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  #1   ^
Old Tue, Feb-13-18, 15:45
vivisita vivisita is offline
New Member
Posts: 6
 
Plan: Carb Counting
Stats: 218/205/140 Female 67
BF:
Progress:
Question Daily Carb Limit Question

Hi there! I'm a 33 year old female. 5'7'' and weigh 204lbs.

That said, I know it is possible to lose weight counting carbs alone, but with my weight, how many carbs should I limit myself to, in order to lose about a pound a week? From what I've read, it's said you should eat less than your weight (in pounds), in grams. So, since I weigh 204 right now, for me to lose weight, I should eat under 204 carbs.

Does that sound about right? My plan is to have under 200 grams of carbs every day this week, and then see where I am for my weigh-in come Monday, and lower it if needed.

Looking for some insight. Thanks!
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  #2   ^
Old Tue, Feb-13-18, 19:37
bluesinger's Avatar
bluesinger bluesinger is offline
Doing My Best
Posts: 4,924
 
Plan: LC/CancerRecovery
Stats: 170/135/130 Female 62 inches
BF:24%
Progress: 88%
Location: Nevada Desert, USA
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If this is your first foray into carb counting, might I suggest reading up on the different programs? There are lots of people here who start out with Atikins 72, and the rules are clearly defined at this link here on the forum. If that doesn't suit you, look at some of the plans in that same area of support.

There's a ton of information available here for free, and it comes from people who have actual success in losing weight and getting healthy.

Welcome. Enjoy reading.
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  #3   ^
Old Wed, Feb-14-18, 06:46
JEY100's Avatar
JEY100 JEY100 is online now
Posts: 13,368
 
Plan: P:E/DDF
Stats: 225/150/169 Female 5' 9"
BF:45%/28%/25%
Progress: 134%
Location: NC
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You have read both the Atkins and South Beach Books, each one has an induction phase which is there to help the reader start low carb easily, to stop cravings quickly, to get your body to burn its own fat storesby lowing blood sugars and insulin.

The first post on the Atkins forum is a quick summary you can follow. http://forum.lowcarber.org/showthread.php?t=236482
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  #4   ^
Old Wed, Feb-14-18, 09:32
JLx's Avatar
JLx JLx is offline
Senior Member
Posts: 3,199
 
Plan: High protein, lower fat
Stats: 000/000/145 Female 66
BF:276, 255 hi wts
Progress: 0%
Location: Michigan U.P., USA
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Quote:
how many carbs should I limit myself to, in order to lose about a pound a week? From what I've read, it's said you should eat less than your weight (in pounds), in grams. So, since I weigh 204 right now, for me to lose weight, I should eat under 204 carbs
.

I've never heard that particular formula before. The highest number of carbs I've seen recommended to lose weight was 120. That was from a paper by a bunch of low carb doctors defining "what is low carb".

Most people would probably say less than a hundred though, and depending on your body and level of activity, maybe less than 60.

Since you're posting here in "semi low carb plans", I'm guessing you're not interested in the "very low carb" levels of 20-30 which are often recommended around here..

The bottom line is that if you're currently eating hundreds of carbs per day, then even 204 would be an improvement. Enough to lose weight? Hard to say and you won't know until you try but most people are going to recommend you go lower. And a lot may depend on what those carbs are comprised of, sugar and refined carbs like white flour, being the worst choices.
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  #5   ^
Old Fri, Feb-23-18, 18:29
vivisita vivisita is offline
New Member
Posts: 6
 
Plan: Carb Counting
Stats: 218/205/140 Female 67
BF:
Progress:
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Hi everyone! So I wanted to post in this thread again as I went against all of your advice and decided to see what would happen if I ate under 200 carbs a day. I decided to just do it for a week, see what happens and then go from there. Thought you would appreciate knowing what happened since I am using myself as a human guniea pig.

First off, even reaching 200 was challenging. I wasn’t trying to eat 200 carbs a day but only got close to that number if I still felt hungry and like I needed carbs. My average carb intake for that week was 175. Weight lost? None.

This week I’ve lowered my intake max to 150 carbs a day. I’ve had to watch a little more carefully to make sure I don’t go over this amount, but it has not been difficult. So far the scale has not moved but my weigh in day is on Monday. Once I get on the scale on Monday, I’ll decide what I want my carb intake to be for the next week.

I’m sure some of you might think I’m crazy in doing this. I tried searching everywhere for someone else who slowly decreased the number of carbs they ate every week until they found out specifically how many carbs They needed specifically for themselves to maintain a 1-2lb weight loss. I didn’t find anything so hopefully someone, somewhere will find this information helpful.

And if that doesn’t happen, then my other goal is to slowly adjust to eating less carbs so I don’t go crazy from a massive lifestyle change going from 200 carbs to 20 carbs a day.
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  #6   ^
Old Fri, Feb-23-18, 18:32
vivisita vivisita is offline
New Member
Posts: 6
 
Plan: Carb Counting
Stats: 218/205/140 Female 67
BF:
Progress:
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Oh! Also, thank you for the sincere responses! I have done SEVERAL diets (low carb, low calorie, etc) in the past but was not able to maintain them due to various issues, so I’m going about this my way. I really do appreciate the input as I wanted some opinions.
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  #7   ^
Old Fri, Feb-23-18, 20:10
dcc0455 dcc0455 is offline
Senior Member
Posts: 167
 
Plan: Low Carb
Stats: 230/165/160 Male 67
BF:
Progress: 93%
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Sounds like you already have your plan, but here is my experience. I started eating low carb with an informal approach. By that, I mean not counting carbs, but just eliminating sugar, flour, rice, etc. I lost pretty consistent 5 lbs a month for about 1 year, about 60 lbs total. I would guess my carb intake about 80 grams per day. At that point I stalled, followed a more formal Atkins 72 program and lost another 15 lbs. My take away is that you do not have to go all out limited to 20 g carbs per day to lose weight, but you have to accept a much slower rate of loss and you can't approach it as if it was keto llte. What I mean is you will still be burning sugar, so if you just replace those carb calories with fat or protein calories, you can't really expect to lose weight. If you eliminate 400 calories from your diet by eliminating 100 grams of carbs, you probably will lose weight, but much slower than if you were on a more aggressive plan and it may be hard to sustain. Nothing wrong with slower weight loss if you can't see yourself doing a true keto diet and you are able to stick to the lower calorie diet. Either way, reducing carbs is a good idea.
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  #8   ^
Old Sat, Feb-24-18, 01:11
Grav Grav is offline
Senior Member
Posts: 1,469
 
Plan: Banting
Stats: 302/187/187 Male 175cm
BF:
Progress: 100%
Location: New Zealand
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I didn't go for full-on induction at first either. My way of getting started was to keep eating what I was already eating, but not buy anymore of it so I would eventually run out of things. That gave me a few weeks to look around and learn about what foods work best when going LC. So my transition was quite gradual over a number of weeks; I can imagine that if I was actually tracking my carbs over that time I'd have been working my way down in a similar fashion to what you're doing now. Having said that, my intention was always to end up going as LC as I could sustain; I just wanted to avoid going "cold turkey", as it were.

You may eventually find that you'll need to get your carbs quite low before you start to see any weight loss, which is why many people recommend an induction-type period or similar to really give you a kickstart. But as long as you decide that you can sustain that carb level you need to lose the weight - whatever that turns out to be for you - I don't really see a problem here.

Good luck to you.
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  #9   ^
Old Sat, Feb-24-18, 05:33
JEY100's Avatar
JEY100 JEY100 is online now
Posts: 13,368
 
Plan: P:E/DDF
Stats: 225/150/169 Female 5' 9"
BF:45%/28%/25%
Progress: 134%
Location: NC
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The level of carbs to be in ketosis supposedly varies by age, activity, etc except for one older plan by an Austrian doctor, William Lutz, called Life Without Bread. He concluded from years of treating patients, and some studies he did, that in order to lose weight, carbs had to be less than 72g. He allowed more yogurt, fruit than the more common LC induction plan, but could not go over 72g a day or weight loss would not happen. This of course requires some obsessive weighing and measuring, and don’t think I was convinced there was one magic number for everyone, but that was his view (see Plan in green bar above). Working from a restricted food list (no sugar, no starch, no processed seed oils) is easier for me. Even to reduce by 25 g each week will require attention to detail, weighing food, precise measures and carb databases to get it right. If one of the reasons you were not able to maintain the various diets you tried before is that you could not continue managing these details, consider a food list approach.
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  #10   ^
Old Sat, Feb-24-18, 06:07
zoogirl's Avatar
zoogirl zoogirl is offline
Senior Member
Posts: 1,910
 
Plan: atkins 20
Stats: 127.6/111/110 Female 5' 2"
BF:
Progress: 94%
Location: Canada
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Wow, this is very interesting...I love your formula, however, I can't imagine that it will work. I for one...and I am on Maintenance, have to stay at or below 20NC daily. I accept that I did not have huge amounts of weight to lose, but even if you do have large amounts, I am only familiar with the Atkins plans, Atkins 20 or Atkins 40. These both are clearly explained here on this forum and also on the Atkins website.

Very nice to meet you, best of luck to you in your journey. Have a positive day, ttyl
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  #11   ^
Old Sat, Feb-24-18, 06:28
cotonpal's Avatar
cotonpal cotonpal is offline
Senior Member
Posts: 5,282
 
Plan: very low carb real food
Stats: 245/125/135 Female 62
BF:
Progress: 109%
Location: Vermont
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Quote:
Originally Posted by JEY100
This of course requires some obsessive weighing and measuring,


I count carbs, weighing all my food. I keep my carbs under 20 net carbs per day, usually no more than 15 net carbs. I don't consider this counting and weighing of carbs excessive just as I don't consider brushing my teeth twice a day obsessive. They are simply things I do to maintain my health. It seems to be true that not everyone has to keep their carb count this low but many of us do and for those of us who do it is not obsessive; it is healthy behavior.

Jean
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  #12   ^
Old Sat, Feb-24-18, 13:25
vivisita vivisita is offline
New Member
Posts: 6
 
Plan: Carb Counting
Stats: 218/205/140 Female 67
BF:
Progress:
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Quote:
Originally Posted by zoogirl
Wow, this is very interesting...I love your formula, however, I can't imagine that it will work. I for one...and I am on Maintenance, have to stay at or below 20NC daily. I accept that I did not have huge amounts of weight to lose, but even if you do have large amounts, I am only familiar with the Atkins plans, Atkins 20 or Atkins 40. These both are clearly explained here on this forum and also on the Atkins website.

Very nice to meet you, best of luck to you in your journey. Have a positive day, ttyl


Oh yes! I’m completely prepared to go down to 20 carbs if that’s what it takes. If this (this test I’m doing on myself) seemed super difficult and I felt like I wanted bread all the time I wouldn’t be doing it. I eat mostly whole foods already so I’m not really having cravings at this point.I’m just ready to take the next step and cut back on the carbs so I can see a difference on the scale.

The other piece of this is I have done induction before and it worked for me, but I wasn’t able to turn it into a lifestyle change and found myself obsessing over “good” and “bad” Foods. I was treated for an eating disorder a few years ago, so I’m working hard to not let myself fall back down that rabbit hole while still reaching a weight I can feel good about and maintain.

:-)
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  #13   ^
Old Sun, Feb-25-18, 06:16
sharonef's Avatar
sharonef sharonef is offline
Registered Member
Posts: 26
 
Plan: low carb/carb cycle/IF
Stats: 226/213/160 Female 64 inches
BF:
Progress: 20%
Location: Midwest
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Here's my latest, and I believe final, weight loss program. I'm 73, so weight loss for me, at my age, is going to be slow no matter what. I began following Wheat Belly 10-day detox on 11/1/17. Stripped down, it's basically lower carb, no more than 15 grams of net carbs per meal (or 6-hour period), along with absolutely no grains (wheat, oatmeal, corn, rice, etc.). Weight loss was not particularly noticeable, but I felt better and my clothes were looser fitting, so clearly changes were underway.

In January I decided to kickstart weight loss and went very strict low carb (Jonny Bowden's New You in 22 program) for 3 weeks. Lost 8 pounds and clearly had moved from burning sugar to burning fat (slept wonderfully, no longer hungry and no cravings, and no longer wanted to nap mid afternoon).

Since then I've returned to Wheat Belly for a few days, then lower carb for a few days, and alternating around. I have one high-carb meal perhaps every 4 to 10 days, but don't really have an urge to eat that stuff. It's designed to sorta keep your metabolism guessing.

Overall, weight loss has settled into about 1/2 lb per week, sometimes less, sometimes more. I'm very comfortable with this way of eating (WOE), am enjoying the food (yes, even some managed amounts of fruit), and this is easily maintained long-term. We'll see where I am a year from now.
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  #14   ^
Old Mon, Feb-26-18, 09:34
vivisita vivisita is offline
New Member
Posts: 6
 
Plan: Carb Counting
Stats: 218/205/140 Female 67
BF:
Progress:
Wink

Okay well it was fun while it lasted! I got on the scale this morning and I was a whopping 209.8lbs which is less than ideal. My average carb intake per day this past week was only 105 carbs a day (my max goal was 150) so I’m surprised by the five pound weight gain.

I’m not totally concerned about this weight gain but it’s alarming. My waist measurement is the same and I have not gone to the bathroom for about a week (I have IBS with constipation so this is normal for me). Anyway given that I’m backed up I’m sure that has contributed to the scale.

That said, I’m dropping my max carb intake for this week to 72, which may help me to start losing weight again. I would drop it lower but I am traveling this week and want to be realistic.

That said, and I think someone may have said it on this thread, 200 or 150 or 105 carbs a day may work but only if you are counting calories too. I’m trying to not count calories.

I know some of you may be reading this going “duh” but this is one of those things I just have to do for myself. :-)
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  #15   ^
Old Mon, Mar-05-18, 15:05
vivisita vivisita is offline
New Member
Posts: 6
 
Plan: Carb Counting
Stats: 218/205/140 Female 67
BF:
Progress:
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...and after one week of 72 carbs or less, I'm down to 203.3! I'm going to stick with 72 carbs or less for one month and see how it goes. Thanks for the support everyone.
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