Who has lost weight without restricting carbs?

I have tried the resticting of carbs and I can not maintain. I crave anything I am keeping out of my diet. So this time around I am letting myself have ANYTHING I want in moderation. I watch my calories and make sure I am well under my daily with excersize. I walk at least 5 times a week usually daily tho I do strength in the morning and cardio at night. And just keep an eye on all the levels MFP shows to make sure I am getting enough and not going over what is limited. I am losing weight slowly but surely which I am fine with as I started 17 days ago. This is what makes me feel good about my lifestyle change and I really feel like I can maintain this lifestyle forever. Good luck

In all honesty I love my carbs, they are a comfort food for me, and they are what give your body the energy it needs to run. I have only been here for one week, and I lost 8lbs so far and I eat carbs at every meal. Some days I am over the limit set for me on my tracker, others I am below. I have been on other programs that I could choose my intake of carbs, and others that limit it to a 1/2 cup each meal.

I don't think it matters, and if you are having healthy carbs and keep it at a 1/2C or a little more there shouldnt be any problems. But if you find on your journey that lessening carbs works better for you then I would go with it. Everybody is different, and our bodies react to different foods, nutrients, minerals, etc differently. It's what works best for you and what makes you feel good too.

Good luck on your journey!!

Going low-carb helped me a lot to kick start my weigh-tloss. Before that, I could eat healthy for a few days and then get huge cravings for sweets and that was that.
I really stand by this way of eating because it gets the results. I'm not saying to be under 20 g of carbs/day, but try to do it around 100 g. That allows you all the veggies you want in a day, but will restrict the fruits. You have to cut breads, rice, pasta and potatoes if you want to follow this road, and you will barely miss them if you do your research on new yummy healthy low carb recipes.

Never counted carbs and lost 80 pounds in ten months. I counted calories for a few months (under 1200) and now that I am at goal I dont count calories but.... I do work out 5 days a week and put in 30 miles a week in running plus 2 weight training classes , 2 step classes and about 30 min a day of cross training. but no never counted a carb

I have PCOS, and it was doctor recommended to restrict carbs. I did South Beach six years ago. I missed the carbs so much, that I ended up going nuts and eating tons of it on a cruise. Then I never went back, gained all that weight plus another 30. I was unhappy and felt deprived on that diet.

I've lost 55 lbs using MFP, and have restricted NOTHING. I just don't eat tons of it, or all high saturated fats or calories in one day. I space out my "fun" foods, and I EXERCISE! :-)

Carbs are our friends.

I have never restricted my carbs, I just make sure I get them from healthy sources.

Out of curiosity, can anyone cite the long-term success rate of caloric restriction to maintain weight loss (irrespective of macronutrient ratios)?

Interesting question. I don't think I've seen a study on that, though I would be surprised if there is not one. I have seen low carb, low fat and the Mediterranean Diet compared and for both short and long term they scored equally.

I don't eat a low carb diet and I've lost 37lbs so far.

There are many reputable doctors and studies that speak of the "dangers" of low carb diets.

The "dangers" of low carb diets. Can you site any of the studies or provide links to articles from doctors saying that low carb is dangerous.

I don't eat low carb (or high carb) and I've lost weight so I absolutely know that it can be done. But I've worked in health care for nearly 30 years and I've never seen any study or article written by a physician that said eating low carb is 'dangerous'. The only negative I've ever read about low carb are the studies showing that many people gain the weight back because they fail to maintain the diet long term. But that true of any diet.

Cite them?

This cochrane review is at best lukewarm about these diets, in particular suggesting that the benefits of them need to be balanced against the risk:

http://archinte.ama-assn.org/cgi/content/abstract/166/3/285

"Low-carbohydrate, non–energy-restricted diets appear to be at least as effective as low-fat, energy-restricted diets in inducing weight loss for up to 1 year. However, potential favorable changes in triglyceride and high-density lipoprotein cholesterol values should be weighed against potential unfavorable changes in low-density lipoprotein cholesterol values when low-carbohydrate diets to induce weight loss are considered."

Such changes are correlated with cardiac issues.


But the reality is, in the absence of rather more substantial longitudinal data, the jury is kind of out on this subject. If I had a choice of what kind of evidence to 'rely' on, given the positive reporting bias in published research, I'm most inclined to stake my future on the cochrane review (which uses grey and other data), and say we don't really know the full effects of low carb diets, and consequently, I'm just going to do what seems sensible.



As a vege, I thought this study was interesting:

"A low-carbohydrate diet based on animal sources was associated with higher all-cause mortality in both men and women, whereas a vegetable-based low-carbohydrate diet was associated with lower all-cause and cardiovascular disease mortality rates."

http://www.annals.org/content/153/5/289.short

Oooh me!!!! : )

I'm a total carb junkie and all my three daily meals have a portion of them! However I rarely eat refined/white carbs - because to me the brown stuff actually tastes better and the additional fibre is a bonus (my only gripe would be the amount of time brown rice takes to cook!).

I had no problems reaching my goals and interestingly not ditching the carbs really made me learn that I had no idea about portion sizes when it came to them. I now have the skills to confidently eat pasta in a restaurant and stay under my goals...

Feel free to rustle through my diary, my staples this week have been oats for breakfast AND bread on a couple of days....pasta for lunch and rice for dinner......Oh and pizza tonight : )