Your thoughts: calorie vs. carb factoring in PCOS
Deena_Bean
Posts: 906 Member
Today was lopsided for me. As a general rule, I track both carbs and calories. Because I have PCOS, it's a constant battle to lose and keep weight odd. If I look at cake I gain a pound. Really, it seems that bad. So as a result I'm fairly cognizant of the numbers. They aren't always on par, of course, but I've been doing fairly well.
Point: today I was roughly 700 calories over my 1660 calorie goal. I didn't feel at all like I overate, I never once felt stuffed and each meal I stopped eating when I was full. On the other hand my total carbs were 48, net 34. That's great for me, I'm usually closer to 75-90 range. For those of you familiar with the PCOS deal - which is the lesser evil here? Should I care about the calories very much for the day, or should I be like
Point: today I was roughly 700 calories over my 1660 calorie goal. I didn't feel at all like I overate, I never once felt stuffed and each meal I stopped eating when I was full. On the other hand my total carbs were 48, net 34. That's great for me, I'm usually closer to 75-90 range. For those of you familiar with the PCOS deal - which is the lesser evil here? Should I care about the calories very much for the day, or should I be like
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First of all, we all have hungry days. That's okay! If be more concerned if I was eating over TDEE as a regular thing. Is your calorie goal set at too steep of a deficit?
Second, make sure you're getting enough fat, and the right type of carbs. For me, grain and sugar carbs make me feel like I could eat a house, regardless of my calorie intake. While carbs are super duper important for PCOS, I think calories have to be taken into consideration too.0 -
I have PCOS and I find that I can eat a lot more calories when eating low carb and get the same effect. (My target is 50 net carbs per day and I usually end up around 35 net carbs naturally). So the lesser of two evils, in my opinion, is too many calories. That said, eating to satiety, I naturally eat to a deficit on most days. I do have hungry days where I go ahead and eat over my calories, but this could be a problem if it's every day. For me it's around once every two weeks or so.0
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I'm more about monitoring the carbs than the calories. I'm finally getting in sync with my body as far as hunger and stuff, so trusting it to tell me when I'm full is a big progress marker for me.
That being said, look at your calorie deficit in 7-10 day ranges, or even 14 day ranges for a better picture. This covers the hungry days, the not hungry days, etc. That's one of the things WW did okay on, having some flex points on a weekly basis.
We get so caught up in the daily minutia that we forget the big picture sometimes! Remember, too, that where you are in your cycle affects hunger with hormones, too.0 -
I have PCOS and I find that I can eat a lot more calories when eating low carb and get the same effect. (My target is 50 net carbs per day and I usually end up around 35 net carbs naturally). So the lesser of two evils, in my opinion, is too many calories. That said, eating to satiety, I naturally eat to a deficit on most days. I do have hungry days where I go ahead and eat over my calories, but this could be a problem if it's every day. For me it's around once every two weeks or so.
Well I do not have PCOS to deal with but have found I can eat more calories now that I eat <50 grams of carbs daily. When I mention this some call me not so nice names but it is true. @BalmyD do you know the science behind why we can eat more calories and not gain weight?
It is not a big deal but my geek head with CICO in it does wonder why this is a fact in my case as well?
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What Knit said, especially about looking at averages over time.
That said, carbs are, at least for me, the biggest evil, hands down. It wasn't until I went completely carnivore and the only carbs come from animal sources did my numbers start drastically improving and I can actually influence my weight in the downward direction. Anything short of that and my weight stabilizes, at best, regardless of my caloric intake.0 -
Ok, so I went back and averaged the last 30 days and I'm at 1860 a day - my goal is set at 1660 calories, but it doesn't bother me much if I'm slightly over (still set up for losing weight, just not as quickly). My average "total" calories are 99 LOL. I guess for my goal being under 100, I just make it there. Recently I've wanted to stay more between 50-75, but it just doesn't seem to pan out for me. I could force it, but I'm also trying very hard to be comfortable with the choices (as long as they're not unreasonable). My net carbs average around 86.
I do notice that I feel fuller when I stay lower on the carbs. I feel like I'm getting more and more lean, too, so it seems to be overall working pretty well. I am going to focus on cutting the carbs a bit more. Maybe make the goal 75 instead of 100. I'm also considering bumping my calories to 1860, it really seems to be the magic number. I'll go plug my stuff into one of those calculators and see what it says. I'm not super rushed to lose weight, so it may be enough for me to bump up the calories and drop the carbs a bit to find a sweeter spot for me. Not sure, though. I'm always really nervous about changing things around. Sometimes they work, sometimes they really don't. Calories in particular get me all nervous because I've spent the majority of my adult life trying to stay in some magical calorie land that works. Hard habit to break!0
