The Good Ol Days Of Low Carb

In this post I wanted to talk about social media and so called experts that have almost killed the ability for a person trying to start a low carb or ketogenic diet to get good solid information. Luckily when I started my low carb journey in 2009 it was opposite of what it is now. I could hardly find ANY information or recipes. All I had was a copy of  Dr. Atkins older book New Diet Revolution and the Atkins website. The website was a great resource then, mainly because of the recipe section and the forum. There were many others new to low carb and everyone in the forum did a good job on helping each other out with tips and support when having trouble. There were also a few expert moderators that would step in to answer questions and help out when needed. Also, at the time, Atkins was about the only low carb program around, so the positive was there was not a ton of crap information out there and just about everyone visited that Atkins forum. About the only negative was the internet and low carb forums were all filled with people learning the same things at the same time so it was kind of difficult to find answers to specific issues sometimes. I had to practically figure everything out on my own without the aid of the internet, books and prepackaged products. I am honestly glad I had to take a harder road because I seriously doubt I would have been successful today even though there is now better information such as books, forums, social media and convenience products. 

There was also not all these branches of carb restricted diets like LCHF, Ketogenic, Paleo, Zero Carb, Carnivore, Fasting etc. This has been another advantage of being old school.  I have been able to witness all these diets as they have gained popularity and I see who is still around and who is and not full of shit. Things are so fucked up right now that the term low carb is almost an afterthought like paleo, mainly because of all these newbies claiming to be Keto. They have muddied the waters of the entire internet and social media to the point it is impossible for a newbie to research and gather good info.

Example: A person I know who recently decided to do Keto because of diabetes finally came to me for help when they needed ideas for snacks and recipes.  His comments were the same as just about everybody else’s that I have assisted the past couple of years  "one websites says eat this, then another says don’t eat that" "one says eat as much protein as I want another says a lot is bad" "one says make sure you eat 70-80% fat another says 60%" "one site says count net carbs another says total" Ok, there were a lot more of these confusing statements but you get the picture. This is what happens when you google Keto or low carb now a days.  It’s just one confusing contradiction after another.  Everyone’s approach is different and most of them are not even keto even though they claim to be.

Then there is social media, Instagram is the worst for this. I see people that will get several thousand followers and the followers do everything they are doing and saying which is totally wrong. These Instagram experts fall off the wagon at least every other week, eat nothing but bullshit prepackaged and processed garbage, have lost hardly any weight, have had no health improvements and some are just fake to push products.  They switch diet plans every other month and then are experts on that plan after doing it 2 weeks. Yet people will still take their advice!!  It blows my mind that people will take advice from someone that is clearly failing at this and then wonder why they too are failing.  The problem is people are just too damn lazy to think for themselves, read a book or troubleshoot their issues.  They would rather just follow what someone else is doing, ask questions on the fly, or just simply have someone tell them what to do and follow it blindly.  This is a big setup for failure. If you’re a newbie don’t get me wrong, it is ok to ask questions and seek help, in fact I encourage it.  We all need help once in a while and there are plenty of great people out there willing to assist.  I just ask that you don’t wake up one day and decide to start a diet without doing any research on it first.  The internet and social media should be used as your starting point. Don't just start asking questions on forums and social media without at least having some knowledge of how the plan works. Chances are you will get advice from someone who doesn't know shit. The internet and social media is full of horrible information and people who don’t know what the hell they are saying and doing.

I suggest you first decide what diet you want to try and get basic info on that diet.  Read a couple of highly rated or suggested books and decide if it sounds like something you can adhere to long term.  If so give it a go!  You should commit to trying it for a minimum of 90 days.  When building your social media resources keep in mind that not all people with huge amount of followers are good resources.  Watch out for people trying to profit off products.  Not all people selling them are bad and there are some very legit people that do sell products but you don’t need exogenous ketone slats, special fat coffee, ketone breath meters, specialized keto supplements, etc. to be successful on a low carb or keto diet. You also don’t need organic, pastured, grass fed foods. If you have the money and want to buy these things then go for it. I just want to put it out there they are not mandatory. Some of this stuff is really pricy and not all it’s pumped up to be. Are they better for you? Maybe, I can't say for sure.   I’ve seen it debated in favor both ways.  I do enjoy pastured eggs, grass fed hamburger, and wild caught seafood though but I only buy these things when they are on sale.  Most of the time I don't have these. Just keep things simple, keep carbs low and eat protein and fat to satiety.  That should be the beginning foundation.  Then tweak foods and ratios as you go to find your sweet spot. Don't let the internet and social media complicate your plan. Choose the people you follow on social media carefully.  Don't believe everything you see.  Question everything and be patient with your plan. Jumping ship to another plan or making huge changes are not the answer.  I have found it's the small changes that make the biggest difference.

ZC Month

I just finished 30 days of ZeroCarb/ZC.  I don't normally write in detail about these experiments but a few people were curious about how it turned out, so bear with my writing.

For those of you that don't know me I have followed a low carb diet since 2009. I lost 100 lbs that year and have maintained it ever since.  I am perfectly content in my low carb lifestyle. Since a lot of people started asking me questions and just jumped right into trying ZC, I figured why not try it for 30 days? I was looking to do an elimination diet anyways to test a few more foods to see how I respond.  I also wanted to understand ZC better and I was curious if a long term low carber like myself could benefit from it in any way.

I had 2 very basic lipid panels done, one before and one after.  I checked weight, blood pressure and body measurements weekly and BG periodically. I was monitoring how I felt physically and mentally. I also have no known medical issues, take no medications and I take a basic multivitamin & magnesium.  I was also feeling good heading into this.

For the first 2 weeks I at mainly steaks, hamburger, full fat dairy, pork, fish and chicken. The last 2 weeks were strictly meat since the weather broke and I was able to grill out.  I mainly had fatty cuts of red meat along with fish, seafood and chicken once or twice a week.  I ate until satisfied and did not have a problem adjusting.   I did kind of crave nuts and some of the baked keto foods I like to make, but nothing overpowering.  I also drank 1-2 cups of coffee as well. I tried a couple times to skip it and I said fuck it I'm having the coffee!  My workouts and mental clarity were the same.

During this month I gained 2lbs but I was a few pounds lighter than average before I started, so we will see what happens with that.  Measurements were pretty much same except for about 1/2" on waist but I will monitor that as well because I don't expect it to stick around. I also had the dreaded 7-day constipation issue which sucked but luckily things got moving again.   

In a nutshell I did not experience any positive or negative benefits across the board as far as performance, mental, weight loss, or body composition go.  I’m sure this may sound crazy because of all the people posting all these great results and super human feelings, but again, I have had my diet pretty cleaned up for nearly a decade now and was already feeling good.  I'm not saying these stories you read about people claiming these great benefits on ZC aren't true.  I believe they are but I also believe they are experiencing similar things I did when I started LC, especially the people coming from a SAD, Vegan, Vegetarian or other shitty diet.  

In my opinion the people having great/better results that were formally LC & keto I think may have still been eating foods that did not agree with them or they were not eating as LC or keto as they thought they were.  In the end, its all about doing what works for you and what you feel good doing.  I personally was not one of the people that benefited from the switch.

My BG pretty much stayed in its normal range except for when I would have an extra steak or other large serving of protein, the readings would also be higher the next day too but were still pretty good.   Normally fasting BG was around 75 and post meal high was low 90s.  The higher protein days would spike to around 105 and next morning be in mid 80s so a 10 to15 point jump when I ate more.   BP stayed same around 110/60s.

My lipids were a little more interesting.   My HDL increased from 50 to 61.   My Trigs were about the same from 81 to 80.   My LDL spiked from 150 to 204. I am happy to see that for a few years now my HDL and Trigs are in a good range now but I did not like the fact I had a 54pt rise in LDL, I know there is a lot to consider with that number and most people say LDL is pointless. Until there are some more concrete facts that its nothing to worry about I’m still going to try and naturally lower that number.

The benefits I notice were that it’s very time saving - go to the store and buy from a short list of meats, dairy, and eggs and you’re done.   Cooking was a breeze, especially once the weather broke, 5-10 min on prep and the grill and dinner was served.  I did not fully get to take advantage of this time saver since I cook for my family, but when just cooking and shopping for myself it was definitely time saving,

I can see this being a big plus for someone who meal preps for the week. For me the transition was pretty easy, but I was already pretty meat heavy anyway and I love meat so no issue there.  I can see someone coming from SAD and other diets struggling with the transition though, especially if going meat only, as it’s about restrictive as it gets.  It’s probably why I read about many newbies caving, when the cravings hit there is nowhere to turn to curb it, you kind of just have to push through.

When I first started LC, this is where the bars would be a huge help, they kept me on track, did the bars keep cravings alive? Did they make it take longer to kick sugar? Did they slow weight loss at times? Maybe, but they got me there, and I achieved my weight loss goals and kicked cravings within a couple years, without caving and binging.  There’s not really a crutch on ZC, unless something like eggs or dairy works for your cravings.

I was satisfied and full while doing ZC.  There were a couple of times that I was hungry after dinner but I would just eat again.  Baker and others say eat when hungry so I did.  This was also good as an elimination diet, as I mentioned before since I really had no bad side effects it was easy to do.   Eating just meat is about eliminating as it gets, so I should really be able to tell if foods I add back in the coming weeks are having any negative effects on me.

My personal opinions on ZC/meat only is I personally prefer LC/Keto.  I understand there are some that have conditions and some that just flat out like ZC and do well on it.   I'm just not one of those people.  I don't have issues with most foods, I don’t do extreme workouts, or have conditions that ZC most likely benefits.   I prefer the variety of foods on LC and the way I feel on it.  ZC, though convenient, was a little too restrictive for me, from my own personal experience and what I've observed helping others,  It's also my personal opinion that many people coming from a SAD/High Carb diet would really struggle jumping head first into ZC, though its simple and straight forward, cutting everything down to meat only would be setup for failure once cravings hit.  I would recommend an Atkins style induction phase and work backwards if really interested in doing ZC and If you’re super motivated and think you won’t break to cravings then go for it.  I could not see myself doing this forever unless I had too for some reason.  Again, this is just my personal opinion.  I always say do what you like because in the end you have to do something you enjoy and can do long term to be successful, so that’s it, my last 30 days and what I thought about it.