[Kirkz]

So it's been exactly a month since I started a low carb diet and doing zumba every week day and I see no change! I try to keep my carbs below 100 a day and I succeed. I drink at least 2L of water a day. Yes I've had some slip ups, but I thought I would at least some change. I dont know what to do I'm thinking of going to see a doctor because I think something is wrong, please help.

[SparklyBunny]

Hi there!

It's impossible to say without knowing more of what exactly it is that you eat on a daily basis. Restricting carbs to below 100g per day isn't necessarily going to automatically lead to anything. You might be eating too much or too little for your expenditure or you might be close to your ideal weight anyway, so any changes would need a ton of work and time. You might of course have some issues with metabolism as well, which is where the doctor might be able to help, but even then you'd need to list what it is that you are actually eating.

How much do you weigh now and how tall are you and what kind of build are you? What sort of foods were you eating before you switch to this new diet? If you know that you're restricting your carbs below 100g per day, then I'm guessing that you're using some kind of tracking, which should also tell you how much protein and fat you take in every day. Have you only measured your weight or have you taken other measurements which might've changed during this time?

[EagleRiverDee]

By see no change, do you mean you haven't lost any weight at all? Or that you can't physically see a change in the mirror?

Can you post up a sample of what you eat, daily?

When I went low carb (Paleo) I lost weight fairly quickly. I think it's a combination of things. One, I am carb-sensitive and so I lose weight more easily when I go low-carb. But also I think the foods I tend to eat way too much of generally were high carb- pasta, etc. With those foods out of my diet, lower caloric intake was an automatic. However, I have found you can overdo on low carb approved foods, especially nuts. Calories do still count.

If you're sure your caloric intake and your carbs are low enough that you should be losing weight, then I'd probably suggest a full blood workup. Thyroid disease and other illnesses can impact metabolism negatively. I suffer from thryoid disease, myself, so I understand. I literally could not lose weight before I got treatment.

[Kirkz]

I weigh 189lbs and I want to be down to 165lbs which is apparently my healthy weight. This is what I eat now :
Breakfast- Sausages
Lunch- Mince & Curried eggplant
Dinner- Chicken and veggies
Drinks- water,
Snacks- Crackers & Cheese & mayo
Apple with peanut butter

Before I would have a side or carbs with everything.

Thanks for the help ladies.

[sarahinparis]

Are you following a specific low carb plan?

I'd suggest eating the cheese without the crackers, and ditch the apple too. Some people are sensitive to peanut butter. And you might check the label of the sausage to make sure it doesn't have hidden carbs (starch fillers and sugar are common in supermarket sausages)

Are you tracking calories or carb grams? I find tracking both to be necessary now that I'm in my 40s - before I could track just carbs and lose.

[EagleRiverDee]

Have you measured and added up your calories? The food you're eating is calorically dense. Sausage, cheese, peanut butter, mayo are all very high in calories.

While I do follow the belief of the low carb mindset that carbs spike insulin and insulin is what feeds our body fat, and that our diet should be primarily protein and fat, the bottom line is that if your caloric intake is too high you will still have trouble losing weight and may even gain weight.

A sample menu for myself, as a comparison, when I was strict and losing 2-3 lbs a week:

Breakfast: Either 3 hardboiled eggs, or one tin of sardines

Lunch: A salad, with chicken strips and homemade balsamic vinegar/olive oil dressing

Dinner: A steak and green vegetable

Drinks: Herbal tea, coffee, water

I don't snack. Typically when I eat primally/paleo style I don't have the low blood sugar crashes in between meals and therefore have no need to snack.

You might check out the forum over at Mark's Daily Apple. There's tons of threads by people following the Primal Blueprint diet (which isn't low carb, per se, but compared to the standard American diet it is and many people there tweak it to be low carb). Many of the threads go over exactly what you're talking about here- they went low carb and still can't lose weight.

One other suggestion: have you considered adding in resistance training? I lose much faster if my exercise program includes at least 3 resistance training sessions per week. It really stokes the metabolic fire.