Hi everyone,

I'm new to the forums here although I've been desperately trying to successfully low carb for the past two years. This is something that I've struggled with a lot as someone who loves food very much. While I love food, I also love a challenge and my inability to stick to a low carb diet in the long run and successfully lose weight with it is something that bothers me a lot. I know the health benefits, and I want to see the results for myself.

I am an eighteen year old college freshman, and I really need to make this work once and for all. I am so sick of feeling like complete garbage all the time, my clothes not fitting, and feeling like I'm worth less than anyone else because of my weight. I'd really appreciate any recommendations that anyone has, but I also have a few questions.

In the past when I've tried to low carb, I've gone cold turkey and gone to extremes. I do believe that this may be apart of my problem, and why I'm never able to keep doing it in the long run. I'm wondering if I made slow changes to my diet if that would help me become more successful? I cut out all soda last November and I've stayed away from it since, so I do believe that making one change at a time might be beneficial. What do you guys think? Maybe one week cut out added sugars, the next week no sugar, and then start low carbing from there? I'd figure that it'd help my body physically and mentally adjust to the change so that I don't fail again!

Thanks!

TLDR; I'm a college freshman who wants to know if making smaller changes in my diet and working my way up to low carb would be more successful than a "cold turkey" approach.

I don't know about you, Aaron. But slowly dropping carbs is a killer for me. My cravings for them just keep hanging on, if I drop them slowly. Good on you for dropping the sodas, though: they are utterly useless for anything but destroying the calcium in your teeth and gaining weight. Oh, and developing Type 2 Diabetes.

Your best bet, I believe, is to find a reputable low carb plan and stick to it like glue. Either of Dr Atkins' books, Dr A's Diet Revolution or Dr A's New Diet Revolution is excellent. They are both available at Amazon. Stay away from the Atkins website, which is a bastardization of his plan, solely there to get you to eat their frankenfood, addicting products.

dietdoctor.com is also an excellent plan, as is the plan in Gary Taubes' Why We Get Fat. Again, you guessed it, Amazon.

We are here to support you, and even to give you a boot in the butt, if you need it.

The changes to your metabolism when you first go low carb can make you feel like kaka. But there are ways to mitigate them, that don't include dropping carbs a little at a time.

You MUST go through the switch from burning primarily carbs to primarily burning fats in order to start using your body fat as fuel. And that is not the most comfortable week or so.

But what's a week or so, in relation to years of feeling better about yourself, your health and how you look? Being educated on the process helps, tremendously. Not many of us, myself included, even with a healthcare background, was aware of the way that low carb/high fat actually works.

Welcome!

Yeah, it seems to be an attribute of the male of the species to go whole hog and try to reach for the furthest extreme. That seems to rarely work out long term.

Here's my two words of advice: Be reasonable

Have reasonable expectations and reasonable goals. It just makes life so much nicer, ya know?

On the other hand, you cut out soda almost a year ago, maybe you could ramp up a bit now.

And the other bit of advice I have is figure out how to enjoy this diet. There's a thread in my sig about how not to be bored. Seriously, low carb food is delicious. If you focus on what you CAN have and not what you can't have, you'll have an easier time of it.

Also, try to learn from your mistakes. If you response is "I didn't try hard enough" then you failed. You need to learn something specific like, "I shouldn't go shopping when I'm hungry," or "I should chew some sugar free gum when I walk past the bakery." That is something specific and valuable.

Learn that cravings do go away shortly after you notice them. Or that getting involved in something helps.

It is a game we play with ourselves. Learn how to outsmart the dumber part of your impulses and you'll win.

The first thing I would suggest is to find a certain plan and buy a book.
It's like playing a game, you can probably play without the directions and just wing it but if you want to win, you need the directions to really know what to do.

Then plan by having the right foods on hand and don't try to do this purely by not eating.
It's just as important what you do eat as what you don't eat!

Question: Will you cook or do you eat at the collage cafeteria?

Welcome Aaron
You have had lots of good advice so far. But as for what method will work for you… Sorry but we have to throw that question back to you. How to best to stick with LC depends on your personality, or what Gretchen Rubin calls the “four tendencies". http://forum.lowcarber.org/showthread.php?t=468195 She has a short quiz to help you decide yours, though it doesn’t sound like you are an abstainer nor will you embrace the Lightening Bolt method. Not to worry, first decide if you are an Upholder, Questioner, Obliger, or Rebel with this quiz https://www.surveygizmo.com/s3/1950...es-January-2015 and then find the ways to change eating habits that fit YOUR tendency. https://gretchenrubin.com/habits/habits-downloads/

If all that seems too Psych 101 for you, check out some of the paleo websites geared for college students and consider following what they advise.
Caveman College is a favorite: http://cavemancollege.com They link to some of the great information on Mark Sisson’s Primal Blueprint. http://www.marksdailyapple.com I think his original book is still the best, but his 21 Day transformation book is a short, specific plan that may help you day by day as you mentioned having already considered a step by step plan to start a LC. He views carbs on Primal along a "curve" and quicker weight loss would be Ketogenic, or under 50 g a day, but you can start higher...if it is real food.

If you look in the right places on your campus, you may find others interested in real foods/ farm to table/paleo/cross-fit/ tough mudder type contests/ ultimate frisbee groups that attract a health oriented student. Pick the crowd that supports your goals.

Joshua Weismann’s story is interesting, http://slimpalate.com but he focuses more on cooking.
So I have the same question…are you cooking? or do you have a good buffet with healthy choices available to you? even all fast food can work LC if that is what you have.
If you decide you do are willing to go all in and just follow a simple plan, MickiSue’s suggestion of the challenge plan at Diet Doctor and in Why We Get Fat is good. You can also get a free emailed copy of it by sending for the welcome kit here: http://healclinics.com

We can help you on this forum with more details after you decide on the best plan for you, look around at Success stories for inspiration and other newbie advice. All the best,

Hi Aaron,

Welcome and good for you for not only deciding on doing something great for yourself, but for taking the first steps which definitely include being on this forum. I have cried tears of gratitude for this forum and I certainly hope you find it equally beneficial.

I will tell you a piece of advice I gained from someone on this forum- Maybe Nancy? I am sorry that I can't credit the person who passed it along, but it changed my life and I would like to pass it along to you.

Especially while in college, you may feel like you are depriving yourself of things if you aren't "celebrating" with your friends. I know that one of the reasons why my scale kept going up was "excessive celebration!" But someone here told me to always keep in mind that it isn't the food or beverage that makes a celebration special; it's the time you spend with your friends and family. Once I grasped that concept, I was just as happy at a pizza party with a salad or crudite as everyone else was with their pizza and the next day, no guilt!

Hiya Aaron, welcome to the forum.

When I started LCHF a little under a year ago I was determined to do whatever it took to make it sustainable for me, to make it into something that I would *want* to do not just today, but tomorrow as well. But it's important to understand that that doesn't have to mean going all-out from the get-go.

A lot of people here dive into an induction period when they get started, but I went about it slightly differently, in part because I was so sceptical that it would even work before I began. Once I understood that I had to reduce carbs and increase fat, I simply began doing the research on what sort of foods that meant I should be buying, and then I just started buying the right stuff and stopped buying the wrong stuff. But I did allow myself to use up what was left of the old stuff in my cupboards; it seemed silly at the time to let it go to waste.

It would have taken me maybe 2-3 weeks to complete the transition. Most things I ate as before, but a few other things like unopened jars and cans I gave to the local foodbank. By the time I was done, the only bad stuff I had left were two loaves of bread and half a tub of margarine, which in the end I just chucked out.

Part of the early advice I was given was to stick to items that were no more than 5g of net carbs per 100g of food. I thought that was too limiting at first, so I started by allowing myself up to 10g, then over time as I did more research and discovered more new options to try, I was able to gradually lower myself to 5g/100g as originally recommended. For the last 6 months or so now, the only thing in my house that's more then 5g is a bottle of "low sugar" tomato sauce which comes in at 15g, but I allow it for three reasons: I'm too terrible in the kitchen to be bothered making my own, it's the lowest carb tomato sauce I can find, and I don't eat it 100g at a time; it's just a little dollop on my bunless burgers.

Give yourself every opportunity to learn more about this WOE (way of eating). Don't assume you'll be sticking to the same meals all day every day; in fact don't even allow it. Keep exploring for options so you don't get bored, and keep reading about new developments in the field. Previous replies have already offered several good resources to that end, and there is no shortage of useful advice throughout the rest of this forum as well.

Good luck mate.

Quick question, Aaron. Are you feeding yourself, as in, you live in an apartment, or do you live at home or in a dorm? I lived at home my first year of college, then in an apartment. And the transition was, to say the least, a challenge.

Nevertheless, whichever of the three it is, there are specific challenges for LCHF eating. Let us know, and we can make suggestions. Both for how to handle what goes into your mouth, and for how to handle the frequently ignorant and self-serving comments that you get from other people.

Aaron,

To MickiSue's point, you will get a TON of those "self-serving" comments. You will find post after post about it on this forum. In fact, I recently started one myself! Those are to be expected.

Also expect that you will start this program do it for a month or so and get bored with what your are eating and think that you can't go on. That is a sign that you need to make tweaks. It isn't the easiest thing in the world, but it's nowhere near the hardest and the benefits are innumerable!

Thank you everyone with your responses! I'm definitely looking into everything that you've told me and taking it into consideration.


I really appreciate this! This is so true, I just need to convince myself (and my friends) of it.


I was supposed to be living in a dorm at a four year school, but I couldn't get approved for a loan so I am living at home now and attending a local community college! I have a job so I can buy some things that I need, and my family is willing to buy things that I want to eat as long as I'm grocery shopping with them.

I have found that in the past when I've done something "low-carb," it was the same food and meals over and over. For example, I'd have chicken breast three nights in a row and by night four I was burnt out and eating pasta.

Well, no wonder! BLECH on chicken breast. If I have to eat the same thing three nights in a row, I'd rather eat a nice bunless burger, and switch out the toppings, you know?

Various cheeses. Chopped olives, bacon, whatever.

Chicken breast, unless you have the kind with skin and bones, is among the most flavorless meat known to science. I say science because the chickens that give up their lives for those bags of frozen tasteless things are about half animal and half genetic engineering.

IDEAs: if you eat chicken, get a whole one. Already roasted is fine, although there is sometimes sugar on them. Probably not enough to be significant for a young man, though.

For a guy your age, that whole chicken should last a couple days, at least. Fatty beef roasts and pork roasts. If your parents have a slow cooker, ask one of them to show you how to use it. The easiest way in the world to make a dinner for you AND your family is to put a roast, with a small bottle of salsa, in the slow cooker in the morning, and then about 12 hours later, take it out, bone it, and shred the meat and the salsa together. You can eat yours plain, or scoop it up with lettuce leaves. Your family can follow your lead, or eat on buns.

Don't want to think about what to eat? Fry some eggs, and have already cooked bacon ready in the frig, and you can have bacon and eggs for dinner.

Frozen shrimp that's raw, but already shelled, can be quick rinsed in a colander, and then stir fried and eaten by hand after dipping in blue cheese dressing.

There are a ton more, but that's a start, yes? Dr Atkins, who popularized the idea of HCHF, had one hard and fast rule, after eating always on plan. It was this: eat when you are hungry. Stop when you are not.

No, you really don't have to explain yourself to other people. Just do your thing and if people ask, deflect the conversation to something else. Takes a bit of practice, but it works.

Here is a thread on more meal ideas, http://forum.lowcarber.org/showthread.php?t=442080
And while you are at school, if you don't want to bring lunch, fast food works, most popular the double cheeseburger, Chuck the bun or ask for lettuce wrap. Others https://www.atkins.com/how-it-works...t-food-your-way

~MickiSue: When I was doing the chicken breast thing I hadn't learned about how terribly the chickens were treated as they're raised. I only learned last year when I watched Food Inc. and was disgusted by what I saw. I couldn't believe it! My family and I do try to buy free range, organic, and "happy" meat whenever possible. I have found that the meat does taste better too!

I agree with you on the burger too, I absolutely love burger and would have no issue making different variations of it.

~Nancy LC: Also very true, I guess I said that because a lot of times my friends/family will either pressure me to eat or make me feel badly about dieting whether I'm eating or not. It really does bother me how much western culture celebrates with food for almost every occasion!

I am currently in a break between classes and looking into the information ~JEY100 shared with me and hopefully I can narrow it down to which variation of low carb will work best for me. I'll let you all know later what I find.

If your parents are on board to help, just make sure they understand that this isn't low fat with a blah dry chicken breast.
You want regular/full fat everything. Real butter on all veggies and crispy skin on your chicken thighs.

Here is a list of foods that you can use to go grocery shopping or make a list with.
Never leave your house hungry or you will fall face first into a bunch of carbs because you're hungry.
http://forum.lowcarber.org/showthread.php?t=236482