Active Low-Carber Forums - View Single Post - Majority of Low-Carb Dieters are in 'Calorie Denial'

Quote:

Originally Posted by Angeline

Not to say that calories don't matter one bit. They do. But a lot of low-carbers can get away with eating a significant amount of calories more and still loose weight or maintain than they could when eating carbs.

They should study this instead of stubbornly insisting that it defies the laws of physics.

I agree Angeline. Personally, I'm now following a low-cal/low-carb regimen. That's because I found that as far as weight-reduction goes, calories, for me, do count. However, IMO, carbs, not calories, count when I am maintaining. When maintiaining, too many carbs will give my body the insulin it needs to store fat, whereas, if I control carbs, my body won't have the excess insulin to use for fat storage.

For those of us who have been fat for most of our lives, our bodies have become very efficient at storing fat, so for us, maintenance requires that we continue to keep our carbs low. And that amount varies from person to person.

I have found this out for myself through anecdotal experience. I have been in a "stall" for almost two years. Looking back on it, it goes like this:

When I started LC, I did actually reduce my calories without realizing it, and I reduced my carbs and lost weight.
My stall started when my calorie intake matched my body's requirement to maintain my current weight. I could eat more calories than I needed and not gain weight, but I wasn't eating fewer.
So I was stalled. During that period, I occassionally upped my carbs in an attempt to jump-start my weightloss. This actually caused me to put on a little weight. As long as I kept my carbs down, I would not gain weight, but I also did not lose.
Now I am incorporating low-cal into my low-carb regimen and my weight is on the way down again.
When I get where I want to be, I'll stop worrying about calories, but I will always watch my carbs. And because my body is so well trained to store fat, I will never be able to eat the amount of carbs someone who has not had an IR problem is able to eat.

It's all related. And what I see in the scientific community is an attitude that it has to be one thing -- that there's one magic key -- and most of time it's either fat or calories. I think it's fat, carbs, protein, and calories. If you can figure out how to manage all four so they work for your body, you have your own personal key. And it's different for everyone.