Active Low-Carber Forums
Atkins diet and low carb discussion provided free for information only, not as medical advice.
Home Plans Tips Recipes Tools Stories Studies Products
Active Low-Carber Forums
A sugar-free zone


Welcome to the Active Low-Carber Forums.
Support for Atkins diet, Protein Power, Neanderthin (Paleo Diet), CAD/CALP, Dr. Bernstein Diabetes Solution and any other healthy low-carb diet or plan, all are welcome in our lowcarb community. Forget starvation and fad diets -- join the healthy eating crowd! You may register by clicking here, it's free!

Go Back   Active Low-Carber Forums > Main Low-Carb Diets Forums & Support > New Members & Low-Carbers > Introduce Yourself
User Name
Password
FAQ Members Calendar Mark Forums Read Search Gallery My P.L.A.N. Survey


Reply
 
Thread Tools Display Modes
  #16   ^
Old Sun, Mar-18-12, 20:47
LowCVegan LowCVegan is offline
Registered Member
Posts: 42
 
Plan: vegan lowcarb (self-made)
Stats: 178/172/160 Male 72 inches
BF:
Progress: 33%
Default

Thanks for your input, Carina.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Carina8
Put the numbers into fatsecret or fitday or atkins or whaterver site you want to use to see what kind of nutrition you get with a diet like that. It's amazing!


I'm sure you're fine on (most) vitamins, but honestly, I don't see how that regimen would provide adequate minerals. It also seems pretty light on protein. I hear you on the high protein thing, but seriously, how many grams of protein are you eating a day? Based on some quick number crunching I did, I think you're getting probably in the neighborhood of 65 on the high end (assuming it's 5% protein by weight, which is on the high end for vegetables - 900 grams x.05), maybe as low as 40. This is adequate for some people, but I am definitely not one of them. With the weightlifting I do, I need to be eating an absolute minimum of 1 gram protein per kilogram bodyweight, which for me comes out to 81 grams a day. I actually do 1.6 grams protein per kg because I feel this more safely covers my protein need (I tear down my muscles three times a week by lifting heavy weights).

Have you ever used http://nutritiondata.self.com ? Honestly, I think you should plug your daily intake into there (which will require you to register, but it's super fast and easy) and then use the "My Tracking" feature to see what your V&M intake looks like. Based on what you're eating, I honestly don't see how you could be getting enough minerals.

Sorry, I don't mean to scare you or anything. I just think it's important to crunch the numbers yourself. I have read many vegetarian/vegan books, websites etc. that give dietary advice that just does not add up to good nutrition.

If you do realize that you need more, I highly recommend upping your intake of nuts and seeds. The sesame/flax/sunflower seed combo that I detailed above is an absolute mineral powerhouse (and makes a healthy contribution to your vitamin need as well). And grinding it and drinking it makes it much easier to stay in the habit of eating every single day. Just a suggestion.

Good luck with all you do.
Reply With Quote
Sponsored Links
  #17   ^
Old Sun, Mar-18-12, 21:28
Carina8's Avatar
Carina8 Carina8 is offline
Senior Member
Posts: 1,247
 
Plan: Eat to Live
Stats: 250/199/110 Female 5'1"
BF:don't know
Progress: 36%
Location: Michigan, USA
Default

I just edited my prior post to include a cup of beans/legumes daily.

I do run the numbers, and your right... my protein is between 55-60g daily. My V&M are off the RDI charts though. I use a lot of chia and sunflower seeds. Ground flax is in there, but not often, not fond of the texture.

I also lift weights 3 to 4x/week. I started lifting June 2011. I know others who are and eating this way too.

My Vit D shows about 70%, but I supplement during the winter. Selenium and Niacin are showing around mid 60s to low 70s. 8 others it tracks are between 100 and 150%, and the other 9 it tracts are over 200%. Should I be concerned about the Selenium and Niacin being so low? Maybe. I know ALL of these Eat to Live numbers look better than my old Atkins numbers.

I haven't used that site, I use fitday.com (also free and easy if your interested) I'll try it out sometime. I'm always looking for new and exciting new resources.
Reply With Quote
  #18   ^
Old Sun, Mar-18-12, 21:49
LowCVegan LowCVegan is offline
Registered Member
Posts: 42
 
Plan: vegan lowcarb (self-made)
Stats: 178/172/160 Male 72 inches
BF:
Progress: 33%
Default

Quote:
Originally Posted by Carina8
I just edited my prior post to include a cup of beans/legumes daily.

I noticed that. Beans are good.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Carina8
my protein is between 55-60g daily

Hey, if that level works for you, then that's what matters, right? I just need more protein. I feel much better when I eat more protein. But I will eventually dial it back from 130, though, probably go down to 110 or so.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Carina8
I also lift weights 3 to 4x/week. I started lifting June 2011. I know others who are and eating this way too.

Nice! Are you into powerlifting (high weight/low reps) or more bodybuilding (lower weight/higher reps)? And you feel 60 grams protein is adequate?

For me, the higher protein is at least partly psychological. I can not STAND the thought of my body eating its own amino acids when I work so hard with weights.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Carina8
Selenium and Niacin are showing around mid 60s to low 70s... Should I be concerned about the Selenium and Niacin being so low? Maybe.

This is what we call one of those "good problems." Why? Because it's easy to fix.

All you need is two brazilnuts and a few grams of nutritional yeast every day. Boom. Done. Seriously, that's all it takes. Nutritional yeast is amazing AND it tastes awesome (even omnivores love it!).

Okay, well, I'm glad that you're on top of the numbers/data. It sounds like with the addition of nutritional yeast and brazilnuts you have your bases covered. That's excellent.

Out of curiosity, what is your carb intake like? And how about total calories? I'm still trying to figure out what my carb intake level should be at, so I'm looking for input.

I looked into chia seeds. They're really nutritious! The thing with me, though, is that I'm pretty frugal. Chia is like I think $8 a pound, whereas I get sesame, sunflower and flax WAY cheaper ($2.79, $2 and $1.79, respectively), so I just can't bring myself to shell out the extra dough for chia or hemp. How do you eat it? Is it tasty?

Last edited by LowCVegan : Sun, Mar-18-12 at 21:58.
Reply With Quote
  #19   ^
Old Sun, Mar-18-12, 21:54
mviesprite's Avatar
mviesprite mviesprite is offline
Senior Member
Posts: 14,936
 
Plan: Suzanne Somers; LC
Stats: 182.5/158/105 Female 5'
BF:Melting!
Progress: 32%
Location: NE Ohio
Default

www.drmcdougall.com vegan website
vegangal.com
Have you seen these websites? Just for their general value.
Hello, I am not a vegan - was a vegetarian for 3 yrs but made a lousy one I still have many veggie cookbooks and eat that way quite a bit.
The few vegans I know look amazing. I don't think I could do vegan but I admire those who can do it. Just for the information, you might have a look at Suzanne Somers books for the carb rules she has...we do either pro/fats for a meal or carbos/nonfat and the rules are very different for each. I don't know how you feel about food combining, but I know it has helped me immensely and we follow guidelines for that as well. Perhaps it might help from the weight loss standpoint.
Good luck to you.
Kat
Reply With Quote
  #20   ^
Old Sun, Mar-18-12, 23:19
mviesprite's Avatar
mviesprite mviesprite is offline
Senior Member
Posts: 14,936
 
Plan: Suzanne Somers; LC
Stats: 182.5/158/105 Female 5'
BF:Melting!
Progress: 32%
Location: NE Ohio
Default

"If you think it's hard to explain to people why you're low-carbing, try explaining why you're vegan low-carbing! "
That was a crack up. Truly.
Kat
Reply With Quote
  #21   ^
Old Sun, Mar-18-12, 23:43
LowCVegan LowCVegan is offline
Registered Member
Posts: 42
 
Plan: vegan lowcarb (self-made)
Stats: 178/172/160 Male 72 inches
BF:
Progress: 33%
Default

Quote:
Originally Posted by mviesprite
That was a crack up. Truly.

Ha, glad you got a laugh.

I've really only had one experience with it so far, so hopefully it gets easier as I become better versed with the facts.

The other night at dinner the questions started coming once my (vegan) friend noticed I wasn't eating my pita wrap (I was just noshing the falafel and veg that came in it - I love falafel). And then the girl to my other side was trying to figure out why I didn't get the yogurt sauce with it (it never ceases to amaze me that people don't know if a certain food is vegan or not - uhhh... yogurt = dairy. how is this not obvious to people? oh well), so I was getting it every which way.

Then my other friend starts asking me if I avoid all carbs, or just refined carbs (this as I'm eating a few of the french fries), to which I tell her that I don't abstain completely from any carb, just that I try to minimize them. Then ANOTHER girl wants to know if I eat fruits, to which I reply "not really," which received an eye roll (didn't get a chance to tell her that I'm getting all the vitamins, minerals and fiber I need from other sources - some people just have an inherent mistrust of any diet that would limit bananas and oranges).

So, yeah, it should be interesting. A decent number of my friends are vegans and vegetarians, and they tend to be quite skeptical of low-carb diets because they just associate it with Atkins i.e. the meat and cheese diet. And then most non-vegan people tend to be pretty skeptical of vegan diets for all sorts of reasons. So doing low-carb vegan definitely makes me the odd man out in most situations. Oh well.

I'll check out those websites. What is the Suzanne Somers diet like? What's your carb limit/goal?
Reply With Quote
  #22   ^
Old Mon, Mar-19-12, 02:44
tragedian tragedian is offline
Senior Member
Posts: 944
 
Plan: atkins '72 -now ketogenic
Stats: 260/181.4/140 Female 5'8"
BF:
Progress: 65%
Location: Baltimore, MD, USA
Default

The 'yogurt=dairy?!' Thing doesn't surprise me, so many americans have zero clue about what they're eating. There was a post a little while ago about a man who asked for a white bun instead of a wheat bun on his hamburger because he was allergic to wheat. Neither him nor the waitress knew what 'white' bread is made of. Just yesterday a coworker I'm helping start atkins brought in yogurt covered raisins, assuming they would be good for atkins induction, to ask me if they were low carb.
Reply With Quote
  #23   ^
Old Mon, Mar-19-12, 08:53
Carina8's Avatar
Carina8 Carina8 is offline
Senior Member
Posts: 1,247
 
Plan: Eat to Live
Stats: 250/199/110 Female 5'1"
BF:don't know
Progress: 36%
Location: Michigan, USA
Default

Quote:
Originally Posted by LowCVegan
Nice! Are you into powerlifting (high weight/low reps) or more bodybuilding (lower weight/higher reps)? And you feel 60 grams protein is adequate?

All you need is two brazilnuts and a few grams of nutritional yeast every day. Boom. Done. Seriously, that's all it takes. Nutritional yeast is amazing AND it tastes awesome (even omnivores love it!).

Out of curiosity, what is your carb intake like? And how about total calories? I'm still trying to figure out what my carb intake level should be at, so I'm looking for input.

How do you eat it? Is it tasty?


I'm kind of doing a mixture. I will start w/ a weight I can hardly do 2 or 3 sets of 6 reps, then work that up to 3 sets of 12, then raise the weight and lower the reps again. My most recent lower body was 3 sets of 12, w/ 60 lbs for dead lift, then squats, wide stance toe out squats, and lunges each leg holding 25 lbs. Not to bad (IMO) for an overweight 5'1" woman.

Oh... I have raw brazil nuts in the house, have to start eating them like a daily vitamin I guess. I don't have, and haven't ever tried nutritional yeast. I guess I'll have to pick some up next time I'm out and try it. Glad this is an easy fix. So easy I can't say no! Thanks for helping me out on this one!

I'm about 1400-1500 calories daily and around 175 carbs daily, protein 55-65, fat 65-70.

As for the chia seeds. I'm not a fan of dressing and would rather get my fat from nuts, seeds and avocado etc. So I take a tablespoon of chia seeds and 8-9 table spoons of water and put them into a glass jar in the fridge and it becomes a gel because the seeds will hold 9x their weight in water! So I'll put a little of that on my salad each day with a squeeze of lemon in it, or smashed or juiced berries in it to make a "dressing". The my leaves aren't dry, but don't taste like icky dressing! lol They pick up the taste of whatever they are in and don't otherwise taste like much. I also just put them dry on salads or in my cereal (I use 1 serving of almond milk a day) the cereal and milk get me my B12. It's my only grain/milk.

Everything else is plants. YUM color and variety and abundance galore!
Reply With Quote
  #24   ^
Old Mon, Mar-19-12, 10:36
LowCVegan LowCVegan is offline
Registered Member
Posts: 42
 
Plan: vegan lowcarb (self-made)
Stats: 178/172/160 Male 72 inches
BF:
Progress: 33%
Default

Quote:
Originally Posted by tragedian
Neither him nor the waitress knew what 'white' bread is made of.

Wow. Bread is made from flour and flour is wheat. It blows my mind how people don't know something so basic. I think this is the type of stuff that people used to learn at home, but since so few people do any REAL cooking (by which I mean cooking that deals mainly with real, fresh, whole food ingredients) at home nowadays, maybe this is the type of thing that should be taught in schools. I've heard similar horror stories of large percentage of inner-city kids not being able to identify a carrot, potato etc. and not knowing that chicken McNuggets come from live chickens. It's really pretty disturbing how disconnected some people are from what they eat. Maybe we should all just be eating Soylent Green, right?

This is the kind of stuff that you run into all the time as a vegan. You can say 'no dairy' and still easily end up with a dish with butter or sour cream. You have to be quite specific about what you don't want sometimes. So, in that way, I think being vegan for so long will probably end up being good prep for eating out low carb. I know how to ask for what I want and (hopefully) not come off as too much of a pest in the process.

Quote:
Originally Posted by tragedian
a coworker I'm helping start atkins brought in yogurt covered raisins, assuming they would be good for atkins induction...

I'm a little more understanding of stuff like this. I think it takes more practice and learning to know the general caloric value and macronutrient values of common foods. I myself was eating small amounts of raisins during the first few days that I was trying to eat lower carb. I ended up ditching them not because they have too many carbs per se, but because they just offer too little nutrition per carb. Not a lot of bang for your buck there. I think they would still be a decent choice for someone doing moderate carb if they were having sugar cravings that were coming close to breaking their will.

Last edited by LowCVegan : Mon, Mar-19-12 at 10:42.
Reply With Quote
  #25   ^
Old Mon, Mar-19-12, 11:01
LowCVegan LowCVegan is offline
Registered Member
Posts: 42
 
Plan: vegan lowcarb (self-made)
Stats: 178/172/160 Male 72 inches
BF:
Progress: 33%
Default

Quote:
Originally Posted by Carina8
I'm kind of doing a mixture. I will start w/ a weight I can hardly do 2 or 3 sets of 6 reps, then work that up to 3 sets of 12

That's cool. I used to do something fairly similar, except I started with 8 reps and would up the weight when I could do 12 reps. Actually, I pretty much still follow this scheme for the few bodybuilding-type lifts that I do as it's better for hypertrophy. But I was never into multiple sets, mainly because I found the logic/evidence behind one set training to be compelling and I always made good gains on it. Now that I do almost exclusively heavy compounds, just do a warmup set, then 5 reps, 4 reps, 3, 2, 1, (each time increasing the weight, of course). A few exercises I find I do get a lot better workout at higher reps (bench press and barbell row), so I do that, but for the most part I keep the reps low nd the weight as high as I can handle for that number of reps.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Carina8
I don't have, and haven't ever tried nutritional yeast. I guess I'll have to pick some up next time I'm out and try it. Glad this is an easy fix. So easy I can't say no! Thanks for helping me out on this one!

No problem. I'm a long-time nutritional yeast user and proselytizer. It's so good and so good for you. It also seems expensive (sometimes $13 a pound or even more), but after you realize that you usually use it in pretty small quantities (25 grams in one dish is a LOT). What I've figured out is that just 6 grams (about a tablespoon) covers my B vitamins. If you're already at 60% with niacin, you'd really only need like 2-3 grams.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Carina8
I'm about 1400-1500 calories daily and around 175 carbs daily, protein 55-65, fat 65-70.

Okay, thanks for that. I think 175 is the highest I've heard of for anyone on this forum. And this is resulting in consistent weight loss for you? If that's the case, I may be looking at an easier time than I anticipated.
Reply With Quote
  #26   ^
Old Mon, Mar-19-12, 18:41
mamatigerj mamatigerj is offline
Registered Member
Posts: 29
 
Plan: Atkins
Stats: 205/177/120 Female 62 inches
BF:
Progress: 33%
Default

Welcome!

Quote:
*74 grams sesame seed, 54 grams flaxseed, 47 grams sunflower seeds (all ground up and drunk with protein powder in two separate drinks, one in the morning, one in the afternoon or evening) - this provides the majority of my minerals


This is very interesting! Would you mind sharing the nutritional data for the seeds? I would greatly appreciate it.
Reply With Quote
  #27   ^
Old Mon, Mar-19-12, 19:39
Carina8's Avatar
Carina8 Carina8 is offline
Senior Member
Posts: 1,247
 
Plan: Eat to Live
Stats: 250/199/110 Female 5'1"
BF:don't know
Progress: 36%
Location: Michigan, USA
Default

Quote:
Originally Posted by LowCVegan
Okay, thanks for that. I think 175 is the highest I've heard of for anyone on this forum. And this is resulting in consistent weight loss for you? If that's the case, I may be looking at an easier time than I anticipated.


I'll look at the links on one set lifting, thanks.


175 I think will be high for my long term. I'd really like to keep it under 150. I know not a big difference. I am down 9.5 lbs in two weeks. This is also my first two weeks so I can't say that rate of loss will continue. I had been stalled since the end of December prior to this two weeks, and I also still have a lot to lose. I'll see when I'm closer but it's between 80-100 I'd say. So 10lbs is not a big percentage of my weight as someone who only has a small amount to lose.
Reply With Quote
  #28   ^
Old Mon, Mar-19-12, 21:20
mviesprite's Avatar
mviesprite mviesprite is offline
Senior Member
Posts: 14,936
 
Plan: Suzanne Somers; LC
Stats: 182.5/158/105 Female 5'
BF:Melting!
Progress: 32%
Location: NE Ohio
Default

"What is the Suzanne Somers diet like? What's your carb limit/goal?"
The beauty of it is we don't count all that - the diet is eat what you want from the allowed list (use common sense and don't go crazy just because you can have yummy things). and there are rules for combining. You don't mix your carbs with protein. Protein and fats go together and carbos and nonfat items go together. Low carb veggies go with anything. You wait 3 hrs befoe switching from a pro/fat meal to a carbo one. I'll skip the dairy rules and fruit since you don't eat them.
And you eliminate "funky foods" which are foods that don't combine well with anything...like avocados, olives, nuts, high carb foods like potatoes, processed "foods" like sugar and white flour. The premise is that when you eat a protein/fat meal, and then you have carbs - it spikes your insulin and thereby everything gets stored as fat. If you combine properly your body is using the fat reserves for fuel instead. That was a very nutshell overly simplified way to put it. She suggests if you are stalled or not losing then to cut back on the carbs, instead of having 5 carb meals a week, maybe cut back to 2...for example, I might have oatmeal with nonfat milk and some stevia and cinnamon - At lunch (3 hours later) I would switch to proteins and have a salad with full fat dressing as long as there is not sugar in it and a protein of my choice. It is suggested that the best combo is a carbos breakfast and then pro/fats the rest of the day, and I do find that works well. There are guidelines for vegetarians - I think what may help you is how you are combining your carbs/proteins. For what it's worth.
Kat
Reply With Quote
  #29   ^
Old Mon, Mar-19-12, 21:25
mviesprite's Avatar
mviesprite mviesprite is offline
Senior Member
Posts: 14,936
 
Plan: Suzanne Somers; LC
Stats: 182.5/158/105 Female 5'
BF:Melting!
Progress: 32%
Location: NE Ohio
Default

"I don't have, and haven't ever tried nutritional yeast. "
Nutritional yeast is delicious! I actually crave it and just slice tofu and dip into the yeast flakes and eat it like that. When I ate popcorn I'd sprinkle on that as well. Most people wouldn't like it like that but I do!
Kat
Reply With Quote
  #30   ^
Old Mon, Mar-19-12, 22:53
LowCVegan LowCVegan is offline
Registered Member
Posts: 42
 
Plan: vegan lowcarb (self-made)
Stats: 178/172/160 Male 72 inches
BF:
Progress: 33%
Default

Quote:
Originally Posted by mamatigerj
This is very interesting! Would you mind sharing the nutritional data for the seeds? I would greatly appreciate it.

No problem.

http://nutritiondata.self.com/facts...products/3070/2
http://nutritiondata.self.com/facts...products/3163/2
http://nutritiondata.self.com/facts...products/3167/2


All combined in the amounts I gave above, it looks like this:

Vitamins
A 0%
C 1%
D 0%
E 87%
K 5%
Thiam 107%
Ribo 23%
Niacin 35%
B6 61%
Folate 56%
B12 0%
Panto 38%
Chol 0%
Betaine 0%

Minerals
Calc 90%
Iron 87%
Magn 131%
Phos 133%
Potas 28%
Sod 9%
Zinc 70%
Copp 224%
Mang 204%
Selen 78%
Fluo 0%

As you can see, it covers most of my mineral need (as well as most of my Vit E, which can be hard for vegans to get enough of). It's really nice to have the majority of this all taken care of just by drinking two large cups of ground up seeds.

I know some people here are pretty calorie-conscious, so I gotta warn you that this is very calorie-dense (997 calories), especially fat (84 grams). But seeds are my major dietary source of fat, so I can handle it no problem. Plus, you gotta be getting your calories primarily from either fat or protein when you're doing low carb, right? Another thing to keep in mind is that it only has 7 grams carbs (for each of the two drinks) and a glycemic load of ZERO.

And since it covers so much of my V&M, I can eat little else and be fine. Today I just ate the seeds (with protein powder), sauteed greens and nutritional yeast and a soup (lentils and cauliflower - 26 carbs). And that covered all my V&M for the day. And I'm not hungry!

Last edited by LowCVegan : Mon, Mar-19-12 at 23:06.
Reply With Quote
Reply

Thread Tools
Display Modes

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

vB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off



All times are GMT -6. The time now is 09:35.


Copyright © 2000-2024 Active Low-Carber Forums @ forum.lowcarber.org
Powered by: vBulletin, Copyright ©2000 - 2024, Jelsoft Enterprises Ltd.