Protein based diets

pics said:
What do you think of protein heavy diets?

So, I've been wondering how to slowly cut some things out of my diet such as less breads or carbs. I love pasta but I don't have it too often. But our family tends to eat quite a bit of heavy carbs such as rice. And we eat quite a bit of bread. Lately, I've been wanting to stay away from eating so much breads, because it feels heavy. It often makes me feel as if I've stuffed myself. I want to lessen my portions but still feel full so I'm curious about protein based diets, which limit the amount of carbs but include more protein. I think this will be more filling. I also planning to add more fruit and possibly soups to my diet.
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I went on a high protein/fat, low carb diet years ago (for a little over 2 years) and it worked great. But I wouldn't recommend it as a long term solution for weight control. I like a variety of different foods and I didn't like having to give up the ones I loved. So I eventually went back to carbs (yummy).

I learned that the best way to stay in shape is to exercise for at least 30 mins a day, 4-5 days a week and to eat what I want, but in moderation. If I am extra hungry one day and want that huge piece of chocolate cake then I will eat it. I just make sure to cut back on other things that day. I always pay close attention to how much is going into my body and the quality of it. I make smarter choices when it comes to the extras (condiments, dressings, oils, etc.) and I always eat a big salad before dinner. It's better for digestion and it helps fill me up so I eat less of the things that aren't as healthy for me.

It's a balancing act. Once you can discipline your mind to do this, it's smooth sailing from there. You won't even be dieting. You will be eating right.
 
CrazyBeautiful said:
I went on a high protein/fat, low carb diet years ago (for a little over 2 years) and it worked great. But I wouldn't recommend it as a long term solution for weight control. I like a variety of different foods and I didn't like having to give up the ones I loved. So I eventually went back to carbs (yummy).

I learned that the best way to stay in shape is to exercise for at least 30 mins a day, 4-5 days a week and to eat what I want, but in moderation. If I am extra hungry one day and want that huge piece of chocolate cake then I will eat it. I just make sure to cut back on other things that day. I always pay close attention to how much is going into my body and the quality of it. I make smarter choices when it comes to the extras (condiments, dressings, oils, etc.) and I always eat a big salad before dinner. It's better for digestion and it helps fill me up so I eat less of the things that aren't as healthy for me.

It's a balancing act. Once you can discipline your mind to do this, it's smooth sailing from there. You won't even be dieting. You will be eating right.
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Let's see that waistline if it worked so well.
 
Ideally, you'll want to change your diet to something sustainable. Otherwise you risk following a strict diet for a set amount of time, and then going back to your old diet plan. Typically it takes around 30 days to ingrain a new behaviour, so when you think about diet, you might want to consider sticking to something for a month.

Just from my own experience and reading, two things are important with diet: (a) balance and (b) portion size.

Before starting out on a particular set of meal plans, you may want to spend a week or two just limiting portion sizes of your carbs, and balancing out your meals with protein and veg! I like variety and choice, so I've found that making sure I have a balanced meal if an appropriate size has helped me.

I'm addicted to carbs as well- and I've found that by limiting my carb intake (such as rice, bread, pasta), and adding more vegetables I don't feel as if I'm 'missing' something with my meals.
 
The only thing I would say is to research what food does to you on a cellular level. If you just want to lose fat and you don't care about what you put in your body there are plenty tragic fad diets out there you could follow to get you results. Then when you eat normally again you'll have a blast eating all the shitty food you want and can put on fat all over again. It's great and why so many people are nice and big and obese.

OR, you can stop tricking yourself into thinking the dopamine response you get from anticipating eating shit foods and then following through on it because of the addictive quality of that anticipation is eating your poison in moderation. Because that's what most things are - poison.

If you can't eat it straight out of your own garden or cut it off an animal and you eat it, you are fucking your body up. Sorry, it's as simple as that. And anyone can justify eating sugary treats and pizzas and bread and everything else and say they "deserve it," but it's fatlogic.

My favourite is when people work out and are good all week and then reward themselves with something that is bad for them.

Don't worry, I know exactly how judgemental my post comes off as and I also know it seems like I am always on my nutritional soap box shouting about it. But if you want to be optimally healthy, have a really good bloodwork profile, good and balanced hormones, good and balanced emotions, healthy body fat %, good lean body mass and good and healthy bone structure then you just owe it to yourself to do the fucking research and actively make a choice for yourself to eat better and not listen to personal anecdotes from the internet or whatever garbage you can read in Women's Bullshit Health.
 
Too much protein is bad, as mentioned previously. What you need is adequate protein. Assuming you have adequate protein, the tradeoff then is between fats and carbohydrates. Most people eat too few fats and too many carbs, and when they do eat carbs, they tend to eat less healthy carbs like sugar and bread. The problem is that we've been trained to view fats as being bad, when actually some are really healthy for you (i.e. nuts, avocado, lard, maybe cheese). They think fat makes you fat, but really carbs/sugars make you fat because it causes your insulin to spike. So if you want to be healthy, you should aim for healthier carbs.

This guy talks about how sugar makes us fat:

[video=youtube;dBnniua6-oM]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dBnniua6-oM[/video]

If you're really gung-ho about learning the science of it, Gary Taubes has written some good books. 'Good Calories Bad Calories' is the long, more drawn out scientific version, and 'Why We Get Fat' is basically the same thing but shorter and friendlier to the general public.
 
[MENTION=834]Dragon[/MENTION]
Quite right about fat vs. carbs and what people eat for carbs that's bad for them.
 
I did the higher protein, less carbs thing for awhile and found it to be okay. I read Barry Sears, The Zone.....I think that is the name. The most interesting thing about the book was how he went into detail on how/what the chemical process of food in our system works. I always remember one statement that went something like....we have all these laws about drugs and food additives and such but pay little or no attention to a process that has the most important chemical reactions in our body...the food we eat.

While I can't say anything about the fanatical (almost like how an ex-smoker rants) attitude of what you "should" do....LOL I do know that cutting back on carbs helps because carbs become sugar when digested. Often, unless you are burning calories, this sugar becomes stored as fat....it also allows you to "carb/sugar" crash as your sugar levels rise and then fall.

Natives like bread too. I find that it is easier to give up pasta than bread. I switched to brown rice awhile back because I used to eat the processed instant white rice because of the convenience but then my health conscious got the best of me. I have cut back on eating bread with most meals. I am not an advocate of going all super strict. I cannot eat fish or seafood in any way shape or form, so a lot of the "eat lean fish" is something I can't do. So this means that sometimes I have pizza but stick with lots of chicken and some beef (not that big of a fan). I try not to sabotage myself by just not buying sugary stuff like cake, donuts and what not. If I break down, I will buy a candy bar every once in awhile. When those late night cravings hit and dayam I wish I had something sweet...luckily there isn't anything around and I'm not motivated enough to get in my car and shop for something at 1am...LOL

I think in the struggle to eat healthy, be healthy, it is more about taking reasonable steps toward a goal. Maybe some people can go all whole hog and toss everything out to start anew, but I doubt most people can. Start with manageable changes and keep in mind that the best thing is to become well educated about the choices out there and forge your own path toward health.
 
a lot of good advice. I think I'll start small by cutting back on the carbs, maybe smaller portions, and start substituting fruits for snacks instead of sandwiches. As far as protein, maybe including more nuts for snacks, and less greasy meats for dinner (which is a tough one), maybe more baked meats than fried, and mixing veggies with meats. Hopefully these changes will make a difference. I'm proud of myself because I love potato in any form, and today rather than get fries from Wendy's, I bought apple wedges :D. *pats self on back*
 
One thing I love doing in summer, especially for dinner, is have 'snack plates'

I typically will spend an evening pre-cooking things and cutting up stuff, so that I can quickly grab a range of things to munch on.

Here are some things I try and keep in my fridge:

-Cold meats: cooked chicken, turkey, flank steak, salmon
-Hard boiled eggs
- Veggies: carrots, cucumbers, radishes, fennel, celery, green beans, turnip, snap peas, asparagus (boiled), new potatoes (boiled), broccoli, cauliflowers
- Old cheddar cheese slices
- Dill pickles (but I limit myself to one...cause of the sodium!)
- Apples, pears, berries, melons, stone fruit
- Hummus
- Rice crackers

As you can see, you can build a really great meal that's cold and refreshing and has lots of variety. But you have to be careful of portion sizes too! I have a habit of picking a bit of everything, and then I have an overloaded plate!
 
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