Effective Dieting??? HELP!!!!

[nefertiti]

I've been eating more than just the three meals but it's hard to call the additional food meals (i.e. a bag of dried apples while I'm sitting in class). What I've been told up until this point is eat as little food as possible and exercise as much as you can. Clearly thats not correct and it's taking real effort to change that. I don't have high blood pressure so I guess I'll quit stressing about salt and get some sea salt.

I'm glad you are taking our advice. Believe me, the concept of eating more to lose fat was a tough one for me to wrap my head around too. but it's absolutely true. It's just changing WHAT you eat and when you eat it along with an exercize plan that isn't going to cause your body to burn out and shut down.

You still need to add more carbs to your diet, unless you are planning on running a short term keto diet. In which case I'll get superqt, another mod, to give you advice on how to properly do that diet.

 

[dmarie]

I haven't been planning on cutting carbs that low. Is there an advantage to doing so?

 

[nefertiti]

I haven't been planning on cutting carbs that low. Is there an advantage to doing so?

Running a VERY low carb diet for a short term period can be effective. I don't know the specifics of the diet, but I think it's something like less than 20g of carbs a day with a one a week or biweekly "carb up" - a meal in which you consume a LOT of carbs to restore your body's glycogen stores. This can't be sustained for long periods of time and takes a lot of discipline to get right.

For you, since you aren't set on cutting carbs, I'd suggest adding more to your daily meals. As long as they are good carbs and you watch your portions, they will be a benefit.

One thing I love is the kashi seven grain rice pilaf. Quinoa, basmati brown rice, and yams are other examples of good complex carbs. In the early evening shift from complex carbs, to green leafy veggies as a source of carbs.

Also, don't be afraid of fat. Some fats are VERY healthy for you (but be careful about moderation on this, because they tend to also be dense in calories). Examples: An egg yolk, avocado, all natural peanut butter, olive oil all have monounsaturated fats (best). Then you have seafood like salmon and tuna that have polunsaturated fats (very good).