Going Back To Low Carb

I recently got this heartfelt plea from a reader:

I am devastated by the fact that I FINALLY got hold of myself after 5 years of quitting smoking and decided to go back to low carb eating and after nearly 3 weeks, I have lost 2 pounds! I could (actually I have) just cry. I'm keeping on, but I'm about ready to eat a half gallon of ice cream and 2 loaves of bread. OK, maybe not that bad, but something definitely not low carb. I had successfully done Atkins 5 and a half years ago and was getting close to a good weight. After quitting smoking 2/1/2002 I felt deprived so I allowed myself to eat what I wanted. Over 5 years, I put on what I lost and then in the last 2 years another 20 pounds. I finally got my mind right to do this again and expected to loose a few pounds the first week, a few less the second week, and then taper to about a 1-2 pound loss after that. Well, I lost 1 the first week, 1 the second week, and I'm in my third week and frankly my jeans feel tighter! Please provide some advice! I am desperate!

I wish I had one simple, straightforward answer for you.

First of all, and in the interest of full disclosure, I must state that I am not as slim as I was when I started writing about low carb. Many things have happened in the intervening nine years, including though not limited to:

* A car accident which made it near-impossible for me to exercise for two years, and has limited my exercise options ever since.

* Developing a moderate case of hypothyroidism.

* Writing cookbooks! Even writing low carb cookbooks, it's possible to eat too much when you have to test 2-4 recipes a day.

* Just plain getting older. I'm now just a year-and-a-half from fifty, and the perimenopausal years are notorious for making weight control a challenge. The best answer I've gotten as to why is that since body fat is a secondary source of estrogen, the body holds onto it as ovarian hormone production ramps down, to buffer the drop. Whatever, it ticks me off.

I was a size 12 when I wrote How I Gave Up My Low Fat Diet and Lost 40 Pounds, and as I sit here, the jeans I'm wearing are a size 14. So I haven't gotten back to the size-18s-are-really-tight place I was in when I went low carb in 1995, but neither has low carbing made me fashionably skinny - though other than the darned thyroid thing, I'm still flourishing. My blood work is golden. So long as I take my nice little thyroid pills, my energy level is high and constant - truly, better than it was when I was a sugar-addicted teenager.

However, I'm still a person who has to think about her weight every single day of her life. That hasn't changed, and I don't think it ever will. Indeed, it frightens me to contemplate how quickly and easily I could become morbidly obese - 18 months inattention to diet and exercise, and I'd be a size 24, I'm certain of it.

I should also mention that some people claim there is one "golden shot" at low carb - that only the first time does it cause quick and easy weight loss. On the other hand, I have read plenty of stories from folks who have done just fine the second time around, so clearly the "golden shot" phenomenon is not universal. What does appear to be true is that bodies do not like to lose weight. They are genetically programmed not to, as a survival mechanism, a defense against starvation in times of famine. We've all heard that cutting calories drastically can lower metabolism. It's not impossible that all weight loss diets trigger defense mechanisms.

None of this helps our desperate friend up above. So let me suggest some things that help me, or have helped others:

* Keep track of what you eat. Yes, it's a pain in the rear, but awareness is a powerful tool. I have a terrific nutrition tracker program in my PDA, and when I use it faithfully, I slowly start to shrink. I don't have any set limits, but seeing those numbers for carbs and calories add up makes me mindful of my consumption. (As of this moment, I have had 27 grams of carb, 11 grams of fiber, 1218 calories, and 73 grams of protein today - but I haven't had dinner yet.) You do need to know enough basic arithmetic to figure out that if the quantity listed is, say, 1 cup, and you eat a quarter cup, you need to enter ".25", or if the serving of grapefruit is 1 medium, a half a grapefruit is ".5".

One of the things I like a lot about the Nutricounter program is that it lets you customize it by adding foods. I've added the statistics for a number of my favorite recipes, which makes keeping track far easier. Also for the very few fast food items I might buy, and for stuff like sugar-free chocolate.

If you have Master Cook software it could easily be used for nutrition tracking - just enter what you eat as the "ingredients" of your day. You can keep track online, for free, at FitDay.com. Or you could be positively revolutionary, and use a pad and pencil, but that involves lots of looking things up.

* Watch out for hidden carbs. Be aware that any product that has less than a half a gram of carbohydrate per serving can say on the label that it has zero carbs, and any product that has between a half a gram and 0.9 grams can say "less than one gram." These hidden carbs can really add up, especially in foods that use a really small serving size on the label. For instance, Splenda granular lists "0 carbs," but the serving size is 1 teaspoon. Splenda actually has about 24 grams of carbohydrate per cup.

* Be skeptical about "net carb" counts. For instance, the labels on sugar free sweets often state you can subtract all of the carbs from maltitol or other polyols (sugar alcohols) from the net carb count. I beg to differ. The best numbers I've been able to find indicate that roughly half of the maltitol we eat is absorbed. Since the sugar free dark chocolate bar in front of me says it has 16 grams of maltitol per serving, I would count 8 grams of that - which ends up giving me an 11 gram net carb count per serving, not the 3 the label suggests.

For that matter, I did blood glucose tests on myself before and after eating Dreamfield's pasta. My blood sugar jumped too far for me to believe I'd only absorbed the claimed 5 grams of carbohydrate from it, though nowhere near as high as it would with regular pasta. Which leads to...

* Stick to real food. Most of the worst low carb junk is off the market now, thank heaven, but if you're eating much in the way of low carb protein bars and pasta and such, cut it back or out. Meat, poultry, fish, eggs, low carb vegetables, low sugar fruits, and modest quantities of cheese and nuts are the building blocks of a low carb diet.

* Return to Induction levels of carbs, or even a tad lower, for a few weeks. It's pretty common for people returning to low carb to go back to the way they ate during their ongoing weight loss. Shocking your body by going seriously low carb can help jumpstart weight loss.

* Or take it a step farther and try the Atkins "fat fast" - 1000 calories per day, 900 of which come from pure fat, with almost no carbohydrate at all. This is a drastic diet, to be sure, and shouldn't last more than 3-5 days, but it's been known to kickstart a stalled metabolism. For details, read Dr. Atkins' New Diet Revolution - shouldn't be too tough to find a copy! (http://tinyurl.com/2b4qgd) And for heaven's sake, if you've never actually read Doc Atkins, it's about time!

* Keep a gentle eye on calories as well as carbs. There are indeed studies that demonstrate that a low carb diet lets you eat more calories than a low fat or plain old calorie controlled diet and still lose weight. None of those studies, however, demonstrates that you can eat unlimited calories. In most of those studies low carb subjects lost weight at somewhere between 1800-2200 calories per day. And it's really easy to blow past that mark if you're eating, say, a half a can of mixed nuts as a snack. (Here are some hard numbers for you: 1/4 cup of roasted peanuts has 213 calories, 8 grams of carb, and 3 grams of fiber, for a usable carb count of 5 grams. Sit down with a whole can of peanuts while watching TV, and you'll go way past your daily limits, sure as you're born.)

* My sister Kim was extremely resistant to weight loss, due to a number of confounding factors, including asthma - fat only burns in the presence of oxygen, so not being able to get enough air limits fat burning. She has had wonderful success doing the Weight Watchers "core" program as a low carb diet. She does eat a bit more fruit than she used to, and once in a great while eats whole grain barley, but other than that, she eats very little in the way of concentrated carbs. Kim has lost 45 pounds in the past year eating this way, plus working out three times a week, and I am so proud of her! I'm planning to interview Kim and write up her experience for Lowcarbezine! soon. I'd be interested to hear from any readers who have tried WW Core as a low carb program.

* Speaking of oxygen and fat burning, I find it far easier to keep my weight down when I do breathing exercises. Years ago, I saw "Body Flex" advertised on HSN. Greer Childers, who made the video, was saying something fascinating - that because fat burns in the presence of oxygen, it's not the actual moving around part of exercise that's important, but rather the increased oxygen consumption. She claimed that by doing her breathing exercises you could burn fat without breaking a sweat.

I thought to myself, "Okay, this is either the most brilliant thing I've ever heard, or the biggest piece of crap in the known universe, and I'm not about to pay $60 to find out which." So when I found the tapes used for a big $8, I snapped 'em up and tried it. Damned if it didn't work like a charm - I lost a size in a few weeks time. While Greer's claims that her breathing exercises alone are sufficient to make one slim are - well, let's say a tad overblown - I find them a tremendous help in keeping the weight off.

While I do the Body Flex-style breathing, I have long since developed my own set of stretches and isometrics I do along with it. The routine takes me between 15-20 minutes, and I can do it without changing my clothes or messing up my hair or makeup. Greer has since come up with a version that incorporates a "resistance bar," and is done sitting down, but really, I'd recommend just watching at the local Goodwill or searching Ebay for the original videos. You should be able to snap 'em up, cheap. If you want the new version, though, find it at www.BodyFlex.com .

(See here for instructions for the basic breath technique...)

I've also tried Oxycise, and I think it's excellent as well. My personal testing - taking my temperature before and after doing either type of breathing exercises - indicates that they're equally effective for increasing metabolism. (My temperature goes up; that indicates increased metabolism.)

* Add resistance exercise. Muscle burns far more calories than fat, so muscle-building resistance exercise will improve your metabolism far more than "aerobic" or "cardio" exercise.

* Try sprint exercise. I had been doing this for a few weeks to good effect when the darned cold snap closed in and made walking/sprinting outside impossible. The basis of sprint exercise is simple: In those of us over 30, sprint exercise is the most effective way to increase levels of growth hormone, which increases fat burning and muscle building. Improves your immune system, too - basically, it fools your body into thinking you're younger. Pretty cool. Check out Phil Campbell's Ready, Set, GO! Synergy Fitness for the details of an excellent, do-able sprint exercise program. http://tinyurl.com/2fhw5y (And yes, I know that the weather turning nasty isn't an excuse, especially for the Queen of Used Exercise Equipment. I just haven't gotten around to setting up the equipment needed to sprint indoors. I suck.)

* Stop eating at least three hours before you go to bed. I've read reports of people who have lost weight with this one change alone. This is one I need to work on; too often That Nice Boy I Married and I end up eating dinner in front of the Daily Show, which is not ideal!

* Go to Thyroid-Info.com and see if you have symptoms of hypothyroidism. If you do, read the info there on how to get appropriate treatment - often it's not as simple as just going to your doctor. But if you're hypothyroid, all attempts to lose weight will be in vain until you get proper treatment.