How to Diet Down NOW

I have just joined the gym at my college, I am about 5 10 and about avarage in weighti would like to lose a bit of weight and tone up I will be going every other day for around 2hours a day I have been told to cut out carbs in my diet is that a good Idea? And can anyone give ideas for dinners with low carbs, also any toning up tips, many thanks

Eating carbs while trying to lose body fat is terribly inefficient. When in glycolysis (burning glucose as fuel) you have to lower your calories (which slows your metabolism) & exercise heavily to deplete your glycogen stores before burning body fat.

The core of Atkins program is converting the body from glycolysis (burning glucose as fuel) to ketosis (burning fat as fuel). Dietary fat levels need to be at >65% of total calories, if not, the body will still remain in glycolysis by converting 58% of excess protein into glucose (via gluconeogenesis).

It takes minimum of 3 days to convert a body to ketosis, (but only one bite to convert back to glycolysis). People feel sluggish the first week but most feel better than ever thereafter.

Simple carbohydrates (sugar, flour, bread, cereal, pasta, potatoes, rice) trigger insulin which can store the calories eaten into fat. The more protein the more the fat burning hormone glucagon is released. The more carbohydrate the more the fat storage hormone insulin is released.

High insulin levels unbalance other hormones. Controlling insulin levels will balance out other hormones & allow human growth hormone (HGH) to be produced naturally so lean muscle will be gained even without exercise. Any exercise will greatly increase muscle mass with high HGH levels.

Ground flax seed (2 Tbsp) 1/4 cup water, artificial sweetener, mix in a raw egg - let sit 10 min. to absorb liquid, put some cream cheese in the middle & nuke 2 minutes. Suggested for daily fiber needs.

As long as you have <9grams carbs per hour, you will maintain insulin control & shouldn’t gain weight, no matter the calories because insulin, the fat storage hormone is not activated.

During the first 2 weeks, you can have several cups of salads. Jicama, cucumber, celery & radish marinated in sesame oil & hot pepper flakes with rice wine vinegar & artificial sweetener. Make a stir fry with Bok Choy, bean sprouts, bamboo shoots, celery, mushrooms, shirataki noodles & your fav meats. I love eggs and could eat deviled eggs every day. You can smother omelets & meats with mushrooms & peppers & cheese. Meatzza - Meatloaf with pizza toppings (pepperoni, mushrooms, peppers, mozzarella) I prefer very thin sausage patties fried crispy with pizza toppings. Pork rinds & celery sticks are great crunch and can be eaten with dips (avocado/mayo/cayenne is my fav) & tuna/chicken/turkey/egg salads. I love love love my rotisserie and it makes the meats extra tasty. I cook a turkey every couple of months and make soup with the bones (add vinegar to leach minerals) and turkey salads. I’ll cube up some turkey meat mix in a couple of raw eggs add cheese (and broccoli after induction) with cayenne powder & nuke a couple of minutes for nearly instant meal. Flax seed should be eaten 2T daily even in induction.

After the 2 week induction, you add 5 grams of carbs per day every week and add a much greater variety of non starchy vegetables. Change your mindset - eat what you like to eat, just adapt it to low carb -
replace bread with lettuce
replace pasta with cabbage
replace rice with cauliflower
replace potatoes with brocolli
I eat all my favorite Chinese, Italian, even Mexican foods with low carb foods. Cabbage makes an excellent pasta substitute (for me) Make a lasagna with blanched cabbage leaves & thinly fried eggplant instead of noodles. Sugar free pasta sauce over fried cabbage. My fav is chicken cacciatore, I add greens & flaxseed or chia seed for body and also add pizza toppings - pepperoni, mushrooms, lots of mozzarrella. Alfredo sauce is also low carb.

I don’t cook often. I usually make huge batches of food & freeze most of it. Fried "rice" made with grated cauliflower tasted just like it’s name sake. Shirataki noodles are traditional in Japanese sukiyaki and low carb. I’ve heard faux mashed "taters" made with cauliflower & cream cheese can fool non low carbers. "potato" salad using cauliflower instead.

Hope I’ve given you a start, many recipes abound. Adapt what you’ve always eaten first (I bet someone has a recipe for it or low carb version) and then start exploring.

Chia seeds sound so expensive but 1# will make 10# food (when you can splurge some - Amazon.com has couple lbs. for $16 shipped to you. I buy mine in bulk - 24# for $6# with free shipping at getchia.com

I also order off Amazon - Lowrey’s Pork Rinds 18 for $15 - they pop like popcorn and are portion controlled.

Faux tapioca - 2 cups of water, 5 scoops of low carb whey protein powder, stir together & add cup of chia seeds, after they have started to absorb the water, add in 2 cans of coconut milk & artificial sweetener if you like and mix it all in. Can be eaten after an hour but will be better tomorrow. Cream a pkg. of cream cheese into a can of pumpkin and add to the faux tapioca for an even more nutritious pumpkin pie pudding.

This entry was posted on Thursday, December 3rd, 2009 at 4:21 pm and is filed under diet help. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.