I'm just starting my weight loss journey but I've been stuck losing and gaining the same 5lbs for about a month. I started counting carbs this month, however I've been unable to stick to any low carb plan. Has anyone over 300lbs had weight loss success just counting calories? Thanks
I can lose weight on low-carb or on high-carb, it's just a lot harder on high-carb because I have to cut calories a little more on high-carb and I'm ravenously hungery. I'm hungrier on 3000 calories of high-carb than on 1000 calories of low-carb.
To lose about the same amount of weight (though it's still a little more erratic with high-carb because I think it makes me more prone to gain water weight) I can either choose 1500 calories of high-carb/standard carb or 1800 calories of low-carb.
Less hungry and more food, it should be a no-brainer, but even for me it's very hard for me to stick to any low-carb plan - but it's always been very hard for me to stick to any plan. I always gave up in the past because I was wrong in assuming that to be successful I had to stick with something (especially perfectly).
As it turns out, I've been able to lose 90 lbs just with half-a**ed attempts. I make a lot of mistakes, but I know my life is easier on low-carb than on high-carb. I also know that even on low-carb, I need portion control, so I chose an exchange plan.
I still make tons of mistakes, but I haven't given up on myself. I just keep trying to do better and realize that as long as I'm making improvements - even if they're small, slow improvements I will keep having success - maybe not as I once defined it, but then again this is also the first time I've had long-lasting success.
I'd recommend you use a food/health journal (documenting moods and health symptoms too, ideally) so you can see your own patterns. I had no idea that I was so dramatically affected by high-glycemic processed carbs until I saw it in writing. I knew carbs made me hungrier, but it took me longer to realize they also caused or worsened headaches, joint and muscle pain and even skin issues.
Not saying this is true for you, but you owe it to yourself to experiment and do what you find most helpful (even if you can't do it perfectly).
Essentially all weight loss comes down to calories in vs. calories out, but as Kaplods explained it's very individual just how we go about that process. She's had great success with a lower-carb plan, because she experimented and found that it worked for her body and lifestyle best.
I'm following WW personally. Pared down it's truly just a calorie counting method. A way to track intake of food. What lead me to the WW/calorie counting form of food tracking was that there was nothing truly off-limits. I just had to watch portion. That fits with my body and my lifestyle. I would be a raging lunatic without "normal carbs". Kaplods found that she's ravenous when she has too many.
Six in one, half dozen in another.
If you've decided you want to track calories, then what's stopping you? Start tracking calories! There's even a calorie counting section under Diet Central to answer your basic questions about where to start
You are the factor in the success of any plan. Experiment. Commit to keep going forward to find what works for your life. You'll find it and stick to it. And it'll work, because it's right for you.
Thanks ladies! I'm still very new at this but I wanted to point out I did lose 23lbs counting calories and 10lbs counting carbs. As both Kaplods and lovely said I really need to find the right formula of calories and carbs that work for my body... It's frustrating because I haven't found it yet. Thanks again
You got great advice but I will just reiterate that the best plan is the one you feel like you can live with for life. I had to go pure calorie counting on the first round because the idea of denying myself anything was severely triggering for me. With calorie counting, as long as you budget for it, you can eat it. Zero restrictions.
This time around I have gone low carb because I am now dealing with blood sugar issues but I have also realized it just makes me feel a million times better. I am ok now with removing whole groups of food from my diet. If the me who started back in the beginning tried to do what I am doing now, I would have totally failed.
Diva, I've lost on both carb cutting and calorie cutting. Both, in a sense, were calorie counting. I did lose cutting carbs because the initial loss is water weight, but once I lost that, I seemed to stall because I still didn't cut enough calories to see a meaningful loss.
This is something I'm still working on, constantly tweaking to find what works over the long haul. And for me I'm finding that when I use intermittent fasting, I start to lose a more significant amount of weight at a fast rate. It's a method for cutting calories that uses daily or weekly fasting to control when I eat, and thereby better managing how much I eat. I can still eat what I want, which for me happens to be eating a very clean Paleo-like diet of lean proteins and lots of non-starchy vegetables and some fruit, healthy fats. I do not eat processed food of any sort, grains, legumes, and I've cut way back on dairy. I don't eat out much at all. I do drink wine occasionally. I know that sounds really restrictive to some, but I really feel so wonderful now, as opposed to how good the food tasted that I indulged in but didn't make me feel wonderful at all.
An additional way to cut calories is to add exercise. But that really only burns calories while you're doing them. Adding muscle and doing cardio aren't really the best ways to lose weight, but they are really wonderful additions to improving our health for so many other reasons.
I never counted carbs, only calories and as you can see from my ticker, I have been pretty successful. That said, my carbs are so low as to be almost non-existent. I don't eat any sugar at all, and no white or processed carbs. It was SO hard at first getting rid of bread and starchy white stuff at first (sourdough bread is my cocaine), but now it is not so much of a struggle, just a (sad) acceptance that bread/carbs are my downfall and the reason I weighed enough to be 3 people.
The thing is, with calorie counting you are working with a finite pool of calories, and carbohydrates take up SO many of the available pool, it is just not worth it for me to eat them. Example, 1 slice of bread is about 110 calories. Or I could have an ENTIRE baked spaghetti squash for 91 calories, or a whole cucumber, 2 tomato onion and feta huge bowl of salad for 100. It's a no brainer.
I've found that counting carbs or calories is my downfail. If I "go over" my allotment, I feel like a failure. So now I make good food choices and watch my portions -- and I've lost 50 pounds so far. I try to base my eating on the food pyramid - but nothing is written in stone. I sometimes eat pizza and chinese food and KFC - but when I do that I eat one portion - I don't binge on it. On a day to day basis I try to make good choices, and have "normal" portions. I sort of "fell into" this plan because I had given up on dieting and was considering weight loss surgery. Only discovered I lost 50 pounds when I went to see my PCP about the surgery. I feel like a huge burden has been lifted from my shoulders because I am no longer dieting!! "Try it, you'll like it!"
Calories vs Carbohydrate Help
