The best Low Carb Diets books: Reddit reviews

From 3.5 billion Reddit comments

I have been there, very recently. For the last decade. I can honestly say I absolutely have an addiction problem with sugar & carbs. They are without a doubt my downfall.

I started following a Keto diet in December 2017 and even though I've only lost 20 lbs since then (I have over 100 to lose), I'm off sugar entirely and off carbs for the most part - I try to get my carbs from my vegetables instead now. Coming off them was hard, admittedly, it was a rough week, and I still have my moments where I just want a real burger with fries, but if I make that choice it's going to hurt me, it's like "a little bit of heroin" for a drug addict and I can so easily fall off the wagon and go back to my old habits.

I am reading this book: https://www.amazon.ca/gp/product/1628600160/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o03_s00?ie=UTF8&amp;psc=1 and it's really good at describing why we gain weight, why we become addicted to sugar and can't seem to get off them if we keep eating an excess of carbs, etc. I highly recommend reading it, even if you don't follow the diet, it's a really good read. I also follow r/keto & r/xxketo <- lots of helpful stuff in there.

PM me if you want to talk, (if it matters, I'm 35, female, single, live in southern Alberta, Canada). In the last 2 years I moved away from all my friends & family (by choice, for a job), and then lost my dad (last January, he was waiting for new lungs) and he was my favorite person to joke with, no one else really measures up to match my sense of humor. It sucks losing a loved one who gets you.

Calorie restrictive diets cause hunger or decreased energy (or both). It makes sense you’re having a hard time.

I just finished reading a book that goes into detail on why calorie restrictive diets are so hard to maintain and gives solutions (based on science and results of many case studies) for lasting weight loss and health improvement.

I highly recommend it. Link below.

Why We Get Fat: And What to Do About It https://www.amazon.com/dp/0307474259/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_glt_fabc_M68X83S08Y0P1V7FCYRH

I don't actually need a kindle, but I just wanted to share the book to spread the love and maybe it will help someone else:

Good Calories, Bad Calories by Gary Taubes

Completely eye opening to the tragically terrible food science that our current dietary guidelines are based off of. It definitely set me on the path to make some changes and I am much better for it.

Dr. Wolfgang Lutz, an Austrian gastroenterologist, was a proponent of carbohydrate restricted diets for a number of conditions. In this English version of his "Leben Ohne Brot," he describes the treatment of one or two patients (I forget) using carbohydrate restriction for them to add weight. Not much more than a couple of anecdotes, though.

Well, if he wants to try it, there are lots of books, [subreddits](/r/keto), and online recipe collections. He could also get before-and-after work-ups with his doctor if he wants to make sure he's objective about his results. Good luck!

I've read that the urine ketone test strips are not a good measure.

I've recently been reading Keto Clarity which has a lot of good information on how to measure.

But they basically say the most accurate way to measure ketones is a blood ketone meter or ketone breath analyzer. Ketones in the urine are inaccurate and could disappear after being keto-adapted for a while.

I bought the Precision Xtra Blood Glucose & Ketone Monitoring System and Ketonix to try it out for myself, so I could figure out my personal threshold. Haven't received them yet, so I can't tell you my results.

I really recommend that book though, it's a really good read so far. They went on to publish Keto Cookbook which I actually picked up first at Costco, and after reading that I picked up Keto Clarity on amazon.

Blending coffee with 3 tablespoons of coconut oil and a tablespoon of cocoa is absolutely delicious. If you don't blend it there is a layer of oil on top which is pretty distasteful, but if you blend it up you get a frothy, rich coffee that is wonderful. As to protein levels, lyle mcdonald has a wonderful book on dietary ketosis that should give you a better understanding. Here's a link

Old atkins is not the same however Dr. Phinney, Dr. Volek and Dr. Westman actually authored New Atkins, New You. Very much Keto based.

You got it. If more people realized what you just discussed, we would flip this whole thing around. It's the sugar and the simple carbs that has brought us here. The demonization of fat. If we replaced sugar and simple carbs, with fats and protein we would literally solve this without having to struggle so much. My family and I have lost about 25% of our body fat doing just that. What people don't realize is how long fat keeps you satiated and you're no longer using will power to not eat, you simply don't have cravings to overcome. It also isn't as simple as calories in calories out. One example is protein calories. 1/3 of calories from protein are used in metabolizing them...there is much more science to it,the reason it isn't what we're being taught is because there is big money lost if we demonize sugar the way we have tobacco, but that's what we need... Anyway there's obviously much more to it.. If you'd like to learn more check out this book that explains it with science and research in a simple to follow way. http://www.amazon.com/Why-We-Get-Fat-About/dp/0307474259

You're right about calories-in, calories-out being B.S., but there's plenty of evidence that excess sugar consumption is a causal factor in insulin intolerance, diabetes, and other "diseases of Western Civilization". https://www.amazon.com/Good-Calories-Bad-Controversial-Science/dp/1400033462

For me, keto means meat + veggies. I don't do dairy because it's horrible for me. Causes cystic acne and I'm sensitive to lactose. I agree with everyone that's saying to just change your approach.

A great dairy-free keto cookbook that's saving my life right now is Leanne Vogel's. Definitely check it out and see if her recipes sound like something that could work for you. My only gripe is that she relies on gelatin a lot, but 9 times out of 10, it really lands. In recipes where that approach doesn't work for me, I just substitute the gelatin for coconut cream.

got it

here is a rabbit hole for you. i found this book where the cover is so wrong. the only digital copy i could find was at internet archive with a 1 hour checkout.

i am sure it will interest you, it took me to cleave, burrick, stephanson, banting the undetaker, ludwig, jostlin

that mackarness started the search, also yellowlees

link to internet archive in pin

https://www.pinterest.ca/pin/691372980307016533/

i found a random used copy in the UK, waiting for it Allan / Lutz

https://www.amazon.ca/Life-Without-Bread-Low-Carbohydrate-Diet/dp/0658001701

I also loved healthy carbs - brown rice was a central part of my daily meals for a long time, and I could live on rice & beans (and veggies) and never get tired of it…. So I was plenty skeptical of low carb - high fat, until I read some of the books by Gary Taubes (like Why We Get Fat: And What To Do About It). Opened my eyes to the physiological mechanisms going on behind the scenes, and explains why people in poverty (for example) can be fat even while not getting enough calories. Fascinating.

Now that I’ve been eating this way for two years, and my body is adapted to it, I can totally have pizza once in a while, ice cream once in a while, birthday cake at someone’s birthday, etc - I don’t feel deprived. It’s more like I have a default way of eating, and I can eat other things on special occasions. (Though I do get a ‘sugar hangover’ now when I eat sugar. But sometime it’s worth it!)

First, let go of the fault and the blame. You can't go back and change it, so please accept that it was the best you could do in the situations you dealt with. You survived, and sometimes that's all we can ask of ourselves.

Second, has the situation changed? Are you still working 80 hours, a caretaker, and a homemaker? Depressed, stressed, sleep deprived? How you take on weight loss will depend a lot on how many of these have been addressed or not. Having support, time, energy(physical and emotional), and funds, all affect your ability to take on a major lifestyle change. Burnout will undermine the progress you make.

This is the book my doctor strongly encouraged me to read, and its definitely helped change my mindset.

https://www.amazon.com/Why-We-Get-Fat-About/dp/0307474259

This book is terrific. Easy read, super interesting and actually gets into why some foods cause us so many problems with weight and health and others don’t. Highly recommend. Don’t be scared by the title.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/0307474259/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_awdb_imm_PYJ8P84CDFGD2EWKKHQJ

Also: know that weight loss is more about diet than exercise. Exercise will give your muscles form and strength but weight loss comes more with eating the right things (unless you're okay with spending most your day exercising). See: https://www.amazon.com/Good-Calories-Bad-Controversial-Science/dp/1400033462 (it's thick but is packed with lots of good studies and meta-analyses).

Gary Taubes is the gold standard for this.

His latest is "The Case for Keto", but I still have a soft spot for Why We Get Fat: And What To Do About It.

Taubes is a journalist who specializes in science. His original book on the subject (Good Calories, Bad Calories) is aimed at more of the science/medical community and can be a little dense. The Why We Get Fat book is basically him taking that information and putting it in a little more simple and reader-friendly book. He's been keto for years and really knows his stuff on this and is fantastic at explaining it so anyone can understand.

> ....if they went vegan for a week and then stopped, then the overall percentage of animal products and plant based products would be unaffected

It means the subjects in the respective groups are self-selected, which means your trial is junk science.

> the study is saying is that the higher the percentage of plant-based products, the healthier you are

1. We don't know what any subject was actually eating.

2. It wasn't randomized.

Ergo, it's junk science.

> [I] don't know how to read scientific studies

You can learn here: https://www.amazon.com/dp/1400033462/

Gary Taubes

Good Calories, Bad Calories: Fats, Carbs, and the Controversial Science of Diet and Health

There’s a very good science writer named Gary Taubes. Here’s a decent summary of his argument:

https://fs.blog/2015/12/gary-taubes-what-makes-us-fat/

Also he wrote several books, the most accessible to the layperson is “Why We Get Fat”:

Why We Get Fat: And What to Do About It https://www.amazon.com/dp/0307474259/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_glt_fabc_476JY1MV2T5DAQHH1JPE

It’s really brilliant stuff.

Keto, discovered fat was actually good for you 12 years ago. I was 311/lb at the time in my quest to lose weight and keep it off. Started it and my friends were telling me I was going to die of a heart attack. 12 years later I am a buck 70, still alive, healthy and I don't even have to try and keep the weight off.

It all started when I watched this documentary

and later on, I read this book Why we get fat and what to do about it

Calories in vs calories out is too simplistic. It's not how the body actually works. Different carbs with same calorie count are handled by the body differently.

Read Gary Taubes Why We Get Fat

This guy ALSO wrote this: https://www.amazon.com/Good-Calories-Bad-Controversial-Science/dp/1400033462

Good Calories, Bad Calories, which when it came out successfully provided the momentum and started the ball rolling towards people realizing that cardiac health had nothing to do with cholesterol in food, or saturated fat, but was mainly an inflammatory condition exacerbated by simple sugars. More importantly, he sidestepped the usual 18 year delay between science and medical best practice.

Personally, because of that, I'm willing to give him the benefit of the doubt on this one. I think your solution works fantastically for someone who is naturally skinny. But once you get to the point where you've piled on weight, Keto is the most effective way to burn it - partly because if you eat carbs it interferes with burning fat, something that goes back to mammal hibernation strategies.

We're meant to mostly starve every year in the winter. We don't.

> America's obesity epidemic is from too many calories

Say studies paid for by Coca Cola. Meanwhile: https://www.amazon.com/dp/1400033462/

Good Calories, Bad Calories: Fats, Carbs, and the Controversial Science of Diet and Health

> Also, veganism has not been found in a single study to be harmful to humans.

It would be unethical to perform an RCT studying vegan diets.

> What is harmful is malnutrition, which is something vegans and meat eaters alike are capable of suffering from, especially when they lack access to a varied diet

There are people who eat nothing but meat. They are not malnourished (anymore, now that they don't consume vegan foods).

I’m speaking from experience. If you truly want to learn something, I’m happy to compile a list of books. I don’t keep footnotes for my life experience so it will take take some time to pull together. If you’re just trying to prove me wrong, I’ll pass. I’ve believed the myths about weight loss for a long time and felt horrible that I just wasn’t strong enough, or disciplined enough, or I didn’t have enough will power. It truly isn’t that simple.

Here is a book to start with. https://smile.amazon.com/Why-We-Get-Fat-About/dp/0307474259/ref=sr_1_1?crid=EMNBJO0YUJ47&amp;dchild=1&amp;keywords=why+we+get+fat+by+gary+taubes&amp;qid=1604323379&amp;sprefix=Why+we+get+f%2Caps%2C160&amp;sr=8-1

> carcinogens

Are labeled such if they are found to cause cancer in lab rats. Everything causes cancer in lab rats.

Your body developed several new cancers today. Your immune system recognized those cancers and killed them. This occurs every single day. Environmental carcinogens do not cause the majority of diagnosed cancers. Diet and lifestyle do.

> antibiotics

Don't cost thousands of dollars per dose. Start an antibiotics company and try to sell your product for thousands of dollars per dose. See how much market traction you get.

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Details were requested and you dodged the request. Duly noted.

There's no such thing as "obesity-level".

Read the sources. If cardio didn't cause metabolism to drop, our otherwise ancestors would have died before reproducing and we wouldn't be here to discuss it.

"Weight loss" is fastest with 24-hour bed rest: https://www.amazon.com/Why-We-Get-Fat-About/dp/0307474259/

If you do the cooking, try to transition to a low-carbohydrate diet. Cut back on pasta, bread, rice, and potatoes. Low carb diets can be very effective in resolving diabetes and lowering weight.

This book might help. https://www.amazon.com/Why-We-Get-Fat-About/dp/0307474259/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=why+we+get+fat&amp;qid=1557194392&amp;s=books&amp;sr=1-1

> They ignore all the massive amount of published medical research showing keto is unhealthy in favor of anecdotes.

The "massive amount of published medical research" you mention has countless flaws that are persistently ignored by "modern" medicine and nutrition.

Given how complicated the topic is, and that to be thorough, the flaws in each major study must be dissected and explained, this takes extensive writing (and sources).
I recommend those interested in further understanding what has gone wrong with nutrition in the US and around the world look into these two books that cover the topics with fantastic detail:
https://www.amazon.com/Good-Calories-Bad-Controversial-Science/dp/1400033462
https://www.amazon.com/Big-Fat-Surprise-Butter-Healthy/dp/1451624433/

Combined, these books have literally hundreds of pages of sources at the back of the book, so don't be scared away by the 640 and 500 pages (respectively) - the last ~1/3rd of the book is sources alone.

Yes dear, I knew exactly which article you were referring too. Now how about you go read about him from his own website and compare notes? He is very clear about everything he has tried, when it was and the science behind it.

But honestly if you would like a science backed book instead of just one man to tell you calories are not that simple then I would recommend - Good Calories, Bad Calories: Fats, Carbs, and the Controversial Science of Diet and Health https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1400033462/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_.IW9AbGXQ1PMM