Quote:
Originally Posted by df1960
0I now it's all about calories BUT if I eat 10 slices of bread with peanut butter and jam per day my calories for that day would be between 1000 and 1500 calories but i don't see how anyone could lose on that.
What you eat matters, but if you're only eating 1000 calories, even if the calories are coming from chocolate bars, you'll probably lose weight (though you'll probably feel like crap doing it).
I've found that I lose more (and more importantly feel much better) when my calories are coming from unrefined and relatively low-carb choices - but ultimately calorie-level is still the main component.
I lose about as well on 1800 calories of low-carb as on 1500 calories of high-carb (though I'm much hungrier on high-carb), but if I ate only 1000 calories I would lose weight no matter where those calories came from. When I was younger, I didn't notice this dramatic of a difference (maybe I just didn't notice, or maybe my aging body and insulin resistance are playing a bigger role in the calorie differential. I have found that my body temperature is lower on high-carb eating - so that seems to be a possible indication that my metabolism really is slower on high-carb).
What I'm trying to say is that there is a limit to how much of a metabolism boost you can get from choosing the right foods. And some people don't seem to get any boost at all - they lose just as well on 1200 calories of snickers bars as they do on 1200 calories of "healthy" foods.
You're going to have to experiment to see what works best for you (both in terms of weight loss and just feeling good).
I prefer using an exchange plan, because it counts and controls the calories for me, and I only have to count the exchanges (pre-determined portions of six different food groups protein, veggies, fat, dairy, starch, and fruit).
The frugalabunance website explains and outlines exchange for differing calorie and carb count levels (I calorie cycle, so essentially 1500 calorie high-protein plan is my minimum and the 1800 calorie plan is my maximum).
http://frugalabundance.com/exchange-plan-diet.pdf
(The plans are outlined at the end of the document).