What Happened to You on Your Low-Carb Diet?

[Madmick]

Okay, so a million guys in here seem to keep banging their head into a brick wall on this issue, yelping and whining and carrying on, and when Kabuki, RJKD, Chad, and the rest of us stop, notice their distress, and say, "Hey man, you're banging your fucking head into a brick wall, don't do that, it hurts" they conspicuously continue to bang their head against a wall, and ask people about better techniques for banging their head into walls.

Low-carb diets are debunked. The weight loss you see is loss of water and muscle tissue. Multiple studies have revealed that low-carb dieters are not only more likely than conventional dieters (although I wonder what those are, anymore) to not only gain back the weight they lost on their diet, but to become heavier than they were originally.

They're bad for your everyday joe, they're outright atrocious for athletes.

A couple of guys on here-- who sound pretty pissed about what low-carb fantacism did to them-- wrote about it in another thread. What they had to say was perfectly representative of what the studies have conclued:

I lost about 25 lbs in one month of Atkins. I also lost 70 lbs off of my bench press and 15 lbs off of my dumbell curl. It took me about 5 months to get back to where I was before going on, but I was able to keep the weight off with a real diet and lots of exercise.

Even though you can lose weight on Atkins (I went from 210 to 160), you cannot stay on it forever, not even the maintenance level. Within 9 months, I shot back up to 225, my highest weight ever. Now, through diet and regular exercise, I am back down to ~200.

So for all you guys losing weight who don't believe us that this is a bad idea, I wanted to start this thread, because I don't think people who try this diet and find out it sucks are vocal enough.

How many have dieted this way? What were your results. Good or bad, post them. How was your strength before and after the diet? Did you gain the weight back?

It would be more compelling, I think, for everyone trying to lose weight to hear it from other athletes like themselves.

 

[finnegan]

The really sad part of this story is that the friend of mine that convinced to go on that shitty diet just shrugged and went on with it when I maxed out 70 lbs less than I did one month beforehand. He eventually crashed and shot from 240 to 300+lbs. He then tried to max out. He didn't clear 185, and he used to do toning sets at 205.
The really sad part is that even now that I am benching his body weight and in better shape than ever, he still went back to Atkins. I hate that fucking diet. It is going to kill him eventually.

 

[SmashiusClay]

Personally I would'nt go near this crap if you payed me, but my father (who is majorly overweight) has been on just about every fad diet out there and he tried it.

Pretty typical result he started losing weight that very quickly returned and like many others he went back up past his original weight. He also suffered a loss of fitness and was eventually advised to stop by his doctor as he has had a history of minor kidney trouble and apparently the diet was aggravating that.

 

[TaiKai Fighta]

I went on the diet and lost 20 pounds, and my cholestorol went down a substantial amount of points. Now I am off of the No Carb and still trying to do Healthy Carbs. My weight is still going down and I am in better shape than ever. My cholestorol is still down as well.
So it worked for me.

 

[Tek9Designs]

In 3 months when I was on the diet, I lost around 25-30 pounds. I put some of the weight back because my eating after I fell off was horribly fast food oriented. I also didn't exercise that often while on it, and still lost the weight.

 

[Ted-P]

Haha it all depends on what their definition of Low Carb is.

 

[GZ-Nos]

I started on a diet similar to atkins at the new year. I'd eat oatmeal for breakfast, and mostly protein for the rest of the day. I went from about 285-255 in 2 months. I was weaker, slower, and my endurance even went down. In March I switched to eating clean carbs, lean meats, and drinking a shitload of water (eating 5 small meals a day.) I also started hitting the gym every morning before breakfast, as well as continuing to train bjj, and kickboxing. I weighed 215 this morning. I feel pretty damned good. My mom thinks I am anorexic, though.

 

[Ted-P]

I started on a diet similar to atkins at the new year. I'd eat oatmeal for breakfast, and mostly protein for the rest of the day. I went from about 285-255 in 2 months. I was weaker, slower, and my endurance even went down. In March I switched to eating clean carbs, lean meats, and drinking a shitload of water (eating 5 small meals a day.) I also started hitting the gym every morning before breakfast, as well as continuing to train bjj, and kickboxing. I weighed 215 this morning. I feel pretty damned good. My mom thinks I am anorexic, though.

lifting weights before breakfast?

Say what?!?!

 

[LCDforMe]

I wouldn't touch one of those no carb diets. I went from 257 to around 225 now (and still dropping some) by using a health diet.

 

[Eric O]

MY Uncle lost 60lbs of fat on strict atkins. He is a lazy fuck that has a technical job and never does anything even remotely physical besides walking a block to and from the train.

I use low/no carb diets to cut weight for fights.

It works, stop posting BS.

 

[Madmick]

I went on the diet and lost 20 pounds, and my cholestorol went down a substantial amount of points. Now I am off of the No Carb and still trying to do Healthy Carbs. My weight is still going down and I am in better shape than ever. My cholestorol is still down as well.
So it worked for me.

What about strength and endurance before and after your cycle of the diet?

Also, what percentage of your diet is now "healthy carbs"?

 

[finnegan]

MY Uncle lost 60lbs of fat on strict atkins. He is a lazy fuck that has a technical job and never does anything even remotely physical besides walking a block to and from the train.

I use low/no carb diets to cut weight for fights.

It works, stop posting BS.

No one is denying that it works to reduce body weight, but the consequences of continued low/ no carb dieting suck shit. If you are just cutting for fights, that isn't really what this thread is about.

 

[Madmick]

MY Uncle lost 60lbs of fat on strict atkins. He is a lazy fuck that has a technical job and never does anything even remotely physical besides walking a block to and from the train.

I use low/no carb diets to cut weight for fights.

It works, stop posting BS.

Also, what was your uncle's diet like before he went on Atkins? My guess is he couldn't tell you his average caloric intake per day within 1,000, much less how many grams of carbs, protein, and fat he was intaking.

You see, here's a sturdy trap for those come to believe in low-carb dieting. A great illustration for this principle is the Jump-Sole plyometric shoes that were the rage five years ago (and continue to sell well today). They made many claims for why these shoes advanced your training, most explained by the "overloading principle": the shoes were designed to maintain a suprabodyweight tension on the calves during the plyometric routine.

Do guys who get Jump Soles and follow the routine that comes with it improve their vertical leap tremendously? Yes. But guess what? It wasn't the shoes, it was the routine that was doing it. Since it's most popular phase, they've done many studies comparing those on plyometric routines with JumpSoles, those on plyometric routines without Jumpsoles, and those without plyometrics in the training regimen. The results are constant; the JumpSoles make no difference, plyometrics do. In fact, the thing Jumpsoles were far more likely to cause were injuries. Duh...overload? No surprise there.

Anyone with a knowledge of physiology and kinesiology would have known this from the ouset (as Chu did). The calves have the highest concentration of slow twitch muscle fibers in the body (77%), and strength training has revealed it's almost impossible to shift muscle fiber composition from slow to fast (although fast to slow is possible): has anyone else heard, "Sprinters are born, not made." Not entirely true, but yeah, there you go. Besides, the calves are responsible for a fraction of the force output expressed in a jump.

But many guys don't maintain a disciplined routine, just as many don't a disciplined diet, so when they get on a diet that controls their calories and high-glycemic carb intake, immediately they lose weight.

And that's the primary reason for any actual fat loss one sees on this diet, IMO. They regulate the intake of high-glycemic carbs. These carbs are a pillar of weight gain, and compose the overwhelming majority of most Americans' diets. So when you regulate this, and calories (although some low-carb diets don't), you have an immediate formula for weight loss. Any good weight loss that occured did so because of dietary discipline and planning, not diet architecture.

If you use this diet for cutting for fights, you're doing yourself a disservice, Eric. Oh man, this is actually a great thing for you, because you have an immediate opportunity to give yourself an edge you didn't have before. Going low-carb before a competition is a horrible idea because you deplete your glycogen stores, and glycogen is your energy factory. Instead, eat a low-GI but predominantly carbohydrate diet, although higher than usual in protein, during your cutting and pre-fight phases. This is scientifically proven to be much healthier and more beneficial for athletes.

 

[creepingcharlie]

My dad insists on using the South Beach Diet. He is never super overweight either. Maybe 20lbs at most. He defends himself by saying that his weight has always fluctuated with every diet, so this is nothing new.

 

[eljamaiquino]

I tried it once for a few eeks. Lost weight, but since workouts and training sucked (gassed from lack of carbs), probably was muscle loss as well. Maybe for sedentary individuals it works, but for anyone doing strenous activity, it'll only hurt your performance.....

 

[Chad Hamilton]

Self induced ketosis has never quite fully registered in my brain....guess im just not wired to take the easy way.

Also, I have a terrible mental picture of a colon thats been running nothing but protein thru it.

Oh I can feel the toxicity in my bones for all the poor souls who've traveled down the lo-carb path.

Never been an advocate of diets which take away a staple or just limit itself to one.

 

[GZ-Nos]

lifting weights before breakfast?

Say what?!?!

Yeah, I usually do 45 minutes to an hour of cardio followed immediately by lifting right after I wake up (thankfully I live a mile from the local Y.) I work nights so it is really the only time I can work it into my routine. I've been thinking about eating something between my cardio and lifting, but I am not sure what I should eat. I usually drink a whey shake, eat a 1/2 cup of oats and a piece of fruit within 15 minutes of finishing up my lifting.

I will change it up after the 15th to see if my results change. I would ask what you recommend eating before lifting, but I figure I can find something using the search function.

 

[Chad Hamilton]

We're talking about lo-carb.

 

[GZ-Nos]

I can plainly see that. I was only answering Ted's question. Thanks all the same for reminding me of what the topic is.

 

[Ted-P]

Yeah, I usually do 45 minutes to an hour of cardio followed immediately by lifting right after I wake up (thankfully I live a mile from the local Y.) I work nights so it is really the only time I can work it into my routine. I've been thinking about eating something between my cardio and lifting, but I am not sure what I should eat. I usually drink a whey shake, eat a 1/2 cup of oats and a piece of fruit within 15 minutes of finishing up my lifting.

I will change it up after the 15th to see if my results change. I would ask what you recommend eating before lifting, but I figure I can find something using the search function.

A good meal with complex carbs is the way to go before weight lifting. It may take you around 2 hours to digest first though.