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I might not be getting this right but it sounds like you're restricting your fluid intake by only drinking water sweetened with lemon. I did the same when I first started my diet plan and cut out all fluids except water. I hope it works out better for you than it did for me cos I got so bored with just drinking water that I ended up going back to my old ways and everything else fell apart after that. I tried green tea cos it's supposed to detox as well but I can't stand that bitter taste. Last week my sister told me about red tea, not sure if that's even really a thing but she says it will help cos it tastes better and supposed to stop cravings as well as detoxing. Found this but not sure what to make of it https://willshealthreviews.fitness.b...red-tea-detox/
They have 3g carbs / 1g sugar but mostly sweetened with stevia. Stevia is my best friend right now. I put 1 pack into my 32 oz water bottle and its just the right sweetness. Makes drinking water sooo much better. IMO the stuff is a miracle and I'm so glad someone makes it. I won't drink stuff with Nutrasweet or Splenda.
Also, Stur products, which have no sugar/carbs and still taste good.
Tea with a teaspoon of honey isn't going to hurt either. But stevia drops also work in tea. I look at it as trying to avoid the big carb drinks more than anything- a 20oz Pepsi has like 70g of sugar. Having a hot tea once a day with 10g of honey is always going to be 1/7 the sugar as Pepsi.
Also found another killer is Salad dressing. Some have 7g of sugar per tablespoon. A tablespoon of salad dressing is nothing for me- I probably use 3-4. A bottle of salad dressing is 15 servings usually, that's 105g of sugar! Almost double an equal size bottle of Pepsi. I never knew this until recently, how much sugar there is due to the salt it masks the sweet flavor. So now I just use Primal Kitchen products, which have no sugar and have an avocado oil base instead of soybean or canola (another company I'm super grateful for).
Quik update, on diet for 1 week. Down 4.5 lbs. Didn't expect to lose that much. Its amazing because I'm actually not that hungry. Feel way less bloated already. Better mental clarity. I've been keeping carbs to 75g a day but may up it to 100g because I want to lose weight slowly.
Bulletproof coffee holds me until 12:00-1:00 pm pretty easily. And now breakfast is super easy.
One secret weapon I've been using: We made a pot of Avgolemono Soup (its a Greek lemon orzo soup) https://www.themediterraneandish.com...o-soup-recipe/. Used chickpea rice instead of white rice, which cuts the carbs by about 1/2, but tastes similar. https://www.eatbanza.com/collections/rice
Its more filling than rice too, and has more protein and fiber. Found about 4oz works well in a pot of soup and is not too carby.
Paired with a nice Greek salad, its a delicious meal.
Downsides- energy level down a bit. Also why I'm upping carbs to 100. Also since carbs help you sleep, that hasn't been as deep. Hopefully this will adjust.
Your initial weight loss is due mainly to water weight; carby diets cause you to retain water, while low-carb diets serve as a diuretic. So your weight loss will slow down naturally, without you having to add carbs. So don't mess with success by tweaking your diet too much, or you could mess things up.
That soup sounds very interesting. But too many carbs in the evening may cause your blood sugar to drop in the middle of the night, causing you to wake up. Better to eat a protein snack just before bed, to keep your b.s. stable through the night.
"Carbs help you sleep" because they trigger an insulin reaction and insulin is a sleep hormone! (It also causes your body to build fat!) This is not a healthy strategy for someone trying to avoid diabetes! Although some doctors recommend this strategy to their patients indiscriminately (without asking if they already have insulin resistance or not), who have trouble falling asleep at night. I wouldn't recommend this for you, OP. You're outsmarting yourself a little, here.
Stay low-carb for dinner, and let your body continue to adjust to the new diet; the sleep issue may sort itself out naturally. Again, as I posted earlier: low-carb diets cause your body to release extra Human Growth Hormone, which is a sleep hormone (and also a muscle-mass-building hormone), so your sleep should be fine. If you add in too many carbs, you'll thwart this mechanism. Are you working out with weights 3x/week? That will help your sleep, too, especially if you schedule your workouts at least 1 hr. after a meal and at least 1 hr before next meal. This, too, causes extra HGH to be released (for better sleep, and better lean muscle mass building, which speeds your weight loss and fat-burning).
To read more about this science I'm telling you, you can order the book "Protein Power" from Amazon, authored by 2 MD's. It's an old book, so only costs a couple of $$. If you're working out, you need to be sure to get enough protein, too. Greek soup + salad isn't going to provide you with enough. You can add cheese to the salad, and fish or chicken or ground beef to the soup.
Stay healthy, stay safe, by understanding the science behind what you're doing, and what your body needs. You're pushing different buttons in your body's endocrine system with this diet, so you need to understand how it all works and fits together, so you don't accidentally push the wrong buttons. (Insulin = a hormone, for ex.)
Congrats on a great start for the new year, though!
Last edited by Ruth4Truth; 01-07-2020 at 09:56 AM..
They have 3g carbs / 1g sugar but mostly sweetened with stevia. Stevia is my best friend right now. I put 1 pack into my 32 oz water bottle and its just the right sweetness. Makes drinking water sooo much better. IMO the stuff is a miracle and I'm so glad someone makes it. I won't drink stuff with Nutrasweet or Splenda.
Also, Stur products, which have no sugar/carbs and still taste good.
Tea with a teaspoon of honey isn't going to hurt either. But stevia drops also work in tea. I look at it as trying to avoid the big carb drinks more than anything- a 20oz Pepsi has like 70g of sugar. Having a hot tea once a day with 10g of honey is always going to be 1/7 the sugar as Pepsi.
Also found another killer is Salad dressing. Some have 7g of sugar per tablespoon. A tablespoon of salad dressing is nothing for me- I probably use 3-4. A bottle of salad dressing is 15 servings usually, that's 105g of sugar! Almost double an equal size bottle of Pepsi. I never knew this until recently, how much sugar there is due to the salt it masks the sweet flavor. So now I just use Primal Kitchen products, which have no sugar and have an avocado oil base instead of soybean or canola (another company I'm super grateful for).
Make your own oil & vinegar dressing. You can soak chopped green onions & garlic in it, for more flavor.
Weaning yourself off the need for sugar would be a good strategy, long-term, but for now, since you already have this major diet overhaul to get used to, it sounds like your stevia fix is a good compromise. 10 g of honey in tea sounds like a lot, though (in terms of the insulin reaction it would provoke. I could never do that, especially if on an empty stomach, bc of the symptoms it would cause).
Last edited by Ruth4Truth; 01-07-2020 at 10:23 AM..
So I currently weigh 230 lbs and need to be 185 lbs within a year. It is a major goal of mine. Doctor says I can do it safely and recommends a paleo or keto diet. I am prediabetic, bordering on diabetic. Blood sugar is regularly about 135 in the morning. A1C is 5.7. Also I have high blood pressure.
{snip}
Does this seem realistic to lose 45 lbs in 1 year? Its about a lb a week or so. I will also likely go to the gym or at least walk 1/2 hour a day, 4 days a week.
Like other posters, I believe you will lose weight at first. Eventually, you will hit a plateau – your basic metabolism rate drops as you lose weight, so you will have to lessen calories and increase exercise to overcome that. Walking for 30 minutes a day is a start, but it is not going to burn many calories. You will need to keep increasing your burn rate over the months ahead. If you have been taking things slow and steady, it will be easier to implement necessary changes in order to keep making progress.
My goal is similar to yours. For years, I kept making vague resolutions to “eat healthier, exercise more, and lose weight†but never followed a consistent plan. I never lost more than 5 lbs and eventually I would add those back on again. Last year, I decided to get serious. I joined the health incentive plan offered by my insurance company. Since then I have lost 10% of my body weight. Since this is a lifestyle change not a diet plan, I think I will keep it off in the future.
Check with your insurance company or employer to see if they offer a health incentive plan, sometimes referred to as a “wellness program.†My insurance company uses a fairly popular program called Real Appeal. It combines video conferencing with a coach; app and web tracking for exercise, weight and diet; and a goody box with a food scale, a recipe book, exercise kit, etc. Knowing that my insurance company is monitoring my progress may seem like an invasion of privacy to some, but it’s working for me as I know I am being held accountable. My weight fluctuates by about three pounds a day but it’s on an overall downward trajectory of one to two pounds a week. My A1C levels have moved out of the prediabetic range, my blood sugar and cholesterol counts are down, my blood pressure is decreasing, and my chronic insomnia has lessened.
I use one of the free automated weight and blood pressure measuring stations available at grocery and drug stores in my area. There are several brands. All of them can measure weight and blood pressure independently, or report them to an app if you authorize that. My app provides me with graphs so I can track my progress over months and share the results with my doctor. My local pharmacy offers progress rewards and discounts to go with that.
Your initial weight loss is due mainly to water weight; carby diets cause you to retain water, while low-carb diets serve as a diuretic. So your weight loss will slow down naturally, without you having to add carbs. So don't mess with success by tweaking your diet too much, or you could mess things up.
That soup sounds very interesting. But too many carbs in the evening may cause your blood sugar to drop in the middle of the night, causing you to wake up. Better to eat a protein snack just before bed, to keep your b.s. stable through the night.
"Carbs help you sleep" because they trigger an insulin reaction and insulin is a sleep hormone! (It also causes your body to build fat!) This is not a healthy strategy for someone trying to avoid diabetes! Although some doctors recommend this strategy to their patients indiscriminately (without asking if they already have insulin resistance or not), who have trouble falling asleep at night. I wouldn't recommend this for you, OP. You're outsmarting yourself a little, here.
Stay low-carb for dinner, and let your body continue to adjust to the new diet; the sleep issue may sort itself out naturally. Again, as I posted earlier: low-carb diets cause your body to release extra Human Growth Hormone, which is a sleep hormone (and also a muscle-mass-building hormone), so your sleep should be fine. If you add in too many carbs, you'll thwart this mechanism. Are you working out with weights 3x/week? That will help your sleep, too, especially if you schedule your workouts at least 1 hr. after a meal and at least 1 hr before next meal. This, too, causes extra HGH to be released (for better sleep, and better lean muscle mass building, which speeds your weight loss and fat-burning).
To read more about this science I'm telling you, you can order the book "Protein Power" from Amazon, authored by 2 MD's. It's an old book, so only costs a couple of $$. If you're working out, you need to be sure to get enough protein, too. Greek soup + salad isn't going to provide you with enough. You can add cheese to the salad, and fish or chicken or ground beef to the soup.
Stay healthy, stay safe, by understanding the science behind what you're doing, and what your body needs. You're pushing different buttons in your body's endocrine system with this diet, so you need to understand how it all works and fits together, so you don't accidentally push the wrong buttons. (Insulin = a hormone, for ex.)
Congrats on a great start for the new year, though!
Thank you! I'm following Dr. William Davis right now, the book is called Undoctored. Basically, he's against grains, especially wheat, and believes the body can easily handle 15g of carbs per meal optimally. I am probably eating more like 20g per meal. But baby steps. So far I'm down 7 lbs in 2 weeks, so I'm sticking with it. I workout with weights 3x a week and swim laps 1x a week.
I am testing my blood sugar and ketones with a tester than does both. Both have been in optimal ranges, with a small raise 1/2 hour after I eat (say 80 to 90), which drops back to the 80's or even 70's after 2 hours. Ketones are at 0.8 which is light nutritional ketosis, which I am fine with, as I don't consider my diet to be ketogenic, just low carb. Dr. Davis is against strict ketogenic diets, and I tend to agree but it is splitting hairs as anything under 100g a day is 2/3 less carbs than the standard American diet.
I've also been following the Primal Blueprint by Mark Sisson. He says have fun with it! His beliefs are simiar to Dr. Davis but a bit more fun. In other words, not checking every level all the time with a meter, but just eat meat, fish, eggs, and tons of vegetables and not worry about it too much. Stress is a killer and its better to just do right and things will work out!
Quote:
Originally Posted by Ruth4Truth
Make your own oil & vinegar dressing. You can soak chopped green onions & garlic in it, for more flavor.
Weaning yourself off the need for sugar would be a good strategy, long-term, but for now, since you already have this major diet overhaul to get used to, it sounds like your stevia fix is a good compromise. 10 g of honey in tea sounds like a lot, though (in terms of the insulin reaction it would provoke. I could never do that, especially if on an empty stomach, bc of the symptoms it would cause).
I actually was answering someone else- I don't generally drink tea, or use honey. Basically saying that its better to drink tea with a little honey than drink soda. 10g vs 80g.
I really like the Primal Kitchen products. Yes, they cost more but I am quite short on time to make my own dressings, and the dressings I have made in the past never tasted right. I'm definitely not a good cook. I devote 2 days a week to cooking- Sundays for making soup, a large pan of vegetables, and 1 main dish, and on Wednesday I make another huge batch of vegetables, usually broccoli, string beans, cauliflower, or zucchini. Always organic and always in large quantities that I can reheat throughout the week. Beyond that, I am usually working, relaxing outdoors, or going to the gym.
I really like the Primal Kitchen products. Yes, they cost more but I am quite short on time to make my own dressings, and the dressings I have made in the past never tasted right.
I use Walden Farms a lot on my mega-salads... it's got zero everything.
Not a fan of all of the many flavors.
I only have the French. I hadn't had French dressing for many years before I discovered theirs.
I make my salads in mixing bowls. Regular bowls are nowhere near big enough.
Thank you! I'm following Dr. William Davis right now, the book is called Undoctored. Basically, he's against grains, especially wheat, and believes the body can easily handle 15g of carbs per meal optimally. I am probably eating more like 20g per meal. But baby steps. So far I'm down 7 lbs in 2 weeks, so I'm sticking with it. I workout with weights 3x a week and swim laps 1x a week.
I am testing my blood sugar and ketones with a tester than does both. Both have been in optimal ranges, with a small raise 1/2 hour after I eat (say 80 to 90), which drops back to the 80's or even 70's after 2 hours. Ketones are at 0.8 which is light nutritional ketosis, which I am fine with, as I don't consider my diet to be ketogenic, just low carb. Dr. Davis is against strict ketogenic diets, and I tend to agree but it is splitting hairs as anything under 100g a day is 2/3 less carbs than the standard American diet.
I've also been following the Primal Blueprint by Mark Sisson. He says have fun with it! His beliefs are simiar to Dr. Davis but a bit more fun. In other words, not checking every level all the time with a meter, but just eat meat, fish, eggs, and tons of vegetables and not worry about it too much. Stress is a killer and its better to just do right and things will work out!
.
Sounds pretty good, OP. On a lower-carb diet than what you're on, I lost 4 lbs/week, for 3-4 months, and that's what the diet I followed said to expect. So it sounds like you're doing well. Good that you're exercising. Be sure to increase your weights gradually, to build lean muscle mass (which increases insulin sensitivity, decreases insulin resistance).
The only concern at this point is, that having chosen such a radical diet, you've chosen it for life, I want to remind you. What does Dr. Davis say about easing off the diet at the end? With this type of diet, you'll need to follow a higher protein/lower carb diet the rest of your life (which some doctors say is more healthy anyway, than the typical American diet, as you point out).
Are you getting enough protein to build that lean muscle mass? You said earlier, you're a little low-energy; your body may need slightly larger protein portions for that energy boost, and to support your muscles. (You haven't mentioned your protein intake at all, unless I missed it.)
Feeling hungry is normal when you eat fewer calories than before, or when you skip meals. I eat two meals a day and I am hungry when I eat. Foods taste better. Each bite takes on a new meaning. I appreciate the food I eat more than I ever did. The completion of each meal is better than an orgasm.
You WILL NOT be losing any weight with that plan. You see your body reacts to the total daily intake of food NOT how many meals you eat each day.
With intermittent fasting it was very easy for me to lose weight. No counting calories, no counting fat grabs, carbs, no weighing out portions. You just eat between 12 pm and 8 pm. every day. And don't eat anything in between those times.
I use Walden Farms a lot on my mega-salads... it's got zero everything.
Not a fan of all of the many flavors.
I only have the French. I hadn't had French dressing for many years before I discovered theirs.
I make my salads in mixing bowls. Regular bowls are nowhere near big enough.
I'm not trying to tell you what to do, but I'd be cautious using that stuff. Contains sucralose which is an artificial sweetener and found to be carcinogenic in mice, here is the study:
Also sodium benzoate and potassium sorbate, both are preservatives. Also, lots of FD&C colorings. It sounds natural with "farms" in the name, but this is anything but a natural product. It is a frankenfood.
I tend to avoid anything that says "sugar-free" or calorie-free" as they are usually lab created (like the Impossible whopper. No thanks.)
Check out Primal Kitchen. Truly wholesome and real ingredients. All organic. 99% of salad dressings are soybean, vegetable oil, or canola oil, all of which are industrial grade oils and heavily genetically modified and sprayed with pesticides. Primal Kitchen uses only Avocado oil or olive oil, which are much healthier for you and much more expensive to use. I don't work for them or make any money off them. Just really, really like their products and philosophy.
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