Quote:
Originally Posted by benchmarkman
IMO and my plan why bother counting anything besides calories. Weight loss is a simple formula, not sure why people don't get this, its calories in - calories burned.
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My husband says this all the time, and it is true...to a point.
And frankly, it is more accurate for men. It's a fact that men have an easier time of losing weight than women, especially the older we get.
I can lose weight counting just calories, without limiting my carbohydrate intake. I know this from past experience. But I also know that if I limit my carbs, weight loss is accelerated and cravings are minimized. I happen to be insulin resistant and that exacerbates the problem, but I believe the great majority of overweight women benefit greatly from restricting their carbohydrate intake. If nothing else, they are going to experience less cravings which often lead to binging.
Over the last several years, as I slowly began putting on my menopausal weight, my diet consisted of too many carbs, too many refined sugars, too many processed foods. Except for about the first 8 months of 2005, - when I started exercising again and did Jenny Craig, and lost 25 lbs - this is how I ate. And the more of this stuff I ate, the more I wanted. August of 2005 (Katrina) took me completely off track and the stress not only stopped my exercise in its tracks but also drove me right back to the junky ways of eating. And no offense to anyone doing JC, because it is a good program, but I had not learned how to eat on my own, so I was a sitting duck for a relapse when faced with extreme stress.
Within 3 years I'd gained that 25 back plus 5 more. That's 7.5 lbs a year. And then reality hit me in the face - I'm a middle-aged female, and if I want to live a long and healthy life I simply cannot continue to eat this way.
I'm assuming you are a male, and if you are a YOUNG male it's even more true that weight loss is just that simple - more calories out than in. Period.
But for women, particularly post-menopausal women, it's a bit more complicated than that.
Take it from one who knows this from experience.