Low carb

[SunnySunshine]

Who is living the low carb lifestyle?

I just got my fit it- flex and am hoping to track and motivate myself.

I successfully dropped 30 lbs following a low carb (Adkins/ Idiot proof diet/ Paleo thinking) and need to add exercise into the mix to drop the next 30-45.

Looking for friends and helpful hints to continue to journey. 🙂

[carl669]

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@Dominique wrote:

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@m0j0 wrote:

Unfortunately Fitbit has chosen to implement the out-dated thinking that weight loss is simply a matter of expending more calories than you consume 

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Are you saying that it's possible to lose weight by consuming more calories than you expend? Or that it's possible not to lose weight when consuming less than you expend?

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i think he's saying it's not as simple as calories in calories out.  the source of the calorie matters.

http://eatingacademy.com/nutrition/do-calories-matter

[m0j0]

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@Dominique wrote:

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@m0j0 wrote:

Unfortunately Fitbit has chosen to implement the out-dated thinking that weight loss is simply a matter of expending more calories than you consume 

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Are you saying that it's possible to lose weight by consuming more calories than you expend? Or that it's possible not to lose weight when consuming less than you expend?

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Hi  @Dominique. 

I am not claiming anything. I'm merely pointing out that weight loss is more complicated than simply counting calories, and that some high-carb foods can create a spike in glucose, leading to increased appetite, which makes weight loss more difficult. 

I'm not a doctor, and I don't claim to be an expert. I've tried various diets over the years, and I don't think going to extremes is EVER the solution. More research certainly needs to be done, but my point is that the old "low fat, count calories" theory is currently being questioned, and we now know to differentiate between "good fats" and "bad fats", etc.

Regardless, I know what works for me, and I've found that keeping my carb intake reasonably low is much more effective than trying to count calories. When I eat starchy foods like bread and pasta, even so-called "healthy" whole grain bread and pasta, I feel hungry all the time. So I'd much rather track carbs than calories, because if I keep an eye on the carbs, the calories take care of themselves. Therefore, I treat most grains and sugar like poison, and instead I get my carbohydrates from vegetables, along with healthy portions of protein and healthy fats. 

The bottom line is that there's still a LOT of disagreement in the medical community on what is the healthiest and most effective diet, not only for weight loss, but for maintaining a healthy weight. I don't wish to impose my opinions on others, but instead wish that the Fitbit app offered more flexibility than simply counting calories.

[TandemWalker]

Hi Again @m0j0 - Oh, but I'm not here to debate the pros and cons of the Premium membership. You asked about having more clarity of your carb intake, and I shared with you will get the visibility that you're looking for in the Premium membership. It may not give you eveything that you're looking for, but it will give you a summary of your food intake graphically, breaking it down between Fats, Carbs and Proteins.

Whether or not it's worth pennies a day, that for each of us to decide, following one week free spin with it.

Regarding the alleged out-dated thinking at Fitbit, I don't understand what this is all about. The dashboard I'm looking at allows me to log my exercise, to log my food daily, to set my Food Plan goals, to log my water intake; and to see where I stand daily. The Premium allows me to see if my food intake is balanced and in line with published guidelines. Yes, I agree with you that all the information is available to fitbit and they could indeed make that information available for all to see. But they chose to restrict this feature, along with many other reports, to the Premium membership. To me, that out does not relate to fitbit being 'out-dated' in its thinking; but to fitbit having made a business decision which called for including certain additional feature in order to attract people to the Premium membership. Makes sense to me.

Yes, @m0j0 , but I don't think your comments regarding the adverse effects of high-carb/high-sugar foods will come as a big novelty to anyone here. Likewise your comments on 'low fat' foods, most of which are too high in sugar.

Fitbit has NOT chosen just to count calories - look at your food log, and all your food intake is broken down in to Fat, Fibre, Carbs and Protein. On custom foods, I don't undestand the issue you have - are you saying that it's a problem for you to click on 'Add Nutritional Information' to an item you just created? Is this what you mean when you say "you have to go 'advanced' to enter the full nutritional data" ?

As far as I'm concerned, I have all I need on the Food Log page to keep track of my carbs intake, with the Premium membership available offering nice reports and graphs as an added bonus.

TW

[TandemWalker]

Oh, I forgot to mention. I do not use the app to log and track my food. I do it all on my MacBook Pro.

TW

[_daniel_]

I have no position regarding the nitty gritty of how apps track macro-nutrients. I only occasionally track using apps. Most days I just eye ball my portions. That said, I found the study m0j0 cited really interesting to read. http://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2012/06/when-a-calorie-is-not-just-a-calorie/

Here are a few of my takeaways:

1. Different calories sources have different effects on the rate at which people burn calories, known as energy expenditure
2. After weight loss, the rate at which people burn calories (energy expenditure) decreases, reflecting slower metabolism. Lower energy expenditure adds to the difficulty of weight maintenance and helps explain why people tend to re-gain lost weight.
3. A low-glycemic load diet is more effective than a conventional low-fat, high carb diet for keeping energy expenditure at a higher rate after weight loss.
4. Of the three diets studied in the study, the 40/40/20,  low-glycemic index diet received the highest praise.  It is made up of minimally processed grains, vegetables, healthy fats, legumes and fruits, with around 40 percent of daily calories from carbohydrates, 40 percent from fat, and 20 percent from protein. 

When I do track my foods and note my percentages of calories from carbs/fat/protein, I'm pretty close to the low GI diet, and I eat the same types of foods they describe.   In that context, I enjoy good carbs at every meal, in moderation, as part of a balanced plate that also includes good fats and good proteins.

regards

[Dundreggen]

I too am a fan of LCHF/Keto way of eating.  Its the ONLY thing that works for me (and I have tried everything!) lowering calories on their own does very little till I get down to about 600-800 a day.  Whilst that technically worked as I lost 60 pounds, I was so miserable and hungry and hated life I couldn't keep it up.  Low fat and excercise (running) did next to nothing for my weight.

Keto is great as long as I can stay on it.  I find the grocery bill much higher when trying to eat keto and that has been very difficult that past few years.  However we are in a better spot now so here is hoping I can stay on the band wagon 🙂

[SunnySunshine]

I too have done many other options and had to go excessively low calorie to lose weight. I have lost 65# now and hope to work about 10 more, and feel great.

I found shopping at Sam?s club to be VERY helpful on budget and maintaining the diet. I budget a family of 4 at about $250 -300 per month which is amazing compared to others.

Huge bags of chicken, sirloin steaks for about $5 per cut (pk of 4), frozen bags of talapia, sirloin hamburgers that can go frozen to skillet or grill, pork chops, ground beef, and the bags of frozen veggies that have individual family bag servings for mixed vega, broccoli, asian blend, and lots of salad. I also make an asian slaw with the large slaw bags, oil, rice vinegar and a splenda for dressing. Good stuff, feeds the family and me and keeps me on track.

Keep up the LCHF/ Keto posts! : )

[TandemWalker]

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@Dundreggen wrote:

I too am a fan of LCHF/Keto way of eating.  Its the ONLY thing that works for me (and I have tried everything!) lowering calories on their own does very little till I get down to about 600-800 a day.  Whilst that technically worked as I lost 60 pounds, I was so miserable and hungry and hated life I couldn't keep it up.  Low fat and excercise (running) did next to nothing for my weight.

Keto is great as long as I can stay on it.  I find the grocery bill much higher when trying to eat keto and that has been very difficult that past few years.  However we are in a better spot now so here is hoping I can stay on the band wagon 🙂

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There is no denial that a diet low in refined sugars and bad carbs is better.

But equally important is the need to achieve a proper balance between our energy needs (occupation, activities ...) and the composition and timing of our food intake. If running was the only exercise you did (and I don't know that it was), it may very well be that you had reached a plateau. Your system got used to that regimen (i.e., the daily demand of that routine jog); so your metabolism stopped responding.

We have to kickstart our system at times in order fot it respond again; and one way of achieving this is by by introducing new activities and incorporating interval training.

I still think that Calories-In and Calories-Out is of paramount importance for anyone on a weight loss. Notwithstanding, I also readily I agree that certain foods are healthier than others. I don't know what your profile make up is, but 600-800 calories a day seems extremely low to me, especially if you indulged in walk/run workouts at the same time. With a balanced diet, one that is aimed at providing you with the timely nutrients needed in anticipation of a cardio workout and after your workout, would keep the hunger pains at bay. 

I don't subscribe to high-this low-that diet fads. I am a big fan of eating healthy foods, in quantities sufficient to meet the energy demands of our day-to-day life; and that includes the timing our food intake to best meet the demand.

To me, the KETO approach to dieting (unless for nutrition therapy for medical purposes) can be detrimental if used over a long period, with the potential for life threatening cardiac complications. Too much fat is not good; too much protein can become toxic; and too much carbs can be equally bad. Thus the reason why I much prefer to not having too much of anything and follow a balance diet instead.

My take.

TW

[Dundreggen]

I was running and eating on average 1200 cal a day, as high as 1600 at times and as low as 1000 on others.  I kept a rigourous food diary.  I was eating a lot of carbs and low fat foods.  And as I weighed nearly 270 pounds at that time that should have been a healthy deficit!

I ended up doing my 4th year biochem term paper and presentation on the links between leptin insulin and obesity as I was so impressed by how eating the same number (or more) of calories I could lose weight if those calories came from different sources.  Before I went keto I had kept a food diary for about 6-7 weeks just to see what I was eating (not changing what I was eating, just tracking) I broke down in tears as I was typically only eating 1200 cal a day.  How on earth was I so large?  I couldn't imagine going back down to 600 calories a day, which is what it took to lose weight from a simple cals in cals out.  Then I found low carb.  My best friend lost 60 pounds, my ex husband lost about 100 all by eating similar calories (or in the case of my ex the same) just from different sources.

I think looking at it as calories in and calories has its uses when applied to populations not nessisarily at individuals.  Anyone who has looked after live stock know there are easy keepers and hard keepers.  I have worked in barns where there are horses in the same work program who are fed little and stay fat and vice versa.  The horses that are perpetually skinny are not running around in the field or pacing their stall either.  Ergo there must be other factors at work that tell the body to burn fuel or store fuel.

[TandemWalker]

@Dundreggen - It all makes good sense to me. Have a good day.

    TW     

(If this tip solved the problem for you, please mark this post solved, as this will be helpful to other users experiencing similar issues.)

[Lightsinger]

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@Dundreggen wrote:

I was running and eating on average 1200 cal a day, as high as 1600 at times and as low as 1000 on others.  I kept a rigourous food diary.  I was eating a lot of carbs and low fat foods.  And as I weighed nearly 270 pounds at that time that should have been a healthy deficit!

I ended up doing my 4th year biochem term paper and presentation on the links between leptin insulin and obesity as I was so impressed by how eating the same number (or more) of calories I could lose weight if those calories came from different sources.  Before I went keto I had kept a food diary for about 6-7 weeks just to see what I was eating (not changing what I was eating, just tracking) I broke down in tears as I was typically only eating 1200 cal a day.  How on earth was I so large?  I couldn't imagine going back down to 600 calories a day, which is what it took to lose weight from a simple cals in cals out.  Then I found low carb.  My best friend lost 60 pounds, my ex husband lost about 100 all by eating similar calories (or in the case of my ex the same) just from different sources.

I think looking at it as calories in and calories has its uses when applied to populations not nessisarily at individuals.  Anyone who has looked after live stock know there are easy keepers and hard keepers.  I have worked in barns where there are horses in the same work program who are fed little and stay fat and vice versa.  The horses that are perpetually skinny are not running around in the field or pacing their stall either.  Ergo there must be other factors at work that tell the body to burn fuel or store fuel.

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That makes sense considering metobolic syndrome, and insulin resistance was a problem for me.  Insulin resistance made it almost impossible for my cells to take up glucose, even though I produce sufficient amounts of insulin, and so all of the energy from carbohydrates went into "storage."  This resulted in a weight gain of about 40 pounds in about a year, even though I wasn't eating any more than I was before.  A plate of pasta would put me out for hours, a bowl of rice drained me of energy.  Then I was diagnosed as diabetic and advised to cut back on carbs.  When I did, my energy level went up miraculously, and the diabetes drugs counter acted the insulin resistance enough to allow my cells to use the glucose and let the insulin I naturally produced to to its job.  I lost the 40  pounds quickly, and have continued to lose over the last 15 years.  I'm now at a good weight for my age, gender and height.  So calories can be important, but it really does matter what those calories are comprised of for many of us.

[tallson]

I thought this was a low carb thread, you sugar burners shouldn't bully the folks.

[Knowledge]

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@Dominique wrote:

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@m0j0 wrote:

Unfortunately Fitbit has chosen to implement the out-dated thinking that weight loss is simply a matter of expending more calories than you consume 

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Are you saying that it's possible to lose weight by consuming more calories than you expend? Or that it's possible not to lose weight when consuming less than you expend?

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No, the problem is a calorie depending on its macronutrient is handled differently by the body. Glucose for example can be metabolized by all cells, while Fructose has been proven to require the liver to be metabolized and this can cause an entire downstream of negative side effects on the bodies overall metabolism. I would suggest you look up videos by Dr. Robert Lustig a Pediatric Neuroendocrinologist who studies the effect of Sugar (primarily Fructose) on hormonal signaling and obesity.

So of course the scientific fact is you cannot lose weight unless you expend more calories than you eat. The problem is our nutrition labels aren't necessarily accurate. While in an ideal system a gram of sugar will provide 4 calories of energy and a gram of fat provides 9 calories of energy, our bodies will have different downstream effects depending on how much sugar we eat and how much fat we eat. Our body is most efficent at preventing weight loss when we eat a diet that is high in sugar. So even though that gram of sugar may provide us 4 calories, our body may need more than 4 calories of energy expenditure to burn that gram of sugar because of the effects it has on our metabolism.

The reason why low-carb diets work so well is because they eliminate all sugar (added or not). Most diets that are successful share this key fact. I challenge you to find me of any study that shows someone can eat a diet of pure sugar and lose weight. In fact, several studies have shown that individuals on a high-carb low-fat diet that ate close to 1200-1500 calories a day lost no weight in comparison to individuals on a low-carb high-fat diet with the same caloric intake (controlling for exercise as neither of the two groups were told to exercise). In fact, there are studies that show that people who go on a "Fat fast" where they eat close to 95% of their calories from fat lose a significant amount of weight very fast. Of course this is extreme and not realistic, but it shows the difference in our metabolism of different macronutrients.

So while a calorie is a calorie in principle, our bodies treat different calories differently. If you would like I can provide you with sources from the publications for everything I have discussed here.

[SunnySunshine]

I've put my #65lb weightloss process into a blog both to continue my journey, share the process and keep on keeping on.

I love my fit bit which was a "gift" to myself a year ago! I have been on the low carb lifestyle for 24 months now and have lost -65# somewhat easily and while eating amazing food, meats, butter, and tons of veggies.

Check out my success story and process at http://www.fitchicafitness.com

Best wishes in your continued journey!

[Proudpatriot]

"To me, the KETO approach to dieting (unless for nutrition therapy for medical purposes) can be detrimental if used over a long period, with the potential for life threatening cardiac complications."

TW-Do you have any evidence that KETO is detrimental over long periods of time?  I cannot see what could possibly be harmful about eating different types of animal flesh, naturally occurring fats and low carb vegetables.  What evidence is there that any type of fat causes life threatening cardiac complications?

In my opinion it is very scary that the low fat diet has been prescribed for all Americans as the gold standard of all diets without any evidence that it prevents heart disease, keeps weight in a healthy range, or prolongs life.

[MsProfessor]

Yes, how can we make this happen.  It's an easy fix in terms of the coding.  Letters to Fitbit?  Seems like there are a lot of users going low carb.

[DKR829]

How do you sync the fitbit with MyFitnessPal or MyNetDIary apps?

Thanks in advance 🙂

[TWX]

I just finished a month of 4HB or Slow Carb Diet.

I dropped about 13 pounds.

Now I'm stabilising and after the holidays I'm going to restart for a month, it works great even without exercise.

Greetings...

[RubyH]

I am into 7th week on LCHF following macros of 25g Nett Carbs, 70g Protein (a medium range for me and the rest of my calories are from healthy fats, I think the percentage ratio to Calories consumed is 9% Nett Carbs(Total Carbs minus Fibre), 28% Protein and  63% Fats. I have never felt healthier when losing weight , on other diets I was always ill and hungry, on this plan I have more energy and am losing weight faster than I ever have before. In fact what I am eating is not much different to how my grandparents ate and all lived a long and healthy life and worked hard physically right up to their declining years ranging from 80-103 years long. The modern fast foods and packaged goods were never an item in my grandparents diets and probably the only packaged I ever saw in the house was flour, boiled lollies and cheese and tea. Everything else on the diet was home grown vegies, milk, eggs, meat or seafood, butter and bacon. I have lots of avocados but they werent readily available to my grandparents either. With Metabolic Syndrome and several auto immune diseases, this plan is best for me and I am very comfortable with it, I wont go back to the 6-12 serves of Cereals/grains/breads advocated by most nutritionists because that is what fuels inflammation in my body with illness being the result, so I have become an advocate. I have been losing on avg a kilo (2.2 lbs)a week but that has slowed now as I am only abt 5 kg (11 lbs) from my goal.

[Dominique]

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@RubyH wrote:

I have been losing on avg a kilo (2.2 lbs)a week but that has slowed now as I am only abt 5 kg (11 lbs) from my goal.

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7 kg in 7 weeks is an impressive weight loss, congrats! You must have had a pretty agressive deficit, so the slow down is to be expected. Since you only have 5 more kg to lose, you can afford to take your time, and even to eat at maintenance for a while. Do you intend to stick to LCHF on a permanent basis?