After reviewing my journals food & personal, I realized that as soon as I lowered my carbs to under 20 a day I stopped losing. I am going back to adding in 2 fruits and 2 slices of wheat bread a day like I used to do. I eat my fruits and bread before 3 pm. I lost 30 lbs this way with exercise. Is this still considered low carb? If not, why wont my body respond to 20 carbs a day? I am a very active person. Could this have any impact? I dont eat sugar or heavy starches, just lo-cal diet wheat bread 35 calories a slice twice a day. Is it possible that this is what my body needs? Thanks for any advice!

hi ChrstnHrpr,

It's so frustrating when it seems we're doing everything right, and nothing obeys .. .. Very lowcarb isn't for everybody, just as high carb, grain-based diet isn't for everybody. One thing ... just a rough guesstimate .. but 2 pieces of fruit, and 2 slices of bread would average about 300 to 400 calories, depending on the fruit you chose. Is it possible that you cut out those carb calories, but didn't correspondingly increase your protein intake to replace them?? Perhaps your body recognised less fuel coming in, so slowed your metabolism to compensate.

The fruit and bread would come to around 60 or 70 carbs per day, plus whatever vegetables and other carbs you eat. Still lower than the 200 to 300 g recommended by the highFAT crowd. Have you ever taken a look at The Zone, by Barry Sears? Or Sugar Busters! .. these programs are reduced carbohydrate ... no sugar, juices, refined white starches etc ... but are not as restrictive as Atkins or Protein Power. They are lower calories (but not starvation low), with a prescribed ratios of carb-to protein-to fat.

Hope this helps,

Doreen

Almost EVERYONE reaches a plateau. They are hellish but necessary. Why expect such rapid weight loss? It took quite a while to put the weight on. Sometimes you need to take a "pit stop" to recharge, reflect and tune up. Even though our desire is to be thin, our bodies and minds don't make our desires come true immediately. It takes a while to create a new person and shed the old.

I went back to look at one of your previous posts and it doesn't look like you're eating enough calories, which should be 10-12 times your current body weight. Initially, LC has nothing to do with calorie restriction. Doreen suggested upping your intake of "good fats".

Eating bread and fruit will put you over 100 grams a day which IMHO is not low carb. You probably lost the initial 30 pounds doing this because it was probably so much lower in carbs than what you were eating before. It may work again, it may not. I would go for the fat before going for the carbs.

Just my 2 cents...

Karen