Which has worked better for you? Watching Calories/fat or Keto

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kimjschroeder
kimjschroeder Posts: 35 Member
in Getting Started
Have you tried multiple ways to lose weight? Calorie counting watching fat/ Weight Watchers/ Keto? What has worked for you and why?
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  • Lone_wolf46
    Lone_wolf46 Posts: 2,711 Member
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    For me, it's been minimizing bad carbs. It just works for me.
  • cathipa
    cathipa Posts: 2,991 Member
    edited August 2017
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    I used to classify foods as good or bad, but really there are no bad foods (unless its expired or you are allergic). I have found that sticking within a reasonable calorie deficit, weighing my food and eating more protein and healthy fats has worked best for me. Substituting heathier options is also best (edemame noodles, zoodles or spaghetti squash in place of regular wheat pasta for one example). Everyone has their own way of doing things and only you will know what is best for your lifestyle. What ever you decide to do just make sure it is sustainable in the long term.
  • MichelleWithMoxie
    MichelleWithMoxie Posts: 1,818 Member
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    nothing has ever worked as well as CICO. Simple is always best.
  • __TMac__
    __TMac__ Posts: 1,665 Member
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    I pay attention to calories in and calories out. I pretty much eat the same way I always have, just less of it. I usually avoid simple carbs because they seem to spike my appetite (which isn't true for everyone). I exercise in ways that I enjoy, mostly endurance sports which increase my "calories out" in the short term, but increasingly adding resistance training, which should do the same in the long term.

    For overall health (but not weight loss), I also am slowly improving the nutrient density of my food intake. For me, this means paying attention to (but not freaking out about) sodium, fiber, total carb intake, and types of fat.

    SW 248
    CW 182
    GW 168
  • Ilovebaking13
    Ilovebaking13 Posts: 10 Member
    edited August 2017
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    While I agree that the basics for weight loss is calories in vs calories out, when I stalled in my weight loss journey going keto got me back to losing weight again. I feel satisfied by the meals I eat: I plan them carefully, use a scale most of the time and sometimes can't even finish my food for the day because I find what I like to be so satisfying. I have more energy than I had previously, my workouts feel better, and it's challenged my creativity with planning meals that are in the diet but enjoyable. However, it's not something I will stick with forever but I will not yoyo when I hit my goal and go off keto. I will definitely up my intake of carbs (currently 30g or less a day) and even out my diet again still favoring better fats and protein and well as whole grains, but almost two months on this diet has really changed my perception of how and what I eat. My biggest issue when diet in is still feeling hungry after or shortly after I eat, and this diet curbed those cravings. However some negatives are that it is very restrictive, no such thing as a cheat day or cheat meal, eating out is hard/almost impossible, you will cook a lot, and there is an adjustment period the does few days as you are making your body enter a ketogenic state where your body burns fat for fuel instead of carbs.

    TL;DR on a keto diet I lost weight, felt satisfied by my meals, learned how to cook better ones, my skin cleared up, and I feel i have more energy throughout the day. However it is restrictive and requires a good bit of effort and will power.
  • RaeBeeBaby
    RaeBeeBaby Posts: 4,245 Member
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    I've tried many different diets throughout my life including weight watchers (hated it), low carb (double ugh) and even silly things like the Miracle Soup diet (tasty but boring as h3ll). The only thing that has worked to keep my yo-yo-ing in check has been to count calories and increase my exercise. Eating at a deficit and moving more. That's the no-brainer solution.

    I've now maintained my current weight for nearly 2 years and that's a first for me!
  • sijomial
    sijomial Posts: 19,811 Member
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    What worked was eating the right amount of calories.
    Food was the same good food that I ate when I was slim, fat, average sized or gaining, losing or maintaining weight.

    Tried exclusion and meal replacement diets back in the dark ages (kids - that's before the internet was invented....). Temporary loss followed by regain was the result.
  • kimjschroeder
    kimjschroeder Posts: 35 Member
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    Sorry, I should have noted that besides the calories in vs calories out, what worked? I always look at calories, but is there anything else that helped increase your loss?
  • sijomial
    sijomial Posts: 19,811 Member
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    kimjschroeder wrote: »
    Sorry, I should have noted that besides the calories in vs calories out, what worked? I always look at calories, but is there anything else that helped increase your loss?

    Finding an eating style that gelled with my strengths and weaknesses - I'm very determined short term but bored by long term restriction. I followed the 5:2 diet for my weight loss phase so my weekly calorie deficit was done in two days a week with five days eating normally.
    I didn't seek to increase my loss, just sustain a sensible rate of loss.
  • JustRobby1
    JustRobby1 Posts: 674 Member
    edited August 2017
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    kimjschroeder wrote: »
    Sorry, I should have noted that besides the calories in vs calories out, what worked? I always look at calories, but is there anything else that helped increase your loss?

    I have been in the game long enough now that I have self experimented with different macros based approaches I read about here and elsewhere and none of them seemed to make any difference in terms of weight loss. My body does not seem to care much about rhetoric from fitness industry talking heads apparently. If my calories are under my TDEE it rewards me with weight loss, with almost zero discrimination as to what form those calories come in. This is what ultimately convinced me to abandon these structured or percentage based approaches to macros.

    Interestingly enough, the New England Journal of Medicine also published a study where they similarly played around with macros to study it's effects on weight loss: http://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa0804748#t=articleBackground

    To make a long story short, it does not seem to make any long term difference whatsoever. Essentially any calorie restricted diet will produce clinically significant weight loss. I think part of the problem is that we humans inherently seem to have the need to try to make things more complicated than they need to be.
  • WinoGelato
    WinoGelato Posts: 13,454 Member
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    kimjschroeder wrote: »
    Sorry, I should have noted that besides the calories in vs calories out, what worked? I always look at calories, but is there anything else that helped increase your loss?

    You shouldn't be focusing on how to increase your loss. You should be focused on finding an appropriate calorie deficit to achieve your weight loss goal, logging accurately to ensure you really are eating at that calorie target, exercising to improve overall fitness - and then finding a way of eating that you enjoy that enables you to adhere to that calorie target until you reach your goals and then transition into maintenance.

    The best diet is the one you can stick with - for many of us that means a focus on foods that provide nutrition, satiety, and enjoyment within the context of the right number of calories for our weight management goals.

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