Calling the low carbers, no carbers, paleos etc.

For me, when it comes down to it, true calorie counting will ALWAYS work, it's the basic math of it... it's being accurate and consistant that's the tough part...

I've found that when I'm eating a paleo diet, keeping right around my calorie goal is EASY, and I tend to do it naturally, even when I'm not tracking consistently.

I believe this is because my brain "understands" the cues it gets from this type of food better than it does from the cues from more processed foods (usually loaded with sodium and/or sugar).

So I guess to answer your question, do I think paleo/natural/caveman/whatever is the ONLY way to lose weight? Hell no! But does aiming for that style of food help? Absolutely!

Educate me... Other than the obvious medical problems, why would you want a low carb eating plan?

Educate me... Other than the obvious medical problems, why would you want a low carb eating plan?

The general idea is to control insulin response in order to avoid fat storage in one's body.

I shoot for lower-carb - my macros are usually 25/25/50 carbs/protein/fat, which sets me to 109g each of carbs and protein and 97g of fat. I treat my protein like a minimum, carbs an absolute maximum, and let the cards fall where they may on fat depending how my day goes.

I've tried keto on and off in the past, I don't find it to work any better or worse for me than just plain calorie counting (actually just got done with an 8 week stretch of it, I don't know why I keep trying it, lol. I always think it's going to "jumpstart" me but it really doesn't). However, I refuse to do a ketogenic diet in the summertime when all of the wonderful local produce is in season. Not going to do it, I love my peaches and cherries and blueberries and tomatoes and corn on the cob WAY too much.

For me, the main reason I limit carbs is that they're a total trigger food for me. I whole-heartedly believe in "everything in moderation" in theory, but for me it's SO difficult to limit myself to one serving of bread or cereal or pretzels or whatever. My carb limit allows me plenty of room for ample fruits and vegetables as well as some occasional complex carbs such as small servings of sweet potatoes, etc, a small amount of dairy (yogurt and cheese) and an occasional tsp of sugar in my coffee. I avoid most grains and white potatoes/sugar (except for the aforementioned coffee) as much as possible. My eating style tends to end up having a strong flavor of paleo without being 100% restrictive regarding dairy. I have enough carbs to fuel my workouts and I don't have a constant worry that if I'm going to eat that single dark chocolate almond is it going to throw me out of ketosis and undo weeks of work, you know? I find myself less hungry and less likely to binge when I eat this way, and I just feel better.

It works for me. Ultimately, the exact foods you eat are not going to impact your rate of fat loss in a significant way. But, getting enough protein and fat is excellent for your health, and avoiding grains and refined sugars helps me stay within my calorie goal with a lot less difficulty. Really, how you eat your food doesn't matter that much. The most important thing is to pick an eating style that 1) will fuel and enrich your body and health, 2) makes it as easy as possible to meet your calorie and macro goals, and 3) is sustainable for the rest of your life. That's it. For some people, maybe that's keto, and that's ok. For many others, it's not, and that's also ok. Find what works for you and do it.

I started doing low carb to help curb my sweet tooth. I have a wicked bad one...ashamed to admit this but I can eat brown sugar straight out of the bag with a spoon. Yeah it's that bad. Since I don't want all my teeth to fall out, I needed to find a way to kill the cravings.

I keep my carbs under 30 grams a day. That's 30 grams total - not the NET that Atkins folks follow. Right now I'm not eating fruit...it is a carving trigger for me even if it is natural sugar. I also count calories and try to keep my fats around 40-50 grams. If I decide to reintroduce fruit down the line I may up my carbs to 50 grams - we'll see how it goes.

I love love love low carb! I'm not starving like I was when I was simply calorie counting. I can go out to eat at a restaurant and not have to worry that I can't eat something on the menu. I always joke that I love my friends the cow, pig, chicken, turkey, shrimp, and salmon.

I find it alot easier to say "no" to sweet treats. My work is a sweet (death) trap - so far this week I've passed up chocolate cake, donuts, french toast bites, and scotcheroos. Before low-carb I would have been dying for any of them.

Edit to add: My energy level is awesome too by the way! Very rarely do I have that mid-afternoon drag (and if I do - protein to the rescue). Of course I've also lost weight and body fat too. That's just a big bonus though.

I consume a higher protein diet and I like fat, so carbs are kept lower by default. It works for me, and I consume around 200g's of carbs (mostly whole) a day and represents about 25% of my calories. No carb or paleo doesn't make much sense to me.

This is basically true for me too! around TOM I may have one serving of Oreos or a serving of tortilla chips and salsa... I LOVE those! nothing is off limits for me, but I do choose high protein and good fats.... My carbs usually come from fruits and veggies, I just feel better and have a better functioning body eating this way...

Thank you all, especially bookyeti and SadKitty27 - your responses are very helpful, especially the carbs-fiber gives you a net carb measurement factoid that is completely new to me!

Warning - this applies to US food labelling practices only.

In the UK/EU the "carbohydrates" on the label does not include "fibre" so the subtraction is invalid - in fact you may get a negative number in some cases.

So as you're in the UK you don't want to do that.

My point being carbs are the body's biggest tool to fuel it, reducing your fuel would affect energy level and how the body uses/ stores energy over a period of time.

Your body is a fantastic machine, it adapts.

After the first 1-2 weeks of 'carb flu' it makes virtually no difference to energy levels. I've noticed no negative affects in my training.

Stored energy is pretty much fat anyway, which is what we are aiming to get rid of.

You only fail if you see it as a diet/short term solution, you should see it as a life style change, as most people will be looking over their shoulder for the onset of diabetes, but then again how many people stick to plain calorie counting once they hit maintenance?

Lost 85 lbs on a low carb diet (<50g a day). Was a devout follower and believer and told people at every turn this is the only way to lose weight. Gradually gained about 40 back.

Learned more and have since lost 30 lbs eating 200+ grams of carbs everyday.

I eat lower carb (less than 100 grams on low cardio days) not because of some diet fad. For me, carbs cause hunger pains. The portion control is far easier eating lower carb-simple as that. I try to avoid eating anything out of a package. I eat a lot a vegtables, meat (fish), whole milk, cheese, and fruits. I time my carbs from the fruits. I eat the higher glycemic fruits just before and during cardio only. This type of diet is very easy to stay on long term (lifestyle). When I eat out, I just tell them no carbs to make it easy.

Read too many bad things about carbs, then you are bound to think about doing low/no carbs. There is nothing wrong with it, it's just extremely limiting.

If you are going to do low carb, then you ought to increase your protein and fat intake to compensate for the lost calories. What you don't want to do is end up in a position where you are just eating 1000 calories from protein and hardly any fats. Remember also that if you cannot get any food except carbs, then just eat what you can get a hold of for the day and carry on the next day. One day of more carbs isn't going to stop your progress.

What would be even wiser would be to watch this video on correctly tracking your calories and macros
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QDANtU4LUkc

Good luck.

I have been unsuccessful on calorie counting diet for years. I would have huge cravings, no willpower and massive binge days and would start from scratch every single morning. By chance, I looked into low carbing few months ago, and after browsing internet for weeks I came to conclusion that low-carb and high-fat makes the most sense. I am still on a very long journey of losing weight and finding what suits me, but I am loving my new discoveries, for example if I “binge” on meat, next day I wake up in tact, without those terrible cravings for more. My good day is under 100g of carbs, and ideal under 50g carbs.

Apart from the obvious, I don’t think a bit of potatoes or a bit of berries are too bad, or even one portion of carbs per day, but trying to cut out artificial sweeteners cos I think it affects me adversely. It was also a BIG discovery that it is actually OK to eat high fat after so many years of low-fat, I am just loving that.

All this new to me but I find it really, really making sense. Why I was so blind for those many years.

I'm following the keto diet as it was recommended by a friend at work who knows a ton about it so I just bother him whenever I have a question and I also tweet pictures of meals to him so he can tell me how I can make my meals even better.

It's honestly the best decision I have ever made, I feel so much better already and in the past 5 days, I've already lost 5.5 inches from my TI.

I eat lower carb/ very close to the primal diet. I eat eggs, vegetables, full fat cheese, cottage cheese, greek yogurt, and a lot of nuts. I wasn't eating as much meat but have started recently eating it. I have lost weight consistently and have noticed that I am not as hungry. I have read that with intense exercise, you might actually needs more carbs so I do eat them but keep them low. I have also recently added berries to my diet. I avoid pasta, bread, rice, potatoes, and most everything that comes from a can or is processed. I do eat a low carb wrap most every day though. So far, it has been great. I did lose 120 lbs 10 years ago on WW and ate very low fat(too low probably) and was not low carb. This time around, I had 25+ lbs to lose and have noticed that low carb does keep the hunger at bay for me.