Carb counters?

RebeccaLeinen

My Dad just started me on a new diet that's between the paleo diet and atkins... you just count your carbs and sugars... the first 2-3 weeks you stay below 20 carbs... then as you lose you can add back...but you have to stay under a certain number... in 5 days i lost 5 lbs and feel great...im full and constantly get to eat. My problem is when counting those your calories are extremely low. I hit about 800 a day but i'm eating constantly and CLEAN... veggies and protein in almost every meal... My question is does this happen to anyone else? is it normal? should I worry?

nxd10

I always eat pretty clean. I started working to keep my carbs to 40% of my calories and yes, I was very full all the time, had lots of energy, and was having a hard time hitting 1000 calories.

40% isn't even a particularly low carb diet and I was STILL having trouble getting calories up to the 1340 I'm supposed to be at. What I found is that after a five days or so I just got suddenly hungry and wanted to eat. That was the day I went to over 1500 - all healthy things like kefir and veggies, and it was within my weekly calories, but still . . .

I don't think that for me those ups and downs are that good. So I am still shooting for 40% and just accepting that fruit and mung beans and lentils and quinoa have carbs - and calories - in them. But they're just going to be part of my diet. That gets at the idea of making your body process those carbs, but gets my calories up enough that I don't start having cravings.

elisa123gal

I just started counting my calories after trying atkins for four weeks..keeping my carbs under 20. I didn't lose anything. I was told on my low carb forum that I was eating too many calories. I thought as long as I kept the carbs low I could eat until I was full. I don't get how you can only be eating so little and feel full. Are you only eating lean meats and no butter, mayo, oils, or bacon?

Now..I'm counting my calories on here and eating low carb hoping that will work. So far, I've lost four pounds since tuesday.

RebeccaLeinen

if you look at most of your normal foods you can find the low carb kind... real mayo is like 0 net carbs for a tbsp... there is a butter that is 0 carbs... I just check all my labels and only buy the stuff that is 0 carbohydrate and 0 sugar... I've been pretty surprised how much i've found and haven't compromised my diet... I haven't hit a day where i eat and eat... I usually just grab a salad with a dressing i found at walmart that is 0 net carbs!