Calories or carbs

sobit1970

Has anyone had better success counting carbs or only calories?

Lietchi

Calories all the way for me. How many carbs you eat doesn't matter, weight loss comes from eating in a calorie deficit. Just eating fewer carbs is not guaranteed to result in weight loss.

Limiting carbs does help some people feel less hungry while eating less, but it's no guarantee (some people feel satiated eating carbs).

cwolfman13

sobit1970 wrote: »

Has anyone had better success counting carbs or only calories?

Outside of certain medical conditions, carbs don't have anything to do with weight management. Weight management is about calories. Calories are the unit of energy that power our bodies. When you consume energy in excess of expenditure that excess is stored as body fat (stored energy/calories). When you consume a balance of energy you maintain the status quo. When you consume less energy than you expend, that deficiency has to be reconciled...so your backup generator kicks on and you burn stored energy (body fat) to make up the difference.

Certain medical conditions would require monitoring your carbohydrates, but in and of themselves carbohydrates don't have anything to do with weight management. Low carbohydrate diets are popular because carbohydrates are the least essential macro-nutrient and can be calorie dense...so when you cut back on carbs, you can cut back on a lot of calories. I do not do low carb, but if I'm trying to lose weight I do cut back on carbs...namely because I don't log and it's easy to cut out carby snacks and/or cut out or cut back on the starches and grains with dinner, etc. For example, last night I did blackened chicken thighs on the grill with coleslaw. Usually we would also have baked beans...by eliminating the baked beans from my meal last night I reduced that meal by a good 150 calories or so. Things like that are just simple ways to create a calorie deficit...there's no more magic to it than that.

AnnPT77

I've had success counting calories while pretty much ignoring carb levels. (I make it a point to get enough protein and fats, as a minimum, because those are "essential nutrients" in the sense that our bodies can't manufacture them out of any other nutrition. Carbs are more flexible, not "essential" in that technical way, because our body can manufacture a carb-equivalent from other foods. I just use carbs to balance my calorie intake, otherwise ignore them.)

During weight loss, I was typically eating 150g+ carbs daily. Now, in maintenance, it's usually 225g+ most days. I have no special difficulty managing my weight while eating plenty of carbs.

Some people have health conditions that require them to manage carbs, like diabetes. They obviously need to pay attention to carb intake.

Some people find that eating carb-heavy foods spikes their appetite. Those people may benefit from limiting carbs.

Some people find that if they eat too few carbs, their energy tanks - with the definition of "too few" being quite individual. Those people will probably do better if they don't push carbs lower than what keeps them feeling energetic.

It's the calories that directly determine body weight. Nutrients can have an indirect effect, via fatigue/energy, or appetite.

sijomial

Perhaps if you expanded on your reasoning and made clear what "success" means to you then more pertinent advise could be offered?

Personally I only count carbs when I want to maximise my intake of them for exercise performance.
650+ grams in an extreme day.

Having a relatively high carb diet doesn't prevent me from losing weight when I want or from maintaining weight for years and years.

If your goal is weight loss (or just weight management) then count calories. If you are interested in monitoring carbs for whatever unstated reason and also want to control/manage your calorie balance then count both calories and carbs.

quiksylver296

Calories for sure!