Hi folks,
I've been lo-carbing for two weeks now, lifting weights 3x per week, cardio 4x, lotsa water, and logging all food intake into fitday. I've gained two pounds.
One thing I've noticed is that I may not be consuming enough calories, as they tend to drop below 2000. I weight 250. I'm just not hungry! Carbs are generally at 30g/day.
Can someone explain the concept behind keeping the calories higher to lose weight? Is it generally correct that one should eat 12cal/lb? It seems to me that a caloric deficit of a 2K per day would result in a 2lb fat weight drop each week.
I feel great, but I'd certainly prefer to be shedding some pounds.
Thanks.
Doug

I think the idea, Doug, is that if you get too great a deficit, your body decides that lean times are here and it had better hang onto all the fuel it can, so it lowers your metabolic rate and hangs onto fat.
You may need to deliberately consume oil, butter etc. to get the calories in.
Natrushka told me about this - she also says somewhere that at around 1900 calories she doesn't lose but over that she does - you really need her to talk to you about it - she'll probably find your question, but you could ask her in her journal maybe.

The calorie deficit = so many pounds lost seems logical, but apparently our bodies and metabolisms are not that simple.

Hope this is some help and that you get some more informed answers too.
Jay

Hi Doug,

Yep, you and Jaykay are right! You should find that you lose if your calorie deficit is no more than 500-600 calories a day. Try eating a gram of protein for every lb. of body weight too.... do you drink protein shakes? Do you eat 5-6 times/day? That'll help pack the calories.

If you have a 2000 cal deficit/day, all you're doing is forcing your body to make adjustments to your metabolism (read: lower it) so that you don't "starve".

I've read numerous times on this board about people who when through years where they exercised like maniacs (2 hrs of intense aerobics/day), ate 1000 or fewer calories a day and never lost a pound... so much for that theory!! Low-cal doesn't work for the long term.

EAT!!