Low carb; slowing the weight loss rate a little ?

icrushit

Hi, I'm looking for a little advice, preferrably from anyone that has been in the same low carb boat. I know some have very strong things to say on dietary programmes that don't fit their mind, so please no lectures, or any evangelical posting about how you do not need to do low carb but rather simply eat x, y or z, or any anti-low carb stuff in general.

Anyway, that little disclaimer out of the way, I've been following a low carb programme for the last 4 weeks with great results. I've read widely during that time, and its all good, and I've been experiencing none of the side effects some complain of with these programmes.

In the first week I lost about 3 lbs that I attribute to water weight, and excluding that, I've lost 12lbs over the last 4 weeks, averaging out at 3 lbs a week. This is a little high for my liking, and would like to taper it back a little, and wonder what have others done in this same situation.

I currently eat about 50g net carbs, a level I've reached by stripping back the carbs little by little after starting out from about 120/ 130g net carbs at the beginning. I find this gives me an appetite to eat to about 1,900/ 2,000 calories a day most days, something I consider a decent enough level for someone my age, height and weight, and not too aggressive. In fairness I will say some days I have trouble trying to hit that 1,900/ 2,000, and sometimes fall short by a few hundred calories. I'm 35, 5'9/ 5'10 and currently 198lbs (started from a base of 213lbs). I tend to be sedentary enough, but do walk for 60+ mins a day.

Thus far I've just been happy to let the weight loss run and see what level it found. This level seems to be about the 2.5/ 3lbs a week mark, and I would like to dial this back to 2lbs a week, and further evaluate from there.

I know many will say simply eat more, but that advice would be a little simplistic for my liking, and at the moment what I eat is in line with my physical appetite, as I haven't overeaten since starting this low carb programme, something I'm enjoying a lot, and put down to the elimination of any blood sugar spikes/ cravings from reducing the carbs, as well as the food I am now eating being so filling from the fat and protein in it, that I'm simply not tempted to eat more. In addition, during this four weeks I've eliminated most of the added sugar in my diet, from personal reasons, as opposed to sugar being evil or anything like that, which has also helped keep any cravings at bay.

So basically, I like that what I eat is very much tied to my physical appetite, and for me I put this down to the low carb approach I'm pursuing. Increasing the carbs a little, would seem the obvious way to go, and thus bringing up my calorie intake a little like that, as well as perhaps let my appetite increase a little.

I'd be interested in your thoughts if you've been in this situation, and how you've managed it yourself.

Oh, and if the initial disclaimer in the first paragraph was not enough, I know weight loss is all about the calorie deficit ultimately, and low carb for me is just the way I'm managing to sustain this deficit

yarwell

You don't say what you are eating and your diary is closed.

Increasing the fat content may be a way to increase your calorie intake, if that's the goal, but the rate of loss will flatten itself off in due course without any change.

Go_Mizzou99

When I did Atkins a few years back, I lost 30 pounds in less than 3 months...HOWEVER, it took me 18 months to lose 75 pounds. My long term average for 75 pounds lost was 1.5 pounds per week but in the first few weeks it was much more...like 3 to 5 pounds per week. That means my last few months were more like 0.5 to 0.75 pounds per week.

icrushit

Hmm.. diary should be open, but MFP seems to have a habit of reverting back to older settings on me sometimes, so perhaps that is behind it.. shall try open it again if its not

Yes, I need to up the calorie intake, and I'm just thinking about how to best do that. Fat would be one option, although I find myself so full sometimes, that could be tricky. I'm curious to see how effectively carbs can be used as a lever to alter the speed of weight loss, as I'm quite enjoying the low carb way, and would like to extend it beyond my period of weight loss. I suspect I may have to experiment a little, and find the level that is good for my needs, be that weight loss, weight gain, or maintenance.

Yes, I figure the loss rate will flatten out in due course, although after 4 weeks now, I want to slow it a little now, both to reduce it to a level I'm more comfortable with, and also to give me control over manipulating my weight in the future

By the way, food-wise, my days tend to be the same, with yoghurt, nuts, seeds and berries for breakfast. Lunch is typically some eggs & meat/ fish with vegetables and a side salad often, and dinner typically a meat or a fish course with vegetables and a side salad sometimes too. Typically that gives me about 1600/ 1700 calories, and with a little healthy snacking (some dark chocolate/ peanut butter & celery/ carrot/ handful of nuts) typically adding about 200/ 300 or so calories to bring things up to the 1800/ 1900/ 2000 calorie mark. Carbs typically account for 10- 15% of calories, protein 20- 25%, and the remaining 60%+ from fat. I shall try see what the story is with my diary though, and why it can't be seen by others

EDIT: diary should be open now. I had set it to be public on my phone, but seems when I checked it on the web, it was set for friends only oddly..

icrushit

When I did Atkins a few years back, I lost 30 pounds in less than 3 months...HOWEVER, it took me 18 months to lose 75 pounds. My long term average for 75 pounds lost was 1.5 pounds per week but in the first few weeks it was much more...like 3 to 5 pounds per week. That means my last few months were more like 0.5 to 0.75 pounds per week.

Did anything change after the first three months in terms of your diet ?

Unknown

This content has been removed.

icrushit

If you want to dial back the rate of loss then there's basically 2 options:

1. Eat more
2. Exercise less

If it were me, 10 out of 10 times I would choose to eat more

Yes, thats the simplistic bottom line alright, and I'm with you on option 1, eating more. I'm just seeing how to fit that into the overall framework of lower carb which I like, ie how I should eat more, or in what ways, as I would like to see if I cannot utulise carb control as my weight loss control of choice beyond when I lose what I want to lose

Go_Mizzou99

When I did Atkins a few years back, I lost 30 pounds in less than 3 months...HOWEVER, it took me 18 months to lose 75 pounds. My long term average for 75 pounds lost was 1.5 pounds per week but in the first few weeks it was much more...like 3 to 5 pounds per week. That means my last few months were more like 0.5 to 0.75 pounds per week.

Did anything change after the first three months in terms of your diet ?

Nothing changed except there was less fat to lose. My activity level (gym every other day) remained the same throughout. If you read through a lot of threads, you will notice that tremendous weight loss is very common in the first few weeks...then it slows.

If you watch The Biggest Loser, you will notice they use percent weight loss...now that seems to make sense because a 300 pound person losing 3 pounds is 1%, but a 100 pound person losing the same 3 pounds is losing 3%.

ALSO - the first few weeks of weight loss seems to include more water-weight loss. I believe this is true if you had a really high sodium diet (water retention) and then when you start eating better, the sodium goes down and you flush away (literally) a few pounds.

Liftng4Lis

Seriously?? You're averaging 1650-1700 calories a day.

icrushit

Nothing changed except there was less fat to lose. My activity level (gym every other day) remained the same throughout. If you read through a lot of threads, you will notice that tremendous weight loss is very common in the first few weeks...then it slows.

If you watch The Biggest Loser, you will notice they use percent weight loss...now that seems to make sense because a 300 pound person losing 3 pounds is 1%, but a 100 pound person losing the same 3 pounds is losing 3%.

ALSO - the first few weeks of weight loss seems to include more water-weight loss. I believe this is true if you had a really high sodium diet (water retention) and then when you start eating better, the sodium goes down and you flush away (literally) a few pounds.

Interesting, so your intake and exercise remained the same, but the weight loss just slowed. I know our metabolisms reduce as we lose weight, thats just normal, as it does not need to burn through the same quantity of food as it did before to maintain our weight, just was surprised the loss rate became so slow.

Going by % sounds like a good way to looking at it, must plug that into my little spreadsheet I use to keep an eye on things.

I can understand the weight loss from water element, but assumed that would only be an element in the first week ? Never really had a high sodium diet before (not much added salt/ not much processed food), but can understand how others might lose a lot of water their body was retaining.

icrushit

Seriously?? You're averaging 1650-1700 calories a day.

No, just the last two days. Mostly I average about 1950, but sometimes its higher, sometimes lower. I've found it odd that its been so low the last two days, but its my natural appetite, plus I have a cold I'm just getting rid of, so perhaps thats an element too. My second post gives what I typically eat most days.

Sabine_Stroehm

EDIT.

tomtrutt

the one comment is correct.. your eating 500-600 calories less then your resting Metabolic rate.. At that level you could be loosing lean muscle,which is heavier then fat. I've done a lot of very low carb diets, usually in the 30-60g per day rang but you can keep the protein and calorie levels up.. My trick is to incorporate whey protein, buy the good stuff, which has 30-40g of protein, 100-120 calories and 2-3g of carbs in an 8oz serving... It will help you keep your levels up without adding a huge amount of carbs.. My fav is Optimum Nutrition which you can get from many bodybuilding sites in a ton of flavors. 2# should run you about $35 bucks and has 28 servings.. If you want to boost it a little more you can make a shack of Choc Whey, Milk and a tablespoon or two of peanut butter..

The other comments that this much weight loss it also true. Its one reason, plus IBS, that i usually move to a low carb diet. In my case i need to not only keep away from a high carb intake i need to remove refined sugar, flour and as many preservatives as possible. Google clean eating and look on the bodybuilding sites for recipes.. Those guys are experts at getting high calories, high protein and low carb levels into meals..

Side not.. If you're not already i would also add in a good multivitamin.

SLLRunner

If you want to dial back the rate of loss then there's basically 2 options:

1. Eat more
2. Exercise less

If it were me, 10 out of 10 times I would choose to eat more

Yes, thats the simplistic bottom line alright, and I'm with you on option 1, eating more. I'm just seeing how to fit that into the overall framework of lower carb which I like, ie how I should eat more, or in what ways, as I would like to see if I cannot utulise carb control as my weight loss control of choice beyond when I lose what I want to lose

Carbs generally have more calories, thus when cut out people believe that it's the low carb that is causing them to lose weight instead of the calorie deficit.If you want to slow down the weight loss, you need to lessen the calorie deficit.

Since you like low carb, then you need to compensate somewhere to bring the calorie level up, and it sounds like less exercise is not an option (it would not be for me either. ). It seems to me you would have to compromise by simply eating some higher calorie fats and/or protein. Simply choose the foods on your low carb diet that have more calories.

3dogsrunning

While I do think, assuming your diary is accurate, you should up your calories, I also believe you are underestimating your water weight loss. 3lbs of water weight is nothing. I can shift that with a slight drop in carbs. And since you dropped your carbs gradually, it is likely you continued to drop water weight over the next few weeks as well.

stupidloser

Low carb diets are for people who don't go to the gym. In order to get anything done in the gym you need fuel(carbs). You can not push your body to its limits without the fuel it needs. I've been out of the dieting/training for like a year and I just started 2 weeks ago. I'm pushing 40 and ain't trying to win Mr. Olympia or anything. I just want to shed the fat I gained during years of heavy drinking and tone up sagging body parts. On days where I've eatin' plenty, I will have a easy day in the gym. Everything seems so easy.

stupidloser

How is it possible for me to weigh 3 pounds heavier on the scale yet look 6 pounds skinnier in the mirror?

3dogsrunning

How is it possible for me to weigh 3 pounds heavier on the scale yet look 6 pounds skinnier in the mirror?

I'm not sure where you are going with this. There are a few possible reasons, most have to do with perception and glycogen stores.
Scale weight is not always an accurate reflection of fat loss/gain.

SLLRunner

Low carb diets are for people who don't go to the gym.

This is a perception, as well as a generalization. My friend is low carb because it helps curb her migraines, and she lifts heavy, runs, has plenty of energy, and maintains her weight.

icrushit

Thanks for all the feedback, suggestions and thoughts so far. Just to clarify, I know I need to up my calories a little, if I want to slow down the rate I'm losing at, and in that vein the one I am looking most strongly at is simply upping my carbs. I'm currently at 50g net carbs, and will bring that up to just under 100g I think, but probably in two steps, so I can observe the effects of upping my carbs on my programme. So I will most likely aim to eat 75g this coming week, and 100g the following week. That will bring the calories up a little also, and will give me a chance to see what sort of effect raising the carbs has, and if the effect is greater than the increased amount of calories it will add (which is pretty small tbh, 25g = 100 calories, for example).

For the curious, below are some of the headline figures, represented as daily averages for the last four weeks, as I've been doing this low carb programme for exactly 4 weeks now. The below are the daily averages for each of the four weeks, and the only noteworthy item is probably that I have had a cold the last week, thus the lower intake and exercise figures in week 4.

Overall Intake;
Week 1, Intake: 2053 calories (29% Carbs, 47% Fat, 24% Protein), Burned: 324 calories
Week 2, Intake: 1863 calories (20% Carbs, 56% Fat, 25% Protein), Burned: 364 calories
Week 3, Intake: 1947 calories (16% Carbs, 59% Fat, 25% Protein), Burned: 454 calories
Week 4, Intake: 1743 calories (17% Carbs, 55% Fat, 29% Protein), Burned: 282 calories

Carbs (g);
Week 1: Total Carbs: 151, Fibre: 31, Net Carbs: 120
Week 2: Total Carbs: 92, Fibre: 30, Net Carbs: 62
Week 3: Total Carbs: 78, Fibre: 30, Net Carbs: 48
Week 4: Total Carbs: 73, Fibre: 30, Net Carbs: 43

Oh, and just to re-iterate, the above reflects what I have had a natural appetite for, even if they are a little on the low side, as there is definitely no intent from my end to starve myself. That said. I have been mindful not to eat anything between 8pm and 10am the following morning, but aside from the odd minor hunger pang during these hours, I generally have experienced no hunger that I've genuinely felt the need to eat anything more than I have been doing as above.

icrushit

I also believe you are underestimating your water weight loss. 3lbs of water weight is nothing. I can shift that with a slight drop in carbs. And since you dropped your carbs gradually, it is likely you continued to drop water weight over the next few weeks as well.

This is definitely a possibility, although my analysis has indicated it might not be the case. For example, besides tracking my actual weight loss, I also tracked the weight loss I would have expected to see sheerly from caloric deficit, and the difference between the two, at least for the first two weeks seemed to be approx. 3 lbs, thus my estimate for water weight loss. In addition, before I started eating this current lower carb way, I had never had a diet high in sodium, plus had been gradually cutting back for a while to minimise the things I've found to be natural bloaters for me, ie wheat and dairy.

As I say, the water weight loss portion may be more than 3lbs, but its hard to estimate in any accurate way, thus my above assumed figure. You are spot on on the staggered carb reduction though, as from the figures above, this definitely happened over more than the initial 7 days I started lowering carbs.

icrushit

the one comment is correct.. your eating 500-600 calories less then your resting Metabolic rate.. At that level you could be loosing lean muscle,which is heavier then fat. I've done a lot of very low carb diets, usually in the 30-60g per day rang but you can keep the protein and calorie levels up.. My trick is to incorporate whey protein, buy the good stuff, which has 30-40g of protein, 100-120 calories and 2-3g of carbs in an 8oz serving... It will help you keep your levels up without adding a huge amount of carbs.. My fav is Optimum Nutrition which you can get from many bodybuilding sites in a ton of flavors. 2# should run you about $35 bucks and has 28 servings.. If you want to boost it a little more you can make a shack of Choc Whey, Milk and a tablespoon or two of peanut butter..

The other comments that this much weight loss it also true. Its one reason, plus IBS, that i usually move to a low carb diet. In my case i need to not only keep away from a high carb intake i need to remove refined sugar, flour and as many preservatives as possible. Google clean eating and look on the bodybuilding sites for recipes.. Those guys are experts at getting high calories, high protein and low carb levels into meals..

Side not.. If you're not already i would also add in a good multivitamin.

Thanks for taking the time to suggest the above. I'm very much leaning in a natural direction though, so no powders for me, just whole foods and mainly because I can control what I eat better that way, no other reason. I may look into the clean eating bodybuilder stuff you mentioned though, but after I try adding back some carbs first I think and see how that goes. 50g net carbs, which is what I'm eating is a tiny bit restrictive, and while all is from good, clean, healthy sources, I do feel I have to be careful with how much of it I eat, so I don't go over the 50g mark. 100g will make me much happier I think, even if it was interesting to lower to 50g for a while

icrushit

Carbs generally have more calories, thus when cut out people believe that it's the low carb that is causing them to lose weight instead of the calorie deficit.If you want to slow down the weight loss, you need to lessen the calorie deficit.

Since you like low carb, then you need to compensate somewhere to bring the calorie level up, and it sounds like less exercise is not an option (it would not be for me either. ). It seems to me you would have to compromise by simply eating some higher calorie fats and/or protein. Simply choose the foods on your low carb diet that have more calories.

Cheers for the feedback, and you are right. I think I will raise my current carb ceiling and see how things go. If still too short in the calorie department after that, adding in some good quality fats like you suggest is the way to go I think

icrushit

Thinking about how I intend to add the carbs, and thus some calories back to my diet. Its funny, when you get into the habit of reducing the carbs in yoru diet, and seeing you can actually live without things like bread, grains and sugary things, it can be difficult enough when it comes to thinking about adding things back in.

In any event, doing a little thinking this morning, I shall look at prioritising additional carbs in the form of:
- starchier vegetables, or vegetables I watch the portion sizes of currently
- fruit in addition to the two portions of mixed berries I get every day already
- oats (a convenient way to bring up the carbs in a measured way at breakfast time)
- more milk (a convenient way of bringing up both the carb and calorie intake)
- grains, especially as small side portions with lunch & dinner

Following on from that, I shall add in some added fat into my diet, if bringing up the carbs does not slow things down. This will be my last recourse though I think, as I already have plenty of fat in my diet, and if I am going to add calories I would favour calories that offer nutrition and energy, instead of just nutrition, and as things stand I think if I add more fat, I will find it difficult to eat a little hugher quantity, a problem I am already having as I am simply not hungry for food the way I am eating currently.

In any case, perhaps my musing out loud will be helpful to some other low-carbers out there

On a semi-related note, I wonder how have low-carbers who have cut out a lot of junk like overly sugary foods hollow calorie foods like bread, how they have found maintaining while keeping these things out of their diet ? At the moment, I don't see suagr comng back into my diet, bread possibly either, as I am simply liking the control I have over what I eat by excluding those things from my diet. Of course the fact a diet high in fat, and with a decent amount of protein is so filling helps an enormous amount, but I am definitely feeling the lack of added sugar and simple carbs in my diet is a big boon too.