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why don't the low carb folks believe in CICO?

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Replies

  • yarwell
    yarwell Posts: 10,477 Member
    There are many examples where CICO doesn't turn up in the form "eat 500 cals/day less and lose 1 lb/week". Not specifically low carb either.

    Kevin D Hall is a high priest of CICO maths but his recent poster on reducing fat vs reduces carbs appears to have a large hole in it - having taken out 800 cals of carbs from the low carb arm the subjects increased their oxidation of fat by ~400 cals from reserves with a small reduction in TDEE. Where did the other energy come from ?

    If CICO is primary, why do MFP forums chastise overweight people for "eating too little" ?

    My personal view is that a steady state mass and energy balance will hold true if done properly, but it's a post-hoc accounting exercise. You can't set or control a deficit, you can eat less or different food and do more or different activities and see how your body responds.
  • Keliandra
    Keliandra Posts: 170 Member
    Unless they've never known what it's like not to feel the way they do. They might well take it for granted that that's their normal. Or sure, they may wonder, "why do I feel so bad", but find themselves told "hey, you're good, see look at these numbers [perhaps not the relevant ones], it's all in your head".[/quote]

    That's very true but most people develop metabolic syndrome and/or insulin resistance over time… They usually aren't born with it. So chances are they felt a certain way BEFORE beginning to develop metabolic syndrome. Then came the dizziness, extreme hunger, shakiness, abdominal weight gain, vision problems, etc.

    [/quote]

    It often happens so gradually, and with many life issues cropping up, that you don't notice right away. Well at least for me, but Im pretty certain that I am NOT a special snowflake, so Im pretty sure its that way for others too.
  • lemurcat12
    lemurcat12 Posts: 30,886 Member
    blukitten wrote: »
    blukitten wrote: »
    cwolfman13 wrote: »
    cwolfman13 wrote: »
    JPW1990 wrote: »
    MrM27 wrote: »
    ndj1979 wrote: »
    KylaDenay wrote: »
    MelRC117 wrote: »
    lemurcat12 wrote: »
    lemurcat12 wrote: »
    MelRC117 wrote: »
    lemurcat12 wrote: »
    The high-fat, low-carb and low-refined sugar way of eating has left the station. Time to get on board!

    There's a reason why you can find a couple of dozen LCHF diet books on Amazon, and no HCLF diet books. LCHF works. Why? Because with for me and millions, you just eat fewer calories with LCHF. It's that simple.

    And before you get into a tizzy, I'm not saying no carbs and no sugar. I'm saying low carbs and low sugar. There is always a time to eat that piece of cheesecake. :)

    You can find any kind of diet book on amazon. No one here is recommending a HCLF diet (I'd hate it), but there are people on MFP all about the raw 80-10-10 stuff, and plenty of diet books for plenty of different kinds of diets that are HCLF.

    I don't at all disagree that LCHF works, but this is the kind of post that we've been responding to that Mel seems to want to dismiss (I would to if I were her, since she seems extremely sensible and to have a good understanding of how different diets work for different people). The point I and others are making is that LCHF is not the best diet ever and doesn't work for EVERYONE. It would not work for me, whereas balanced macros do (balance depending on what my TDEE is and how much activity I'm doing). You may eat fewer calories doing LCHF (if only because you are using that to cut out trigger foods that for you happen to be processed carbs), but that's not so for everyone, and if you are doing it to cut out foods that tempt you (as opposed to dealing with satiety issues) I'm frankly skeptical about whether there's any benefit long term.

    Long term, not having big bags of chips and cookies and pretzels, and half-gallon containers of ice cream in my house, have worked out very well for me long-term. Yes, I admit it - I lack willpower. And so do most people.

    I've also dumped cereal because the amount I need to eat for breakfast is 2.5 times the serving suggested on the box. My breakfast "diet food" is one egg, a strip of bacon, and some grilled onions.

    I could care less about balanced macros. My grandparents lived past 90 at the right weight without knowing their balanced macros. But they ate good food, and had no junk in the house.

    PS - I get most of my carbs from fruit and vegetables.





    What are your ratios if you eat fruit then? Fruit has sugar?

    The sugar I'm getting from fruit is a lot less than the sugar I was getting from cookies and ice cream.

    It's entirely possible to control the amount of cookies and ice cream you eat without being LCHF. In fact, amusingly enough, the majority of calories in both are probably from fat, so HCLF people probably aren't eating lots of either.

    There's a lot less sugar in potatoes or oatmeal or whole wheat pasta, to pick three major sources of carbs I've had this week, than in fruit (which I've also had, also ice cream, for full disclosure, which I easily can eat a serving of). So not really sure why you are making the discussion about "sugar."

    You also didn't answer the question Mel asked.

    OK. How about the calories I am getting from fruit is a lot less than the calories I used to get from cookies, cake, chips, pretzels, ice cream and other junk (which I still eat by the way, but at a reduction of about 90% from my previous levels).

    I'm sure that's true, but I don't see what it has to do with the discussion or with your claim that LCHF works better than other ways to diet (lots of books on amazon, no books on HCLF, people in general just eat less on LCHF, etc.).

    That's my confusion Onlythetruth. You talk about low carbs and about all these LCHF books, but you eat fruit and still eat ice cream, cake, etc. I don't really see that as LCHF...probably eating a balanced diet (the sense of what people eat). Even if you cut down, I just wonder how much you cut if you consider yourself low carb.

    You can't eat fruit on low carb? There are also low carb ice cream and baked goods recipes.
    This was my other thought. I follow the reddit/keto boards and I always read that anything under 50 g of carbs as long as it fits is fine. I mean unless it interferes with your goals. Or if you are lower in carbs. Idk this low carb stuff is giving me a headache, but I have no gastric issues right now so I shall stick with it. Ugh.

    too many rules...

    Rules? Keep your macros at 5% net carb 20% protein and 75% fat..give or take a few percent for each (whatever works best)..drink enough fluids and keep your sodium up. Done. :)
    Would I be able to eat a serving at night of Ben & Jerry's Half Baked ice cream?

    How much cardio you wanna do? Anything is possible. The question is if it's worth it.

    This doesn't even make sense...

    Why?

    Because he asked if he could have half baked ice cream..which is 32g of net carbs. In order to fit it into the keto macros he would need to have a large number of calories to work with in order to get the desired amount of ice cream and stay within the 5%. Exercise increases the number of calories one can eat..this increasing the number
    of carbs.

    For example, I ate 1824 calories last Thursday and my carbs were 30g net or 9%. I would have easily been able to skip the beer and jerky and have a half serving of the ice cream that day. Some people can be in ketosis at 9% carb. I, personally like 4-5% better for my blood glucose.

    Because in my crazy world of just eating a well balanced and nutritious diet, I don't need to do *kitten* loads of cardio just to have a little ice cream for desert. But hey...I live in crazy land over here....

    Everything you're talking about sounds like cruel and unusual punishment...I get why you do it...you have a pretty legit reason medically...I don't see how this would be appealing at all to anyone who didn't need to do it.

    I have to say- I completely agree with @cwolfman13 , I do it because like you said to her- I have a legit medical reason for doing it- but can't see how it would be appealing to someone without a medical reason

    It's appealing to me because I feel more satiated on the same calories doing LCHF than I did doing solely calorie counting with more "balanced" macros. Plus, I prefer salt/savory/meaty to sweet and starchy, so it works -for me-. I am not a high performance athlete, though I am making efforts on the "move more" part of the deal.

    I do not preach about it, nor in fact truly discuss it much outside the keto boards because it always turns into "eat what you want and make it fit" and what people don't seem to get is that is what I am doing. I just don't happen to care to make bread/pasta/potatoes/sweets/etc... fit... right now.

    *Disclaimer: I lost 80lbs straight calorie counting before switching to LCHF and another 60 since then. In both cases I am counting calories, I just feel better/fuller/happier what have you, in the second case*

    Cool- thanks. I genuinely was interested and really couldn't understand why someone would do it without a medical issue- but your explanation makes sense. I think I may follow your rule about not discussing it outside the PCOS or low carber boards cause you are right.....

    For what it's worth, nic's reasoning makes total sense to me and I never get why people have such trouble understanding why LCHF might appeal to someone. I cut my carbs down to about 100 (not terribly low, but I don't know what that is in net) when I was on low calories (1250), because when I prioritize food meat and cheese and savory stuff make it and most starchy and sweet stuff does not. This also means that I probably could gain weight on LCHF if I did it and didn't count calories and that I have pretty good self control with carbs, so is also why when I have more calories I end up happily eating more carbs without it screwing up my hunger or cravings or anything, maybe. But if someone says they'd rather be able to feel like they are eating whatever they want and can do that with low carb, I get it. If you made me choose between low carb and low fat I'd do low carb with no thought. I spent my childhood irritating my mother because I refused to eat sandwiches or cereal, after all. ;-) But lucky for me (since I do like potatoes and ice cream, and even some bread these days), I can do balanced macros or just play around with different ratios.
  • PeachyCarol
    PeachyCarol Posts: 8,029 Member
    Metruis wrote: »
    I'm losing faith in CICO.

    See, there's no actual studies to back up the commonly quoted "3500 calories = 1 pound of fat". Here, have a bunch of study results for low-fat versus low-carb diets. http://www.lifetime-weightloss.com/storage/Low-Carb vs Low-Fat Study Comparisons.pdf

    I don't believe in it because it's wrong. Just like we turned out to be wrong about fat. Etc. Etc. Different types of calories have different effects, 100 calories of chips is different than 100 calories of lettuce. I have days where I eat a boiled egg and an orange and lose nothing, and then days where I gorge myself senseless on Indian buffet food (since I'm gluten-free, it's basically meat, veggies, and fat)... and then drop 5 pounds. WHAT? That doesn't fit calories-in-calories-out. 'Cause of stuff like metabolisms. I'm no dietitian. I'll tell people to "eat less, count your calories, you're probably eating more than you think"... because it's often true. But our bodies are weird and complex things that we don't necessarily understand everything about just yet.

    Anyway, I lift weights and I don't eat a ton of carbs. I try to keep it under 80. I don't calorie count, I don't meticulously track... I put things in when I remember to. And I'm losing weight at a rate that satisfies me... 1-2 pounds a week. My body isn't the same as your body. What works for ME to lose weight... might not work for you. I found a study somewhere and I can't find it now... basically people with glucose resistance had higher success with low-carb, and people who weren't on the track to diabetes, had more success with low-fat diets in the study.

    It'd be nice if weight loss was just math. But it isn't.

    Your body doesn't auto-respond the next day to the previous day's input with the exception of something like sodium. If you're judging the effect of what you see on the scale to be something meaningful in terms of fat gain/loss vs. food intake on a day to day basis, I don't think you understand how this whole thing works at all.

  • _Terrapin_
    _Terrapin_ Posts: 4,301 Member
    cwolfman13 wrote: »
    JPW1990 wrote: »
    MrM27 wrote: »
    JPW1990 wrote: »
    MrM27 wrote: »
    JPW1990 wrote: »
    MrM27 wrote: »
    cwolfman13 wrote: »
    JPW1990 wrote: »
    MrM27 wrote: »
    ndj1979 wrote: »
    KylaDenay wrote: »
    MelRC117 wrote: »
    lemurcat12 wrote: »
    lemurcat12 wrote: »
    MelRC117 wrote: »
    lemurcat12 wrote: »
    The high-fat, low-carb and low-refined sugar way of eating has left the station. Time to get on board!

    There's a reason why you can find a couple of dozen LCHF diet books on Amazon, and no HCLF diet books. LCHF works. Why? Because with for me and millions, you just eat fewer calories with LCHF. It's that simple.

    And before you get into a tizzy, I'm not saying no carbs and no sugar. I'm saying low carbs and low sugar. There is always a time to eat that piece of cheesecake. :)

    You can find any kind of diet book on amazon. No one here is recommending a HCLF diet (I'd hate it), but there are people on MFP all about the raw 80-10-10 stuff, and plenty of diet books for plenty of different kinds of diets that are HCLF.

    I don't at all disagree that LCHF works, but this is the kind of post that we've been responding to that Mel seems to want to dismiss (I would to if I were her, since she seems extremely sensible and to have a good understanding of how different diets work for different people). The point I and others are making is that LCHF is not the best diet ever and doesn't work for EVERYONE. It would not work for me, whereas balanced macros do (balance depending on what my TDEE is and how much activity I'm doing). You may eat fewer calories doing LCHF (if only because you are using that to cut out trigger foods that for you happen to be processed carbs), but that's not so for everyone, and if you are doing it to cut out foods that tempt you (as opposed to dealing with satiety issues) I'm frankly skeptical about whether there's any benefit long term.

    Long term, not having big bags of chips and cookies and pretzels, and half-gallon containers of ice cream in my house, have worked out very well for me long-term. Yes, I admit it - I lack willpower. And so do most people.

    I've also dumped cereal because the amount I need to eat for breakfast is 2.5 times the serving suggested on the box. My breakfast "diet food" is one egg, a strip of bacon, and some grilled onions.

    I could care less about balanced macros. My grandparents lived past 90 at the right weight without knowing their balanced macros. But they ate good food, and had no junk in the house.

    PS - I get most of my carbs from fruit and vegetables.





    What are your ratios if you eat fruit then? Fruit has sugar?

    The sugar I'm getting from fruit is a lot less than the sugar I was getting from cookies and ice cream.

    It's entirely possible to control the amount of cookies and ice cream you eat without being LCHF. In fact, amusingly enough, the majority of calories in both are probably from fat, so HCLF people probably aren't eating lots of either.

    There's a lot less sugar in potatoes or oatmeal or whole wheat pasta, to pick three major sources of carbs I've had this week, than in fruit (which I've also had, also ice cream, for full disclosure, which I easily can eat a serving of). So not really sure why you are making the discussion about "sugar."

    You also didn't answer the question Mel asked.

    OK. How about the calories I am getting from fruit is a lot less than the calories I used to get from cookies, cake, chips, pretzels, ice cream and other junk (which I still eat by the way, but at a reduction of about 90% from my previous levels).

    I'm sure that's true, but I don't see what it has to do with the discussion or with your claim that LCHF works better than other ways to diet (lots of books on amazon, no books on HCLF, people in general just eat less on LCHF, etc.).

    That's my confusion Onlythetruth. You talk about low carbs and about all these LCHF books, but you eat fruit and still eat ice cream, cake, etc. I don't really see that as LCHF...probably eating a balanced diet (the sense of what people eat). Even if you cut down, I just wonder how much you cut if you consider yourself low carb.

    You can't eat fruit on low carb? There are also low carb ice cream and baked goods recipes.
    This was my other thought. I follow the reddit/keto boards and I always read that anything under 50 g of carbs as long as it fits is fine. I mean unless it interferes with your goals. Or if you are lower in carbs. Idk this low carb stuff is giving me a headache, but I have no gastric issues right now so I shall stick with it. Ugh.

    too many rules...

    Rules? Keep your macros at 5% net carb 20% protein and 75% fat..give or take a few percent for each (whatever works best)..drink enough fluids and keep your sodium up. Done. :)
    Would I be able to eat a serving at night of Ben & Jerry's Half Baked ice cream?

    How much cardio you wanna do? Anything is possible. The question is if it's worth it.

    This doesn't even make sense...

    Yup. So either I would not be able to eat the ice cream or as per here numbers I would have to do almost 700 calories worth of cardio. 2 rules, too many rules

    If you were doing strict keto. If you were doing generic low carb, it would fit, but you'd probably have to eat less vegetables that day to offset it.

    So what you're saying is more rules?

    Nope, just basic math. 1 carb = 4 calories, 1 protein = 4 calories, 1 fat = 9 calories. For every 4 calories of carb you need 76 calories of protein and fat at 5/20/75. OTOH, if you don't do LC, and your macros are 50/25/25, you need 4 calories of protein and fat for every 4 calories of carb. The equation is the same, whether you do LC or LF or even balance. All that changes is the value of the variables. If you're carb loading, you need to make sure your fat and protein are restricted, or else you need to burn the extra calories you get from them. Nothing is different except the values in the equation.

    If LC is "extra rules," that means LF is extra rules, carb loading is extra rules, everything is extra rules.
    Please don't try and breakdown math as if I didn't understand how the numbers work. The point is if I was going to do keto and wanted to eat my ice cream I mentioned then I would have to go do a bunch of cardio in order to keep myself at 5%. So that would be a rule. If I don't do the cardio then no ice cream. If I eat the ice cream then the rule is I have to go do a bunch of ice cream every day to stay at the 5% mark.

    So once again, too many rules. If you refuse to acknowledge that because it validates that argument that NDJ said "too many rules" when he was told "there weren't" then that's fine with me. But don't sit here and debate something you know is true.

    How is keeping your carbs at 5% more rules than keeping your fat at 20% or keeping your protein at 40%?

    Then there are a lot of people who have no such rules...like me.

    3477456-mfw_i_start_a_flame_war-8773.gif
    I better have room for Nevada Pale Ale. . . .damn it, gif made me thirsty.

  • Nony_Mouse
    Nony_Mouse Posts: 5,646 Member
    cwolfman13 wrote: »
    Nony_Mouse wrote: »
    Okay, I got to page 10, then skipped to p. 20. Cliff notes on 11-19 please?

    remedial-chaos-theory.gif

    Gotcha. Shame, it started out pretty well! The pizza thread is way more fun. Though neither has anywhere near enough cat gifs.
  • blktngldhrt
    blktngldhrt Posts: 1,053 Member
    MrM27 wrote: »
    JPW1990 wrote: »
    MrM27 wrote: »
    cwolfman13 wrote: »
    JPW1990 wrote: »
    MrM27 wrote: »
    ndj1979 wrote: »
    KylaDenay wrote: »
    MelRC117 wrote: »
    lemurcat12 wrote: »
    lemurcat12 wrote: »
    MelRC117 wrote: »
    lemurcat12 wrote: »
    The high-fat, low-carb and low-refined sugar way of eating has left the station. Time to get on board!

    There's a reason why you can find a couple of dozen LCHF diet books on Amazon, and no HCLF diet books. LCHF works. Why? Because with for me and millions, you just eat fewer calories with LCHF. It's that simple.

    And before you get into a tizzy, I'm not saying no carbs and no sugar. I'm saying low carbs and low sugar. There is always a time to eat that piece of cheesecake. :)

    You can find any kind of diet book on amazon. No one here is recommending a HCLF diet (I'd hate it), but there are people on MFP all about the raw 80-10-10 stuff, and plenty of diet books for plenty of different kinds of diets that are HCLF.

    I don't at all disagree that LCHF works, but this is the kind of post that we've been responding to that Mel seems to want to dismiss (I would to if I were her, since she seems extremely sensible and to have a good understanding of how different diets work for different people). The point I and others are making is that LCHF is not the best diet ever and doesn't work for EVERYONE. It would not work for me, whereas balanced macros do (balance depending on what my TDEE is and how much activity I'm doing). You may eat fewer calories doing LCHF (if only because you are using that to cut out trigger foods that for you happen to be processed carbs), but that's not so for everyone, and if you are doing it to cut out foods that tempt you (as opposed to dealing with satiety issues) I'm frankly skeptical about whether there's any benefit long term.

    Long term, not having big bags of chips and cookies and pretzels, and half-gallon containers of ice cream in my house, have worked out very well for me long-term. Yes, I admit it - I lack willpower. And so do most people.

    I've also dumped cereal because the amount I need to eat for breakfast is 2.5 times the serving suggested on the box. My breakfast "diet food" is one egg, a strip of bacon, and some grilled onions.

    I could care less about balanced macros. My grandparents lived past 90 at the right weight without knowing their balanced macros. But they ate good food, and had no junk in the house.

    PS - I get most of my carbs from fruit and vegetables.





    What are your ratios if you eat fruit then? Fruit has sugar?

    The sugar I'm getting from fruit is a lot less than the sugar I was getting from cookies and ice cream.

    It's entirely possible to control the amount of cookies and ice cream you eat without being LCHF. In fact, amusingly enough, the majority of calories in both are probably from fat, so HCLF people probably aren't eating lots of either.

    There's a lot less sugar in potatoes or oatmeal or whole wheat pasta, to pick three major sources of carbs I've had this week, than in fruit (which I've also had, also ice cream, for full disclosure, which I easily can eat a serving of). So not really sure why you are making the discussion about "sugar."

    You also didn't answer the question Mel asked.

    OK. How about the calories I am getting from fruit is a lot less than the calories I used to get from cookies, cake, chips, pretzels, ice cream and other junk (which I still eat by the way, but at a reduction of about 90% from my previous levels).

    I'm sure that's true, but I don't see what it has to do with the discussion or with your claim that LCHF works better than other ways to diet (lots of books on amazon, no books on HCLF, people in general just eat less on LCHF, etc.).

    That's my confusion Onlythetruth. You talk about low carbs and about all these LCHF books, but you eat fruit and still eat ice cream, cake, etc. I don't really see that as LCHF...probably eating a balanced diet (the sense of what people eat). Even if you cut down, I just wonder how much you cut if you consider yourself low carb.

    You can't eat fruit on low carb? There are also low carb ice cream and baked goods recipes.
    This was my other thought. I follow the reddit/keto boards and I always read that anything under 50 g of carbs as long as it fits is fine. I mean unless it interferes with your goals. Or if you are lower in carbs. Idk this low carb stuff is giving me a headache, but I have no gastric issues right now so I shall stick with it. Ugh.

    too many rules...

    Rules? Keep your macros at 5% net carb 20% protein and 75% fat..give or take a few percent for each (whatever works best)..drink enough fluids and keep your sodium up. Done. :)
    Would I be able to eat a serving at night of Ben & Jerry's Half Baked ice cream?

    How much cardio you wanna do? Anything is possible. The question is if it's worth it.

    This doesn't even make sense...

    Yup. So either I would not be able to eat the ice cream or as per here numbers I would have to do almost 700 calories worth of cardio. 2 rules, too many rules

    If you were doing strict keto. If you were doing generic low carb, it would fit, but you'd probably have to eat less vegetables that day to offset it.

    So what you're saying is more rules?

    I don't see it as rules. It's the same as anyone trying to get their macros within their limits..if they're watching macros.

    I still have so much to eat today..and exercise to do. I just looked at my nutrition break down and noticed a quest bar will fit in nicely. I'm lifting some today and will want to hit my protein goal. Once I exercise I'll look again and choose something else to eat.. Probably heavy cream and almond butter with sweetener whipped up like a mousse because my fat macro is lowish. It's just fitting food into my macros.
  • PeachyCarol
    PeachyCarol Posts: 8,029 Member
    yarwell wrote: »
    There are many examples where CICO doesn't turn up in the form "eat 500 cals/day less and lose 1 lb/week". Not specifically low carb either.

    Kevin D Hall is a high priest of CICO maths but his recent poster on reducing fat vs reduces carbs appears to have a large hole in it - having taken out 800 cals of carbs from the low carb arm the subjects increased their oxidation of fat by ~400 cals from reserves with a small reduction in TDEE. Where did the other energy come from ?

    If CICO is primary, why do MFP forums chastise overweight people for "eating too little" ?

    My personal view is that a steady state mass and energy balance will hold true if done properly, but it's a post-hoc accounting exercise. You can't set or control a deficit, you can eat less or different food and do more or different activities and see how your body responds.

    You're seriously asking that? People need calories to maintain basic functioning. I'm not sure that 1200 is the lowest, I think 1000 is probably okay for people who are very short, but I'll stay with the site guidelines.

  • blktngldhrt
    blktngldhrt Posts: 1,053 Member
    MrM27 wrote: »
    JPW1990 wrote: »
    MrM27 wrote: »
    JPW1990 wrote: »
    MrM27 wrote: »
    cwolfman13 wrote: »
    JPW1990 wrote: »
    MrM27 wrote: »
    ndj1979 wrote: »
    KylaDenay wrote: »
    MelRC117 wrote: »
    lemurcat12 wrote: »
    lemurcat12 wrote: »
    MelRC117 wrote: »
    lemurcat12 wrote: »
    The high-fat, low-carb and low-refined sugar way of eating has left the station. Time to get on board!

    There's a reason why you can find a couple of dozen LCHF diet books on Amazon, and no HCLF diet books. LCHF works. Why? Because with for me and millions, you just eat fewer calories with LCHF. It's that simple.

    And before you get into a tizzy, I'm not saying no carbs and no sugar. I'm saying low carbs and low sugar. There is always a time to eat that piece of cheesecake. :)

    You can find any kind of diet book on amazon. No one here is recommending a HCLF diet (I'd hate it), but there are people on MFP all about the raw 80-10-10 stuff, and plenty of diet books for plenty of different kinds of diets that are HCLF.

    I don't at all disagree that LCHF works, but this is the kind of post that we've been responding to that Mel seems to want to dismiss (I would to if I were her, since she seems extremely sensible and to have a good understanding of how different diets work for different people). The point I and others are making is that LCHF is not the best diet ever and doesn't work for EVERYONE. It would not work for me, whereas balanced macros do (balance depending on what my TDEE is and how much activity I'm doing). You may eat fewer calories doing LCHF (if only because you are using that to cut out trigger foods that for you happen to be processed carbs), but that's not so for everyone, and if you are doing it to cut out foods that tempt you (as opposed to dealing with satiety issues) I'm frankly skeptical about whether there's any benefit long term.

    Long term, not having big bags of chips and cookies and pretzels, and half-gallon containers of ice cream in my house, have worked out very well for me long-term. Yes, I admit it - I lack willpower. And so do most people.

    I've also dumped cereal because the amount I need to eat for breakfast is 2.5 times the serving suggested on the box. My breakfast "diet food" is one egg, a strip of bacon, and some grilled onions.

    I could care less about balanced macros. My grandparents lived past 90 at the right weight without knowing their balanced macros. But they ate good food, and had no junk in the house.

    PS - I get most of my carbs from fruit and vegetables.





    What are your ratios if you eat fruit then? Fruit has sugar?

    The sugar I'm getting from fruit is a lot less than the sugar I was getting from cookies and ice cream.

    It's entirely possible to control the amount of cookies and ice cream you eat without being LCHF. In fact, amusingly enough, the majority of calories in both are probably from fat, so HCLF people probably aren't eating lots of either.

    There's a lot less sugar in potatoes or oatmeal or whole wheat pasta, to pick three major sources of carbs I've had this week, than in fruit (which I've also had, also ice cream, for full disclosure, which I easily can eat a serving of). So not really sure why you are making the discussion about "sugar."

    You also didn't answer the question Mel asked.

    OK. How about the calories I am getting from fruit is a lot less than the calories I used to get from cookies, cake, chips, pretzels, ice cream and other junk (which I still eat by the way, but at a reduction of about 90% from my previous levels).

    I'm sure that's true, but I don't see what it has to do with the discussion or with your claim that LCHF works better than other ways to diet (lots of books on amazon, no books on HCLF, people in general just eat less on LCHF, etc.).

    That's my confusion Onlythetruth. You talk about low carbs and about all these LCHF books, but you eat fruit and still eat ice cream, cake, etc. I don't really see that as LCHF...probably eating a balanced diet (the sense of what people eat). Even if you cut down, I just wonder how much you cut if you consider yourself low carb.

    You can't eat fruit on low carb? There are also low carb ice cream and baked goods recipes.
    This was my other thought. I follow the reddit/keto boards and I always read that anything under 50 g of carbs as long as it fits is fine. I mean unless it interferes with your goals. Or if you are lower in carbs. Idk this low carb stuff is giving me a headache, but I have no gastric issues right now so I shall stick with it. Ugh.

    too many rules...

    Rules? Keep your macros at 5% net carb 20% protein and 75% fat..give or take a few percent for each (whatever works best)..drink enough fluids and keep your sodium up. Done. :)
    Would I be able to eat a serving at night of Ben & Jerry's Half Baked ice cream?

    How much cardio you wanna do? Anything is possible. The question is if it's worth it.

    This doesn't even make sense...

    Yup. So either I would not be able to eat the ice cream or as per here numbers I would have to do almost 700 calories worth of cardio. 2 rules, too many rules

    If you were doing strict keto. If you were doing generic low carb, it would fit, but you'd probably have to eat less vegetables that day to offset it.

    So what you're saying is more rules?

    Nope, just basic math. 1 carb = 4 calories, 1 protein = 4 calories, 1 fat = 9 calories. For every 4 calories of carb you need 76 calories of protein and fat at 5/20/75. OTOH, if you don't do LC, and your macros are 50/25/25, you need 4 calories of protein and fat for every 4 calories of carb. The equation is the same, whether you do LC or LF or even balance. All that changes is the value of the variables. If you're carb loading, you need to make sure your fat and protein are restricted, or else you need to burn the extra calories you get from them. Nothing is different except the values in the equation.

    If LC is "extra rules," that means LF is extra rules, carb loading is extra rules, everything is extra rules.
    Please don't try and breakdown math as if I didn't understand how the numbers work. The point is if I was going to do keto and wanted to eat my ice cream I mentioned then I would have to go do a bunch of cardio in order to keep myself at 5%. So that would be a rule. If I don't do the cardio then no ice cream. If I eat the ice cream then the rule is I have to go do a bunch of ice cream every day to stay at the 5% mark.

    So once again, too many rules. If you refuse to acknowledge that because it validates that argument that NDJ said "too many rules" when he was told "there weren't" then that's fine with me. But don't sit here and debate something you know is true.

    I guess it's not really rules for people who can't eat the stuff you would have trouble fitting in anyway. :)
  • yarwell
    yarwell Posts: 10,477 Member
    You're seriously asking that? People need calories to maintain basic functioning

    like the 250,000 hanging round their belly for example.

    I wasn't specifically referring to minimum intake, which should be about nutrition and not energy, but the general "you aren't eating enough to lose weight" opinion that comes out when someone eating say 1400 calories and exercising says they don't lose weight.

    It's like a deficit of 500 is good, 1000 might be OK, but 1100 and you lose no weight.

  • RockstarWilson
    RockstarWilson Posts: 836 Member
    edited March 2015
    adowe wrote: »
    adowe wrote: »
    MelRC117 wrote: »
    adowe wrote: »
    MelRC117 wrote: »
    Pu_239 wrote: »
    I don't even know where to begin...

    The process of converting protein to glucose through gluconeogensis is not thermodynamically favorable. What this means, it just takes more energy to convert specific amino acids to glucose. I see data that suggests your metabolic rate raises on a ketogenic based diet. This was done on people in a calorimeter, with a tighly controlled diet.

    So you can sit there eat 2000 calories of a carb based diet with no results due to your TDEE being 2000. Switch over to a low carb diet and your metabolism can increase above 2000. You can sit there eating 2000 calories of a protein based diet and lose weight. Then you come to the conclusion, "i am eating the same as before."

    Someone said something about fat and satiety. That theory was a long time ago, I would assume in the late 1990's. Fat supposedly triggers CCK(Cholecystokinin) which makes you feel fuller. But we also have to keep in mind if that's even true, fat is still double the calories.

    There is also some people talking about eating a lot of fat such as in keto, the fat comes out the other end. I mean we all heard of floaters... so Idk. It's a possibility.

    I'm going to focus on the bold part since I've never seen the data you suggest in the first paragraph.

    I don't understand what you mean that fat is double the calories, as in what that means to low carb diets? Low carb dieters don't take the 100g of carbs they would eat otherwise and go and eat 100g of fat instead because they cut those 100g out. I guess I'm confused on what that line meant.

    1g of carbs = 4 calories
    1g of fat = 9 calories

    I understand that. I'm just not sure what the poster meant by that line. That since a gram of fat is double the calories that is why people claim to feel more full, that there are more calories per gram? Just not sure. Either way, I think that feeling full is a big plus for people that eat LCHF.

    I feel full and don't eat LCHF.....not sure why LCHFers think they are the only ones to feel full

    The difference is that the low carbers who eat high fat will feel full (synonymous with not feeling hungry or weak from hunger) not for 6-8 hours, but from 8-16 hours or longer. I can eat dinner at 8pm, go to bed, wake up at 6am, have 200 calories of heavy whipping cream, and I am good til about 3 or 4 in the afternoon.

    This is my eating pattern, and this is the methodology behind keto/lchf. If I have no desire to eat Anything, I have no overeating challenges. And its not an eating disorder...I eat like a slob at night.

    What are you trying to say here?

    I can't feel full because I don't wait 8-16 hours between meals?

    No, what I mean is that I see tons of threads about how people have reached their calorie allowance by 3 or 4 pm, with 5 or 6 hours to go and come on the threads looking for advice. I dont have this issue. Most days, I dont have the opportunity to overeat. I am not saying that anyone who has carbs doesnt feel full. You said that. I am just saying that I can operate all day on just a few hundred calories of fat in the morning, whereas -most- people will have to eat something to sustain. That is all I am getting at.
  • lilRicki
    lilRicki Posts: 4,555 Member
    lemurcat12 wrote: »
    blukitten wrote: »
    blukitten wrote: »
    cwolfman13 wrote: »
    cwolfman13 wrote: »
    JPW1990 wrote: »
    MrM27 wrote: »
    ndj1979 wrote: »
    KylaDenay wrote: »
    MelRC117 wrote: »
    lemurcat12 wrote: »
    lemurcat12 wrote: »
    MelRC117 wrote: »
    lemurcat12 wrote: »
    The high-fat, low-carb and low-refined sugar way of eating has left the station. Time to get on board!

    There's a reason why you can find a couple of dozen LCHF diet books on Amazon, and no HCLF diet books. LCHF works. Why? Because with for me and millions, you just eat fewer calories with LCHF. It's that simple.

    And before you get into a tizzy, I'm not saying no carbs and no sugar. I'm saying low carbs and low sugar. There is always a time to eat that piece of cheesecake. :)

    You can find any kind of diet book on amazon. No one here is recommending a HCLF diet (I'd hate it), but there are people on MFP all about the raw 80-10-10 stuff, and plenty of diet books for plenty of different kinds of diets that are HCLF.

    I don't at all disagree that LCHF works, but this is the kind of post that we've been responding to that Mel seems to want to dismiss (I would to if I were her, since she seems extremely sensible and to have a good understanding of how different diets work for different people). The point I and others are making is that LCHF is not the best diet ever and doesn't work for EVERYONE. It would not work for me, whereas balanced macros do (balance depending on what my TDEE is and how much activity I'm doing). You may eat fewer calories doing LCHF (if only because you are using that to cut out trigger foods that for you happen to be processed carbs), but that's not so for everyone, and if you are doing it to cut out foods that tempt you (as opposed to dealing with satiety issues) I'm frankly skeptical about whether there's any benefit long term.

    Long term, not having big bags of chips and cookies and pretzels, and half-gallon containers of ice cream in my house, have worked out very well for me long-term. Yes, I admit it - I lack willpower. And so do most people.

    I've also dumped cereal because the amount I need to eat for breakfast is 2.5 times the serving suggested on the box. My breakfast "diet food" is one egg, a strip of bacon, and some grilled onions.

    I could care less about balanced macros. My grandparents lived past 90 at the right weight without knowing their balanced macros. But they ate good food, and had no junk in the house.

    PS - I get most of my carbs from fruit and vegetables.





    What are your ratios if you eat fruit then? Fruit has sugar?

    The sugar I'm getting from fruit is a lot less than the sugar I was getting from cookies and ice cream.

    It's entirely possible to control the amount of cookies and ice cream you eat without being LCHF. In fact, amusingly enough, the majority of calories in both are probably from fat, so HCLF people probably aren't eating lots of either.

    There's a lot less sugar in potatoes or oatmeal or whole wheat pasta, to pick three major sources of carbs I've had this week, than in fruit (which I've also had, also ice cream, for full disclosure, which I easily can eat a serving of). So not really sure why you are making the discussion about "sugar."

    You also didn't answer the question Mel asked.

    OK. How about the calories I am getting from fruit is a lot less than the calories I used to get from cookies, cake, chips, pretzels, ice cream and other junk (which I still eat by the way, but at a reduction of about 90% from my previous levels).

    I'm sure that's true, but I don't see what it has to do with the discussion or with your claim that LCHF works better than other ways to diet (lots of books on amazon, no books on HCLF, people in general just eat less on LCHF, etc.).

    That's my confusion Onlythetruth. You talk about low carbs and about all these LCHF books, but you eat fruit and still eat ice cream, cake, etc. I don't really see that as LCHF...probably eating a balanced diet (the sense of what people eat). Even if you cut down, I just wonder how much you cut if you consider yourself low carb.

    You can't eat fruit on low carb? There are also low carb ice cream and baked goods recipes.
    This was my other thought. I follow the reddit/keto boards and I always read that anything under 50 g of carbs as long as it fits is fine. I mean unless it interferes with your goals. Or if you are lower in carbs. Idk this low carb stuff is giving me a headache, but I have no gastric issues right now so I shall stick with it. Ugh.

    too many rules...

    Rules? Keep your macros at 5% net carb 20% protein and 75% fat..give or take a few percent for each (whatever works best)..drink enough fluids and keep your sodium up. Done. :)
    Would I be able to eat a serving at night of Ben & Jerry's Half Baked ice cream?

    How much cardio you wanna do? Anything is possible. The question is if it's worth it.

    This doesn't even make sense...

    Why?

    Because he asked if he could have half baked ice cream..which is 32g of net carbs. In order to fit it into the keto macros he would need to have a large number of calories to work with in order to get the desired amount of ice cream and stay within the 5%. Exercise increases the number of calories one can eat..this increasing the number
    of carbs.

    For example, I ate 1824 calories last Thursday and my carbs were 30g net or 9%. I would have easily been able to skip the beer and jerky and have a half serving of the ice cream that day. Some people can be in ketosis at 9% carb. I, personally like 4-5% better for my blood glucose.

    Because in my crazy world of just eating a well balanced and nutritious diet, I don't need to do *kitten* loads of cardio just to have a little ice cream for desert. But hey...I live in crazy land over here....

    Everything you're talking about sounds like cruel and unusual punishment...I get why you do it...you have a pretty legit reason medically...I don't see how this would be appealing at all to anyone who didn't need to do it.

    I have to say- I completely agree with @cwolfman13 , I do it because like you said to her- I have a legit medical reason for doing it- but can't see how it would be appealing to someone without a medical reason

    It's appealing to me because I feel more satiated on the same calories doing LCHF than I did doing solely calorie counting with more "balanced" macros. Plus, I prefer salt/savory/meaty to sweet and starchy, so it works -for me-. I am not a high performance athlete, though I am making efforts on the "move more" part of the deal.

    I do not preach about it, nor in fact truly discuss it much outside the keto boards because it always turns into "eat what you want and make it fit" and what people don't seem to get is that is what I am doing. I just don't happen to care to make bread/pasta/potatoes/sweets/etc... fit... right now.

    *Disclaimer: I lost 80lbs straight calorie counting before switching to LCHF and another 60 since then. In both cases I am counting calories, I just feel better/fuller/happier what have you, in the second case*

    Cool- thanks. I genuinely was interested and really couldn't understand why someone would do it without a medical issue- but your explanation makes sense. I think I may follow your rule about not discussing it outside the PCOS or low carber boards cause you are right.....

    For what it's worth, nic's reasoning makes total sense to me and I never get why people have such trouble understanding why LCHF might appeal to someone. I cut my carbs down to about 100 (not terribly low, but I don't know what that is in net) when I was on low calories (1250), because when I prioritize food meat and cheese and savory stuff make it and most starchy and sweet stuff does not. This also means that I probably could gain weight on LCHF if I did it and didn't count calories and that I have pretty good self control with carbs, so is also why when I have more calories I end up happily eating more carbs without it screwing up my hunger or cravings or anything, maybe. But if someone says they'd rather be able to feel like they are eating whatever they want and can do that with low carb, I get it. If you made me choose between low carb and low fat I'd do low carb with no thought. I spent my childhood irritating my mother because I refused to eat sandwiches or cereal, after all. ;-) But lucky for me (since I do like potatoes and ice cream, and even some bread these days), I can do balanced macros or just play around with different ratios.



    THIS!!! A Million times this!!! I'd rather eat the savory stuff than the sweet :) Mind you I'd rather eat all the food, but if I have to figure something out, I'd lose the bread.
  • stevencloser
    stevencloser Posts: 8,911 Member
    yarwell wrote: »
    You're seriously asking that? People need calories to maintain basic functioning

    like the 250,000 hanging round their belly for example.

    I wasn't specifically referring to minimum intake, which should be about nutrition and not energy, but the general "you aren't eating enough to lose weight" opinion that comes out when someone eating say 1400 calories and exercising says they don't lose weight.

    It's like a deficit of 500 is good, 1000 might be OK, but 1100 and you lose no weight.

    Who claims that?
  • PeachyCarol
    PeachyCarol Posts: 8,029 Member
    yarwell wrote: »
    You're seriously asking that? People need calories to maintain basic functioning

    like the 250,000 hanging round their belly for example.

    I wasn't specifically referring to minimum intake, which should be about nutrition and not energy, but the general "you aren't eating enough to lose weight" opinion that comes out when someone eating say 1400 calories and exercising says they don't lose weight.

    It's like a deficit of 500 is good, 1000 might be OK, but 1100 and you lose no weight.

    Oh, hell no, no one who's been around long ever says that, though. That's always roundly refuted by anyone who knows what they're talking about.

    Yes, all the fat people are going to get fatter because they're eating too little fallacy. Drives me batty.

  • lemurcat12
    lemurcat12 Posts: 30,886 Member
    No, what I mean is that I see tons of threads about how people have reached their calorie allowance by 3 or 4 pm, with 5 or 6 hours to go and come on the threads looking for advice. I dont have this issue.

    I don't either. I don't think it's necessarily about low carb vs. not. I do think that some people find diets difficult because they struggle with hunger and find that changing to lower carbs fixes that.
  • blktngldhrt
    blktngldhrt Posts: 1,053 Member
    adowe wrote: »
    adowe wrote: »
    MelRC117 wrote: »
    adowe wrote: »
    MelRC117 wrote: »
    Pu_239 wrote: »
    I don't even know where to begin...

    The process of converting protein to glucose through gluconeogensis is not thermodynamically favorable. What this means, it just takes more energy to convert specific amino acids to glucose. I see data that suggests your metabolic rate raises on a ketogenic based diet. This was done on people in a calorimeter, with a tighly controlled diet.

    So you can sit there eat 2000 calories of a carb based diet with no results due to your TDEE being 2000. Switch over to a low carb diet and your metabolism can increase above 2000. You can sit there eating 2000 calories of a protein based diet and lose weight. Then you come to the conclusion, "i am eating the same as before."

    Someone said something about fat and satiety. That theory was a long time ago, I would assume in the late 1990's. Fat supposedly triggers CCK(Cholecystokinin) which makes you feel fuller. But we also have to keep in mind if that's even true, fat is still double the calories.

    There is also some people talking about eating a lot of fat such as in keto, the fat comes out the other end. I mean we all heard of floaters... so Idk. It's a possibility.

    I'm going to focus on the bold part since I've never seen the data you suggest in the first paragraph.

    I don't understand what you mean that fat is double the calories, as in what that means to low carb diets? Low carb dieters don't take the 100g of carbs they would eat otherwise and go and eat 100g of fat instead because they cut those 100g out. I guess I'm confused on what that line meant.

    1g of carbs = 4 calories
    1g of fat = 9 calories

    I understand that. I'm just not sure what the poster meant by that line. That since a gram of fat is double the calories that is why people claim to feel more full, that there are more calories per gram? Just not sure. Either way, I think that feeling full is a big plus for people that eat LCHF.

    I feel full and don't eat LCHF.....not sure why LCHFers think they are the only ones to feel full

    The difference is that the low carbers who eat high fat will feel full (synonymous with not feeling hungry or weak from hunger) not for 6-8 hours, but from 8-16 hours or longer. I can eat dinner at 8pm, go to bed, wake up at 6am, have 200 calories of heavy whipping cream, and I am good til about 3 or 4 in the afternoon.

    This is my eating pattern, and this is the methodology behind keto/lchf. If I have no desire to eat Anything, I have no overeating challenges. And its not an eating disorder...I eat like a slob at night.

    What are you trying to say here?

    I can't feel full because I don't wait 8-16 hours between meals?

    No, what I mean is that I see tons of threads about how people have reached their calorie allowance by 3 or 4 pm, with 5 or 6 hours to go and come on the threads looking for advice. I dont have this issue. Most days, I dont have the opportunity to overeat. I am not saying that anyone who has carbs doesnt feel full. You said that. I am just saying that I can operate all day on just a few hundred calories of fat in the morning, whereas -most- people will have to eat something to sustain. That is all I am getting at.

    On that point..i still have 500 calories left to get to 1200..and that's not counting the hour of exercise I have to do yet..which will give me about 300 more. Some days I have trouble eating enough. I never had that problem until lchf. Not saying other people don't. Just saying I personally never came across that issue eating any other way.
  • RockstarWilson
    RockstarWilson Posts: 836 Member
    Mr_Knight wrote: »
    lemurcat12 wrote: »
    lemurcat12 wrote: »
    The high-fat, low-carb and low-refined sugar way of eating has left the station. Time to get on board!

    There's a reason why you can find a couple of dozen LCHF diet books on Amazon, and no HCLF diet books. LCHF works. Why? Because with for me and millions, you just eat fewer calories with LCHF. It's that simple.

    And before you get into a tizzy, I'm not saying no carbs and no sugar. I'm saying low carbs and low sugar. There is always a time to eat that piece of cheesecake. :)

    You can find any kind of diet book on amazon. No one here is recommending a HCLF diet (I'd hate it), but there are people on MFP all about the raw 80-10-10 stuff, and plenty of diet books for plenty of different kinds of diets that are HCLF.

    I don't at all disagree that LCHF works, but this is the kind of post that we've been responding to that Mel seems to want to dismiss (I would to if I were her, since she seems extremely sensible and to have a good understanding of how different diets work for different people). The point I and others are making is that LCHF is not the best diet ever and doesn't work for EVERYONE. It would not work for me, whereas balanced macros do (balance depending on what my TDEE is and how much activity I'm doing). You may eat fewer calories doing LCHF (if only because you are using that to cut out trigger foods that for you happen to be processed carbs), but that's not so for everyone, and if you are doing it to cut out foods that tempt you (as opposed to dealing with satiety issues) I'm frankly skeptical about whether there's any benefit long term.

    Long term, not having big bags of chips and cookies and pretzels, and half-gallon containers of ice cream in my house, have worked out very well for me long-term. Yes, I admit it - I lack willpower. And so do most people.

    And again, this has NOTHING to do with being low carb. You don't need to be low carb to get rid of trigger foods in the house, and I'm many could come up with trigger foods that aren't carb based to keep in the house or not.

    Logic fail. If A=B does not imply B=A.

    If someone's trigger foods are primarily carb-heavy, then yes, LC may well be the "right" answer.

    Exactly. I suck with carbs. If I have chips, I have half the bag. If I have cake, I need ice cream as well. It is a trade off, though, because instead of chips and cake, I can indulge in half a pound of bacon each day I want.

    "Feeling full" is subjective. I consider "feeling full" to be "not feeling hungry," or "not in need of food to function."
  • yarwell
    yarwell Posts: 10,477 Member
    Who claims that?

    it's a regular occurrence, possibly not from old hands. There's even a group called "eat more to lose weight" after all which appears in the popular groups thing on the home page.
  • blukitten
    blukitten Posts: 922 Member
    lilRicki wrote: »
    lemurcat12 wrote: »
    blukitten wrote: »
    blukitten wrote: »
    cwolfman13 wrote: »
    cwolfman13 wrote: »
    JPW1990 wrote: »
    MrM27 wrote: »
    ndj1979 wrote: »
    KylaDenay wrote: »
    MelRC117 wrote: »
    lemurcat12 wrote: »
    lemurcat12 wrote: »
    MelRC117 wrote: »
    lemurcat12 wrote: »
    The high-fat, low-carb and low-refined sugar way of eating has left the station. Time to get on board!

    There's a reason why you can find a couple of dozen LCHF diet books on Amazon, and no HCLF diet books. LCHF works. Why? Because with for me and millions, you just eat fewer calories with LCHF. It's that simple.

    And before you get into a tizzy, I'm not saying no carbs and no sugar. I'm saying low carbs and low sugar. There is always a time to eat that piece of cheesecake. :)

    You can find any kind of diet book on amazon. No one here is recommending a HCLF diet (I'd hate it), but there are people on MFP all about the raw 80-10-10 stuff, and plenty of diet books for plenty of different kinds of diets that are HCLF.

    I don't at all disagree that LCHF works, but this is the kind of post that we've been responding to that Mel seems to want to dismiss (I would to if I were her, since she seems extremely sensible and to have a good understanding of how different diets work for different people). The point I and others are making is that LCHF is not the best diet ever and doesn't work for EVERYONE. It would not work for me, whereas balanced macros do (balance depending on what my TDEE is and how much activity I'm doing). You may eat fewer calories doing LCHF (if only because you are using that to cut out trigger foods that for you happen to be processed carbs), but that's not so for everyone, and if you are doing it to cut out foods that tempt you (as opposed to dealing with satiety issues) I'm frankly skeptical about whether there's any benefit long term.

    Long term, not having big bags of chips and cookies and pretzels, and half-gallon containers of ice cream in my house, have worked out very well for me long-term. Yes, I admit it - I lack willpower. And so do most people.

    I've also dumped cereal because the amount I need to eat for breakfast is 2.5 times the serving suggested on the box. My breakfast "diet food" is one egg, a strip of bacon, and some grilled onions.

    I could care less about balanced macros. My grandparents lived past 90 at the right weight without knowing their balanced macros. But they ate good food, and had no junk in the house.

    PS - I get most of my carbs from fruit and vegetables.





    What are your ratios if you eat fruit then? Fruit has sugar?

    The sugar I'm getting from fruit is a lot less than the sugar I was getting from cookies and ice cream.

    It's entirely possible to control the amount of cookies and ice cream you eat without being LCHF. In fact, amusingly enough, the majority of calories in both are probably from fat, so HCLF people probably aren't eating lots of either.

    There's a lot less sugar in potatoes or oatmeal or whole wheat pasta, to pick three major sources of carbs I've had this week, than in fruit (which I've also had, also ice cream, for full disclosure, which I easily can eat a serving of). So not really sure why you are making the discussion about "sugar."

    You also didn't answer the question Mel asked.

    OK. How about the calories I am getting from fruit is a lot less than the calories I used to get from cookies, cake, chips, pretzels, ice cream and other junk (which I still eat by the way, but at a reduction of about 90% from my previous levels).

    I'm sure that's true, but I don't see what it has to do with the discussion or with your claim that LCHF works better than other ways to diet (lots of books on amazon, no books on HCLF, people in general just eat less on LCHF, etc.).

    That's my confusion Onlythetruth. You talk about low carbs and about all these LCHF books, but you eat fruit and still eat ice cream, cake, etc. I don't really see that as LCHF...probably eating a balanced diet (the sense of what people eat). Even if you cut down, I just wonder how much you cut if you consider yourself low carb.

    You can't eat fruit on low carb? There are also low carb ice cream and baked goods recipes.
    This was my other thought. I follow the reddit/keto boards and I always read that anything under 50 g of carbs as long as it fits is fine. I mean unless it interferes with your goals. Or if you are lower in carbs. Idk this low carb stuff is giving me a headache, but I have no gastric issues right now so I shall stick with it. Ugh.

    too many rules...

    Rules? Keep your macros at 5% net carb 20% protein and 75% fat..give or take a few percent for each (whatever works best)..drink enough fluids and keep your sodium up. Done. :)
    Would I be able to eat a serving at night of Ben & Jerry's Half Baked ice cream?

    How much cardio you wanna do? Anything is possible. The question is if it's worth it.

    This doesn't even make sense...

    Why?

    Because he asked if he could have half baked ice cream..which is 32g of net carbs. In order to fit it into the keto macros he would need to have a large number of calories to work with in order to get the desired amount of ice cream and stay within the 5%. Exercise increases the number of calories one can eat..this increasing the number
    of carbs.

    For example, I ate 1824 calories last Thursday and my carbs were 30g net or 9%. I would have easily been able to skip the beer and jerky and have a half serving of the ice cream that day. Some people can be in ketosis at 9% carb. I, personally like 4-5% better for my blood glucose.

    Because in my crazy world of just eating a well balanced and nutritious diet, I don't need to do *kitten* loads of cardio just to have a little ice cream for desert. But hey...I live in crazy land over here....

    Everything you're talking about sounds like cruel and unusual punishment...I get why you do it...you have a pretty legit reason medically...I don't see how this would be appealing at all to anyone who didn't need to do it.

    I have to say- I completely agree with @cwolfman13 , I do it because like you said to her- I have a legit medical reason for doing it- but can't see how it would be appealing to someone without a medical reason

    It's appealing to me because I feel more satiated on the same calories doing LCHF than I did doing solely calorie counting with more "balanced" macros. Plus, I prefer salt/savory/meaty to sweet and starchy, so it works -for me-. I am not a high performance athlete, though I am making efforts on the "move more" part of the deal.

    I do not preach about it, nor in fact truly discuss it much outside the keto boards because it always turns into "eat what you want and make it fit" and what people don't seem to get is that is what I am doing. I just don't happen to care to make bread/pasta/potatoes/sweets/etc... fit... right now.

    *Disclaimer: I lost 80lbs straight calorie counting before switching to LCHF and another 60 since then. In both cases I am counting calories, I just feel better/fuller/happier what have you, in the second case*

    Cool- thanks. I genuinely was interested and really couldn't understand why someone would do it without a medical issue- but your explanation makes sense. I think I may follow your rule about not discussing it outside the PCOS or low carber boards cause you are right.....

    For what it's worth, nic's reasoning makes total sense to me and I never get why people have such trouble understanding why LCHF might appeal to someone. I cut my carbs down to about 100 (not terribly low, but I don't know what that is in net) when I was on low calories (1250), because when I prioritize food meat and cheese and savory stuff make it and most starchy and sweet stuff does not. This also means that I probably could gain weight on LCHF if I did it and didn't count calories and that I have pretty good self control with carbs, so is also why when I have more calories I end up happily eating more carbs without it screwing up my hunger or cravings or anything, maybe. But if someone says they'd rather be able to feel like they are eating whatever they want and can do that with low carb, I get it. If you made me choose between low carb and low fat I'd do low carb with no thought. I spent my childhood irritating my mother because I refused to eat sandwiches or cereal, after all. ;-) But lucky for me (since I do like potatoes and ice cream, and even some bread these days), I can do balanced macros or just play around with different ratios.



    THIS!!! A Million times this!!! I'd rather eat the savory stuff than the sweet :) Mind you I'd rather eat all the food, but if I have to figure something out, I'd lose the bread.

    And I am the opposite- I don't necessarily do a lot of sweet stuff but if I had the choice- I could easily go without meat and fat (except bacon, bacon is always the exception :) ) in exchange of a nice warm roll with butter or a baked potato with sour cream and butter, or a fresh baked something
  • cwolfman13
    cwolfman13 Posts: 41,865 Member
    edited March 2015
    Mr_Knight wrote: »
    lemurcat12 wrote: »
    lemurcat12 wrote: »
    The high-fat, low-carb and low-refined sugar way of eating has left the station. Time to get on board!

    There's a reason why you can find a couple of dozen LCHF diet books on Amazon, and no HCLF diet books. LCHF works. Why? Because with for me and millions, you just eat fewer calories with LCHF. It's that simple.

    And before you get into a tizzy, I'm not saying no carbs and no sugar. I'm saying low carbs and low sugar. There is always a time to eat that piece of cheesecake. :)

    You can find any kind of diet book on amazon. No one here is recommending a HCLF diet (I'd hate it), but there are people on MFP all about the raw 80-10-10 stuff, and plenty of diet books for plenty of different kinds of diets that are HCLF.

    I don't at all disagree that LCHF works, but this is the kind of post that we've been responding to that Mel seems to want to dismiss (I would to if I were her, since she seems extremely sensible and to have a good understanding of how different diets work for different people). The point I and others are making is that LCHF is not the best diet ever and doesn't work for EVERYONE. It would not work for me, whereas balanced macros do (balance depending on what my TDEE is and how much activity I'm doing). You may eat fewer calories doing LCHF (if only because you are using that to cut out trigger foods that for you happen to be processed carbs), but that's not so for everyone, and if you are doing it to cut out foods that tempt you (as opposed to dealing with satiety issues) I'm frankly skeptical about whether there's any benefit long term.

    Long term, not having big bags of chips and cookies and pretzels, and half-gallon containers of ice cream in my house, have worked out very well for me long-term. Yes, I admit it - I lack willpower. And so do most people.

    And again, this has NOTHING to do with being low carb. You don't need to be low carb to get rid of trigger foods in the house, and I'm many could come up with trigger foods that aren't carb based to keep in the house or not.

    Logic fail. If A=B does not imply B=A.

    If someone's trigger foods are primarily carb-heavy, then yes, LC may well be the "right" answer.

    Exactly. I suck with carbs. If I have chips, I have half the bag. If I have cake, I need ice cream as well. It is a trade off, though, because instead of chips and cake, I can indulge in half a pound of bacon each day I want.

    "Feeling full" is subjective. I consider "feeling full" to be "not feeling hungry," or "not in need of food to function."

    How come when low carbers talk about carbs they always talk about chips and cake and candy and whatnot? Those are carbs...but there's all kinds of other carbs too...

    If you have some beans do you feel the need to consume the whole batch? If you have some oats do you feel compelled to just keep eating oats until the cows come home? Does having a baked sweet potato with dinner send you back to the oven to make more?

    I mean, I don't do great with things like chips either...but I can have my sweet potato and I'm just fine having one.

    This goes back to one of my first posts in this thread...it seems like the implication from the low carb crowd is that if you eat carbs you must be eating like *kitten*.... and eating nothing besides twinkies, poptarts, and ice cream. It's annoying.