Sunny_Bunny_ wrote: »

You may need to lower your fat and concentrate more on protein so that you can eat more volume with less calories.
I’m your height and started at exactly that same weight and 1200 was right for me. I’m also pretty inactive averaging only about 6000-7000 steps a day with no purposeful exercise.

I must be a sloth if 6-7000 steps a day is pretty inactive... I fly a computer all day and most weekdays get between 2-3 steps.

You can’t really do low carb and low fat. That pretty much leaves you with tuna and chicken breast. Your body needs some fat for proper hormone function but you don’t need to eat sticks of butter or drink heavy cream or basically eat fat bombs like many people think. Just eat meat and non starchy veggies (if you want) and cook with normal amounts of healthy fats like butter, olive oil, coconut oil, avocado oil, ghee, tallow, duck fat.... basically natural fats. Not industrial ones.

I’ve been low carb since 2016. My biggest advice is to not over think it (with the counting and math) or over “substitute”. You don’t need to perform kitchen voodoo with crazy hard to find ingredients.... you don’t need a Masters in Mathmatics either. I began my journey at 5’4” and around 145. I started by just eating healthy fats (salmon, avocado, real cheese, fatty whole meats, almonds, eggs) and low carb veggies. Eat until your are full and satisfied and stop. Sip lemon water with a little bit of salt throughout the day, and make sure you are eating your green veggies for magnesium and potassium. That’s it.

A simple day would look like this:
B: two eggs and two bacon with coffee
L: chicken salad inside bell pepper
Snack: cheese and almonds
Dinner: ribeye and broccoli

Another day:
B:Omelette with peppers onions and cheese
Coffee with 1 Tbls cream
L: left over ribeye on spring greens with avocado and cheese and a little tomato
Snack: almond butter and celery
Dinner: grilled salmon or chicken thighs with roasted cauliflower, brussle sprouts, onion, and radishes.

Don’t worry about your calories in the beginning. Just don’t over eat the dairy during snacks and keep your portions reasonable. Eat fat until you are full and satisfied. As you journey on, you may come to a stall (it is only a stall if it lasts 3 months with no change. One or two days /weeks doesn’t count). If you end up in a true stall, then you need to re evaluate your macros and see if there is anything you are eating that is causing it.

No problem! Another key thing to realize when you are actually hungry and when your body is just carb craving. Right now I’m feeling hunger, but I’m on day two of getting back into Ketosis and I’m craving hard core. I keep getting hunger pains that go in waves - hint: real hunger doesn’t come an go. I also know that I had a 600 calorie lunch just 1 hour ago full of steak, cheese, oil dressing, and greens. Thus I know this hunger is likely more to do with the hormone roller coaster of carb withdrawal.

Sunny_Bunny_ wrote: »

psuLemon wrote: »

Sunny_Bunny_ wrote: »

siouxsee wrote: »

Thankyou, in your opinion is the low carb diet a better way to go than a low fat one then?

In my opinion it is because fat is an essential nutrient where carbs aren’t. To me, if you’re going to cut something drastaically, I would cut what’s not necessary in the first place.

Even on a low fat diet, its pretty easy to get enough to surpass the essential levels, which is like 11 - 20g. Given equal calories there isn't going to make a difference in terms of fat loss.

@siouxsee there isn't a right answer. You will have to see what keeps you satiated and enjoy the most. You can start with low carb, but if you are always hungry or you find it unsustainable, than start to replace fats with carbs. Keep in mind there is a huge middle ground between low carb and low fat. The only thing i consistently recommend is higher protein and adequate fiber.

I’ve always heard minimal fat needed is more like 50g.
Anyway, that’s not even what my point was.
There are no essential carbohydrates but there is essential fat. Just makes sense to me if I am cutting one drastically to cut what’s not essential. That was my only point.

Its certainly not 50g. Its like 11g of linoliec acids but it requires you to consume 20g or a bit more to get the adequate profile of fatty acids. Regardless, its a nebulous argument. Just because something isn't essential, doesn't mean its not optimal for health, performance or satiety. The fact of the matter, there are huge middle ground between low fat and low carb. And the answer isn't just do one or another. Its much better to play with macros to see what works for the individual. Why? Because my or your success will not be their success. Personally, I had a ton of success with a low fat/high protein diet. Its how i lost my first 50lbs a decade ago. Now i am also having great success with keto with vanity weight. I am down another 12 lbs from where i started.

Overall, the OP can or should start where they think they will be the most consistent. If they tend to favor fats, then cut carbs. If the OP prefers carbs, cut fat. Or if they don't have a preference, than start in the middle and adjust from there.

If anything, the best thing I would recommend is focus on whole foods, consume adequate protein and fiber. And while fiber isn't necessary to life, there are decades of studies to suggest it's benefits and there is very little data to suggest consuming none or very little to be healthy.