The answer to this is 'it depends on the person'. Some people aren't carb-sensitive and can lose fine without counting carbs. Others, myself included, can stick to 1200 calories a day, but if there are grains in there, I'm starving all the time and can't lose any weight.
True ! My mother can't lose weight on 1000-1200 cals if her carbs are high, while I can eat 1400 cals of pure carbs and still lose weight. I'm a huge pastas/breads eater. I tried low carbs but I gave up after 3 days, it was so hard, it's just not how I like losing weight. Why suffering on a low carbs diet while I can eat bread and pastas and chocolate on a regular low-cals diet ?
Try it ! For some it's necessary, for other like me it's just a matter of taste.
So many wonderful words of advice have already been given. In the past when I lost over 100 pounds (yes gained it back-my errors and addictions) and now on my journey to health I eat carbs. I try to eat better carbs, brown rice, quinoa, sweet potatos and so forth but I am not afraid to have white rice once in awhile. I was reading the new edition of the DASH diet which did a huge study on lowering blood pressure with diet alone, not losing weight or exercising. And a diet of 4 fruits, 4 vegetables, whole grain carbs at every meal and low fat dairy daily worked. Of course you can use this to lose weight too but they wanted to prove a point. And lowering sodium elicited even better results.
My biggest problem is eating junky, salty carbs like pop chips or mini rice cakes. Hard to resist and If I give in yes I can lose weight but I am not full for long.
When I first started experimenting with different carb levels, and found I lost best on low-carb, I thought it was only because low-carb reduced my hunger and I therefore ate less.
However, when I kept accurate food logs and reviewed them looking for patterns (weeks and weeks of data), I discovered that I actually lose more weight (and more consistently) on 1800 calories of low-carb than on 1800 calories of high-carb. The average difference was between half a pound and a pound per week (To lose similar amounts of weight on high carb, I had to eat 1500 calories or less).
I also discovered that my body temperature is about a degree higher on low-carb (which may partially explain why I lose more - it takes more calories to maintain a higher body temperature).
I don't know if this low-carb/high-carb metabolic discrepancy always existed, and I don't know if it exists for everyone (I suspect not, but I don't really have proof of that either).
We're taught that we're supposed to find something that works, and stick with it, but we're not really taught to experiment, at least not very much.
One of the ways "this time" has been so different for me, is that I've been experimenting from the start, and vowed not to see lack of results or even negative results (gaining) as progress. Even in the failures, I've learned about how my body works, and what I can do to succeed, and what efforts seem to produce the best results (not just the fastest, but also the easiest and most comfortable).
We need to encourage the experimentation, and willingness to try things that may not work (and not to see that as failure, but rather successfully learning what doesn't work or doesn't work as well).
Even if what you're doing is working, it doesn't mean something else might not work better. If you try something and it doesn't work better, then you can always return to what has worked in the past, or you can try something else, that's all ok too.
In some ways, I think we make weight loss TOO IMPORTANT. So important, that we fear experimenting for fear that the experiment won't work. I think it's also why so many people are tempted by extremely drastic, unhealthy, and sometimes even dangerous weight loss methods, because we want the dramatic results that those methods yield (at least in the short term). We're tempted to "stacking the deck" in our favor, even if it hurts us in the long run (sometimes even when we KNOW it hurts us in the long run).
Most of my life, I lost weight by drastic means, because I thought I "needed" to see the dramatic results (but I'd become crushed when the results stopped being dramatic).
I've spent the last seven years experimenting, and not all of the experiments resulted in weight loss, but I learned a lot about my body in the process. Even the two years I spent maintaining a 20 lb loss, but not losing, were still successful. Not only did I learn how to maintain a weight loss, I also learned other important things about how my body works.
I think we often doom ourselves to failure by defining success in a way that makes it hard to feel successful. If we weren't so afraid of gaining, I think we'd be more open to the experimenting. At least that was true for me. When I stopped fearing weight gain, I stopped being paralyzed by it. In the past, if I gained, I'd feel like giving up. Now, a gain doesn't stop or even deter or slow me down. I expect the little gains, so the long haul is easier.
It's really quite ironic that I didn't start to lose weight successfully (permanently) until I stopped being afraid of weight gain.
It's really quite ironic that I didn't start to lose weight successfully (permanently) until I stopped being afraid of weight gain.
This is brilliant!! My brother (who was about 40lbs overweight in high school) Lost it all in about 1/2 a year and kept it off no problem.. After a couple years he started becoming obsessed with gaining, and he ate very little for a few months. He would eat one chicken breast in a whole day and "gain" It was bad.. But once he "let it go" and stopped weighing he's managed to eat whatever he wants (seriously, ice cream, McD's shakes, buttered popcorn, etc) whenever he wants, for years and he's maintained his weight. It's like once he stopped caring, he stopped gaining. Weight loss is so mental
Kaplods, YES! So true, all of it. I'm a career dieter and I used to have the mindset it all had to be drastic! When I first started and was low-carbing and being very careful about everything, I was losing, but I was cranky and unhappy and then I just decided that maybe I can find another way, that maybe I can eat some fruit and whole wheat and still lose. So now I decided I am my own science experiment, and I don't care if it takes me twenty years to lose, I will keep trying until I find something I can live with. I'm cranky because since switching plans I've gained four pounds, but rationally I know it may be water retention. In the past I would have freaked out and binged. I am trying to keep my head, but it helps hearing you all out... So much wise info here!
I lost the weight on Atkins but didn't find it realistic for me.
I've started CC but using the things I learned in Atkins and it's working EXTREMELY well.
I basically have incorporated back most fruits (still no banana or super high carb fruits) and occassionally sneak in a few carbs (brown rice, low carb ice cream, carbmaster yogurt, 100cal popcorn, etc.)
D: 6-8oz lean protein
2-3c. veggies
sometimes some light butter or parmesan on them
I'm sure coming from atkins you can see that it's still similar to Atkins, but with a few more carbs. It seems to be working well and I feel like I'm learning how to eat properly without saying I can't have a particular food at all.
I lost 125 pounds with Weight Watchers. I didn't restrict anything, especially carbs. I love bread and pasta way too much to give them up. I would be miserable.
Kaplods, YES! So true, all of it. I'm a career dieter and I used to have the mindset it all had to be drastic! When I first started and was low-carbing and being very careful about everything, I was losing, but I was cranky and unhappy and then I just decided that maybe I can find another way, that maybe I can eat some fruit and whole wheat and still lose. So now I decided I am my own science experiment, and I don't care if it takes me twenty years to lose, I will keep trying until I find something I can live with. I'm cranky because since switching plans I've gained four pounds, but rationally I know it may be water retention. In the past I would have freaked out and binged. I am trying to keep my head, but it helps hearing you all out... So much wise info here!
You have a really good attitude
I also treat myself as a science experiment, it helps that I very much enjoy scientific discovery, but removing my emotions from the equation certainly helps! Right now I've sort of entered uncharted territory since there isn't much out there on maintenance, so I look to continue my scientific experiment even further
I think calorie counting works best for me and my lifestyle. People are always surprised to hear and see that I still eat "bad" foods—I just watch how much! In fact my mom (we go to the same gym) was asked if I eat...she replied that I eat quite a lot. It's been an experiment in itself to figure out how much I need to maintain because right now the calculators don't seem to work for me (I keep losing when I was expecting a metabolic slowdown) so I'm continually adjusting the amount I eat. It's fun though, to find out how much I can eat, how I feel and how much exercise I can or can't do.
I think I'm one of those people who can literally eat whatever as long as I watch the amount. It seems to run in my family: My mother lost weight not changing her diet much but exercising more, my father is calorie counting and has lost weight. He told my brother that it will probably work for him too and I'm figuring that if a calorie deficit alone works for me, my mother, and my father that it will probably work for him too. I hope he tries it, it would be interesting to see how that goes for him.
Granted we all eat pretty well for the most part, but there is a lot of "junk" in the house that my family eats (which probably explains all of our weight problems). Our meals are usually fresh, unprocessed things though.
Me. In fact I made a point of eating most of my calories as veg, fruit, high fiber cereals, and non-fat dairy. I do tend to eat more protein now because of eating "real" dinner with the beau instead of bowl of cereal and milk after getting home from the gym.
