Low Calorie vs Low Carb

jcollins327 wrote: »

Inviting anyone to weigh in on which they believe renders the best weight loss results: Low Calorie or Low Carb. I'm at a bit of a crossroads having gained a significant amount of weight and am caught between these 2 weight loss philosophies to achieve my goal. Replies can be based on statistics, science, or just personal preference.

Here's a compilation of comparison trials, if that helps -

http://smashthefat.com/science

jcollins327 wrote: »

WOW! Guys I cannot thank you enough for sharing such thoughtful and insightful responses. I've read each of them very carefully and it seems most of you lean towards a low-cal lifestyle with an element of low carb. I think my problem with getting this weight off is that while I've been eating and tracking my carbs and have been keeping them low, I've neglected to track my calories. How can I expect to lose weight when my calories have most likely been between 2500-3000/day with little to no exercise. Low-cal has worked for me in the past and I think it's time to start counting calories again. Again - many thanks to you all and best of luck to each of you on your weight loss journeys.

I eat a very high-carb diet and lose weight. I'm not recommending a high-carb diet, just saying that it can be done.

Fruits and veggies will NOT stop anyone from losing weight! They keep you nice and full, give you all those lovely vitamins and minerals you need and bring fiber (a carb) along for the ride. They're yummy, too.

I do hope people aren't abandoning fruits and veggies to lose weight.

Fruits and veggies are our friends.

Sirius_12 wrote: »

I tried carb cycling. But I kept falling off my bike trying to eat the baked potato.

Lol hard boiled egg for me pls, I'm low carb

I do low calorie to lose weight. I do low carb in periods (4-12 weeks) when I want to focus on cutting body fat, but I don't perform as well in the gym on low carb so its a periodical thing for me (usually for summer). As everyone says, you cant lose weight without eating less calories, the low carb just plays on the hormonal affect the food has on your body but as mentioned above, I can't imagine ketosis over a long period can be healthy so a cycle seems like a sensible idea.

Good results to me are not just the number on the scale when I've reached goal......

I won't be incorporating low carb into my maintenance regimen, so there is no reason to do low carb now. Maintenance is hard enough without trying to figure it out...when I get there.

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.