Brief summary to spare you the details, I've tried low carbing 4-5 seperate times, only to hate it, or get tired of not eating the stuff I really like 3-4 days in.
I'm willing to give it one more chance, but any tips? Or is it just not for me?

Hi there.....

You are right. That is a brief summary! Some of the details would be worth knowing though to have a better idea of what to tell you.

Are you or have you been a vegetarian?
What are your favourite foods when not LCing?
Do you cook or do you eat fast food and canned or pre-prepared foods when not LCing?
What is it about eating LC that really bothers you?
The 4-5 times you've tried it before, how many weeks (day? hours?) did you stick with it?
What diets have you done in the past?

All of these things will have an effect on your ability to do LC and on your success at it. But the bottom line is how important is it to you to make changes in your weight, health, and well-being?

Marlaine

All of these things will have an effect on your ability to do LC and on your success at it. But the bottom line is how important is it to you to make changes in your weight, health, and well-being?

Fair enough.
No, I'm not a vegetarian. Favorite foods...pizza, chicken wings, tacos, bagels, there are quite a few. Where I get hung up is the quick snack/meal stuff. I'm a horrible cook. I don't eat fast food really, but frozen foods/quick stuff is very common. As I said, the snack and quick foods kill me..on a big prepared meal such as a dinner, its quite easy. The lack of bread, tortillas, chips, pretzels..you get the idea bothers me. As I said, I have only been able to stick with it for a few days before I couldn't stand it any more. I'm reluctant to clear the kitchen of all carby stuff because I fear the failure will happen again. I've done BFL's diet, calorie counting, low fat(which is impossible, BTW). Its too bad, as I realize LC is quite the way to go, and I really wish I could stick to it.

The ability to make change is very important. I'm ready to try about anything...but my lack of LC resolve disturbs me.

I forgot beans. How I could, I have no idea. I could live off just beans, to tell you the truth. Cutting them out is almost too hard.

The lesson that we all have had to work through is learning that carbohydrate acts very much like any addictive drug. The more we eat the addiction grows stronger.

It is important to note that this is a real physical reaction and not in the mind. It would be a good idea to read up a little on the science of how this happens before you take the plunge.

I recommend Protein Power by Dr Eades as the best for this purpose. All the plans and books have a similar thread of information and related facts but most recognise that the only way forward is to break the sugar cycle. Which means virtually stopping eating carbohydrate completely(limit 20-30 grams) for a little while. "Cold turkey" in every sense of the word.

3 to 4 days into any plan, there are all sorts of body reactions and the temptation to throw in the towel is great. But if you can stick it out for two weeks, the cravings for carbohydrate, that feeling that you just have to have a pizza will be on the wane.

How you feel and react to food will depend on the way in which your body reacts to insulin. This will in part be a determinant of genetics, what you were born with, and in part lifestyle. You will know many people who eat all the same things that you do and are as thin as a rake. Totally unfair but a fact of like.

So the answer to your question is give it two weeks, but first find out and work out in your own mind why that should be.

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i am italian and grew up on carbs... i love my carbs, i have tried a low carb diet of sorts before only along with low carbs they cut out sugar, salt and fat... very very hard to do.
anyway i have a hard time sticking with things like this, however i will tell you, i have an even harder time looking in the mirror and seeing fat... i hate that when i know that i can look and feel so much better than i do. and then i ask myself can i live without carbs to look and feel better...and that is my motivation. it is hard i grant you, but it is dooable for anyone, if i as an italian can do it for so far two weeks w/o so much as even a lil cheat anyone can do it. hopefully you will find something that will work for you. good luck!

Sephy have you given any thought to trying a CKD? You'd enjoy the fatty LC foods 5 days of the week and get the bagels and pasta and beans the other two during carb up. There's a forum in the Exercise directory that might be worth a look-see.

Nat

CAD/CALP might be the other way to go. Pick one meal and eat your carbs within one hour. Read the books for details, of course, and check out the appropriate forum. Personally, I can no longer lose on CAD - or at least I couldn't when I started, but I can maintain.

CKD would also be good. Again - personally - I don't do the carb-up day because I want those foods. I don't want them, and I always come off carb day craving protein. I do it because I believe int he science/physiology of what the carb up does for my body, and all of my new muscle is the proof in the proverbial (protein) pudding.

Cheers!

Friday

Thanks for all your responses...to address you all:
Rustspot, I've read PP, and it is very informative, but unfortunately, I could read it a thousand times, and it still really wouldn't convince me carbs aren't my lifeblood, practically.

Nat: The CKD is the closest I see to a real comparison. The problem is that I really dislike the LC eating during the week...if I could eat like the carbup at all times I'd be happy

friday: I've examined CAD extensively, and to me, its a giant tease. The cheat meal really isn't what I would call a cheat meal, and I'm really not fond of the plan.

I've done my homework, you see, and I just want to know when enough is enough

Sephy......

I think that you have already made your decision and don't need to look for confirmation here. Only you can decide and take the responsibility for knowing when "enough is enough".

There are a lot of experienced LCers here on this forum and if you'd care to spend some time reading around the site, I think that you could gain a lot of useful information. That said, I have the impression that you are looking for reasons NOT to Low Carb, and that's not the purpose of this forum. We are here to support people who have decided that LC is for them.

I wish you every success in finding something that meets your needs and suits your tastes.

Marlaine

Hi Sephy. I agree with the others here - if CAD, CKD, and PP aren't for you, you don't really have any other options except to enjoy your carbs and accept your body the way it is - along with any health concequences. Many smokers, for example, enjoy their cigarettes and refuse to quit, no matter how sick it may make them. That's their perogative; there's no moral obligation to change anything about yourself. But, as the old saying goes, you can't have your cake and eat it, too. Whichever decision you make, you have to live with the concequenses.

Good luck, and you're always welcome here, of course.

I'd still be curious to see some more definite stats than you have posted. (After all, we can't see you and do not know who you are.)

For example, would your stats look more like 300/300/150 or 200/198/150 or 142/140/125? There is a big difference in how you would react to beginning an LC plan, depending on which one you 'resemble'.

About how you did the Induction: did you stick absolutely strictly to foods listed in the book, and prepared the ways suggested? Or did you bend the rules to suit your feelings at the time? If bending, then you have not yet really tried an LC plan.

I don't know if you are really aware that you quit each time at 3-4 days which is the most critical time to get through. This is when the withdrawal symptoms are the worst and when the body will be desperately trying to get you to give it carbs for easy fuel instead of protein & fat which require work. (This is both laziness and habit on the part of the body.) Your chemistry will make you crave and yearn for carbs of the sugary and starchy kind. You only had one more day each time to keep on the plan and things would have been easier. The boredom is part of the same chemical campaign to get you to give in and eat carbs. You hadn't even gotten to the point where the energy kicks in and you start noticing changes in your health (less gas & bloating, no indigestion, energy).

What if the price of losing weight is being willing to be bored with your eating for 14 days? Are you unwilling to pay that small price?

I remember being so amazed by Day 7 that I wasn't hungry, that I didn't get shaky with 'needing to eat' and that I was absolutely not interested in the chocolate cake that was offered.

My idea of when to give up the idea of LCing is when you have fully and accurately followed one of the plans for the basic time frame like the 14 days of Atkins Induction. Make up your mind that NOTHING will keep you from completing those 14 days. Then if nothing has happened and you don't feel better, then it is time to reconsider. I think you would be amazed at how things will change if you give it 14 days of absolute obedience to the plan.

JMHO

You really don't know what it could or couldn't do for you because of your half-assed previous attempts

You obviously are pretty happy with the way you look and the way you are eating so good luck to you.

Bye-bye

I think if you did a poll, you would find that most of us got to the high weights we were at (whatever those starting weights were) by eating lots of the stuff that we liked (bagels, pizza, pastries, chips, etc...). Eventually, it comes down to a choice: Do I like what I'm eating more than I like how I'm looking and feeling? For me and a lot of others the answer was a loud "NO!". Sure, you'll crave carbs the first 3-5 days (it's called withdrawal), but after that it gets much easier and you find that you feel so much better that the idea of going back becomes a lot less appealing. Is it easy? No. Is it doable? Yes. Very rarely does something worth having or achieving come easily.
If your desire for the foods that got you to where you want to lose weight is more than your desire to lose the weight, then perhaps you are not in the right place to start the weight loss process.
Only you can decide for yourself which you want more, but most of us have already discovered that we can't have it both ways. Either we had to accept our bodies as they were and continue eating all the foods that we loved or we had to find new, healthier foods to love instead. Personally, I'm glad I decided to find new foods to love; it's been well worth the price of giving up the foods that were slowly killing me no matter how much I loved them.

I'll recommend a different approach. Read either Anne Catherine's Anatomy of a Food Addiction or DesMaison's Potatoes not Prozac.

They won't convince you that carbs aren't your lifeblood...they'll agree with you that they are, and explain the neurochemistry of this particular addiction in more detail.

Catherine has a several step approach which entails gathering support, dealing with core issues in therapy or 12-step meetings, then abstaining from sugar, then from flour six months later, and finally from fatty foods. (not our bias, clearly, but one could always skip that last step)

DesMaisons emphasizes first getting protein in at all meals, then switching slowly from "white" to "brown" carbs, eating a potato at night to boost serotonin levels (I'd say take a 5-HTP pill instead--but what the heck, if you follow the program, follow the program), and that you will naturally wean yourself from sugar.

Neither of these programs promises miraculous weight loss--moderate weight loss will result--but both emphasize the addictive nature of carbs, deal with addressing that in slower steps (rather than the total cold turkey that so many LC plans suggest).

I hear you saying you'd like to stop the carbs, you're intellectually convinced, but it's too hard. It is hard--what can i say? I still crave sugar in times of stress, and sometimes I even succumb. But the improvement I get through a multiple approach (food, psychology, spirit, community) is steady, and life is long. I encourage you to keep progressing and think about one of these two books as your next approach.

Best of luck to ya!