Calories or Carbs?

alicia0416

Ok guys, What will get me where I want to be faster, Counting calories or carbs or both? As of now counting calories has been great for me but with these last 10 pounds lingering, I am looking to up my game!!!!!! Any advice?

alexis831

Calories for me! I never really pay attention to carbs too much if at all. Unless I go on a 100% carb diet of junk one day because I am crazy like that, then feel guilty so I eat some chicken or a protein shake, hah! That is about the only time I worry about them.

tryinghard71

I worry about protein. If you are eating high protein you don't have to really worry about being over on carbs. Days when I am I don't care because I need carbs for energy and to work out hard. I just try to stay away from junk carbs. Those kind of carbs would suck up my calories anyways and I would still be hungry.

alicia0416

So when you guys say "junk carbs" what does that mean? I am still new at the "healthy eating thing" Sorry for the dumb questions....

Whart0603

Carbs are calories. 1g carb = 4 calories, 1g protein = 4 calories, 1g fat = 9 calories. MFP sets percentages of each and tells you in red if you've gone over for the day. It's a good starting point.

Bad carbs would be, for example, candy. Something with lots of sugar. Everything has it's exceptions and fruit is one. lol Fruit is high in sugar but is good for you. Just don't want to eat a whole lot of it.

Good carbs would be carbs that are slowly digested. Such as brown rice, sweet potatos, whole grain, etc. There's exceptions there too. Not everything that says "whole grain" is good for you. Just have to read the nutrition label and decide if the calories fit into your daily limits.

alicia0416

Dang it.... this is way more complicated than I though lol... I will figure it out though... do ya'll think that focusing on carbs might help me shred the last 10 pounds more effectively?

DebbieLyn63

Junk carbs are basically carbs with little to no fiber. Simple sugars, white flour, etc. Examples would be donuts, pastries, white bread, white rice, crackers, chips, etc. Stick with food in its most natural form- fruits, raw veggies- where the fiber is still intact and hasnt been processed out. Whole grains not just Whole wheat. Look for the fiber on the nutrition labels. Fiber slows down the rate that carbs are converted to sugar in your body, so you don't have a spike in your blood sugar which causes too much insulin release.

sarahrbraun

Ok guys, What will get me where I want to be faster, Counting calories or carbs or both? As of now counting calories has been great for me but with these last 10 pounds lingering, I am looking to up my game!!!!!! Any advice?

IMO, counting carbs. If you REDUCE, not eliminate, your amount of carbs you should lose weight without really needing to count calories too much.

I spent 3 months busting booty trying to lose weight on a normal diet ( about 300g carbs a day), and lost a whole 7lbs

I reduced my carbs to ~100g of carbs a day, reduced my workout, and the weight started melting off. the first 3 months I lost 16.8lbs! There are days that I eat over 2000 calories even though my base is 1450! It is a LOT harder to over eat on broccoli and salad than it is on chips and chocolate. My calories are so high because I eat things like nuts (1-2oz at a time)

alexis831

Not necessarily if your macro's are overall correct meaning you have a good carb/protein ratio and you are loosing weight already and haven't stalled I would say no. Its calories in and calories out.

Its how you want to loose that is the question. Do you want to go for a more protein diet, natural foods, or just don’t care. What keeps you motivated. Either way as long as you manage your calorical intake, have a good exercise plan with both cardio and weights, you can loose doing any of the three.

What motivates me is a twix candy bar, reeses peanut butter cup, or little debbies snack cake at the end of the day. What does it for you?

TeaBea

Dang it.... this is way more complicated than I though lol... I will figure it out though... do ya'll think that focusing on carbs might help me shred the last 10 pounds more effectively?

EFFECTIVELY .... that's the key. Effective weight loss means the ability to KEEP the weight off. You will keep the weight off..... only when you figure all this stuff out.

For me, counting carbs is worthless ....because I'm not going low carb for the rest of my life. What I do intead is, make changes to my diet that I know I can live with. Less processed foods, more whole foods, make sure I have good protien numbers, and fat is not the enemy (this was hard for me). I added exercise too.

For me (and many MFP'ers) it's all about lifestyle changes.

Lina4Lina

I've never counted carbs and I never plan to.

alicia0416

My motivation is a mixed drink of Cherry coke zero and malibu rum lol....

You guys are right, I know that I can not stick to a low carb diet for the rest of my life. AND I DO WANT TO MAINTAIN what I have done so far.... I will continue to count calories, i mean it has worked so far... just slowed down a bit lol...

thank ya'll for all the helpful info... I really appreciate it....

alexis831

My motivation is a mixed drink of Cherry coke zero and malibu rum lol....

You guys are right, I know that I can not stick to a low carb diet for the rest of my life. AND I DO WANT TO MAINTAIN what I have done so far.... I will continue to count calories, i mean it has worked so far... just slowed down a bit lol...

thank ya'll for all the helpful info... I really appreciate it....

If it has slowed down a bit you might want to adjust your workouts or calorie intake accordingly. If you have the same workout and haven't changed it up and the same amount of calories you WILL start to slow down your weight loss.
First look at your diet …
Every 5-10 pounds you loose you want to adjust your calorie goal. Meaning if I weighed 140 and I lost 20 pounds and did it eating 500 below my TDEE which at 140 is 1685 then I need to calculate my new TDEE at 120 pounds which is 1580 and eat 500 below that which is 1080. I started out eating 1185 but now I need to eat 1080 since I am smaller to maintain the 1 pound a week loss I want. Does that make sense?

Second look at your workouts…
You should be doing BOTH cardio and weights Cardio alone only gets you so far. Weights along only gets you so far. You need both. Also you can’t do the same thing over and over. I would look into doing ladders or intervals or HIIT programs with your current cardio regiment. Also maybe up the weight and pickup some other weight workouts. All these things are good ways to keep plugging away strong and not hit a plateau.

Good luck on your journey! You can do this!

Oh and use your fav drink as a motivator...even if its just on the weekends or so on

yc46

I've been watching both really close but hubby says my focus is calories not carbs. Diabetics must watch their carbohydrates moreso than nondiabetics.

conniehv40

I am a reader of diets, but not too great at following what I read! Anyway, the book written by Oprah's fitness guru-years ago-says to keep your carbs at around 150g per day.

I have mine set at about 200g per day because 1-I am just starting and am a carb junkie and 2-I used mfp's calculator for calorie goal etc.

There was also a great thread here that says to make sure the mfp calorie setting is at sedentary so that we don't over eat by eating back only the calories we've lost exercising.

Great job; great accomplishment losing all this weight and being down to the last 10!

Keep reading and logging and you will get there!

sgpaschak

A few months ago I would have told you count calories and that a calorie is a calorie.

I lost 95 lbs counting calories and working out. Then it ground to a halt for 10 months. I adjusted calories up and calories down. Exercise intensity up and intensity down to no effect.

I trashed the whole low carb thing and referred to low carb advocates as charlatans and snake oil salesmen. Until I tried it.

I found an eating style that worked for me (primal). I will not endorse this as what works for you is what is best. However for me, counting carbs and limiting them to ~100g per day and cutting all wheat, grains, rice, corn and legumes, and filling up on meat, fish, fowl, and eggs coupled with oodles of veggies and greens, limited fruits and nuts has been amazing. The scale started moving again, rapidly. I could almost see my gut shrinking. My face lost even more weight, my fingers shrunk so much my wedding ring fell off, and I'm almost down another pant size.

Just a note on eating this way. Counting your carbs will naturally decrease the amount of calories you eat. Green veggies like broccoli, kai lan, bok choi, yu choi, spinach, kale, cabbages, lettuce, etc. have so few calories you could eat yourself sick before you hit 200. Loading up on protein and fat promotes satiety so you can naturally self regulate what you eat. I'm eating a lot less than I usually did, and am less hungry and have more energy than when I followed MFPs goals to eat almost 300g of carbs per day.

Again I stress....this worked FOR ME. YOUR mileage may vary. My advice would be to try out different methods and see which one works better for you. Try 30 days doing one way, then 30 days doing another. Variety is fun.

If you are interested in giving low carb a shake I highly recommend visiting http://www.marksdailyapple.com

If you are interested in doing the calorie is a calorie method, there is a ton of information and gurus right here on MFP that helped me out during that phase of my weight loss journey.

Have fun experimenting and good luck on your journey.

-S-

SideSteel

It would be in your best interest to count protein, carbs, fat, and calories, as a bare minimum.

alicia0416

Thanks to everyone who gave me advice... I'm gonna start my 'low carb" diet in the morning... I have lost A LOT already but can't get over this hump.... the last ten are KILLIN me lol... Thank ya'll again VERY MUCH!!!!!!