New here with some questions
 

Hi,
My name is Kathie and I started eating low carb at the beginning of June and have lost 22 lbs so far. I keep carbs under 30 most days and I do not count calories.My question is should I start exercising to burn more calories as I would like to speed up my weight loss a little or cut carbs? Also, I know that weight loss comes from cutting calories but when I used to diet with low calorie weight loss plans(1200-1500 calories a day), I was hungry and didn't lose much if any weight and although I dont count calories now, I can estimate that my calorie count is higher than that now and I am losing weight.

30 carbs is already pretty low. Exercise is a great way to rev things up, but I find that it also increases my appetite. I would probably try exercise over reducing the carbs.

Yeah, I doubt cutting carbs deeper will do much for you. Weight loss is still based on the energy balance formula (calories in vs. calories out). Eating low carb is one way where calories tend to be auto-regulated.

You can still gain weight eating low carb. It's just that for some folks, eating low carb makes the overconsumption of calories very difficult.

But you're already at a low 30 grams per day. There are 4 calories supplied by each gram of carb you consume. Therefore, you really don't have much more room to cut on the carb front.... a mere 120 calories is all.

This begs a few questions/thoughts on my end:

1) how sustainable (truthfully speaking) do you feel your current approach is?

2) if the sustainability is questionable, what's your game plan once you reach your goal weight, stall, or whatever?

3) You've lost 22 lbs since June. That's approximately 16 weeks... so your rate of loss is over a pound per week. That's really very good for a long term average. How much faster are you expecting to lose fat? Especially factoring in the concept that your body will adjust to make continued weight loss more difficult as time goes on and that the smaller you get, the lower that rate will be.

4) I'm wondering what measures you're taking to ensure that it's not solely about the number on the scale and that it's also about body composition / muscle maintenance.

5) I'm curious what your stats are.

6) No offense intended at all, but humans are AWFUL estimators of calorie consumption. That you're not hungry this time around on a low carb diet doesn't have much bearing on whether you're eating more calories this time around or not. By nature, some people tend to feel very full when they're in ketosis, which you are if you're carb intake is accurate. Also, by default, when people cut carbs to this level, almost invariably they wind up jacking their protein consumption up higher than their 'usual.' Protein is the most satiating of the nutrients. So on level calorie diets, the higher protein diet will pretty much always win in terms of hunger control when compared to a low protein diet.