Hi BeingVenus,

In addition to the post cited by wmertens, you might wish to look at this one: water weight when adding starch to a very low carb diet.

I think in the early stages of the diet, the two keys are (1) feeling better, which you say you do, and (2) not being hungry. As long as it is making you feel good and you are well nourished enough that you are not hungry, you will be able to lose weight later without much difficulty.

I do believe the first step is always to make your body well nourished. It can take months to repair longstanding nutrient deficiencies, so weight loss may not be rapid at first and you may even gain a bit of weight by adding muscle or bone mineral density or water, but as long as the diet is sufficiently nourishing to prevent hunger then weight loss will come.

Best, Paul

you will gain an initial chunk simply b/c of the higher carbs. just like you'll loose it in a week or two when you go off it. it's just water weight.

I think variability is the overlooked, incredibly important key:

variability in the animal products we eat - not just muscle meat but organ meats...and of the organ meants, not just liver but sweetbreads, brain, kidney, stock made from connective tissue/ligaments/cartilage/skin, fat

variability in carbohydrates - sometimes higher, sometimes lower, sometimes none.

variability in cal intake - ie intermittent fasting. which to me is definitely not a daily thing (b/c then it's not intermittent) but rather 0-3x per week randomly.

I do fast 1-3x per week but skip some weeks occasionally. My "typical" carb intake is around 50-100, but for a week or so I'll do 150. I just keep switching it up to maintain metabolic flexibility.

Feeling hungry soon would, in an evolutionary environment, be quite beneficial - it'd motivate us to take action to secure more food. I don't think being hungry a bad thing, just a difficult thing in an enivronment full of hyperpalatable, hyperavailable food.

I've been leaning out with starches. The magic bullet was the fat - don't eat gobs of it. The fat in your meat and a little to cook with is plenty to maintain health. You don't need to eat lots of extra fat for energy when you are trying to get your body to use what it already has stored. Eat a small, high protein, low-ish fat, no carb breakfast like ham and eggs and eat your fill of meat and potatoes or rice with your favorite extras like veg or fruits at lunch and dinner. This is working like a charm for me.

I don't think that it has to be an all-or-nothing approach. If I were to eat starchy foods everyday, I think that I would gain weight as well. I would limit the starch to a few times a week after workouts (if fat loss/muscle gain is the goal). Otherwise, the safe starches are safe in that they should not cause any health problems when consumed regularly. A small weight gain is not a health problem, per se.

However, as with everything else, it all depends on the individual and that individual's state. If you had constipation, joint pain, etc that disappeared when you started eating starches, I would just continue eating them (perhaps less of them). I'd rather gain a few pounds than suffer those types of health problems, but that's a personal decision as well.

I would say the six pounds is water maybe? You will likely need to eat less starches per day to make it work.

Rosedale's Answer to Jimmy Moore and counterpoint to those advocating 'safe starches';

i.e. So-called 'safe starches', diabetes, and blood glucose;

http://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=201270719942245

For your joints you could add gelatin (powdered or cooked yourself) on a daily basis - it works wonders.

For consitpation up your magnesium intake.

I can't eat starches b/c potatoes and sweet potatoes make my stomack hurt and rice gives me cramps...

As other posters have said, the extra pounds are most likely water, but that doesn't mean that you won't continue to lose fat.

Are you following the diet edition? Basically, you should be eating enough carbs and protein, and limit fat to your caloric needs.

PHD Diet Edition: http://perfecthealthdiet.com/?p=2145

Note, I didn't lose weight going PHD, but I am staying stable on it.

Diana Schwarzbein discusses some of the drawbacks of long term low carbing in her books. She advocates adding starch back in for health but she warns that it is almost always accompanied by a small but short term weight gain. I forget the reasons why exactly. Anyway, my point was just that the weight blip is to be expected, especially since you were VLC for so long. I'm slightly skinnier on LC than I am with starch in my diet but I feel a million times better and that's much more important to me!

I have never gone particularly low carb with my paleo and have managed to take off 18 pounds in 2 1/2 months. I would suggest challenging different starches rather than adding them all in at once.

For me, I can eat sweet potatoes ever single day and lose weight. If I add in white/red potatoes my weight loss STOPS. I don't have any experience with buckwheat. THe only way I found out about potatoes was by adding them in for a week and seeing what happened, then taking them back out and seeing what happened. It's like a science experiement!