The FastDay Forum

Very interesting thread that has got me considering what we eat. I have just bought some Cold pressed Virgin coconut oil to try using in cooking but also as recommended in the book about using this & in reviews to try having a daily teaspoonful of it. I have also bought & downloaded to my iPad the book Pure Virgin Coconut Oil by Dr Bruce Fife & I have also bought & started reading Pure White & Deadly by John Yudkin. I also re-watched the TV programme The Men Who Made Us Fat. I have ditched the Rosemary Conley low fat diet I was following prior to starting 5:2ing at the end of January & now have organic butter, olive oil & organic probiotic yoghurt. I still eat carbs but whole meal bread, basmati rice & fresh pasta & very little unrefined sugar. So I guess creeping towards totally eliminating sugar & heavily processed stuff from our diet. We do still have M&S fuller longer meals on fast days but the ingredient list is short & at least includes recognisable food on it. So I guess the point I am making is that our diet is evolving influenced by shared experiences & information in the forum. Thank you everyone for your contributions.

While I believe LCHF has been exactly the right thing for me...I don't think it is necessarily the only right way or even necessarily the best way. When I say I eat moderate carbs, it is because I have different levels of carbs on different days. It is the best choice for me with IR, hypothyroid and PCOS according to all the research I have read.

What it means for me is that on fast days (MWF) I eat very low carb and low calorie...so leanmeats, nonstarchy veggies, eggs, cheese, nuts. On Tues and Thurs I eat low carb lunch, but have a serving of carbs with dinner and usually some dark chocolate after dinner. On the weekends I eat what I want, whether that be pizza, pasta or Chinese...Oreos, brownies or cheesecake. I do try to keep the portions reasonable, but I don't count carbs.

I find this tolerable and consider it moderate, for me. But, even when I did LC as a WOE, I was always limiting carbs rather than eliminating them and I did a "cheat meal" on Saturday or Sunday. I know that for me eliminating sugar or wheat as in forever and ever, amen will never be sustainable. It is healthier to cut back some on all the white stuff...probably for everyone. But, I have no plans to eliminate them.

I find the restrictions all very confusing.
I keep to my "a calorie is a calorie" philosophy and try to keep up my nutrients by eating plenty of fruit and vegetables including avocado, wholemeal grains, some rice and pasta, some nuts, some oils, a variety of fish, red meat and chicken, dark chocolate two or three times a week and red wine or a whisky three or four times a week.
I break out with dessert and cake once or twice a week!
Excluding any allergy sufferers-( I can't tolerate much dairy) I believe a variety of all food groups is the healthiest and most sustainable WOE.
Reducing the amounts I eat obviously cuts the calories and leads to weight loss- the 5:2 for me causes a natural reduction in appetite and calorie reduction whilst enabling a variety of healthy (and yummy) foods.

Out of curiosity, are we talking about ALL carbs? Because it seems that many people say "carbs" but mean "sugar and flour".

Low carbohydrate - a small daily total of the number on the label/website/database that says "Carbohydrates" next to it.

Being from the UK, my carbohydrates are analysed and don't include fibre. Other measuring regimes are available.

Fat Italians did quite well on LCHF at http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3217855/

despite being an "unlimited calorie" diet, the average intake as 1100-1200 cals. This is quite common on low carb eating, 100g of protein is only 400 calories and enough for most normal people. Add 90g of fat (810 cals) and a sprinkle of incidental carbohydrate and you're done.

Some fat Spaniards did the same at http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2586625/ including half a bottle of red wine daily. They didn't even bother accounting for carbs but weight loss was 1% per week.

So for the obese, where insulin resistance is likely, LCHF does very well. Leaner people sensitive to insulin may do better on low fat, as some studies found (discussed here previously).