2 Questions

Here is the copy of the post at forum.lowcarber.org where I have commented on regarding nuts and water retention

minalc asked:

I have a couple of questions:

1. Why is it considered bad to eat so many nuts/why can nuts stall you? I have macadamia nuts and they seem pretty safe. They have a lot of fat (23g) and only 2 net carbs. This seems pretty good imo, especially since I’m struggling to consume fat (I tend to get more protein than fat)

2. Is it possible to retain A LOT (AND I MEAN A LOT) of water? I’ve been on Atkins for almost three weeks now and I’ve only lost 3 lbs according to the scale. But everyone around me (and including myself) have noticed that I lost weight. I’ve also noticed that although I drink a lot, I tend to pee less than pre-atkins (sorry, had to go there xD)

Thanks for the help!

My answer:

Hi minalc,

The thing about nuts is that so many people tend to clump them all together not realizing how much difference there is between various types of nuts. Macadamia nuts are relatively safe. They are amongst those in the lower range of carb content but they have  3 times as many carbs as say, walnuts or pecans; both of which I adore by the way.

The nuts to stay away from are chestnuts as they have one of the highest carb content of all nuts and seeds. The other thing to watch with nuts as JEY100 says, is they are just way to easy to overeat. So with all nuts or any of those picky-type foods, it’s best to measure out a sensible amount at the beginning of the day and then put the rest of the packet away out of sight and hopefully out of mind.

If you’re struggling to consume fat, then really you shouldn’t look to nuts to increase your fat intake.  It’s far better to go to animal fat which you can get obviously in the form of cheese, and it’s worth mentioning, there are literally hundreds and hundreds of varieties of cheese which incidentally will also  help with your water retention. That’s simply because in general, animal fats being water soluble, will carry water out of your body as part of your digestive process.

As for water retention, my first question would be, are you drinking enough? The body naturally holds on to water if it senses what could be termed as a water shortage. I also noticed that you said you decided to quit caffeine and drink less cola. Quite frankly, the caffeine is not so much of a problem as the cola is. If it’s a diet cola then you’re drinking all the problems that come with artificial sweeteners and if it’s not diet cola, then the amount of sugar you will be consuming will be more than enough to sabotage any of the good work you’re doing through having changed your diet. JEY100 makes a good point about asking if you feel bloated, with puffy ankles, etc.  As she quite rightly says, a low carb diet will often produce a diuretic effect for most people.

The last point I’ll leave you with is that you seem to be only measuring your weight which when you consider how a low carb diet works on our bodies, then this is probably one of the  poorest indicators of fat loss. In fact your friends, as you have said, have noticed that you’ve lost weight, so there is obviously something going on. The only way that you will be able to monitor that is through actually measuring your body typically; and as a minimum, you want to measure around your neck, around your bust, around your stomach, around your butt and around each of your thighs. Do the same a week later and see how much you’ve lost both in each area and when you add up those measurements per each week then compare the total number of inches you have lost. This will be particularly more noticeable if you have in any way increased the amount of activity that you do because while you may be losing fat, you may at the same time be increasing muscle. But of course that fat loss will be hidden unless you’ve got the measurements to prove it’s happening.

On the whole, the fact that you’ve had a 3-lbs fat loss and your friends have noticed that you are looking thinner, for me, is extremely positive and I am pleased that you’ve got both the weight loss and other people can see the visual improvement.

Simply by taking notice of the few pointers that we’ve given you, I’m sure that you will continue to lose that unwanted fat and gain that longed-for fitness and health.

Hope that helps,

Mark