[vibbs]

I have not been tracking my weight or diet for past one week. This full Week I am in Bangladesh on work. Got to say its a meat lovers paradise. So have not been holding back and eating all the way. Trouble is that have been taking a lot of carbs too. Rice, chapathis etc etc.

Hope I dont go back to my old weight pretty soon.

[Viju]

Dear Samurai, bblost and all

I am 35 years old, 170 cm in height and used to weigh around 83.5 kg back in July. Moreover, in the past couple of years, my total cholesterol have gone up to the 230 - 250 levels. Being a Keralite, my diet has been rice-heavy since the time I can remember. Though I tried jogging etc for around a month, I did not lose any weight at all (only advantage was the good feeling at the end of the workout).

After going through this thread, I felt it was time for me to try out a change in diet as well. Since your posts on LCHF made sense, I chose LCHF diet for my trial.

In the past 40 days, I have completely eliminated rice and potato from my food. Slowly, I have tried to reduce other sources of carbs as well (all veggies which grow under the ground, carb rich fruits like grapes etc). I also stopped eating out completely (used to have some sort of snack daily, and sometimes sweet too).

The only thing I have failed miserably in, is to eliminate sugar intake completely, as I continue to have 3 milk coffees with sugar in a day. I eat all meat and currently my diet looks something like this.

Breakfast: 8:30 a.m.
Fruits +
1 egg (mostly an omelet) +
a cheese slice (or included in omelet)



Lunch: 12:00 p.m.
2 chapatis +
4 pieces of meat - grilled or gravy (mostly chicken, but at times, pork or beef) +
one piece of fish (mostly pink salmon) +
a decent serving of some vegetable (cabbage, egg plant etc) +
salad +
some sort of protein (yellow dal, green gram etc)



Dinner: 8:30 p.m.
4 chapatis +
one piece of fish +
some sort of protein +
1 cube of butter



I have not been able to dedicate time for early morning work-outs due to several reasons (typhoons, family reasons and what not). But I don't have a desk job (I am a motorcycle test engineer and mostly spend time working on the bikes or riding them) and physical activity is part of my daily routine.

I have been monitoring my weight daily and currently I am at 78.2 kg.

Positives felt till now:
- No hunger pangs as before (always used to feel like having some snack on the way back home)
- No tiredness or lethargy in the afternoons (as I used to feel after having rice for lunch)
- No bloated feeling right after a meal
- Slow, but continuous weight loss

Negatives:
- I am worried that my cholesterol levels might go for a toss, as I am eating meat on a daily basis (earlier it was twice or thrice a week, but not measured)

I never used to eat butter and cheese earlier, but included them in an attempt to include good fat. My wife has replaced the corn oil for cooking, with olive oil / coconut oil.

I would like to keep the gap between my meals a bit more uniform, but it is dictated by my office timings (my commute is 40 km one way, and I rarely reach home before 8:30 p.m.)

Questions:
Assuming I start an hour's worth of jogging etc daily, am I on the right path with respect to the diet?

I think bblost has excluded wheat as well completely. Do you think I am having too many chapatis? (6 in a day) My wife is asking what to replace it with, and I don't have an answer.

My target is to reach a sustainable 68 - 70 kg in the long term and bring my cholesterol levels below 200.

Any advice for a newbie is appreciated.

[Samurai]

Congrats Viju, you lost 5 Kgs just being on MCMF (medium carb medium fat) diet! Trust me, you are neither on low carb nor on high fat.

Which is good news for you, because it says you are highly tolerant of carbs. Even slight decrease in carb and starch has resulted in much decrease in weight.

Meat/heathy-fat on a daily basis doesn't affect your heart health. That was a wrong idea created by dietary advice of US government in the 70-80s. They have discarded it now. Cholesterol is not the problem, but the LDL that carries the cholesterol is the problem. That too the denser LDL is the problem, not the fluffy kind. LCHF keeps your LDL fluffy, so don't worry about it. The sugar/carb keeps your LDL dense, not meat/healthy-fat.

You can accelerate your weight loss by reducing carbs further, and eliminating sugar. Trust me, you are eating too much right now. I work out, and yet eat lot less that you.

My Breakfast: 2 eggs with a slice of cheese + green tea or black coffee (no sugar at all)
My Lunch/Dinner: 3-4 pieces of meat/chicken + veg stir fry + butter milk.

You can have any amount of black coffee (sugarless) during the day. It easily kills the hunger.

PS: I generally loose 200-300gm a day. But if I indulge in sweets one day, I actually gain as much as 400-500gm next day. Same reaction to carbs, but to a lesser extent. Your body will became highly sensitive to carbs and sugar. After a while you will start disliking sugar and carbs, so it won't be a temptation at all.

[Viju]

Originally Posted by Samurai

Congrats Viju, you lost 5 Kgs just being on MCMF (medium carb medium fat) diet!

Thank you Samurai! Your posts in this thread have been motivating.

Originally Posted by Samurai

You can accelerate your weight loss by reducing carbs further, and eliminating sugar. Trust me, you are eating too much right now. I work out, and yet eat lot less that you.

Yes, even I feel that I am eating too much. I love food and used to eat a lot before I started the diet also. My wife was especially paranoid that I will go into a calorie deficit diet instead of LCHF. I will eliminate the chapatis completely and get back after a week with the weight loss info.

Originally Posted by Samurai

You can have any amount of black coffee (sugarless) during the day. It easily kills the hunger.

I tried having sugarless black coffee once. But the black coffee generally available here in Japan is too bitter for my taste (which is adapted to so many years of sweet tea / coffee). As I am in the land of green tea, I will give that a try next. Eliminating caffeine altogether is not an immediate option, as one day without caffeine had me down with a splitting headache and dizziness.

Originally Posted by Samurai

After a while you will start disliking sugar and carbs, so it won't be a temptation at all.

That is the hope.
It was surprisingly easy to stop eating rice one fine day, and I don't feel any craving at all (although my wife and daughter still have rice on a daily basis).

I have 2 more questions though:

1) The chicken available here is always with skin, unlike the skinless option we have back home. Is it okay to have the skin as far as heart health is concerned?

2) I understood the need to cut carbs further. But how do I increase the intake of good fat? More butter and cheese?

Thanks!

[bblost]

Very good brother. I am busy hiding my face in some dark corner of my mother's house as she is killing my diet.

Been eating out quite a bit and when this week long vacation ends on Friday, I will have to work my diet to the normal LCHF style.

There is nothing you can replace roti with. However remember that wheat has more than double the carbs of rice. So it's actually a bad trade when you exchange wheat for rice.

I am so glad I put a new hole in my belt. I cannot use it anymore but it serves as a stark reminder and helped me identify the downhill turn as soon as it started.

Always wear your belt and discard trousers when they get loose. They are your best indicators and first line defence.

[ampere]

Originally Posted by Viju

2) I understood the need to cut carbs further. But how do I increase the intake of good fat? More butter and cheese?

Your condition is not that bad. I think instead of replacing all carbs with fat, you can also try a slight calorie deficit as well.

Since you eat non-veg getting in fat is not a big deal. But at the same time, if you can reduce and hold on to buttered veggies, salads and cheese, you should be good.

At the same time, try eliminating carbs (like roti) from lunch and hold it only dinner. So long fasting cycles without carbs can also accelerate fat loss.

[Samurai]

Originally Posted by Viju

Yes, even I feel that I am eating too much. I love food and used to eat a lot before I started the diet also. My wife was especially paranoid that I will go into a calorie deficit diet instead of LCHF.

No, LCHF is one diet that you can follow without going into deficit calorie. In fact, you don't have to count calories at all. Just watch the carbs, sugar and starch, and try to eliminate as much as possible. You do need some carbs, but that is naturally available in many things we do eat in the LCHF diet.

The most dangerous drug most of us are addicted to is sugar, it is nothing but slow poison to our body. Even if you avoid using white sugar, it is also present in natural form in most fruit. I know we are conditioned to think that all fruits are good, but you need to remember that most fruits have abundant sugar. In fact, it is the result of thousands of years of selective breeding to maximize sugar. So replace fruits with vegetables, that will cut down sugar drastically.

Check this site for details on the carb/sugar content of fruits and vegetables.

We humans in the current form have been around for 2.5 million years. But agriculture was invented only 10,000 years ago, and it took another 5000 years to spread to rest of the civilized world. Most tribal communities stuck with hunting and foraging until the 20th century. So what were humans eating in the first 99.6% of the time? Meat/Fish and wild berries/plants, whose carb content was less than 10%. They got meat and fat from hunting, and berries/plants from foraging. Our carb intake increased only with the invention of agriculture, that is in the last 0.4% of human history. Finally, processed sugar and flour became widely available only after the industrial revolution, that is the last 200 years. That is not enough time for humans evolve into carb/sugar tolerating species.

It is been shown through many studies that tribal communities in 20th century who switched from hunting/foraging to modern processed food started having instances of diabetes, BP, and heart disease, which was unknown in their communities until then. We survived as species at least 99.6% of the time eating meat and fat. Yet we blame these modern diseases on meat and fat. Real culprit is sugar, followed by starch and carbs.

Originally Posted by Viju

I tried having sugarless black coffee once. But the black coffee generally available here in Japan is too bitter for my taste (which is adapted to so many years of sweet tea / coffee). As I am in the land of green tea, I will give that a try next. Eliminating caffeine altogether is not an immediate option, as one day without caffeine had me down with a splitting headache and dizziness.

I didn't notice you lived in Japan, the land of the thin. The coffee you tried must be robusta, the bitter kind. Search for arabica beans coffee online, that should be fine. You don't have to eliminate caffeine, black coffee is known to assist weight loss. Just avoid sugar though.

Originally Posted by Viju

1) The chicken available here is always with skin, unlike the skinless option we have back home. Is it okay to have the skin as far as heart health is concerned?

The chicken skin is a very good source of healthy fat. Remember, fat is bad is the old superstition. Get over it.

Originally Posted by Viju

I understood the need to cut carbs further. But how do I increase the intake of good fat? More butter and cheese?

Fry/cook your food in ghee or butter or coconut/olive oil. Eat meat/paneer/cheese without guilt, in decent quantity. Eat everything in moderation, don't overeat.

Avoid milk, drink buttermilk or curd instead. Curd has 1/3 the carbs of milk.

My typical lunch or dinner (stir fried veggies, okra fry, meat/chicken & pickle):

[Red Liner]

Guys, LCHF diet plan for a vegetarian? 3 meals a day please.

I've been having a hard time eating paneer every single day. Went crazy sometime back and the body craved for fish and I ended up eating some. I cook for myself, so please keep that in mind before suggesting any exotic dishes. haha.

I need to drop maybe 3-5 kgs and not more than that. I'm 5.8' and about 70kgs. Yoga and swimming everyday. Used to be a gym rat (28 inch waist + under 10% body fat), but I've suffered the consequences of all muscle and no flexibility. Making amends now.

I'll stop milk immediately.

[Samurai]

Originally Posted by Red Liner

I've been having a hard time eating paneer every single day. Went crazy sometime back and the body craved for fish and I ended up eating some.

Nothing wrong with fish, I eat it regularly under LCHF.

[Red Liner]

Originally Posted by Samurai

Nothing wrong with fish, I eat it regularly under LCHF.

Its just a personal thing to go off all meat really. But now and then the craving appears. I try hard to see whether i'm craving protein/fish oil out of a nutritional need, or a taste thing.

I'm on 6 tabs of cod liver oil a day now. Had some bad knee joint cramps riding motorbikes a month or two back, and that seems to have reduced.

[penpavan]

Originally Posted by Samurai

Nothing wrong with fish, I eat it regularly under LCHF.

Hi Samurai, can you suggest a LCHF diet for pure vegetarians? I find it hard to think what to substitute meat/eggs that is Veg that can be eaten everyday without getting averse to it.

[Samurai]

Moderator Ampere is better equipped to handle veggie queries since he has been doing LCHF veggie way for many years now.

[ampere]

Originally Posted by Samurai

Moderator Ampere is better equipped to handle veggie queries since he has been doing LCHF veggie way for many years now.

Originally Posted by penpavan

Hi Samurai, can you suggest a LCHF diet for pure vegetarians? I find it hard to think what to substitute meat/eggs that is Veg that can be eaten everyday without getting averse to it.

I agree that its difficult to set oneself a veggie LCHF diet. So to counter that what I can suggest is try a combination calorie deficit + high fat to some extent.

Example:

- Avoid carbs for lunch and keep it for dinner. Since dinner is the most important meal of the day (as of us work during the day) from a family time point of view.
- You can try a longer fasting period (if you can handle). (I dont take breakfast. Since I sit on a chair till evening, I dont need much energy).
- Black coffee kills hunger. Use it for the first hour
- Lunch can be salads with butter/ cheese etc.
- For evening snacks look for whey protein. Again many dont use it citing other side effects. I take it in moderation 2-3 days a week. That is enough for an evening snack
- Keep dry fruits like Walnuts, Almonds for snacks
- Dinner for me is ideally veggies or a regular carb based meal with roti/rice reduced to minimum.
- An apple or a fruit later in the day is good late night snack. Please note it is not a replacement for food! Only a supplement.
- Keep one activity on your daily schedule. If you dont work out, then walk for an hour is enough to regulate your metabolism. Remember this is not for your weight reduction. That I think is only diet to get you to the base levels. If you want to go beyond that, then I think work outs come into play.

The reason I added other aspects to diet is because, its very difficult to be on a LCHF diet for veggies. So the way I chose is to minimise carbs rather than eliminating them.

[vibbs]

Originally Posted by Viju

Dear Samurai, bblost and all


- I am worried that my cholesterol levels might go for a toss, as I am eating meat on a daily basis (earlier it was twice or thrice a week, but not measured)

I never used to eat butter and cheese earlier, but included them in an attempt to include good fat. My wife has replaced the corn oil for cooking, with olive oil / coconut oil.

Viju,

I am a keraliite and can identify with your urge to eat rice. I never felt like I ate anything unless there was rice in the menu. It has changed now though (except the last one week where I have been binging on rice here in Bangladesh )

Regarding your concern for Cholestrol, the best way to quay fears is to get the blood work done. I did mine one month after starting on the Low carb diet and when I compared it with the results of my previous tests (done three months back), I was very pleasantly surprised

However please do get the tests done, these things effect different people differently.

[penpavan]

Originally Posted by ampere

I agree that its difficult to set oneself a veggie LCHF diet. So to counter that what I can suggest is try a combination calorie deficit + high fat to some extent.

Thanks ampere. Agree with you, cannot find heart desiring alternate foods that will fit the LCHF plan.