Lowcarbfriend

Hi Everyone! Brand-brand new here, and trying LC for the first time ever…I used to live off cereal and yogurt, etc. really low cal "diety" stuff but lots of carbs! But now I’m trying lowcarb in the hopes that it’ll shrink me back down to where I want to be.

I should probably start off by saying that I’m in the midst of dealing with an eating disorder now…I don’t qualify as "anorexic" medically speaking because my BMI is not below 17 anymore but I still am definitely in that mindset. Over the past six months my restrictive eating has taken on a compulsive bingeing side to it that scared my anorexic brain half to death and put on quite a bit of unwanted weight.

I am by no means overweight but still a little heavier than I’d like to be and thought I’d give LC a try to see if I could wiggle out of these last couple of pounds. So I’ve basically been living on South Beach meal bars, Met-RX Protein Plus bars, atkins s’mores bars, cheese, salads, boca burgers, etc. for the past two weeks but I’ve actually GAINED a pound!!!! I am getting so discouraged.

And now the heart of the matter–why is this not working??? I have kept my carbs ("net carbs" at least, according to the bar wrappers) at <30g every day for 2 weeks and been very very good about it! I am a junior in college and I walk a lot every day getting to and from classes all week long so I’m by no means sedentary. I used to do 1400/day when I was high carb/low to no fat but these days I get a little bit more than that esp. since I have heard so much about people "stalling" as a result of too few calories. At any rate I make sure not to let my carbs get too high at all, <30g/day. I miss my Kashi GoLean sorely.

Could it be that my metabolism is still in "shock" from being anorexic for so long? What am I doing wrong? O seasoned veterans of the lowcarb world, please bestow upon me some of your wisdom. Thank you so much in advance.

–Kristin

I have always been interested in how food relates to history and vice versa ever since I saw a museum display called The Seeds of Change.

Here is something that might interest other history buffs here:

History of cereal ( from wikipedia)

Breakfast cereals have their beginnings in the vegetarian movement in the last quarter of the nineteenth century, which influenced members of the Seventh-day Adventist Church in the United States.[4] The main Western breakfast at that time was a cooked breakfast of eggs, bacon, sausage, and beef. The first breakfast cereal, Granula (named after granules) was invented in the United States in 1863 by James Caleb Jackson, operator of the Jackson Sanitorium in Dansville, New York and a staunch vegetarian. The cereal never became popular; it was far too inconvenient, as the heavy bran nuggets needed soaking overnight before they were tender enough to eat.
The next generation of breakfast cereals was considerably more convenient, and, combined with clever marketing, they finally managed to catch on. In 1877, John Harvey Kellogg, operator of the Battle Creek Sanitarium in Battle Creek, Michigan, invented a biscuit made of ground-up wheat, oat, and cornmeal for his patients suffering from bowel problems. The product was initially also named "Granula", but changed to "Granola" after a lawsuit. His most famous contribution, however, was an accident. After leaving a batch of boiled wheat soaking overnight and rolling it out, Kellogg had created wheat flakes. His brother Will Keith Kellogg later invented corn flakes from a similar method, bought out his brother’s share in their business, and went on to found the Kellogg Company in 1906. With his shrewd marketing and advertising, Kellogg’s sold their one millionth case after three years.
[edit]Post
Charles William Post, a patient at the Battle Creek Sanitarium, also made significant contributions to breakfast cereals. After his 1893 visit, he started his own sanitarium, the La Vita Inn, and developed his own coffee substitute, Postum. In 1897, Post invented Grape-Nuts and, coupled with a nation-wide advertising campaign, became a leader in the cereal business.

The 20th century
In the 1930s, the first puffed cereal, Kix, went on the market. Beginning after World War II, the big breakfast cereal companies – now including General Mills, who entered the market in 1924 with Wheaties – increasingly started to target children. Sugar was added, and the once-healthy breakfasts began to look starkly different from their fiber-rich ancestors; Kellogg’s Sugar Smacks, created in 1953, had 56% sugar by weight. Different mascots were introduced, first with the Rice Krispies elves and later pop icons like Tony the Tiger and the Trix Rabbit.
Because of Kellogg, the city of Battle Creek, Michigan is nicknamed the "cereal city".
History

Breakfast cereals have their beginnings in the vegetarian movement in the last quarter of the nineteenth century, which influenced members of the Seventh-day Adventist Church in the United States.[4] The main Western breakfast at that time was a cooked breakfast of eggs, bacon, sausage, and beef. The first breakfast cereal, Granula (named after granules) was invented in the United States in 1863 by James Caleb Jackson, operator of the Jackson Sanitorium in Dansville, New York and a staunch vegetarian. The cereal never became popular; it was far too inconvenient, as the heavy bran nuggets needed soaking overnight before they were tender enough to eat.
The next generation of breakfast cereals was considerably more convenient, and, combined with clever marketing, they finally managed to catch on. In 1877, John Harvey Kellogg, operator of the Battle Creek Sanitarium in Battle Creek, Michigan, invented a biscuit made of ground-up wheat, oat, and cornmeal for his patients suffering from bowel problems. The product was initially also named "Granula", but changed to "Granola" after a lawsuit. His most famous contribution, however, was an accident. After leaving a batch of boiled wheat soaking overnight and rolling it out, Kellogg had created wheat flakes. His brother Will Keith Kellogg later invented corn flakes from a similar method, bought out his brother’s share in their business, and went on to found the Kellogg Company in 1906. With his shrewd marketing and advertising, Kellogg’s sold their one millionth case after three years.
[edit]Post
Charles William Post, a patient at the Battle Creek Sanitarium, also made significant contributions to breakfast cereals. After his 1893 visit, he started his own sanitarium, the La Vita Inn, and developed his own coffee substitute, Postum. In 1897, Post invented Grape-Nuts and, coupled with a nation-wide advertising campaign, became a leader in the cereal business.
[edit]The 20th century
In the 1930s, the first puffed cereal, Kix, went on the market. Beginning after World War II, the big breakfast cereal companies – now including General Mills, who entered the market in 1924 with Wheaties – increasingly started to target children. Sugar was added, and the once-healthy breakfasts began to look starkly different from their fiber-rich ancestors; Kellogg’s Sugar Smacks, created in 1953, had 56% sugar by weight.[5] Different mascots were introduced, first with the Rice Krispies elves and later pop icons like Tony the Tiger and the Trix Rabbit.
Because of Kellogg, the city of Battle Creek, Michigan is nicknamed the "cereal city".[6]

Breakfast cereal – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

and the man who started it all:

John Harvey Kellogg – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

So you can see that most breakfast cereals (except for corn meal mush and oatmeal) were recent inventions. They were actually invented during a time in American history when a lot of food-faddism was going on and w their invention was also tied to the vegetarian movement of the 19th century and early 20th century.

by Bee Wilson

OK it isn’t about LC, but anyone read this? The book is about the many ways swindlers have cheapened, falsified, and even poisoned our food throughout history. Just wondering, because she is speaking in NYC about her new book and debating about paying to attend.

I have always been significantly overweight so that was pretty much normal. When I was 12 or 13, I had problems with my blood sugar. I got tested by a specialist with glucose tolerance tests and having the results baffle the doctors. A specialist from Harvard was flown to review my results. They were mystified. My blood sugar would spike drastically initially and then my GC would crash severely and level out at amazingly low numbers for a substantial period of time. Normal results would see a spike and then a decrease in blood glucose over time.

I remember the doctor telling my mother that I was obese and I needed to lose weight so my insulin could go back to normal. In spite of being athletic I was still obese. The doctors said I just needed to "push away from the dinner table sooner". This just set the perfect storm into motion.

My parents just nagged on me more about not eating so much until I was actually only eating a school lunch. My dad’s favorite name for me was chubbs and to refer to me as "gobula" which was short for for gobulas of fat.

So pretty much my "diet" growing up was now mired in self esteem issues. I wasn’t gaining as much weight then, but I was still gaining. By the time I graduated I was a size 16. I was having maybe 3-6 periods a year by then and every once in a while one was particularly bad with cramping etc. I had all the symptoms of PCOS but was still undiagnosed.

Back then, things were a little different and about the worst thing that could happen to you, was you got herpes or you got pregnant so there wasnt much in the way of practicing safe sex against STD’s. There wasnt as much pressure to see GYNs that there is now.

Because I was fat I never had much in the way of a steady boyfriend. I was sexually active but never with a steady partner so my need for BCPs was low. Yeah, I was a little slutty. I was the fat girl with self esteem problems, of course I was an easy mark Even though I was pretty promiscuous, I never practiced any methods of birth control, but I also never got pregnant. I was pretty happy go lucky about that and it was fine with me. I lived under the whole "dont look a gift horse in the mouth" thing.

In 1994 I met the guy who’d be my first boyfriend (on a online game of course). By 1996 we decided to take things into real life. I made the decision that I would do the right thing and get on birth control. 1997 we met and I was now on BCPs. I had complained to my doctor several times about the weight gain but their response was always "eat healthier". Well, when you’re eating not much in the first place, "eat healthier" isnt always the right answer. I was put on phen/fen which helped me loose 45lbs but of course, you dont keep that weight off when you stop taking the pills. I also started displaying hirituism.

Luckily for me, my division was was sold to another company and my insurance changed in 1999. I now had a new doctor who immediately recognized my symptoms as being PCOS and ordered the blood tests, the ultrasound to check my ovaries. We agreed to try the Magnesium/Calcium/B12 therapy for the prevention of cramping. The ultrasound confirmed PCOS diagnosis.

Because my doctor was taking part in a medical study in Georgetown Medical School on low carb eating as a solution for insuline resistance she highly recommended atkins to me. I took her up on that.

While I was initially successful in losing during induction, I slammed to a screeching halt and remained for 7 months. Sometimes, fate has a way of taking care of a person. Who knows. My boyfriend and I broke up and because i had no use of the BCPs any longer, I stopped taking them with my doctor’s permission. My weight started dropping again until I hit another plateau that actually turned into a stall. (anything over 6 weeks is considered a stall in my book. anything under is a plateau). It was then that my doctor decided we would give glucophage a try. 2 weeks later, I had dropped another 10lbs.

By this time, I had become obsessed with losing weight and my meals got steadily smaller and smaller until finally I had stalled out completely. My division was sold again for the 3rd time and my health insurance changed to a plan which was no longer carried by doctor. I was now 43lbs down and found what had worked until I stalled myself out by NOT eating.

My new doctor couldn’t be arsed to continue with the glucophage therapy and I admit, after not eating much for several months, I couldn’t be either. I slowly went back to eating my same old destructive way of carby poison and slowly gaining a lb or 2 here and there.

My biggest wake up has been in the last year where my weight has really ballooned up and I managed to gain 70lbs in the past few months.

TODAY – JUNE 2ND

Here’s what happened over the years:

455 – The Vandals enter Rome, and plunder the city for two weeks.
1615 РFirst R̩collet missionaries arrive at Quebec City, from Rouen, France.
1800 – First smallpox vaccination in North America, at Trinity, Newfoundland
1865 – With the surrender of the forces of General Edmund Kirby Smith at Galveston, Texas, the American Civil War comes to an end
1897 – Mark Twain, responding to rumors that he was dead, is quoted by the New York Journal as saying, "The report of my death was an exaggeration."
1924 – The government of the United States confers citizenship on all Native Americans born within the territorial limits of the country
1946 – In a referendum Italians decide to turn Italy from a monarchy into a Republic. After this referendum the king of Italy Umberto II di Savoia was exiled.
1952 – Television broadcasting begins in Canada, at Montreal, Quebec.
1953 – Coronation of Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom, the first to be televised
1954 – Senator Joseph McCarthy charges that Communists have infiltrated the Central Intelligence Agency
1965 – Vietnam War: The first contingent of Australian combat troops arrives in South Vietnam
1967 – Protests in West Berlin against the arrival of the Shah of Iran turn into fights, during which young Benno Ohnesorg is killed by a police officer. His death results in the founding of the terrorist group Movement 2 June
1979 – Pope John Paul II visits his native Poland, becoming the first Pope to visit a Communist country
1997 – Timothy McVeigh is convicted on 15 counts of murder and conspiracy for his role in the 1995 terrorist bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma

Alrighty then, as of weigh in this morning: 340.2!

14.2 pounds in 5 weeks and 2-4 inches off my waist, I’m not sure exactly how much b/c I’m just going by belt notches, and not measurements.

Also, was looking over some numbers I had kept of the last time I lost weight. I started at 360 in April 2006, and got down to 323 by August 2006. This was no specific woe, just cutting back on certain things and working out. By Feb 2007, was back up to 345 and it kept climbing. Football season and the holidays, then not caring.

This time around tho, I’ll be armed with a woe that will help me avoid the pitfalls.

so, last time around was 40lbs in 4 months, but that was hitting the gym 3 times a week for an hour and a half. This time so far isn’t quite as fast, but it’s moving so I’m happy, not ecstatic, but happy.

I have been biking to work too, went 3 times last week and am trying to get to everyday. Just have to figure out a shower situation at work. We do have showers, so I’ll need to look into that. Plus, it’s getting to be lawnmowing season. At the peak it’ll be at least once a week.

greetings to all and thanks for listening.