Intermittent Low Carb

[mscott21]

My name is Megan Scott and I am a freelancer for FIRST for Women magazine. I am trying to find someone who has lost weight by going low carb for just two days a week. This is based on a new science that shows women who did a low carb diet for just two days a week lost more weight than women who continuously followed a Mediterranean diet.

If anyone fits the bill and is willing to chat with me, please email me at megankayscott~gmail.com.

Thank you,

Megan

[Tril]

Megan, I read that, too. They also lost as much as those on low carb every day.

And, for the record, "they" considered low carb 50g a day. Most of us here considered low carb around 20g a day. Our goal in the beginning of the diet is to transition into ketosis as well. Most (on average, not everyone) people teeter between ketosis and glycosis at 50g. Eating this way 2 days a week will not put anyone into ketosis... as it takes around three days of not producing glycogen to deplete your body's store of it and force your body to use ketones for energy (instead of glucose).

Very interesting study. It would be very helpful for anyone not willing to eat low carb all the time to consider having two days a week of no fruit, no starch, no grains. Couldn't hurt anyway. LOL

Good luck finding someone for your article! Let us know when it will be published, please!

[TonyMLake]

You may want to read up on Vince Gironda. He "invented" the cyclic ketogenic diet... hehe... lots of people have!

[Aradasky]

This is very interesting! Wonder if it does as much for all the markers in the body as well? Blood Glucose, chloresterals and hormones.

[TonyMLake]

Vince Gironda was famous for having a perfect physique. He was perhaps the last "natural" or steroid-free body-shaper. They called him the Iron Guru because of his wisdom at attaining instant results and his hard attitude.

In the fifties, Vince Gironda claimed that cyclic ketogenic diets (the modern name, not his) were better than eating low carb every day because your "muscles would flatten out" if you ate low carb every day. He even published a chart that amounted to what we now call "foods low on the glycemic index" that he would allow his bodybuilders to eat.

Yep, every name you ever heard of in the body building world was probably trained or influenced by Vince Gironda. Today, they call his style of eating "cyclic ketogenic diets". Very similar to - BUT DIFFERENT - than Atkins.

Cyclic Ketogenic diets require self discipline. I don't have any, so I can't use them.

[Aradasky]

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!! I guess if I had a trainer who could snap my neck if I went off the diet, I would have a bit of self restraint! LOL

I love reading the history of food in our country. It is so sad to see how far it has gotten away from healthy and become what is being sold as healthy.


Are you a body builder? Do you lift weights?

[TonyMLake]

I have been "in shape" before - but after some serious "life stupidity" on my part, I became obese.

I'm sorry to say that my ideas on diet are probably controversial, even on a low carb site. There was, of course, only one answer to my obesity: a diet with less junk food. I avoided the gym like the plague until I hit my goal weight, however, because in my humble opinion most people should avoid changing their exercise levels at all (or even become more sedentary) when first starting a diet.

In my case, that truth is even more exaggerated- as I specifically gain weight at the gym. So I stayed away until I hit my goal weight. I do go to the gym now, though, yes.

[Aradasky]

oh, there is a big debate in this world about exercise. I have exercised while I was thin and fat, exercise never kept me thin. I can say now, that it makes me hungry. I eat more on days I walk 6 miles and workout hard at the gym. I work out so I can lift my grandsons and my suitcase into the overhead bin and walk any where I want to in the world.

[TonyMLake]

Yes, the gym also works wonders just to help you feel happy in general... I was just "in a big hurry" to lose weight so I didn't want to do anything that would slow my weight loss down... Since my diet only took about six months to lose 80+ pounds, I'd say it worked pretty well for me... and sure enough, now that I'm going to the gym I haven't lost any weight at all. First plateau in eight months!

But hey, this is a different phase of fitness for me. I'm not overweight anymore, so maintaining this weight even though I'm technically in a calorie deficit isn't going to kill me. I'm enjoying the feeling of happiness I get by going.

[Tril]

I've always felt that to lose weight the key is what you're eating. I can lose weight by eating right... I can't effect my weight with exercise. So exercise is NOT mandatory for me (just speaking for myself here) to lose weight. HOWEVER... exercise is critical to my well-being so I do it and I work HARD at it.

Why I go to the gym and live an active life... I'm 52, so some of these are age related (now and the future):

1. balance
2. flexibility
3. strength
4. cardio vascular health
5. muscle
6. mood
7. sense of accomplishment
8. body shape (what good is being at goal if you're saggy-baggy-lumpy and nothing fits right?)
9. companionship (social part of the gym)
10. longevity

Weight loss has nothing to do with it. If it did, then I'd quit the gym once I hit my goal weight.

[benshad61]

I have to agree with the feelings one gets after doing any exercise. I feel so much more energized and positive after a long walk on a sunny, cool day, or after cleaning the house.....not only do I get exercise, but my house looks wonderful and I feel I have accomplished two goals at the same time.

I will never be a gym member but I love to garden and that season is fast approaching, I love to swim and we have a pool. I dusted off my weights and am lifting those again and of course there is my Wii Fit and an hour goes by and I have FUN!

Good for the MIND and I NEED THAT!

[TonyMLake]

I completely agree. That's why I regularly attend my gym now. In fact, I think it's kind of a shame that the gym is one of the things that people should forego early on in their diet if they want to lose weight quickly.

My point was that if your goal is to LOSE WEIGHT QUICKLY, the last thing in the world you'd want to do is weight bearing exercise or short interval, high intensity training, because those activities will build muscle quickly. The amount of additional calories you'll burn from having bigger muscles won't be worth the trade off in stalls and slowed weight loss.

If you really can't stand the thought of going without some type of physical regiment for a few weeks, if and only if you ALREADY exercise a lot, it might be okay to do long jogs or other similar types of exercise like long bike rides. But if you're like me, I was in a big hurry to get those pounds off, ergo... no gym for six months. I'd go so far as to recommend taking a few weeks and being extra SEDENTARY for most people... why make your body fight you?

Once again, going to the gym won't kill you, and it's completely acceptable to go to the gym early on in your diet as most people recommend. Remember that your body will do what it can to maintain homeostasis, so going to "the gym" early in your diet definitely does make your weight loss take longer and you'll need to choose your goals and accept the consequences of your actions. Want the weight off fast? For most people who want to lose weight quickly, I think the best course of action is to avoid the gym until your body is stabilized as a "fat burning" organism. Reach and maintain a state of ketosis, wait a few weeks, then go to the gym.

My opinion only, of course.

[Tril]

Maybe it's my age... but I'd GLADLY sacrifice fast weight loss to build/maintain my muscle mass. There's nothing pretty about flabbiness. Besides, gaining muscle isn't gaining fat. The scale measures it the same, but it's NOT. If the number is that important... then maybe the motivation is what I don't understand? Again, maybe it's my age... but I'd gladly let the scale tell me I weighed 200 pounds if I fit into size 4 jeans. LOL

[Aradasky]

It is not only the size that matters. I "weigh" the same as someone else who can fit into size 6 jeans and I am in 12s. The way my body is put together, the only way I would get into 4 jeans would be to be basically bones.

So to have the bouncy step and balance when going upstairs, to be able to open a jar when my DH cant, to be able to manhandle my suitcase, all are great reasons for me to go to the gym.

[TonyMLake]

Yes. Those are completely valid arguments, and I wholeheartedly agree. For me, my goal was single-minded: I just wanted the weight off fast. Now that it's gone, I go to the gym as well.