The amazing results of watching my carbs...

...enter my mouth.

For most of the 2 years I have been losing weight I have either been eating moderate or lowish carb. This is because it was easier for me to manage my reactive hypoglycemia.

However, lately I have added a substantial amount of activity and to better support the amount of calorie burn I am eating higher carbs... MUCH higher. During most of my moderate phase I have eaten around 80-120g carbs. I have gone through periods of lower not because I needed to just because it seems to happen during warmer months. During my lower carb period I would eat around 40-60g carbs. I am now eating an average of 400g of carbs a day.

That is my average. In the last 7 days one of my days was almost 600g.


So the results?

Today I saw a weight on the scale I have not experienced since I was a teen right before I was legal to vote.

Throughout my over 200 pounds of weight loss I have eaten different ways, including a brief keto experiment, and the results always come out to a predictable 3500ish calories per pound.

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Replies

  • psychod787
    psychod787 Posts: 4,088 Member
    Dont you know? Carbs are the devil!👿
    🤣
  • deannalfisher
    deannalfisher Posts: 5,600 Member
    but but carbz are ebil!
  • cupcakesandproteinshakes
    cupcakesandproteinshakes Posts: 1,091 Member
    Love me some carbs.
  • yirara
    yirara Posts: 9,329 Member
    but but carbz are ebil!

    Do not blaspheme!
  • springlering62
    springlering62 Posts: 7,344 Member
    Interesting. My carbs run from mid 200’s to mid 400’s, and I’m constantly frustrated because I can’t meet the % recommended by the dietician.

    It’s so hard to balance macros as suggested, yet stay within calories, so I focus on protein first (for satiation), then carbs. Unfortunately, fats are always half or less of the recommendation.

    It always bothers my OCD perfectionist side to not meet the % goals, plus there’s the nagging worry I’m doing it all wrong and someday my arm will fall off or something.
  • Slowfaster
    Slowfaster Posts: 185 Member
    NovusDies wrote: »
    ...enter my mouth.

    For most of the 2 years I have been losing weight I have either been eating moderate or lowish carb. This is because it was easier for me to manage my reactive hypoglycemia.

    However, lately I have added a substantial amount of activity and to better support the amount of calorie burn I am eating higher carbs... MUCH higher. During most of my moderate phase I have eaten around 80-120g carbs. I have gone through periods of lower not because I needed to just because it seems to happen during warmer months. During my lower carb period I would eat around 40-60g carbs. I am now eating an average of 400g of carbs a day.

    That is my average. In the last 7 days one of my days was almost 600g.


    So the results?

    Today I saw a weight on the scale I have not experienced since I was a teen right before I was legal to vote.

    Throughout my over 200 pounds of weight loss I have eaten different ways, including a brief keto experiment, and the results always come out to a predictable 3500ish calories per pound.

    I'm sorry, I don't understand the point. You don't say how many calories you were eating or how much weight you lost at any given time.

    Congratulations for losing 200 pounds, I'm just curious if you ate the same number of calories on both low-carb and high-carb, but lost more per-week on one method with calories and exercise the same?
  • gallicinvasion
    gallicinvasion Posts: 1,015 Member
    I love carbs! Fats are my favorite, but carbs are a close second.
  • cmriverside
    cmriverside Posts: 33,907 Member
    edited April 2020
    MFP just recently added the colored macro pie chart to the web version. I'm pretty good at getting within 5% of my macros, but then I've been working at this for 13 years now. It's kind of fun to see that colored chart.

    In the beginning I was pretty much living on carbs and trying to get more protein was a difficult thing for me. Fat has never been a problem, when I was in weight loss mode I had my fats set at 45%-50%.

    400g a day! I do that when I have an oops at the grocery store and buy cookies.

    I think I need cookies.

  • tuckerrj
    tuckerrj Posts: 1,453 Member
    Strange thing (for me) is, if I focus on JUST my calorie and protein count, the rest of my macros seem to fall into place. Seems I instinctively (?) eat a proportional amount of carbs, fats, sugars, etc. the helped me lose, and later maintain my weight.
  • deannalfisher
    deannalfisher Posts: 5,600 Member
    my goal is +/- 10g carbs on my daily goal and +/- 5g fat - but i've been doing this for several years

    right now my carbs are high of about 390 and a low of 290 - but i'm been in the 4-500 range while training for races; i also use a TDEE calculator so don't eat back exercise calories until I go over 75min cardio
  • mmapags
    mmapags Posts: 8,937 Member
    tuckerrj wrote: »
    Strange thing (for me) is, if I focus on JUST my calorie and protein count, the rest of my macros seem to fall into place. Seems I instinctively (?) eat a proportional amount of carbs, fats, sugars, etc. the helped me lose, and later maintain my weight.

    This is the same for me. After tracking for a long time, I realized that I am pretty much never under my fats target. If I hit cals and protein, the rest just falls into place. The range for carbs can be pretty broad and, as long as these are not foods that are trigger foods or ones that people have difficulty moderating, it really doesn't matter how much if the 2 primary targets are being hit.

    I tend to be between 100 and 150 grams of carbs without really trying. Sometimes more, occasionally less. This is just the way I intuitively prefer to eat, focusing on protein and high fiber carbs and letting the rest take care of itself. It just is not that critical as long as calories and protein are good.
  • NovusDies
    NovusDies Posts: 8,940 Member
    mmapags wrote: »
    tuckerrj wrote: »
    Strange thing (for me) is, if I focus on JUST my calorie and protein count, the rest of my macros seem to fall into place. Seems I instinctively (?) eat a proportional amount of carbs, fats, sugars, etc. the helped me lose, and later maintain my weight.

    This is the same for me. After tracking for a long time, I realized that I am pretty much never under my fats target. If I hit cals and protein, the rest just falls into place. The range for carbs can be pretty broad and, as long as these are not foods that are trigger foods or ones that people have difficulty moderating, it really doesn't matter how much if the 2 primary targets are being hit.

    I tend to be between 100 and 150 grams of carbs without really trying. Sometimes more, occasionally less. This is just the way I intuitively prefer to eat, focusing on protein and high fiber carbs and letting the rest take care of itself. It just is not that critical as long as calories and protein are good.

    At my current calorie level it was either way overload on protein which is what I was doing at first or go higher on carbs. My fat has gone higher but I do not find it as satiating to let it take the lead on filling the calorie gap. I just have to be more careful eating this way whereas before I never really had to consider blood sugar that often.
  • mmapags
    mmapags Posts: 8,937 Member
    NovusDies wrote: »
    mmapags wrote: »
    tuckerrj wrote: »
    Strange thing (for me) is, if I focus on JUST my calorie and protein count, the rest of my macros seem to fall into place. Seems I instinctively (?) eat a proportional amount of carbs, fats, sugars, etc. the helped me lose, and later maintain my weight.

    This is the same for me. After tracking for a long time, I realized that I am pretty much never under my fats target. If I hit cals and protein, the rest just falls into place. The range for carbs can be pretty broad and, as long as these are not foods that are trigger foods or ones that people have difficulty moderating, it really doesn't matter how much if the 2 primary targets are being hit.

    I tend to be between 100 and 150 grams of carbs without really trying. Sometimes more, occasionally less. This is just the way I intuitively prefer to eat, focusing on protein and high fiber carbs and letting the rest take care of itself. It just is not that critical as long as calories and protein are good.

    At my current calorie level it was either way overload on protein which is what I was doing at first or go higher on carbs. My fat has gone higher but I do not find it as satiating to let it take the lead on filling the calorie gap. I just have to be more careful eating this way whereas before I never really had to consider blood sugar that often.

    Yes, that makes total sense. I don't typically have a lot of extra calories. But if I do, I'll usually up carbs and maybe allow myself more sweets, although I don't have much of sweet tooth.

    With the additional exercise, is blood sugar a concern? What kind of exercise is it? I'm guessing the exercise is burning off some of that additional blood sugar, yes?