Weight loss and healthy life Peas!

Aug 26, 2015 17:32:15 GMT @devildog said:

Congratulations on everyone's accomplishments--keep up the good work!

I decided when I started going to the dietician, I would only use their scale, and would know my weight loss on a monthly basis at my appointment. So I don't know how much I might have lost in the past week. I just plan to keep on keeping on, and we'll see the results.

Here's my biggest struggle: I've battled with my weight my entire life. So I've done the calories/points with WW, I've done the premade meals with Jenny Craig, and I've counted carbs with Atkins. The dietician I'm seeing really wants me to count calories AND carbs--so tracking 2 things. I'm not really thrilled with this. I really hate counting calories especially, and it's quite challenging balancing both. I'm doing it, and I did lose 11 lbs. the first month, but this is a struggle.

Does anybody else track/balance both calories and carbs?

***eta***One other thing--at my last appointment she also wanted me to increase and track my fiber intake. Ummmmm...okay, count calories, carbs and slowly track fiber. IMO it's a bit much, and I haven't even given much thought to fiber.

Is this the norm?

I'm almost afraid to find out what next month's topic is gonna be, lol.

If you use MFP, it tracks everything at the same time.  I've stopped tracking food for the most part, but I did religiously when I was losing weight.  I paid more attention to protein, rather than carbs because I was trying to maintain as much muscle mass as possible. 

If you are eating fewer carbs in general, that would mean a higher percentage of protein and that's where the fibre becomes important.  Lot's of protein and less fibre will slow your digestive tract down to a crawl. 

I'm wary of any professional that specifically tells me to cut back on carbs (rather than just calories) because, unless you've been diagnosed with a hormonal imbalance or a sensitivity like celiac, cutting back calories from carbs is not going to make you lose fat any faster than cutting calories from any macro.  It would certainly make me more miserable.

Aug 26, 2015 18:42:52 GMT @devildog said:

Aug 26, 2015 18:20:10 GMT redayh said:

So are you supposed to count the net carbs (subtract the fiber from the carbs to get your carb amount) or what?
Geez what a pain.

I asked her about that, and she said something along the lines of count total carbs unless the fiber count/amount was over a certain number reducing carbs by so much. I can't quite remember what the ratio/math problem was, so I just count net carbs, lol.

Aug 26, 2015 18:32:36 GMT Dalai Mama said:

If you use MFP, it tracks everything at the same time.  I've stopped tracking food for the most part, but I did religiously when I was losing weight.  I paid more attention to protein, rather than carbs because I was trying to maintain as much muscle mass as possible. 

If you are eating fewer carbs in general, that would mean a higher percentage of protein and that's where the fibre becomes important.  Lot's of protein and less fibre will slow your digestive tract down to a crawl. 

I'm wary of any professional that specifically tells me to cut back on carbs (rather than just calories) because, unless you've been diagnosed with a hormonal imbalance or a sensitivity like celiac, cutting back calories from carbs is not going to make you lose fat any faster than cutting calories from any macro.  It would certainly make me more miserable.

So does what my dietician is saying make sense, tracking calories and carbs? It's not a way I've ever dieted before. It makes sense about the fiber, but it's becoming a full time job trying to cut back on the carbs because the meal is too high in calories then, and try adding in added fiber but then carb count goes back up. Does that make sense? It's awfully confusing to me, lol.

Does what she's asking make sense for me?  Not really, no.  Has she given you a reason for cutting back on carbs other than they contain calories? 

Does what you say about fibre make sense?  Absolutely, because fibre is a carb.  If you consume 1g of fibre, you are consuming 1g of carbs.  Increase your fibre and you increase your carbs. 

Here's the thing - eating lots of carbs will make you retain a good amount of water.  This is why, when people start a low-carb diet, they tend to lose a lot of weight at first.  Wow, amazing!  The low-carb thing works!  After a few weeks, though, they are no further ahead than those who lose weight consuming the same number of calories but with a balanced mix of macros (fat/carbs/protein). 

If you aren't cutting back carbs (and even if you are) I would always recommend getting lots of fibre - it makes you feel full for longer and it 'greases the wheels' so to speak.  It also tends to indicate that a food is a little closer to its natural form and, hopefully, still has a good amount of micronutrients (vitamins, minerals, etc).  Fibre helps keep you healthy.

Either way, whether you follow your dietician's advice or not (and I'm not telling you not to), try tracking on MFP.  I tell MFP that I ate a Chipotle Burrito Bowl with chicken and veggies but without sour cream and cheese (Lactose intolerant) and it tells me I consumed 545 calories, 63g of carbs, 26g of fat, 44g of protein, and 18g of fibre.  Easy.

Aug 26, 2015 19:27:30 GMT @coilstrand said:

Aug 26, 2015 19:23:58 GMT Dalai Mama said:

Either way, whether you follow your dietician's advice or not (and I'm not telling you not to), try tracking on MFP.  I tell MFP that I ate a Chipotle Burrito Bowl with chicken and veggies but without sour cream and cheese (Lactose intolerant) and it tells me I consumed 545 calories, 63g of carbs, 26g of fat, 44g of protein, and 18g of fibre.  Easy.

What about recipes? How does that work with MFP? I've tried sparkpeople off an on but found it tedious.

If I find a recipe online, I input the link into MFP, and it picks out the individual ingredients and measurements (cup, mg, etc) and gives the total calories for the recipe. I can then just say how many portions the recipe contains and how many portions I eat.  If you want to be exact (and I do), you weigh the final dish (1400g?) and then tell MFP that there are 1400 portions.  Then I weigh what I eat of it (85g? 168g?) and MFP allocates the calories and macros to my diary. 

You can also input the ingredients into the recipe builder manually.  Either way, you can save the recipe for the next time you eat it, click a button and it's in your diary.