Keto? IIFYM? So confused!

barbaraprudhomme

Hi!
I've been struggling for YEARS with weight loss and I've had enough. Right now, I'm so confused about which way of eating to follow so I'm turning to you all for your thoughts and opinions. Here's what I'm dealing with:

- I'm 5'4" and currently 153lbs. This has been creeping up for the past 4 years. 7 years ago, I managed to lose about 40 lbs, and it's all back now.
- My goal is about 120 - but more importantly, I need to lose fat
- I have a desk job, so I sit most of the day
- I run 2-4 times a week (5 to 10km during the week and a longer run on the weekend)
- I also try to get a workout in during lunch or in the morning 3-4 times a week; sometimes, this is a 9round Kickboxing workout, which includes strength training
- I have issues with emotional eating - I eat when I'm happy, sad, stressed, etc. I know that this is something I need to work on.

I know this is just a high level view, but any thoughts/comments would be great. Is LCHF the way to go? High protein? No clue what to try! Help

JeromeBarry1

KISS

Log your food truthfully and accurately. You'll need to use a scale to weigh everything.

After you get good at logging truthfully and accurately, you can play with macros and ways of eating, but ways of eating are to health as a palette is to a painting.

TavistockToad

just start with a small deficit - then tweak your macros to a way that is sustainable for you.

set MFP to lose 1lb per week and weigh and log all your food. eat back a portion of your exercise cals. if you have a HRM for running that should be fairly accurate, or you can use body weight in lbs x 0.63 x distance in miles to get your calories burnt

lemurcat12

Yes, drop the idea that you need to eat a certain way to lose, and that if you just find the right way it will work (and otherwise it will not).

ANYTHING will work so long as you keep a calorie deficit, so putting your stats into MFP, picking a moderate goal (1 lb/week is a good one, as you don't have a huge amount to lose), and then logging is a good start, and informative.

You will find over time that some things MAY make it easier or harder for you, but that's really quite individual. Logging helps you get an idea of what you are doing and then to find tweaks. There is no one ideal way to diet or way that will make it go much faster. It's about finding what's sustainable for you.

Things that worked for me (but may or may not work for you):

* Focusing on eating a healthful diet (motivating and nice to focus on something besides just calories/weight loss, and also pretty consistent with what is filling for the calories for me). My understanding of healthful diet is enough protein, some healthy fats, lots of vegetables, varied diet, largely home cooked, but this also can vary by person.

* Getting enough protein (I think if you are going to pay attention to macros this is the most important thing). Protein protects against muscle loss when losing weight and can be very satiating. My goal is based on .8 g per lb of a healthy goal weight (roughly 100 -- my stats and goal are pretty similar to yours).

* Not snacking, but eating 3 larger meals. This one is SUPER variable, so you will want to figure out what works for you. I emotionally eat, and focusing on not eating outside of regular meals helps me with that, and I also just feel more satisfied eating fewer, larger meals.

Currently I eat lower carb (not LCHF, as I have too many apples and potatoes from my farm box!), and I tend to find that helpful for me, but it was not something I focused on most of the time I was losing (I'm largely in maintenance now). I just found that cutting back on things I was eating because they were there helped me, and some of those foods for me were high carb -- I can eat less rice and bread, smaller portions of potatoes and pasta, and be happy (and not really miss them). I also cut down on treat type foods, without cutting them out, and added fat, for similar reasons.

need2belean

barbaraprudhomme wrote: »

Hi!
I've been struggling for YEARS with weight loss and I've had enough. Right now, I'm so confused about which way of eating to follow so I'm turning to you all for your thoughts and opinions. Here's what I'm dealing with:

- I'm 5'4" and currently 153lbs. This has been creeping up for the past 4 years. 7 years ago, I managed to lose about 40 lbs, and it's all back now.
- My goal is about 120 - but more importantly, I need to lose fat
- I have a desk job, so I sit most of the day
- I run 2-4 times a week (5 to 10km during the week and a longer run on the weekend)
- I also try to get a workout in during lunch or in the morning 3-4 times a week; sometimes, this is a 9round Kickboxing workout, which includes strength training
- I have issues with emotional eating - I eat when I'm happy, sad, stressed, etc. I know that this is something I need to work on.

I know this is just a high level view, but any thoughts/comments would be great. Is LCHF the way to go? High protein? No clue what to try! Help

LCHF is not going to help with your emotional eating. It may make it worse since you may feel deprived from certain foods (i.e. carbs). I'd working on what's triggering your emotional eating first. When that is fixed, then it doesn't matter which macros you choose as long as you're in a deficit. LCHF is just IIFYM but with different macros. There are lots of calculators online that can help you with choosing the right macros for your goal when you get to the right mindset.