I'm doing really well on semi-low carb. I eat gluten free as well and IF everyday. I've lost 14kg over the last 7 months. Not as fast as some but it is very sustainable for me which will make it far easier to maintain. Interestingly, I lost more weight than any other month in December and I ate far higher carb and larger quantities of food over the Christmas/New Year period...

Is anyone semi-lowcarb still around/active? I'm just starting today and I'm going to start with a goal of 100g of carbs a day, (down from 200g+ a day that was my usual). I still want to eat some whole grains, beans, fruit etc, so I don't want to get too low carb at this point.

I'm not following any structured plan right now, but I did get a few books from the library this morning and will be doing a lot of reading over the next few days. Starting with one of the South Beach books

Don't mistake the map for the terrain.

It doesn't matter what plan you pick if it's not the right one for you Let the journey teach what your body needs for best results.

I can tell you that semi-lowcarb, like the 100 carbs a day you mentioned, can work for younger people who are not that carb sensitive and work out a lot. And that might be you...

I'm 40 so not feeling that young anymore I'm pretty low key when it comes to exercise-try and get in 1-2 miles a day of brisk walking but that's about it.

I've been doing ok with a higher carbs woe, (usually 200g+ a day)-my health markers are excellent and my current BMI is right around a 22. But, I'm curious to see if a moderate/lower carb intake will get rid of the stomach bloat/drop the scale back down to where I was at during the first few years of maintenance, (when I was in the 120s). Really it's just vanity weight at this point, but I know if the weight continues to slowly creep up, it will quickly turn into a real problem again. Trying to nip things in the bud and get my weight down to where I feel most comfortable at

eta: realized from my previous post I didn't give a lot of background info-I'm a few years into maintaining a larger weight loss. Lost the weight with calorie counting/IF protocols and in maintenance I've been mostly counting/tracking calories. It's normal for me to go up a few pounds during the winter months but I usually have an easy time losing the winter 'fluff' once spring hits/tighten up my tracking. Not so this year though, and I've been wrestling with 7ish pounds for a few months now. Decided to try something new for me and focus on my carb intake for the first time ever, to see if that gets things moving in the right direction.

Starting out I'm going to try and do a moderate carb intake, reducing my carbs to around 100g a day, or half of what I used to consume. I'm sure I'll make many adjustments as I get further along into the process though

That sounds sensible. One thing is that we must adjust to get to goal. We are maintaining a different body by then!

Hi DaisyDawn - I eat a semi-low carb diet and have lost 17kg's over the last 10 months. I cut out all gluten/bread/pasta and stick to a primal diet with IF every day. I am finding it super easy to stick to and still indulge in things like rice and orange juice. It is working well for me, though my weight loss has slowed down over the last two months now that I am closer to my goal weight. I would say give it a go and see if you get results

I've been doing well on a semi-low carb routine. I cut out dairy a while back, for about 3 months, and was very surprised at how effective that was for weight loss. But it was impossible for me to keep up as I like cheese, butter, etc...too much. And I cut out gluten at the same time, so eating at social events or restaurants was very difficult.

Currently I'm eating very little dairy and gluten, and pretty low carb. It's pretty easy to keep my weight around 132-135 with this WOE. I eat small amounts of rice, and potatoes, and keep most of my carbs for dinner. I'd like to tighten up and get rid of gluten completely, and get my weight down to 130. I used to do intermittent fasting about 2x per week, but honestly I've had better results just cutting back on dairy and refined carbs.

Daisydawn, it could be that as you are getting older, your metabolism is changing. I think lowering carbs could work very well for you, and is better for your body. Let us know how it works out for you.

The traditional Atkins diet is semi-low carb, because once you finish the induction period (typically under 30 grams per day of carbs) which is not for a long time, you then are supposed to increase carbs by small increments, about 10 grams of carbs per week, until the loss slows down. The specific amount of carbs that you can tolerate is a very personal thing. You then keep under that amount or at that amount to prevent weight gain.

JessAus, I would love to see a sample day of eating for you. Do you count your cals/carbs?

Sure Alene, here is what I have eaten in the last 6 days (As far as I can remember!)

I don't count carbs or calories - I did track it early on out of curiosity for a few days and found I sat between 50g - 80g of carbs and 1200 - 1800 calories. I do IF 20/4 everyday - The below I consumed between 4pm and 8pm. As you see I am a drinker Everything is home made and fresh - I don't eat gluten or anything that has been processed (Easter eggs excluded!)



Day 1
Drink: Glass cold press coffee, 3 x White wine, water
Entrée: 2 x boiled eggs
Main Meal: Caesar Salad, Pork Dumplings

Day 2
Drink: Glass of orange juice, 3 x White wine, water
Entrée: Cheese, avocado, prosciutto
Main Meal: Parmesan crusted chicken with mushroom and sundried tomato cream, Asparagus, Broccolini, Buttered cabbage

Day 3
Drink: Water, 2 x White wine
Main Meal: Pork belly with apple sauce, Sweet potato, Asparagus, Broccoli
Desert: 2 x small Easter eggs

Day 4
Drink: Glass cold press coffee, 3 x white wine, water
Entrée: 2 x devilled eggs
Main Meal: Fillet Steak with red wine jus, Cream cabbage, Broccoli, Pumpkin

Day 5
Drink: Water, 4 x White wine
Main Meal: Mango Chicken, Rice, Cucumber and mint raita

Day 6
Drink: Water, 3 x white wine
Entrée: Eggplant tomato and bocconcini bruschetta
Main Meal - ‘Spaghetti’ Bolognese, Zucchini Zoodles

Thanks so much! It's helpful to see how others organize their eating day.

Checking in-a little over a week into a lower carb way of eating and things are going very well! I'm not following any specific plan yet, the Atkins100 seems like a good fit, but right now I'm seeing how things go without a structured/named plan, and just do semi-low carb on my own-I'm such a rebel I tracked my net carbs for a few days starting out but haven't done it in a few days-I do keep track of everything I eat in my journal area though and this makes it easy for me to get a close estimate of how many net carbs I'm eating day to day.

My weight has dipped a few pounds, which is normal of water 'whoosh' when starting lower carb. Pleased to see consistent lower numbers though, even with Easter weekend and tom going on. Even with all of that my weight is 3ish pounds lower than when I started last week I'm not even really trying to lose weight, but I was dealing with some major bloat going into this whole thing and I'm super excited that it's completely gone now

Hi Daisy, like you I'm still figuring it out. I've been de-emphasizing carbs this week, and that's been working out, so I'm going to stick with that for a while. Slow and steady works better for me.

Hello all! I'd love to hear an update on how things are going for y'all. I'm zeroing in on the best carb level for me, and it's very interesting.

I am still plodding along - Eating the same and still losing but quite slowly now. Down to losing about 1kg a month.