I'm a big guy... 285 pounds. I feel like I need 2500 calories a day to keep my energy levels up. I eat my veggies. I eat tuna....

But without really figuring it all out, it just seems like I am eathing more calories now, since I probably eat more fat and about 30 - 40 carbs a day.

How closely do peole watch their calorie intake?

I never watched my calorie intake until I got below 200 pounds and then I noticed if I didnt I wasnt loosing.

The general rul of thumb is 10 - 12 x's your body weight in calories, so I try to stick to that as closely as I can.

If you dont already I reccomend using fitday (www.fitday.com) I wouldnt have made it without that tool!

i do not know about south beach, but in atkins:

if you read the old atkins books (the original ones, not the modified ones) atkins gives many many examples of people who eat beaucoup calories and still lost. steadily. one guy ate 5000 calories a day. to me that is on the large side, especially if you are eating veggies (which seem to have hardly any calories) but his point was (and he made it over and over) is to not count calories on atkins, ONLY count carbs.

life does change some when you are finally out of ketosis and into pre-maintenance, etc..........

i am not sure how SBD and atkins compare...... it may not work on SBD

I've been low-carbing for over three years and have yet to count calories. I eat until I am no longer hungry. I have plenty of energy for exercise.

I follow the Atkins approach and have never counted calories. I know that I have lost and continue to lose weight eventhough I am eating more now than when I was unsyccessfully trying to lose weight on low-fat/low calories. I expect that I will not count calories unless my weight starts ratcheting up and I can't account for it through increased carbs or an eating habit change.

I don't count calories - I don't need to if I watch how many carbs I eat. I used to count calories but it made me crazy so I stopped. Atkins says we don't have to anyway....

Julie

I don't think you need to start counting calories unless the diets not working. If you hit a true stall it's time to start tweaking and one of those tweaks could be counting calories. If you're metabolically challenged like I am, you practically HAVE to count them.

I don't count calories. I'm interested in finding out my total at the end of the day (I use fitday.com) but I don't count them during the day or intentionally try to restrict them. Usually my calories fall between 1300-1700 depending on if I at a lot of veggies that day or a lot of cheese/mayo/bacon/etc.

I haven't even weighed myself in the 15 days since I started. I know about where I was. My clothes feel looser.

then you know you're doing it right!~ congrats!!

<wish i could keep my butt off the scale for 15 days!!!>

I didn't start counting calories until I hit around 150 pounds and my weight loss dramatically slowed. Now I find that I have to keep them at a moderate level to lose.

I am glad I started using Fitday.com
Come to find out by not counting my calories, I was going WAY under what i needed to stay out of starvation mode. At the time I was just under 250 pounds & I was aeating a lot of food thinking i needed to because i was a big guy. Come to find out, I was not getting above 1000 calories.
So the suggestion to use Fitday.com or one of the online counters is a very good one.

I decided I HAVE TO. Last time I did a LC diet I was on it 3x a day!