Hi everyone... I have a question for you. I noticed a lot of people on this site do a low/ lower/ modified carb diet of some sort...

I started off my journey with the carb addicts diet, and although it wasn't the answer for me, it did teach me a lot and got me away from the refined, white carbs..

I've spent the last few years on WW, trying to eat as healthfully as possible on it - lean protein, fruits, vegs, whole grains... But my body has naturally selected it's goal weight, it would seem, and it's about 10 pounds heavier than I would like (well, more like love/ dream).

A friend of mine has started Atkins, and it's made me think... about maybe trying to eat low or lower carb just to change things up and see if I can't get rid of a few more pounds. Sometimes it seems like your body gets really accustomed to your diet/ exercise lifestyle.

What do you think? I can't see it doing any harm..

Sue

Sue, I think it's a good thing to shake up our exercise and diet every now and then so we don't get too deep into our little ruts. Sure, why not drop the carbs for a bit and see how your body responds?

If you've been tracking your carbs, what have you typically been eating? What are you thinking of dropping down to? It's funny how we all have our own definitions of what 'low carb' and 'lower carb' are - for me, sticking around 100g per day is controlled carb, but to someone on Atkins that would be high-carb and to someone following the food pyramid, it would be very low-carb. So I'm curious about what other people are eating.

While I was losing weight, I did three separate two-week sprints of very LC and low calories. It definitely shook up my routine! But it was pretty drastic and I wouldn't recommend going really LC for too much longer than that. One thing you may notice - depending on how low you drop your carbs - is that your energy levels may bonk. I had a much harder time with cardio and couldn't lift near as much weight as I had been.

My body seems to respond pretty well to 100 - 120 grams per day of carbs. When I start getting up in the high 100s, I seem to gain weight easier. Of course that might also be because those extra grams of carbs are usually the kind!!!

Please come back and let us know how your experiment works for you!

There are two other things that can happen when you go low-to-no-carb. First is that part of the weight you lose is water, even if you've already been restricting intake and losing weight. Part of the normal process for storing carb-derived fuels is to pack that energy into the muscles in a packet that contains water. If there are no or few carbs coming in, that type of fuel doesn't get stored and neither does the water. That's why Atkins folks lose SO much weight to start with.

The other thing that can happen is that your body can turn to muscle for some of its fuel needs when there's not enough carb coming in. So, you CAN lose muscle weight as well. People who follow low-carb diets typically lose a lot more muscle mass, and have worse body compositions, than people who eat sufficient carbs while losing weight.

I eat 1500 calories per day and have anywhere from 150-200g carb from all sources -- that includes dairy, fruit, veg, as well as starches of all types. That makes up anywhere from 50% to 60% percent of my intake, which is high-carb. (Because my calories vary frequently, anywhere from 1300 to 1800, I pay more attention to percentage than grams). I think dropping down to 100g or so as Meg does would provide sufficient energy and protect your muscle tissue fairly well, especially if you are weight training. Maybe you could reduce your starch intake some? but not follow Atkins, which to me is rather unnecessarily extreme and potentially harmful to some people.

Another topic I wanted to mention is the idea of a set point. This was a hot topic back in the mid- to late-80s. Some resarches found that many people DO have a weight at which their body feels comfortable, and it can be very difficult to lose (safely) beyond that point. The thing that they found was that the people who were most successful at losing below that set-point, and essentially re-setting their set point after a time, were those who were serious, consistent cardio exercisers, as much as a minimum of an hour per day, 5 or 6 days per week. Also, if you are already exercising significantly, changing your workout routine can help, whether it's starting a new activity or doing something like intervals. So, you might look at the exercise component more than your food at this point.

As always, I agree so much with Meg and Funniegrrl. I only can add that for me adding one extra protein shake a day shifted percentage of carbs intake a bit and I started loosing weight again (I also increased my exercise accordingly to burn off calories taken with this one protein shake). So on days when I bike 32km I take one extra protein shake. It helped loosing about 4 pounds so far.

Another thing where I completely agree with funniegrrl is this set point in your weight. Some of us went thru yo-yo dieting,, some not. Some, like me, had been on certain weight for quite a long stretch and than gained. I was at around 60kg for about 5 years, and I remember trying to loose about 2 kg to be 58kg with exercise and low carb diet and even though I dropped 2 sizes I definitely did not drop any weight. Later on I gained a lot, and currently I tried to maintain at about 57-58kg. Guess what - it was almost impossible, it was like being in prison and watching every single bit you put in your mouth, it meant no alcohol at all and no cookies, no chocolate, never. And still sometimes weight would creep to 60kg. Now I am at 60 kg and I noticed that I can occasionally have wine, chocolate, cookies in moderation, and maintenance is not such a hassle. So in my case at least, set point is existing - so think about your weight fluctuations during your life - I guess if you were at certain weight for about 5 years, your body is just happy with it.

For myself I decided to try back to 128 again and have a look second time how does it feel to be there and how hard it is to maintain. Also, one other reason to try is that I signed up for triathlon this year and I do not want to carry "extra" pounds with me during swim.bikeing/running...

Sandy.

I'm sure my body has a setpoint, in fact, I think I have several! In 1999/2000, I lost nearly 70 lbs, but each time I came to a weight I had originally been at for like more than a year on the way up, I had a terrible time getting down past it. I was reasonably successful in maintaining at the weight I finally came to, and stayed there until about late 2002. Even when the weight crept back on, I hit those points again and stayed there substantially longer. Now I'm on the way back down again. . . Sigh.

I just wanted to thank everyone for their replies. I've been having some family problems and haven't been able to get to the boards, but I felt so bad asking a question and not replying.

Thanks everyone.

BTW, I am trying cutting my carbs (as of today) just to see what happens.