Carbohydrate - Friend or Foe?

I mentioned on my first post that my parents convinced me to join them on the diet on which they were embarking.  The diet was Atkins, and this idea served me very well in my goal for a really long time. I totally approve of the idea of limiting carbohydrates, but I want to say at the start that I do not support the butter licking idea of the carbohydrate restriction diet. Sure, you can easily drop weight limiting carbohydrates and eating ridiculous quantities of fats and cholesterol, but that does not serve your health, and will, in turn, become a problem on its own.

Since it worked for me, I support the idea of shocking your body into losing weight through the use of a carbohydrate restricting diet, then slowly adding carbohydrates and cutting back on fats. After an initial low carb diet, my final goal is to remain on a healthy eating plan that avoids undue carbohydrates and over processed nutrient poor foods and control my daily calorie intake.

But today's entry is about carbohydrates, so let us discuss that. I wanted to preface my diet plan with a rant on how our body uses carbohydrates, fats, and proteins:

All food and calories consumed are broken down into three categories - Fats, Proteins and Carbohydrates - which are broken down and stored/used in the body. Fats and Carbohydrates generally provide for all of the body's energy needs and Proteins get stored as amino acids with specific functions throughout the body.

Fats, if not used up for energy, get stored in pockets around our bodies, I do not think we need more explanation, right? Carbohydrates, the other half of our energy source, can not be stored as easily as Fats. Our body can only store enough Carbohydrates for about two day's usage. The remainder of the Carbohydrates that are consumed but not utilized in a sedentary lifestyle turn into Fats. 

When there is a lack of Carbohydrates in a diet, your body turns to Fats for its energy, which is the goal here. We want to remove Carbohydrates from the equation and allow the body to consume some of its extra fat storage. There are some specific parts of the body that do need glucose (Carbohydrate) as an energy source. These cells cannot survive off of fats, and glean necessary nutrients from Proteins on a low Carbohydrate diet.  This is why it is very important to consume healthy amounts of proteins while on a low Carbohydrate diet.

The Plan:

 I owe most of these ideas to the creators of the Atkins diet, so although I do not mention the name frequently since I have deviated from the program, I want to credit the ideas.

 First Section (where most of the fast weight loss happens):

The first section of the diet relies on almost completely eliminating carbohydrates from your diet. Atkins recommends 20, my version, 25 (since it is really difficult to compose actually healthy, vegetable rich meals on 20 grams of carbohydrates.) I recommend remaining in this phase for at least three weeks, depending on how much weight you want to lose. Personally, I stayed here for 2 months.

This first phase will make you lose weight quickly, which in turn, will improve your confidence and make you dedicated to losing more weight. After all, I want my friends to be happy and healthy, to build confidence as they regain control of their bodies, and what is better for building success than success?

During this phase, I recommend eating protein rich breakfasts with eggs, more or less lean meats, peppers, spinach and some cheese. Lunches with grilled chicken and pork or tuna with dark leafy green salads, avocado, cheese, a bit of tomato, cucumber and a low sugar vinaigrette. Sounds kind of awesome, no? Dinners can have a hearty portion of meat, hell even have steak once in a while with a portion if green veggies or salad greens. The goal here is to avoid breads and cakes, which is obvious, but also fruits and juices and sweeter veggies like corn and carrots. Basically, trust dark green veggies, they will be the lowest in sugars and highest in fibers (net carbohydrates are calculated by subtracting the grams of insoluble fiber from carbohydrates - perhaps I will dedicate an entry to Fiber down the road).

My personal goal during this phase was to have about 7 grams of carbohydrates a meal, and that left me with 4 grams to throw around as need be. To an extent, your caloric intake does not really matter during this phase, so you may occasionally exceed the number of calories that MyFitnessPal recommends for your daily consumption, but since we will transition to a calorie oriented plan, it is best to always be aware of your calorie consumption. Also never go below 1200-1400 calories a day, depending on your weight. Your body will start consuming muscle mass, your metabolism will slow as will your weight loss. Also, inevitably, you will slip up and eat half a cake (trust me, I know). One of the main facets of a healthy diet is making sure that you are full and your body is working at full capacity.

To remain healthy during this phase, I recommend taking a multi vitamin to fill in gaps and to take a daily fiber supplement...because...just go with me here. Also, make sure you drink plenty of water.

So, lets look over our goals:
1. Learn about the nutrients in food and the carbohydrates in foods you eat (here is a list from Atkins I found very useful)
2. Moderate your carbohydrates intake and increase protein intake (eat fresh meats and allow more healthy fats into your diet like fish and avocados - do not spoon lard on your steak or eat bacon by the pound, because...gross)
3. Take your vitamins and make sure you are not starving yourself, be accountable for everything you eat (log all of your foods on MyFitnessPal, even if you are not proud of what you ate. The goal is to master your cravings and become accountable for them; I do not want to breed guilt and depression, which just equals more cake, I want to support a positive, responsible outlook of food consumption. If you mess up today, you did not fail, you just learned what you will not do tomorrow.)
4. Keep track of your success and be proud of yourself. Make mini goals that lead to bigger goals.
5. For the love of...yourself... Stop eating so much processed food. (It's full of food coloring and bugs and chemicals and why? It's not that delicious. I will make you a deal, if you drop eating tasty cakes for a year, I will personally bake you a pear custard tart and ship it to you as a reward, I mean it. Message me if you want to take in the challenge...and my tart crust is kind of badass...just saying.)

If you guys are actually with me here, I will follow this entry with my list of serving sizes and carbohydrates of many foods that frequent my kitchen, I hope it will help you decide if you can handle this facet of the diet (I will focus on foods you can eat as opposed to those that you can't, but if you are curious about any other food...there is always Google and MyFitnessPal.)

In a few weeks, I will post more on the next phases of my little diet melange to give you a chance to try this out.

Love you all and good luck!