The FastDay Forum

Some people can't stand eating fat of any kind, my friend is like that, she is a few years younger than me and has health problems which I believe has resulted through her not having fat in her diet.
We have for the last 40 years been brainwashed into thinking low fat is good for you when the opposite is now being shown to be the case.
Yesterday for dinner I had 2 lamb cutlets fried and I hold the skin side onto the bottom of the pan until it goes crispy add loads of steamed cauli and brussel sprouts mashed with garlic butter and I eat the lot including the fat, then suck on the bones, just like a cavewoman
But it has got to be one thing or the other if you want to go low carb you need to up the natural fats. I don't snack between meals, I don't even think about it, I have lunch and dinner and make sure fat is included. The only time I feel a bit hungry is on fast days, I miss my nuts on those days.
It takes a lot to change the habits of a lifetime but it is doable and sustainable. I lasted 9 months on Atkins diet. I am going into my third year on low sugar/high fat.
I am not on a diet anymore just natural eating with repair time mixed in. I still have treats just a smaller portion, But I am lucky not to have a sweet tooth I suppose.
Chris x

I have nothing against fats, I can slather on the butter and double cream til the cows come home and I abhor low-fat products of ANY description but it's the chunks of animal fats I can't bear even though I happily eat meat. My diet is already high in fats and low in sugar but I was hoping to reduce the belly fat on this little piggy by reducing carbohydrates more than I do at present.

Belly dancer x

I am with @chriso57 on this - just love fat - steaks, beef, lamb, pork crackling, fat on ham, pork pies ... Also love cream in all its manifestations ...

We have a policy in this house, hubby cuts off all his fat and gives it to me, in the man time I fight off the lads who want in on the fat fest. But when I eat sweet stuff I can't overly sweet stuff, so he gets the stuff like the icing on the fruit cake whilst i eat the cake, plus he also has sugar in his tea *gag*. The last time I was rushed into hospital they tried to give me a sweet cup of tea for the *shock* afterwards. I just couldn't drink it. I had to demand a hot chocolate as they weren't going to let me leave without any carbs/calories yet I wouldn't drink the tea.

So I have a carb monster that doesn't actually like overly sweet stuff (unless its sweets (candy). Contradiction anyone? Or could it be that the sweet stuff has to be natural? Nope that doesn't work either as I like Jelly Babies. Hmmm! I am going to have to look into this and find out what it is the carb monster wants.

There's something I don't understand here. Cauli and carrots are in the low carbs vegs list so how can that meal can be high in carbs ? For the quantities it was 80g meat and 100g vegs

I am 48kgs so my priority is not fat burning, more muscles building and, as proteins alone don't agree with me either I don't have much of a choice than to go low carbs I guess

Damned this is confusing.....

It is indeed confusing @Manderley, it is. Which is probably why the scientists have been throwing brickbats at each other for years. Insulin is the main controller here, but there are many others (and many unknown others, no doubt).

Think of it very simply this way:

Your body needs fuel to run.

If you don't give it any fuel it will, eventually switch into fat-burning mode and start using your fat deposits (and eventually your muscle deposits). You will not (usually) feel physically hungry. Your insulin will be low.

If you now give it some fat as fuel your body will continue in fat-burning mode - not your fat but the fat you've just eaten... And, again, you'll not feel hungry, even after you've eaten - as long as that meal was *fat dominant* (e.g. 70* fat). Insulin remains low.

If you give it a carbohydrate and / or protein dominant fuel (like your dinner), your body will produce insulin to process it and, in doing so, flip out of fat-burning mode. (Very simply - raised insulin = no fat-burning). Insulin will spike and (again, very crudely) once it has run out of yummy carbohydrate and / or protein to work on, the raised insulin level will make your body demand MORE carb / protein food - you will now feel hungry a couple of hours after you've eaten. So you eat more carb / protein and the cycle continues.

Sorry to the techie geeks - I've seem to have mangled the science in my search for simplicity - I'll need to find a better summary from somewhere.

Going "low-carb" for the big non-weight related benefits (e.g. anti-inflamatory, anti-gaga) still means that you need to go into fat-burning mode, i.e. ketogenesis, as this is where the biochemical switches that confer the major health benefits stem from.

Otherwise you're just looking at a carbohydrate reduced diet, which is a jolly good thing, but isn't really the same as ketogenic low-carbing. And you'll get hungry a couple of hours after eating those carbohydrates. Clear as mud?

Great summary@fatdog. @manderley, I'm prone to occasional bursts of intensive exercise and find I do need extra carbs to fuel my performance. @creakypete I also think does this as a runner but I think he is more of an expert than I am on how to find the right balance to give you just enough fuel. However if you want to build muscle, you will need to be upping your protein intake.

Also I didn't understand your number. 80g of meat and 100g of veggies. Is that carb grams or weight. If carbs that does not seem right. Your plate would be HUGE! have I misunderstood?

@rawkaren, 80g of meat and 100g of veggies were the weight in general.

@FatdogThanks for the explanation So, I guess I'll have to eat more proteins and fat, maybe stuff like green lentils would help or maybe I'll keep doing low carbs only on my fast days as it worked fine for me until now as I only have soup so no chewing and no hunger switched on

You will not believe what I'm doing as I read this thread. Eating a pizza. What is wrong with me you should kick me out of the tent until I learn to control myself.

Julieathome, I don't like overly sweet stuff either.

You will not believe what I'm doing as I read this thread. Eating a pizza. What is wrong with me you should kick me out of the tent until I learn to control myself.

Julieathome, I don't like overly sweet stuff either.

Me too yesterday, but wonder of wonders, the scales remained the same this morning! Something to do with the 'grandchildren gym' - we never stop moving, either crawling around the floor building things or racing cars, or up and down the garden on bikes and scooters, or dinosaur fighting round the house, it's all go. Love it!

Don't get me started. Am working away with a bunch of blokes and all they eat (and offer me to eat) is bloody BREAD. You should see my puffer fish face right now. Aargh

Ooooh Karen - no room service? No friendly M and S Simply Food shops to get some salads etc??

Hi:

A basic news article discussing sugar addiction: http://www.npr.org/blogs/thesalt/2014/0 ... t=1&f=1007

I believe it goes past sugar to wheat, but have no solid proof.

Yummy yummy day. Fry up for breakfast, brazil nuts and ripe french cheese for pre-dinner nibbles, and avocado prawns, with homemade sauce and salad for dinner. And some very nice Rioja. 1,646 cals (bit too high) and 21g carbs.

If only this excellent eating translated into a scales improvement

Ooooh Karen - no room service? No friendly M and S Simply Food shops to get some salads etc??

Fraid not. We ended up at some strange restaurant that served chips and bread with everything. It was a choice of prawn curry (with udon noodles-carbs). Or burger and chips. I had the curry in the end and tried to dodge the noodles as best I can. When I'm in London I normally go to M@S and eat in my room, but no such luck last week in Sheffield

Yesterday was a fast day, and I was really working to stay between 500 and 600. For dinner, I fixed some salmon, sauted in very little olive oil with garlic and balsamic finished in 450 oven along with some roasted cauliflower tossed in a little olive oil, garlic and balsamic and then on parchment on a sheet pan in the 450 oven along with herb salad with balsamic. I fixed mashed potatoes for my husband, but managed to stay away except for one taste to check seasoning. Everything was really good--funny how fasting sharpens the taste buds --but, oh my gosh! The cauliflower was so delicious--sweet and nutty. I felt like I had died and gone to heaven! I actually felt guilty although I think I stayed within my goal of lo cal AND lo carb! Felt great this morning. No carb brain fog and made it to zumba class and walked the dog!

Valentine's Day Challenge Member #45

The lads did bring home Kebabs. I may have made it inside 500kcals, but more than likely not, by a 100 or so. I only had 1/3rd of the pitta, and 5 chips, so I think the carbs are low enough not to trigger my carb induced hot flushes. The christmas cake (just the cake not the icing) that I pinched a piece of probably will. Oh where has my willpower gone today? I'm going to try for another 16:8 tomorrow to balance this one out.

I've just used a tracker and using the highest figures there for kebabs, with the half pitta, the 5 chips and the christmas cake I've come in at approximately 600kcals and 69g carbs (35g were the Christmas cake, oops).

I am actually shocked/pleased at that. I now just have to learn to slow down when eating after a day of fasting as it took ages for the full signal to reach my brain and by then I was stuffed, overfull in fact.