This might be a silly question but I will ask it anyway...
I have been carb counting as well as calorie counting. I have lost a good amount of weight so far ( see ticker ) since the beginning of the year. I lost about 15lbs the first 2 weeks of carb/cal counting. I weigh in every two weeks because its frustrating not seeing the scale move daily /weekly basis. Today was my 2 week weigh in and found to have lost 3lbs in two weeks?!! that is so discouraging I know i should take the loss and move forward but mentally i just cant get past it, I've been so good eating right and working out. I realize it will be a slower weight loss from now on, i didn't gain all this weight overnight but mentally i want it all off yesterday! lol
So the question is there any benefit in counting cals and carbs or would it be best to focus on one and not the other? Thanks in advance for you opinions!
im not sure but I have read to not expect a big loss on the weeks of 3-5 Im no sure why but I have read by others experiences that they continued doing what they were doing and it started coming off again!!
Im on my 3rd week now so i shall see how it goes!!
You have done great - don't get discouraged. If you were following a high carb, low calorie plan you might have (if you were lucky) lost 8 pounds since the first of the year. You have more than doubled that so whatever you are doing is working and you're already ahead of the curve. I personally believe that calories do count so I think you are wise to keep a cap on portions.
BTW I stalled in week 5, 6 and most of 7. When the scale finally responded I dropped 4 pounds (whoosh!) and the losses have been fairly steady since.
Your losses are great. You lost a lot in the first two weeks because when you low carb your body lets go of a ton of water weight. Now you're actually burning fat, which is what you want! 3lbs in 2 weeks is 1.5lbs a week, which is perfect. You shouldn't expect to lose more than 2lbs a week on any plan.
Also, I have learned from weighing daily that my body has high and low days. One day I will be 230, and then the next day I will be 231...but that can be from a number of things like too much salt the day before or not enough water. For example, 2 days ago I was 231. Yesterday I was 232. This morning I was 230. You may have weighed on a "high" day. I think as long as there's a downward trend you have nothing to worry about.
You're not losing slow at all. Losing less than a pound a week, even on starvation calories is not the rarity people believe it is. I used to be able to consistently lose 7 lbs a week and even lost 11 lbs during the first week of one diet (way back when I weighed less than I do now, but was much younger and much more active), but now on about half the calories as I ate back then, I'm lucky if I lose 1.
You can try counting calories and carbs. I use a low-carb exchange plan based on one I found on the hillbillyhouswife website, which indirectly counts both. It was through my exchange plan that I discovered that I lose more on 1800+ calories of low-carb (and am tremendously less hungry) than on 1500 calories or less of high-carb.
I echo what everyone else has said. You are doing fabulous. I know it is hard to stop losing at that rapid pace you did at the beginning, but the fact that you are still losing is what counts.
As far as the calorie counting goes, I know that calories do matter for me. Like Kaplods, I find that I can lose just as well (or better) with more calories than I did on 1200-1500 with a low fat, high carb diet. However, if I consume any more than 2000 max, my weight loss stops.
A lot of this is finding what works for you. No program is one size fits all, right? Keep up the great work!
I appreciate all your support, I do realize that it is working for me at this time, but like everything else in this world instant gratification is what most of us like I will be patient with this journey . Thanx all!
I sincerely believe that the main fatal flaw in weight loss as it is most commonly done, the way we've all learned to do it (by watching how everyone else does it) is that instant gratification isn't just seen as a preference, it's seen as a need.
Discouragement only results when reality doesn't match expectations. That's essentially the definition of discouragement. And when it comes to weight loss, we're taught to be easily discouraged. We're taught to make unrealistic goals and to have unrealistic expectations. We're setting ourselves up for failure, by seeing failure where there is actually success.
I think the dismal weight loss success rate is do to discouragement. We're taught to be discouraged. People don't know how to lose weight without it. We take for granted that it has to be there, and ultimately it's the reason most people give up.
I dieted unsuccessfully for most of my life. Nearly 4 decades, and every weight loss attempt I abandoned, it wasn't due to failure, it was due to feeling like I was failing for succeeding too slow. Losing slowly felt just as bad as gaining. Weight loss seemed hopeless because of the constant discouragement. Prolonged discouragement, becomes hopelessness. And when you have no hope, action seems pointless. Once there is no point, action stops.
Part of the discouragement is feeling that everyone else is doing better than you. None of us realize that we're at the head of the pack, not the back. We see all the people ahead of us, and none of the people behind us (all the people who dropped out of the race because they had gotten too discouraged).
Don't let discouragement become chronic. It does not have to be, just because everyone does it. Just because it's normal to see a weight loss of less than 2 lbs in a week disappointing and therefore discouraging, don't let it be. Celebrate and see it as an astonishing accomplishment (because it is). If you are constantly celebrating your great, astonishing acheivements of success, you're going to find the motivation to keep going. If you constantly are seeing anything less than instant gratification as disappointment, eventually you're going to get sick of disappointing yourself.
Several years ago, I complained to my doctor about how discouraged I was that I was "only" losing a pound a month, instead of the 1-2 a week "everyone else, even half my size" were able to accomplish.
My doctor responded to the effect "where did you hear that garbage," he pointed out that most people do not lose 2 lbs a week. Most people lose nothing. Even those that lose 2 lbs, regain it because they give up. Just "not giving up" put me in the lead, not trailing behind (we all know weight loss isn't a race with others, and yet we do compare ourselves to our perceptions of how everyone else is doing. And most of the time we're wrong. The two pound per week, every week losers are 1 in a million, if they exist at all).
See that you're in the lead. It will make the difference, because you'll thrive on your own success. Satisfaction breeds success, and discouragement breeds failure, so acknowledge your success. Don't diminish it by seeing it as not good enough.
Seeing it as "not enough" is fine. Keep reaching for more, but don't let discouragement diminish your accomplishment. See it for the amazing success it is.
calorie and carb counting ?
I know i should take the loss and move forward but 
