I am currently doing a plan called the LIFE diet, by Joy Bauer a nutritionist. It's designed for long term weight loss. If you follow the meals exactly as outlined you don't have to count carbs or cals. I have been 100% faithful to the plan so far (in my 4th week now). I lost 7lbs the first week, 4 the second and 2.5 the 3rd. I expect to continue to lose about 2lbs/week until I reach my goal - Maybe more if I add more exercise.
I do log everything I eat into fitday.com. Your question made me look back at the carbs and cals. Roughly the plan is 1200 cals/day. You can eat unlimited lean protien at meals if you are male or a woman under 40 that exercises 1hr per day 5x/week. I am female, over 40 and do about 30 mins 4-5x/week, so I am limited to about 1200 cals/day. I think the key to staying at 1200 cals is that they are very nutrition dense calories - scant amounts of sugar if any in a day - no "white" carbs. Meals and snacks are planned so that you don't go for longer than about 4 hrs before the next meal or snack. The break down of carbs is roughly 85-115/day and make up about 1/3 of the calories consumed.
So, since you asked what is easier to stick with -
Low calorie that doesn't include "empty" carbs. Nutrition dense foods that are satisfying (healthy fats, lean protien, fruits, veggies and whole grains). Planned meals that prevent scavaging for food between meals or leave you ravishingly hungry at meal times.
If you are posting in the 100+ - then you need long term weight loss like I do, and so far - this is very doable!
Not to dispute your knowledge of your own diet, Robin my dear, but I think your perspective of "tons of carbs" is a little skewed nowadays The average American takes in about 120 pounds of refined sweeteners per year...that translates to nearly 150 grams of pure sugar carbs per day (600 calories' worth!) And that's not counting the white flour, corn, and other grains!
Basically, any of us who are eating, say...250 grams of carbs or less per day are already eating substantially fewer than the average American adult.
Well if you're comparing me to the average American - don't. It's not comparable. Thank goodness!!!
But to say that I eat low carb is totally false. So when compared to a low carb diet, I really do eat lots (okay, perhaps not tons) of carbs. Gotta get it in here once more - the *good* carbs, that is. Those flour-y, sugar-y ones - for me, they are poisonous and evil and something I will always need to avoid - and just in case I forgot that, I had this past week to remind me once more just how addictive, poisonous and evil they really are.
I do both. Low carb and calorie counting. This time, it's easier for me because I planned a 1500 calorie menu of yummy things and I'm eating the same things every day. Each week, I plan on adding a breakfast, lunch or dinner option. If I don't have to think about what I can eat, then I can avoid the temptation to decide to eat off-plan "just this once" or because I don't have the energy to plan a meal. I also don't have to plan my calories each day. This has made me success at staying on-plan for the first time in a very long time!
Shmead - When I was eating dairy, during the summer, I would share a McDonald's ice cream (cup not cone) with my husband and often would even throw most of it away.
I eat refined carbs rarely but I do eat them. The bulk of my carbs are as close to nature as possible, whether it is fruit, veggies, beans, whole grains, etc. On a daily basis, my food doesn't have refined carbs but once in a while, I'll have a white tortilla or sourdough bread or what not. Its just not where I choose to spend my calories for the most part.
So for those who've done any kind of a low carb/controlled carb way of eating, and switched to calorie counting--if you've been able to stick to the calorie counting, what about it made it so that you could?
I realized I didn't address the original question. Why was I finally able to stick to calorie counting, and avoiding the *white* stuff for that matter? - death and my fear of it. I was eating myself into an early grave. And it had to stop. A change HAD to occur. Even if I was lucky enough to live, well, my quality of life was horrendous. Horrendous. And for what - overfeeding myself. A change HAD to occur. I couldn't go on the way that I was. There was too high a price to pay for eating the way that I was. Besides, eating that way didn't provide me with happiness. I was MISERABLE.
People ask me all the time how I lost so much weight and I tell them very simply that I "decided" to. I made the decision to lose the weight, the commitment to lose the weight and therefore I was WILLING to do whatever was necessary, whatever was required to get the job done.
So therefore I was WILLING to give up the high calorie/high quantity food and count my calories. It's a bit daunting at first, but like with anything else, we get good at what we practice and in a VERY short time it became ez shmeezy. And this lifestyle became a heckuva lot more enjoyable than my old lifestlye. I wouldn't go back to it for anything in the world.
Any work, effort, thought, time, energy, or what have you is MORE than worth it. I can't think of a more worthwhile, rewarding, productive way to spend my time. Even if it seemed hard in the beginning, it was waaaaaaay easier than the hard of being super morbidly obese. NOTHING was harder than that.
I'm starting to get that folks that are referring to "carbs" are specifically meaning highly refined carbohydrate foods like white sugar and baked goods made with white flour? As a biologist it makes me slightly crazy to read about people saying they eat low carb and then list all the vegetables they eat, for example.
I eat moderately low carb, but I eat a LOT of vegetables. At least on the diabetic boards I frequent, "Low carb" usually means fewer than 50 grams of carbs a day. That's easily done with you getting your carbs only from vegetables (especially if you subtract the fiber from your total carbs for a "net carbs" number). If you go "very low carb" (fewer than 30 grams), you limit your vegetables a lot more. And if, like me, you eat "moderately low carb", it's fewer than 100 grams, but often above 50.
If you compare that to the ADA suggestion of 6-11 servings of "grains and starches" per day, assuming each serving to be 15 grams of carb, you're looking at 90 - 165 grams of carb from grains/starches alone, not including vegetable or fruit servings. Most folks who follow the ADA diet end up eating about 40-60% of their calories in carbs -- from 650 to 1000 calories in carbs out of 1600/day. That's nowhere near low-carb, or even moderate carb.
I guess I'm just saying that in general use, "lowering my carbs" can mean everything from counting every carb gram from veg, milk, fruit, and grain to just restricting sweeteners and refined grains. You really have to ask a person what THEY mean by "low carb".
I have done both but found low carb too restrictive, counting carb grams was very tiresme and seemed to limit what I could eat and lose. I now count calories because it is more flexible, but I do limit carbs to a degree.
On the definitional issue, I do think a lot of people use the term "carb" when they are really talking about grains and starches, and they don't think about veggies and fruits also consisting primarily of carbohydrates. So unless it's clear from the context, I generally assume that people are referring to grains and starch when they talk about carbs.
Regarding moderation, I think it's a bit extreme to say it doesn't work. I think that's true for some people but not for others. As a calorie counter, I try to spend my calories wisely, and sweets and refined grains don't give nearly enough bang for the buck as lots of other foods. So I make a choice to have them infrequently just because I'd rather be eating larger quantities of more filling whole foods. However, that doesn't mean that when I choose to have something as a treat, that I can't have it in moderation. So for me, at the end of the day, it's about planning and choices.
I don't know if this any help to you at all but I really identify when you say :
I crave carbs from the time I get up, until the time I go to bed. I could live on breads, and sweet things. I could live on carbs, and not feel bad about never eating any protein, fruits, or vegetables--so you can see that I have a problem here.
I am the same way. Here is my solution: eat more protein and you will find that you carve carbs less. It was amazing to me to find out how much protein I should be eating. I was NOT eating enough protein. Now, I build my meals around protein. It's not alway meat, I like other sources as well (fish, beans, greek yogurt, eggs, etc). Until I started making myself eat protein, I was in a vicious catch 22 cycle with carbs.
So for those who've done any kind of a low carb/controlled carb way of eating, and switched to calorie counting--if you've been able to stick to the calorie counting, what about it made it so that you could?
wow, I feel like I would have to be a scientist to understand some of the previous posts by some very smart ladies! Kudos to all of you that can break it down to the science of the why's and how's.
truffle, I'm actually wondering what exactly you are are referring to for carbs? is it basically starches (cereal, breads, rice) and sweets? Because if so, I can answer based on my experience how I have been able to stick to my regime.
I used to eat carbs all the time for every meal and everything inbetween. It's how I was raised and I had no idea that it was the major factor of my weight gain! I've tried the "low cal/no cal" diets and they ended horribly. But the good thing that came from experience was identifying how much a serving was and how many carbs were good for me per day.
Now, I'll limit myself to 2 servings per day and they better be worthwhile as some servings go further than others (a serving of toast = 1 slice, rice = 1/4 cup cooked, etc). There are days I go over, and there are days that I have to remind myself to get them or I'm cutting out too many calories.
How do I stick to it? because it's so so so much easier to drop the pounds when not eating it. And I can't begin to express how much better my body feels without the starch/sugar overdoses.
Ultimately, I would say the majority of the compulsion to eat all those starches and sweets is in your head. Once you get through the first few days you start to realize you don't miss it as much as you thought you would.
Ultimately, I would say the majority of the compulsion to eat all those starches and sweets is in your head. Once you get through the first few days you start to realize you don't miss it as much as you thought you would.
In a sense, this comment is correct ... it is *in your head* but not in the way I think you meant. While I do believe that some people can eat sweets and carbs without issues, I suspect most of us who have been or are "morbidly obese" have to face the fact that we are vulnerable to addiction-like behaviors with starchy or sweet carbs in particular because our brains and bodies are sending us signals to eat-eat-eat these things.
It is almost impossible to ignore these intense biological signals so successful weight-losers have simply cut these foods out of their diet. Sheer white-knuckle willpower will only work for so long. It is fascinating to me reading this thread as to how many of the *very* successful weight losers here at 3FC have had to eliminate certain foods to continue their success. This isn't just because these foods have lots of calories, it's because these foods trigger an insane desire to eat more (and more and more), way beyond satiety.
I copied the following from "Summer Tomato" a blog I follow:
In his book The End of Overeating, former FDA commissioner Dr. David Kessler examines the role of the brain in eating behavior and the mechanisms involved in what he calls conditioned hypereating.
According to his findings specific combinations of sugar, fat and salt hijack the reward pathways of our brain and force us to behave more like food addicts than hungry organisms. This leads to a cycle of conditioned hypereating that makes the habit harder to break with each repeated episode.
But whether or not we are addicted to food is a point of debate. In my interview with Kessler, he made clear he does not use the word addiction for fear of oversimplifying conditioned hypereating. Our relationship with food is more complicated than it is with something like alcohol or tobacco because a human can live without cigarettes, but food is vital to survival. When pressed to describe the neural differences between addiction and conditioned hypereating, however, Kessler conceded, “The fundamental circuits are the same.” (emphasis mine)
The End of Overeating is a marvelous book. I can truthfully say it affected me profoundly, and may even have changed my life. Even though I was aware of much of the science, he brought something new to the table. It's not that the information was earth-shattering, because I'd heard a lot of it before, but something about the way he presents it struck me, in a way I hadn't experienced before. It was one of the few "epiphany" experiences I've had on this journey.
Another is the book Refuse to Regain by Barbara Berkeley. The book is written for people who've lost the weight, but I'd even recommend it to folks who haven't yet lost their first pound, because every pound matters. I've not just lost weight in the last four years, I've also maintained the losses. The first year I lost 20 lbs, and the second year I lost no more, but maintained that 20 lb loss. So you could say that I've lost 80 lbs in the last four years, but you could also say that I've maintained a 20 lb loss for 4 years. Maintenance begins with the first pound you lose.
Has anyone seen the studies that equate sugar addiction with cocaine addiction? And, the episodes on Dr. Oz where he talks about the gland in the center or our brain (pituitary?) the send out hormones that make us feel happy when we eat sugar? Well, it you're talking about that gland, I guess it just might be all in my head! But, face it. Science has proven that there is a biological reason for sugar addiction. It's not all mental, folks.
The average American takes in about 120 pounds of refined sweeteners per year...that translates to nearly 150 grams of pure sugar carbs per day (600 calories' worth!) 
And that's not counting the white flour, corn, and other grains!
Those flour-y, sugar-y ones - for me, they are poisonous and evil and something I will always need to avoid - and just in case I forgot that, I had this past week to remind me once more just how addictive, poisonous and evil they really are.
But, face it. Science has proven that there is a biological reason for sugar addiction. It's not all mental, folks.
