The FastDay Forum

Well, I will continue to stick up for and enjoy those carbs which since they have once again taken the usual battering on this thread. Once I get today's fasting day out of the way, I will be taking a break from this WOL over Christmas and New Year. During that period, there won't be any weigh-ins and I will be enjoying my carbs to the full (I have always been more of a carb lover than a fat lover anyway, and this WOL is supossed to be about enjoying what you like eating).

That means that during the festive period, I will continue to enjoy my carbs, and I won't be caring one bit about the consequences of that, in terms of it causing water retention, being the biggest enemy (carbs will always be a good friend of mine, even if no-one else wants to be friends with those humble carbs), or the resulting affect on my weight at the end of it.

I will assess the damage of that in the new year when (and if) I return to this WOL afterwards but for now, I will be now be looking to enjoy the festive period without even having to worry about those things.

Think that's a healthy attitude to take John, we're all different and no one way of losing weight or maintaining for that matter will suit everyone and we all need to work our individual regime. Enjoy your food over Christmas without any guilt!

Well, I wasn't quite right with the weigh-ins here. I will have one more weigh-in tomorrow morning but then, that will be it for this year.

You go and enjoy your carbs John, but you say, '(and if ) I return'. Were you thinking of leaving ? We're only saying that some of us just can't do carbs without putting on loads of weight. I hope you know that's just 'our' opinion and what works for me might not work for you.

You go and enjoy your carbs John, but you say, '(and if ) I return'. Were you thinking of leaving ? We're only saying that some of us just can't do carbs without putting on loads of weight. I hope you know that's just 'our' opinion and what works for me might not work for you.

I fully respect that, but I am only trying to keep things a bit more balanced by giving a different opinion instead of everything being biased in one particular direction. That sort of bias is the sort of thing which might cause me to leave (hence the 'and if' bit).

I agree with what lots of people have said on here about it being an individual thing - I cut the carbs and the weight started to fall off (and in response to an earlier post about fatigue when cutting carbs all I can say is I took it quite slowly and gradually decreased them because I too had felt energyless at first - and then it worse off and now I can exist quite happily on 60g a day) but I'm sure low carb is not for everyone. Horses for courses as they say.

[carorees]

I don't see it as a question of low carb or high carb. Why not look at it from the point of view of working out what kind of carb intake suits you? It could be under 60, 80, 100, 125, 150,175 , or 200 grams per day...if you only try to keep it lower than the standard western diet you'll likely be doing your body some favours at least!

I don't see it as a question of low carb or high carb. Why not look at it from the point of view of working out what kind of carb intake suits you? It could be under 60, 80, 100, 125, 150,175 , or 200 grams per day...if you only try to keep it lower than the standard western diet you'll likely be doing your body some favours at least!

Thanks for that. What really bugged me was a comment made on this forum not too long ago in response to me saying that I was actually on a fairly low carb regime, and that I was now trying to increase my fat intake a bit whilst reducing my protein intake slightly. I'm not going to name any names here, but the person in question then went on say that my regime at the time wasn't low carb after all.

Since I can't match what that person's expectations of what low carb actually is, that was enough to turn me against the whole idea of low carb altogether, and there are a number of reasons for that. Firstly, I had already lost a lot of weight before starting this WOL. My biggest weight losses came mostly during last year (which is 2012 in case you are reading this a couple of weeks later in 2014, or in some future year) and that came despite the fact that I was still eating a lot of carbs then. That should therefore conclusively show in my case that carbs are not the real enemy of weight loss.

That got me down to a certain weight when I then maintained for most of this year until I began this WOL back in August. Again, that happened despite a high carb intake and though I was maintaining a higher weight than what I am at just now, I was still successful with that weight maintenance programme. So you see, I have had a lot of success before with a high carb diet. I do admit that my weight is now lower than what it was then, but now I have daily weigh-ins as another weapon against any long-term weight gain.

I have shown countless numbers of times on this that when I gain too much water weight through eating a lot of carbs, I can then easily switch to a low calorie day on the following day without necessarily declaring that as a fasting day and within a few days, that extra water weight will have gone. This shows that there is no need for me to go low carb, and that I could actually get by with maintaining my current weight without even any need to fast at any time, or follow this WOL.

Added to that is the fact that I enjoy carbs so much, and you will see why I have so stubbornly defended them on this forum because the bottom line is that if you remove carbs from my diet, you end up taking away just about everything that I enjoy eating which is not what this WOL should be about. Now, there are a lot of people follow this WOL because they are tired of counting calories every day. However, you can just as easily get tired of counting your overall carb intake and so with that, all you are doing is replacing one restrictive regime with another and that is what I hate about this WOL.

If I go back to my original point though, one person's definition of low carb is always going to be different from mine and so, I fully understand where you are coming from when it comes to setting your own level for that. Anyway, just be grateful that I haven't gone as strongly against low carb dietting as the poster of this article.

[carorees]

Wow, that guy is upset isn't he? Never let the facts get in the way of a good rant, eh?

Lowering my carbs has really helped me too. I'll never go back to how I ate before, that's for sure. But we all have to find what works for us.

Carorees, you are a wealth of knowledge. Such good advice about finding a carb level that works for you.

Wow, that guy is upset isn't he? Never let the facts get in the way of a good rant, eh?

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Caroline, if you got past the first F... Word then you are a better woman than I am. I refuse to read articles that cannot make their point without resorting to obscenities but then I AM an old fusspot,

Ballerina X

John, I reread your last post. Who cares what anyone says about your eating low carb/high carb, whatever. Everyone has their own opinions anyway.

Holy cow, I just read John's latest link. Not a fan of the F word either. Hey guess what...Atkins/low carb was around when I was 13, and it's still here now that I turned 60. Because it works.

John, as everyone say, do what suits YOU and good luck

Ballerina x