I’ve lost a bit of weight recently and I’ve had a few people ask me about it, so I thought I’d make a blog post that I could just direct people to.
As much as I love running, I don’t credit much of my weight loss to it. It’s mostly been my diet. I’ve done a lot of reading, both about running, but also about nutrition and I’ve learned a lot. I’ll include a “further reading” section at the end for anyone interested.
My diet has been a combination of low-carb & low-calorie. In a nutshell, my daily goal is 1300 calories, which is made up of 10% carbs (33 grams), 30% protein (98 grams) and 60% fat (87 grams). I usually struggle to eat that much though, and hit roughly 1000 calories a day, which admittedly is a bit too low.
Why low-carb?
Basically, carbs and sugars elevate your blood sugar level, which triggers a release of insulin. Insulin is a hormone which regulates the levels of sugar in your blood, but as well as that, it works to store fat on your body.
So, what should I eat?
Meat, nuts, vegetables, cheese, eggs. I eat at least one salad a day, with some chicken, beef or fish. I used to love mashed potatoes, but potatoes are high in carbs so now I substitute it with mashed cauliflower. Add a bit of butter, salt & cream cheese. If you have a sweet tooth, sweeten things with stevia (you can get this from your supermarket). In the health food aisle of my local Woolworths, I get sugar-free chocolate by a brand called Well Naturally and that satisfies my chocolate addiction. I also love the Lo Carb ProteinFX bars by Aussie Bodies.
Further reading/viewing
The YouTube clip up there is an excerpt from a documentary called Fat Head. You can download it here. Basically, it’s about a guy who goes on a McDonald’s diet for a month but loses weight because he limits his carb intake to 100g a day (his fat intake was usually well over 100g a day – his doctors were perplexed).
The book “Good Calories, Bad Calories” by Gary Taubes (the title in Australia is “The Diet Delusion”). This book goes into quite a bit of detail about various studies which have been done and is a bit dry in parts, but if you aren’t convinced then you should read this book.
If you search YouTube for Gary Taubes, I’m sure you’ll find some interesting things.
Lastly, this thread will answer any questions you have about low-carb dieting, as well as recipes and meal ideas. Bookmark it.
