# Low carb/ Paleo diet and lifestyle



## Honeybee1980 (Jan 29, 2009)

*I posted some of this in another thread but thought I should make it a seperate thread too*

My research has led me to believe that a low carb or paleo type diet is the optimal one, there are some great blogs and forums out there for anyone interested. I am eating PaNu style + taking some supplements (magnesium, vit D, fish oil, etc.) and I feel amazing. I also am losing weight, skin is much clearer, and knee pain reduced.

http://www.paleonu.com/what-is-panu/

http://www.paleonu.com/get-started/ -- describes the plan in a simple 12 step format.

*other great blogs:*
http://www.proteinpower.com/drmike/

http://wholehealthsource.blogspot.com/

http://freetheanimal.com/

*and a forum/message board:*
http://forum.lowcarber.org/

*The books that led me to this lifestyle were:*

_Good Calories, Bad Calories by Gary Taubes_ (one of the best books i have ever read, you will love it if you are into the science of nutrition and health). There are also articles of his available online, and lectures on youtube. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gary_Taubes

_The Protein Power Life Plan_ (also awesome with the science presented)
http://www.amazon.com/Protein-Power...=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1266538783&sr=8-1


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## matty (Nov 2, 2009)

I am interested to see where this thread goes. 

I have done a really low carb diet and it want maintainable. It was mainly from protein shakes and the likes. But I have to say whilst on it I felt incredible. Full of energy, full of confidence. Lost weight (lots of water weight but some others too) Like you said skin clearer as well. But it wasnt realistic for me to follow it, and the amount of sport I was doing I would burn out half way through a game. 

I wont go off topic but I am not eating this way now and I am having better results in actual weight loss, moods and general health the way which I am eating now.


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## Honeybee1980 (Jan 29, 2009)

I eat mostly real whole foods-- meat, poultry, seafood, eggs, full fat dairy products, most veggies, a little fruit, nuts, occasionally potatoes and non gluten containing grains like rice and corn. Lots of butter, cream, olive oil, avacados, and coconut milk/oil. Yum!


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## matty (Nov 2, 2009)

Sounds good. The only problem I found with following a low carb style diet is the amount of carbs in some fruits and veggies. Take your diet and add some breads and pasta. and that is how I am eating. I tend to eat Pasta once a week, cous cous once a week and maybe 1 slice of multigrain bread per day.


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## Honeybee1980 (Jan 29, 2009)

Your way of eating sounds pretty good too, I think the most important thing of all is avoiding highly refined carbs like sugar and flour, so if you're doing that you're definately ahead of the game


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## matty (Nov 2, 2009)

Yeah, I avoid sugar and pretty much all drinks apart from water and a bit of coffee. Alcohol on the weekends. And sports drinks sometimes. Probably real bad for me. 

I dont know much about flour. I know it is in bread but that is about it. Why is flour bad for you? Is flour another form of carbs like sugar is? Sorry for a silly question


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## Pharao (Jun 10, 2004)

matty said:


> I dont know much about flour. I know it is in bread but that is about it. Why is flour bad for you? Is flour another form of carbs like sugar is? Sorry for a silly question


Because it's refined. Any sort of human intervention in this way is unnatural. Same goes for pasta unless it's whole wheat. Sugar in it's natural state (sugar cane) is perfectly healthy for you..The reason that sugar isn't healthy is because it's processed in a factory and denatured... And the carbs in fruit and vegetables aren't bad for you because fruits and vegetables are "whole foods" meaning that nothing is added to it or removed. It's left as it is in nature.


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## matty (Nov 2, 2009)

I see. Wow, I eat a little bit of flour but not too much. I am fine eating fruits and veggies with carbs. I just dont consider I am eating a low carb diet if I am eating a normal amount of carbs from fruit and veggies. Or do they not really count? Again silly question


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## Pharao (Jun 10, 2004)

They count..just not in the same way as refined carbs do and definitely not something you have to worry about. Everything counts, but to simplify labeling your diet to eating low carb etc means you aren't approaching eating healthy in the right way. Same goes for people that just focus on calories. You can't just focus on one element of nutrition and disregard all the other nutritional benefits that come from a particular item of food..Otherwise 2000 calories of refined sugar would equal the same thing as 2000 calories of a balanced diet of fish, eggs, fruits, vegetables etc. It's incredibly important to focus on your overall diet. Not just whether you're eating low carb or not. The carbs that are in vegetables are not the same thing as the carbs in white breat (refined carbs)..And the sugars in fruits aren't the same as white sugar...It's a healthy kind of sugar in fruits...and it's a healthy kind of carbohydrate in vegetables. They are good for you and your body needs them to survive. But like I mentioned earlier..You can't just think of fruits and vegetables as simply just carbohydrates...they're far more important than that...They are loaded with vitamins and minerals. Fruits and vegetables aren't going to put on weight. It's processed foods that are the problem.


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## Honeybee1980 (Jan 29, 2009)

well most non starchy veggies(for example lettuce, brocolli) have only a small amount of carbs, and most of the carbs they do contain are in the form of fiber so they hardly impact your blood sugar at all. As far as fruit some is relatively high in carbs (like bananas) but others are fairly low, esp. berries which happen to be my favorite anyway  A definition of what constitutes a LC diet I have seen is one that contains 100 grams of carbs or less per day (VLC would be under 50, that's what i shoot for most of the time). But in some paleo diets the percentage of carbs is higher, usually in the form of starchy veggies like potatos and non gluten containing grains like rice.


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## Honeybee1980 (Jan 29, 2009)

This is the starting point I would recommend anyone interested check out http://www.paleonu.com/get-started/
Dr. Kurt G. Harris explains it much more clearly and effectively than i can. It's a pretty quick read. You don't need to count carbs unless you are overweight and have a difficult time losing doing the regular PaNu plan.


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## matty (Nov 2, 2009)

lol thanks. I am just going to stick to my plan. eating 2000 to 2500 calories from mainly unprocessed foods. Still have some like breads (not white) and pasta.


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