Can you change settings on myfitnesspal for low carb diet?

catherineg3 · January 2018

I wish this would let you pick "low carb" diet instead of the program assuming only calorie restriction is valid. I am annoyed that it keeps telling me at the end of the day that I have eaten too many calories & "If every day were like today... You'd weigh +10 lbs in 5 weeks."
With low carb, you don't have to do calorie restriction to lose weight. Is there any way to change the settings?

misskitty2018 · January 2018

hi- have you tried this: go to your home page then go to goals then you'll see daily nutrition goals..edit this. It doesn't let you actually put in a carb limit that you want but it let's you put the percentage. Then you can judge this by going back to your food diary look up page and it breaks you food down by the grams. Hope I explained it right.

kpk54 · January 2018

catherineg3 wrote: »

With low carb, you don't have to do calorie restriction to lose weight.

I'm interested in hearing about not restricting calories. I've lost my excess 63 pounds but had to eat less than I burned in order to do that. I've been maintaining for 4 years but still have to remain around a certain number of calories over the long term to not gain weight.

The closest idea I can come up with to "not restricting calories" is that with keto or low carb sometimes hunger is suppressed so people don't "feel" as calorie restricted. I know that when I upped my fats in 2016, maintenance became easier but I still have to eat only "X" in order to not gain.

I believe both concepts were discussed/debated with you in another thread in another forum? Forgive me if I have the wrong person.

You don't have to hit that "complete diary" tab. Your data will remain. The only thing that happens is it does not "announce" to your newsfeed. Not announcing to the newsfeed can also be changed in settings if for some reason someday you might be curious about the gain/loss projection and want to check it but not have it broadcast to your Feed. I've not announced completion of my diary to my newsfeed for 3 or 4 years and like you, the projections are of little interest to me.

The best I've been able to come up with so far as "picking" low carb in regards to my food diary is to adjust my macros (in Goals) to the %s closest to the grams I desire to eat per macro. The best you can do in the MFP free version is 5% increments. There is also a script that can be installed to show "net carbs" if that is of interest. It can be found in the "stickies" by clicking on "Low Carb Daily Forum....LCD Group" at the top of the page. Lots of good information there.

kwalton65 · February 2018

Of course you have to have an overall calorie deficit to lose weight. With low carb though a lot of people’s appetite goes down and many days they eat less and don’t realize it. Anyone that says you can eat more calories then you expend over time and lose weight doesn’t understand what they are saying. They don’t mean to be wrong.

As far as my fitness pal, I stack carbs and fiber next to each other on my top nutrients page to easily subtract and keep tract of my carb intake during the day.

FlyingMolly · February 2018

Um...you actually do still need a calorie deficit to lose weight. So that’s going to be an issue here.

camtosh · February 2018

One way to avoid the finger-shaking MFP messages is to not click the green Complete this Entry button! I never do anymore, but still log for my own records though.

chinatowninchina · February 2018

or just ignore it! I complete my entries and sometimes it tells me I will be pounds and pounds heavier and then next day pounds lighter and then I'll possibly die if i don't eat enough!

anubis609 · February 2018

catherineg3 wrote: »

I wish this would let you pick "low carb" diet instead of the program assuming only calorie restriction is valid. I am annoyed that it keeps telling me at the end of the day that I have eaten too many calories & "If every day were like today... You'd weigh +10 lbs in 5 weeks."
With low carb, you don't have to do calorie restriction to lose weight. Is there any way to change the settings?

https://instagram.com/p/BepyiMyhrJo/embed/

catherineg3 · February 2018

ok. so thanks for the advice. I've adjusted % on macros to closer to my targets and that should help focus my goals a little better. I must say that I expected people on a "low-carb" forum to be a little more informed about how low carb diets work. All calories are NOT equal. the only way to lose on the traditional low fat (high carb) diet IS to restrict calories, but that is not true for Low Carb High Fat or Keto diet. it's actually a little more complicated than just calories.

Insulin is what is making you fat, telling your body "oh no blood sugar level is too high, convert excess glucose in your blood to fat storage". and this happens every time you eat a lot of carbs, raise your blood sugar, and release more insulin, you store more fat. but, here's the catch, now your blood sugar is lower, and your body releases Ghrelin, which says "hey I'm hungry I need more food", so... you eat more, which again gets stored as fat. once you stop dumping refined carbs into your system, your insulin levels go down and your body stops trying to store all available glucose in your blood as fat, and in fact says hey, it's ok to finally release some of that stored fat for energy. and without carbs producing a rollercoaster of insulin and Ghrelin, your body is not telling you it's "starved" and to eat constantly, so total on low carb calories tend to be lower without struggle or counting.

If you do not eat many carbs (most sites say < 50g per day), your body will burn fat for fuel. Your body breaks down fat into fatty acids and glycerol, which enter the liver where the glycerol undergoes a process called gluconeogenesis, which converts it into sugar, while the fatty acids are converted into ketone bodies during a process called ketogenesis. The body will burn dietary fat and also now that insulin levels are lower, it can release your own excess fat stores for fuel, and in this manner, you will lose weight.

I found some great resources on this forum, there is a long list of references here, but I have only looked at a few of them so far: http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10348421/recommended-videos-movies-podcasts-and-clips#latest
I really enjoyed this video https://www.youtube.com/watch?t=23&v=da1vvigy5tQ
I've been watching a lot of the interviews that Dr Andreas Eenfeldt has done with various experts on youtube. here's his website: https://www.dietdoctor.com/low-carb/how-it-works
And my other favorite is the bulletproof podcast. he has videos, but I usually just let the sound play in the background while I'm working. https://blog.bulletproof.com/category/podcasts/

kirkor · February 2018

catherineg3 wrote: »

so total on low carb calories tend to be lower without struggle or counting

Ya, we know:

kwalton65 wrote: »

With low carb though a lot of people’s appetite goes down and many days they eat less and don’t realize it.

FIT_Goat · February 2018

catherineg3 wrote: »

I must say that I expected people on a "low-carb" forum to be a little more informed about how low carb diets work. All calories are NOT equal. the only way to lose on the traditional low fat (high carb) diet IS to restrict calories, but that is not true for Low Carb High Fat or Keto diet. it's actually a little more complicated than just calories.

Don't worry, the anti-calorie restriction people are out there. I compiled the Doesn't Counting Calories Count? thread, a long time ago, to try and address that very point. The vast majority of old-school low-carb plans do not include calorie counting or restriction. We're out here. We don't say a whole lot. There isn't a lot to discuss when it comes to "not" doing something. It's like one of the other groups that I run, it's very quiet because it's about not eating certain things (and not seeking replacement foods for them either).

You are going to have to accept that there will be a large cadre of "pro-calorie counting" folks here, as very few people who don't see the value in it end up on MFP. At its core, MFP is a calorie counting website/app. So, the people who are on it, and eventually end up in this group, are the same ones who value calorie counting. There are other places out there where the amount of anti-counting low-carbers is higher. We're just outnumbered here. We still exist!

Edit: I realized in that thread, I talked about how I started with charts and graphs that tracked everything. I mentioned how obsessed I was with the data. At the time, there was no search function and I couldn't locate them. But, that is the thread that I linked to in the recent thread about hitting 50k members. Weird coincidence.

Here is the quote listing some old-school low-carb diets and their anti-calorie counting stance

FIT_Goat wrote: »

Let's take a look at low-carb plans/gurus and see how they align with calorie counting:
William Banting: No counting calories {often considered the original low-carb diet, before calories were understood or known for most foods}

Robert Atkins: No counting calories {1. Don’t count calories}

Gary Taubes: No counting calories {see any of his books}

Jeff Volek: No counting calories {"I’ve effortlessly maintained my weight over 20 years without counting, I never count calories."}

Peter Attia: No counting calories {“Should I be counting calories?” In a word, no.}

Jonathan Bailor: No counting calories {see video in original post or his book}

Typical ketogenic diet: No counting calories {Most people do not need to count calories on that diet, because they naturally start consuming a healthy amount of calories.}

I could probably go on, but what's the point. The basic fact is that traditionally, low carb diets do not require counting calories. Many of them advise against it. While you can certainly count calories (if that's your thing), it is not part of most traditional low carb diets.

While, I accept that many people will have to count (due to whatever behavioral or biological conditions which low-carb doesn't correct), that doesn't mean counting calories should be the default condition or advice around here.

solska · February 2018

catherineg3 wrote: »

ok. so thanks for the advice. I've adjusted % on macros to closer to my targets and that should help focus my goals a little better. I must say that I expected people on a "low-carb" forum to be a little more informed about how low carb diets work. All calories are NOT equal. the only way to lose on the traditional low fat (high carb) diet IS to restrict calories, but that is not true for Low Carb High Fat or Keto diet. it's actually a little more complicated than just calories.

Insulin is what is making you fat, telling your body "oh no blood sugar level is too high, convert excess glucose in your blood to fat storage". and this happens every time you eat a lot of carbs, raise your blood sugar, and release more insulin, you store more fat. but, here's the catch, now your blood sugar is lower, and your body releases Ghrelin, which says "hey I'm hungry I need more food", so... you eat more, which again gets stored as fat. once you stop dumping refined carbs into your system, your insulin levels go down and your body stops trying to store all available glucose in your blood as fat, and in fact says hey, it's ok to finally release some of that stored fat for energy. and without carbs producing a rollercoaster of insulin and Ghrelin, your body is not telling you it's "starved" and to eat constantly, so total on low carb calories tend to be lower without struggle or counting.

If you do not eat many carbs (most sites say < 50g per day), your body will burn fat for fuel. Your body breaks down fat into fatty acids and glycerol, which enter the liver where the glycerol undergoes a process called gluconeogenesis, which converts it into sugar, while the fatty acids are converted into ketone bodies during a process called ketogenesis. The body will burn dietary fat and also now that insulin levels are lower, it can release your own excess fat stores for fuel, and in this manner, you will lose weight.

I found some great resources on this forum, there is a long list of references here, but I have only looked at a few of them so far: http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10348421/recommended-videos-movies-podcasts-and-clips#latest
I really enjoyed this video https://www.youtube.com/watch?t=23&v=da1vvigy5tQ
I've been watching a lot of the interviews that Dr Andreas Eenfeldt has done with various experts on youtube. here's his website: https://www.dietdoctor.com/low-carb/how-it-works
And my other favorite is the bulletproof podcast. he has videos, but I usually just let the sound play in the background while I'm working. https://blog.bulletproof.com/category/podcasts/

this to me is the main reason for being on a low carb diet rather than anything else that depends eventually on calorie restriction which in the long term doesn't work for most folks. i also benefited from the bp podcasts.
i find i do better if i don't put myself in a i'm dieting and watching every morsel of food frame of mind, i actually put a lot of weight on in nov and dec when i was trying to get back to dieting and immediately the idea of imminent deprivation caused me to eat more than i normally would of all the unhealthy stuff. obviously i'm still depriving myself of certain foods but not eating enough. it's very different. and it works because cravings for that stuff subsides. i know i won't lose weight if i eat a lot. that's still different than focusing on calories but eventually really eating to satiety. if there was an easier way to track the number of net carbs perhaps i would track the food, but right now trying to log food just adds too much stress for me. i haven't delved into this a lot and i don't have the paid version but if there is a way to log just net carbs without too much work i would like to know.

kirkor · February 2018

@FIT_Goat I know your stance on counting calories, but do you also think that one can consistently be in a calorie surplus and lose weight as long as that surplus is low carb?

FIT_Goat · February 2018

kirkor wrote: »

@FIT_Goat I know your stance on counting calories, but do you also think that one can consistently be in a calorie surplus and lose weight as long as that surplus is low carb?

I don't think you can consistently be in a calorie surplus [eating below your body's carb limit], if you have excess body fat to lose. I have tried, both from a weight stable point and when overweight, to consistently overeat. The "consistently" part is where it fails. A day or two, yeah, but day after day it becomes harder and harder to eat more than your body asks for. Eventually, I found myself intentionally trying to trick my appetite control by increasing artificial sweeteners, cheese, nuts, and other highly palatable foods. Spoiler: I can do it with nuts and artificial sweeteners, especially nut-flours and keto-treats like cakes, cookies, etc.

It is like I said in response to the first video in that linked thread. You could probably gain fat eating 10k calories worth of butter a day, but you wouldn't want to. Low-carb does a very good job of regulating hormones and appetite so that your desires match the caloric needs of the body while achieving balance of energy (fat) stores to a point that makes sense for overall health.

I also think that surplus and deficit are only meaningful in a postliminary statement and not preliminary one. That is, I can state that I was eating in a surplus, after the fact, as evidenced by weight gain. I can, likewise, state that I was eating in a deficit after losing weight. Trying to declare that you're eating in a surplus (or will be eating in a surplus), is also to declare that you know your exact calorie needs and expenditure. You are presuming the results.

You might be weight stable at 2700 calories a day. So you attempt to eat at a surplus, and consume 3000 calories a day. If you find that you are still weight stable, then you weren't eating at a surplus. Your body was burning those extra calories.

If we think of surplus and deficit as statements describing the intake that results in gain or loss, respectively, then it makes no sense to say someone ate in a surplus and lost weight. The weight loss means the actual intake was a deficit compared to actual energy expenditure.

FIT_Goat · February 2018

solska wrote: »

i haven't delved into this a lot and i don't have the paid version but if there is a way to log just net carbs without too much work i would like to know.

We did have a browser extension (only worked on your computer and not the phone app) that hid calories and that information from you when you logged. So, you could see just the carbs and fiber (for net carbs). It was part of the original "Ad Libitum April" where a bunch of people decided to try a month without restricting intake and see if they could get by without calorie counting. They still wanted/needed to keep track of carbs, so we had the extension to make it a little easier for them to not consciously (or subconsciously) stop eating because of total calories.

nvmomketo · February 2018

OP, you might like Feltham's 5000kcal challenges that he did in Smash the Fat blogs. He ate 5000 kcal of a:

low carb diet
http://live.smashthefat.com/why-i-did-get-fat/

and a higher carb diet
http://live.smashthefat.com/why-i-didnt-get-fat/

and a vegan diet
http://live.smashthefat.com/why-i-got-a-bit-fat/

All had fairly different results.

I understand that to lose weight one must consume fewer calories than you use. CI<CO but some diets seem to affect CO in some people so weight loss becomes easier. If CO is increased, I can eat more and still lose weight... and I do lose slightly faster than expected when I take carbs very low.

Jason Whittrock did a 4000kcal 21-day challenge about a year ago. His videos were entertaining and along the same lines.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MRop_ltYUlk

FIT_Goat · February 2018

Watching that video playlist right now. Second video in and he is already talking about how macadamia nuts help him reach the calorie goal. He's not super-thrilled with this eating, already. He started out at an all-time low and with really low body fat. So, I am wondering how this will work out. I feel like he is going to find weight gain a bit easier than someone who is fat trying the same thing. My body strongly resisted the over-feeding because it didn't need any fat. His might feel like some more fat would be good.

Don't spoil it for me. Going to watch it.

Edit: Start of day 4... appetite 0 out of 100. He says that he just doesn't want food and his body is telling him to just skip eating and go burn off the fat. He's powering through though. It gets even harder. LOL, this is going to be fun.

FIT_Goat · February 2018

Day 8 of 4,000 calories a day (double his normal amount) and he's lost weight (down 1.2 pounds). Sure, it's within water-weight variations. But, now he's below his previous lowest scale weight.

He still is struggling with the eating. Appetite still a zero. He doesn't want to eat. He's doing a tone of liquid calories and straight fat. That's probably something. I like how much he is complaining about the amount he has to eat. I know the struggle.

FIT_Goat · February 2018

Oh my, that ending. I really wish he had averaged 150g of protein and not 100g. I feel like the results would have been "slightly" different. I still think the end result would have been about the same, but there is one result from his experiment that I didn't like. He glossed over it, but it was about absolute lean mass.

Edit: OMG... watching a reaction video and one of the first things is they explain that it would work for him but not for them or most other people. I see this all the time. "Well, it works for you but it would never work for me." How deep denial runs.

solska · February 2018

FIT_Goat wrote: »

solska wrote: »

i haven't delved into this a lot and i don't have the paid version but if there is a way to log just net carbs without too much work i would like to know.

We did have a browser extension (only worked on your computer and not the phone app) that hid calories and that information from you when you logged. So, you could see just the carbs and fiber (for net carbs). It was part of the original "Ad Libitum April" where a bunch of people decided to try a month without restricting intake and see if they could get by without calorie counting. They still wanted/needed to keep track of carbs, so we had the extension to make it a little easier for them to not consciously (or subconsciously) stop eating because of total calories.

is this still available? i can't locate it.

FIT_Goat · February 2018

solska wrote: »

FIT_Goat wrote: »

solska wrote: »

i haven't delved into this a lot and i don't have the paid version but if there is a way to log just net carbs without too much work i would like to know.

We did have a browser extension (only worked on your computer and not the phone app) that hid calories and that information from you when you logged. So, you could see just the carbs and fiber (for net carbs). It was part of the original "Ad Libitum April" where a bunch of people decided to try a month without restricting intake and see if they could get by without calorie counting. They still wanted/needed to keep track of carbs, so we had the extension to make it a little easier for them to not consciously (or subconsciously) stop eating because of total calories.

is this still available? i can't locate it.

This was the last thing we had working. I tried it just now, in Firefox, and it wasn't working. Might want to try it yourself and play around. The js doesn't work anymore.

https://github.com/LowCarberDaily/stylish-calorie-hider

FIT_Goat · February 2018

@-moz-document domain("myfitnesspal.com") {
    .energy-remaining-number, .energy-calculation {
        display: none !important;
    }
    .user-info {
        width: 250px !important;
    }
    .user-info class:col-2 {
        width: 120px !important;
        display: inline-block !important;
    }
    td:nth-child(2) {
        display: none
    }
    .user-weight-checkin-container {
        width: 120px !important;
        display: inline-block !important;
        vertical-align: top !important;
        padding-left: 10px !important;
    }
    .summary-info {
        width: 300px !important;
    }
}

I got it working by adding

    td:nth-child(2) {
        display: none
    }

to the original script on the github. It might actually be all you need to do. But, I haven't played around with making it simpler.

FIT_Goat · February 2018

This is a very cut-down, very simple, stylish sheet that seems to work on firefox

First, install Stylish.
Second, click on the new icon.
Third, click on the three dots,
Fourth, select "Create new style"
Fifth, copy and paste the code below into the style box.

@-moz-document url-prefix("http://www.myfitnesspal.com/food/diary"), url-prefix("https://www.myfitnesspal.com/food/diary"){
    td:nth-child(2) {
        display: none
    }
}

Sixth, give it a name and click save.

That should be it. Google chrome should be a similar process (according to what I have read)... except you really only need the 3 lines starting with td:nth-child(2) {... and it will ask what site it applies for when it is set up.

Here is what it looks like for me.

kpk54 · February 2018

That doesn't look any different than the standard screen. Looks like mine so far as macros/micros. Carbs and fiber both show up if you choose them in settings even without installing the script.

Examples I've seen elsewhere with a script installed have a colum titled "Net Carbs".

It is really unnecessary. Just select both carbs and fiber in settings and mentally subtract. <Shrug.>

skinnyjingbb · February 2018

I think it is good to tell people who starting Keto to track calorie intake not just carb. It is very easy to eat more calorie than you think with fat. Not everyone has a 2000+ calorie goal, for a short female like me tracking overall intake is important. Also, people became fat because they no longer know when to stop eating, even though cutting out carb reduce your appetite naturally, some people still over eat due to other reason like stress. I had seen people saying Keto don't work and they even gained weight because they did not track. I much prefer people all starting Keto tracking very carefully and they can stop tracking once they are more knowledge about their food and their body.

FIT_Goat · February 2018

kpk54 wrote: »

That doesn't look any different than the standard screen. Looks like mine so far as macros/micros. Carbs and fiber both show up if you choose them in settings even without installing the script.

Examples I've seen elsewhere with a script installed have a colum titled "Net Carbs".

It is really unnecessary. Just select both carbs and fiber in settings and mentally subtract. <Shrug.>

It has nothing to do with carb or fiber. No calories shown.

FIT_Goat · February 2018

skinnyjingbb wrote: »

I think it is good to tell people who starting Keto to track calorie intake not just carb. It is very easy to eat more calorie than you think with fat. Not everyone has a 2000+ calorie goal, for a short female like me tracking overall intake is important. Also, people became fat because they no longer know when to stop eating, even though cutting out carb reduce your appetite naturally, some people still over eat due to other reason like stress. I had seen people saying Keto don't work and they even gained weight because they did not track. I much prefer people all starting Keto tracking very carefully and they can stop tracking once they are more knowledge about their food and their body.

I take the other route, as I have posted many times in the past, and I strongly urge people to not calorie count/restrict during the keto adaptation phase. They could always add counting later, but it is harder to go from counting to not counting than the other way. Once you have it in your head that you need to count, it is a hard beast to get out.

I have heard all the arguments against this one. Many years ago, we even did an ad libitum challenge to address the many different concerns people had (age, gender, size, etc.) and most people were successful with it.

All that said, if you think calorie counting is necessary or is important to you, keep doing it. It doesn't hurt any one else. We all get to pick out own path.

kpk54 · February 2018

FIT_Goat wrote: »

kpk54 wrote: »

That doesn't look any different than the standard screen. Looks like mine so far as macros/micros. Carbs and fiber both show up if you choose them in settings even without installing the script.

Examples I've seen elsewhere with a script installed have a colum titled "Net Carbs".

It is really unnecessary. Just select both carbs and fiber in settings and mentally subtract. <Shrug.>

It has nothing to do with carb or fiber. No calories shown.

Ah, Gotcha! Thanks. Guess that means that while I talk calories, I must watch macros more. Or at least know that in the end, one equals the other if calculated out. Didn't even notice calories weren't there.

canadjineh · February 2018

LOL, that link is too confusing.... I just ignored the calories and watched the carb g and protein g when I logged/'counted'.

catherineg3 · February 2018

@nvmomketo nice links and videos. I've seen a couple other people doing self-experimentation like that with high calorie and low carb with similar results.

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Can you change settings on myfitnesspal for low carb diet?

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