I started low-carb about 6 months ago. I am 40 years old, male, 6 feet 3 inches. I weighed 260 lbs in Nov 2003 and was a 42inch waist.

I am now 195 pounds and wear a 34 inch waist.

I have 3 main suggestions for newbies:

1) Other than the first few weeks of your new low-carb lifestyle, do not worry about the exact amount of carbs you are eating. Most of us ate 100's of carbs per day before our new way of eating. From my experience, counting every single carb is silly. If you eat 50g of carbs per day, vs 45g, relative to the way we used to eat, it is irrelevent. What is important is a general understanding that too many carbs, especailly processed food with lots of grams of sugar is bad. An extra carb or two is not going to make any real difference as long as you are sticking to the general principals of a low-carb lifestyle.

2) Eat enough food each day. There is a general misconception that starvation causes weight loss. This is totally false. I have found that when I ate more during the day, I lost more weight. You need to eat enough calories to keep your matabolism from slowing down too much. For me, it's at least 1500-1800 calories per day. Even eating 2000-2500 calories per day normally does not increase my weight. If you feel like you are hungry, that's when you should eat.

3) Exercise!!!!!! I run 2 miles EVERY day, rain or shine. In addition, I do 100 crunches and 25 pushups every day. I do not think that substantial weight loss can be achieved without exercise. It is not easy to get started, but once you do, it will make you feel much better after your workout.


Good luck to all. I made it to the maintenance stage in half the time I thought it would take me. This is possible to anyone with the willpower and perserverance to make it thru the first few weeks. Once you are over that hump, it becomes much easier.


Regards,


Ken

Sane, logical advice, Ken! (handing over a nice clean, new pair of flame-proof underwear) psst..you might need these. I found out the hard way some people LIKE to count carbs to the .001

Hi there Ken,
BIG CONGRATS on the weight loss. I certainly agree on the carb counting, the importance of exercise, and eating enough.

But look, sorry if unwarranted advise, but running 2 miles every day? I think this is a very common thing (mistake) new joggers/runners do: running every day the same distance. For weight loss it makes little difference how/when you run, but, especialy now you are maintaing, it is a great feeling to become a BETTER runner. (faster, find it easier, be able to go longer if you want). When not try cutting back to 5 runs a week, running a 2, 3, 2.5, 2, 3 or similar. Same number of miles per week, but by running them like that (rest days and, importantly, different lengths) for a month or so you might be suprised how much you improve! (and faster running means shorter exercise sessions with the same results)

I would agree that rest is important in exercise, but I hate to criticize anyone who is active.

What I find with exercise is - if you are not as good in controlling your cravings (cough, cough, hmm, who could I be talking about?) , exercise is a fantastic way to manage your weight. Its nice to go for a 3 hour run (and I do those about once a week since I'm marathon training), burn a lot of calories and have some freedom in your food choices for that day

That being said, weight loss can be achieved without exercise. Easily

I'm not big on exercise--never have been--never will be (unless it's working in the yard/garden or pouring greenware--things like that). As stated in my sig, I will try to do some exercise bike but that's because at the moment I don't have a lot of other activity going on and need it for rehabilitation more than anything else. So, if I need to exercise as much as a lot here do to lose weight, then I'm going to be one very fat LCer for the rest of my life!

Having said that, your advice about not nit-picking carbs and making sure to eat enough are excellent. There's one thing to keep in mind, though: what works really, really well for men doesn't work so well for most women. In fact, I was just venting to my hubby about how he can eat all kinds of garbage (salty foods, caffeinated pop and tea, way more carbs, so on and so forth) and still manage to lose weight faster than I can when I'm following the plan to the letter! Shoot, if I eat a couple of hot dogs I'm packing an extra pound or two for two or three days until I get the excess water flushed out of my system. Men don't seem to have this problem.

Anyhow, you've done most excellently on your weight loss and should feel really, really proud of yourself.

I found I lost pretty effortlessly without exercise...at FIRST. I just have to keep in mind there are more kinds of exercise than putting on the running shoes and doing a "workout" per se.

A lot of little things can add up. I'm finding the tips on making your daily activities less convenient (like parking a couple of blocks away from my destination, taking the stairs when I can) and trying to turn my daily chores into exercise seem to help. I think I'll have to draw the line at bench-pressing my son when I transfer him to and from his wheelchair...

Uhh...when I started I didn't worry about carb counts, I found out after a month that I was eating way too many carbs to lose- about 50g per day actually. I didn't lose ANYTHING until I did Atkins correctly and counted my carbs.

LilaCotton, HERE HERE!! or is it HEAR HEAR!! Who knows. Anyway, I have to put my two cents in for the women versus men syndrome. Dang those guys, they lose weight faster, they look good with gray hair, they don't suffer from PMS....

GRRRR.

Still, you gotta love em!

ellen

I also started out at about the same point as Ken and followed Atkins the exact same way as him as far as not counting every carb and my exercise. I too have had great results. Way to go!!

Oh yeah we suffer from PMS alright !!! LOL (ducking really fast)

I am not too big on exercise either but know it would be better for me to do so. Just finding the motivation to do so is a killer especially after a long day at work. All I want to do is relax and browse the forum etc.

Thanks for your honesty...I really think I have been to obsessed about this carb counting. I can't seem to get everything done. I am day 8 of inductiona and each day I seem to do better, and resist less. LIzzybaby49

I think the main point was not to completly go hog wild on carbs but be mindful and realize that 22 carbs is not going to matter much vs the 20 carbs you are"supposed to eat. Nice point.

I agree on all counts, or rather, lack of counting.

Brobin

Sometime people get what has been refered to as false hunger. I have read that some people mistake thirst of hunger. Dr. A said to really listen to your body and ask yourself before you eat, am I really hungry? Some people eat out of unconcious habit, at least that is the way it worked with me. I would be standing in the kitchen munching away and think why am I eating I'm not even hungry. Silly me.

Ken, I must respectfully disagree. First, of course, starvation does cause weight loss. It is not a healthy or pleasant way to lose weight, or even a necessary one if a person has patience, but starvation ultimately results in weight loss.

And secondly, I repeat what several posters have stated: what works for a 6'2" male will not necessarily work for a 5' female. It's great that ignoring carb count has worked for you, but for an extrmely metabolically resistant person, counting carbs may be necessary.

If only there were ONE thing that worked for everyone! But congratulations on finding the right way for you (and for many others).