I ditched calorie counting and started Keto and started losing inches and pounds.

lemurcat2

NovusDies wrote: »

If a person is struggling it makes sense to try a variety of ideas until one seems to work.

My only word of caution on ditching logging is that it has only been 2 weeks. Keto works by eliminating so many carbs that you end up in a deficit. However, calories have a bad habit of creeping up and if you eventually replace those carb calories you may need to log again.

Good luck.

All of this.

Some people don't log on keto, but many do, and it's not like "keto" is one thing and "calorie counting" is another. Calorie counting is not a way of eating at all, and you can do keto, low to moderate carb, ignore all macros, ignore all macros but protein, vegan, high carb omnivore, paleo, so on -- any way of eating can be part of a calorie counting diet.

Personally, I just cut back on added fat and starchy carbs like rice and pasta (basically I stuck to a serving or less), as that seemed to me the easiest way to cut cals without it being particularly apparent. (I don't tend to eat much bread anyway, but the same would go for that.) Then I decided not to eat outside of meal time, since mindless snacking (usually at work) was one of my main extra calorie sources, and ate my usual healthy diet with a decent amount of protein and lots of vegetables at meals.

I was never hungry at all, but I totally recommend to those who are to try different meal patterns or change around the macros (often more protein and fiber helps, but for some going very low carb seems to be the key from what I've seen on MFP).

I do think that significant diet changes tend to naturally cause deficits since it takes a while to find ways to overeat, but I think eventually most do. I've talked before about how I did a 100% plant-based way of eating one Lent and lost weight when I wasn't trying to, but now I can find ways to overeat eating that way no problem.

lemurcat2

Ostrich218 wrote: »

What defines low carb vs keto eg how many gs of carb becomes one or the other ?

Whether you are eating so low carb that you are consistently in ketosis. It depends on overall size and how active you are. I think typically less than 50 g net carbs is low enough for most (although for the therapeutic levels of ketosis for epilepsy it is lower and requires less protein -- a normal keto diet isn't that).

For whatever reason there is often the claim that people need to stay under 20 g net carbs. The worry about protein is basically misplaced, keeping protein lower is likely a bad idea.

There's no meaningful difference between low carb and keto either -- it's more of a sliding scale than keto being some special thing with special effects. I'd often recommend just lowering carbs until you find a comfortable level if trying to determine if low carb works for appetite control.

I tend to naturally like to eat somewhat low carb when dieting, but I couldn't do under 20 g net, as I eat more than that in non-starchy veg and think cutting back on them would make my diet less healthy. But in any case for me I didn't find that going very low (ketosis levels) had any positive effects anyway.

kshama2001

AmyG1982 wrote: »

Happy you’re feeling better but definitely agree you should be logging calories still.

I eat keto too (I’m not super strict tho so maybe just very low carb is more accurate) but I still log everything. I actually find it easier to go over your calories this way because fat is so calorie dense. Accidentally putting 2 TBSP of olive oil instead of one can be done pretty simply when cooking but there’s an extra 120 calories. Do something that simple a few times a day and you can easily be over.

Keto can do some wonderful things for some people but as everyone said it’s not magic so I’d definitely caution you to not get too excited about fast weight loss initially (it can slow down, especially if you’re going over calories) and to calorie count, especially while you’re still learning this way of eating.

Good luck to you!

Yes, I am not tempted to try keto because I know I don't find fat especially satiating and could easily overeat it.