Carb cravings when I eat more than 30g carbs page

[bpatocchi]

I n September I watched knives over forks a movie that promoted a vegan lifestyle. I was scared already because my blood work was terrible and I was overweight. So i cut out animal products and also bread and sugar. i lost weight as I tried this for about 10 days but felt dizzy and weak. I did a search and found web pages that debunked the movie so I added meat. I found myself on what seemed to be a Atkins's diet, one that I did not ever keep to when I tried it in the past. I continued to loose weight. In my searches I ended up buying the Primal blue print, both the book and audio. I have studied it. I like the teaching about exercise. I swam as a teenager and in collage. I never liked that fact that I would swim miles for training at hard effort when I competed in the 50 free 100 free and 100 and 200 backstroke. I am now planing to swim masters. i am 55 and pretty fast but still over weight. I stared at 234 and now about 208. Want to get to 178. Now here is my problem. Since I started my diet my carbs were lower than what Mark teaches. Now when i eat more than 40g carbs a day I get uncontrollable carb cravings. Then I eat something stupid. Last week I ate a half carton of ice cream at night. The week before it was something else. I bought some low carb bars in case I would get up at night in a fit of hunger. I don't want to mention the brand because that might be against the rules. I ate 3 of them last night in the middle of the night. This always happens after I eat more carbs during the day. Mark teaches that if you want to loose weight you should eat 50 to 100g of carbs. I seem to have problems when I go up from 30 or so. I would be thankful for any help Bob

[Chochobo]

u need to make ur body turn into fat burning mode. i see u didnt eat meat as well for a bit. increase ur protein intake with fattier meats. basically under 50g of carbs for too long is not good for ur system its great for rapid weight loss, but not long term. i would up ur carbs to 50g and make sure ur eating enough fat/protein to feel satiated.

[Issabeau]

I'm like you.
Sugar cravings go up the second I consume something sweet for the day. If I have 1 apple early in the day, that triggers a carb craving for me ALL day long.
I have to keep it very low or 0 carb until the day is about over. So I eat things that raise blood sugar late in the afternoon..and then finish the day again 2 hours later (around 6-7pm) with a very low or 0 carb meal. Then I go to bed 3 hours later and the sugar binge at 4 pm doesn't affect me. (well not mentally anyways).

[sbhikes]

If you don't feel you can tolerate more carbs, don't do it. I decided at the start to go as low in carbs as I could because I knew that I was seriously metabolically compromised. I wasn't obese but I was capable of gaining weight even when exercising 14 hours a day on a calorie deficit. Every now and then I will eat some sweet potato (like once a week) but other than that, I do not eat any fruit and only eat leafy greens and mushrooms if I ever eat vegetables at all. I feel this is better for me. I think sometimes suggestions like eating 50+ grams of carbs a day or the 80/20 rule and things like that are to make the diet more inviting to newcomers. It'll work for a lot of people just fine, but I truly believe that the diet has to be way more stringent for it to be effective (i.e. weight loss, metabolic healing, end of carb cravings, loss of ravenous hunger) for some people.

[Chochobo]

If you don't feel you can tolerate more carbs, don't do it. I decided at the start to go as low in carbs as I could because I knew that I was seriously metabolically compromised. I wasn't obese but I was capable of gaining weight even when exercising 14 hours a day on a calorie deficit. Every now and then I will eat some sweet potato (like once a week) but other than that, I do not eat any fruit and only eat leafy greens and mushrooms if I ever eat vegetables at all. I feel this is better for me. I think sometimes suggestions like eating 50+ grams of carbs a day or the 80/20 rule and things like that are to make the diet more inviting to newcomers. It'll work for a lot of people just fine, but I truly believe that the diet has to be way more stringent for it to be effective (i.e. weight loss, metabolic healing, end of carb cravings, loss of ravenous hunger) for some people.

of course ur going to gain weight, working out 14hrs a day and on a calorie deficit, it only makes sense that ur body will keep what food u do give it. when i was chronic cardio i was burnin close to 6k and only consuming about 4k and i stalled at the same weight for 2 months.

[sbhikes]

Well, I wasn't doing that 14 hours exercise when I started primal. I was now just an ordinary office-worker who had no more outlet for losing weight now that exercise didn't work anymore and eating less only made me insanely hungry.

[dkd2001]

Gary Taubes -- check out his book Why We Get Fat -- does not believe we need carbs, and he does not eat many at all in his diet. Some cultures eat almost none and do fine. You have identified the point that you get carb cravings. You know your body better than anyone. Listen to it.

And you are right -- whatever low carb bars you bought probably have bad fats in them and also soy. Check out some recipes on MDA and try making your own. It really is easy.

[Apex Predator]

Listen to your body-even when it changes it's mind.

Low carb worked really well for me for a while, but then I needed to go high carb for the situation I was in.

[jfrendek]

If I don't keep the carbs low I turn into a ravenous fat storing beast in like 30 seconds.

[touchdowntodd]

i thnk the effects would be MUCH worse if you ate many more ... but that being said it depends on the person ..

i eat 25-30g a day usually .. and i still have plenty of weight to lose .. when i up'd it for a while i actually felt worse (tried to eat 50-100g a day), and my cravings were present where as now i crave nothing