How to lose weight (fat) quickly with a low-carb diet

A few people have asked for details about my diet (BTW, I lost 4 more pounds this week and Hubby says I am noticeably much slimmer).  It's an amalgamation of various published low-carb diets and my own personal experimentation. 

Disclaimer: I am not a doctor, nutritionist, or otherwise a professional expert on these issues.  Consult yours first, blah blah blah, don't sue me.

What I eat to lose weight:

Protein: Seafood, skinless poultry, lean meat (little or no marbling, visible fat removed), egg whites, nuts (in moderation)

Fat: Olive oil, fatty fish, nuts (in moderation), avocados

Fiber: Asparagus, bell peppers, broccoli, lettuce and other salad greens, seaweed and other sea vegetables, spinach.  This is just what I personally like, you can add any other non-starchy, non-sugary vegetables to this list.

Snacks: Dill pickles, nuts (in moderation), olives, raw veggies from the list above

Flavor: Herbs, spices, low-carb marinades, sauces, and dressings.  Don't go overboard on salting your food, especially if you eat any packaged foods (see note about them below).

Beverages: Water (flavored with lemon or lime juice or sugar-free drink mixes), low-sodium vegetable juice, caffeine in moderation.  Make sure you stay hydrated! 

Eschew alcohol while dieting -- most alcohol is nutritionally-empty calories, high-carb or served with high-carb mixers, and lowers your willpower thus making you more likely to break your diet.

Supplements: Multivitamin/mineral, calcium, fiber (A glass of sugar-free Metamucil or generic equivalent before every meal not only keeps everything moving but helps you feel full sooner.  Make sure you drink enough water with it.)

Note about packaged foods: Carefully read all labels before you buy or eat any packaged foods.  On the Nutrition Facts label you want to see no or only a couple of grams of Sugars, low non-fiber carbs (subtract Dietary Fiber grams from Total Carbohydrates grams), no Trans Fat, no or low Saturated Fat, and add up all your % Daily Values of Sodium every day to make sure you're not eating too much (it is very easy to consume an unhealthy level of sodium if you eat a lot of packaged foods).  Look at the Serving Size and Servings Per Container and consider if those numbers accurately reflect what portion of the package you typically consume in one sitting.  Often they won't, and you must multiply all the numbers on the label to get the true numbers per serving.

Reading labels is a really important part of this diet because food manufacturers often add sugar or high fructose corn syrup to foods that you wouldn't normally think of as sweet (like peanut butter).  Different brands or products vary widely in this practice, so compare labels.

Calories: Make sure you are eating at least 1200 calories/day.  When I count calories on this diet, it is to ensure that I am eating *enough* calories.  You're filling up on foods with mostly low calorie:volume ratios, plus low-carb diets tend to depress the appetite, so it's actually difficult to eat too much unless you go crazy with the fats

If you're still worried about eating too many calories and want a daily limit to count up to, use WebMD's Metabolism Calculator to estimate how many calories you burn per day.  Subtract 500 if you want to lose a pound per week and 1000 if you want to lose 2 pounds per week (long-term, more than 2 pounds per week is not a healthy rate of weight loss).  If the result is greater than 1200 then you can use that number as your daily calorie intake target for days without extra exercise.  Again, 1200 calories/day is the lower limit.

Diet side effects: Many people suffer from fatigue, nausea, and headaches while on low-carb diets.  You'll also probably initially have intense cravings for sugary or other high-carbohydrate foods (I *obsess* about cupcakes, even though I rarely eat them when I'm not dieting).  Some of what you are experiencing is withdrawal symptoms as you break your body's addiction to sugar and carbohydrates.  Ride it out and it will get better.  The worst thing you can do early in the diet is give in to your cravings before you've broken your addiction because you'll just have to go through the withdrawal symptoms again. 

You will get very constipated on this diet if you don't eat enough fiber so make sure that you are eating lots of vegetables, taking a fiber supplement, and drinking enough water with your fiber.  You might be a little gassy as your body adjusts to the fiber supplement or the new vegetables in your diet.

If you feel dizzy or lightheaded eat smaller meals more frequently.

Money and time cost: Eating only fresh seafood, meat, and produce is expensive as well as time consuming to shop and cook for.  If you can shop frequently, you'll probably save money if you buy your seafood and fresh produce wherever the local Asian immigrants shop.  If you don't have time to shop that often, warehouse clubs usually sell large packages of frozen fish, meat, and veggies at low prices per serving.  (Food that has been flash-frozen where it was caught or harvested is often actually more nutritious than "fresh" food that has been trucked in from far away.) 

Grilling is a quick, healthy, tasty way to cook most of the food in this diet -- if you can't have a real grill, get one of those little electric indoor grills (the George Foreman grill or its competitors).  Get in the habit of starting the marination of your next meal while you're cooking your current meal so you always have something ready to go.

Dangerous diet "short cuts": There are a few things that people try in an attempt to lose weight in a hurry that you absolutely should not do because they're both counter-productive (they will slow down your metabolism and thus your ability to lose weight) and can permanently damage your body or even kill you.  These include making yourself throw up, chewing and spitting, starving yourself by not eating or by eating fewer than 1200 calories/day, using laxatives for weight loss (note: some fiber supplements, like Metamucil, are also marketed as laxatives, but if they don't contain any laxative drugs or herbs they are OK), or using diet drugs or herbal supplements without a doctor's prescription and monitoring.  Seriously, don't do any of these things, you will NOT be happy with the long-term results.

Exercise:

When people say they want to lose weight, what they really mean is they want to lose fat.  If you follow this diet you should lose weight.  However, it might not be the right kind of weight.  You also need to exercise to ensure that you are losing fat instead of muscle, and hopefully gaining some muscle as well.

Do as much cardio exercise (the type that raises your heart rate and makes you sweat) as your schedule and energy levels permit, and try to do some strength training exercises (lifting weights, resistance bands, body weight exercises, etc.) a couple of times a week to take advantage of all the muscle-building protein that you're eating on this diet.  Start slow if you have to, and remember that something is better than nothing.

Sometimes, when you're too overweight, cardio exercise hurts because you are lugging around too many extra pounds on joints that didn't evolve to carry such a heavy load.  It can also hurt to start exercising if you've been sedentary a long time.  If cardio exercise hurts, try swimming and/or brisk walking until you've slimmed down more.  Walking should still be possible even when you're too tired for other cardio exercise -- if it hurts to walk, then you probably need better shoes (also, pain in your feet, ankles, legs, or lower back later that day or the next day also indicates that you need better shoes).  Go to a store that specializes in comfortable walking shoes and get help picking out shoes or insoles that support your arches, accommodate your toe spread, etc.  If that doesn't help, see a podiatrist because you might have something wrong with your feet and foot problems typically get worse over time if left untreated.

If you're new to strength training, you should probably get a trainer or experienced friend help you get started and teach you exercises that are safe and appropriate for your current fitness level and goals.  You can injure yourself if you try to lift weights that are too heavy, use poor form, or attempt exercises that you don't have the strength, flexibility, or stability for yet.  You can also strength train in counterproductive ways and end up with a different body shape than you want.  Seeking out expert advice and guidance is worth it.

Try to eat about an hour before you exercise.  Much more than that and you might not have enough energy, much less than that and you might still be too full and get cramps.  Some people try to exercise on an empty stomach.  I don't think that's a good idea even when you're not dieting, and I think it's an even worse idea when you're restricting calories. 

Right after you exercise is a danger time for slipping and breaking your diet because you will be tired and hungry.  Plan to have something healthy ready to eat after your workout so you aren't tempted to buy junk food or fast food on the way home or eat something high in carbs.

If you are counting calories, you can add calories burned during exercise to your daily calorie limit.  Try this Exercise Calorie Counter to estimate how many calories you burn from different activities.

Monitoring your progress:

The number on the scale is not a very accurate measure of your progress, because a person who weighs 130 lbs with 20% body fat is going to look and feel much better than that same person at 120 lbs with 25%-30% body fat.  BMI (body mass index) is just a calculation based on weight and height and thus has the same limitations (garbage in, garbage out). 

Although you will initially lose a lot of pounds at the start, most of that is "water weight" and not fat.  After the first week or two your rate of pounds lost will slow down and sometimes even stop.  That doesn't necessarily mean that you've stopped losing fat, because if you're exercising, you're burning fat and building muscle.  Muscle weighs more than fat does for the same volume and thus can make you heavier but not fatter.  So don't focus just on pounds to measure your progress. 

Body fat percentage is the best metric.  The "fitness" level body fat percentage for women is 21-24% and for men is 14-17%.  Those ranges are what most people should strive for if they want to feel and look their best.  Lower than that, unless you are a professional athlete or model being carefully managed by a trainer, you are in danger of being unhealthily underfat/anorexic.  Over 31% body fat for women or 24% for men is dangerously obese and you need to take immediate action to save your health and life.

Unfortunately, in my experience, those home electrical impedance body fat measurement devices are crap and wildly inaccurate (I had one that would fluctuate in a range as wide as 20% to 30% within the same week, even though I followed all instructions and measured at the same time and presumed hydration level every day).  You want to get your body fat percentage measured by a professional with professional equipment.  Most gyms offer this service for free or a small fee.  Once a month is probably often enough for most people.

If you want something you can check at home as often as you like and that reflects changes to your body composition, try a measuring tape.  Make a note of the numbers for your waist, hips, chest, thighs, and upper arms.  If you hit a period in which the scale stops going down, you can measure yourself and see if your waistline is still shrinking before you assume that you're stalled and need to change your diet or exercise plan.

Another good metric is how your clothes fit.  If you used to be thin and only recently gained weight, then you can measure yourself against how well your "skinny clothes" fit or how well you can fit into store clothes in your old dress size. 

If you're a woman and were last thin a long time ago and don't still have your "skinny clothes", then unfortunately your old dress size isn't helpful information because the practice of vanity sizing means that today's size 6 is fatter than the size 6 of the past.  Men have it easier because their clothes are typically measured in objective units like inches.

If you've never been thin or don't remember your old measurements then it can be difficult to figure out what size you should be and can realistically achieve.  People often compare themselves to celebrities and aspire to achieve their published measurements and dress sizes.  If you do this, please make sure that you are at least comparing yourself to someone of the same height and apparent frame as you.  And women, if you are going to compare yourselves to models, please compare yourselves to Playboy models not fashion models -- the former have healthy curves and the latter are almost all unhealthily anorexic.  Also, give yourself a little leeway when comparing yourself to celebrities because you don't have a team of trainers, dietitians, personal chefs, and stylists working on you.

Ultimately, your goal should be to feel and look your best, and achieving that is more important than a specific metric.

Once you've achieved your weight (fat) loss goal:

Diet: You can add whole food carbohydrates back into your daily diet, including whole grains, beans, whole fruits (not juice), carrots, tomatoes, and fat-free or low-fat dairy products.  You can also drink red wine in moderation (1 drink/day for women, 2 drinks/day for men, and no you can't save up your daily drink allotments for weekly binges).

Foods and beverages you should not consume as part of your regular daily diet and should only have as occasional treats: Fatty meats, full-fat dairy products, sugar, high fructose corn syrup (it is worse than regular sugar), watermelon, potatoes, corn, other starchy vegetables, white rice, white bread, pasta, other foods made from refined flours, fruit juice (one serving has all the sugar of several servings of whole fruit and almost none of the fiber), beer (sigh...), white wine, hard liquor.

Make sure you continue to read labels, especially to compare different versions of the same food.  Different products made of the same main ingredients often vary widely in the amount of calories, fat, sugar, and fiber per serving.  Choose the option that has NO Trans Fats, LOW Saturated Fats, LOW Sugars, HIGH Dietary Fiber, relatively less sodium, relatively fewer calories per serving (again, multiply or divide as necessary to ensure that you are comparing apples to apples and also are considering your true portion sizes), and relatively more nutrition (Protein, Vitamin A, Vitamin C, Calcium, Iron).  The fewer unrecognizable ingredients in the ingredients list, the better, and avoid high fructose corn syrup or sugar in foods that shouldn't have sugar in them. 

Some packaged food types that I've noticed have tremendous variation in both nutritional quality and taste/texture are bread products, breakfast cereal, yogurt, hot dogs, and lunch meats.  For foods like that you'll want to spend some time reading labels and trying different products until you find the ones that strike a good balance between healthfulness and your personal taste.  (Tip: Although the healthiest breakfast cereals taste like cardboard when eaten plain, they become quite palatable if you add fresh berries.)  As you discover which brands' specific products both taste good and are good for you, memorize their names so you can do your grocery shopping quicker.  Every few months or so I compare labels again in case something has changed or something new has come out.

You must continue to exercise after you have achieved your weight (fat) loss goal or you will regain your fat. 

The reason I know so much about dieting and weight loss is because I have been a "yo-yo dieter", losing and regaining weight several times over the past seven years.  In retrospect, I can pinpoint lack of exercise as the primary reason I regain weight, and overindulging in too many "treat" foods is a distant second.  Whenever I have been too lazy or busy to exercise I have gained weight, lost muscle tone, and gained belly fat, regardless of how I ate.  So please, let my past mistakes serve as a cautionary tale, and do not stop exercising when you reach your weight (fat) loss goal.

Also, continue regularly weighing and measuring yourself, having your body fat percentage checked, and monitoring how well your clothes fit.  As we age our metabolism slows, so you can start getting fat again even if you stay on the same diet and exercise plan that used to keep you thin.  The sooner you catch yourself getting fat again, the better, because it's *much* easier to eat a little less and exercise a little more as needed to maintain your size than to wait until you're fat again and need to go on a restrictive diet and exercise a lot more because your body has adjusted to a higher set point.

Again, I am not a professional expert on these topics, this is just what works for me.  I'm always looking for ways to improve my diet so if any of you have relevant information I haven't considered, different informed opinions, or just want to further discuss details, I'd appreciate your comments.

Comments

[jeff]

The generic "nuts" is mentioned here but the various nuts (and the things we call nuts but aren't) vary widely in carbs and fat, dieters please do your homework on each nut.

[patri]

considering how long this is and how oinionated I am, I disagree with very little. I would just say: weight training is a bit more important than cardio, and what's wrong with full fat meat and dairy? Fat has gotten a bum rap. Its energy dense, but very filling.

Also, muscle (built with resistance training) has big benefits, acting as a glucose sink to reduce insulin resistance, and burning more calories 24/7. And if you build it with short, high-intensity workouts, your body will respond in ways that help you, like increased GH secretion.

[Jacqueline]

"what's wrong with full fat meat and dairy?"

They are high in saturated fat, which is bad for your heart.

I have no problems with unsaturated fat.

[Yan Li]

JMPP, this is unfair! What am I supposed to do with those cases of beer in my pantry? I have bought them out of Pavlov reflexes from looking at the pictures in your blog! Now, what?! You call those life-filling liquids nutritionally-empty calories, and advise me to eschew them and pay more attention to my waist line :(

[RFJason]

OMG LJ CUT PLZ

[Tom Hanna]

Watch the labels on those dill pickles. I bought a jar of Tabasco flavored dills without looking, got home and was munching when I noticed that great abomination, "high fructose corn syrup," in the ingredient list.

[Patri Friedman]

They are high in saturated fat, which is bad for your heart.

This is a moderately questionable claim, which I believe is supported mainly by epidemiological studies. Be very skeptical of anything mainstream American nutrition says about any kind of fat unless you've dug into the details. The whole US nutrition community has had a fucked up view of fat for decades, as exhaustively documented by Gary Taubes in "Good Calories, Bad Calories".

[Jacqueline]

Well, there seems to be lots of evidence that saturated fat is bad for you, and I haven't seen any evidence that it is good for you or better than unsaturated fat.