How many of you watch calories?

(Troy) #191

Some added info from a recent post on Diet Doctor

https://www.dietdoctor.com/low-carb/calories

(Jake Burns) #193

I dont count calories at all. The only math I do is net carbs. I’m eating a lot on instinct.

(The amazing autoimmune 🦄) #194

I am entirely new to Keto but I try not to look at the calories, and just track carbs at this point.

(Brian) #195

Yup, if I’m gonna count anything, it’ll be carbs. Next would be protein. Beyond that, I have almost no interest. And since I eat pretty much the same group of food, varied but consistent, the carb, protein and fat numbers don’t keep changing. A cup of broccoli and a fillet of salmon is pretty much the same macros as it was six months ago, five months ago, four months ago, ettc.

How many calories? Don’t have a clue. Don’t care in the least.

(Kierron Campbell ) #196

Reason why I completely ignore calories on keto
The gym body breaks down fat and protein differently then sugar and carbs .

(Michelle isaacson) #197

Love this thread! I like to remind myself to “Trust the process.” I trust my taking a pill :pill: to treat an infection. I trust the science there and Here for Keto.

I don’t count a single calorie. I only count carbs! Under 20 and eat my fat and protein.

And a surprise 23# (10.5kg) down in 2 months.

It almost seemed too easy!
KCKO

(Erica) #198

This is a really interesting thought, and makes me feel better about the fact that I have been sitting here stressing about a 200 calorie surplus according to my app. When in fact, what I personally care about is my carbs, which were only 10 for the day! Yet I am letting an app make me feel like I failed…But I think you’re right. Somehow it is so hard to get past the calorie thing though. ugh.

(Erica) #199

After reading these comments, I am tempted to turn off the calorie counter on my macros app. YET…somehow that seems impossibly scary, even though I am not trying to lose weight!! “CALORIES IN CALORIES OUT” has been hammered into us all for years. It’s so hard to let go of!!

(Running from stupidity) #200

I leave mine on because it motivates me to eat enough on days when the depression tells me I don’t want to eat. #edgecase

(Thurston ) #201

I really don’t understand the issue here. If someone is tracking calories and it’s working for them and they’re attaining their goals kudos to them. Likewise if you don’t.

Why does everyone have to find fault with the way others do things?

I personally tracked calories religiously for the first 5-6 months. I had goals and hit them and lost weight. Now, the past few months I haven’t been tracking calories as diligently and I’ve plateaued.
Not gaining either, so I can see both sides of the equation. However, I feel I need to track to lose weight and I’m strictly speaking for myself here.

(Joanna Parszyk ) #202

I’d say do not bother until u r properly fat adapted. Later u see how it goes. I’m a curious person so l like to be aware what are the guidelines. Later, if your goal is weight loss and u stall, maybe change something in accordance with calorie count or quality of those calories.

From a perspective of sb who does keto for other reasons and weight loss is not the goal, it is good to check in case you actually start loosing weight.

(Amanda Tirado) #203

I agree with the above! For me what I have tried to focus on is one thing at a time. I always make sure I try to maintain being under the 20 grams of net carbs a day. I am only on week three or so but after I’ve done that for a bit then ill focus on making sure my macros are where they should be, when or if I start to stall. Weight-loss has literally been effortless otherwise. Try not to overwhelm yourself and take it one day at a time. KCKO

(Erica) #204

hmmm…does eating make you feel better though? In the past I found that if I didn’t get in enough calories (even if I wasn’t hungry)…the depression worsened. Having depression (if it makes you not want to eat) is the one time I am an advocate of eating even if you’re not hungry. So that makes total sense why you would track. Hope it helps you!

#205

This has been my experience as well. For me changing the percentages didn’t affect the rate of weight loss so I stopped paying attention. This may change in the future depending on goals and what path I decide to take.

(charlie3) #206

Nobody here is qualified to tell other people what to do. Everybody here is qualified to say what they do. I have 8 months experience with keto combined with exercise and restricted eating times. I find all three to be important. I didn’t seriously start the diet part until I had found a capable diet tracker. Someone here suggested cronometer. I adopted that one and have been carefully tracking food consumed AND calories burned ever since. My food day-to-day is mostly the same stuff so record keeping hasn’t been so tough. Tweaking macros has become relatively easy. Then I got interested in micro nutrients, which crono also tracks. If I’m going to all this trouble to eat healthy I might as well try to perfect the micros too and there’s no way I could ever do that without tracking and research.

I want to be as lean and fit as possible and look the part without compromising health. I’d like to keep my current 12% body fat and grow some muscle. It’s too soon to say how successful this will be. I find tracking both the food I eat and how it’s consumed is worthwhile.

(Running from stupidity) #207

Not really. It’s more like “there’s another thing done on the to-do list - it had to be done and I managed to get myself to do it, so yay me.” So there’s that sense that the thing that needed to be done, like taking out the rubbish, has been done, but that’s about it. So there’s a basic satisfaction in that, but no mood/brain improvement as such.

As I said, #edgecase for sure.

(You've tried everything else; why not try bacon?) #208

Tracking calories is fine. Some of us do, some don’t, and nobody criticizes. What we do criticize, however, is intentional calorie restriction.

The issue here is that, even in the absence of carbohydrate, the body behaves differently in times of calorie restriction from how it behaves in times of abundance. When calories are plentiful (and carbs are low, of course), the body increases the basal metabolic rate, fat cells not only release fatty acids for other cells to metabolize but metabolize them themselves, protein consumption doesn’t affect the glucagon/insulin ration, so all kinds of useful processes (including ketogenesis) can continue, muscles have abundant amino acids for growth, fertility increases, inflammation gets healed, bones are strengthened, insulin resistance gets reversed, and so forth.

By contrast, in lean times (still in the absence of carbohydrate), the body hunkers down and reduces the basal metabolic rate, slows or shuts down such non-essential processes as hair growth and reproductive ability, delays muscle growth, and retains every scrap of fat to get through the difficult period. It is very hard to eat less energy than you expend, when your body keeps lowering its energy expenditure to compensate, and it is possible to do permanent damage to the metabolism that way (think of the contestants on “The Biggest Loser”).

The other issue is that a low-carbohydrate ketogenic diet is more sustainable, because we can eat and not have to be hungry. Whereas the high insulin resulting from high carbohydrate intake blocks the body’s satiety signaling, which is one of the reasons fat people are hungry all the time—the news that they have plenty of stored energy is prevented from making it from their fat cells to their brain.

So if the human body is more likely to let go of its excess fat and heal its metabolism when calories are unrestricted than when they are deliberately kept low, which state do you think people on these forums are going to recommend? Especially when we are all about the science, and the science points in only one direction—and not in the direction of the government’s dietary guidelines, either!

(Thurston ) #209

Thanks for the explanation. I know most of you don’t agree with cico but once again in my case, allowing a small calorie deficit with the keto woe allowed me to lose a bunch of lbs. For me the mind and body are tough things to get in line to get them to react how I’d like so I say use all the weapons in the arsenal to attain the goals desired.

Tracking weight, carbs, calories, bg, bp,ketones and fasting to me are all part of that arsenal, tweaking as needed for success. If you can eat to satiety and continue to meet goals without tracking and counting all the more power to you. I’d suppose those of you who can have your mind and body working together, good for you!

I wish I’d been in that camp all my life, I’d have never become overweight, insulin resistant and developed T2.

(Pete A) #210

14 months in, 80 pounds lost, maintaining since around April and building muscle, repairing my body, and track everything. Little supplementation or overorchestration. Stay under 20 carbs and within a certain calorie range, there’s only so much else to eat (protein, fat). No fake foods. I fnd this WOE easy, simple, and if one runs the numbers, the fat will burn off. I hardly feel deprived or dissatisfied.

The KISS principle.

(Hyperbole- best thing in the universe!) split this topic #211

A post was split to a new topic: Rosacea and carbs