Why do people say if you go low carb to lose weight, you must eat that way forever?

chocolate_owl

kgeyser wrote: »

amusedmonkey wrote: »

kgeyser wrote: »

amusedmonkey wrote: »

kgeyser wrote: »

amusedmonkey wrote: »

kgeyser wrote: »

stevencloser wrote: »

kgeyser wrote: »

stevencloser wrote: »

I have yet to see a single low carb person who did not cut out very specific food types because of their carb content.

So they don't consume foods that don't fit their macros? That concept sounds familiar...

So when they're at goal they either have to be able to "Do this for the rest of their life" (name of the thread), or they need to be able to do the thing they weren't able to do that made them go with the other approach to begin with.
Am I articulating myself that badly that you don't understand?

What is "the thing that they weren't able to do that made them go with the other approach to begin with"? They are learning energy balance through the calorie deficit needed for weight loss, learning portion sizes, learning to eat within macros....what is missing that is needed for success in maintenance?

I think he means those who chose low carb for the specific reason of being unable to moderate high carb foods. Once they reach maintenance, to keep the weight off they would either need to stay away from these foods or severely limit them for life (continue following a low carb macro goal like the title states) or find a way learn that same exact skill that they were unable to learn during dieting, i.e. the ability to eat high carb foods in reasonable portions, if they wish to transition to a more forgiving macro distribution that allows for choices closer to the way they have always eaten.

I don't see how that is different from any other way of eating. Weight gain is from a calorie surplus, i.e. over-eating and not moderating intake of food. Everyone who reaches maintenance is going to need to decide whether or not to eat a food, severely limit that food, or learn to control their intake of that food in order to be successful. If it's a food they overate in the past, they're going to have to pick one of those options, no matter what the macro make-up of the food.

I also don't agree that people necessarily go back to the "way they have always eaten" after weight loss. Obviously, they will not be able to eat as much food, but I think a lot of people end up changing their diets in a lot of ways, whether it is cooking from home more, including more whole foods, etc. Our diets change throughout our lives with our age and circumstances, and some people decide that some foods aren't as integral in their lives now as they might have been at a different point in their lives.

Some people do want to go back to the way they have always eaten in terms of types of food, not in terms of calories. It can be achieved either by reducing portions or frequency. Those who decide to change some or much of their familiar diet for life by severely reducing or eliminating are by no means better or worse than those who prefer to keep to the familiar if both are equally aware of what it takes to maintain and what strategies work for them.

Some people decide they want to eliminate or severely limit some foods for life, and that's great if that's what they wish to do and feel is sustainable. This is not the issue here. This is not a discussion about whether or not people choose to eliminate foods or change the types of foods they eat. Of course any sustainable strategy will be beneficial during maintenance. What we are talking about is someone unable to moderate certain foods, chooses low carb to manage that issue, but doesn't feel it would be sustainable for life to cut off, severely limit or manipulate a big chunk of familiar, comforting, social, ritualistic...etc foods, which people on very low carb diets usually need to do.

Come maintenance, they will not magically learn how to navigate situations involving these foods just because they are at their goal weight. The exact issue that led them to low carb would rear its ugly head again. The disadvantage for these people is that if they wish to maintain they are hit with a big learning curve during a critical phase of maintenance, something people who eat a more flexible diet during weight loss have already tackled and developed working strategies for, making for a smoother and easier transition to maintenance.

I'm not clear on this sentence, particularly the bold: "What we are talking about is someone unable to moderate certain foods, chooses low carb to manage that issue, but doesn't feel it would be sustainable for life to cut off, severely limit or manipulate a big chunk of familiar, comforting, social, ritualistic...etc foods"

Cutting off, severely limiting, or manipulating foods to fit into a diet is pretty much the essential skills needed to be successful at maintenance - you either don't consume it, only have it occasionally, or make it fit by manipulating portion or recipe. I don't see how that isn't sustainable, especially since moderating foods that way is how many flexible dieters are able to be successful.

I'm not sure where the stream of communication is being bottlenecked, A big chunk is the keyword. Not wanting to eat a diet that is almost entirely different from what a person is used to forver is a valid concern for some. Deciding to severely limit doughnuts because I don't like them enough to be worth the calories or cutting out regular soda because I find diet soda to taste same or even better is different from someone having to severely limit more than half of their usual foods that they actually love and a good chunk of the foods commonly consumed socially. Using a little less oil in cooking or more vegetables for bulking is entirely different from someone using manipulations that make certain dishes barely recognizable as the original. Limiting my food choices for one meal in order to have a higher calorie meal of a food I love is different from limiting a hoard of choices for an extended time. My diet is nearly identical to the usual way I eat, albeit tweaked a bit, their diet is almost entirely different from the usual way they eat.

Feeling a drastic change in diet not to be sustainable is a valid concern for some, I'm not sure what you don't understand about that or why you are trying to take the thread places. The question is simple: why do people say you must eat that way forever? The question is very specific to those who do not want to eat low carb forever and thus do not want to limit their food the same way. The answer is simple too: it's not that you must, it's that it would make for an easier transition into maintenance because you will already have developed some of the needed skills. This applies to any diet, not just low carb and if you plan to maintain on a diet that is very different from the one you used to lose weight you will need to be ready for a good deal of new strategy developing, and yes, even things you may have avoided like the plague during dieting like calorie counting or portion control.

I think everyone should use whatever strategy works for them while recognizing that someone else may prefer a different strategy. I'm not sure why someone who really wanted a food to be a part of their life would choose a diet which eliminates that in the first place, it seems like the majority of people on site who do eliminate foods eliminate ones they do not feel are helpful to their goals.

I would advise anyone undertaking a weight loss program to be ready to develop a lot of new strategies in order to be successful at both weight loss and maintenance. The part that I am disagreeing with is the notion that low carb dieters are facing increased obstacles due to the type of food served, or are some how less equipped with the skills needed to manage those situations or maintain successfully - they obviously had to moderate intake during weight loss and learned that skill which they can apply to any food, and if it's a food they know they can't moderate, why would they (or anyone for that matter) decide to eat it knowing they would be unhappy with the consequences, unless they were ok with the consequences?

My coworker goes on a low-carb kick at least once a year because he loses a bunch of weight quickly. The thing is, he married an Italian who makes her own gnocchi, throws big parties, and is a master cake baker. So after 2-3 months of low-carb, my coworker goes back to eating gnocchi, pizza, and cake, and he regains everything he lost plus a little more. He's done this for the five years I've worked with him. When I met him, he wanted to lose 20 lbs. Now it's 30. If he didn't cut those foods out that he knows he isnt going to give up forever and tried to eat smaller portions of them/eat them less frequently instead, maybe he wouldn't be stuck in this lose/gain cycle that's resulted in his weight slowly creeping up.

Someone else I worked with sustained low-carb for about a year. He lost a ton of weight, at least 60 lbs. Then he started eating carbs again, and he regained all of it in about 4 months.

These are people who cut specific foods out with no plan to reintroduce them. These are the people to whom I'd direct "If you do low-carb, do it for life." I would say the same to the coworker on South Beach who said "I can't wait to lose all this weight so I can eat whatever I want again." Generally speaking, these people haven't learned enough about calories or portions outside of their specific diet to maintain their weight. And I think this attitude toward weight loss is common enough that most of us have encountered it at some point, thus the common advice of choosing a diet you enjoy and can sustain for life.