OK.
So in the food department, I've been eating High Fat Low Carb for a little over a two years now.
And it's working.
My weight has plummetted. My general health and energy levels are sky rocketing. I have gone down in size. You can see my waist again !
Key things I need to confess , lest people misunderstand how I eat.
First up, I eat LOW Carb. Not NO Carb.
I don't eat starch, or any HIGH carb high starch food food. But it's not possible to eat NO carb unless you completely avoid all veggies of all kinds and live on meat and fat. LCHF stands for LOW carb HIGH fat.
In fact, I eat a wide wide range of veggies, that are all high in fibre and nutrients, and seriously seriously low in carbs . Like below 5g per 100g type of low.
There are a surprisingly large number of vegetables on this list. And I eat as much of them as like, as often as I like. This is known as the GREEN list. Meats and most animal fats are also on the GREEN list, but, and heres the other confession, they are not unlimited. There are in fact guidelines around portion sizes of meat(without cutting of the fat) . Pumpkin is on this list (Kent Pumpkin for my Aussie friends)
I eat moderate amounts, on occassion of what LCHF (Banters) refer to as the Orange Foods List. Basically foods with between 6g and 23 g per 100g of Carbs . This is where there is some portion control involved. It does take a while to get your head around how much of something you can have in day, but I;m fairly comfortable with where I am right now.
Initially, when I was starting out, I avoided Orange foods completely, because I needed to get my hunger mechanism back in control , and I needed to lose body fat.
Now that my ability to regulate my eating is based on a healthy and normal appetite, which works the way nature and evolution intended, I dip into that Orange List several times per week.
The Orange list includes almost all fruits, and veggies such as butternut , carrot and sweet potato.
On any given day, your intake of the Orange list is limited to an amount that would not bump your blood sugar. I am usually quite careful of how much I eat of these foods.
Lastly - the red list - things I avoid completely, or as far as possible. All processed foods, breads, wheat products, grains , products made from grains, including oats, barley and all the low gi whole grains. Yes , I avoid the Whole Grains . Why ? Because they are way above the 25g per 100g limit. Pulses and most beans are on this list as well, for the same reason. Most seed oils are also on this list , as they are considered toxic in high quantities.
So, where does my energy and fuel come from ? If not carbs ( whole grain or otherwise) -- simply put, my fuel comes from fat.
I eat fat. I don't eat low-fat anything. I leave the fat on the meat , I eat oily fatty fish, I leave the skin on the chicken, I buy normal mince with the fat content included.
And here's the thing, which you may not realise until I state it explicitly ( and it gets back to my point about my appetite normalising)
1) As a proportion of my meals, I probably eat a lot more fat than one would think
2) Overall I definitely eat a lot less food and lot less calories than one would think.
You see, one of things that happens, when you body regains the ability to regulate your appetite is that you don't have blood sugar spikes, no blood sugar spikes mean no blood sugar drops.
This sounds bit pedantic, but bear with me through the detail.
When your blood sugar drops, you get hungry. Ravenously hungry. So you eat.And you don't stop eating until you're stuffed, and that's usually way past the point of healthy caloric consumption.
Fat is a highly efficient fuel and energy source. And your body is evolved such that animal fat in particular is a highly potent appetite suppresant.
So, I eat when I am hungry, and I stop eating when I am satiated. And most days, I am satiated on really small portions of energy dense , highly nutritious food, that has an incredibly low carb content.
Check out www.realmealrevolution.co.za for more information, and delicious recipes of highly nutritious real food.
So in the food department, I've been eating High Fat Low Carb for a little over a two years now.
And it's working.
My weight has plummetted. My general health and energy levels are sky rocketing. I have gone down in size. You can see my waist again !
Key things I need to confess , lest people misunderstand how I eat.
First up, I eat LOW Carb. Not NO Carb.
I don't eat starch, or any HIGH carb high starch food food. But it's not possible to eat NO carb unless you completely avoid all veggies of all kinds and live on meat and fat. LCHF stands for LOW carb HIGH fat.
In fact, I eat a wide wide range of veggies, that are all high in fibre and nutrients, and seriously seriously low in carbs . Like below 5g per 100g type of low.
There are a surprisingly large number of vegetables on this list. And I eat as much of them as like, as often as I like. This is known as the GREEN list. Meats and most animal fats are also on the GREEN list, but, and heres the other confession, they are not unlimited. There are in fact guidelines around portion sizes of meat(without cutting of the fat) . Pumpkin is on this list (Kent Pumpkin for my Aussie friends)
I eat moderate amounts, on occassion of what LCHF (Banters) refer to as the Orange Foods List. Basically foods with between 6g and 23 g per 100g of Carbs . This is where there is some portion control involved. It does take a while to get your head around how much of something you can have in day, but I;m fairly comfortable with where I am right now.
Initially, when I was starting out, I avoided Orange foods completely, because I needed to get my hunger mechanism back in control , and I needed to lose body fat.
Now that my ability to regulate my eating is based on a healthy and normal appetite, which works the way nature and evolution intended, I dip into that Orange List several times per week.
The Orange list includes almost all fruits, and veggies such as butternut , carrot and sweet potato.
On any given day, your intake of the Orange list is limited to an amount that would not bump your blood sugar. I am usually quite careful of how much I eat of these foods.
Lastly - the red list - things I avoid completely, or as far as possible. All processed foods, breads, wheat products, grains , products made from grains, including oats, barley and all the low gi whole grains. Yes , I avoid the Whole Grains . Why ? Because they are way above the 25g per 100g limit. Pulses and most beans are on this list as well, for the same reason. Most seed oils are also on this list , as they are considered toxic in high quantities.
So, where does my energy and fuel come from ? If not carbs ( whole grain or otherwise) -- simply put, my fuel comes from fat.
I eat fat. I don't eat low-fat anything. I leave the fat on the meat , I eat oily fatty fish, I leave the skin on the chicken, I buy normal mince with the fat content included.
And here's the thing, which you may not realise until I state it explicitly ( and it gets back to my point about my appetite normalising)
1) As a proportion of my meals, I probably eat a lot more fat than one would think
2) Overall I definitely eat a lot less food and lot less calories than one would think.
You see, one of things that happens, when you body regains the ability to regulate your appetite is that you don't have blood sugar spikes, no blood sugar spikes mean no blood sugar drops.
This sounds bit pedantic, but bear with me through the detail.
When your blood sugar drops, you get hungry. Ravenously hungry. So you eat.And you don't stop eating until you're stuffed, and that's usually way past the point of healthy caloric consumption.
Fat is a highly efficient fuel and energy source. And your body is evolved such that animal fat in particular is a highly potent appetite suppresant.
So, I eat when I am hungry, and I stop eating when I am satiated. And most days, I am satiated on really small portions of energy dense , highly nutritious food, that has an incredibly low carb content.
Check out www.realmealrevolution.co.za for more information, and delicious recipes of highly nutritious real food.
nice post
ReplyDeleteIt is really a very good post. I really liked your whole confession. It was really great. And its really good to know that you eat what you want to.
ReplyDeletehmmmm
ReplyDelete