adamantypants
Member
I never did low carb, always just ate healthier meals and smaller portions. That seems to work 100% of the time.
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Has anyone abandoned low carb and still lost weight?
- Thread starter starchild excalibur
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dead souls
Member
Yep. If losing weight/staying in shape required giving up carbs I'd just say "Fuck it" and get fat.
BlazingDarkness
Member
I put on weight recently (intense period of study doing undergrad dissertation)
Currently doing low/no carb/sugars and no dairy
Also an hour of intense exercise (cardio and strength) per day
When I get cravings for a snack I just eat a couple of carrots
Currently doing low/no carb/sugars and no dairy
Also an hour of intense exercise (cardio and strength) per day
When I get cravings for a snack I just eat a couple of carrots
sneakypete
Member
Pretty insane I know. Started at 270, 8 weeks ago Thursday. At that point I was drinking a half gallon of whiskey or more a week and eating a lot of pizza (I work at a pizza joint).
Weighed in at 221 this morning. Strict keto diet - under 10-20 carbs 90% of the time. MyFitnessPal helps immensely, I can scan bar codes to ensure I'm adding up all carbs and keep my calories below 1600 a day. I also do intermittent fasting, and I've done a few 36 hour fasts and one 3 day fast. I feel fantastic .
Dude. A 3 day fast is NOT healthy. Straight up anorexia. Im totally on board for intermittent, but 3 days.. not okay and you really shouldn't advertise it.
Anyway, calories in < calories out is always the way to go. Cutting out carbs really just makes it easier, as they generally aren't too filling.
When people say low carb how much are they referring to? Is it the 40/30/30 split?
I previously lost weight just by calorie counting and HIIT, gained it back though and trying to do the same thing again. Myfitnesspal is good to see where the excess calories which are holding you back are coming from.
I previously lost weight just by calorie counting and HIIT, gained it back though and trying to do the same thing again. Myfitnesspal is good to see where the excess calories which are holding you back are coming from.
God Dayumm
Banned
The recommended daily allowance of carbs from the government dietary guidelines is 130g, so technically anything below that could be considered low carb.
sneakypete
Member
You have no idea what you're talking about. Have you even done research on fasting or keto? Check out Dr Jason Fung - he stumbled onto keto/fasting in an effort to cure type two diabetes. He has treated thousands of diabetic and/or obese patients with keto/low carb/fasting.
I'm personally using fasting in an effort to minimize loose skin. Look up autophagy.
sneakypete
Member
If you're interested in low carb I suggest checking out r/keto. Their FAQ was extremely helpful for me starting out. Use the calculator to give you an idea of what your daily protein goal should be and then just eat healthy fats to satiate.
A co-worker told me about HIIT and I've had great success with that was well.
starchild excalibur
Member
Well, that's mostly because I don't love low carb foods as much as some people do. I do fine with salads, but I've never been the type of guy to salivate over a steak or be able to eat veggies + meats 6 days out of the week. I've also tried some keto meals that require a ton of cheese and it kinda grosses me out.
It's ultimately about creating a deficit in the must sustainable way. Low carb isn't sustainable to me. I'm hoping CICO (but going easy on carby foods without being religious about it) will be the right balance.
The elephant in this thread is that if your diet is merely a means to an end, you need to consider a way to keep the weight off once you achieve your goal. If you're not going to do what you're doing on your diet (minus your deficit) forever, what does your normal diet look like and how sustainable is it?
Probably goes without saying but I've had great success because I let CICO naturally change my diet, not the other way around. I did a relatively small deficit and kept it up over a year before I hit my goal. But now I still eat the way I did on my diet. And I still exercise because I learned to enjoy it. Sometimes it's actually difficult to eat enough to get to even.
So no matter what you do, making it sustainable is pretty important. Personally, I didn't want to have a life devoid of bread and sweet stuff when I finished. And I don't. I just naturally want to eat a lot less of it than I used to.
Probably goes without saying but I've had great success because I let CICO naturally change my diet, not the other way around. I did a relatively small deficit and kept it up over a year before I hit my goal. But now I still eat the way I did on my diet. And I still exercise because I learned to enjoy it. Sometimes it's actually difficult to eat enough to get to even.
So no matter what you do, making it sustainable is pretty important. Personally, I didn't want to have a life devoid of bread and sweet stuff when I finished. And I don't. I just naturally want to eat a lot less of it than I used to.
oneils
Member
I've lost weight without counting calories. I simply stopped eating junk food. I eat whole foods, four times a day. Lost 45 lbs. Changes to your diet can help you lose weight without counting calories. The OP, I would think since he is 300 plus lbs (if I've followed the thread correctly), could make lots of changes today and see progress very quickly without counting calories or cutting carbs out of his diet.
ShooterMcGavin
Member
When I lost about 100 pounds, I honestly didn't pay much attention to fat/carbs/protein. I ate the same stuff for the most part, just a lot less of it.
Pretty much just followed the calories in < calories out mentality. Probably not the healthiest, sustainable way of going about it, but it got the job done at the time.
Pretty much just followed the calories in < calories out mentality. Probably not the healthiest, sustainable way of going about it, but it got the job done at the time.
Alter_Fridge
Member
I eat beans regularly but they are my least favourite vege to eat. So bland
I get light headed and dizzy after even 1 day of not eating anything, can't imagine how bad 3 must be. Do you use some kind of appetite suppressant? Great progress btw.
Try to make hummus and other similar stuff from benas and legumes.
Google Frijoles, Green Pea Hummus/Pesto, Black Bean dip.
Black beans is my favorite to use in dip/sauce.
Once your body starts producing more ketones, the hunger disappears. Call it a natural appetite suppressant
ZackieChan
Member
Once your body starts producing more ketones, the hunger disappears. Call it a natural appetite suppressant
That bulletproof coffee guy advocates a fast of nothing but butter/mct coffee for weeks, iirc
sneakypete
Member
You don't want to start fasting like that until you've been in ketosis for at least 4 weeks(though it varies person to person) to become adapted to running on fat - ie all the excess food stores your body has been turning into body fat. Once fat adapted your body can run on your excess fat as if it were food. You don't get the headaches and hunger pains(though you will still mentally want to eat for quite awhile out of years of habit) of a body running on glucose because your insulin isn't spiking up and down with every meal. It makes it much easier to do intermittent fasting as a result.
It is really important to balance electrolytes when fasting though. Depending on how big and nutrient rich a dinner I eat the night before, I'll often have a cup of bullion or broth in the morning for sodium as well as a supplement for magnesium and potassium.
Edit: check it out, fasting is actually extremely healthy for long term prevention of numerous serious health issues
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/...ys-can-regenerate-entire-immune-system-study/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4531065/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC329619/
intermittent fasting is easy as hell on work days, assuming you've got a standard 9-5 job. just quit eating before 10 pm or so then skip out on lunch and breakfast, throw in some black coffee or diet soda if you're sapped for energy (L-carnitine helps too, especially if you want top it off with a workout)
though 36 hours for me is nuts. i could never pull that off
though 36 hours for me is nuts. i could never pull that off
Zelenogorsk
Banned
Sorry if someone already mentioned this (I haven't read most of the thread) but is there a consensus on the 'best' calorie tracker/fitness app for IOS?
I've cut out sugary drinks from my diet but I know I'm prone to overeating (and having selective memory as to what i've eaten) so tracking everything seems like something I should do.
edit: i've downloaded myfitness pal, seems useful.
I've cut out sugary drinks from my diet but I know I'm prone to overeating (and having selective memory as to what i've eaten) so tracking everything seems like something I should do.
edit: i've downloaded myfitness pal, seems useful.
Generally under 50g of carbs a day. If you are doing keto, as close to zero as possible.
I've lost ~90 pounds of fat over the past few years (most of that in the first 18 months), and while I tried low carb (< 30 grams of carbs) for a couple of months, my energy levels suffered and I eventually plateaued after losing the initial 8-12 pounds on keto.
For me, the thing that has worked the best is calorie counting. When I'm trying to lose weight, I try to stay around 2050 calories/day, which given my size (6'1"/250 with a good amount of muscle mass) is actually really low. When I follow this and am diligent, I lose 2-3 pounds per week without cardio.
A weird question I have is this: what is the "normal" amount of water a person can retain due to carbs etc. I ask because there have been a couple of times over the past couple of years where I have relapsed and stuffed my face for a few days (probably 5000-7000 calories/day). I noticed once that I put on 18 pounds in 3 days when eating like this. I'm aware it was mostly water (probably 1-2 pounds of fat and 16 pounds of water), but can people really hold 15+ pounds of water if they carb load (which is essentially what I was doing when I was overeating)?
Myfitnesspal.
For me, the thing that has worked the best is calorie counting. When I'm trying to lose weight, I try to stay around 2050 calories/day, which given my size (6'1"/250 with a good amount of muscle mass) is actually really low. When I follow this and am diligent, I lose 2-3 pounds per week without cardio.
A weird question I have is this: what is the "normal" amount of water a person can retain due to carbs etc. I ask because there have been a couple of times over the past couple of years where I have relapsed and stuffed my face for a few days (probably 5000-7000 calories/day). I noticed once that I put on 18 pounds in 3 days when eating like this. I'm aware it was mostly water (probably 1-2 pounds of fat and 16 pounds of water), but can people really hold 15+ pounds of water if they carb load (which is essentially what I was doing when I was overeating)?
Zelenogorsk said:
Myfitnesspal.
ZackieChan
Member
I asked the last guy who said this, but they didn't answer. How much fat were you eating on keto? Did you track it? Or were you just lowering the carbs without adding glorious fat?
This was over two years ago, so I don't remember exact numbers, but I was definitely eating way more fat to compensate - not only protein. Cheeses, heavy cream, nuts, peanut butter etc.
I've tried 600-800 calorie fast days and it's not too bad. If you do two of them a week you will lose weight if you eat normally the rest of the time.
Saying that I've managed to lose a kg the last two weeks by weighing myself using Wii U Fit every morning. I'm noticing that with my activity level and what I'd normally eat I loose around 0.1-0.3 kg a day, but I tend to pig out once or twice a week with take-out and that takes away the gains.
I still get take out but i eat less of it.
Saying that I've managed to lose a kg the last two weeks by weighing myself using Wii U Fit every morning. I'm noticing that with my activity level and what I'd normally eat I loose around 0.1-0.3 kg a day, but I tend to pig out once or twice a week with take-out and that takes away the gains.
I still get take out but i eat less of it.
Prime crotch
Banned
The conditions surrounding pre-processed foods are the culprit, lack of time to make your own food and honestly the widely availability of pre-processed shit.
D
Deleted member 17706
Unconfirmed Member
It's really the perfect system, isn't it? If a person fails at it, it's because they lacked in discipline or didn't know how to count properly! Completely infallible.
/sarcasm
Honestly, the whole concept is bullshit because it's making wild guesstimates at every step of the way. Your daily energy requirements vary wildly depending on a massive variety of factors. The only way to accurately gauge how much energy (measured in calories) your body has spent is to get hooked up to sophisticated machinery in a highly controlled setting and literally no one is doing that. On the intake level, the whole fat = 9 calories per gram, protein and carbohydrate = 4 calories per gram is an estimate with some variance and also assumes 100% metabolism of the food matter. That's not how our bodies work--they aren't bomb calorimeters.
Of course you need to mobilize your fat stores for energy if you want to lose weight. I don't think anyone is arguing that. However, how your body uses the food it takes in depends on a great many factors. Again, we're not calorimeters, and we don't just drop food into a furnace that treats everything the same regardless of macro/micro nutrient composition. Your body determines what to do with the food you eat right there when you eat it and yet people still like to conveniently measure things across 24 hours chunks for whatever reason, thinking they actually have a hold on their situation.
The OP did? I didn't see anything about that in the first post of this thread--just that he or she didn't think low-carb was sustainable forever.
The stats are what they are. Almost everyone fails at losing weight and the overwhelming majority of them are attempting to do it simply by tracking calories and probably limiting fat intake. I'm seeing multitudes of people in this thread saying things like "every time" and "when I want to lose weight," etc... indicating that any successes have been countered by a rebound, which is the typical story for people who have attempted to lose weight.
If you fail, it is on you. You lose weight by eating less calories than your body burns. You maintain by eating about the same as your body burns. You increase weight by eating more than your body burns.
This is simple, 100% accurate and works for everyone barring some medical issues.
What you're saying isn't incorrect, but your line of thinking is wrong. You don't lose weight by the day, you lose weight overtime. If, overtime you're eating less and not losing weight, you have 2 options to ensure success - you eat even less, or you exercise to increase the amount of calories you burn.
D
Deleted member 17706
Unconfirmed Member
Yes, you lose weight over time. And the typical thinking behind people busting out Excel for their diet plan is to peg in a pound of fat at 3,500 calories. Eat 500 calories fewer than you burn each day and you can expect a pound of fat to drop each week!
Remember that each step of the way requires guesstimates that when added up over time would amount to massive fluctuations in weight over the long term. According to the logic, if you somehow ate exactly 100 calories more than you burned every day, you would gain over 10 pounds of fat over the course of a single year! There's no way anyone is actually measuring things this precisely.
The fact that many people weigh pretty much the same throughout an entire year indicates that, with the right input and environment, the human body is plenty good at maintaining homeostasis without any of the shoddy math that people like to engage in.
I have maintained my weight after starting to eat more carbs, but getting to the weight I wanted was mostly possible because of it (cutting carbs/sugar).
Personally I believe it's the most successful method for losing weight, and not letting diabetus run amok.
I don't count calories.
Personally I believe it's the most successful method for losing weight, and not letting diabetus run amok.
I don't count calories.
I downloaded my fitness pal today because I was curious about how many calories I was actually consuming. I went through everything I eat and calculated it all from the on pack info rather than using the data available already in the app.
I have a very stable diet and rarely venture outside of it and to my surprise I'm packing 3000 calories a day.
My weight is also very stable, I'm trying to get to 12 stone but have been 11st 10lb for months.
My diet leans slightly towards a protein focus but I still pack in a lot the carbs. I don't feel like it's a 'diet' as such but I am concious about eating healthily.
I have a very stable diet and rarely venture outside of it and to my surprise I'm packing 3000 calories a day.
My weight is also very stable, I'm trying to get to 12 stone but have been 11st 10lb for months.
My diet leans slightly towards a protein focus but I still pack in a lot the carbs. I don't feel like it's a 'diet' as such but I am concious about eating healthily.
Yep, earlier in this thread, he said he lost 70 lbs but gained it all back because he couldn't adhere long-term to a low-carb lifestyle.
My question to you is this, because I honestly don't know the answer: Do low-carb diets have a greater long-term adherence rate and greater incidence of long-term sustainability of weight loss? Are there studies that bear this out relative to other diets? My presumption would that there are no significant deviations in adherence/weight loss sustainability of different diet types because there are multitudes of societal factors in the present day that work against diet sustainability on a macro level. However, I'd love to be proven wrong.
I don't have a dog in this fight because I'm in that magic 1% who lost weight (65 lbs) and has kept it off long-term (8 years), and I used CICO and multiple variations of low-carb during my weight loss (I ultimately stuck with CICO for the bulk of my weight loss as I found it easiest to adhere to and sustain with my lifestyle).
Out of curiosity, what would you have estimated your daily caloric intake to be before you measured it? Studies have consistently shown that people are very poor at estimating their caloric intake (sometimes off by up to 50% in studies!). Similarly, people also are very poor at estimating how many calories exercise burns.
Yep. Just counted calories or became reasonable with what and how I ate. Lost and kept off 30 lbs. On some days I just wanna eat fried chicken and recees pieces. If they fit into my calorie budget for the day I still win. Not healthy but once or twice a month won't hurt.
I lost weight just going more natural. By that I mean cutting off any processed food, and eating a ton more veggies and fruits. I also only ate chicken or fish during the weekdays.
Without exercise, I lost about 15 lbs. I went from 190 to 175 in about 3 months. That may not sound like a lot, but most of it was fat. I have a four-pack at this weight, and my arms are much more vascular than when I was at the same weight years ago. Granted I had just done 4 months of 5x5 training before I decided to change my eating habits, so YMMV.
I was still consuming a lot of carbs BTW. I was devouring sweet potatoes, since I have a vicious sweet tooth.
Without exercise, I lost about 15 lbs. I went from 190 to 175 in about 3 months. That may not sound like a lot, but most of it was fat. I have a four-pack at this weight, and my arms are much more vascular than when I was at the same weight years ago. Granted I had just done 4 months of 5x5 training before I decided to change my eating habits, so YMMV.
I was still consuming a lot of carbs BTW. I was devouring sweet potatoes, since I have a vicious sweet tooth.
Let me illustrate with an analogy: People who are poor need to make more money. It's simple. Don't want to be poor? Either spend less money or make more.
While this is, strictly speaking, 100% true, it's obviously more complicated/complex than that.
Alter_Fridge
Member
Cheers, might look them up
I thought it was under the average (based on me not being a big eater) so perhaps 2100? but was trying to up it in an attempt to gain so maybe I thought I was hitting the average. I don't have an active job (work from home), but I do work out a fair bit, I guess I underestimate how many calories that burns.
winterymint
Member
1200-1400 cals, cardio and weightlifting..and you only lose 4-5 lbs in the past five weeks?
Wolf Dawgz
Member
That sounds like the opposite. An equivalent analogy would be if you want less money in your savings account, spend more, or earn less.
Your body fat is essentially just your body's biological, rainy day fund.
Yeah to be honest, for you OP just CICO and maybe trying to cut out foods with added sugars will be best for you. I mean, everyone should cut out foods with added sugars regardless, but if keto didn't work for you then this seems like a better alternative.
Unfortunately this thread has seemed to turn into some other kind of beast...
The human body is weird and you can stall out on weight loss just because it feels like it. Also if he's weight lifting muscle is growing at the same time fat is being burned, which can show up as a wash on the scale. Oh, and if he just started a new regime muscles hold on to extra water weight for healing.
This isn't really that unusual.
EDIT: also...
- 1 pound a week is healthy weight loss
- he had only a total of 15lbs to lose, people that have more to lose generally start by losing faster but slow down to about his loss rate when they get closer to their goal weights.
low carb - went from 73 kg at my heighest weight to ~56 kg at my lowest (180cm tall) roughly 3 years ago. Gained a few kg, then started eating mostly pre-packed frozen food and quite a bit of candy the last couple months to go back down to 58, which is the beginning of the underweight territory on the BMI scale. Having a rough idea about how much calories you consume/need every day is the key, and I suppose I burn more calories than normal while resting
still no visible abs :/
going to start a workout routine this week, I want some result by the end of the Summer
still no visible abs :/
going to start a workout routine this week, I want some result by the end of the Summer
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