Which one to do!?

jenniferkaye22

To start off I have a hard time loosing weight. Should I just track my calories (1300)or do a keto diet with maximum 20 carbs a day.
What are yalls opinion?

jenncornelsen

I personally found I could not stick with keto long term. I lost 20, then gained it all back plus more. I have just been tracking calories now, no specific diet, and am down 50lbs oved last 7 months. Some people love keto, think on what u feel u can do for lufe

apullum

Weight loss happens when you are consistently in a calorie deficit. You can ensure a calorie deficit by weighing all your food.

Neither keto nor any other named diet causes weight loss unless you are in a calorie deficit while following that diet.

Carbs are not directly related to weight loss, but may be indirectly related if a certain carb intake makes it easier for you to stay in a deficit.

ElizabethKalmbach

I do not feel good with keto, but I do well when I increase protein to about 30% of my caloric intake. It's a difficult goal to meet, but it keeps me full and still allows me to have pasta and rice, without which I would probably be some kind of homicidal maniac bed-pudding.

That said, the easiest way to ensure that my protein is 30% of my calories, is to track my calories - even if I'm not restricting them.

NovusDies

jenniferkaye22 wrote: »

To start off I have a hard time loosing weight. Should I just track my calories (1300)or do a keto diet with maximum 20 carbs a day.
What are yalls opinion?

If you need to eat 1300 calories per day to lose at the rate you want then you can either track it and make sure you hit that or if you do keto without tracking you could just hope you are hitting around 1300 calories per day. Controlling carbs is just controlling calories by eliminating a large calorie source each day. If you eat too much fat to compensate you won't lose weight and you could gain weight.

lorrpb

Put your stats into MFP, set your loss for 1 lb per week, and eat to MFP goal. Eat back half your exercise calories. Get a food scale then weigh and log everything you eat.You can read the sticky posts at the top of the page for all the details and best advice.

corinasue1143

Start off just tracking calories. Experiment with what macros make you happiest. Like Elizabeth, I need at least a certain amount of protein or I will be very hungry later. I also do better if I limit my fat. Carbs just don’t seem to matter much to me—either way. That may be different than what you want. But it is much easier if you find what helps you.

Sylphadora

I do both. Keto is great but you can overeat on it. I actually gained weight on keto because I ate a lot of nuts & dairy. Now I do zero carb and I eat some raw cheese (mainly parmigiano reggiano) but I'm super careful when I eat it because I had some infamous parmigiano reggiano binges in the past. I have 2 rules: I always eat it with something else and I track it

candylilacs

You do what you can do for a lifetime. I got in on it (keto) for my blood glucose. I was recovering from septic shock and pneumonia and blood glucose shot up 460. I got up to an A1C 9.1. My blood glucose reached 195 three months later. It was a month ago I started keto, and it was my blood glucose 120 a day ago (A1c 5.6).

amusedmonkey

Keto is something you do in addition to a calorie deficit to lose weight, not instead of it. You wouldn't lose weight if you don't have a calorie deficit on keto. Some people find that keto helps sustainability (they feel less hungry) and some find that it makes dieting harder and less sustainable.

If you have a hard time losing then the problem is either sustainability (changes you make don't last long) or under-estimating calories, or both.

For sustainability, find a way of eating that makes sticking to your calories easier, this can be keto, any other named diet, or your own food and habit arrangement (I personally prefer this option, and in my case a diet higher in carbs is more physically and mentally satisfying).

For tracking precision, get a food scale and weigh everything you eat, then track it by weight. Log individual ingredients of a food, not a full meal (don't find an entry that says omelet, log eggs, butter, cheese, and whatever else you want to add). Don't forget to log dressings and added/frying oils. Also learn how to pick good entries from the database. A good entry has a distinct syntax (example: Cucumber, peeled, raw) and usually gives both size and weight options in the dropdown menu.

cmriverside

It's about calories, full stop.

Like they say above, track food, eat the food you like and in a variety which keeps you feeling satisfied. I do lower carb when I'm losing weight, but not Keto because bread. Well, and potatoes. And fruit. Pasta, rice, beans, dairy. I have to have carbs. I can cut down, but not to 20g a day - I eat 150g per day when I'm in weight loss mode.