Weight gain on low carb diet

[Corrigan 75]

In a number of posts lately, opinions have been expressed that some people are gaining or at least

not losing weight due to a lack of carbs in their diet. I've spent the better part of my spare time for

the past three days trying to find any scientific proof of this theory. All I could come up with was a

discredited study from some years ago. If any one has proof that this theory has some basis in fact,

could you please present it on this forum so we might have a new reason for lack of weight loss.

[susan73 2]

when i have stuck HONESTLY with it, i have always lost weight on low carb diets. even with a bit of higher fat level. if i cheated here or there, of course it didnt work. sweets always did me in, in the end.

[Kellysue 7]

What I don't get and hopefully I am not hijacking here, but people not losing when they are only eating below 1500 calories a day. Most banders that I have been reading about are eating around a 1000. How do they not lose weight? I don't know anyone's BMR that is at 1000 making them not lose weight. I don't get it.

[123crod 170]

Always worked for me but I never can keep it up for very long. For some reason it feels too much like a diet to me, but it does work after about 4 days into it and as long as you do not cheat with any sweets or high carb food.

Cheri

[vlp1968 83]

I swear by a low carb diet. I lost 107 pounds in about 10 months on a lowcarb/low fat/ low calorie diet. I ate eggs or had a protien shake for Breakfast. lunch and dinner were a lean meat and veggie and I snacked on 1/4c nuts and 2 low fat cheese sticks. Very mundane but it worked for me. As stated, it doesn't work if you cheat. The idea is your body goes into a state of "ketosis" where it burns fat for energy. Even one high carb item will end the state of ketosis. That being said, I don't think a low carb diet if for everyone. Some people feel very slugish on it, wasn't the case for me. Some people just aren't willing to give up carbs almost completely. They can still loose weight. The real bottom line is calories in and calories out. Burn more calories than you take in and your body will burn fat. Excersise is important so muscle isn't also burned.

[Jachut 487]

Yeah, it makes me very sluggish and my running and exercise takes a sharp nosedive, i cant function without a small amount of bread/cereals in my diet. But it works if you stick to it. So does ordinary calorie cutting.

I too find it hard to understand how you can eat 1000 a day and not lose, and my natural inclination is to think "starvation mode" is a crock. But - you have to remember, this is a large community of people who are or have been overweight. Odds are there's more than a few here whose bodies are just not workign the way they should. I know for a fact that at my height and weight and level of exercise, the charts say I shoudl be eating 1000 calories more a day than I do - yet I absolutely cant. Eating 2800 calories a day (and realistically and honestly, it wouldnt have been much more) is how I got obese. I maintain on 1800 - I ought to be losign 1kg a week on that.

[elcee 3,340]

If you have been dieting for a long time you may recall that all diets used to have a 1000 cal (4200KJ) per day limit. They then changed to 1200 cal and only recently it seems has a 1500 cal recommendation come in. For many , especially females that are short 1500 cal is way too much for weight loss. This would be closer to a maintenance level.

I have tried high Protein previously and have never been able to stick at it for more than a couple of days. I would think that it is perfectly possible to gain on a high Protein diet. Some people take it as a licence to gorge. If you are eating masses of cream, butter , fat , fried foods then I am sure weight loss will not be automatic. In theory it should be but theories don't always work which is why they are theories.

[Corrigan 75]

Yeah, it makes me very sluggish and my running and exercise takes a sharp nosedive, i cant function without a small amount of bread/cereals in my diet. But it works if you stick to it. So does ordinary calorie cutting.

I too find it hard to understand how you can eat 1000 a day and not lose, and my natural inclination is to think "starvation mode" is a crock. But - you have to remember, this is a large community of people who are or have been overweight. Odds are there's more than a few here whose bodies are just not workign the way they should. I know for a fact that at my height and weight and level of exercise, the charts say I shoudl be eating 1000 calories more a day than I do - yet I absolutely cant. Eating 2800 calories a day (and realistically and honestly, it wouldnt have been much more) is how I got obese. I maintain on 1800 - I ought to be losign 1kg a week on that.

I didn't start this thread to be argumentitive, just the opposite, this is really some thing I'd like to know,

I'd like to know how long this effect lasts. I've raised animals most of my life and when you feed them

a lot they get fat and when you don't they get skinny. Maybe this is simplistic, but that's my understanding. I'm no scientist, hell, I'm barely a liberal arts major, so many scientific consepts evade me,

but I'm trying.

In all fairness, I found this today along with proof that it's accurate.

Starvation mode theory can be created on a low calorie diet that is high in carbohydrates. The immune system needs amino acids which Protein is broken down to. If you don't get enough Protein guess where your body gets it from? It gets it from the muscle in your body. This slows down your metabolic rate. Viola Your starvation mode.

But it doesn't prevent weight loss, just trades fat for muscle.

[Jachut 487]

I agree - you might stop losing for a while if you eat too little, and you might lose if you suddenly eat. Lord knows why but enough people here have tried it and its worked for them. But the plateau caused by eating too little must pass or people would never starve to death.

The theory around high Protein diets and why they work is more to do with your body's insulin. The insulin surge caused by a high carb food causes your body to store fat more readily. Protein doesnt cause that surge and thus depresses the fat storing mechanism of the body - in very simplistic terms. But that doesnt really take into account that if you eat a slice of bread with an egg, you've slowed down the glycaemic load of the meal anyway and wont get the huge surge. This is why many people believe in a low GI diet rather than a low carb one.

I know for sure its darn hard to stay at a reasonable weight on a diet of Cookies and muffins and the more you eat of them, the worse you get, you just want more and more.

[bromo 17]

Reading so often about starvation mode, especially at MFP, is always a bit hard for me to swallow. I watched my husband lose over a 100 pounds in 11 months from pancreatic cancer. He could keep absolutely nothing down and his body was starving and he lost weight, fat and muscle. No food in, weight lost. So even though I am doing low carb of less than 60g a day, it is the caloric value of the food that is causing my weight loss. The low carb just helps me to make better choices with my food, allowing some grains and fruits, but keeps my cravings at bay from the stabilization of my insulin levels or something. Even if that is incorrect, it works for me and helps me to stay on track thinking that way.