Calories and carbs help??

witcherkar

So im trying to keep my calories under 1500 a day. And im starting with carbs under 100 grams. Then in 2 weeks drop it to 75. 2 more weeks drop it to 50. Then 2 more weeks drop it to 25. Ill be keeping calories between 1200 and 1500 a day. Ill also be exercising 30 minutes a day. My weight is about 340. I am 5'6" and 21. Will this plan help me lose weight?

collegefbfan

Okay. I am not the expert. For me, I went low carb/keto cold turkey. Less than 20 grams carbs a day from the start. The weight poured off of me. It was the best way... for me. It is what kept me going. I am 5 feet 8 inches and weighed 256 in the beginning. 1200-1500 calories a day might be a huge deficit to accomplish. See what the others say about that part.

cstehansen

Welcome aboard, @witcherkar! You will find lots of helpful people in this forum. Several will likely reply to your question. One point, I would make is as you first move to cutting down your carbs, your body is going to be adjusting to burning fat rather than carbs. Finding the level that works for you will be a bit of trial and error. As you are going through this initial phase, I would suggest not being overly concerned about calories to start, but rather focusing on staying below your carb levels.

You will find that as your carb level goes down and your body adjusts to burning fat over carbs, you will be less hungry.

If you haven't already been there, I would highly recommend you look through all the information on the launchpad:

http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10103966/start-here-the-lcd-launch-pad#latest

You will find tons of information as well as links to sites that you will find helpful on your journey.

I can't stress enough not to make yourself feel like you are starving. That is a sure way to make yourself give up. Once you find the right level of carb intake that works for you, you will find the calorie side will seem to take care of itself just through listening to your body and only eating when you are hungry and not eating beyond the point where you are no longer hungry.

kpk54

I'm guessing that you entered your stats into MFP, most likely as sedentary to lose 2 pounds per week (because I think that is the max it allows, not sure)? I'm guessing it probably indicated you could eat somewhere around 1800 calories per day and expect to lose 2 pounds per week? I entered your data into a couple of TDEE calculators (fitnessfrog and sailrabbit) and they provided a TDEE for you (21, F, 340, 66 inches tall, sedentary) of about 2800 calories/day. Reduce calories by 1000 per day x 7 days = 7000 calories which, on average, would result -2 pounds per week.

Personally, I'd eat around 1800+ and see how it works in regards to hunger and weight loss. As your weight reduces the number of calories you need to continue to lose may also reduce so I wouldn't start any lower than necessary.

Your idea of slowly reducing carbs grams is a reasonable one. You may find continued reduction (to 25) unnecessary for weight loss. Find a macro balance that is sustainable long term unless you have health reasons (other than excess weight) to eat at keto levels. Good luck!

albertabeefy

As a couple others have suggested, I would not start as low-calorie as you are currently thinking.

When I was around 350lbs I could barely exercise but ate 2,800 kcal per day and the weight poured off of me. And that was at 45 years old.

kpk54 has some excellent points, and I'd like to echo their sentiments and add some details to them. If you plan to exercise 30 minutes per day, and can actually follow through with that number, I'd start with a dietary intake of around 2,000 calories per day and tailor the calories as you need to. Keep in mind your current BMR is over 2,300 kcal currently, so you don't want to dip too much below that.

If you really want to go low-calorie, my rule of thumb is never, ever dip below a calorie requirement for the BMR of what you think your "healthy weight" is. IE: If you think 150 is a healthy weight - the BMR for 150lbs at your stats is 1,500kcal. Eating 1,200 to 1,500 could be considered starvation.

I also agree you don't likely need to go as low as 25g of carbohydrate per day, and I wouldn't recommend that unless you're severely diabetic or have some other reason to reduce to such a level. I have no problems maintaining a keto-adapted state and excellent blood glucose at anywhere between 60-120g of carbohydrate daily - but I exercise a great deal. (FYI - I usually plan my higher-carb meals for < 1hr prior to exercise). My opinion would be that at your weight and a recommended intake of 1800-2000 calories ... anything <= 50g should easily get you into ketosis and keto-adapted if that's your goal.

kpk54

Good point @albertabeefy regarding the 2300 BMR calories rule of thumb. I've not heard of the idea of not dipping below the BMR of desired weight (makes some sense as another good guideline) though have often thought it would be reasonable to eat at the calorie amount (during weight loss) that would ultimately be maintenance calories. That probably would have worked well for me and slowed weight loss very little. As a 60 yr old female there's not a big difference between my BMR and TDEE, if sedentary. It would have minimized that step of slowly increasing calories when beginning maintenance.

RowdysLady

cstehansen wrote: »

Welcome aboard, @witcherkar! You will find lots of helpful people in this forum. Several will likely reply to your question. One point, I would make is as you first move to cutting down your carbs, your body is going to be adjusting to burning fat rather than carbs. Finding the level that works for you will be a bit of trial and error. As you are going through this initial phase, I would suggest not being overly concerned about calories to start, but rather focusing on staying below your carb levels.

You will find that as your carb level goes down and your body adjusts to burning fat over carbs, you will be less hungry.

If you haven't already been there, I would highly recommend you look through all the information on the launchpad:

http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10103966/start-here-the-lcd-launch-pad#latest

You will find tons of information as well as links to sites that you will find helpful on your journey.

I can't stress enough not to make yourself feel like you are starving. That is a sure way to make yourself give up. Once you find the right level of carb intake that works for you, you will find the calorie side will seem to take care of itself just through listening to your body and only eating when you are hungry and not eating beyond the point where you are no longer hungry.

This. Every. Single. Word.

Bonny132

For your first two weeks I would forget about calories and concentrate on low carb, cook some great high protein meals with some fab fat and veg. The one thing I struggled with was to eat this wonderful, tasty, fatty food after years of being told it would make me fat. I struggled to not feel guilty and to accept it was OK and YES you loose on LCHF.

After a while my body started to tell me it was full, my hunger reduced drastically and I turned a corner. At this stage I started to count my calories again. Usually I end up under.

Read the launch pad, the information there is so valuable. It really helped me with a lot of my questions and do not be scared to ask us questions. We have all been there.

Lastly: Welcome, good luck and looking forward to see you succeed.

Cadori

Bonny132 wrote: »

For your first two weeks I would forget about calories and concentrate on low carb, cook some great high protein meals with some fab fat and veg. The one thing I struggled with was to eat this wonderful, tasty, fatty food after years of being told it would make me fat. I struggled to not feel guilty and to accept it was OK and YES you loose on LCHF.

After a while my body started to tell me it was full, my hunger reduced drastically and I turned a corner. At this stage I started to count my calories again. Usually I end up under.

My experience was the same as Bonny's.

Low carb is hard at first. Restricting calories is hard. Don't start both at the same time!! Get low carb and the high fat helps the lower calories follow much more easily.

ladipoet

Hello and welcome. We are about the same height (I'm half an inch taller than you are) and when I started this WOE/WOL I weighed 300 pounds. I have since eliminated all the weight I care to (165 pounds gone! I currently fluctuate between 135-140 depending on a variety of variables.). I suggest you do your step-down with respect to lower carb intake on a monthly basis rather than every two weeks. I did a step-down like this myself except I did a new lower carb level every month. It's going to take about 2 weeks to get used to eating at the new lower carb level and it's also probably going to take you that long to be able to figure out how to plan out your menu and daily meals (if you do that). It will also be a little bit easier for you to give yourself a couple of additional weeks to master eating and meal planning at your new lower carb levels. If you enjoy eating vegetables and fruit, the lower carb you go, the more restrictive this WOE becomes so in that respect it may also become a little more difficult to master a new lower carb level every 2 weeks fwiw. So to recap, I'm not saying "don't" go lower carb every 2 weeks, I'm saying ease into it. Be gentle with yourself and considerate to the point of generosity too. Let's face it, it took us a long time to become overweight. It's going to take some time to reverse the weight gain too. Best of luck to you!

solska

I think it will be a lot easier for you if you start with only focusing on low carb, less than 30 grams per day, and once you are adapted to that you can focus on decreasing your calories. I would also recommend intermittent fasting with bulletproof coffee to make this transition easier.

Note that low carb doesn't mean high protein, that's the mistake I made when I tried initially, too much protein will also kick you out of ketosis. FOcus on low carb, high fat, and enough protein. I eat berries, a tomato or so, and various other things with carbs and try to stay under 30grams. It was too hard for me to think I would have to eat a lot of protein and no veggies or fruits. I was completely wrong.

This matters because with this way of eating you don't feel deprived, weak, or lethargic. You don't starve or think about food all the time and eventually when you start cutting the calories, you don't have a difficult time continuing. Good luck!