Low Card Or Calorie Counting?!

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  • rterm
    rterm Posts: 13 Member
    The way I lose weight is to count calories, exercise, and weigh myself daily. MFP gave me a reasonable calorie count to stay under for my gender, weight and activity level, and since using it, I went from 185 lbs to 178 in the space of 4 weeks. The MFP calorie count helps me make better choices during the day, since I enter breakfast and lunch totals, and then project what I'm having for dinner, and can cut back on the amount I eat, depending on how close I am to the desired total. I also find that weighing myself correlates with whether I went over or stayed under my calorie goal, and causes me to make corrections daily so I can get to my goal (173 lbs). But it does take discipline to not eat as much as I'd like, and to exercise, even when I don't feel like it.
  • AnnPT77
    AnnPT77 Posts: 34,450 Member
    leighs96 wrote: »
    sijomial wrote: »
    How much weight have you lost and how much do you have to lose?
    Less than four weeks also isn't very long for a young woman to judge a trend.

    My start weight was 169, & as of monday i’m at 161 my goal is to get to 125.
    also i just feel the counting calories isn’t working for me bc i eat about 1,300 a day & im having a hard time burning 650 calories a day. i workout (lightly) as i have just started for about 20 mins & walk for about 40 mins & always get my 10 k steps in. idk. i’m just struggling.

    Yes, what they said: 2 pounds a week is too fast. You're risking stuff like thinning hair, if you stick with that. (That's a thing most young women care about, and it doesn't show up until weeks after the too-low calories, typically . . . by then, it's too late to adjust. And that's a minor bad effect, in the whole universe of things that increase in proability if undereating. Guaranteed bad outcome? No, but increased risk, for sure.)

    Look, I started heavier than you (183), and I'm at about your goal weight (125-point-something this morning). I've been at a healthy weight for 5+ years now, after losing. I lost too fast at first, by accident. It was bad (got weak and fatigued, took several weeks to get back to normal, though I adjusted quickly).

    Listen to the people above, saying you should lose slowly (it's going to take many weeks, regardless: Might as well make them easier and more pleasant weeks, use them to learn more about how you can eat/exercise to stay at a good weigh permanently).

    Women my age (I'm 65 now) who have done the "diet as a fast project" routine, yo-yoing many times over many years, are not generally in a great health condition now, and many/most are obese besides.

    You're young. Figure out now how to reach and *stay* at a healthy weight. You future self will benefit.
  • SYS15
    SYS15 Posts: 17 Member
    I did low carb for 7-8 ish months, Keto diet specifically. I lost 30 lbs and 4 sizes in that time, but it's a fat burning diet so you'll notice the inches quick. I only lost that 30lbs the first 2 months and nothing after besides some inches. I slowly got off the diet and only rebounded 5 lbs which is great.
    Keto is very hard though, your heart rate will sit higher because you are eating high fat and protein. You cannot cheat AT ALL - if you do you knock yourself out of ketosis. It's also a quite expensive diet buying meats, cheeses, and other high protein/fat foods. (Quest chips for example, 3-4 net carb and 15 g protein but 8+ dollars for 4 snack bags)

    It works well initially like others said, but I was unable to see any loss after my 2nd month. I got on WeightWatchers while getting off Keto but I'm noticing a gain with them (even though I don't indulge in any 0 point food besides vegetables and some fruit). Calorie in vs out has never worked for me, but I'm willing to try again which brought me back to MFP.
  • tinkerbellang83
    tinkerbellang83 Posts: 9,139 Member
    edited February 2021
    SYS15 wrote: »
    I did low carb for 7-8 ish months, Keto diet specifically. I lost 30 lbs and 4 sizes in that time, but it's a fat burning diet so you'll notice the inches quick. I only lost that 30lbs the first 2 months and nothing after besides some inches. I slowly got off the diet and only rebounded 5 lbs which is great.
    Keto is very hard though, your heart rate will sit higher because you are eating high fat and protein. You cannot cheat AT ALL - if you do you knock yourself out of ketosis. It's also a quite expensive diet buying meats, cheeses, and other high protein/fat foods. (Quest chips for example, 3-4 net carb and 15 g protein but 8+ dollars for 4 snack bags)

    It works well initially like others said, but I was unable to see any loss after my 2nd month. I got on WeightWatchers while getting off Keto but I'm noticing a gain with them (even though I don't indulge in any 0 point food besides vegetables and some fruit). Calorie in vs out has never worked for me, but I'm willing to try again which brought me back to MFP.

    All weight loss comes down to calories in vs calories out, regardless of what method you're using.

    Keto - calorie deficit through higher satiety with higher fat (for some people)
    Weight watchers - calorie deficit due to points system
    Slimming world - calorie deficit due to syns systems
    Intermittent Fasting - calorie deficit through eating one less meal/lower on certain days.
    and so on.

    So whilst you may not have been calorie counting, the weight loss you saw when you were on Keto, was due to a calorie deficit, there are also people who maintain and gain (both intentionally and unintentionally) on Keto so it's not magic weight loss. The quick loss comes from the release of water weight from not eating as many carbs. 1g of carbs will cause the body to store around 4g of water. Which is why after the first few weeks or couple of months weight loss slows down.
  • ninerbuff
    ninerbuff Posts: 49,012 Member
    leighs96 wrote: »
    tinkerbellang83 wrote: »
    2lbs per week is a pretty high rate of loss, the only thing that is the issue is your expectations.

    Why do you need to burn 650 calories per day? Your calorie deficit is already factored into your calorie goal. Also if you're going 10000 steps per day, have you set yourself as Active when choosing your activity level?


    i thought in order to lose weight you have to burn more calories than you’re eating? i saw that on tik tok
    It's true, but burning TOO MANY CALORIES and not compensating (meaning your net total is well under 1000 calories for the day) is not good. Your body will rebel by lowering your metabolic rate and you'll burn less body fat (body fat is burned at rest in higher percentage than when working out and your body is at rest much longer than working out) which leads to a total slowdown in weight loss. Don't use TIK TOK as your reference for good information.

    A.C.E. Certified Personal and Group Fitness Trainer
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