# Ask a low carber



## Scelerat

I figured that since we have a thread for "ask a vegan" we should have one for the very antithesis, namely the low-carb, high fat, medium protein diet. 

The point of this thread is to clarify any questions or misconceptions and to share information about living on a low-carb diet. 

So far I've lost in excess of 100 lbs using various forms of low carb diets, in the range from ultra-low carb (under 30 grams of carbs per day), medium carbs (under 50 grams per day) and variations upon them, including various re-feeds, fasts and so on.


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## Cetanu

How would you go about achieving a macro-nutrient ratio where fat is 65% at the minimum while maintaining a 1:1 omega 3 to omega 6 ratio?


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## Luke

How do you feel in terms of energy levels? Do you often feel fatigued?


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## Scelerat

Luke said:


> How do you feel in terms of energy levels? Do you often feel fatigued?


I do notice that I feel fatigued and get a bit of "mind fog" until my body switches to using ketones for fuel, which is roughly day 5 - 7 of a low carb. After that the only time you notice it is during resistance training as your muscles have less "juice" so a lift that you did easily after a carb refeed or while using carbs, can become harder, at least to begin with. 



Cetanu said:


> How would you go about achieving a macro-nutrient ratio where fat is 65% at the minimum while maintaining a 1:1 omega 3 to omega 6 ratio?


What kind of meat are you eating? Grass fed beef has an omega 3-6 profile that is much closer to 1:1 than the standard corn fed beef. Salmon, walnuts, flax seeds (I grind mine up and eat them with turkish yogurt or use them for breading) I also supplement a lot of omega 3 into my diet. 

If you want to hit 65% that means 1300 calories from fat on a 2000 calorie diet, which is 162.5 grams of fat per day, a menu such as:

Breakfast: 
Turkish or Greek yogurt with 
flax seeds 
and walnuts. 



Omega 3 supplement. 

Lunch: 
Omega-3 enriched eggs with a mayo based dressing, I like to mix mayo with either spicy mustard, curry powder or hot sauce. 

Dinner: 
Grass fed beef, have a fatty sauce such as a Bearnaise with the beef and sour cream or hollandaise with the salmon. You can also just melt regular butter and drench the salmon in it. Always try to include a permitted vegetable, such as green leafy vegetables, broccoli, or a bit of cauliflower with your dinner.

Unless you love salmon and halibut though, I recommend using fish oil supplements as well. 

Tips for adding fat: Sour cream, heavy cream, real butter, cheeses (be careful though, some people stall on dairy) and coconut oil.


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## Red Panda

how's your LDL, HDL and triglycerides?


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## Scelerat

Red Panda said:


> how's your LDL, HDL and triglycerides?


I have plenty of good cholesterol, my LDL is down and my triglycerides have improved substantially as I've been on the low carb diet and losing weight. My doctor was actually surprised when he saw my last blood test when he heard I'd just done a 12 eggs per day + mayo stall-breaker shortly before the test. 

For more information check out :

Low-Carb Diets and Cholesterol: What does Science Say?


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## Red Panda

Scelerat said:


> I have plenty of good cholesterol, my LDL is down and my triglycerides have improved substantially as I've been on the low carb diet and losing weight. My doctor was actually surprised when he saw my last blood test when he heard I'd just done a 12 eggs per day + mayo stall-breaker shortly before the test.
> 
> For more information check out :
> 
> Low-Carb Diets and Cholesterol: What does Science Say?


Thanks for you reply, though I was hoping you'd post numbers, I'm just curious. But I suppose if you lost so much weight (kudos for that btw) your numbers will be certainly better than before. And then of course it's different for each person, I don't think my body would tolerate so much cholesterol. 
I've read researches that show no significant difference between a Mediterranean diet and low-carb and others in weight loss, so how come you chose this?


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## DiamondDays

How many calories have you been getting each day?


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## Scelerat

Red Panda said:


> Thanks for you reply, though I was hoping you'd post numbers, I'm just curious. But I suppose if you lost so much weight (kudos for that btw) your numbers will be certainly better than before. And then of course it's different for each person, I don't think my body would tolerate so much cholesterol.
> I've read researches that show no significant difference between a Mediterranean diet and low-carb and others in weight loss, so how come you chose this?


I don't have my numbers available, if I'd guessed someone would ask I would have gotten them from my GP. 

The research is split on the issue, the Israli study referenced in this article for instance Best Diet: Low-Fat, Low-Carb or Mediterranean? - ABC News shows that the most weight was lost by low-carb dieters, as does this MMS: Error although the results do not differ by much. 

My reason for selecting the low carb diet over the Mediterranean diet was that my body does not like grains at all, weight loss stalls completely when I have fruit and I'm not a huge fan of seafood. So the meat, eggs and butter type approach to food was much more suitable for my personal preference and grocery store availability. 

At this point after losing as much weight with it as successfully as I've done (keeping it off for an extended period of time) I think sticking with it is a logical decision at least until it says stop for a long period of time.


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## Scelerat

DiamondDays said:


> How many calories have you been getting each day?


It differs for the periods, but at the moment my daily intake is between 2000 and 2200, with a BMR of 2210 on normal low carb days. Between 1400 and 1600 if I'm using a 3 - 5 day fasting program to break stalls. 
I have no idea how many calories I eat on my weekly refeed evening, it's a free for all.


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## DiamondDays

Scelerat said:


> It differs for the periods, but at the moment my daily intake is between 2000 and 2200, with a BMR of 2210 on normal low carb days. Between 1400 and 1600 if I'm using a 3 - 5 day fasting program to break stalls.
> I have no idea how many calories I eat on my weekly refeed evening, it's a free for all.


So the caloric deficit comes from exercise alone?


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## Red Panda

Scelerat said:


> I don't have my numbers available, if I'd guessed someone would ask I would have gotten them from my GP.
> 
> The research is split on the issue, the Israli study referenced in this article for instance Best Diet: Low-Fat, Low-Carb or Mediterranean? - ABC News shows that the most weight was lost by low-carb dieters, as does this MMS: Error although the results do not differ by much.
> 
> My reason for selecting the low carb diet over the Mediterranean diet was that my body does not like grains at all, weight loss stalls completely when I have fruit and I'm not a huge fan of seafood. So the meat, eggs and butter type approach to food was much more suitable for my personal preference and grocery store availability.
> 
> At this point after losing as much weight with it as successfully as I've done (keeping it off for an extended period of time) I think sticking with it is a logical decision at least until it says stop for a long period of time.


Thanks for your reply.
Aren't you curious yourself about the numbers? :tongue:
I see. Aren't you worried about the correlation of high consumption of saturated fats with inflammation that many studies show? We don't know the mechanisms very well yet, but there seems to be a relation.


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## Scelerat

DiamondDays said:


> So the caloric deficit comes from exercise alone?


When you eat low-carb high fat your appetite turns itself down so you naturally eat less. It's actually a risk that you end up eating so little that you stop losing weight and need to up calories to start losing again. I've been making sure to eat close to my BMR since I hit a plateau in April to see if it would help.

Since it didn't and I just maintained my weight, I opted to do an egg fast where I just ate eggs and mayo for 4 days, which put me at a total of roughly 1400 calories, but I didn't feel hungry or shaky at all. 

For the most part if I'm not doing anything special related to plateau breaking, I eat until I'm full without counting calories, but counting carbs and to a lesser degree fat.


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## DiamondDays

Scelerat said:


> When you eat low-carb high fat your appetite turns itself down so you naturally eat less. It's actually a risk that you end up eating so little that you stop losing weight and need to up calories to start losing again. I've been making sure to eat close to my BMR since I hit a plateau in April to see if it would help.
> 
> Since it didn't and I just maintained my weight, I opted to do an egg fast where I just ate eggs and mayo for 4 days, which put me at a total of roughly 1400 calories, but I didn't feel hungry or shaky at all.
> 
> For the most part if I'm not doing anything special related to plateau breaking, I eat until I'm full without counting calories, but counting carbs and to a lesser degree fat.


I feel you. Those plateus are bitches. I've lost a bunch of weight this past year, and in february i hit a plateu _hard. _I just wouldn't budge. So i was pretty close to my goal, and i really wanted to start lifting for serious, so i just said fuck it i'm done for at least half a year, let my body recover, my metabolic rate go up. Now i lift every second day and eat a shit ton, i'm still at the exact point where i plateaud and the muscle is piling on ( so i guess i'm losing some fat too ). I am very confident i'll be able to break the plateu with ease when summer's over and i've planned to loose the rest. 

So basically my point is maybe you need to have a really long diet break and really let you methabolic rate recover for real this time if the plateau is proving to be a major one.


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## Death Persuades

Have you ever just sat down and enjoyed a meal without thinking about all these numbers?


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## Scelerat

Red Panda said:


> Thanks for your reply.
> Aren't you curious yourself about the numbers? :tongue:


No, not really. I get a checkup every year and if the doctor says that I'm fine, I usually take his or her word for it. 



> I see. Aren't you worried about the correlation of high consumption of saturated fats with inflammation that many studies show? We don't know the mechanisms very well yet, but there seems to be a relation.


Correlation does not imply causality. The way I see it, every diet has it's innate risks and the biggest mistake that's made is that we think "one size fits all" when you have a range of different metabolisms and genetics that influence how a person reacts to a given diet. In addition to medical research and various other people making recommendations while being sponsored by special interest groups. I mean, sugar, given how addictive it is and the various negative health effects it has, would it be legal if discovered now? 

Dr Caveman wrote a decent article about it and he's better educated on the medical side than I am. Inflammation: Which Foods Take the Blame? - Caveman Doctor


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## Scelerat

Diligent Procrastinator said:


> Have you ever just sat down and enjoyed a meal without thinking about all these numbers?


Yes, that's how I ended up at over 300 lbs.


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## Scelerat

DiamondDays said:


> I feel you. Those plateus are bitches. I've lost a bunch of weight this past year, and in february i hit a plateu _hard. _I just wouldn't budge. So i was pretty close to my goal, and i really wanted to start lifting for serious, so i just said fuck it i'm done for at least half a year, let my body recover, my metabolic rate go up. Now i lift every second day and eat a shit ton, i'm still at the exact point where i plateaud and the muscle is piling on ( so i guess i'm losing some fat too ). I am very confident i'll be able to break the plateu with ease when summer's over and i've planned to loose the rest.
> 
> So basically my point is maybe you need to have a really long diet break and really let you methabolic rate recover for real this time if the plateau is proving to be a major one.


I broke it yesterday by 2.5 lbs, so I did a carb refeed today to see if it sticks after I drop the bloat in 2 - 3 days. I had a 1 month diet break before starting again January 1st, so I should be fairly well reset. But we'll see.


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## Death Persuades

Scelerat said:


> Yes, that's how I ended up at over 300 lbs.


One meal you enjoyed made you a 300+ pound human... Interesting. 

Ever heard of balance? Ketosis is dangerous to the body. Being 300 pounds is dangerous to the body. I enjoy ALL my meals without counting anything and I'm doing just fine....


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## Scelerat

Diligent Procrastinator said:


> Ever heard of balance? Ketosis is dangerous to the body. Being 300 pounds is dangerous to the body. I enjoy ALL my meals without counting anything and I'm doing just fine....


I think you may be confusing ketosis with ketoacidosis, I recommend looking it up. Secondly, that's why I'm losing the weight. Your personality is also dangerous to the body, there is a high risk of getting punched in the face if you have the stones to act this way outside of an Internet forum where you don't have to worry about consequences.


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