Count calories?

(Justin Jordan) #21

It’s a great forum, it’s just this particular topic.

I have to watch calories to lose weight* even on a zero carb diet. But I don’t find it particularly onerous or have a distaste for it. But the advice to track what you eat and then scale back from there is the best advice - people really do have wildly variable metabolisms and activity levels, so any calculation is at best an educated guess.

*I’m experimenting this past month with more frequents fasts, and not keeping a conscious eye on calories, which I think is working - I’ll be weighing myself this week, so I can’t say for certain.

#22

Kimberly, please don’t stop asking questions. We ALL learn from other peoples questions.

You haven’t caused any issues here. CICO is a long standing point of contention on this forum. Trust me, you haven’t done anything wrong.

#23

No Carl, she doesn’t. If you read her post, she is QUITE CLEARLY asking HOW MANY calories.
NOT whether she should count or not.

Next she faces 2 lengthy posts, telling her all sorts of things EXCEPT what she asked.

This is supposed to be a helpful forum for people who need answers to questions. All is well until, someone has the ordasity to ask about calorie control. Then the ‘CICO is shit’ brigade start forcing their opinion on them. If she had asked ‘Should I count calories?’… … … … … different thing all together.

I understand that people have different views on CICO. Which is why I don’t force my opinion on anyone else.

#24

I agree whole heartedly Justin.
Members should be allowed to ask questions on this subject, and maybe get an answer.

(Carl Keller) #25

The title suggests otherwise.

There’s no perfect way to do Keto. Opinions vary and debate is healthy since it opens people up to other ideas and ways of thinking. The very idea of should one lower calories immediately provokes some to say “why? calories are not as important as some people insist they are” ergo they offer that opinion. The person who created the thread is under no obligation to take that advice and what’s not healthy is people getting upset when someone contradicts how they or the person starting the thread operates. God bless you if your way works for you, but we are all free to choose our path in Keto and we should at least try to respect the contrary opinions of others by not scolding them. A “I Humbly disagree” would have been much less antagonistic and got your point across.

The people who posted responses to the author of this thread took a fair amount of time to offer their heart-felt beliefs to a perfect stranger, because they like to pay the benefits of Keto forward and that’s the most beautiful thing about this forum… just my humble opinion.

#26

Oh come on Carl. Are you really telling us that you can’t see the question from the op in her post? Really? Have another read, and see if you can spot it.

You are right about opinions varying (as I said in the previous post), but they should at least be varied opinions on the answer to the question. 8 paragraphs of reply, with absolutely NO HINT of an answer.

What would have been great was :-

Hi op. The best answer I can give is xxxxxxxxxx. However, you might try looking at it like this.’

… … … …but, no.

(Carl Keller) #27

I can but the title prevokes a natural response. I’m guilty of it too and where’s the harm in giving the opinion that the title prevokes? Seriously? In order for non-calorie counters to answer or not answer the questions requires us to be totally honest.

(Frank) #28

I’d suggest pumping the brakes and slowing your roll.

#29

No it isn’t Rob. I didn’t give her a figure (because I don’t know the figure for her). But, I gave her instructions on how she can get the figure for herself. Which is EXACTLY the method I was shown when I first asked this same question, a long time ago. It worked really well for me. I have no reason to believe it won’t work for her.

#30

Why?
Is defending peoples right to ask about CICO, not sitting easy with you? If so, unless you’re a moderator, you don’t have to get involved.

(Frank) #31

It was just a suggestion. Have at it.

(Empress of the Unexpected) #32

I use the tracking app Chronometer. It has a setting for keto macros, and based on your age, weight, height, BMI, it will come up with a suggested calorie count, that you can adjust for maintenance, weight loss, or gain.

(Cindy) #33

Kimberly, I’m sorry that this thread has turned into more of an argument than an attempt to help you.

The only advice I can offer is from my personal experience…which is true of most people here. For ME, I’ve lived a lifetime of CICO and it’s never worked long term. The only time I lost a significant amount of weight was with a LapBand, which essentially forced a very low cal, mostly keto diet. I lost 85 lbs and kept the majority of it off for ~7 yrs. Only with menopause and some other life changes did I start significantly gaining again.

Again, this is for ME, but I don’t want to live my life with so much of my mental energy going toward calculating, weighing and measuring, and tracking macros or calories. I find that it makes me impatient for results (but dammit, I’m doing everything RIGHT according to my calculations!) when, in reality, weight loss SHOULD take time.

I’m still new to keto and as much as I’d like being one of those people who could say “Whoohooo, I’ve lost 5 lbs this week!”, I don’t weigh. Instead, I’m doing the best I can to stay with the keto dietary guidelines, but also ENJOY what I’m doing…otherwise, I’ll never be able to do it long-term. At some point, I’ll be able to say Yippee, I fit into a smaller pair of pants!, but the scales honestly don’t determine, except in very broad strokes, when that will happen.

(Kimberly) #34

Thank you

(Empress of the Unexpected) #35

You’re welcome - keep posting and letting us know how it goes!

(charlie3) #36

It’s pretty much impossible to answer your question specific to you. I track evereything practical but don’t assume any of the numbers are exact or that they are pointing in the same direction my body happens to be going. Over long enough time I can begin to see whether the numbers and my results match up. Some numbers turn out to be more reliable than others. In the mean time tracking everything keeps me in touch with more of the issues and variables. In my experience so far the most powerful thing I do to manage weight is limit how often I eat. A typical patter on typical American food might be 3 meals and 2 snacks a day, 35 times a week. I eat twice a day 6 days and nothing on Saturday, total, 12 time a week. I burn 800-1100 calories per day on exercise. When it’s time to eat one of those 12 meals it’s a doozy. Even if I cut out some calories I’m full when I pull away from the table.

(Running from stupidity) #37

Sometimes, the best way to “answer a question” is to point out why the question doesn’t actually have a good answer, and attempt to educate as to why that is.

So yes, that’s not strictly “answering the question” but when it’s an unanswerable question, that’s how it’s going to be, it’s not possible for it to be anything else.

And it’s a far more useful response than just producing basically random numbers in order to validate the question.

(Doug) #38

It’s okay, calories are no big problem - we just need to remember that they can be stored (almost all as fat), or excreted, in addition to being burned for energy. I think many want to oversimplify things, or go with bumper-sticker conceptualization, and often it does not work out that way, in reality.

Good post, and indeed - calories equate with grams of the macro nutrients - and who is going to say those don’t matter? :smile:

#39

Ah Mic, the voice of reason, almost :hugs:

(Running from stupidity) #40

CLOSE ENOUGH IS GOOD ENOUGH!

:slight_smile: