Can someone help me please? lower cals or lower carbs

Acg67

Hey there,
My best advice for you, is don't skip carbs, but skip simple carbs. Stick to complex carbs, red potatoes, whole grains, ONLY whole wheat breads. And only eat them up until lunch time. Read up on clean eating, and stay away from processed foods. I'm 34, and I was up at 152, I lost 7 pounds in my first week of eating clean. Don't try to cut out too much at once, otherwise you will just find yourself craving that thing you are cutting out. I started working out and eating clean in August and have lost 17 pounds. The clean diet will be the first step to dropping the weight. Try it for one week, and I promise you will see results. Eat a large breakfast, plenty of protein, ex: hard boiled egg, a yogurt (greek) and whole wheat toast, or oatmeal. (I hate oatmeal, so I eat whole wheat toast) My personal trainer told me your 1st meal of the day should be your biggest, then lunch smaller and a very little for dinner, you should wake up hungry ready to fuel your body. But don't skip carbs except for at dinner, ie protein and veggies. Try to eat clean snacks throughout the day, unsalted nuts, veggies, hummus. At this point I'm eating 80% clean, but at first it was more like 95% I hope this helps. Don't give up!!

Wat? Clean eating has nothing to do with weight loss

deksgrl

Set MFP to lose 1 pound a week. Eat the amount of calories it says to eat (plus more for exercise if and when you exercise).

MityMax96

Hi,

I'm newish and been trying to stick to a low carb diet under 50g per day, i'm finding it really difficult to stick to that and always end up going over, but usually have calories left over.

I sit better to do lower carb in my situation? or just lower fat and calorie count? i'm confused as i keep reading various information and it is getting a bit mindboggling.

I am 31, 5"5 and weigh 201.8lbs so classed as obese. I want to lose about 58lbs.

Someone please help me decide what will work for me

Thanks in advance

I will throw in my $.02
Based on what you provided and assuming 3 days of exercise a week....
I get about 1600 - 1630 for BMR
2200 - 2250 for TDEE
If weight loss is the goal, I would shoot for about 1700 - 1800 calories a day.
Your fat intake should be at minimum 0.4 gr / lb of body weight....
So in your case
70 - 80 gr / day for fat == 630 - 720 calories
160 - 200 gr of protein / day == 640 - 800 calories
Carbs can be what ever you like.....but around 66 gr / day == 264 calories.

The important thing is to make sure that you are burning more calories than you are eating.

So be sure you track and log your foods.
Also weigh and measure so you can make sure you are accurate.

ladymiseryali

You do need a calorie defecit to lose weight, but if you want to go the low-carb route, you need to supplement the carbs for fat. Here's a good link that can help you, if you want to continue on that path.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1aiHSPoto_YqsNTDvL-g60nytMnyH-CJcCbiAx1IEUYM/mobilebasic?pli=1

I'm a low-carber myself. I keep my net carbs under 30 and in many cases, under 25. I've been doing it since July, so now it's like second nature.

ndj1979

calorie deficit is what creates weight loss..

Low carb, high carb, medium carb makes no difference, as long as you are in a deficit you will lose weight.

Figure out a 500 calories per day deficit and eat to this number...or you can use the MFP method and do it that way ...

ndj1979

Hey there,
My best advice for you, is don't skip carbs, but skip simple carbs. Stick to complex carbs, red potatoes, whole grains, ONLY whole wheat breads. And only eat them up until lunch time. Read up on clean eating, and stay away from processed foods. I'm 34, and I was up at 152, I lost 7 pounds in my first week of eating clean. Don't try to cut out too much at once, otherwise you will just find yourself craving that thing you are cutting out. I started working out and eating clean in August and have lost 17 pounds. The clean diet will be the first step to dropping the weight. Try it for one week, and I promise you will see results. Eat a large breakfast, plenty of protein, ex: hard boiled egg, a yogurt (greek) and whole wheat toast, or oatmeal. (I hate oatmeal, so I eat whole wheat toast) My personal trainer told me your 1st meal of the day should be your biggest, then lunch smaller and a very little for dinner, you should wake up hungry ready to fuel your body. But don't skip carbs except for at dinner, ie protein and veggies. Try to eat clean snacks throughout the day, unsalted nuts, veggies, hummus. At this point I'm eating 80% clean, but at first it was more like 95% I hope this helps. Don't give up!!

sigh, its the calorie deficit that you created by eating clean that dropped the weight..

eating clean, non processed, and/or complex vs noncomplex carbs has nothing to do with it...

wyllden

Thanks for all your responses, it does help, to a point i was quite enjoying the low carb as i was trying out other things for breakfast and having a bigger breakfast than i normally would - stuffed mushrooms, cheese and bacon, eggs in various forms but i'm getting a bit bored of that now and I'm missing porridge and cereal.

I usually do my food log in the morning based on what i think i'll have that day then tweak it and make decisions based on what the carbs/calories come out

but for example: was just putting down fruit and cream - trying to decide which cream to have - double cream-high fat, lower in carbs, or devon cream, higher carbs but alot less in calories - this was the final addition to my confusion as I just didn't know whether what i was doing was right or not.

My calorie goal is set at 1400 at the moment, i've been exercising most days burning off typically 250 calories and so far had atleast 300 calories left at the end of the day most days. So is my deficit 300? or is it the figure i get when i deduct my food intake from my RMR (don't know much about this but done a calcualtion on a site where it saud 2530???)

I decided to do low carb as i read somewhere if you keep carb intake under 50g then your body goes into ketosis and you lose weight faster - also read it's best if you are in obese category.

Most of my carbs are coming from veg, fruit, the odd snack (I haven't been having bread or rice or pasta - just a couple of slip ups where i've had a couple of roast potatoes, a tablespoon of cooked rice - far less than i used to have) The problem i have is that when i'm sorting out my food log for the day i find myself having to compromise even on fruit and veg to try and stay low on carbs.

sorry for waffling on, i'm tempted to switch to just low calorie but thought that by doing low calorie and keeping carbs under 50g i would see results faster.

For those also doing low carb, especially poster that has been doing it since July - Wow, i'm impressed. What sort of things are you eating?

Thanks again for the replies

ladymiseryali

For those also doing low carb, especially poster that has been doing it since July - Wow, i'm impressed. What sort of things are you eating?

Thanks again for the replies

I eat a cheesy omelette for breakfast every morning, along with some avocado and bacon. Lunches are either low carb soups I make in bulk, or chicken marinaded in something fatty in a salad, or I'll have rolled up deli meats. I recently made some low carb turkey meatloaf that's decent and I also make low carb chili in bulk. My husband LOVES my chili. I also make a lot of fat bombs, which are low carb candies that are mostly fats.

You will get a lot of low-carb haters on here though. It's inevitable. FOR ME, I feel way better on low carb. I also FINALLY lost stubborn inches from my body. It could have nothing to do with eating low carb, but it could have everything to do with it. I'm not a scientist, but all I know is that I like eating this way and will probably eat this way for the rest of my life.

deksgrl

My calorie goal is set at 1400 at the moment, i've been exercising most days burning off typically 250 calories and so far had atleast 300 calories left at the end of the day most days. So is my deficit 300? or is it the figure i get when i deduct my food intake from my RMR (don't know much about this but done a calcualtion on a site where it saud 2530???)

If you allowed MFP to set your calories, then it works like this. It calculates your amount of calories to lose weight NOT including exercise. Then when you do exercise, you need to eat more fuel for that. When you choose "I want to lose X pounds per week" this is what determines how many calories deficit. It subtracts 500 calories per day for 1 pound a week, 1,000 calories per day for 2 pounds per week, etc.

You are still maintaining the same calorie deficit, even when you eat back exercise calories.

Example:

2000 (number of calories you need to maintain not including exercise)
-1500 (number of calories MFP says to eat to lose 1 pound per week)
500 (this is your calorie deficit)

1500 (number of calories you eat)
-500 (amount you burned in exercise)
+500 (more food you eat for exercise calories)
=1500 (this is still a 500 calorie deficit to lose weight)

editing to add: the numbers above are just examples for ease of explaining, your numbers are different.

The other calculator you saw where it said 2500, this may have been a TDEE calculator. If so, TDEE means total daily energy expenditure, this is the number of calories where you would not gain or lose any weight, aka "maintenance" calories.

MityMax96

I decided to do low carb as i read somewhere if you keep carb intake under 50g then your body goes into ketosis and you lose weight faster - also read it's best if you are in obese category.

Don't know so much if that is the case....or just the fact you are not storing up the water associated w/ carb intake.

A caloric deficit of any combination will result in the same weight loss.....I can't think of anything I have read that says a certain combination will result in faster weight loss vs. another.

So just keep in mind that if you do up your carbs, you may see some water weight gain associated w/ the intake of carbs going back up......

wyllden

Curious, how did you manage zero carbs? what do you eat?

MityMax96

most likely meat
and high fat foods.....

sillyli234

Low carb, high fat, moderate protein made me drop some weight quickly and safely. Definitely look into paleo/keto/primal eating!

wyllden

thanks, it is beginning to get a bit clearer.

My calorie goal is set at 1400 at the moment, i've been exercising most days burning off typically 250 calories and so far had atleast 300 calories left at the end of the day most days. So is my deficit 300? or is it the figure i get when i deduct my food intake from my RMR (don't know much about this but done a calcualtion on a site where it saud 2530???)

If you allowed MFP to set your calories, then it works like this. It calculates your amount of calories to lose weight NOT including exercise. Then when you do exercise, you need to eat more fuel for that. When you choose "I want to lose X pounds per week" this is what determines how many calories deficit. It subtracts 500 calories per day for 1 pound a week, 1,000 calories per day for 2 pounds per week, etc.

You are still maintaining the same calorie deficit, even when you eat back exercise calories.

Example:

2000 (number of calories you need to maintain not including exercise)
-1500 (number of calories MFP says to eat to lose 1 pound per week)
500 (this is your calorie deficit)

1500 (number of calories you eat)
-500 (amount you burned in exercise)
+500 (more food you eat for exercise calories)
=1500 (this is still a 500 calorie deficit to lose weight)

editing to add: the numbers above are just examples for ease of explaining, your numbers are different.

The other calculator you saw where it said 2500, this may have been a TDEE calculator. If so, TDEE means total daily energy expenditure, this is the number of calories where you would not gain or lose any weight, aka "maintenance" calories.

Sarah4fitness

I'm shuddering at 50g carbs or less a day. I get rampagey and stabby at 100g a day.
To lose fat, eat fewer calories than you burn. Dropping your calories more than 300 below maintenance for your current weight will eventually lead to a purge, or a slowed metabolism. If you're 200+ lbs, don't do extremes. You don't need to. Just eat a little less than normal and exercise more, preferably lifting weights.

MityMax96

I'm shuddering at 50g carbs or less a day. I get rampagey and stabby at 100g a day.
To lose fat, eat fewer calories than you burn. Dropping your calories more than 300 below maintenance for your current weight will eventually lead to a purge, or a slowed metabolism. If you're 200+ lbs, don't do extremes. You don't need to. Just eat a little less than normal and exercise more, preferably lifting weights.

Yeah I do a variation of carb/calorie cycling with what I do....and on days I do low carbs (100 or less) I get a little "punchy" I guess you could say....more moody than anything. :bigsmile:

latte4jayne

I love low carb diet. I eat 5 mini meals about every 2 1/2 and one main meal of greens and protein consisting of fish, chicken beef for dinner. I eat a white omelettes with 2 tbsps of bacaon bits for breakfast. I have instant oatmeal with a splash of sugar free flavoring. I love the crunchy puffs from Trader joes for afternoon snack, low in carbs. To keep me honest I weight them out and bag them for my snack. I also seek out great low carb bars with low sugar content. I also love almonds for snacks, but wiegh them out, it is easy to go overboard.

wyllden

I'm shuddering at 50g carbs or less a day. I get rampagey and stabby at 100g a day.
To lose fat, eat fewer calories than you burn. Dropping your calories more than 300 below maintenance for your current weight will eventually lead to a purge, or a slowed metabolism. If you're 200+ lbs, don't do extremes. You don't need to. Just eat a little less than normal and exercise more, preferably lifting weights.

Yeah I do a variation of carb/calorie cycling with what I do....and on days I do low carbs (100 or less) I get a little "punchy" I guess you could say....more moody than anything. :bigsmile:

I was wondering whether switching week by week could be a solution - as in low carb 1 week, then low calories the next, alternating. (although i have been keeping an eye on the calories even when on low carb anyway)

This might help me to have the carbs like porridge, potatoes and bread to look forward to for the weeks when i'm on low carb, then look forward to the high fat things like cheese and bacon for the weeks when i'm on low carb.

So do you do it on a weekly, daily or other cycle?

yarwell

If you're going low carb do it and stick to it for at least 6 weeks. There's a transition to go through where you might be a bit headache prone or light headed, where extra salt intake helps.

Your diary is closed so can't see what you've been eating.

If you can't stick to 50g of carbs per day then maybe just a calorie limit would serve you better.

lfabbric

Regardless of being in ketosis or not (below 30-50g of carbs a day), you still need a calorie deficit.

Don't focus on being in ketosis unless you are very strict, just focus on getting your daily protein requirements and filling the rest with fat and carbs.

Have fun with it.