Counting calories

(Jay AM) #83

Or, we just want it to be that simple. Eat less, move more, be beautiful. That’s what we’ve been told by everyone for so long. We’ve gotta be hitting near a hundred years of that being common advice for heavier people.

#84

Thanks, Rob–this is good information. So, since I’m seeing more inches reduced than pounds on the scale–that’s what I’m going for, right? Is that the idea? Not to sound dense, but, this line of thinking is very different for me and it’s kind of hard to stay with it.

(Banting & Yudkin & Atkins & Eadeses & Cordain & Taubes & Volek & Naiman & Bikman ) #85

Reddit is a lot like the Mos Eisley spaceport. A hive of wretched villainy. I’m sure there are many helpful users, but I don’t trust hardly anything I find on reddit.

(Jennifer ) #86

N=2 report here. My partner and I accidentally calorie restricted (wasn’t getting enough food while eating OMAD) for the first 6 months of keto. After 70 and 50 pounds respectively lost, our weight loss completely halted two months ago. It only sped up again once we worked at getting our BMR back up again (We’ve been fasting/feasting to try and kick it up). I’ve lost 6 pounds this week after being stuck for 2 months. :woman_shrugging:t2:

So while calorie restriction can and will work for a lot of people, I would suggest keeping the option of eating more in your arsenal if you find that you slow down after the 1st 50-75 pounds (which is where a lot of us hit a stall), or if you stall for a couple months. The science DOES show that you can slow your BMR down while calorie restricting, but in the short term, yeah it will produce weight loss. And eventually your BMR will further lower to meet the energy limits you’re imposing. So be mindful of that if you go right into maintainence without upping your caloric intake first…if your BMR is still reduced, you will likely gain weight back. Especially if you go back to lots of carbs.

Just my two cents!

(Jennifer ) #87

I called them out for being dogmatic about CICO and all I got was more screaming about how I’ve drank the koolaid about hormones. :woman_shrugging:t2: Sure buddy

(Jennifer ) #88

100% agreed with everything you said. The CICO obsession did not exist there in 2012 when I first started keto.

(Rob) #89

That’s the thing isn’t it… it works for everybody for a while. That’s why (almost) all diets work initially and snake oil salesmen make money since they’ve taken your cash by the time it stops working and you yo-yo. At least with keto and CR you are likely to stall rather than bounce back and people like you can pass on your invaluable experience to others before they get frustrated and throw in the towel.

(Rob) #90

Your goals are your own but Keto is a way of eating primarily about metabolic healing and then about body recomposition (autocarrot wanted to put DEcomposition :grin:) since lowering insulin allows the body to finally release ‘excess’ body fat without losing much lean mass (because you aren’t starving).

Many women see the recomposition stuff happen before significant or even instead of weight loss so you lose inches as fat is replaced with muscle and less water is retained even as the body is lowering its insulin resistance to a point it can lose more weight. Unless you are already quite lean, take the inches as a down payment on scale losses to come. If you are lean, keto won’t magically take that last 10-20lbs usually because your body wants to keep them even if your mind doesn’t want to.

(Justin Jordan) #91

Yup.

I know from long experience that I am perfectly capable of maintaining a 280 pound body eating nothing but meat. Because satiety is meaningless to me. I will, barring conscious intervention, eat until I can’t.

I do count calories in a rough and ready way, and it works fine for me, and isn’t particularly onerous.

To avoid multiposting:

My uncle is pushing 70 years old, and weighs 270 pounds at 5’10 or so. And he’s been heavy since childhood. He’s strong as an ox, too, but massive gut.

Nevertheless, his blood sugar, triglycerides, etc are flawless. And indeed, he’s had no health troubles at all save having his gallbladder out decades ago.

So yeah, it happens. It’s not common, but there you go.

(Rob) #92

Classic MHO (metabolically healthy obese). Apparently about 30%+ of obese folks are metabolically healthy. A part of nature’s beautiful and infuriating diversity.

(Jennifer ) #93

I will loosely quote Megan Ramos as so many other do - men lose pounds when inches won’t budge, women lose inches when the pounds aren’t moving.

She explained that it’s because women react more strongly to HGH (which raises on keto), so our bones will be getting more dense and our muscles will too…so we will slim down visibly while the scale won’t budge. She was talking about this on either the Obesity Code podcast or the most recent Keto Dudes podcast.

(Jay AM) #94

That’s why people say to eat fat to satiety. Not protein. There will be a certain point when eating fat where, you just can’t anymore or you know you’ll be upchucking. Meanwhile, you could finish a 24 oz prime rib and then go for seconds.

(Barbara ) #95

The “Lose It” app does. I like it better than MFP. It is free but if you want more, there is a Premium which is I think 30 something for one year. That’s what I use.

(Kathleen Rose) #96

I agree. Wish it would allow me to edit my nutrient goals too without having to pay for it. MFP places a lot of emphasis on calorie counting which makes this that much more confusing and cumbersome.

#97

What fat do you eat when you have hit your protein grams and don’t want to eat any more carbs but are feeling hungry?

(Diane) #98

When I first began eating keto, I tracked everything I ate religiously for two months. I would sometimes “pre-track” my meals for the day, and then I could see where I needed to add fat as I went along. I could add extra yolks or some heavy whipping cream to my scrambled eggs or omelets. Use your veggies as a fat delivery system by adding butter, bacon grease or mayo based salad dressings. You can add a schmear of butter to a slice of good, sharp cheddar (it sounds strange but it’s yummy!). Triple cream Brie is also very good. You can add some coconut oil or MCT oil to coffee, tea or bone broth. I might have some pork rinds and guacamole, olives, or macadamia nuts or pecans as “dessert”. It’s hard to add just fat calories without at least a few grams of carbs or protein. Some people do eat pats of butter or swig a tablespoon or two of coconut oil. I have done that, but not often.

Hope this helps. Good luck!

(Daisy) #99

When I first started doing Keto, I only counted carbs, fat and protein. I stayed under 20 grams of carbs. l lost an initial 3-4 lbs of water weight and then just stayed at the same weight for over a month. Ready to give up, I decided to follow what all the Keto calculators out there said and keep my calories to 1267 a day. I suddenly dropped 10 lbs within a month. All the pants I wanted to fit into are now falling off me. In fact, my pants nearly fell down at the store the other day, lol. I am in my 50s and in my youth, I could easily lose weight on a regular type of diet, only counting calories. That slowly changed over time. I then had great success on the Atkins diet. None of that worked for me after 50. I keep losing the same 15 pounds for decades but my weight wouldn’t budge this time around. I find that on Keto, it is easy to feel satisfied with my calorie limit and I am having great success. This is just me, I see that a lot of people have great results not restricting calories.