I've lost about 15 lbs in the past year, its been a lot of hard work. I've been stuck for about a month at my current weight, and I think I need to change my diet to get out of this rut. Currently, I have been doing the basics, cutting out most of the junk, making smarter decisions, and exercising for about an hour a day. More so than the weight coming off, I've noticed a huge change in my overall health, and I'm really proud of myself.
To get to my goal, I have about 15 lbs left to lose. I'm thinking of going really low carb and increasing my exercise to an hour and a half. I'm not sure though if this is a good idea or not, or how hard it will be to accomplish. I already eat whole grains for everything I can (pasta, breads, snacks), and I'm mostly vegetarian. Do the carbs in veggies/fruit count towards my daily intake? If anyone has experience in this, please help me out! Or if you know any websites with factual, scientifically based thoughts, that would be great too.
I only have experience/anecdotal, but I can say it's super hard unless you have meat substitutes, quinoa/barley or other high-protein grains, and/or protein powder. If you are sometimes vegetarian (aka flexitarian) you can obviously rely on shrimp, fish, and chicken/turkey to round out your protein. But ideally you're looking for low-calorie, low-carb, high-protein foods to round out your diet, and that's difficult outside of high protein health food bars, powders, and the other stuff I mentioned above.
I tried to limit my carbs but my challenge is I live in a developing country, meaning a) I don't have access to US health foods, like various grains and protien powder and b) my fruits/veggies are seasonal, so sometimes the only thing to eat is bananas or other higher-carb fruits/veggies (and yes, they do count towards total carb count). Beans and lentils are a huge source of my protein but they have tons of carbs.
In the end I decided it wasn't really possible for me. Eggs are a good source of protein, but that and yogurt/milk were the only really great protein sources I regularly have access to that are low-carb. And you have to eat a lot of them to get up into the high-protein range (60+ g a day). Nuts are decent, but again you have to eat a lot of them, and they are quite high calorie so eating a lot of any calorie-dense food is difficult when you are a featherweight. Further I rely so much on whatever fruits/vegetables are in season for vitamins so I can't really be picky about those if strawberries and bananas are all I have access to.
Good luck! I'll keep a look out for other posts here in case there are other great proteins I'm overlooking- maybe I can learn something too
In most low carb diets, yes veggies and definitely fruits count toward your carb total for the day. I think Atkin's even has you counting green veggies in the beginning. I think it would be very hard, because most low carb diets expect you to substitute protiens to keep you full, that's why low carb works for a lot of people, keeps you fuller longer b/c takes the body longer to process. Whatever you decide, good luck!
I think the logic I am using is that if you keep your insulin levels low, your body doesn't store as much of what you eat as fat, and to keep insulin levels low is to keep low carb. Maybe I have that thought messed up, let me know if I do.
By mostly veg, I mean that I don't eat any beef (I actually have an allergy to it), pork, or anything that looks like meat. I mostly eat canned tuna and turkey lunch meat for my protein sources, sometimes eggs, but usually not. Right now I eat 2 - 3 sandwiches/day, which I know is a lot, but better than what I was eating a year ago. So I was thinking of not eating the bread, and subbing in a veggie instead. Making cuts back on the carbs that way.. any thoughts?
I can't afford any of the protein powders or stuff like that, but thank you for reminding me that they are always an option. And my limitations with foods I'm willing to eat causes problems too, but I think there is always time to grow and learn.
This wasn't quite low-carb, but I went vegan and avoided most grains for a summer. I can tell you I was eating two huge salads a day and over three months I ran through a couple jars of unsalted peanuts and about a half gallon bag's worth of almonds and cashews... if you're going to do it, do handfuls of nuts to keep some protein knocking around in you. They're easy and snacky. They DO have carbs, what I'm describing isn't an extreme low-carb diet. It just lays off the grains. I wasn't counting carbs. Just portions and times per day I was eating. (Three big meals, three or four snacks.) Eggs are good too, and if you can manage to work with a little tofu (just crumble it up while cooking for a good scramble over a salad) it'll make your life a little easier.
For fast eats, if you have a Jimmy John's near you, get un-wraps (lettuce wraps) of their veggie, light on the avocado spread, no other sauces like mayo, no cheese.
I lost 25 pounds over about three months of doing this. No exercise, just moderate movement (walking) at work. Took me from 175 to about 150. I can't say you'll have the same whoosh, since you're working on vanity pounds -- just sharing my experience doing something similar. Good luck!!
Two great books to get:
'The Vegetarian Low-Carb Diet: The Fast, No-Hunger Weightloss Diet for Vegetarians', by Rose Elliot. And also, (and this is for any low carber) 'Why We Get Fat: And What to Do About It', by Gary Taubes. They are on Amazon...you can looks inside the books and read the reviews.
I'm doing something similar to nightwasp now- avoiding almost all grains except for 2-3 small servings a week- but my diet is still extremely far from low-carb. I am counting carbs, not to limit them but just because they are on my calorie counter, and I end up with between 120-180 a day. This is from fruits, vegetables, the occasional grains I do eat (Kashi GoLean, bran muffins), and the biggest one, beans/legumes. Those are some of my major sources of protein so I'm not willing to cut back on them
hatgirl thank you for the resources- I definitely should check those out.
Another thought, since Gary Taubes was referenced, you could look at low-GI foods instead of strictly low-carb. I'm not extremely well-versed in low-GI versus low-carb, but the distinction makes a differences in the type and source of the carbs versus just straight up carbs themselves. This makes intuitively more sense to me since a lot of really nutritiously-dense foods do have some carbs. Again this is something I have little knowledge on but would be worth reading up more on.
indiblue, I think the major difference between low-carb and low-GI is how much exercise you get. If you're more sedentary, low-carb is a better option, whereas low-GI diet is a better choice if you're already working out, both cardio and lifting.
I plan on switching to a low-GI diet (I actually am low-carb right now, not vegetarian :P) once I start lifting and I've lost another 20 pounds or so...
Thanks everyone for your thoughts. I've been cutting carbs for today and yesterday and it is really hard, and leaving me feeling hungry. Thats never a good sign in my book, because then I start picking at junk.
I'm going to look into those books and look into low GI, as it may be a better option for me. More so than anything, I need to get a new plan going that I can stick with to get these last pounds off, and then I plan on transitioning again into a maintainable diet.
Advice Please - Vegetarian going Low Carb?
