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Why Cutting Carbs Is So Tough

nytimes.com

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Re: Why Cutting Carbs Is So Tough

#21

Post by rainbowmverse »

elcapitan wrote: post #13
rainbowmverse wrote: post #7

I don't know if it's exciting advancements in food science or something else, but I used to be able to make a bag of chips last a month. Now I just can't buy them because they disappear within a day. What's weird is I can eat carb-rich foods and get a very different result from what the researchers in this article found. It seems to have more to do with the composition of the meal than the exact nutritional content.…

I used it twice to lose weight, and it worked perfectly. The hungry and tired problem goes away quickly and your body just switches to burning more fat. But you're right about filling up - that's very simply the most important part. Don't eat lots of small high-calorie stuff. Eat a real meal that fills you up. In carbs that would be fiber-heavy, long chain carb stuff, protein does that pretty much by itself.

>> The hungry and tired problem goes away quickly and your body just switches to burning more fat.

Didn't happen when I tried it for a couple of years. I guess it didn't help that this was the '90s when hype for the diet was making people irrational, and the people I was dependent on forced it on me. Stress and resentment make anything harder.

Maybe I'll give it another shot in the future. Right now, eating filling meals while avoiding random snacking is working.

Re: Why Cutting Carbs Is So Tough

#22

Post by [deleted] »

rainbowmverse wrote: post #7

I don't know if it's exciting advancements in food science or something else, but I used to be able to make a bag of chips last a month. Now I just can't buy them because they disappear within a day. What's weird is I can eat carb-rich foods and get a very different result from what the researchers in this article found. It seems to have more to do with the composition of the meal than the exact nutritional content.…

[deleted]

Re: Why Cutting Carbs Is So Tough

#23

Post by Daisy45 »

keymone wrote: post #5
donatj wrote: post #2

When I lived alone it was easy. I simply didn't buy any at the grocery store and as such didn't eat any. It's nearly impossible, now living with my wife who adores pasta and everything potato based.

i feel you :(

I get paid over $95 per hour working from home with 2 kids at home. I never thought I'd be able to do it but my best friend earns over 10k a month doing this and she convinced me to try. The potential with this is endless. Heres what I've been doing, •••••••••>>http://www.joinmate2.com

Re: Why Cutting Carbs Is So Tough

#24

Post by nathan-wailes »

Preface: Over the past 12+ years I have spent a fair amount of time learning about foods/diets, at first to try to get rid of my acne (which I was successful at), but then later to stay lean and stop any diet-related dips in my mood (which I was also successful at).

What I want to say:

Cutting carbs is difficult for most people because of two things: 1) withdrawal from the sugar-high that you get from eating high-glycemic-load food (like bagels / pasta), and 2) your body needs* some amount of carbs, and people are cutting bad carbs without replacing them with good carbs, and thus experiencing an inescapable craving for carbs.

The vast majority of people in the US equate "carbs" with "grains/sugars/starches", and so when they "cut carbs", they stop consuming almost any carbs (like the author of this article says he did), they then experience discomfort because of the two factors I listed above, and if they get past the sugar-high withdrawal, the constant inescapable/healthy cravings for carbs eventually push them to begin eating grains/sugars/starches again.

My daily diet (when I'm eating "properly") has me consuming carbs in the form of two bags of "steam-in-bag" broccoli and a bag of carrots. Every day. When you've eaten that many vegetables, you experience no craving whatsoever for unhealthy carbs. But for most people, the idea of consuming that many vegetables per day has probably never entered their minds, and that's why they have trouble "cutting carbs".

I highly recommend that people who are interested in this topic watch this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M74Ao6y4vfg

--------------------------------------

*I'm using 'need' in the sense of "your body needs glucose, and the typical way to get it is from carbs, and so if you eat almost no carbs, you may experience some 'healthy' level of craving for carbs".

Re: Why Cutting Carbs Is So Tough

#26

Post by DiThi »

indogooner wrote: post #6

Is it proved that Carbs are harmful? Don't want to cut down on them only so that a study 10 years down the line lists out Carb-diet benefits just like Fat ones these days.

It's proven that they are through many studies. One of the aspects is insulin spikes, mentioned in another comment here. Another aspect is very well explained in this video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f_4Q9Iv7_Ao (with t̶e̶x̶t̶ ̶v̶e̶r̶s̶i̶o̶n̶ and all sources linked in the description).

edit: I also recommend the rest of the channel (I'm not affiliated in any way, it just explains a lot of things I've learned in the past decade in a very neat way)

edit 2: Sorry, this video doesn't have text version, but "story of fat" does.

Re: Why Cutting Carbs Is So Tough

#27

Post by hashable »

brianwawok wrote: post #11
kbar13 wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My mother is convinced if i dont eat carb heavy foods (rice, fruit) that I will die of some disorder or other. It is hard to stay on diet whenever I go home.

She may be correct. The 70% ratio that many Americans eat may not be great, but 30% or 40% carbs seems about right for me. I see the no carb movement much like the no fat movement of the 80s.

Except for the fact that carbs are the only macronutrient that are not essential and can be completely synthesized by the body via gluconeogenesis. There are essential amino acids that need to be sourced via food (protein). There are essential fatty acids that need to be sourced via food (fat). There are no essential carbs.

Re: Why Cutting Carbs Is So Tough

#28

Post by masklinn »

nathan-wailes wrote: post #24

Preface: Over the past 12+ years I have spent a fair amount of time learning about foods/diets, at first to try to get rid of my acne (which I was successful at), but then later to stay lean and stop any diet-related dips in my mood (which I was also successful at). What I want to say: Cutting carbs is difficult for most people because of two things: 1) withdrawal from the sugar-high that you get from eating high-gly…

> carbs in the form of two bags of "steam-in-bag" broccoli and a bag of carrots. Every day.

Bags can vary greatly in amount, what weight does that represent, is it 150g or 3kg?

Re: Why Cutting Carbs Is So Tough

#29

Post by matwood »

ralmeida wrote: post #20
indogooner wrote: post #6

Is it proved that Carbs are harmful? Don't want to cut down on them only so that a study 10 years down the line lists out Carb-diet benefits just like Fat ones these days.

As you have basically mentioned yourself - nothing stops it. Many people, with varying degrees of understanding of the studies involved (from almost none to very deep), believed high-carb-low-fat diets to be the best option before high-fat-low-carb became more mainstream. Can't recommend a particular course of action, but my approach is to experiment with different diets on yourself and be as methodical as time and w…

> Objective would be weight, waist width, blood test results, etc, and subjective would be energy, drowsiness, amount of willpower required to stay on diet, environmental pressures for or against (social eating, food availability, cost), etc.

This is really the best answer here. Lower calories is the way to lose weight. It is how someone switches to less calories and maintains that state for their lifetime where problems arise.

Mentally, some people just cannot eat a single cookie. For them they have to avoid cookies all together or else they wreck their caloric intake. Only protein and fat for some people is good because it's easy to follow. Carbs are not evil, unless they make up 70%+ of your diet. Look at all of the people who are very successful on If It Fits Your Macros for example. They have a mix of carbs/fat/protein to hit each day.

Re: Why Cutting Carbs Is So Tough

#30

Post by filleokus »

simonsarris wrote: post #14
indogooner wrote: post #6

Is it proved that Carbs are harmful? Don't want to cut down on them only so that a study 10 years down the line lists out Carb-diet benefits just like Fat ones these days.

It's not carbs per se, whats proven is this: Insulin spikes in your body drive fat storage. "Foods with lots of carbs" are a very good approximation of the nature of foods that tend to do that. (More accurately, foods with a high glycemic load/glycemic index) So offhand we can say foods that contain a lot of carbs tend to have a high gylcemic index, some more than others. Eating raw sugar is different than slowly eat…

An interesting point (which you bring up) is how complex the behaviour of the glycemic load is. It's dependent on the combination of food stuffs (as you point out), but also on things like the physical shape of the food.

In Sweden we have something called "snabbmakaroner", which is basically macaronis but smaller and with thinner walls to shorten the time needed to boil them. Regular "makaroner", with the thicker walls has a lower GI compared to these thinner-walled ones. Even though they have the same exact ingredients and nutrients. I did a report on this during highschool when I tested it out on a bunch of willing classmates, and I was able to confirm it.

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