Low Calorie vs Low Carb

Losing weight and being healthy are 2 separate things. You can lose weight but still be unhealthy. It took me so long to wrap my head around this since people assume how you look is how you are. The assumption being that slim is healthy, overweight is not. You can be slim on the outside and fat inside. I personally rather go slow and have a complete overhaul, eat good fulling food below my calorie limit and lose weight while learning good nutrition and exercise. I realised the things we limit ourselves greatly are also the things we binge on. So having cheat days are necessary to be emotionally in tune with ourselves.

Low carb...because once you kick the carb addiction you can control your calorie intake a lot better. I have to make myself eat something. I don't have much of an appetite with the keto diet

Lower calories has worked best for me. No need to restrict anything, just manage a deficit and still enjoy rice, pasta, bread, etc.

IsaackGMOON wrote: »

af1973 wrote: »

Low carb...because once you kick the carb addiction you can control your calorie intake a lot better. I have to make myself eat something. I don't have much of an appetite with the keto diet

Carb addiction???????

@IsaackGMOON "carb addiction" is a loose term that means different things to different people. When one removes all the Cokes from the house for example yet gets up in the middle of the night and drives 10 miles to a Coke machine might be referred to a Carb addiction by some. Again it is not a scientific term in the minds of many. When I went off carbs cold turkey for pain management it was really bad for two weeks then the cravings just faded. Was I a Carb Addict I can not say but I can say I was a Carb Abuser for 40 years and paid a high price health wise. In my case it is true on a real keto diet there is not the hunger or cravings like when I was living mainly on carbs.

Good question. If you go low calorie/low protein you will lose lean muscle mass (up to 30% of weight loss). Keep your protein high. Otherwise when you get to goal and start the maintenance phase, you'll not have as much lean muscle mass to boost your metabolism. This is probably part of the reason why people regain their weight loss and more. Check out this study:

Lean Mass Loss

"Current National Institutes of Health guidelines for treating overweight and obese adults recommend low-calorie/low-fat diets for weight loss, with protein recommendations expressed as a percentage of total calories (20). People trying to lose weight by reducing calories may inadvertently consume very low levels of protein, possibly resulting in loss of lean mass, which can be especially detrimental in older adults (7). In a 9-week weight-maintenance study in older women, those consuming low dietary protein (0.45g/kg body weight/day) experienced substantial decreases in lean mass compared to those consuming adequate dietary protein (0.92 g/kg body weight/day) (21). In a meta-analysis by Krieger and colleagues (12), diets higher in protein (>1.05 to ≤1.20 g/kg body weight/day) were associated with greater fat-free mass retention than diets lower in protein (<0.7 g/kg body weight/day) during energy restriction. Thus, the RDA for protein may be inadequate for retaining fat-free mass during caloric restriction."

My goal for protein is 90 and carbs restricted between 50 & 100. I don't wish to go lower for carbs as it's hard on your kidneys.

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IsaackGMOON wrote: »

nvsmomketo wrote: »

True. In the long run going low carb and low cal creates about the same weight loss as eating just low cal. In the short term (6 months) those eating low carb and low cal tend to lose more weight. Not a huge amount, just a few kilos.

Wouldn't that be mainly water weight? It would return with the re-introduction of carbohydrates back into the diet.

A pound or two maybe. A few kilos? I think that is probably doubtful.