South Beach

[Bruce Brakel]

So, I had to cut all the simple sugar out of my diet because I was getting a D- on all my blood sugar tests.  With the exception of a Saturday night freshly baked cookie [I go wild on Saturday night] I've been pretty much sugar-free since August.  Doing that for five months got my blood sugar test grades all the way up to D in January. 

So last time when I saw my doctor about my on-going health issues, he suggested I try cutting out the rice and potatoes too.  He thought if I substituted more nutritious green vegetables for empty calorie rice and potatoes, maybe i could lose some weight, which might help with a lot of things.  [I had already cut out wheat products due to a food allergy or sensitivity to glutens.]

I've been on this super-low carb thing for two weeks now.  I've been eating about as much meat, eggs, cheese, salad and green vegetables as I want, and losing weight.  I'm not going by anyone's diet in a book; I'm just reading the labels and not eating things with sugar or carbs, except I still drink some milk. 

Anyway, I was curious if anyone else had done a low carb diet to lose weight, and what their experiences were. 

Oh, and I'll share a yummy recipe for chocolate milk lovers:

You'll need
A 16 oz. cup
An ice tea spoon
Powdered Stevia, the kind that is cut with white powder so that it is the same sweetness as suger.
Unsweetened Powdered Cocoa

First, go all day without carbs, because milk has carbs and this has about as many carbs as you want in a low carb diet.

Put 5 ice tea spoons of Stevia in the cup and then two heaping ice tea spoons of unsweetened powdered cocoa.  Add a splash of milk and stir for a few minutes it until it is a syrupy paste.  Don't skimp on the stirring or put in too much milk at first, or a lot of the bitter cocoa will float on the top when you're done.  Then stir in the rest of the milk.

Voila.  Really good chocolate milk with no more carbs than the carbs in the milk. 

[Tom McManus]

I have seen people go on low carb diets and lose alot of weight.  95% of the people gain it back because it is nearly impossible to go long term without carbs.  Drink lots of water, it cleans out your system. Add lemon juice to the water if it doesn't bother your stomach. That will speed up your metabolism.

[Dan Michler]

Burn more calories than you consume and I guarantee you will lose weight.

[tree]

Low carb diets don't fuel your body with enough fuel...

[Bruce Brakel]

Low carb diets don't fuel your body with enough fuel...

That's for sure.  I was dying on the disc golf course today.  I'm hoping if I push myself while the carb tank is on E, my body will remember what it stored all this fat for. 

[Mike Clark]

Be careful cutting too many carbs out of your diet. You want to make sure you want to cut out the bad carbs. There are a lot of good carbs out there that actually help balance your blood sugar. You want to eliminate as many complex carbs out of diet as possible. Breads, processed sugars, pasta, white rice. Whole foods such as whole grains and fresh vegetables are great sources of good healthy carbs. I love coke and breads. I also recently learned not to have anything with fructose in it. Fructose is a man made substance. Your body does not digest it properly. It is not good for you. I had to stop drinking Vitaman Water which was my Coke substitute. Guess I have to resort to low calorie beer now.

General rule: If it is in a box or a bottle it should be avoided if possible. If it is in a box or bottle it should not have more than 4 ingredients and they should all be words you can pronounce. Doesn't work for everything but is helps.

2 things that have saved my dietary life are brown rice and quinoa. I have learned to give up bread. Now if only I could give up Coke. I am down to 1 20oz bottle a day, sometimes.
Good luck with your dietary journey. It has been tough for me to break these years of bad habits. Especially in the winter months. I am good about 75% of the time. Not good enough but getting there.

On a side note I willing be in South Beach tonight enjoying the warm weather. Traveling is sometimes good.

[Dan Michler]

I also recently learned not to have anything with fructose in it. Fructose is a man made substance. Your body does not digest it properly. It is not good for you.

Where are you getting this information Clark?  Fructose absolutely exists in nature in many fruits and honey.

I assume you are thinking of High Fructose Corn Syrup, which is a manufactured material used in beverages.  It is produced synthetically from corn and is safe to eat, just don't eat too much of it.  If you are pounding 20 oz of Coke per day, then yes, it is not good for your body at all and will lead to obesity.

[Mike Clark]

I also recently learned not to have anything with fructose in it. Fructose is a man made substance. Your body does not digest it properly. It is not good for you.

Where are you getting this information Clark?  Fructose absolutely exists in nature in many fruits and honey.

I assume you are thinking of High Fructose Corn Syrup, which is a manufactured material used in beverages.  It is produced synthetically from corn and is safe to eat, just don't eat too much of it.  If you are pounding 20 oz of Coke per day, then yes, it is not good for your body at all and will lead to obesity.

Should have been more specific about the type of fructose. Vitamin water uses Crystalline Fructose. According to the site linked below "While many people mistakenly believe that fructose is an acceptable form of sweetener, it is far from healthy. Refined man-made fructose metabolizes to triglycerides and adipose tissue, not blood glucose. One major downside of this is that fructose does not stimulate your insulin secretion, nor enhance leptin production." This is backed up by medicine.net.

Point being if you are trying to watch your blood sugar and or weight try to avoid anything man made and not natural. Especially sweeteners. Our bodies do not process these properly.

http://www.sebringtotalwellness.com/case_vit_water.cfm

[Chainmeister]

I think the issue is whether you use it as a guideline or as gospel.  I think being a fundamentalist south beach dieter makes it impossible to do a lot of athletic endeavors.  i find that my blood surgar is always low after playing disc golf no matter what garbage I may have eaten that day. It can get really low if Ieat well (which I generally do on tournamnet days) and I don't consume a reasonable amont of carbohydrate. If I am cycling there is no option.  I MUST have some carbohydrate. 

That being said, the notion of limiting carbohydrate is good.  I have done a fair, not good, job of it.  That is why I carry too much weight and why I have good, but not great, blood sugar control.  I am looking to restrict carbohydrate intake when I am not active.  On active days I have to take more carbohydrate. Does that mean candy bar? No.  that means a cereal bar with about 11 g of sugar is in my bag and I may have an apple, a bagle, some wheat chex or a bowl of oatmeal (especially this time of year) in the morning.  I may have a sandwich for lunch.  I have often had beef jerky on tournamnet days. Read the label- no sugar, lots of protein and not as much sodium as I had expected. 

My current issue is portion control.  If I have less I will have less of whatever I am trying to avoid.  Oh yeah, and I have to do something about my love of pizza. 

[Dan Michler]

In my opinion the battle for most people is 90% exercise and 10% diet.  If you exercise routinely, you probably won't have to worry too much about your diet.  Few people do this.  People just don't get off their butts.  Our society is so damned lazy.  I find myself having the same problem in the winter.  During the disc golf season I head to the course after work each day and get home just in time for dinner.  In the winter I get home early and end up sitting around watching ESPN and eating a snack before dinner.  Thank god for disc golf.  It makes getting exercise and eating less a lot easier.  This is the best reason everybody should start playing this sport.

[pdga#7648]

I also recently learned not to have anything with fructose in it. Fructose is a man made substance. Your body does not digest it properly. It is not good for you.

I assume you are thinking of High Fructose Corn Syrup, which is a manufactured material used in beverages.  It is produced synthetically from corn and is safe to eat, just don't eat too much of it.  If you are pounding 20 oz of Coke per day, then yes, it is not good for your body at all and will lead to obesity.

when does the obesity start?  I consume 2 - 20 oz bottles, and between 4-5 cans of Mt. Dew daily, and have for at least the last 10 years.     or has it already, and I just don't see it?

[Jon Brakel]

You want to eliminate as many complex carbs out of diet as possible. Breads, processed sugars, pasta, white rice. Whole foods such as whole grains and fresh vegetables are great sources of good healthy carbs.

I think you have confused complex and simple carbs. You should eat some complex carbs. You want to eliminate as many simple carbs as possible.

From nutrition.about.com: Complex carbohydrates should supply about half the calories in your diet; however, the best complex carbohydrates come from legumes, vegetables and 100% whole grain bread, cereal and pasta products because they contain fiber and a variety of nutrients that refined flour has lost.

Simple Carbs from the same source as above:
Simple carbohydrates are easy to digest. When you eat simple sugars, your body breaks them apart and they are absorbed into your blood stream through the small intestine. Any sugar your body doesn't use for fuel is converted to fat and stored in adipose tissue.
Identifying Simple Carbohydrates
Processed foods that contain simple carbohydrates are usually high in calories, and not very nutritious, so you may wish to cut back on foods that contain these ingredients:

    * Sucrose
    * Brown Sugar
    * Raw Sugar
    * High Fructose Corn Syrup
    * Corn Syrup
    * Dextrose
    * Glucose
    * Fructose
    * Maltose
    * Malt Sugar
    * Syrup
    * Honey

I love coke and breads. I also recently learned not to have anything with fructose in it. Fructose is a man made substance. Your body does not digest it properly. It is not good for you. I had to stop drinking Vitaman Water which was my Coke substitute. Guess I have to resort to low calorie beer now.

It really doesn't matter where the fructose comes from or what "kind" of fructose it is. Natural fructose in fruits and vegetables and the processed fructose found in most sweetened drinks are all processed by the body the same way. The problem is the quantity. If you eat a normal amount of fruits and vegetables in a day your body can easily process fructose. Fructose is processed by the liver and when in normal amounts it will turn it into blood sugar. However, when given an overwhelming amount of fructose, like that contained in beverages, the liver takes a short cut and processes the fructose into triglycerides and that goes into your blood stream.

[Bruce Brakel]

Some high fructose corn syrup [HFCS] is made with a process that uses mercury.  Some of that is contaminated with mercury.  There is no safe level of mercury exposure.  In some studies 1/2 of the foods containing HFCS were contaminated with mercury. 

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/01/26/AR2009012601831.html

There is also evidence that certain cancers grow better when they are fed fructose as opposed to other sugars.  And there is evidence linking HFCS to an increased risk of heart disease.

If you were going to eliminate just one simple sugar from your diet, HFCS would be the one. 

I've eliminated all simple sugar from my diet, except on Saturday night or Sunday afternoon when I'll have a homebaked cookie or brownie made with cane sugar.  Oh, ketchup.  I still put ketchup on a burger or meatloaf although I'm cutting back some there, too. 

Losing weight slowly on the low carb diet, but slowly is good. 

[Mike Clark]

My apologies. I did get the carbs backwards. Complex carbs = good. Simple carbs = bad

I have read the complete opposite about processed fructose and how the body digests them. Personally I am going to avoid as many processed sweeteners as possible. Not sure they can all be avoided. But I am going to try.

Joined a CSA this year for both Fruits and Veggies. If you live up near the Gurnee area look up Temple Farm Organics. Less than $600 for 20 weeks of fresh locally grown veggies. Fruits were under $300 but I do not remember for how many weeks.

[Bruce Brakel]

Around Thanksgiving I was at 267 and in January I was down to 265.  Today I'm 245.  The low carb thing is working.   

[mirth]

Way to go Bruce!

I'm working out 4-5x weekly during lunch at work and am slowly starting to see some results. Going on a canoe trip in September and I want to be in shape.

[Bruce Brakel]

Now that my body has relearned how to burn fat, I'm not as tired from the low carb diet as I was previously.  And, I've played three tournaments without ever having a sugar crash, so the rollercoaster blood sugar thing is noticeably under control. 

One thing that has really helped me with staying on target is we have a digital scale that measures pretty consistantly to the 10th of a pound.  In other words, if I get on the scale and it says 242.6, and then brush my teeth and reweigh, it still says 242.6.  So the next day if it says 242.4 I feel like I'm making progress.  A week of .2 daily weight reductions is barely perceptible on a scale with a wheel and tiny lines, but being able to see .2 reductions every day is very encouraging.  And it adds up to 75 pounds or so over the course of a year so that is encouraging too. 

Oh, I keep having the same funny experience too: I'll put on a shirt or pair of pants i have not worn for awhile, like clothes I only  wear to a tournament, and i'll think, "How did this get all stretched out and baggy?  Oh...."   

[Bruce Brakel]

All my 44 waist pants are falling off me.  I went out to the course today without a belt.  It was funny.    

New low on Friday, 239.6.  

I was 267 at Thanksgiving and 265 at the end of January so I'm looking forward to my next doctor appointment at the end of April.  I should be down 30 pounds by then.  

New low Wednesday, 238.5.  
New low Thursday, 237.3.  

I've been plateauing around those numbers for a week, but I'm not discouraged.  I saw my new age vegetarian back doctor today and he is fine with my diet.  He was really, really happy to see so much less of me.  He thinks if I stay on this diet, the weight will keep coming off.  My BP has come down to really good numbers too.  

New low Saturday, 235.5
May 4, 235.1
May 6, 234.2
May 8, 233.5
May 25 232.9  slow May.
May 27 232.5
June 1 232.1
August 5 223.5  Also, now wearing 40 inch waisted pants.  Was tight in 46s when I started.

[Bruce Brakel]

I saw Terry Calhoun Sunday at his house after not having seen him in some time.  He has lost just as much weight as me, maybe more.     Yesterday I weighed in at 219.9.