I’m pretty sure this diet works in getting tighter control. But I have a problem, I’m pretty skinny and my nutritionist says I should eat around 150 carbs to gain some weight. But I find it really hard to have good control eating all those carbs. I feel between a rock and a hard place, I want to try this but I’m afraid I’ll end up loosing more weight, anybody ever had this problem ?
Thanks a lot.
Santiago
hey santiago. when i started bernstein, i was 6’6" and about 185 lbs. I dropped maybe 5, but my weight essentially stayed the same. it’s definitely possible.
You can also walk off your carbs, or exercise in some way after carb rich meals. I guess I am moderate carb, not as low as Bernstein recommends, but I still keep my blood sugars fairly low.
I’m thin & lost weight that I couldn’t afford to lose. The key is eating enough protein to maintain your weight. This is a good protein calculator to figure how much you need http://www.phlaunt.com/lowcarb/DietMakeupCalc.php. Once I added more protein, I gained the weight I needed & have been the same weight for the almost 3 years I’ve been following Dr.B’s recommendations.
First off, I wonder what “too skinny” is. In his younger years, my father was 5’10" and weighed 135 lb. He functioned perfectly well, (got through dental school, and that’s pretty taxing!!) but just had a light frame. My sister inherited his frame: she was 5’3" and weighed around 95-100 lb. Not a trace of fat on that girl, but she was physically very active and healthy.
So it seems to me that we come in a variety of shapes, and that some of us are meant to be thin and some of us in the middle, and some of us obese. The most important thing is how you’re functioning, mentally and physically. Dietitians often try to put us into boxes, but our bodies are pretty stubborn about where they want to be weight-wise.
However, if you really want to gain weight, eat a lot of fat – McDonald’s cheeseburgers without the bun, sausages sliced into your scrambled eggs, fatty bacon, heavy whipping cream in your coffee, etc. One of 2 things will happen – 1) you’ll gain weight and your dietitian will be proud until you tell her how you did it, or 2) your weight will maintain right where it likes to be, in which case you can tell her you sincerely tried, and ate the highest-calorie foods you could get your gums around and it just didn’t work, whereupon she will have to admit it’s the CARBS that put weight on people. And you will have to decide what kind of eating plan works best for you and makes you most comfortable.
Thanks Everyone, I’m 5’7" (1.78 m) and weight 129 (59 k), I’ve always been skinny, I tried to gain weight once and it was a loooot of work … eating like crazy and lifting weights and manage to put on about 5 pounds. I want to try this diet because from around a month now my insulin needs have increased tremendously (I went from 1 unit = 16 grams to 1 unit = 6 grams) and my sugars are becoming impossible to control.
Oddly enough this started about 1 month after starting on the omnipod. I was diagnosed about 2 and a half years ago … maybe I had a really long honeymoon … I don’t know.
Anyway, it makes sense to me that a low carb diet will ease up the BG levels, I hear that most health organizations don’t recommend this, but I’ve also heard the feedback from the people who’ve tried it and it seems to be pretty positive. I believe in the feedback more.
Thanks Gerri, I was wandering, when I’m having a roller coaster day (which is happening a lot lately) I eat almost no carbs and this helps a lot. I just eat protein and vegetables. But my fear is that this increase in protein and decrease in carbs will hurt my kidneys. I’ve also heard this about the Atkins diet. Do you know what’s Dr B’s position on this ?
Hi Santiago,
The kidney caution about Atkins was nothing more than propaganda fear mongering & was completely discredited, but the myth lives on. If your kidneys are fine, there’s no need to worry. Dr. B’s recommendations are not super high protein anyway. I found it hard to add more protein to gain weight back because I felt too full. Once I gained what I needed, I cut back the protein a bit & haven’t lost a pound. I got a lot of head shaking & warnings from my doctors about being thin. Just the way I am.
Something to bear in mind as your diet changes is that about 58% of protein converts to glucose. Protein digests more slowly, of course, so a BG increase is delayed…My body has become more efficient at converting protein & I often take split bolus doses for meals. Some upfront to cover the carbs & another later to handle the protein. I don’t have a pump.
One of the most important lessons I learned from Dr. B is to keep meals consistent day-to-day with pretty much the same amounts of carbs & protein. I’m not a slave to it & will never have the precision of Dr. B, but try to stay fairly constant on the amount of protein. This has given me a far better handle on knowing what to expect. Perhaps our bodies do better this way rather than having constantly changing fuel.
Hope this helps.
very well said. since i switched to low carb, my breakfast is usually 4 strips of bacon, with 3 eggs cooked in the fat from that bacon. people always make cholesterol jokes. since adopting this diet, my HDL has risen from the 50s to the 70s, and my LDL has dropped from around 100 to the 60s. And I haven’t gained a pound.
also, to Gerri- I also had to learn the split bolus method, and to especially pay attention to spikes in the night when I ate closer to bedtime. I’m also on MDI.
I guess I would still suggest weightlifting and eating as a good way to gain weight (muscle mass). I guess I have to ask what kind of weight lifting you did and what was your diet regime. Did you pay particular attention to protein and did you focus on eating before and after workouts?