Should I?

Alwaysscarred

Pondering starting a low carb diet instead of the 1200 kcal a day. I'm so sick of counting calories.

Any comments? Tips?

oldscratch

Low carb is tough. The weight drops, but if you go back to em. The lbs seem to come back with a vengeance.

Atlantique

How low-carb are we talking?

I suppose some people would say that I eat "low-carb", but I keep my carbs right around 100 per day and try to get around 100g of protein per day. I don't find that difficult at all as that's still a fairly decent amount of carbs and it certainly seems to be working.

Alwaysscarred

My parents try to avoid all carbs and it seems to be working great for them. When you say you eat low-carb, do you still count calories?

Atlantique

Yes, I do still count the calories.

Jinji

I can compare because I used low-carb for three years and calorie-counting for one year. I prefer calorie-counting.

From 2006-2009 I worked with a low-carb diet because I'm diabetic and reducing carbohydrates helped me to stabilize blood sugar levels. I noticed that if I could actually restrict my carbs (it is *extremely* hard) then I lost weight.

However, what actually happened is different from the ideal. If you are a social person who goes out to eat with friends, you'll eat too many carbs. If you eat what others cook, you'll eat too many carbs. If you enjoy drinking beer, you'll eat too many carbs. As soon as a person increases carb intake over a very small amount (~ 60 grams /day) then you gain tons of weight!

The low-carb diets cause weight loss by forcing your body into ketoacidosis. As soon as you are not in ketoacidosis any more then you will gain weight from all the fat you're eating. For this reason I find low-carb diets are a useful tool for losing weight but a bad tool for maintaining weight. Calorie-counting is a better tool to use when making a permanent life change toward better health and better living.

I have been practicing MFP since late last year. I found that calorie-counting stabilized my blood sugars, enabled me to enjoy eating with my friends, allowed me to eat a greater variety of foods, and forced me to focus on portion control. (Portion control was the real problem in the first place.)

I wish you the best. Weight loss is not an easy road and we have to develop many new tools to hack our new path to health. Calorie counting is the best tool for my life, I'm sure you'll find yours!

Good luck to you -- Shannon

Atlantique

I can compare because I used low-carb for three years and calorie-counting for one year. I prefer calorie-counting.

From 2006-2009 I worked with a low-carb diet because I'm diabetic and reducing carbohydrates helped me to stabilize blood sugar levels. I noticed that if I could actually restrict my carbs (it is *extremely* hard) then I lost weight.

However, what actually happened is different from the ideal. If you are a social person who goes out to eat with friends, you'll eat too many carbs. If you eat what others cook, you'll eat too many carbs. If you enjoy drinking beer, you'll eat too many carbs. As soon as a person increases carb intake over a very small amount (~ 60 grams /day) then you gain tons of weight!

The low-carb diets cause weight loss by forcing your body into ketoacidosis. As soon as you are not in ketoacidosis any more then you will gain weight from all the fat you're eating. For this reason I find low-carb diets are a useful tool for losing weight but a bad tool for maintaining weight. Calorie-counting is a better tool to use when making a permanent life change toward better health and better living.

I have been practicing MFP since late last year. I found that calorie-counting stabilized my blood sugars, enabled me to enjoy eating with my friends, allowed me to eat a greater variety of foods, and forced me to focus on portion control. (Portion control was the real problem in the first place.)

I wish you the best. Weight loss is not an easy road and we have to develop many new tools to hack our new path to health. Calorie counting is the best tool for my life, I'm sure you'll find yours!

Good luck to you -- Shannon

Just one comment: ketoacidosis is not the same as ketosis. Low-carb diets produce a state of ketosis, not ketoacidosis.

JNick77

Low Carb diets can be effective but you DO have to count calories unfortunately. Low carb doesn't mean you can pigout on eggs and beef all day. LOL! Surplus calories whether it's fat or carbs will still get stored.

There are different types of Low Carb diets and I would encourage you to do a Google search for the Anabolic Diet by Dr. Pasquale. You'll probably find it under a lot of exercise or bodybuilding references but don't let that discourage you from learning about it because it's effective for anybody. Just like any other low carb diet it's tough adjusting your calories to only have like 15% from Carbs but on the weekend it gives you some breathing room and a chance to regroup. It's highly effective for dropping bodyfat.

wanttogetskinny

I can compare because I used low-carb for three years and calorie-counting for one year. I prefer calorie-counting.

From 2006-2009 I worked with a low-carb diet because I'm diabetic and reducing carbohydrates helped me to stabilize blood sugar levels. I noticed that if I could actually restrict my carbs (it is *extremely* hard) then I lost weight.

However, what actually happened is different from the ideal. If you are a social person who goes out to eat with friends, you'll eat too many carbs. If you eat what others cook, you'll eat too many carbs. If you enjoy drinking beer, you'll eat too many carbs. As soon as a person increases carb intake over a very small amount (~ 60 grams /day) then you gain tons of weight!

The low-carb diets cause weight loss by forcing your body into ketoacidosis. As soon as you are not in ketoacidosis any more then you will gain weight from all the fat you're eating. For this reason I find low-carb diets are a useful tool for losing weight but a bad tool for maintaining weight. Calorie-counting is a better tool to use when making a permanent life change toward better health and better living.

I have been practicing MFP since late last year. I found that calorie-counting stabilized my blood sugars, enabled me to enjoy eating with my friends, allowed me to eat a greater variety of foods, and forced me to focus on portion control. (Portion control was the real problem in the first place.)

I wish you the best. Weight loss is not an easy road and we have to develop many new tools to hack our new path to health. Calorie counting is the best tool for my life, I'm sure you'll find yours!

Good luck to you -- Shannon

Just one comment: ketoacidosis is not the same as ketosis. Low-carb diets produce a state of ketosis, not ketoacidosis.

Thank you I was going to say the same thing. I've been in diabetic ketoacidosis several times......that's quite different (life-threatening) than ketosis, which is not.

Jinji

Thanks for the correction. My typo-bad.

Rowann

Thanks for the correction. My typo-bad.

If your anything like me, then your fingers go into automatic as you type, and with ketoacidosis being such an important issue with diabetes it's no wonder it inserted itself into your post...