Who lost weight without counting cals??

peggy_polenta wrote: »

i lost 126 pounds in 11 months and have maintained it for over 9 years not counting calories. i cut out all white food. no sugar, no flour, no rice, potatoes or pasta or starchy or sugary veg. (like beats or carrots) i kept my carbs to 40 grams or less per day and spread those grams over 4 meals and i also ate fat and protein between meals. i lived off fat, protein and veg. i did not count one calorie, and i can guarantee you i was not in a deficit.

So you lost weight.. but you were not in a deficit. I'm confused. How did you lose weight? So let's just say you wanted to gain weight, what would you do then?

peggy_polenta wrote: »

L1zardQueen wrote: »

karen8787 wrote: »

i lost 126 pounds in 11 months and have maintained it for over 9 years not counting calories. i cut out all white food. no sugar, no flour, no rice, potatoes or pasta or starchy or sugary veg. (like beats or carrots) i kept my carbs to 40 grams or less per day and spread those grams over 4 meals and i also ate fat and protein between meals. i lived off fat, protein and veg. i did not count one calorie, and i can guarantee you i was not in a deficit.

How can you guarantee you were not in a deficit? Inconceivable.

Your diary is set to private. Not buying it.

i don't give a flying *kitten* if you buy it or not. i know what i did. you were not there. you are not me. i do not log and what i decide to enter in my diary is none of your business.

But the question is how can you guarantee you were not in a deficit if you weren't logging? Is there a way to tell?

You're saying that your body defied the laws of physics, that despite giving your body more calories than it needed, it didn't turn that energy into stored fat, it just ceased to exist? I would think it's understandable we'd like to know how you came to that conclusion, isn't it?

peggy_polenta wrote: »

i lost 126 pounds in 11 months and have maintained it for over 9 years not counting calories. i cut out all white food. no sugar, no flour, no rice, potatoes or pasta or starchy or sugary veg. (like beats or carrots) i kept my carbs to 40 grams or less per day and spread those grams over 4 meals and i also ate fat and protein between meals. i lived off fat, protein and veg. i did not count one calorie, and i can guarantee you i was not in a deficit.

You can't guarantee that you weren't in a deficit if you didn't actually accurately track your intake. You're contradicting yourself here.

Years ago I lost weight without logging. What I did was write down what I'd been eating, see where the extra calories were coming from, and then ate only at three meals with a preplanned template for what I'd eat for breakfast (usually ate the same thing), lunch (a few options that I changed up or leftover dinner), and dinner (a serving size of meat and small portion of starch with a limited amount of added fat and lots of vegetables). I made sure I was careful with how much fat I added in general, typically ate a serving size of leaner meat, 2 eggs if having eggs, and ate a lot of vegetables and some fruit. At the time my breakfasts were usually oats with berries and some milk. I allowed myself a restaurant meal once a week (lots of good local restaurants where I am), and watched portion size.

If I had not been losing, I had a good enough sense of how much I was eating that I could have cut back easily, but looking back I actually was probably cutting cals a bit too low and lost fast.

I also increased exercise and was very consistent about it (got back into running, biking, and swimming) and then later started training for things.

During my maintenance period I did a plant-based Lent with absolutely no intention of losing weight and ate what seemed like a lot, and yet lost a good bit of weight. Despite my perception, I'm sure I was in a deficit, and I also don't think that staying plant-based would have meant I could never overeat -- it was largely because it was a change of diet and new to me.

After a variety of life issues and bout with depression I became inactive and stopped caring and gained back the weight, although not until after I'd maintained for quite a while. This time I decided that one thing that would motivate me to lose again would be to monitor my diet and calories, as that seemed interesting (keeping detailed records of my training plans and progress with running and such has always been fun and motivating for me). Thus, after losing the first bit (I estimate about 20 lb) doing the same thing I'd done before, I decided to try logging and found I really enjoyed it. I also learned from that that in doing what I thought I'd done before my cals were quite low and I could increase fat in particular, and so I did. And once again I started training again for various races.

On the whole, I find I can maintain comfortably if I am mindful about what I eat, and watch portions and -- mainly -- eat only at my 3 meals (sometimes 2 on the weekends). I do other things like making sure most meals are built around protein and veg and I go through periods where I log for a while or try some tweak to my diet to see how it works. But right now I'm logging again (for fun) since I'm interested in seeing total nutrients at Cron.