Okay dolls and oh yeah, you too guys, I have been LCing since the beginning of the year. I'm a little confused as to if it's really the calories that count or the carbs? The first week I did about 20 carbs and then advance to 30 and now I do up 80-90 on SOME days. The weight is coming off(slower) but when I lost 22 pounds last year, I did about a 1500-1800 eating plan and it took about 4 months to lose those lbs.. From the looks of things, it appears I'm losing at about the same rate as when I was eating carbos and such. I never did or believe in those ketosticks so I couldn't judge whether I'm in ketosis or not. I have lost a total of 8 inches and about 14 lbs. I'm not complaining because I feel great and I enjoy the way I am eating but I often wonder, is it really about the carb counts.

FYI-on those high carb days, I DONOT eat junk, I usually eat a lot of vegetables and some type fruit on those days.

Amber
Its about the insulin. When you're insulin levels are high you store fat, your blood sugar falls and you crave more food than your body needs. It becomes a vicious cycle. If you are prone to certain health conditions the excess insulin can ruin your health.

Hi Amber

Its because the carbs you eat are NOT junk that you will still be losing, the carbs you eat will be low on the glycemic index and have a much less negative effect on your blood. 80 or 90 is not a lot of carbs - it is compared the Atkins Induction and the other levels of his plan but compared to the level of someone who would eat in a day

bowl of cornflakes or other similar, 2 white toast and jam

muffin, donut - maybe fruit

white bread sandwich, cookies, juice - probably snack of some sort or mabybe a burger or resturaunt meal.

some kind of meat - maybe in coating or heavy sauce, white potatoes, high index vegggies, dessert.

The kind of day above could add up to 3 or 400 carbs maybe more depending on the foods the person ate.

Have you ever tried putting in at FitDay what you might have eaten before you were being careful, some of us did that one day and for some it was quite a shock to see the carbs they used to consume

Hi Amber,

In my view, I think on a low carb diet, one can eat slightly more calories than on a high carb diet; however, calories still count. Even when limiting carbs, if you intake more food than you burn off during a given day, then theoretically one must gain weight.

I try to limit my carbs to about 40-50, and keep a tab on my daily calories ranging anywhere from 1500 - 1700 on a given day.

If it takes 3500 kcals to lose a single pound, that means even if everyday we create a deficit of 500 kcals, it takes a full week to lose just a single pound.

So, in my view, you're doing pretty well!

Good luck!

Carbs count
Fat % counts
and calories count to a degree

I try not to go over 2000 calories on any one given 24 hour period and my carbs are no more than 25 (all carbs, not just net) and fat always at 65-75%. I get lots of my fat from avocado and nuts. Protein is another factor - I never go over 100 grams per day...more than that it can lessen my weight loss and even make me gain.