Rebound question

Breakingupwithfatty

Ok, so i was sitting here debaiting if i should calorie count or keto and thought of this. I looked it up but i couldn't find answers. Please don't be rude, this dosent apply to everyone of course. It was something i have noticed and didnt understand why.
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So in keto your body burns fat. Fat cells shrink but never go away. Once you eat carbs again in moderation, i've seen family members double their weight in less than a month.
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With calorie counting you are in a calorie deficit and lose weight. Fat cells still shrink. But when someone eats back at their old ways it takes months to a year to gain back.
Why is this?

NovusDies

You are confusing fat weight gain/loss with water gain/loss. When you eat low carb you lose a fair amount of water weight very quickly. When you resume eating carbs again it returns.

You can lose water weight just counting calories too but it is usually comes and goes throughout weight loss so when you stop your deficit there is not a dramatic increase.

There is no reason to fear water returning because of a low carb style weight loss though. It is just a natural process of your body rebuilding its glycogen stores. It is disappointing for some people because it will turn out that all they ever lost was water weight.

puffbrat

I believe the reason for the discrepancy you are describing isn't actually about fat gain or loss but water weight. People on low carb diets tend to lose a lot of water. As soon as they start eating carbs in higher quantities again, they retain a large amount water. People who eat all the same foods but just in smaller quantities, what you are calling calorie counting, won't necessarily show that same trend because they are still eating the same proportion of carbs and therefore not getting the same huge loss and subsequent retention of water.

It could also be that people who do low carb diets strictly to lose weight eat substantially more calories over maintenance once they go back to their "normal" eating and indulge in all of the things they were restricting themselves from while people who were more moderate about changing their weight loss diet felt less restricted and therefore less likely to overindulge later.

LyndaBSS

I certainly can't explain it better than the above post. ☺

kimny72

phillipssarah948 wrote: »

Ok, so i was sitting here debaiting if i should calorie count or keto and thought of this. I looked it up but i couldn't find answers. Please don't be rude, this dosent apply to everyone of course. It was something i have noticed and didnt understand why.
.
So in keto your body burns fat. Fat cells shrink but never go away. Once you eat carbs again in moderation, i've seen family members double their weight in less than a month.
.
With calorie counting you are in a calorie deficit and lose weight. Fat cells still shrink. But when someone eats back at their old ways it takes months to a year to gain back.
Why is this?

I would think it's just coincidental that those are the results you've personally witnessed, as I've seen people here who counted calories gain weight back quickly.

You are mistaken about how weight loss works though. Whether you do keto or any other diet, you lose weight because you're in a calorie deficit. Some folks don't need to count calories while doing keto, because the higher fat diet makes them feel full on less calories. But just because they aren't counting calories doesn't mean their body isn't counting.

Everyone burns fat when their body needs energy beyond the calories they are eating. So first your body burns some of the calories you are just digesting, and then if it still needs more it burns stored fat. Keto promoters can say that keto burns more fat because you are burning all that fat you are currently eating and digesting. You don't burn more stored fat, that all works out the same in the end.

Perhaps the family members who did keto and gained back weight rapidly happened to be unhappy with the food they were eating on keto, so when they went back to a more moderate diet they lost control and ate way too much. Or like I said, maybe it's a coincidence.