do i need to worry about calories ?
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fantasticelastic
Posts: 52 Member
Keeping my carbs around 20g but my calories are over 2000. do I need to keep an eye on calories or just carbs ?
Weight coming off slowly...but surely
Weight coming off slowly...but surely
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Replies
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In the end weight gain and loss is about energy balance. If you take in more than you burn you will gain weight. Low carb diets are a great weight loss tool but they don't change that fact. Low carb diets tend to shut down the urge to overeat in many people so those people can only count carbs and be successful. Other people cannot control their urge to eat (maybe it's emotional, maybe it's boredom, lack of knowledge of what they should be ingesting, whatever) and they need to still closely watch their calories.
Your profile makes you sound fairly active and you say you are losing weight so the 2,000 probably isn't hurting you. If you stall, then worry about calories. For me, personally, I'd rather not take the chance of accidentally sabotaging myself, so I track both macros and calories.0 -
What's your height/weight? Short answer is yes,calories matter.0
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If the weight is coming off, then you are eating in a deficit. If you want to lose faster then increase your deficit. My advise is, if you're losing ,keep on what you're doing. If you hit a plateau, cut your calories a bit. Track for now just to know how many you are eating.0
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fantasticelastic wrote: »Keeping my carbs around 20g but my calories are over 2000. do I need to keep an eye on calories or just carbs ?
Weight coming off slowly...but surely
Weight coming off, period, is awesome. And ideally, the slower it takes, the longer you have to practice the new and healthy lifestyle habits that will serve you the rest of your life, right? Silver lining there!
So if you keep losing at 2,000, then I would let it ride for now. It's a lot more pleasant to be able to eat as many calories as possible and still lose. Eventually, however, as you lose weight, your body needs fewer and fewer calories to function and will stop dropping weight if you do not reduce calorie intake. Which stinks. But that's reality. I was able to just count carbs for so long myself, until I stopped losing. At that point, I made a calorie goal and have been tracking them ever since. That is my suggestion to you. Just count carbs for now, but if your weight loss stops, or gets even slower, so slow it drives you bonkers, find an appropriate calorie level (1lb per week is best, but it's possible to nudge it up to 1.5 or 2/week even though it is harder). And try to stick with it consistently. We'll need the stats Kirkor mentioned if you decide you'd like us to suggest a calorie goal.
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Thanks for the advice. Im 5'3 btw and weigh 157lb. Would like to get back to 126lb. I had baby no 5 in Oct. What should my cal goal be ??0
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Warning: The following advice is heretical. Many people will disagree with me. That's fine.
Calories matter, but you don't [shouldn't] need to count or restrict calories. Hydration also matters, but you don't need to count or restrict water intake. Your body, when operating correctly, will take care of caloric balance without conscious intervention on your own part. Are there possible complicating factors which may prevent your body from operating correctly? Sure. You already found one of them. In the presence of carbs, many people's hormones and metabolic signals get messed up and your body fails to operate correctly. Some medications, medical conditions, and other factors could also hinder proper functioning.
If you eat more calories than your body needs, your body will deal with those calories in some way. They will be stored as fat or burned off (there are many ways they can be used up). You don't really get to choose which one happens. You can decide to exercise more, but if you don't it won't prevent your body from burning them in other ways.
Frankly, I ignore all calorie calculations and advice. I've tracked them all, and found the resultant data to be so full of error as to be useless. Years ago, when I lost weight by restricting, I weighed more and was younger. I was also working out. By all accounts, I should have had a higher TDEE (daily calorie burn). But, if I ate 1,700-1,800 calories a day, I would gain weight. It drove me crazy. These days, I am lighter and older than I was. I rarely work out. I have the same job as before. By all accounts, I should have a lower TDEE. All the calculations say my current TDEE should be about 350 calories a day fewer than before. Instead, I am eating ~2,400-2,500 calories a day and still losing weight.
That's right. I have a lower [estimated] TDEE... I am eating ~700 calories more... by all accounts, if the numbers made sense, I should be gaining more than two pounds a week now or I should have been losing more than two pounds a week then.
Truth is, before I had deprived myself to the point where my body metabolically adapted to the amount I had been eating and it had adapted to the exercise level I was doing. Now, it's almost the opposite.
Anyway, long story short... calories matter, but a lot of things you don't need to control matter. We could say that weight loss was simply a matter of carbon balance. If you lose more carbon each day than you take in, you will lose weight (this is true, btw... the fat you burn becomes carbon-dioxide and water). Good luck trying to count the carbon molecules you consume through food and compare them to the amount you lose through the many ways it leaves your body. Calories are the same basic thing. You may have one easy way they come in, but there are many possible things that can happen to them after that and not all of those are under your conscious control.0 -
fantasticelastic wrote: »Thanks for the advice. Im 5'3 btw and weigh 157lb. Would like to get back to 126lb. I had baby no 5 in Oct. What should my cal goal be ??
You're eating 2,000 calories a day right now and losing weight? Your calorie goal should be 2,000 calories a day (give or take a little). Who needs height/weight and BMR estimations when they know that? If what you are doing is working, don't change it because some other people say that fewer calories is better. Like baconslave said, slow and steady means you have even more practice doing this before you're at your goal weight.0 -
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fantasticelastic wrote: »Thanks for the advice. Im 5'3 btw and weigh 157lb. Would like to get back to 126lb. I had baby no 5 in Oct. What should my cal goal be ??
You can use this for macro and calorie estimates:
http://keto-calculator.ankerl.com/
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fantasticelastic wrote: »Thanks for the advice. Im 5'3 btw and weigh 157lb. Would like to get back to 126lb. I had baby no 5 in Oct. What should my cal goal be ??
You're eating 2,000 calories a day right now and losing weight? Your calorie goal should be 2,000 calories a day (give or take a little). Who needs height/weight and BMR estimations when they know that? If what you are doing is working, don't change it because some other people say that fewer calories is better. Like baconslave said, slow and steady means you have even more practice doing this before you're at your goal weight.
fitgoat many thanks for that. Ill keep going as i am and hopefully will keep losing0 -
Warning: The following advice is heretical. Many people will disagree with me. That's fine.
Calories matter, but you don't [shouldn't] need to count or restrict calories. Hydration also matters, but you don't need to count or restrict water intake. Your body, when operating correctly, will take care of caloric balance without conscious intervention on your own part. Are there possible complicating factors which may prevent your body from operating correctly? Sure. You already found one of them. In the presence of carbs, many people's hormones and metabolic signals get messed up and your body fails to operate correctly. Some medications, medical conditions, and other factors could also hinder proper functioning.
If you eat more calories than your body needs, your body will deal with those calories in some way. They will be stored as fat or burned off (there are many ways they can be used up). You don't really get to choose which one happens. You can decide to exercise more, but if you don't it won't prevent your body from burning them in other ways.
Frankly, I ignore all calorie calculations and advice. I've tracked them all, and found the resultant data to be so full of error as to be useless. Years ago, when I lost weight by restricting, I weighed more and was younger. I was also working out. By all accounts, I should have had a higher TDEE (daily calorie burn). But, if I ate 1,700-1,800 calories a day, I would gain weight. It drove me crazy. These days, I am lighter and older than I was. I rarely work out. I have the same job as before. By all accounts, I should have a lower TDEE. All the calculations say my current TDEE should be about 350 calories a day fewer than before. Instead, I am eating ~2,400-2,500 calories a day and still losing weight.
That's right. I have a lower [estimated] TDEE... I am eating ~700 calories more... by all accounts, if the numbers made sense, I should be gaining more than two pounds a week now or I should have been losing more than two pounds a week then.
Truth is, before I had deprived myself to the point where my body metabolically adapted to the amount I had been eating and it had adapted to the exercise level I was doing. Now, it's almost the opposite.
Anyway, long story short... calories matter, but a lot of things you don't need to control matter. We could say that weight loss was simply a matter of carbon balance. If you lose more carbon each day than you take in, you will lose weight (this is true, btw... the fat you burn becomes carbon-dioxide and water). Good luck trying to count the carbon molecules you consume through food and compare them to the amount you lose through the many ways it leaves your body. Calories are the same basic thing. You may have one easy way they come in, but there are many possible things that can happen to them after that and not all of those are under your conscious control.
This actually makes a lot of sense for what I'm doing right now. I'm keeping tracking so that I can keep an eye on my carbs, but I don't really care so much if I go over or not. As long as the scale is trending down, I eat when I'm hungry, drink when I'm thirsty, and all that. I refuse to feel guilty if I feel like I need more food. I'm learning to listen to my body again, and just trying to find ways to change my mindset more to better health. As I'm gaining health, naturally the weight will follow, but at it's own pace, and that's good for me. If that makes me heretical, too, then let's start a bandwagon!0 -
I believe in watching both, but I focus on my carb intake and do not worry so much about being over in calories. Also, if you keep track of the data and you have to modify something (due to a stall), you will have more information to work with.
With this woe, it's really important to pay attention to your body over what other people tell you. Some people have an authentic personal experience which they advise from; but there are others who just keep spouting dogma...with no real world/personal experience of it actually working. Every body is different. These forums are a great way to learn new things, and head off certain problems, but at the end of the day, what is going to work for you is highly unique.
Congrats on your loss and best of luck for a steady continuation!0
