Hi, I'm new here. I just wanted to say that I love the 3FC website and def. find it to be a great source for losing weight. Ive been on a diet since late July infact, I had dieted before but ended up giving up.. but this time im keeping with it until I reach my goal. I have a few questions about the low carb diet.. im sure these have been answered before but.. now, low carbs specifically the Atkins diet seems to have alot of meats/protein in it. Now wouldnt say, if you ate a large steak be high in fat? So even if you have low carbs wouldnt you still be high in fat? Im not even sure which is worse.. lol. But, Ive been dieting since July, im trying to shrink my stomach so I eat less. Currently Im 209 and 5'9" and just.. unhappy.. my goal is to be 130-135.. even 140.. Im just tired of being this way. Im only 20 years old.. and used to be a thin child but somewhere along the way I gained a lot of weight and never took it off. But now I want to.. im tired of not fitting into the clothing i want to fit into... and im tired of carrying around this extra weight. i know I have a long way to go.. (roughly 70lbs.....im so upset i let it go that far.....)

i think ive lost some weight, my scale was somewhat broken.. the first few weeks of the diet and i had to buy a new one. I started at around 215.. and Im now around 209-210. Ive been eating maybe once-2wice a day and trying to eat sensibly. I havent tried the low carb diet yet but ill do almost anything to get the weight off. I work out almost every day. I do an hour on the walker.. (its like a walker only it exercises both ur arms and legs) and sometimes ill do an hour on the bike or a 30min Tae Bo video that I have.

But I have been staying away from soda and sweets.. and fried foods as well. there have been a few times i slipped up with the sweets (cookies, brownies) because i was at a BBQ etc.. im sure some of u know how that goes! and ive been staying away from all fast food, and french fries (instead ofgetting them as a side etc.. i ask for salad.. and sometimes my bf gets them and ill have a few... ) so hopefully i can reach my goal weight with all of this.... im trying really hard....

thanks for listening, its nice to know theres a place to go where im not judged and im sure many of you are going through or have gone through what i am right now.. anyway thanks for taking the time to read this.. and good luck!!

Welcome to 3FC! About the high fat - foods are classified in 3 groups. Protein, fat and carbs. On Atkins, you are cutting the carbs, so that leaves you with only protein and fat. All protein isn't good for you. The balance of your meals need to be protein and fat. Atkins' theory is that the carbs are what clogs the arteries, not the fat... I know it is a very strange concept to get used to. You're not alone, I think almost everybody that starts Atkins struggles with that.

Good luck in reaching your goal!

Hi xDas7x! I do believe Jennifer is right. It takes awhile to wrap your head around the whole idea of high fat, low carb but reading the Atkins book is very helkpful in that regard. As a brief synopsis of high fat, and yes I can be brief, is that everything your body eats has the capacity to turn to fat and be stored in unsightly places. Also, what we eat is broken down mainly into glucose because that is what our cells use for energy, fat into sugar go figure! Anything in moderation (ie you burn more calories than you eat) will not get stored as fat. However, there are fats that are dangerous, trans fatty acids and hydrogenated fats which do not liquifiy at the body's temperature and stay solid in the arteries. This stuff is the killer, its in margarine, snack food and fried foods (fat cooked at high temps changes structure to hydrogenated.) Atkins is very adament about avoiding this type of fat, as is the FDA.

The basic idea is that your body will burn three types of fuel for energy in this order:
1) sugar alcohols, 2) glucose (carbs) and 3) stored fat. If you remove or limit the first 2 then your body moves right to fat burning, and voila weight loss.

The book naturally explains all this much better than I'll ever be able to and the atkins website has a large amount of info that explains it as well.

Congrats on the weight you've lost already and I'm a Taebo freak too! I have 16 tapes at last count .

Dang it, so much for brevity.

Tummy

You did a very good job of explaining that, Tummy.

Kel

Tummy - They have 16 Taebo tapes?

Thank you all for your help!! Ill have to check out the atkins book! I just know im going to have a very hard time limiting carbs considering that .. theyre in everything that i eat! I dont know if I can cut them out fully.. but ill try my best.. the problem is that i usually eat sandwiches for lunch.. and i cant imagine.. no bread.. lol. hello low carb recipe section here i come!

And yes the Tae Bo is great! I didnt know they made 16 tapes either! I have the Billy Blanks ones.. um the Intro-Basic tapes (2) and then I have the Advanced and the 8min Tae Bo..... some of them are really hard to do... but.. I do what I can!

Due to the body chemistry involved (see Tummy's excellent post) it only works if you cut the carbs down to the 20g per day. Otherwise, your system doesn't switch to fat burning and the cravings don't go away!

On the bright side, if you are strict about following the diet for the first two weeks your cravings for high carb foods really does go away and you come up with alternative lunches, etc.

Atkins with too many carbs is essentially the worst of both worlds...

Hi there,

I would highly recommend reading the book and visiting www.atkins.com paying strict attention to the Induction Phase and the "list of acceptable foods" and "rules of induction". This explains what you should be eating.

I would also suggest you get a free account at www.fitday.com so you can track your carbs as well as fat and protein. This helps provide a better idea of what and how much you are eating.

Good luck!

Froufy

You just have to wander through some of the poorer neighborhoods of any North American city to see the result of carb-stuffing. Poor people can't afford meat. They also can't afford much in the way of fresh vegetables or fruit. What's the cheapest way to eat? Rice...macaroni...potatoes...bread. These are filler foods. They make kids feel full. They also make them fat. The rich get richer and the poor get fatter. Go figure. What's the cheapest restaurant food? Fast food. Burgers, fries, donuts. All high in starch and bad fats. What kind of foods do most kids (in all walks of life) love the most? Fast/junk food. Too many parents grew up eating this kind of stuff and don't know how to cook a well balanced meal for themselves or their kids. So you see fat parents and fat kids all stuffing their faces with fatty, starchy foods. 30 years ago it was a rare sight to see really obese children. Now they are commonplace. Dr. Atkins blames the low fat diet and the proliferation of fast foods and I believe he was right.
Froufy, it may freak you out to think of eating much more fat than you are accustomed to but after a few weeks of eating the low carb/higher protein and fat way you'll be amazed at how little food you really need to feel good. Once you kick that bread, potato and pasta habit, you escape that viscious cycle of constant hunger and cravings for anything starchy or sweet. That's when you automatically begin to eat fewer calories without even realising that it's happening.
Check out our menu thread. You'll be amazed at how little food is actually being eaten, especially when you'd think people on the Atkins plan would be stuffing their faces constantly with fried chicken, shrimp in butter sauce, thick, juicy steaks, etc. Well, we DO enjoy those things, but it takes a lot less to fill us up and make us very happy than it used to. The fat gives you a feeling of satiety that really lasts. That's my take on why this plan works.

Thanks alot for the info! I dont know how im going to do it without bread..... lol I mean I like the recipe ideas but then what do i eat if i dont want to cook? lol oh well! thank u for the links and info!!

Wow I'm so happy to see other Tae Bo ladies here. Yes, they have LOTS of tapes out there.

I have:

Tae Bo Live! - 4 tapes
Tae Bo Total - 8 tapes
Original Tae Bo Basic & Introduction - 2 tapes
Tae Bo Get Ripped Advanced (DVD) - equivalent to 3 tapes

I also have the Master Blaster and Tae Boxing tapes with Billy Blanks in them. There are at least 40 tapes that I don't have. If I were rich, I'd own them all.