So I want to know what is the best route to get results:
Eating a healthy balanced low carb diet approx. 60ish carbs a day (including a little fruit and starchy veggies like carrots) or an extremely low car diet about 20-30ish carbs a day (only proteins, fats and non starchy veggies)?
I ask because I need to drop 10-15 lbs for professional reasons. I am not overweight, but the industry I'm in requires thin, not normal. Please hold comments about that, I'm simply looking for the most effective route to long term get the results I'm looking for.
Either option I will keep calories around 1200 and I jog for about 30 mins 5 days a week.
When I see pictures of model Bambi Northwood-Blythe (also a Type 1 Diabetic) with a very slim physique (even slimmer than I want to achieve), I know it must be possible to get this slim model body type while still taking insulin.
My Dr. is not helping with this, and thinks it's not important. Well, it is to me and my profession. She says it's not about less insulin, it's about the right amount of insulin. The agency I work with hasn't provided me with nutritional advice specific to diabetics.
Please pass along tips and tricks. I've slowly put on an extra 10-15 and it is seeming impossible for me to drop it. I'm not looking for a fad diet, more of a way of life. Healthy options only...I do not have an ED and would never harm myself to be thin. I just want to know if my former weight can be achieved again or if I have to accept that my former body is not coming back.
Because we're all very different I can only say what has worked for me. In the last year and 1/2 I learned how to count carbs and match my insulin dose to what I was eating. I try to keep my blood sugar steady without big highs or lows and eat ~100 grams of carbs a day. I walk my dog every morning for 2 miles and walk after lunch every day weather permitting. I play tennis 3 times a week and usually play golf, racquetball or go for a swim. This has all helped me to lose 40 pounds and keep it off. If I see the scale start to creep up again, I'll switch to salad for a few days and that usually takes care of it. The most effective thing for me for weight loss is keeping my blood sugar in a pretty tight range from 70-150.
I've gotten thinner without being totally lower carb, 5' 11" 182 at most recent weigh in although I'm 46. I think that in some cases, 1200 calories is low cal which would be hard to do with anything but pretty low carb.
Have you tried mixing strength training in with low carb? Last year I blew up my leg in a 1/2 marathon and was depressed and balooned up to 199 and was like "eek" so I I'd try one of those Beachbody programs so I did T25 when it was released (I don't sell them...although there's an element of sales in the whole schtick, I think they are pretty good workouts) I have done that and now P90X3) and got more toned in both of them. I like them as they are fun and concentrated (25 min or 1/2 hour...) but I found them a bit more challenging. I think it helps enhance your insulin uptake to throw some metal around. I dunno if models (if that's what we're talking about?) are allowed to be muscly but I like the buzz I get from it.
In my opinion, a low carb diet is the easiest for achieving a healthy weight simply because it reduces insulin use and hence minimize fat gain. Whether you choose 20-30 g/day or 60 g/day probably won't make much difference. What I would suggest is that you no restrict calories more than 500 over your minimum required, that will just mess up your metabolism and make your body fight to gain weight. You can check on your calorie requirements by calculating your basal metabolic rate and adjusting for your activity levels. A good calculator is here.
What I would suggest to you is that you consider Intermittent Fasting as a way of reducing your calories while avoiding a messed up metabolism. You will need to make sure your basal is set properly though.
The other thing is that if this is about "looking good" then you could also work at becoming leaner. Since muscle is much denser than fat, you could actually gain muscle and weight, while losing body fat and look thinner. Resistance training with weights or interval training are great exercises.
One thing I've noticed regarding skipping breakfast is that some people have reported that this will fuel or perhaps aggravate dawn phenomenon. When I get a day where my BG is running up, if I don't eat which, with a pump, includes a correction bolus, my BG seems to keep running up until I bolus and eat.
