4 carbs in it, and when you use that item, you have to be very careful how you use it. You can eat lots of meat, as long as it’s not cured with sugar… which is why you read labels… you never know. Salads are great, eggs, leafy greens. Vegetables are tricky. You can’t really eat a lot of broccoli, onions, green beans… but you can eat cauliflower, leafy greens, and spinach. Onions aren’t really good either, but mushrooms are okay.

My diet, I try to stay under 10 carbs a day. That means no sugars, including natural sugars, meaning no fruit. No bread, no bread crumbs in cooking… no nuts. You can eat meat, cheese, salads, eggs. Mission makes a low carb tortilla that tastes exactly like a regular tortilla, and it only has 7 carbs. When I feel like I need to cheat, I make myself something really yummy with it… egg salad or a quesadilla, and I feel like I’m cheating and it helps me stay on it. Also, you can’t have milk, but you can have heavy cream… so if you drink coffee light and sweet, for instance, you’d have to switch to artificial sweetener and cream instead of milk.

I’ve lost 30lbs since May… 20 of which were just between Halloween and Thanksgiving. It really works.

It is much healthier for you to limit simple carbs than to try to eat “very few” carbs since carbs are necessary for energy & your body needs a balanced diet. Try to eat carbs that have a low Glycemic Load while eatting lean-meat & eggs for protein without too much fat.

Please read these:
Top 15 Reasons to Avoid Low Carb, High Protein Diets
Excerpt: “1. Low carb (ketogenic) diets deplete the healthy glycogen (the storage form of glucose) stores in your muscles and liver. When you deplete glycogen stores, you also dehydrate, often causing the scale to drop significantly in the first week or two of the diet. This is usually interpreted as fat loss when it’s actually mostly from dehydration and muscle loss. By the way, this is one of the reasons that low carb diets are so popular at the moment – there is a quick initial, but deceptive drop in scale weight….”

no/low carbohydrate, high protein diets
Excerpt: “So why not follow this diet? The more food groups a dieter limits, and the longer the low intake continues, the more likely they are to lose their nutritional well-being. Inadequate diets can worsen chronic and acute diseases, delay recovery from illness and hasten development of degenerative diseases. Eating high protein, high fat diets that are low in fruits, vegetables and high fiber grains have been shown, over the years in many published scientific studies, to increase the risk for heart disease, cancers, osteoporosis, kidney diseases, and even death. This diet leads its followers to failure. Sooner or later, they go off the diet, regain body weight and feel guilty. On no or very low carbohydrate diets, ketosis occurs. Ketosis is the process where ketones (such as acetone) build up in the blood from incomplete burning of stored and dietary fats. This causes very bad breath and can lead to a life-threatening condition of too much acid in the blood. A low carbohydrate diet depletes muscle glycogen stores and can make exercise workouts seem harder. Various health problems, ranging from fatigue, nausea and diarrhea or constipation, can arise. Essential minerals can be lost from excessive urination from too much water-weight loss. Without carbohydrates in the diet, the body breaks down its own muscle….”

Regarding carbs, the QUALITY is more important that quantity. (“Good carbs” slow-acting complex carbs vs “bad carbs” fast-acting simple carbs)

Here’s Low Glycemic Load info:
LowGlycemicLoad.com/
What is a Glycemic Load Diet?
Excerpt: “Low Glycemic Load foods are those foods with a value of 10 or below…. Since foods that are low in Glycemic Load are typically fruits and vegetables, whole grains, legumes, and lean proteins, a low Glycemic diet is a healthy, balanced diet.”

Both of these Low GL websites have food lists with their GL.

Sorry to be so long, but sometimes “eat lots of this and very little that” types of diets can be not only unhealthy but downright dangerous.

Hope this helps!

@poofandmook I did and do “do my research.”

I lost 37 pounds in 4 months doing that. If you exercise it helps. I think the first thing one should do is cutting out the excessive eating. But cutting out needless sugar and eating healthy is not a diet. It’s a life stile.

I don’t think there is much danger in doing a LCHF run a couple of months, but be wary of what the body tells you. The brain need carbs for glucose. If you don’t feel well, moody, tired, don’t push it. Add a little carbs.

@Marina: I wasn’t implying that you didn’t. I was just saying that as someone (a carb junkie, no less) who’s trying very hard to practice that diet successfully, I read several different sources, mostly from regular consumers on low carb diets who tried Dreamfields and tracked their blood glucose levels after eating a normal serving of the pasta, only to find glucose spikes the same as any other pasta.

@oratio: Once a month, I eat carbs for 2–3 days. It works really well for me. Plus, it takes away that plateau you hit after a month.

@poofandmook good tip.

Count calories. Count the calories of every little thing that goes in your mouth. Find out your optimum calorie intake for your height, and don’t go past that. Hopefully it’ll become so second nature that you’ll change your eating habits forever. The thing I hate about “diets” is…they’re temporary. I mean, is it feasible that you’ll eat only high protein and low carb food for the rest of your life?

@Val123: I am doing no/low carb because I have a significant amount of weight to lose, I am impatient, and very easily discouraged, and I have the worst willpower ever. This diet allows me to eat a lot of my favorite foods, has ways to help me think I’m cheating so I don’t actually cheat, and for me, I get quick results. I intend to do it for a few more months if I can (carbs are cheap, so I’m spending more on groceries now), and then I’ll try maintaining it as best as I can.

I am not really concerned about my weight, in fact I expect it to go up since muscle weighs more then fat. :)

I can attest to what poofandmook is saying. We are co-workers, and I have watched her carefully research all her food before choosing what we would order for lunch and or dinner. We’ve talked about her diet at length because I was concerned that it wouldn’t be healthy for her to do this. That girl has really done her homework! She is doing a great job losing. but I also see she is gaining here. She is almost at 10k! Go poof!!

:D

Great book for a lifestyle change. It focuses on “dieting” but I just overlook that part.
Just talked about it on some other posts.
Holdford’s Low GL Diet. You can find it on Amazon.com
It is essentially high protein and low sugar but avoids the pitfalls of low carb/high protein diets stated above.

I was on Dr Atkins for about 6 months and lost weight easily. But now I have gained it all back and more because I have an absolute yearning for carbs thaat I did not have before!! I do think anything as restrictive as this is shortterm solution.

@faye That is why the Low Glycemic Load “diet” is recommended because you don’t give up all carbs, only the “simple” carbs that spike your blood sugar (& cause you to later crash & burn). You should also lose weight with a low GL diet, but because you have complex carbs, your blood sugar maintains at a normal level which helps to satisfy & prevent cravings. And you can stay on it as a long term lifestyle change because it is a healthy balance.

BTW, it is purported to help lower hypercholesterolemia (high cholesterol) in addition to the weight loss and it is healthier & safer than trying to totally give up all carbs (please see my very lengthy post above for details :).

@faye All restrictive, complicated diets are short term….that’s why they don’t work….

@poofandmook CONGRATULATIONS on making 10K!!!

Read a little more about diets like Atkiins. High protein diets encourage osteoporosis. If you start losing bone density st 30 can you imagine where you’ll be at 50? Wheelchair, here I come!

@faye: I take calcium supplements.

@poofandmook and vitamin D and magnesium.