whats more important - calories or lowcarb???

For weight control, it all comes down to calories.

Calories byyyyyyyyyy far in my opinion!

Some parts of India/ Asia consume around 60%+ diet from carbs (a lot of white rice, which seems to be viewed by many as "unhealthy/refined" and they seem to be doing fine!)

That said as for refined carbs, particularly such as white sugars etc. it really depends how active you are. If your body is deprived of glucose your body may start to use muscle for fuel after a workout. Aka when you start to lose pounds, a higher percentage of this may actually be muscle. I found in HS/Early college when I limited sugars too much I started to become "skinny fat" as people call it. If you are cycling/running etc for a decent amount of time you must ensure you supply yourself with enough of glucose/fructose and other sugars as well as protein to refuel your muscles. In my personal opinion.

Calories.

Carbs are not the enemy just part of a balanced diet.

I was doing both for a while, watching calories and carbs. I was trying to cut carbs out after 3 pm. That lasted for a month but I stopped. I still kept an eye on portion size and cals and lost weight at the same rate. Now I dont worry so much about what time I eat carbs. I just make sure im not over eating... Calories for me

In 2008-10 I ate at TDEE-20% and ate clean with starchy carbs limited to mornings and simple carbs limited to after workouts.
In 2012-14 I am eating at a weekly deficit of the equivalent of 1% of my body weight and not worrying about carbs (although most of my simple sugars are consumed during or after exercise).

The weight loss from both for me is similar, the only difference being compliance rate (last time I had to re-lose weight as I kept giving up for a few weeks at a time - 26% of the time I was maintaining or gaining weight).

Low carb will mostly be water/glycogen weight, overall weight loss comes down to calorie balance.

ETA: I have not tried eating at maintenance or between my deficit goal and maintenance while eating clean. However, most of the weight I regained during each slip up was water weight. I would assume if water weight was taken out of the equation, it still comes down to calories although the thermic effect of food might be different.

I have been more successful with counting calories. I just can't give up my potatoes! I do try to make sure I eat plenty of protein, b/c I don't feel like I'm starving all day.

don't eat junk.. eat at a deficit. End of story. Other than 1 meal a week where I just don't care what so ever about what I put in my mouth, I eat brown rice, sweet potatoes, brown rice, fruit and veggies and on a very rare occasion a small small portion of pasta or whole grain bread. My protein matches my lean body mass and i keep my fat low because it forces me to eat clean.

Honestly it's all in what works for your body.. I personally eat low carb but I also have a medical condition that warrants that so...

Do what your body is telling you!

The answer you hoped for is the answer you'll see and conclude from all these posts......

Eat 1200 calories of twinkies a day and let me know how much you lose.

Every body is different.

IF one does not have insulin resistance, then one may not be as sensitive to carbs.
If however, one is very insulin resistant, then carbs for that person will impact their weight more than calories alone.

Those are the ends of the spectrum....then there's the multitude in the middle.......

This whole carb thing is so 2008 or older. lol

Calories..all the way for weight loss

I'm trying out both. I'm aiming for 1.5g of protein per lb, around .5g fats, and low carbs and I'm planning to change my macros and carb up every few days. So far so good though. I feel leaner, but I'll have to wait longer for more results.

yo bro! you dont need all that protein!!! you only need about 1g-.8g of protein per lb of body weight! the more you take itll either be stored as a little fat or youll just pee or poop it out!

so 2 things:

-cut refined carbs (keeping healthy stuff like fruit/veg/sweet potatoes/quinoa/ryebread ETC)

-reduce your calories to a certain limit (eg 1200 a day)


GRANTED its better to do both (so please dont say both! because i knoww :P) but im just curious from people who have experienced it personally, which is more important for weight loss;

Eating clean but being a bit lax on your calorie intake or staying at/under your calorie limit and eating things like bread???

Didn't we have this exact same discussion last week? I could swear you got a hundred cut and dry answers then.

Cutting carbs isn't relevant to fat loss for the vast majority of people. The only exceptions are people with blood sugar issues.

Your body will plateau to a low carb diet after a period of time. I think it is important to find a good macro ratio (carbs/protein/fat) within your calorie range and stick with it.