So about this low/no carb thing..
 

I've done some reading online about my body shape.

I have an apple shaped female body, also known as Androgenic. Luckily, this fat is much easier to get rid of than the fat of a pear shaped woman. On the downside, the fat is much more dangerous. I gain weight like a man would gain wait, mostly in my face and stomach. My thighs are a bit chubby, but I definitely look like I have a beer belly and wouldn't be surprised if people often thought I was pregnant after a large meal.

Anyways, from what I've read I should cut out carbs. Dammit! That means all the "good" stuff is gone! It makes it really hard having to eat meat and vegetables all the time. What can I do? Should I be going to calorie counting route instead? I just don't know! I also thrive on routine, would it be beneficial to eat the same things every Monday, Tuesday and so on? Like a weekly meal plan?

Anyone with a similar body type feel free to post any advice you have. Can I have a cheat day where I can eat carbs? Are some carbs good? I'm so lost! I'm not sure if I put this in the right spot or not, either. Sorry!

I am doing the Ideal Protein diet -- one of the many different styles of low carb/moderate protein diets.

I thought that I would really struggle without the carbs. But if truth be told, I have fewer hunger pangs, a lot more mental clarity, generally feel happier ... for me it has been a form of liberation.

The object of low carb is to get your body into a state of ketosis (google ketogenic nutrition or ketosis). It takes a few days to get there but once you are through the door, the programme works for you.

'Cheating' throws your system out of ketosis... in other words it really defeats the purpose.

Through staying on track, this way of eating has done more good for me than any other way before. Although I won't be in 'phase 1' forever, I am working on adopting the concepts as part of my lifestyle.

Hope this helps!

I should mention I don't really have the money to do any fancy diet things where you have to have the meals delivered, etc.

I have the money to get groceries from the store and that's really it.

You best option would be to follow the Atkins Way, go to atkins.com and you can buy everything from the store, and you eat low carb, vegetables, fruits. There are 4 phases and it's free.

I do dukan and have been very successful on it, never hungry, foods available from the supermarket etc. The book is helpful, but you can get the lists of allowed foods online easily, there are no supplements or special foods except oat bran that you need and it has a plan to follow through to stabilizing your weight loss.

After the first few days my energy levels went up, bloods are good and strangely my pear shaped body has tamed itself into being curvy but proportional for the first time ever! Oh and no loose skin yet!

Or calorie-count and still eat carbs, although in lesser proportions than usual. I eat around 30 % of my caloric intake in proteins and I do not feel hunger much.

Studies which have matched proteins intake have seen very little difference between low-carb or low-fat.

http://www.bodyrecomposition.com/fat...a-calorie.html

I would not trust the claims of "eating according to your body shape", but I would trust caloric balance. That's good and proven science.

Well, like I said I've done a lot of reading on the subject. My body accumulates a different kind of fat completely than a pear shaped woman. The fat my body accumulates is called Visceral fat, and there are easier and harder ways to get rid of it. A diet that works for a pear shaped woman wont necessarily work the same way for me.

Anyways, low carb and calorie counting sounds like a lot of work. Eggggh, I wish I could just find a diet that I can more easily stick to. It seems like there's carbs everywhere I look...

I should also mention I don't live alone so I can't always control what sort of food is in the fridge and pantry.

I am pear-shaped, although in recent years, I have put on belly fat. I am sort of following the Slow Carb Diet. Here's a thread I began a few weeks ago when I started this diet: http://www.3fatchicks.com/forum/othe...carb-diet.html. It explains what I'm doing. The reason I switched from calorie-counting to low carb is because of the insulin issues in my family and my own sensitivity to carbs. The diet has been really easy for me, I have a cheat day each week, and I've lost 14 lbs in a month, and that's the most I've lost in 4 years.

Chris Powell from Extreme Makeover Weightloss has a low carb, carb cycling plan. He does have a book that came out and he has a lot of information on his website about carb cycling. With cycling plans you have days where you eat lower carb, but the next day you can eat more carbs. I have been doing a similar plan for about a year. The thing I really like about this plan is that I can always tell myself that tomorrow I can have that fruit, dark chocolate or reward meal. Here is a link to his site. http://chrispowell.com/carb-cycling-101/

Doxy, this book has 2 super easy, very well laid out diets in it: http://www.amazon.com/Curves-Fitness...ds=curves+book

One is higher carb, one lower. I always thought it was like "dieting for dummies" and requires very little prep or thought into getting a good diet going.

Any shape is going to encounter difficulties. One is not "better" than the other and certainly do not require a different type of diet, I don't buy that at all. We are all humans, and eating has to do with the right stuff going in. That's all.

There's a world of difference between a no-carb diet and a low-carb diet. I wouldn't do a no-carb diet if you paid me a million dollars. Not that it's not a valid diet, it's just not right for me and no-carbs makes me just as crazy and miserable as a full-carb diet.

Being healthy is about eating good food, fresh food, not too many carbs, not too many fats, mostly vegetables and good fruits, some lean proteins and you're good to go. Portion size is the most important element of all of this. I use a combination of paleo-style eating, avoiding wheat 90% of the time, eating within a calorie range, and avoiding all sugar. I also do IF, and avoid snacking. Each of these is a diet method, but I've combined parts of all of them that work for me, and by doing this I'm able to stick to it. I prefer to call it a strategy rather than a diet.

You say you like routine. A lot of people find success in eating the same breakfast and same lunch every single day. This way you don't have to "think" about what you're going to eat and as long as those meals are nutritious then you shouldn't have a problem. I pretty much eat salad with grilled chicken or tuna every single day for lunch.

Good and proven science?

Thermodynamic Edge For Low Carbohydrate Diets: SUNY Downstate Researchers Say All Calories Are NOT Alike

In a paper published in Nutrition Journal (Open Access, available without subscription at http://www.nutritionj.com/home), two researchers from SUNY Downstate Medical Center show that low carbohydrate, high protein diets can be expected to be more effective than low fat diets, going against long standing prejudice of the nutritional community, which has claimed that only calories count.

(PRWEB) July 31, 2004 -- “There are numerous examples of low carbohydrate diets being more effective than low fat diets with the same number of calories. It doesn’t always happen but it can happen,” said Dr. Richard Feinman of the Department of Biochemistry. “The nutritional establishment has been reluctant to accept this, because they say it violates the law of thermodynamics. However, they never seriously look at the thermodynamics, which not only says its possible, but it is to be expected.” he added.

In their paper, Dr. Feinman and Dr. Eugene J. Fine explain that thermodynamics is as much about efficiency as it is about energy conservation. Carbohydrate is an efficient fuel, whereas protein is not. On a low carbohydrate/high protein diet, even though total energy is conserved, more energy is wasted as heat, a process known as thermogenesis. This energy comes from burning fat.

The researchers stress that “the human body is not a storage locker. It is a machine and the efficiency of the machine is controlled by hormones and enzymes. Carbohydrates increase insulin and other hormones that regulate enzymes, leading to storage rather than burning of fat.”

“Of course, people are different” said the authors, “but many people are sensitive to the effects of carbohydrates and for them, a low carb diet is going to work well.”

The practical point is that getting rid of the idea that “a calorie is a calorie” opens the door for serious research into what kind of diets will be most effective and which people will benefit most. “This is important,” they explain “because millions of people are seriously trying to lose weight on low carbohydrate diets, and instead of being given directions on the best way to do this, they have been largely discouraged by health professionals and self-appointed expert groups. The obesity epidemic is too important to allow this to happen.”

Note to editors/reporters: You can read the entire scientific paper by going to http://www.nutritionj.com/home and clicking on “Provisional PDF” at the bottom of the headline.

http://www.prweb.com/releases/2004/7/prweb145415.htm
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The difference in diets is really small, I'd rely on reading through some of the pubmed stuff from NIH versus a press release for a single study.

Basically, a lot of the studies show that in the short term low carb diets show a bigger scale loss (not necessarily fat loss) but in the long term, it evens out. What is more, is that the low carb diets tend to have fewer participants who stick through it in the long term. So if you want to lose fat, eat less, move more and find something that works best for you. If you have trouble sticking with low carb, then tweak it as in the long term, the studies show it doesn't matter.

This has not been my experience. For one thing, superior satiety with low carb/moderate protein (hands down!) means it is easier to stick to this way of nutrition.

I could share many more studies but this is a forum!

One of the best books I've seen -- written by a group of scientists -- is The Art and Science of Low Carbohydrate Living (Volek and Phinney, et al)

The nutritional establishment -- like any establishment -- is resistant to new ideas.

Well low carb isn't a new idea, it has been around for at least 40 years but I think what we've seen on this forum is people use a variety of ways to lose weight and maintain their weight.