Struggling WW Lifetime member-Anyone lower carbs to take off pounds?

[Harvest02]

Hi...it's me again! I am trying something a little different this week to see if I can get back down 3 pounds to my goal weight. Ever since the New Year, I have really struggled to stay at goal. I even joined the gym about 3 weeks ago, and nothing on the scale yet! I am at my wits end with this! So, I have been doing some research on low GI foods. I don't want to cut carbs out entirely because I know that is not healthy. I have a terrible sweet tooth and think I just eat the wrong stuff. So, anyone else eat better carbs and take off pounds? I did South Beach in the past, and that worked for me, but I needed my breads!!! I know the WW core plan is kind of like South Beach, but I am doing the Flex plan. Still counting points, but just trying to eat better this week. Any other suggestions????

 

[JudyS]

Well, I do low carb, even though I go to WW meetings.

I started WW last fall. I couldn't lose anything on Core. I switched to Points, but was famished constantly, and my weight loss stalled after only a 12 pound loss. (I started at about 100 pounds above where the height/weight charts say I should be, so for me a 12 pound loss ain't much.) After 5 weeks of diligently sticking to the WW Points plan and losing exactly nothing, I gave up and went to a low-carb diet. I have lost about 25 more pounds, at a rate of almost 2 pounds a week, since going low-carb. (I am also on some weight loss supplements, plus a diabetes drug called Byetta that often helps in weight loss. I was on those while doing Points, too, though, and it still wasn't enough to get the weight off.)

I don't follow a very low-carb diet such as Atkins; I am a vegetarian, so I get quite a lot of carbs from vegetables. I average about 140 grams of carbs a day, not counting fiber. However, I do a lot of exercise, which really burns off the carbs. In fact, I've been using "ketosticks" lately, and it shows that I am generally in ketosis. (That means, I am eating so little carbs that my body has to generate ketones, a back-up fuel it uses when body tissues can't get enough carbohydrates.)

I really seem to need a low-carb diet. However, I have Type 2 diabetes as well as other serious endocrine problems, so I'm not typical of most people.

I was concerned that the staff at WW would give me a hard time if I told them I was doing low-carb. (When I posted about doing low-carb on the forums on WW's site, I got a lot of hostile responses.) However, the staff at WW just said, "Whatever works for you is fine." On the other hand, I find WW meetings less useful now that I follow a different plan.

By the way, I would not characterize Core as low-carb at all. Core really limits how much fat you can eat, and if you aren't getting many calories from fat, you will pretty much have to get your calories from carbs. (In theory, you could eat lots of protein instead of carbs, but that can be very hard on the kidneys.)

 

[JudyS]

Oh, one more thought. I found that it was pretty much impossible to stay low carb diet while doing either of the WW diets. Both Core and Points are low-fat, and as I was saying, you really can't do both low-carb and low-fat at the same time.

However, it sounds like maybe you don't really need to go low-carb, but just lower glycemic index. So, you could try cutting out all refined carbs for a week, and see how you do. Bear in mind that fruits and vegetables really vary in how many carbs they have, even though they all tend to be low Points. For example, 4 ounces of strawberries, raspberries or blackberries have only 6 carbs, while 4 ounces of many other fruits have more like 15 carbs. Many veggies are only 4 carbs per 4 ounces, but potatoes are about 17 carbs per 4 ounces (and a big baked potato weighs about a pound, so that's more like 70 grams of carbs.) So, you could try switching to all whole grains instead of white flour, and eating lots of lower carb fruits & veggies.