Any low carbers not counting carbs or calories?
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I try to log everyday. If I log everything at the end of the day, I almost always go over carbs, and I'm short on protein and fats. I tend to eat a lot of veggies. For instance, yesterday for lunch, I was starving, so I heated up a dinner with chicken and broccoli. Since I was so hungry, I threw in a salad of mixed greens and homemade bleu cheese dressing. When I logged it with everything in the evening, that meal alone was 7g net carbs...I had inwardly calculated it at around 5. Once I'm better at gauging what I eat, I will possibly stop logging...but for now, it REALLY helps me stay on track.2
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I do a modified Dukan Diet (Dr Dukan and I have different ideas about the fat content of foods). The Dukan Diet uses food lists instead of counting. I was able to lose about 40 lbs without counting carbs or calories. When I hit a plateau in May and June, I started using MyFitnessPal to log my food and see what was happening. As it turns out, my chili recipe, which I thought was 0 carbs per bowl was 7 carbs per bowl. Plus MyFitnessPal helped me be more honest about how much wine I was drinking. So, although I don't count carbs or calories, MyFitnessPal helps me be more aware.4
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I don't log anymore. When I first started I logged my foods, only really paying attention to carbs (although the calorie count was there, lol, and I noticed I seldom, if ever went over on calories). After the first month or so I stopped logging, only tracking a day or two every so often as a "spot check". I lost 50 lbs that way. When I became pregnant with my fourth child, I bumped up the carbs somewhat (from 50-80g per day to 100-120g per day) and found that I needed to log to keep the calories in check. So I logged the entire second half of my pregnancy. Once I had the baby I dropped back down to 50-80g, logged for a few weeks, then realized I didn't need to anymore.
I did participate in the meticulous may challenge here, and logged that whole month. I found that when I saw I had "leftover" calories at the end of the day, I'd end up eating more, just because they were there, not because I was truley hungry. I suppose this would be okay, except I find I have some days where I'm super hungry, and other days where I'm really not. The hungry days and the not so hungry days seem to balance each other out, IF I honor them. If I eat more on my not so hungry day, then my hungry days can easily erase a deficit (I was very close to my goal weight in May, had less than 10 lbs left to lose, so my deficit was super small). I'm best off not logging, and just using hunger cues.
That said, I do use my scale as my guide. I step on it daily. The nice thing about low carb is I don't retain much water, unless I overdo carbs. So if I see my scale jump up one day, I can think back about what I had the prior day, and it's usually easy to figure out what happened and get back on track.3 -
I do a modified Dukan Diet (Dr Dukan and I have different ideas about the fat content of foods). The Dukan Diet uses food lists instead of counting. I was able to lose about 40 lbs without counting carbs or calories. When I hit a plateau in May and June, I started using MyFitnessPal to log my food and see what was happening. As it turns out, my chili recipe, which I thought was 0 carbs per bowl was 7 carbs per bowl. Plus MyFitnessPal helped me be more honest about how much wine I was drinking. So, although I don't count carbs or calories, MyFitnessPal helps me be more aware.
I took an initial look at the Dukan Diet and am interested in looking at it further. I only see a few problems:
1. Oat bran would be high in carbs, right? Maybe the quantity is too small to matter, though. Carbs in fruit when I get to that phase, but the quantities are still not terrible.
2. The unlimited amount of food, as long as it is the specified kind of food, just wouldn't work for me. I did something similar once with a version of IF where one could have unlimited amount every other day and was at very low calories on the alternating days. Though I wasn't restricting, I did log foods... I was eating around 10K calories per day starting out and eventually made it down to around 7K calories on those days towards the end of 6 weeks. That was still putting me at a net weekly surplus. My appetite is incredible, even with high protein and high fat, so removing restrictions is unlikely to work.
3. The initial weight loss promoted by the plan sounds like the initial glycogen loss and accompanying water weight that us low-carbers experience anyway. I wouldn't experience that benefit since I'm already low-carb.
Still, I'm in a slump right now anyway because even though I've been staying low carb, I've been significantly exceeding calories often enough to have stalled weight loss. (See my comment above.) This just might be an idea of how to reset... will have to look into it.1 -
midwesterner85 wrote: »I do a modified Dukan Diet (Dr Dukan and I have different ideas about the fat content of foods). The Dukan Diet uses food lists instead of counting. I was able to lose about 40 lbs without counting carbs or calories. When I hit a plateau in May and June, I started using MyFitnessPal to log my food and see what was happening. As it turns out, my chili recipe, which I thought was 0 carbs per bowl was 7 carbs per bowl. Plus MyFitnessPal helped me be more honest about how much wine I was drinking. So, although I don't count carbs or calories, MyFitnessPal helps me be more aware.
I took an initial look at the Dukan Diet and am interested in looking at it further. I only see a few problems:
1. Oat bran would be high in carbs, right? Maybe the quantity is too small to matter, though. Carbs in fruit when I get to that phase, but the quantities are still not terrible.
2. The unlimited amount of food, as long as it is the specified kind of food, just wouldn't work for me. I did something similar once with a version of IF where one could have unlimited amount every other day and was at very low calories on the alternating days. Though I wasn't restricting, I did log foods... I was eating around 10K calories per day starting out and eventually made it down to around 7K calories on those days towards the end of 6 weeks. That was still putting me at a net weekly surplus. My appetite is incredible, even with high protein and high fat, so removing restrictions is unlikely to work.
3. The initial weight loss promoted by the plan sounds like the initial glycogen loss and accompanying water weight that us low-carbers experience anyway. I wouldn't experience that benefit since I'm already low-carb.
Still, I'm in a slump right now anyway because even though I've been staying low carb, I've been significantly exceeding calories often enough to have stalled weight loss. (See my comment above.) This just might be an idea of how to reset... will have to look into it.
To answer some of Midwesterner...'s questions:
1. Haha... when I said a "modified" Dukan Diet, I should have said "heavily modified". I don't do the oat bran, mostly because I don't need any help with keeping things moving, if you know what I mean. Plus, some of Dukan's unlimited food is pretty high carb, like surimi and carrots, but eating those foods works for me anyway. Go figure.
2. On the topic of removing restrictions, all I can say is experiment with what you are able to do, because I find the food lists plenty restrictive, still requiring discipline on my part.
3. On the topic of the initial weight loss being glycogen and water weight. Yes, the first 10 lbs of loss were very easy and fast, but that doesn't account for the fact that I have lost 40, now 50 lbs, using a modified version of Dukan's food lists (where he says low-fat or no-fat, I choose regular fat products).
My best to you.1 -
While I'm not particularly "low" carb, but rather "slow", I don't generally count calories or carbs.0
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Love all the comments and advice. I'm on day 4 and feeling great. I peaked at the scale and am down .8 but my official weigh in is tomorrow and hoping for a 1 pound loss.0
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I stopped weighing and logging July 2015, so I guess I have an anniversary. I went down to lowest weight and size in Oct, but regained some after starting dating and less fasting hours due to work. Now that I'm back on track with fasting, often doing OMAD (OneMealADay ) I'm slowly losing weight again, despite not counting neither calories nor carbs. It seems to me I need rules like 1-1.5-2 meals per day, not "feeding hours" to keep my insatiable appetite in check. The interesting thing is I'm never hungry anymore. Maybe some people are big eaters.0
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I stopped daily logging in August, 2015. I did log for several months before then though. Once I realized I wasn't learning from it any longer I stopped. I've continued losing weight and am now 7 pounds from my goal weight!2
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I was just going to start a new thread to ask basically the same question, so was happy to see it had already been asked!I track carbs, don't care about the calories. But my plan is to track it for awhile to make sure I'm not eating more carbs than I think I'm eating, and once I'm secure in that I will stop bothering. I find tracking every single thing makes me feel a little obsessive about everything I eat, and I don't like that.
This is pretty much what I've done. I tracked obsessively for my first couple months of doing keto (I do love my stats), and feel like I've found my net carb sweet spot now (25-40 net carbs/day), and am familiar with what I can or can't eat...
I had a binge eating disorder for 17 years, and my purge of choice was extremely strict dieting, with exact measurements, weighing, and logging. I've been binge free for 10 years now, but I find myself becoming overly OCD about the diet part of it as time goes on, so I decided a couple days ago I was going to shift into a "keto for life" mode. Essentially what that means to me is that I'll mentally calculate how many carbs are in a meal, and limit myself to 3 meals and 1 snack a day, and up to 10 net grams of carbs per meal or snack. That way I stay under 40 net grams of carbs per day but I'm not making myself crazy with tracking. I weigh and measure things for recipes, but then I have a cheat sheet in my notes app on my phone with all the foods I usually eat (or I can check the label) and I'll calculate that way until I've memorized them all.
The other guideline I've given myself is that I must eat intuitively. I've been practicing intuitive eating for 10 years now, so it feels natural to only eat once I'm hungry and stop when I'm satiated.
Yesterday was my first day doing this and I came out at 27 net carbs. Today I had 33 net carbs. Both days I felt satisfied, had no cravings, and although I was jonesing to log my meals at first, I can already feel that crazy mental "diet" chatter in my head starting to ease...3 -
After I reached my second target weight I went about 4-5 months without tracking calories or carbs and stayed within 1-2 kilos of my ideal target weight. I just weighed myself in the morning most days. I was using IF intermittent fasting to control my weight after eating off plan several times a week. I stopped walking and stopped going to the gym and still maintained I guess I was experimenting to see how far I could go eating off plan without putting on weight once my body was fat adapted. Now I feel highly motivated to log again and to really understand LCHF and IF at a deeper level so I have started logging again.0
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I actually stopped obsessing over the numbers a couple of weeks ago and notice that I'm finally losing weight.
I eat protein and fat and sometimes a bit of veg for brunch (we're retired), have a snack instead of lunch (maybe half an avocado with some salmon or tuna) and protein fat and low-carb vegetables for dinner. Perhaps twice weekly we have berries with whipped cream for dessert. If I get hungry before bed I make a sort of fat bomb with coconut oil and almond butter. That seems to be enough food for me, and I have no cravings.
If we go out I look for a low carb meal. Most places have something. Last night it was a huge bowl of shellfish in a coconut-based curry broth. Lovely. The Spousal Unit scarfed my garlic toast, so all was well.
I can now get into all of my bras with dignity (no oozage), some of my shirts button up again without being precariously tight in the bust, and one of my really expensive pairs of skinny pants almost fits again (I could actually wear them now, but nobody needs to see that).
Small goals every week, and no obsessive counting.6 -
Wanted to update that I lost 3 lbs after my first week of not logging! YES!
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I actually stopped obsessing over the numbers a couple of weeks ago and notice that I'm finally losing weight.
I eat protein and fat and sometimes a bit of veg for brunch (we're retired), have a snack instead of lunch (maybe half an avocado with some salmon or tuna) and protein fat and low-carb vegetables for dinner. Perhaps twice weekly we have berries with whipped cream for dessert. If I get hungry before bed I make a sort of fat bomb with coconut oil and almond butter. That seems to be enough food for me, and I have no cravings.
If we go out I look for a low carb meal. Most places have something. Last night it was a huge bowl of shellfish in a coconut-based curry broth. Lovely. The Spousal Unit scarfed my garlic toast, so all was well.
I can now get into all of my bras with dignity (no oozage), some of my shirts button up again without being precariously tight in the bust, and one of my really expensive pairs of skinny pants almost fits again (I could actually wear them now, but nobody needs to see that).
Small goals every week, and no obsessive counting.
I actually bought a jar of coconut oil/almond butter mixed together. Its so good!0 -
After 3 months of logging every bite, I haven't really logged anything since May. I got to the point where I knew the serving sizes of the 30 or so foods I ate the most of and didnt need to any more. I have continued to lose about 10lbs a month until the last couple months when my alcohol consumption ramped up (damn you summer bbqs). I don't plan on logging again, and I am still losing, just not as quickly.2
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How is everyone doing? I'm a few weeks into this and down a few pounds more.1
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Xo_healthylc wrote: »How is everyone doing? I'm a few weeks into this and down a few pounds more.
I've had fantastic success on this. I'm actually down 39 lbs since February. At one point, I was losing 2.5-3 lbs a week.3 -
RowdysLady wrote: »You guys not counting stuff amaze me....I'm envious and certain I'll never be able to stop counting carbs or calories!
What works for you is the only thing that counts for you. As long as we are improving our health markers the "HOW" we do it is left up to each of us.5
