Your thoughts on the "counting calories" advice?


(Auden) #21

How did you find your calorie level? Just slowly drop the calories and watch for a result?


(Ken) #22

I reduced the amounts of meat and fat I was eating, and increased my fiberous veggies. I used hunger as a guide, first to the point when I was hungry about the time I ate, then to where I was hungry several hours before. When I did that, I had carbs on the Weekend to prevent metabolic slowdown.


(mole person) #23

Exactly right. You’ve nailed my own experience. I started only 20 lbs overweight at 49 years old. I’d been slim my entire life and until the last 8 years or so didn’t even understand why dieting was difficult for others. For me I’d just stop eating cookies and ice cream for two weeks and whatever pounds I’d added would disappear. Then things just changed. I still added a couple of pounds here and there but my usual way of shedding them wasn’t working and they just slowly added up until I was quite miserable. Finally, after trying my usual method about a half dozen times and failing I heard a podcast with Taubes and it led me down the keto rabbit hole. I decided to try it. At first the results amazed me. I quite rapidly lost the first 10 lbs but then the needle jammed and nothing more would budge.

At thas point though I’d been reading about people on keto doing IF and decided to try it. I was fully fat adapted and so it went very easily. I started with 16/8 and then switched to OMAD. As soon as I was OMAD those pounds started moving again and I dropped all the way to 108 where I deemed that I was as slim as I wanted to be and so I started switching it up more with a larger window some days… Anyhow, the point is that for me keto alone only worked for a few months before sticking me at a set point that I did not find satisfactory. I still eat keto and LOVE the WOE for many reasons but currently to maintain a weight I enjoy I must do IF too otherwise I just eat too much. However, when I eat, I eat VERY, VERY well, and I love it.


(Chris W) #24

No I wish the dudes being the computer gurus they are would write some code that provides one, I personally think it should be weighted to beginners, and maybe slightly better explain exercise and proper way to handle the macros as targets but not end all be all points.


(Bacon is a many-splendoured thing) #26

It certainly would be easy to code. The trickiest part would be helping people to estimate their lean body mass, so as to calculate their protein intake. The rest is dead easy, because the carb macro would always be “under 20 g/day” and the fat macro would be “to satiety.”


(Ron) #27

The problem there is that most people coming from SAD diet don’t know what this is or how to recognize so there would have to be a reference in some form as a beginning guideline. (maybe with direction to understanding satiety for the beginner).


(Bacon is a many-splendoured thing) #28

Well, my experience was perhaps typical. I just kept eating the same portion size as I was used to for the first few weeks, until the meal when satiety really kicked in and I understood—finally—what they were talking about. I was still losing weight while eating those larger portions at the beginning, so perhaps the body just needed all that coming in, in order to be sure the abundance of calories could be trusted. I can imagine it finally saying, “Enough, at last! Now I can tell him to cut back!”


(Chris W) #29

I agree, I have really like to term it as full until you figure out satiety. I think there would need to be an emphasis on this is a “guide” or place to start. I think there is disconnect in the macro calulators and the fact that you really should not be taking in any carbs, every once and while you run across a newbie that is making that carb macro without fail.

I also agree with @PaulL that I ate to maintain macros based on advice from the person who showed me the WOE. But I cut about a month in and that did not work out well after a couple weeks. I think another problem is that the people think that fat adaption is better than keto adaption, for me at least it was almost unnoticeable save my exercise.


(Alec) #30

Stuff yourself so full of fat you are physically sick, then back off one mouthful. :-):face_vomiting:


(Chris W) #31

been there did that, and the result was not pretty.


#32

I have the same reaction with MFP! I wish we could REMOVE the calorie list!!