If I stop eating bread, pasta, and rice...will I lose weight?

[fedoragirl]

I have regained 8 pounds that I mysteriously lost while I was visiting my parents. I don't know what I did differently except that I didn't eat a lot of junk because my mom was cooking.
I have a weakness for sweet things. I am working on that but I know that I cannot completely cut out sugar, chocolate, etc. Not right now, anyway.
So, if I cut out breads, pasta, rice...carbs...will I see any difference? I am not a big carbs eater but breads have become my go-to because I live 2 min. from the bakery and the German breads are to die for. We hardly eat pasta or rice.
I need to lose 12 pounds or so. And I can't do MFP because it doesn't accept some German ingredients like spelt flour.

[SnuggleBuggles]

Lots of people have success with no or low carb- popular diets like South Beach and Atkins use that idea. I think it can be hard to sustain forever and some people gain some or all of the weight back if they go back to their regular diet. It can be a great kick start though and when you get to your goal weight, you can make other (maybe easier?) lifestyle changes (fewer calories, more/ different exercise...) to maintain.

Just wanted to chime in about MFP- you can add in your own recipes. I used this website to analyze my recipes then inputed the results into MFP. I would do it with all of my homemade, from scratch meals.
http://caloriecount.about.com/cc/recipe_analysis.php

[infomama]

You can add food manually into MFP, like your spelt flour so I encourage you to do that. Cutting out sugar will help, too.

[fedoragirl]

Thank you for letting me know about MFP's manual plan. I think I'll try that now. I wish I could cut out more sugar but I know I'll end up craving it and then, give in to it...and that'll start me spiralling downwards again. I've already cut some but I can't just cut it all out. Sigh! I wish I had more willpower for this.

[hillview]

IME if you cut carbs (especially bread etc) and add protein yes you will lose weight.

[BabbyO]

IMHO the reason you lost weight is because you were eating homemade food (that your mom cooked).

I found that when I did a strict dairy & soy elimination, I lost a ton of weight. When eliminting dairy only, I haven't lost nearly as much.

The key is by strictly cutting soy, I had to cut out a LOT of prepared foods and convenience foods. I had to go for simply foods with few ingredients. I lost nearly 30 lbs very quickly. I don't think Soy is bad for you...I think that foods that tend to have soy also have lots of other things that aren't great for us. Lots of fillers and sugars.

I ate carbs all the time, but they were simpler - fewer ingredient varieties. I also have a sweet tooth. I made myself a loaf of bread and a pan of brownies every week, from scratch. I still lost nearly 30 lbs. I'm a fairly average sized person (Sz 10) and when I cut dairy & soy I went down to a sz 4.

I'm not a huge fan of diets that cut carbs...I don't feel like they are very sustainable. I've watched several people go on and off these diets and each time they go off the gain more weight back. Again...this is all just my opinion (well except for the fact that I DID loose nearly 30 lbs and went from a Sz 10 to a Sz 4 when eliminating dairy & soy).

[AnnieW625]

I need to lose 12 pounds or so. And I can't do MFP because it doesn't accept some German ingredients like spelt flour.

You can manually add the spelt flour or just use the generic spelt flour. I don't think there is a huge difference in spelt flour ingredients or nutritional content nationwide.

I also think that processed soy in everything can be a problem. I feel awful after I eat a cereal bar that has soy in it. My kids, and my DH not so much. I do my best to avoid processed products that have soy in them. I never get an icky feeling though if I have stir fry that I have made with a little bit of low sodium soy sauce.

I do Weight Watchers, and use My Fitness Pal, and while the weight loss is super slow sometimes I just have to remind myself that the longer it takes to lose the weight the longer it will stay off.

I also like being able to eat a little of everything and not feeling like I am depriving myself.

[Katigre]

The key to any sustained weight loss (vs. temporary weight loss) is that you make long-term diet changes. So if you decide that you are not going to eat grain/wheat/bread again and stick to that then anyw eight loss would be long-term. If you do it as a short-term fix you'll likely gain back whatever you might lose.

It is actually not that hard to cut sugar if you cut the refined stuff too - they feed each other in terms of cravings. BUT if you cut those out you have to add in more fat (healthy fat that fills you up) and more protein or you'll wind up hungry all the time. So add extra butter to your food, eat full fat yogurt, etc... at the same time you remove the starchy stuff from your diet.

[123LuckyMom]

It is actually not that hard to cut sugar if you cut the refined stuff too - they feed each other in terms of cravings. BUT if you cut those out you have to add in more fat (healthy fat that fills you up) and more protein or you'll wind up hungry all the time. So add extra butter to your food, eat full fat yogurt, etc... at the same time you remove the starchy stuff from your diet.

This is true. If you do something hard core like South Beach Phase 1 and cut out nearly all sugar just for two weeks, I guarantee your sweet tooth will be pretty much gone at that time. You'll also probably dump that 8lbs in those two weeks alone. You will almost certainly find that adding in fruit and having the occasional bite of someone else's dessert will take care of your sweet cravings. The first two weeks of breaking your sugar addiction will be hard, but afterwards you'll be shocked at how little you crave sweet. You must have more protein, though, to curb hunger!

If you cut bread and other starches but keep eating sweets, you may drop weight from eating fewer calories, but you will not touch your relationship to sugar, and you will continue to crave sweets and breadstuffs.

Good luck!!!

[fedoragirl]

Well, I don't think I eat too much sugar and we definitely don't use white sugar at home, but I definitely eat too many desserts and they're freshly baked, not processed. So, I have to cut down on cakes and cookies.
I have started on MFP (thanks to all for letting me know that it accepts a manual input. I hate spending hours to look for something I ate) and we'll see how that goes.
I am not a big bread, potatoes, and pasta fan so it won't be hard to stay away from these ingredients forever. It's just that since I moved to Germany, breads have become more of a convenience food for me because the bakery is 2 min. away and is so fresh. I used to walk there with the kids and get my breakfast and lunch, and even dinner. So, I was eating bread 3 times a day.
I am now trying to meal plan ahead of time and add more protein rich dishes. I usually cook everything myself so we don't eat processed food. However, I add in a lot of junky snacks and chocolate during the day and that has to stop. I usually realize that I have eaten a whole bar of chocolate and not even really tasted the thing.