Should I try low carb again?

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missangellynn71
missangellynn71 Posts: 13 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
I did low carb (10 to 20 carbs a day) before and lost 15 pounds in two months but I quit due to the fact that low carb is so hard to accomplish. I've tried calorie counting, but I can't seem to lose weight that way. The most I lost calorie counting was 9 pounds in 3 months, which I gained them all back. Should I go back to carb counting or should I keep trying with the calories? And if I stick with the calories what can I do to lose the weight?

Replies

  • Ni_La82
    Ni_La82 Posts: 16 Member
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    Everyone is different, some folks lose weight faster by calorie counting. I'm not one of those people.
    I lose weight faster on low carb. In my first round, I could stay in ketosis and have 45-55 carbs per day. If my ketostick measurement came out a bit light, I could just hop on the treadmill and that seemed to fix that right up. I lost just over 10 percent of my body weight in 10 weeks.
    I'm trying a second round of low carb, however, I am having a rough time getting back into ketosis. I fear I may have to drop my carb intake lower than before, which is difficult, and I don't think I can go to 10 or 20 like you did.
  • janejellyroll
    janejellyroll Posts: 25,763 Member
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    9 pounds in three months is a pretty good rate of loss. I'd much rather lose around 3 pounds a month, while continuing to eat carbohydrates and learning skills to keep the weight off, than do a diet plan that I hated and found difficult.

    You ask what you can do to lose the weight while calorie counting, but it sounds like you *were* losing weight with calorie counting. Maybe the problem isn't with calorie counting, but with your expectations of how fast the weight should be coming off.
  • bclarke1990
    bclarke1990 Posts: 287 Member
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    I walk daily and eat around 80% carbs and I haven't noticed any difference from the first time I dieted (where I ate tons of "protein cakes, pancakes, mug cakes, etc.". Same calories, but now I pig out on fruit and grains whenever I'm hungry. Only difference is this time it feels sustainable because I'm not forcing myself to eat chicken eggs and steak 3 times a day.
  • Purplebunnysarah
    Purplebunnysarah Posts: 3,252 Member
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    Low carb helps you lose weight faster for 2 reasons:

    1. Water weight
    2. It's easy to accidentally undereat your calories a bit if low carb high fat options are the foods you find satiating. Many people don't need to log when doing LCHF for this reason.

    Personally I'm doing 50-60g net carbs a day and losing an average of 2 lbs per week with my goals set to 1 lb/week loss. Some of the discrepancy is from not always reaching my calorie goal and some is probably from the fact that I breastfeed and don't log it. I think nursing is a negligible contributor at this point since my baby is over a year, though.
  • Purplebunnysarah
    Purplebunnysarah Posts: 3,252 Member
    Options
    Low carb helps you lose weight faster for 2 reasons:

    1. Water weight
    2. It's easy to accidentally undereat your calories a bit if low carb high fat options are the foods you find satiating. Many people don't need to log when doing LCHF for this reason.

    Personally I'm doing 50-60g net carbs a day and losing an average of 2 lbs per week with my goals set to 1 lb/week loss. Some of the discrepancy is from not always reaching my calorie goal and some is probably from the fact that I breastfeed and don't log it. I think nursing is a negligible contributor at this point since my baby is over a year, though.
  • tlflag1620
    tlflag1620 Posts: 1,358 Member
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    10-20 carbs per day is very LC or keto. You could try lowering carbs without going quite so low (I do 50-80 g per day, get great results, and don't find it difficult or boring because I'm at a level that allows for more flexibility and variety). But you certainly don't need to do LC. LC is nice because of the satiety (I find it hard to eat all the calories I'm allotted when I keep my carbs low - it's a nice problem to have!). Experiment with different carb levels. Some people do well and get all the benefits of LC (satiety, loss of cravings, not needing to track calories) on as many as 150 g per day. If you had a hard time with 10-20, you might find a less restrictive LC diet useful.

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