Doubling My Carbs

In the past six months, I guess it would be fair to say I have become a bit "carbophobic." In fact, I have been following a "very low carb" way of eating. Why? I can't really say for sure.  I have type II diabetes and this low carb lifestyle has effectively put my type II diabetes into remission. It makes sense: carbs drive blood sugar responses, so cut back on the carbs. That is also the key to weight loss.

But why very low carb? I honestly don't know. I came to the realization that I was carbophobic a while back and decided it wasn't rational. I had been consuming, on average, 20-25 grams of carbs per day, mostly in the form of green, leafy vegetables and the small number of carbs found naturally in eggs. The theory is, to stay in ketosis, you need to consume 50 or fewer grams of carbs per day. That helps the most with weight loss. So if that is true, why was I trying to stay below 25? Why not simply stay below 50?

So in recent weeks, I have roughly doubled my carb count. I am still below 50 net carbs (after subtracting out grams of fiber), but it has made a huge difference in the types of foods I can eat. For example, the other night, I made ice cream from the recipe in Sally Fallon's book, Nourishing Traditions. In half a cup, there were about 300 calories and 16 grams of carbs. I keep my calorie total below the threshold needed to lose weight for a person my size and height, and my total carbs for the day were under 50. I also monitored my blood glucose levels and there was no blood sugar effect to doubling my carbs at all. And the homemade ice cream sure did taste good and add enjoyment to the meal. I am also hopeful that doubling my carbs will help shake things up and get me through this current stall (I will know on Monday when I weigh myself).

This is all part of my new approach to the low carb way of eating. I am challenging many of the assumptions I have made about losing weight by low carbing, as many of the posts in this blog detail. Next up: exercise. Gary Taubes tells us it doesn't help with weight loss. Is that true? Or just another Internet myth...