My brief experience eating less carbs

[MC Paul Barman]

I'm not the type to do any kind of diet regime. If I want to lose weight I eat less.... if I want to gain weight I eat more. If you know me I'm the type who would usually mock a diet of 'not eating this' and 'eating more of that'.

A friend who I respect had started this stone age diet program. It annoyed me because he's the type, like me, to not waste his time with that.
He started telling me how he was feeling better on it and was giving me all of these pros of doing it. I just told him to "stop" because it started to sound like he was pitching a book.

So he challenged me to give it a shot for a bit.

I took him up on it and cut carbs down to almost nothing. I actually liked the options because I could have steak, bacon, eggs.... had fruits and vegetables and nuts.
I did notice that I didn't feel all that sluggish in the late morning at work. Usually I'll have like toast, cereal.... that kind of stuff.

So, I did that for two days. It didn't feel like a big shock to my system. It was only two days and I did feel a bit more better.

But I had no intention of keeping this up. So the next day for lunch I went to an Italian restaurant and had some pasta and other carby stuff.... and I felt like crap. I felt 100lbs heavier, weezy, exhausted.

Now, I have a pretty much all carb diet for the most part. I only went off of it for 2 days. But that one meal I had after those two days, my typical high carb diet, took everything out of me.
My friend said that it was because of the carbs. I wasn't convinced. Thought maybe it was something in the food. Again, I've had carbs for day after day for years.

He was certain it was due to the carbs. So I started the whole thing over again to prove him wrong. Went very low on the carbs for 2 more days. The next day I had my son's birthday so I went off of the low carb diet for that.... and again, I felt terrible after eating those carbs. That night I had 3 intense nightmares. I woke up feeling dead to the world and called in sick to work.

As I said, I'm not the type to care at all about if you eat more carbs or protein or whatever.... but this was pretty eye opening for me.

 

[Sinister]

Well, just so you know MOST foods have some inherent carbohydrate content. Even meat. And any vegetables you may have eaten would fall into that class as well. But this experience is not unique or controversial. Well, to most people anyway.

 

[MC Paul Barman]

Well, just so you know MOST foods have some inherent carbohydrate content. Even meat. And any vegetables you may have eaten would fall into that class as well. But this experience is not unique or controversial. Well, to most people anyway.

Interesting. Did not know that.



It's funny, because I always thought that bacon and eggs in the morning would make you feel like shit. I rarely ever had that for breakfast. The days I ate that and not the toast, cereal that I usually eat in the morning I felt pretty good. Much better than when I am eating cereal and toast.

 

[Sinister]

Well, at one point in U.S. History, most people ate animal products first thing in the morning if they were available. Hence why the base of many "good ole Country breakfasts" is something like steak, or bacon and eggs.

When you get a moment, look up Sylvester Graham and the Kellogg Brothers (speaking of your cereal) and check out the back-stories on why suddenly people felt that cereal grains were the way to go on a daily basis and how it got the moniker of "health."

 

[MC Paul Barman]

Well, at one point in U.S. History, most people ate animal products first thing in the morning if they were available. Hence why the base of many "good ole Country breakfasts" is something like steak, or bacon and eggs.

When you get a moment, look up Sylvester Graham and the Kellogg Brothers (speaking of your cereal) and check out the back-stories on why suddenly people felt that cereal grains were the way to go on a daily basis and how it got the moniker of "health."

Thanks for the information, King.

Interested in reading up on that.

 

[Tayski]

The human body hasn't evolved that much in centuries and has never been designed to consume large amounts of carbs.
What I mean by that is technically we should only need vegetables, meat/fish/eggs, and some fruits and nuts. That's what our bodies are designed to consume.

Also, most of your daily energy is used for digestion, meaning the more food you eat, the more energy you spend/waste. Hence why having big meals or lots of carbs makes you feel sluggish.

I have never been a fan of diets but gave that paleo diet a go as it seemed to be the sort of nutrition I was targeting myself to have. And just like you I felt I had more energy, quicker digestion, not ever feeling bloated, and just overall feeling lighter and better.

I only really eat pure carbs (pasta, etc.) if I'm doing lots of cardio or long training sessions, or if I'm just having an off day of feasting

 

[MC Paul Barman]

The human body hasn't evolved that much in centuries and has never been designed to consume large amounts of carbs.
What I mean by that is technically we should only need vegetables, meat/fish/eggs, and some fruits and nuts. That's what our bodies are designed to consume.

Also, most of your daily energy is used for digestion, meaning the more food you eat, the more energy you spend/waste. Hence why having big meals or lots of carbs makes you feel sluggish.

I have never been a fan of diets but gave that paleo diet a go as it seemed to be the sort of nutrition I was targeting myself to have. And just like you I felt I had more energy, quicker digestion, not ever feeling bloated, and just overall feeling lighter and better.

I only really eat pure carbs (pasta, etc.) if I'm doing lots of cardio or long training sessions, or if I'm just having an off day of feasting

Very interesting. Thanks for sharing that.


Here's kind of a crazy thing.
I had a large steak lastnight very shortly before going to bed.
My wife and I went to spend the night over at her parent's house because we had some stuff to do in that town the next day. We didn't have a chance to eat prior to getting to their house so her dad was going to grill some steaks. We got there at about 9pm (pretty late to eat, I know) and ate about 9:30... went to bed around 11pm.

Now, if I would typically eat that late I'd probably go through a drive through or have some spagetti or whatever (more carbs none the less)... and I'd wake up feeling groggy and crappy. But, I'm used to it so it's not that big of a deal when I do make that decision to eat late.

Now, I had that steak about less than 2 hours before going to bed. And I woke up feeling fine. Not at all how I would feel after waking up the morning after eating what I typically would have eaten (lots of carbs).

I'm sure to most of you this is pretty obvious and typical. But it's kind of mind blowing for me how much lighter, not groggy, not crappy I feel when eating more protein, fruits, vegetables.

 

[Seriously-Dead]

Cliff notes: I tried out a new diet for a few days, which ruined my previous ability to tolerate a diverse range of food products.

What a great outcome.

 

[MC Paul Barman]

Cliff notes: I tried out a new diet for a few days, which ruined my previous ability to tolerate a diverse range of food products.

What a great outcome.

I can't wait until you're seriously dead.

 

[Goat Meal]

I do much better on high protein/fat, lower carbs as well. When I'm really strict I get carbs only in the form of vegetables and some fruit if I have a sweet tooth. This way, I don't ever have to count carbs because it's improbable that I will ever go over 50 or 100/day. Contrast this with when I tried to do fewer carbs but included pasta and bread, but in smaller amounts, and well I have to be very careful. A moderate sized pasta meal will have twice that number of carbs.

 

[Quinton Overeem]

TS, you're fucking with your insulin levels.

Also, your body probably doesn't like gluten.

 

[Nuclearlandmine]

Talk about high carbs.....Asians like us tends to eat rices and other similar kind of carbs for years and we usually don't suffer these symptoms like Westerners do. I wonder why? I eat low carbs myself but i can always up my carbs for whatever reasons without feeling like crap.

 

[Pathogenic]

Talk about high carbs.....Asians like us tends to eat rices and other similar kind of carbs for years and we usually don't suffer these symptoms like Westerners do. I wonder why? I eat low carbs myself but i can always up my carbs for whatever reasons without feeling like crap.

Most white people can eat carbs without getting sick, too; there is simply an illogical fear of them that has devolved into a widespread panic permeating throughout vast swaths of the health-conscious white diaspora via uneducated Bolshevik soccer moms and hypochondriac paleo zealots.

 

[Sarumyan]

^ Nothing wrong with Bolsheviks.

 

[Deleted member 429137]

I woke up feeling dead to the world and called in sick to work.

As I said, I'm not the type to care at all about if you eat more carbs or protein or whatever.... but this was pretty eye opening for me.

Wow. I would imagine you're not the type to be a pussy. that must have been some pretty intense misery.

I feel my absolute best when I eat a clean paleo diet. There's no getting around it. After a few days a lot of food doesn't even look like food any more. Pasta begins to look like plastic.

 

[ManiacTroll]

Trying low carb has really opened my eyes to how carbs can mess with your day-to-day energy levels and performance. For the longest time I felt tired and crap and didnt even know why. Going with protein and fat will prevent dips in energy and keep you clear-headed throughout the day.

But I'll be a liar if I said it's easy to say no to carbs. A nice big bowl of oatmeal with fruits and milk after a week of low carbing is literally like heaven.

 

[lts5025]

Well, at one point in U.S. History, most people ate animal products first thing in the morning if they were available. Hence why the base of many "good ole Country breakfasts" is something like steak, or bacon and eggs.

When you get a moment, look up Sylvester Graham and the Kellogg Brothers (speaking of your cereal) and check out the back-stories on why suddenly people felt that cereal grains were the way to go on a daily basis and how it got the moniker of "health."

Most country breakfasts, aka breakfasts of farmers, laborers and other poor people consisted of a shit-ton of carbs; flapjacks, biscuits, potatoes, grits, porridge, etc. because they were cheap and they stored well. Meat was an indulgence that wasn't a significant part of the diet unless you were wealthy.

Graham and the Kelloggs were fierce advocates of vegetarianism and sexual abstinence. They believed that a meatless diet would suppress sexual urges.

 

[therealdope]

People often confuse complex carbs with simple carbs. Cutting out pasta, breads, and rice won't do anything if you are taking in a lot of sugars.

I try to replace one meal a day with juicing. For a while I was cutting the harsh taste of juiced Kale and Rainbow Chard with Naked's mango juice and green booster. Although those juices don't have added sugar, they are still stacked with sugar from the fruits which kills any attempt to reduce total calorie intake.

 

[toaa]

I feel great when I'm not eating pasta and most breads. If I stick to mostly fruits, veggies, and protein, I feel great all the time. I try to stay low carb most of the time.

 

[selfcritical]

The human body hasn't evolved that much in centuries and has never been designed to consume large amounts of carbs.
What I mean by that is technically we should only need vegetables, meat/fish/eggs, and some fruits and nuts. That's what our bodies are designed to consume.

Also, most of your daily energy is used for digestion, meaning the more food you eat, the more energy you spend/waste. Hence why having big meals or lots of carbs makes you feel sluggish.

I have never been a fan of diets but gave that paleo diet a go as it seemed to be the sort of nutrition I was targeting myself to have. And just like you I felt I had more energy, quicker digestion, not ever feeling bloated, and just overall feeling lighter and better.

I only really eat pure carbs (pasta, etc.) if I'm doing lots of cardio or long training sessions, or if I'm just having an off day of feasting

The "speed of evolution" argument always intrinsically sounds like nonsense. Every single dog breed currently existing started differentiation after the advent of agriculture. Dogs are pretty damn different than wolves, with most of the differentiation happening in that relatively short span of time. Traits in the population respond to pressures. If eating grains killed us, then the people most resistant to dying of grain bullshit would have more offspring, and their traits would in short order come to dominate to pool.

Let's imagine for a second that there was a terrible fucking plague with near perfect lethality, but 2 percent of the population was immune due to a genetic mutation. How long would it take for us to "evolve" such that immunity was the assumed trait?

One generation. Everyone else would be dead.