When I first seriously tried to lose weight back years ago I read about Atkins. This was well before low carb diets became popular. I tried ‘dieting’- severely restricting my calories, as low as a few hundred calories a day. It sucked. So when I saw my friend losing a ton of weight while eating things like steak and butter I hopped on board. The first time I did it I did lose a few pounds. It was really restrictive and hard to stick with. I craved sugar like crazy even when I was in ketosis (a state where your body has burned ALL carbs and is now burning fat to keep you alive) I finally had to stop, it made me miserable and I did not feel healthy at all. My skin looked nasty  and I just felt icky. After the birth of my second son I was desperate to lose some weight so I started back on low carb/high protein per the Atkins plan. I lost a few pounds but I was exhausted and I started losing my hair. I was really depressed and again my skin looked horrible. I started running while low carbing and I had such a hard time with having enough energy to get me through even a very modest work out. I looked around online to what other runners where eating and I found most were vehemently against low carb or high protein diets. Our bodies need fuel to get stronger and faster, that fuel comes from carbs. It took some getting used to, shifting my thoughts on eating carbs again but I have lost the bulk of my weight from eating a healthy diet including lots of carbs (about 40%), some protein (30%) and fat(30%).  But Ive seen the fastest results with a low fat ‘high’ carb diet, when I keep my fat % under 10-20% the weight slips off a pound or two a week it seems now that Im off my plateau.  The carbs I eat fuel my runs and the moderate protein helps rebuild my muscles. And one more perk is my skin looks great compared to how it looked when I was eating low carb and high protein.

Posted by Shelley in Whatever on May 22nd, 2007 |