(09-10-2011, 12:30 PM)dargona Wrote: Bryony, I do bike or walk to and from work, and my vegetarian diet consists of a lot of carbs yes but they are 80-99% complex carbohydrates. I do however realize that my carb intake is too high for my lifestyle and that needs change but I am by no means one of those vegetarians who skim by as vegetarians by eating just junk food. I plan to notice some major changes soon though due to increased activity and carb cutting.
Hi,
I certainly didn't mean to imply that you were eating junk food...
We are all different and some people (e.g. my wife) need vastly more carbs than I do. I was just making a general point that by and large we all tend to eat more carbs in our sedentary lifestyle than we should. Also, that some people (e.g. me) are carbohydrate sensitive. ( My body seems to be able to subsist on one potato a day!
)
It's not helped by the medical orthodoxy pushing carbs over protein either. Even complex carbs will get converted into fat if they contain more energy than is needed. The theory that works for me (it may not for you) is that you eat a reasonable amount of protein, some fat, and just enough carbohydrate to facilitate the conversion of any fat that you have stored in order to make up the energy deficit.
The difference between that and a calorie-controlled diet is that you are actually never really hungry, but you still lose weight, because, given the minimal amount of carbs that you ingest, your metabolism preferentially converts the fat in your body to energy rather than the fat that you eat.
The problem with calorie controlled diets are that they are based on keeping the number of calories consumed lower than your needs, which works, but only if you have the iron willpower to tolerate feeling hungry!
Anyhow, I found this reference if you are interested - I haven't looked at it thoroughly, but it might be helpful.
http://www.immuneweb.org/lowcarb/
TTFN
B.