I recently posted about slowing weight loss, and several replies mentioned "carb creep". I took a good look at what I have been eating, and while there may have some instances of carb creep, there are actually several days when I only have about 10-15 grams of carbs. I have been doing this for about 8 months, and I try to make sure I do not go above 20-30 carbs/day.

Are there detrimental effects to eating not eating enough carbs, either on weight loss or other health issues?

Actually I have notice a few.. when I eat below 20 for a long period of time (takes a month or two to get to this point) I get to a point where I get cold really easy and have a hard time keeping warm. I also sometimes get tired easy and feel kind of yucky in the morning. If I keep my carbs between 20 to 40, I feel great and all these side effects go away. But I think its a personal thing, depending on weight and body design.

I think some run great on 10 a day, and others need 30. I have heard that on some people if there isn't enough carbs to go around the body will stunt its own weight loss, thinking its starving. I go by this rule, If I start to feel cold (thats usually the first sign) I add carbs slowly to my day. When the feeling goes away, I found my comfortable floor of carb level not to go under.

I bet there are some who this doesn't apply, but I believe you need a little carbs just to grease the wheels and for body function. How much depends on you, you just need to play around..

If your getting cold easy, and you are taking all your vitamins correctly, that is usually a sign..

IMHO
Dave..

Perhaps if you try upping your carbs for just a week to 35g carbs. I know it sounds completely crazy but that is just what your body may need and it could respond with a little whoosh! Maybe your body has settled in to 25g-30g carbs and doesn't want to lose any weight at that carb level. After you try upping the carbs to 35g for a week, if you gain weight, then you will know that level is too high. But sometimes, in order to lose weight, you need increased carbs or increased fat. Isn't this WOL grand?

My best results come when I fluctuate from day to day - - 20 one day, 30 the next, 20 the next day. Granted, other factors also are important like how much good fat I am consuming, calories, etc. I know that if I eat 20 or less carbs for more than 3 days my losses slow down considerably.

I am sure it is very possible to eat too few carbs. Even 100 grams is much lower than what the "normal" person consumes. The body does need other fuels. Like a car needs gasoline but it also needs a coolant and motor oil to run efficiently. We can think of fats as the fuel, water as the coolant and motor oil as the carbohydrates. Now what happens if you never add motor oil to the car?

We have the concept if a little is good then more must be better, or if less is good than fewer must be better ( as with atkins ), which is not the case. This is why we are supposed to gradually incorporate more carbs into our diet. This is the way I think. Even though one can stay on induction for a much longer period of time than the minnimum 2 weeks, you don't want to exhaust the body.

JMO,
Black57