For weight loss, should I focus on carbs or calories?

For me it's about the old, time saying "eat balanced nutrition". It's about hydrating enough with water(I shoot for 64 ounces but usually only do 48)and about regular exercise and a variety. Also as much variety in my meals so I don't get bored or tired of things.

I read again about some book or some "expert" opinion on not eating carbs, "there are no essential carbs" "carbs are the enemy" and I've heard the same over and over on fats and red meat. Someone is always out to sell a new idea or what they call a new, expert opinion. The media is peppered with get thin quick schemes, people have died because of many supposed short-cuts to good health.

With all the processed food plus junkfood out there, people have gotten in trouble, and the biggest culprit? Being sedentary in your everyday life. Check out how often you see anyone outdoors? Other than driving a car. Yes there may be a bunch in the gym.

I for one eat from every food-group including a slice of pie, cookies, icecream, applecrisp, a beer, a wine(bottle, kidding, usually 2 glasses). One goal I have is to never have to say "no, I can't have that cause I'm on a diet" or "I don't eat that". Eggplant, I don't like eggplant though, :laugh: I don't believe in abusing my body by depriving it anymore than I would abuse it by eating too much and not exercising. I hope I never do that again.

"Don't count calories, make calories count" I would say yes watch your caloires, but also choose healthy carbs, whole grains, fruit & vegtables that are packed with fiber. If you must have bread, choose whole grain. It works for me & I have never felt hungry and have lost major inches in my belly fat.

I see what you meant. Now would those calories partitioned to fat get utilized as energy during the valley periods between the intake of nutrition if one is in an overall calorie deficit? Also, is partitioning to muscle glycogen something that occurs only when completely depleted or is it an ongoing process with glycogen being expended through activity and getting replaced "on the fly" so to speak?

Assuming the body has a storage of fat to draw on, which it normally does of around 30000 cals+, during periods of insulin release, the body does two things - burns significantly less muscle and burns significantly less fat. Then it starts storing. It partitions where it is needed. If one is relatively active over a 24 hour period some muscle glycogen will be burned (it's just the extra-double-strength carb loading that occurs when glycogen is fully empty), which will then be refilled.

The amount partitioned to muscle and the amount partitioned to fat and the amount passed as waste will usually depend on leptin levels (a whole other horrible story which relates to the 'set-point' of bf%), as well as what's actually needed- so, your activity level.

It's basically impossible to eat anything that could end up as muscle glycogen without releasing some storage hormone (insulin). So for the few hours after you're done eating (anywhere between 30 mins and 2 hours essentially) you're in storage mode and won't burn much fat or muscle.

Afterwards, it starts shifting the balance and the body begins eating itself again. After 12 hours, your body fuel comes entirely from fat stores. Then the balance starts to shift towards protein while still burning more fat than muscle. Then at around 24 hours, you're burning pretty much solid muscle (hence eating a lot of protein). At 3 days, your metabolic rate starts to drop.

However. You don't need insulin to store glucose in cells- mass transit will do this too (I forget the terminology, but basically the principles of osmosis) if there's a lot of glucose in the blood and no insulin about. It just helps. Note, as a slightly related aside, that protein synthesis still happens in the muscle cells up to 36 hours after the muscle has been worked out (not always, but up to 36 hours).

I for one eat from every food-group including a slice of pie, cookies, icecream, applecrisp, a beer, a wine(bottle, kidding, usually 2 glasses). One goal I have is to never have to say "no, I can't have that cause I'm on a diet" or "I don't eat that". Eggplant, I don't like eggplant though, :laugh: I don't believe in abusing my body by depriving it anymore than I would abuse it by eating too much and not exercising. I hope I never do that again.

Too right!

In my experience, carbs ARE calories. I follow my calories, but if I look at my typical day the carb counts are much, much lower than they were pre-diet.

So nice to see a carb/calories discussion that has stayed civil!

I think this is one of those things where people's responses seem to vary widely. I think most of this variance depends on whether or not we're insulin resistant but there could be other factors involved. So one really needs to test things out and see what works for them, imho.

For me, I can exercise intensely just fine on 40-70 grams/carb daily. This includes things like spin and boot camp classes. I have energy, feel great, etc. Below 40 grams/day, I do notice a bit of an energy slump. I'm fine for daily activities but hit a wall when doing the more intense exercising. I only need to up my carbs if I'm doing long-term cardio, i.e. bicycling 40+ miles/day. But if I up those carbs to have energy for that type of longer exercising, my weight loss stops or I can even see a gain. And I have to watch that I don't up too much because then I get sluggish, headaches, etc. It can be difficult to find the right balance.

Of course, others can eat mostly carbs, feel great and still lose weight.

Do some tracking to test to see which way works best for you.

Oh...some believe that you don't need to count calories when counting carbs. This has never worked for me. I have to limit both to be successful.

I lost 26 pounds on a low carb weight loss diet (http://www.dukandiet.com/) , but I’d have to say it’s a little bit of both. You have to learn to count your calories while eating the right foods and getting a good workout in every day

I cut out almost all carbs about a year ago. Lost all my babyweight. SO IT WORKS!

Went more than 10 lbs below my prepregger weight....and then binged hard. ON carbs.

Gained 30 lbs back.

Decided to add them back in but eat them in controlled amounts.

Once I was able to control my carbs, I then was able to get my calorie count under control.

Anyways that is what worked for me.

I think cutting carbs(especially the wrong kind) is a VERY good idea. I just took it too far. I even cut out the good carbs like fruit.(I ended up binging on bananas.)

I no longer cut out fruit. I eat plenty of veggies and eat things like breads and pastas and oatmeal in very controlled amounts. Not as much as in the past, but not taking them out of my diet either.

I did the same and cut out all fruit, was even wary of eating green veg at one point. Led me to binge and put on an extra 20lbs. Now I eat oatmeal etc I just focus on good carbs and cut out junk food. I feel much better!

Its better to look at the over all nutrition of food if you want to be healthy in general, but you can lose weight focusing on either....First time I had a significant weight loss I counted calories, this time im looking more at fat, carb, and protein....First time i lost pounds, this time I'm losing inches....dunno if that helps you or not.

How does one find out what their MAINTENANCE weight is? Obviously someone 5'7" medium boned is different than someone 5'4" and small boned. .... is there a good resourceful place to find this out?