Is it best to count carbs rather than calories? Inspire me with your success stories...

[snappycow]

Hi all! I have successfully lost 14lb on a famous sachet based diet that puts you in Ketosis. I am now going it alone combined with exercise because it is far too extreme for me not to be able to cook and eat stuff (as well as expensive). So - going forward - are carbs the key to weight loss as opposed to calories?

Has anyone on here lost lots of weight by following a low carb diet (eating / not sachets of soup or shake) as opposed to calories. Any inspiring case studies for me?

ps - I hope so as I find it so much easier to count carbs than calories.

[DogsRus73]

paleo / primal.

no counting of any sort. Eat however much you like when you like. Just don't eat sugar, flour, rice. In practice this means you have to cook everything yourself. It can be more expensive as you eat a lot of meat.

My diet is pretty much meat, eggs, fish and lots of vegetables plus fruit (you might need to limit fruit to 2/3 pieces a day). I did this for a month then reintroduced dairy (not too much but a small amount of cheese a day and some cream once a day with fruit). No milk.

2 1/2 stone since Easter without really trying. Can't recommend it highly enough!

[snappycow]

wow! That sounds perfect. I am sort of living on meat, eggs and cottage cheese at the mo. and a bit of cheese. And Greek Salads. I could do it for a long time.

[snappycow]

are you exercising too Dogs?

[DurhamDurham]

I don't count carbs as such but I don't eat bread, pasta, rice or potatoes........however I do treat myself to a piece of cake every now and then ( and I love chocolate )

I'm size 10 but wasn't overweight before I have up bread etc. I do worry about putting on weight though, especial now I'm in my 40's. I wanted to stay away from calorie counting and eating low fast stuff ( and so feeling hungry all the time) as when I was young I had eating disorders.
Low carbing for me means that I can eat cheese, full fat stuff, plenty of meat and eggs and my weight stays in check ( I look ' leaner' now even though I probably only dropped about 5lbs ) while I eat tasty stuff and don't feel like I'm depriving myself.

I don't miss bread, pasta or rice at all but I do have the odd roast potato because they are just too nice to turn down

[antimatter]

read other threads in this here, recipes and bootcamp are very good to get the feel of what peopel are doing

I lost 1st 4lb on BIWI bootcamp (another one will start end of Sept and you are welcome to join) this summer.

I am starting myself again as feel ready for it. I am hoping to drop 2 stones by Christmas. My motivation this time comes fro mthe fact that I feel my weight is making me very tired. I am 14'1'' and 5'3''

[snappycow]

thanks anti - I will hop over to that thread to see what it is all about - it sounds good. I would love to lose 2 by Christmas too.

Durham - that sounds fab. I had a lamb chop with two eggs yesterday and you're just full all day long. So much better than if I had had a salad.

[DurhamDurham]

I've just had a two egg omelette and two sausages. I will be full all day long. It's great isn't it!!

Don't forget to drink lots of water

[antimatter]

yes - glass of water & more

[snappycow]

Im definitely going to do it - I have had a look at the recipes and the rules- made a little shopping list.

Can I have a gin and tonic in the evening? Does anyone know?

[snappycow]

Not EVERY evening...

[DurhamDurham]

I think you can, I think gin is one of the better choices to make while low carbing. Just don't have too much tonic

[antimatter]

calories in g&t are sugars.
so count it as carbs

[miffy49]

I'd never go back to the misery of calorie counting! I do well health wise on low carb. My weight loss is very slow now but I lost a fair chunk quite easily. I keep a check on my carbs but its more out of habit than anything now and it does stop carb-creep. If you follow Biwi's Boot Camp or the info on the Diet Doctor page you wont go far wrong. I don't do alcohol due to health issues but I believe most low carbers go for either vodka or gin with soda or diet tonic. You can easily change over to fizzy water with ice and lemon without people noticing and bugging you to have 'just one more'!