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Low calorie or low carb what really works?
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While I've never posted here in all the time I've used MFP, I felt that I had to jump in, here. I started a Keto diet 10 days ago. It's easy, but expect to cook your own food, and make those WHOLE foods! Meals can be so simple...today I had a grilled center-cut pork chop and sauteed spinach. Grilled chicken wings are DIVINE and I find it easy to stay, "low carb". The one drawback is that while everything I eat now is delicious, my appetite has diminished to the point that I'm struggling to make my daily minimum. As a result, I've lost 8 lbs in ten days. My waistline has been the most dramatic change, although I typically lose weight from the top down. I do need to add that as it's springtime in southwest Mississippi, I have been working outside nearly every day, sometimes logging 19,000 steps a day. I'm probably not typical, but I feel fantastic with more energy than I know what to do with!
But to answer your question, yes, CI/CO is the trick, however a low-carb diet will cause your appetite to decrease and while you'll eat healthier, you may struggle to take in enough calories. I've added multi-vitamins and drink only water or lemon-ginger tea. The first couple of days saw a few light cravings, but those passed after the first week. Hey, I can do ANYTHING for a week!
I'd like to lose about 10 more lbs and once I accomplish that, re-introduce a few old favorites back into my diet such as a glass of wine or slice of bread. Even still, Keto will always be a part of my life, maybe a week out of every month just to make sure I don't go off the deep end.
Good luck, you!
But what is a whole food? A whole loaf of bread? A whole pumpkin? A whole head of lettuce? If I did that diet, I'd still be gaining weight!
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While I've never posted here in all the time I've used MFP, I felt that I had to jump in, here. I started a Keto diet 10 days ago. It's easy, but expect to cook your own food, and make those WHOLE foods! Meals can be so simple...today I had a grilled center-cut pork chop and sauteed spinach. Grilled chicken wings are DIVINE and I find it easy to stay, "low carb". The one drawback is that while everything I eat now is delicious, my appetite has diminished to the point that I'm struggling to make my daily minimum. As a result, I've lost 8 lbs in ten days. My waistline has been the most dramatic change, although I typically lose weight from the top down. I do need to add that as it's springtime in southwest Mississippi, I have been working outside nearly every day, sometimes logging 19,000 steps a day. I'm probably not typical, but I feel fantastic with more energy than I know what to do with!
But to answer your question, yes, CI/CO is the trick, however a low-carb diet will cause your appetite to decrease and while you'll eat healthier, you may struggle to take in enough calories. I've added multi-vitamins and drink only water or lemon-ginger tea. The first couple of days saw a few light cravings, but those passed after the first week. Hey, I can do ANYTHING for a week!
I'd like to lose about 10 more lbs and once I accomplish that, re-introduce a few old favorites back into my diet such as a glass of wine or slice of bread. Even still, Keto will always be a part of my life, maybe a week out of every month just to make sure I don't go off the deep end.
Good luck, you!
But what is a whole food? A whole loaf of bread? A whole pumpkin? A whole head of lettuce? If I did that diet, I'd still be gaining weight!
Actually bread would fall under nova class 3. So, it's not exactly a "whole" food. If you ate a whole pumpkin with a whole head of lettuce, doubtful you would gain much body fat. Might gain weight and a little stomach discomfort though. I suggest to the poster that a whole foods low carb diet can, in many people, reduce appetite. So can a whole foods high carb vegan diet. Or a whole foods paleo...insert "diet" here. It's not magic.... we have seen in multiple studies, that a more whole foods based diet people generally spontaneously eat less... why? The mechanisms are still being worked out. Trouble I see with these diets are that the practitioners never learn how to flex when they need to.1 -
While I've never posted here in all the time I've used MFP, I felt that I had to jump in, here. I started a Keto diet 10 days ago. It's easy, but expect to cook your own food, and make those WHOLE foods! Meals can be so simple...today I had a grilled center-cut pork chop and sauteed spinach. Grilled chicken wings are DIVINE and I find it easy to stay, "low carb". The one drawback is that while everything I eat now is delicious, my appetite has diminished to the point that I'm struggling to make my daily minimum. As a result, I've lost 8 lbs in ten days. My waistline has been the most dramatic change, although I typically lose weight from the top down. I do need to add that as it's springtime in southwest Mississippi, I have been working outside nearly every day, sometimes logging 19,000 steps a day. I'm probably not typical, but I feel fantastic with more energy than I know what to do with!
But to answer your question, yes, CI/CO is the trick, however a low-carb diet will cause your appetite to decrease and while you'll eat healthier, you may struggle to take in enough calories. I've added multi-vitamins and drink only water or lemon-ginger tea. The first couple of days saw a few light cravings, but those passed after the first week. Hey, I can do ANYTHING for a week!
I'd like to lose about 10 more lbs and once I accomplish that, re-introduce a few old favorites back into my diet such as a glass of wine or slice of bread. Even still, Keto will always be a part of my life, maybe a week out of every month just to make sure I don't go off the deep end.
Good luck, you!
I'm glad you found something that works for you
However, while low carb may have caused YOUR appetite to decrease, this is not universally true.
For example, while I love fat, I don't find it especially satiating.
I've never had such a high percentage of carbs in my life as when I was in Costa Rico, living on rice & beans, tropical fruit, and veggies. I had mangoes and bananas several times a day, every day. Never-the-less, I found this filling, effortlessly and unconsciously created a calorie deficit, and dropped a size without even trying.
However, foods made from flour, like bread and pasta, I don't find filling at all, and can eat and eat and eat them.7 -
kshama2001 wrote: »While I've never posted here in all the time I've used MFP, I felt that I had to jump in, here. I started a Keto diet 10 days ago. It's easy, but expect to cook your own food, and make those WHOLE foods! Meals can be so simple...today I had a grilled center-cut pork chop and sauteed spinach. Grilled chicken wings are DIVINE and I find it easy to stay, "low carb". The one drawback is that while everything I eat now is delicious, my appetite has diminished to the point that I'm struggling to make my daily minimum. As a result, I've lost 8 lbs in ten days. My waistline has been the most dramatic change, although I typically lose weight from the top down. I do need to add that as it's springtime in southwest Mississippi, I have been working outside nearly every day, sometimes logging 19,000 steps a day. I'm probably not typical, but I feel fantastic with more energy than I know what to do with!
But to answer your question, yes, CI/CO is the trick, however a low-carb diet will cause your appetite to decrease and while you'll eat healthier, you may struggle to take in enough calories. I've added multi-vitamins and drink only water or lemon-ginger tea. The first couple of days saw a few light cravings, but those passed after the first week. Hey, I can do ANYTHING for a week!
I'd like to lose about 10 more lbs and once I accomplish that, re-introduce a few old favorites back into my diet such as a glass of wine or slice of bread. Even still, Keto will always be a part of my life, maybe a week out of every month just to make sure I don't go off the deep end.
Good luck, you!
I'm glad you found something that works for you
However, while low carb may have caused YOUR appetite to decrease, this is not universally true.
For example, while I love fat, I don't find it especially satiating.
I've never had such a high percentage of carbs in my life as when I was in Costa Rico, living on rice & beans, tropical fruit, and veggies. I had mangoes and bananas several times a day, every day. Never-the-less, I found this filling, effortlessly and unconsciously created a calorie deficit, and dropped a size without even trying.
However, foods made from flour, like bread and pasta, I don't find filling at all, and can eat and eat and eat them.
Kinda what I was getting at ma'am. 😉1 -
Calories in vs Calories out is how most people loose weight. Roughly 3500 calories is equivalent to a pound. If you have a 500 calorie deficit everyday; you would loose a pound per week.
MFP calculates your calories based on basal metabolic rate + activity levels. BMR is your calorie expenditure at rest; based of your weight/age/height. Generally the heavier you are; the more you need to maintain.
If you get meet your nutritional needs and have a deficit~ You will loose weight. If you don't~ Then you either haven't given it enough time ;have miscalculated in some manner or if all us fails you "Might" have a metabolic disorder that needs to be diagnosed by a doctor.
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Calories in vs Calories out is how most people loose weight.
I would go further than 'most' ..........10 -
JoeyTheWanderer wrote: »Calories in vs Calories out is how most people loose weight. Roughly 3500 calories is equivalent to a pound. If you have a 500 calorie deficit everyday; you would loose a pound per week.
MFP calculates your calories based on basal metabolic rate + activity levels. BMR is your calorie expenditure at rest; based of your weight/age/height. Generally the heavier you are; the more you need to maintain.
If you get meet your nutritional needs and have a deficit~ You will loose weight. If you don't~ Then you either haven't given it enough time ;have miscalculated in some manner or if all us fails you "Might" have a metabolic disorder that needs to be diagnosed by a doctor.
In general, someone with a metabolic disorder would still lose weight in a calorie deficit. (I'm hypothyroid, speaking from that perspective, but it is true in at least some other cases as well.)
However, that person with a metabolic disorder might or might not lose weight at a number of calories that some online calculator (including MFP) or fitness tracker estimates would give them a calorie deficit. (This is true even for metabolically normal people, BTW, it's just a little more likely with someone with a relevant health condition.) It's possible that they might need to eat somewhat fewer calories than is estimated for an average person in the general population. That's not guaranteed, though, either, so they should still start with the regular estimate, and stick with it for 4-6 weeks, to see what happens.
Like anyone else, they may find that in order to create a true calorie deficit, they may need to eat a different number of calories than the estimate says.
It's also the case that someone with a metabolic disorder might see wilder scale fluctuations and stalls than someone without such a disorder, which can be frustrating and misleading. This can happen because some such disorders can cause more extreme/lengthy or unpredictable water retention.
Someone with a metabolic disorder might find compliance with reduced calories more difficult than an average person, because some such disorders may affect appetite/satiation hormones. (Special diets, such as low carb/keto or high-volume/low-cal, some food eliminations, or other strategies, may help these people.)
There are a few disorders that involve more dramatic fluctuations in what most people would call metabolism, via (for example) wild swings from hypo to hyperthyroid states. Weight loss for these people can be especially difficult for these people, because their energy level, appetite, TDEE, etc., swing through varying states quite unpredictably.
Weight loss can be complicated for anyone. It's very tempting for people with a known disorder to leap, first, to the assumption that the disorder is the reason they're not losing weight while calorie counting. More often, the reason is some standard reason: Not realizing "calculator" calories are estimates, not tracking eating accurately, over-estimating exercise, misinterpreting water weight as fat, not understanding the conditions under which water weight is likely to fluctuate, "cheat days", and all that regular stuff.
Am I saying the above is true for every, every, every person with a metabolic disorder? No. Some people need serious medically-supervised programs, possibly including medications or even surgeries. But the above is true for a lot of people, especially those with fairly common, non-cycling kinds of conditions.
P.S. As a severely hypothyroid person (though properly medicated), I suspected I had a "slow metabolism", especially after I became very active, even competing as an athlete, and yet stayed obese for a decade even doing that, and while eating mostly whole foods as a long-term vegetarian. I was wrong. Despite my health condition, it turned out - once I started calorie counting - that I actually have a NEAT around 25-30% higher than MFP estimates for people in my demographic. What was wrong was my perception of how much food it was normal to eat, and how many calories a high activity level actual burns (i.e., not nearly as many as most people think).
Just my opinions, as always, and YMMV. :flowerforyou:11 -
I've noticed, for myself, that when I try to eliminate or drastically reduce any one part of my diet I'm usually unsuccessful. I get frustrated and give up. But when I don't think of foods as what I can or can't eat and count my calories using macronutrient guidelines I'm WAAAYYY more successful and see results!7
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And to go along with what Anne says, there are a lot of different calculators out there that can give you different estimates - sometimes as much as 200-300 calories different, so finding that appropriate calorie intake to lose weight is definitely a process and shouldn't just automatically be assumed to not be working just because the initial calculated estimate is off.3
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Low carb because more volume more satiety... also trying to eat every 3 hours( waiting more if ure not hugnry) works. but i love carby foods i have them too sometimes.0
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Low carb because more volume more satiety... also trying to eat every 3 hours( waiting more if ure not hugnry) works. but i love carby foods i have them too sometimes.
In my experience, a low carbohydrate diet results in lower volume because I'm limiting vegetables and including more higher fat foods (which are usually more calorie dense).10 -
janejellyroll wrote: »Low carb because more volume more satiety... also trying to eat every 3 hours( waiting more if ure not hugnry) works. but i love carby foods i have them too sometimes.
In my experience, a low carbohydrate diet results in lower volume because I'm limiting vegetables and including more higher fat foods (which are usually more calorie dense).
My experience as well. After all, carbs are 4 cal per g, and fats are 9 (water content matters too, but many higher carb foods, like fruit, has lots of water, whereas many high fat foods do not).6 -
janejellyroll wrote: »Low carb because more volume more satiety... also trying to eat every 3 hours( waiting more if ure not hugnry) works. but i love carby foods i have them too sometimes.
In my experience, a low carbohydrate diet results in lower volume because I'm limiting vegetables and including more higher fat foods (which are usually more calorie dense).
I agee with you, too. To eat low carb, I'd need to reduce veggies and fruits dramatically compared to my preferred produce-heavy way of eating (200g+ carbs most days, in maintenance, but little of what the average person usually visualizes when one says "carbs"). Low carb would definitely require a lower physical volume, for me. (I tend to under-eat fats, unless I pay attention. I shoot for 50g minimum, and usually am not far over that.)
But I think when some people undertake a low-carb diet, they reduce some relatively low-satiety foods, that either seem low-volume because they aren't filling, or that are visually small. I'm thinking of things like the classic airy hamburger buns and sub rolls that don't seem substantial; french fries and other calorie-dense, physically small things that are characterized as "carbs" but really get more calories from fat than carbs, including pizza; salads like potato salad or macaroni salad that are low-veg but high fat and moderate carb and tend to be small portions.
Some - by their own report - increase vegetable intake vs. their former way of eating, in the form of lower-carb veggies like leafy greens that are visually big, or - if paying attention to net carbs - are higher fiber so visually large and seem weighty/satiating. It's mind-boggling to me - and I'm admitting a personal limitation here, not criticizing others' eating - that the amounts of vegetables some describe as such are "lots of veggies". My definition of "lots of veggies" differs, because of my personal taste preferences.
In that kind of picture, I can see how someone - especially someone who didn't log their previous eating and actually see the macro counts - can be pursuing a low-carb diet and feel like there's more volume. Satiety and volume, of course, are related but not tightly, universally linked.6 -
janejellyroll wrote: »Low carb because more volume more satiety... also trying to eat every 3 hours( waiting more if ure not hugnry) works. but i love carby foods i have them too sometimes.
In my experience, a low carbohydrate diet results in lower volume because I'm limiting vegetables and including more higher fat foods (which are usually more calorie dense).
I agee with you, too. To eat low carb, I'd need to reduce veggies and fruits dramatically compared to my preferred produce-heavy way of eating (200g+ carbs most days, in maintenance, but little of what the average person usually visualizes when one says "carbs"). Low carb would definitely require a lower physical volume, for me. (I tend to under-eat fats, unless I pay attention. I shoot for 50g minimum, and usually am not far over that.)
But I think when some people undertake a low-carb diet, they reduce some relatively low-satiety foods, that either seem low-volume because they aren't filling, or that are visually small. I'm thinking of things like the classic airy hamburger buns and sub rolls that don't seem substantial; french fries and other calorie-dense, physically small things that are characterized as "carbs" but really get more calories from fat than carbs, including pizza; salads like potato salad or macaroni salad that are low-veg but high fat and moderate carb and tend to be small portions.
Some - by their own report - increase vegetable intake vs. their former way of eating, in the form of lower-carb veggies like leafy greens that are visually big, or - if paying attention to net carbs - are higher fiber so visually large and seem weighty/satiating. It's mind-boggling to me - and I'm admitting a personal limitation here, not criticizing others' eating - that the amounts of vegetables some describe as such are "lots of veggies". My definition of "lots of veggies" differs, because of my personal taste preferences.
In that kind of picture, I can see how someone - especially someone who didn't log their previous eating and actually see the macro counts - can be pursuing a low-carb diet and feel like there's more volume. Satiety and volume, of course, are related but not tightly, universally linked.
Yes, the majority of my carbohydrates are the type that make low carbohydrate people say "Oh, I don't mean *those* carbs" because they're leafy and green and/or full of fiber. But I'd still have to cut a lot of them in order to have a low carbohydrate diet.
Purely anecdotal, but everyone I've ever known who said that low carbohydrate diets contain "lots of veggies" seems to be coming from a way of eating where they ate hardly any (and it's great if that works for them, but vegetables are something that I'm not willing to limit -- other than to meet my calorie goals).5 -
Tried low carb, actually put on weight; guess calories really do count🤷♀️6
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If I eat fewer calories, I lose weight. If I eat fewer simple starches & sugars and avoid calorie-free sweeteners, my hunger pangs are under control. If I maintain low-salt habits, I don't hold a lot of water weight. If I exercise, I feel better but it can pique my appetite.
All of the above, except the first sentence, applies to only some (but perhaps many) of us. The first sentence, on the other hand, is key for all of us.5 -
Mm.
Mmm.0 -
My personal experience is any calorie deficit food plan will result in weight loss. It's probably pretty clear that what goes in your body has various health benefits, but strictly speaking on weight loss - a calorie deficit means you will lose weight based on the fact you are burning more than you are taking in.
I've been pretty strict for the past 6 months with simply counting calories (using the app) and keeping a realistic weekly weight loss goal (1.5-2lbs) and have dropped 40lbs and not given a single concern of where my calories are coming from... Which drives my wife crazy lol. She's done many different fad style diets and just doesn't seem to be able to stay with any one for a long enough time to see the results. While I plod along and just count those calories and watch those lbs melt away ha ha. On top of that I am also pretty regimented at this point about getting my fitness in as well, minimum 3x per week for about an hour each time.
Just my thoughts.0 -
When I was doing low carb I did notice that occasionally I would lose weight quite quickly, probably too quickly to be healthy. That's because I had no appetite and I chose low carb food which I didn't particularly enjoy.
So if you are doing low carb it's probably a good idea to track your intake, at least initially or once in a while.1
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