Low carb

[SunnySunshine]

Who is living the low carb lifestyle?

I just got my fit it- flex and am hoping to track and motivate myself.

I successfully dropped 30 lbs following a low carb (Adkins/ Idiot proof diet/ Paleo thinking) and need to add exercise into the mix to drop the next 30-45.

Looking for friends and helpful hints to continue to journey. 🙂

[onmybroom]

Adding some sea salt to your water can help with those withdrawal headaches.

[onmybroom]

Good for you! It sounds like you are doing the LCHF. I did a plan that was low carb low fat. I'm curious to know the difference in people's success rates. I reached my goal in 82 days and have been maintaining for 5 months. I eat complex carbs now but food combos are key. Fats must be eaten at a different meal than carbs, etc. a cheat day each week is mandatory but you do phase 1 (no carbs) for one day after. Seems to work! Are you maintaining or still losing?

Tracie Ansell
Sent from my iPhone

[SunnySunshine]

*sorry, lunch jumped out if order on my post.. And Non breaded protien.

🙂

[ginga58]

I'm low-carb, too! So great to know there are others here. How do you track your carb intake on the fitbit?

[onmybroom]

Hi!
I use the MyFitnessPal app on my phone to track what I eat. You can set your nutritional goals on there. It syncs with your fitbit.

Tracie Ansell
Sent from my iPhone

[SunnySunshine]

Hello to All Low Carbers !

I have now hit -65# and still feeling GREAT! I want to drop about 10-15 more and maintain. I really kicked in again from Thanksgiving throught the Holidays and was able to DROP another 10-15# which is really unbelievable considering how all those holidays are surrounded by food as the main source of entertainment and focus.

It is interesting how these last 10-15 are when most people are commenting and notice I have lost weight. Like the first 50 didn't make a dent ! LOL

I am still doing my protien shake in the AM, salads at lunch, and protien and veggie focused dinner. Nuts for snacks. 

I have used the LOSE IT app in the past, and really don't keep strict track of my food intake... wish the fit bit would allow to "choose" an eating program and adjust accordingly. I am just counting as I need to with labels, but on a good routine of no bread, starch, and sticking to what I have learned the last 18 months, etc so know I am LOW carb. Also doing the ketone strips when needed to make sure I am on program.

Keep going to all! Spring will be here soon!!!

[msfarkee]

Fitbit tracks your carbs  on the daily food log in diary.    But as Sunny mentioned, doesn't have it has a

separate program with neat graphics and charts etc   that particularly relate to a Low Carb Diet.     MFP tracks carbs  and   you  have the flexibility to  set the number/percentage  of carbs you want in a day.     But it doesn't give you net carbs -- you would have to subtract fiber yourself and that would be a pain. 

I googled Low Carb tracking and alot of websites/jtrackers came up.  One was Atkins app.     There were several others as well but a low carber would have to check them out to see if they are any good.     

But to be really useful  they would need to  sync with Fitbit.     Since they all track calories as well (I think?)   seems like they would sync OK  just as MFP does.  

[m0j0]

Ideally the Fitbit app would just add support for tracking net carbs, with a pane for it on your dashboard, and goals, etc. They already track the data, and I'm surprised that this key feature is missing.

There's a lot of evidence now that simply tracking calories is not a very good way to lose weight, since not all calories are created equal, as those of us on low-carb diets are well aware.

[Lambie]

I just posted the same thing, about Net Carbs 😉

[Lambie]

The problem with that is that you will never get into ketosis that way.  That is the whole reason for going low carb 😉

[Dominique]

"Low carb" means just that: low. It doesn't say how low. A ketogenic diet is the most extreme form of a low carb diet, but there are other forms that are not ketogenic, yet still qualify as low carb.

[TandemWalker]

---

@Dominique wrote:

"Low carb" means just that: low. It doesn't say how low. A ketogenic diet is the most extreme form of a low carb diet, but there are other forms that are not ketogenic, yet still qualify as low carb.

---

I agree with you. Extreme low-carb diets can be very detrimental indeed. There is nothing wrong with a carb-rich diet if your carb intake is properly timed, especially just before a cardio-workout. I am not an fan of any extreme diets. The best diet is the one that is balanced to ones needs, needs that factor in one's daily occupation and exercise regimen; and of course weight loss goal. A balanced diet, tweaked to one's activity level, made up of good fats, carbs and protein, is the best approach IMHO.

TW

[Lightsinger]

---

@Dominique wrote:

"Low carb" means just that: low. It doesn't say how low. A ketogenic diet is the most extreme form of a low carb diet, but there are other forms that are not ketogenic, yet still qualify as low carb.

---

I'm on a reduced carb regimen because I'm diabetic and that's a very real reason to reduce the total number of carbs per meal/day.  While I know a lot of people who find the ketogenic diet helpful, even beneficial, for most people, the regimen is far too restrictive and unsustainable.  The best diet for weight loss is the one that an individual can stay on.  I'm low carbing for life; I find that I cannot sustain a ketogenic diet.  No extreme diet works for me, but reduced carb has lost me 75 pounds and maintained that loss for 15 years.  I eat a wide range of foods, including fats and carbohydrates -- within reason -- whole foods that I can get at any grocery store. 

[TandemWalker]

---

@Lightsinger wrote:

---

@Dominique wrote:

"Low carb" means just that: low. It doesn't say how low. A ketogenic diet is the most extreme form of a low carb diet, but there are other forms that are not ketogenic, yet still qualify as low carb.

---

I'm on a reduced carb regimen because I'm diabetic and that's a very real reason to reduce the total number of carbs per meal/day.  While I know a lot of people who find the ketogenic diet helpful, even beneficial, for most people, the regimen is far too restrictive and unsustainable.  The best diet for weight loss is the one that an individual can stay on.  I'm low carbing for life; I find that I cannot sustain a ketogenic diet.  No extreme diet works for me, but reduced carb has lost me 75 pounds and maintained that loss for 15 years.  I eat a wide range of foods, including fats and carbohydrates -- within reason -- whole foods that I can get at any grocery store. 

---

Well said!

TW

[m0j0]

I agree. My lifestyle works for me, and I don't claim that it should work for anyone else. However, I pay attention to carbs more than I pay attention to calories, which is why I would like the feature. My nephew is type 1 juvenile diabetic, so I'm familiar with what diabetics go through. 

I mostly avoid starchy carbs like grain, pasta, and bread. I avoid wheat like poison, but will occasionally eat rice. My son has a wheat allergy, and I suspect I might have one too, although it's never been officially diagnosed. I read the book "Wheat Belly" by Dr. William Davis a few years ago and it made a lot of sense to me. 

For me, I eat mostly protein and fat, and the carbs I eat come from natural sources like vegetables and nuts. I am not fanatical about it, and when I do what I'm supposed to, and get regular exercise, I lose weight. When I quit exercising and start eating a lot of sweets, I gain weight. It's not rocket science or brain surgery. 🙂

At least for me, if I eat bacon and eggs for breakfast, I am much less hungry the rest of the day, than if I eat a bagel or oatmeal. That's why I prefer a low carb lifestyle, because it works for me, and your own personal mileage may vary.

[Lightsinger]

I avoid most grains, especially rice, which jacks my glucose up much worse than bread.  Although even a quarter of a bagel will do a job on it, too.  I'm Type 2, oral medications, so I don't have insulin to cover my carbs, and can't uptake the insulin I produce naturally because of insulin resistance.  Carbs have to be tightly controlled, but if I space them out, avoid taking in too many at a time, I can have a limited number of them and still lose weight.  But I agree:  bacon and eggs sticks with you a lot longer than a bowl of Cherrios.  😉

[TandemWalker]

Actually @m0j0 , my dietary habits are closed to yours. The fitbit Premium membership allows you to at track your food intake in more details. You can try it for free for a week and see if that could work for you.

More details on it included here: https://www.fitbit.com/ca/premium/about#i.zu0dh1ajlf1b10.

I like Premium. I've been on it for 18 months and just renewed my subscription for another year. I like the trainer functionality a lot - it pushes me to do a bit more every day. And I like the way it tabulates by food intake nicely, breaking it down graphically between Fat, Carbs and Protein. The lion share of my daily intake is Carbs - but most of it is good carbs; and except for dinner time, I try to time my carb intake 20-30 minutes before a workout. 

    TW     

If this tip solved the problem for you, please mark this post solved, as this will be helpful to other users experiencing similar issues.

[m0j0]

Thanks, @TandemWalker, for the tip about the food tracking with premium membership. Unfortunately $50/yr seems a little steep for what you get. I already have a lot of the same "digital training" features from another paid exercise app (Endomondo), and spending $50/year just to have an in-depth "food report" seems like overkill in my opinion. The other features aren't compelling enough to me.

If you use the Fitbit app for tracking your food, it already has data for the various nutritional attributes such as calories, fat, protein, carbs, etc.

Unfortunately Fitbit has chosen to implement the out-dated thinking that weight loss is simply a matter of expending more calories than you consume, which completely dismisses issues like glycemic effects of high-carb/high-sugar foods. Modern studies have suggested that this is NOT the case, and just counting calories and eating "low fat" is probably one of the largest causes of our modern obesity epidemic, in my opinion. (Sample study:  http://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2012/06/when-a-calorie-is-not-just-a-calorie/)

Since Fitbit has chosen the "just count calories" model, they only prompt you for a food name and calories when you enter custom foods, and you have to go "advanced" to enter the full nutritional data. However, if you do that (or use food entries from the existing database) then all of the data is present to permit the calculation of net carbs. It would just be a simple matter of adding the feature to the dashboard.

To me this is a fundamental feature that would be very useful, not only to diabetics who MUST watch their carbohydrate intake, but also people like myself who like to keep an eye on their carb intake instead of just counting calories. 

[Lightsinger]

---

@m0j0 wrote:

Thanks, @TandemWalker, for the tip about the food tracking with premium membership. Unfortunately $50/yr seems a little steep for what you get. I already have a lot of the same "digital training" features from another paid exercise app (Endomondo), and spending $50/year just to have an in-depth "food report" seems like overkill in my opinion. The other features aren't compelling enough to me.

If you use the Fitbit app for tracking your food, it already has data for the various nutritional attributes such as calories, fat, protein, carbs, etc.

Unfortunately Fitbit has chosen to implement the out-dated thinking that weight loss is simply a matter of expending more calories than you consume, which completely dismisses issues like glycemic effects of high-carb/high-sugar foods. Modern studies have suggested that this is NOT the case, and just counting calories and eating "low fat" is probably one of the largest causes of our modern obesity epidemic, in my opinion. (Sample study:  http://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2012/06/when-a-calorie-is-not-just-a-calorie/)

Since Fitbit has chosen the "just count calories" model, they only prompt you for a food name and calories when you enter custom foods, and you have to go "advanced" to enter the full nutritional data. However, if you do that (or use food entries from the existing database) then all of the data is present to permit the calculation of net carbs. It would just be a simple matter of adding the feature to the dashboard.

To me this is a fundamental feature that would be very useful, not only to diabetics who MUST watch their carbohydrate intake, but also people like myself who like to keep an eye on their carb intake instead of just counting calories. 

---

Actually you don't have to go to advanced to enter additional nutritional data.  I add that all the time on Fitbit via the website.  It's another button click, but it's all there.  There are also a number of free websites that help you track other nutritional data, even providing graphs and stats in a format that's easy to read and tells you what you're deficient in.   I agree that weight loss is a lot more than just calories in versus calories out.  We're complicated chemical machines, and we have to find just the right combinations for our needs, including weight loss.

[Dominique]

---

@m0j0 wrote:

Unfortunately Fitbit has chosen to implement the out-dated thinking that weight loss is simply a matter of expending more calories than you consume 

---

Are you saying that it's possible to lose weight by consuming more calories than you expend? Or that it's possible not to lose weight when consuming less than you expend?