Carb Counting with Calorie Counting?

Hrl1993

Do you carb count along with your calorie counting? If so, about how many net carbs do you eat daily and how many net calories do you aim for?

I did strictly low cal for a long time. It was a major lifestyle change for me and my diet shifted from a lot of prepared foods to whole foods, as the whole foods made it so much easier for me to control what was in my food and keep the calorie count down. Also, ya know, health benefits and stuff. Unfortunately, this approach stopped working for me after a while. I fell in LOVE with fruit and found myself consuming about 400 calories worth each day (I'm not exaggerating! lol). My body didn't like all that sugar apparently, and I stopped losing and even started gaining a little, even with very low cals and vigorous daily exercise. I know this sounds like I must have been cheating, but I swear, everything was right by the book.

So I switched and started doing Atkins. It worked great. I lost quickly and it stayed off for a while. Unfortunately, I am a college student and have an on-campus meal plan, and the SUPER low carb counts on Atkins are unrealistic to maintain when eating on campus (and also that total lack of carbs makes me want to physically harm people around me eating cupcakes, bread and cookies). The only really low carb options are salads, and salads for lunch and dinner everyday get boring...

So I'm wondering what kind of success people are having with counting carbs and calories at the same time, and what the numbers for both look like

For reference, I'm a 5'4" 20 y.o. female and currently weigh ~130. I exercise about 4 times a week, but usually not for as long as I'd like. I aim for ~1200 cals and kinda do random carb levels...generally below 40 net a day, but I'm wondering if I'd find success going above this.

Hrl1993

Bump...no one else carb counts??

albertabeefy

I count both my carbs and my calories. I'm very strict on both.

I'm not a believer in the "you don't have to count calories on Atkins" (or other very-low-carb/ketogenic diet) dogma. Sure, there may be a thermogenic effect to food, but it seems to vary per individual and research wouldn't suggest it's as large as people think.

That being said, I'm a diabetic and as such have a legitimate medical reason to do so. There are certainly other medical reasons to restrict carbohydrate, such as: morbid obesity, metabolic-syndrome (which is often present in obesity), conditions such as PCOS, Hashimoto's thyroiditis or any other that presents with insulin-resistance, etc.

For me to lose weight when dieting, I simply do best when counting calories. The same goes with gaining the mass I want to when in a muscle/mass-building phase.

I count carbs strictly for glycemic control.