Anyone tried cutting out added/refined sugar?

[J-hop]

Originally posted by Thaco
i know coffee isnt for me, i hate it, but its free, and its not water.

I think it's something you have to just do and eventually you acquire a taste. Now coffee with any sugar in it tastes like syrup to me.

[Darkane]

Originally posted by timdog
Tim Ferriss has interviewed this doctor, Dom D'Agostino, a few times on his podcast and this guy makes some suggestions that the ketogenic diet (which is essentially complete carb restriction) can cure/prevent cancer and various other diseases.

a pretty bold statement and not one that most people are taking seriously, however this is a guy who is doing legit scientific studies and he has at least some valid findings that support some of the claims.

sort of tangential but thought I'd mention it.

Wow, I'll have to look into that.

I read some articles referencing low carb diets for back pain and rehabilitation from big time injury. I'll see if I can find any.

I've been low carb on/off for 10+ years now and I can truly say it has major benefits. I can also say it can develop insane eating habits that aren't healthy or proper.

Eg: major cheat meals. These create eating disorders, maybe not in everyone however.

[riander5]

Originally posted by timdog
Tim Ferriss has interviewed this doctor, Dom D'Agostino, a few times on his podcast and this guy makes some suggestions that the ketogenic diet (which is essentially complete carb restriction) can cure/prevent cancer and various other diseases.

a pretty bold statement and not one that most people are taking seriously, however this is a guy who is doing legit scientific studies and he has at least some valid findings that support some of the claims.

sort of tangential but thought I'd mention it.

Lets order some of those Ketones dom talks about. Im too lazy/undisciplined to go carb free for 4 days to get into Keto... I want a kickstart

[Mitsu3000gt]

So with these diets like whole30 cutting out most carbs, what are considered healthy carbs that you can eat? I've got to believe the body needs some carbs to function properly. I was also really surprised that you can't eat lentils or quinoa which are generally considered very healthy things to eat, and I eat a lot of them currently. Also don't whole grains help lower cholesterol and are generally good for heart health?

[riander5]

Originally posted by Mitsu3000gt
So with these diets like whole30 cutting out most carbs, what are considered healthy carbs that you can eat? I've got to believe the body needs some carbs to function properly. I was also really surprised that you can't eat lentils or quinoa which are generally considered very healthy things to eat, and I eat a lot of them currently. Also don't whole grains help lower cholesterol and are generally good for heart health?

Legumes irritate alot of peoples guts. Id imagine thats why they cut them out

[Thaco]

Originally posted by Mitsu3000gt
So with these diets like whole30 cutting out most carbs, what are considered healthy carbs that you can eat? I've got to believe the body needs some carbs to function properly. I was also really surprised that you can't eat lentils or quinoa which are generally considered very healthy things to eat, and I eat a lot of them currently. Also don't whole grains help lower cholesterol and are generally good for heart health?

with keto basically you take the carbs and subtract any of the sub items under it, fibre, sugar alcohols, (not sugar) etc... thats your net carbs, and you want to keep it around 20 or so per day, less if you can.

this is the site my wife often referenced, seems to be a good resource for keto
http://www.ibreatheimhungry.com/

[stevelou]

I've been playing with the high fat low carb "Keto" for a while with some major cheat breaks since Nov. Than being said I'm down 24 lbs from 248 to 224. I've started this week with Keto coupled with intermittent fasting and am seeing/feeling awesome so far.

[mazdavirgin]

Any diet where you have a whole bunch of people peeing onto sticks like prego's and avoiding eating fruit because of carbs is IMHO lunacy.

[Mitsu3000gt]

Interesting, thanks guys. Damn this is going to be hard haha - not so much the sugars, and I already hardly ever eat dairy, but I think I eat quite a bit of carbs. At least it says you can eat as much fruit as you want. I also don't want to shed any muscle, so hopefully that is doable.

[J-hop]

Originally posted by Mitsu3000gt
Interesting, thanks guys. Damn this is going to be hard haha - not so much the sugars, and I already hardly ever eat dairy, but I think I eat quite a bit of carbs. At least it says you can eat as much fruit as you want.

The biggest thing I would focus on is not picking up a fad diet that may or may not have you shedding fat but rather work on rehabilitating your eating habits.

If you're like me you probably had bad eating habits in your teens and moving into your late twenties/early 30s you no longer have the same activity levels and metabolism to sustain that. So you've developed a ton of bad eating habits and are paying for them now.

You always hear that most people come off diets and gain it all back. You hear it a lot because it's true. The people that do the best long term are those that don't have a name for their way of eating. You also don't want to be that guy who goes out with friends and orders a burger but tells them to give it to you without the bun, sauce or fries because you're worried you'll fall out of ketosis or something like that. That is too hard to sustain for the average person who isn't or doesn't want to be neurotic about how they eat.

I wish you all the best but if you are already saying it sounds hard you are most likely going to be back in the same position a few months from now.

[Mitsu3000gt]

Originally posted by J-hop


The biggest thing I would focus on is not picking up a fad diet that may or may not have you shedding fat but rather work on rehabilitating your eating habits.

If you're like me you probably had bad eating habits in your teens and moving into your late twenties/early 30s you no longer have the same activity levels and metabolism to sustain that. So you've developed a ton of bad eating habits and are paying for them now.

You always hear that most people come off diets and gain it all back. You hear it a lot because it's true. The people that do the best long term are those that don't have a name for their way of eating. You also don't want to be that guy who goes out with friends and orders a burger but tells them to give it to you without the bun, sauce or fries because you're worried you'll fall out of ketosis or something like that. That is too hard to sustain for the average person who isn't or doesn't want to be neurotic about how they eat.

I wish you all the best but if you are already saying it sounds hard you are most likely going to be back in the same position a few months from now.

I've actually been pretty healthy overall. Very inactive/unhealthy in my teens, and in my early 20's I decided to do something about it. I lost ~40 lbs going from ~190 --> ~150 (I'm 5'10") basically with 2-3hr gym visits 6-7 days a week and overall healthy eating for about 6 months. Then I did 5X5 to build muscle until I was about 165lbs and my weight hasn't changed in ~8 years. I am strictly looking for something to get rid of the little bit of belly fat I have that seems to never go away, maybe "cutting" is a better term. I don't want to do anything too crazy, but if I can get rid of it I'm pretty sure I can keep it off based on my history. I also have good will power so as long as the diet isn't super ridiculous, I can probably follow it pretty easily. As it is I don't drink pop, I drink coffee black, I don't buy anything with fake sugars in it, etc. I think meal prep will be the biggest hurdle to something like these diets.

[J-hop]

You are doing better than me man! You sound a lot more motivated and experienced than the average person. So many people fail (like myself), thought you might have been one of those guys thinking of dropping from 30 to 10% body fat on a "unique" diet, those cases almost always turn out poorly.

[mazdavirgin]

Originally posted by Mitsu3000gt
I am strictly looking for something to get rid of the little bit of belly fat I have that seems to never go away, maybe "cutting" is a better term. I don't want to do anything too crazy, but if I can get rid of it I'm pretty sure I can keep it off based on my history. I also have good will power so as long as the diet isn't super ridiculous, I can probably follow it pretty easily. As it is I don't drink pop, I drink coffee black, I don't buy anything with fake sugars in it, etc. I think meal prep will be the biggest hurdle to something like these diets.

IMHO if you're trying to cut it's probably best to just keep it really simple. Figure out how many calories you're consuming by looking at the labels of everything you eat for a week, weigh things as needed and tabulate up the amount of calories you're consuming. Drop accordingly from there. Usually you want to keep things around 1800 or so and aim to drop about 1lbs a week. Generally you can sustain that without strength loses as long as you keep protein intake high and from experience make sure you're getting enough fat or you will feel miserable. Generally I find this way easier to pull off rather than chasing whatever random diet and it's far less annoying since you can still eat whatever the hell as long as you stay within your limits.

[timdog]

Originally posted by mazdavirgin


IMHO if you're trying to cut it's probably best to just keep it really simple. Figure out how many calories you're consuming by looking at the labels of everything you eat for a week, weigh things as needed and tabulate up the amount of calories you're consuming. Drop accordingly from there. Usually you want to keep things around 1800 or so and aim to drop about 1lbs a week. Generally you can sustain that without strength loses as long as you keep protein intake high and from experience make sure you're getting enough fat or you will feel miserable. Generally I find this way easier to pull off rather than chasing whatever random diet and it's far less annoying since you can still eat whatever the hell as long as you stay within your limits.

to each their own. for me, this is much more work.

[Mitsu3000gt]

So what if you did Whole 30 + grains? I enjoy eating oatmeal, quinoa, etc. which is all very healthy as far as I know. I don't really care about "resetting" my body, I just want a guideline for cutting sugar/carbs down significantly or anything else that will help with stubborn belly fat. I feel like continued exercise plus eating even healthier (with more attention to snacking and portion control) would achieve a similar result. Is that an accurate statement or no?

[Thaco]

Originally posted by Mitsu3000gt
So what if you did Whole 30 + grains? I enjoy eating oatmeal, quinoa, etc. which is all very healthy as far as I know. I don't really care about "resetting" my body, I just want a guideline for cutting sugar/carbs down significantly or anything else that will help with stubborn belly fat. I feel like continued exercise plus eating even healthier (with more attention to snacking and portion control) would achieve a similar result. Is that an accurate statement or no?

From what i understand the point of the whole keto and cutting our sugars and carbs is to train your body to attack the fat cells, if they're still chewing on carbs it wont be nearly as effective.

I noticed a huge difference if i was 100% on plan, even 1 cheat a week was a setback.

[Darkane]

Originally posted by Mitsu3000gt
So what if you did Whole 30 + grains? I enjoy eating oatmeal, quinoa, etc. which is all very healthy as far as I know. I don't really care about "resetting" my body, I just want a guideline for cutting sugar/carbs down significantly or anything else that will help with stubborn belly fat. I feel like continued exercise plus eating even healthier (with more attention to snacking and portion control) would achieve a similar result. Is that an accurate statement or no?

I would honestly do the diet as written. It seems everyone wants to change something because they "enjoy it".

Once the diet is done reintroduce your healthy carbs pre/post workout.

The leaner you are the better your insulin sensitivity is. That means your body will be more efficient at putting carbs ---> converted to glucose in your blood to muscle and not fat.

[sputnik]

Originally posted by mazdavirgin
Any diet where you have a whole bunch of people peeing onto sticks like prego's and avoiding eating fruit because of carbs is IMHO lunacy.

Only the uninformed KETOers pee on sticks.

I do a lazy Keto just eating stuff I know is low carb and not caring about the ketones in my pee, weighing all my food or worrying about the minuscule carbs found in tomatoes.

I lost about 25 lbs (187 -> 162) in less than 3 months and have kept it off for the past 6 months.

[Mitsu3000gt]

Originally posted by Darkane


I would honestly do the diet as written. It seems everyone wants to change something because they "enjoy it".

Once the diet is done reintroduce your healthy carbs pre/post workout.

The leaner you are the better your insulin sensitivity is. That means your body will be more efficient at putting carbs ---> converted to glucose in your blood to muscle and not fat.

I think I will give it a try. If I fail then I fail, but at least I gave it a shot. I'm really going to struggle with my breakfasts, as I am a get up 10 min before I need to leave and throw something easy into my bag kind of person. And you can't have oatmeal. Downtown there is enough things to eat that should be diet 'approved', since I buy every day. Dinners won't be hard. Fruit & nuts for snacks is alright.

Over the last week, I've been eating really low carbs and (almost) zero added sugar, and I weighed myself this morning 3lb lower than I always am. I'm not trying to lose much weight though of course, just shed some stubborn residual fat. In fact it would be nice if my weight stayed the same with proportionate muscle increases.

[Mitsu3000gt]

I'm down ~7 lbs and look noticeably better from end of March just from eating better overall, and cutting virtually all added sugar out of my diet. I don't snack unless it's fruit/nuts and have oatmeal for breakfast. I used to eat a Cliff bar for breakfast most days and I stopped doing that too. Making antibiotic-free chicken breast and veggies for supper about every other day, and eating more fish variety (trout). Had 2 cheat days around Easter. No other changes in my routine really, still going to the gym ~3-4 times per week. Kind of glad I didn't cut out all carbs to be honest, I'm quite pleased with the results given how little effort it is to do what I'm doing. I'm definitely eating less calories overall (not counting them, just pretty well eating as much as I want of healthy foods), which is no doubt a contributing factor.