<p>It’s very easy to start using it, youdon’tsay. This is my second day of food entry, and it is great to see where you are in terms of calories, etc. They give you goals in terms of calories, carbs, fat, protein, etc., based on your age, weight, height, level of activity, and desired weight loss pace. I am not sure how I should modify the fat, carb, protein goals in line with the low-carb eating plan that I’d like to try, but for now I will be happy if I can meet the calorie goal, eliminate overt sugar and white carbs, and increase vegetable intake. </p>
<p>Coke intake down to 8 oz today - 4 oz in the sink!</p>
<p>I just shoot for an overall percentage of carbs based on the nutrition pie chart on the right. I also try to get the RDA of fiber and keep sugar as low as I can get it. I’ve had 40% of my calories for the day and sugars are at 9 grams. Idad said that anything below 50 grams is considered very low. I’m not surprised in the context of what I see at the supermarket - avoiding sugars is difficult.</p>
<p>The recommended nutritional breakdown at Livestrong is based on the following percentages of your total calories each day:</p>
<p>60% carbohydrates
30% fat
10% protein</p>
<p>This would be considered a high carb, low fat, low protein diet. This is basically the government/food pyramid diet that many people believe is far too high in grains.</p>
<p>There are no hard and fast rules. Generally speaking, anything under 40% carbs would be considered in the low (or at least moderate) carb intake range. The recommended protein here is probably fine if all you want to do is stay alive, but eating more protein and building some muscle will go a long way towards making you look better, feel better, and prevent fat storage. All of the fitness oriented fat loss experts recommend higher protein consumption.</p>
<p>I have never followed super low Atkins-induction phase carb restriction, although these days the bulk my carbs come from fruits and veggies and beans, peas, corn on the cob, etc. This breakdown seems to be working OK for me, which is not to say it will be right for anyone else:</p>
<p>Thanks for the encouragement, worknprogress! It was very hard to make the initial large reduction to 12 oz, but the incremental reductions I’m doing now are easy, because my sugar intake is low enough now that the cravings have stopped.</p>
<p>Looking at my stats for yesterday, my total sugar was 72 g, broken down by meal: 65/4/2.3. Most of them were from breakfast, with the Coke, fruit, and yogurt (even 0% Fage Greek unsweetened yogurt is relatively high in sugar!) My breakfast today was 51 g sugar. It will go down quite a bit when I completely eliminate Coke, and maybe fruit and yogurt aren’t the greatest breakfast.</p>
<p>Thanks for the info on carb/protein/fat breakdown, idad. I’d realized that the Livestrong recommendations were not quite right, but I didn’t know quite how off they are. Yesterday my diet was 55% carbs,14% protein, 31%fat. So I am really not where I should be yet.</p>
<p>Well, for the sake of full disclosure: that pretty much **is **the American Heart Association and government recommended “healthy” diet and, if the calories are low enough, it is certainly possible to lose weight on that diet. On the other hand, many people (and certainly many people with some degree of insulin resistance) find it nearly impossible to lose weight with that level of carb consumption. The other issue is figuring out how you can get to the right calorie level without feeling constantly hungry – because that’s not sustainable trying to gut it out on sheer willpower.</p>
<p>The nice thing about tracking with Livestrong is that you can try several approaches and see what works for you.</p>
<p>Yes, Livestrong is great. You can look at individual items and see how they are affecting your totals. For example, even “only” 8oz of Coke is 27 carb grams, a substantial fraction of the 71 carb grams I had for breakfast. Another 17.5 grams came from a slice of home-made banana bread (healthy recipe, but still…)</p>
<p>If you are trying to eat low-carb, don’t go by any of Livestrong’s recommendations, just use it to count carbs and look at the pie chart. It tells me, based on my weight now and weight loss goals that I put in there 3 years ago, that I can have 935 calories and 141 grams of carbs a day. Yikes, I would be a big cranky mess on that diet. I eat 60% of my calories as fat, 30% as protein and 10% as carbs. I know you might think all that fat sounds disgusting but hey, I’ve lost weight and had a vast improvement in my lipid numbers. I could change my weight loss goals (1-2 pounds a week) on there but I kind of enjoy defying it.</p>
<p>We did a quality family time hike yesterday, based on a newspaper article, it was supposedly moderately difficult, okay for older kids, and about 2.8 miles each way.</p>
<p>After we returned, exhausted, we checked a hike rating site online and learned it was 8 miles, 4 out of 5 little men on the hike difficulty scale. It was major quality family time, we were all sweating & working hard. About 2000 ft vertical change with the reward of a gorgeous view overlooking a bay and the sun came out for the afternoon, so it was stunning.</p>
<p>But, as we thought it was a less intense hike than it was, we did not bring snacks and finished the night with a big restaurant meal :eek: We all tried to fill up on salad.</p>
<p>Thanks everyone. My thing is that I am not so much going for weight loss and getting rid of my pot belly. I’ve always had a bit of a pot, even when slender, but now it’s ridiculous. I still look all right when I pick my clothes carefully, but I have lost my waistline entirely, and want it back before it’s too late. Since I am pushing age 60, I have a feeling that I’d better reclaim it now. This is worse than when I was pregnant and it is all hard fat. I haven’t lost a bit from there yet, which is discouraging. I am not even weighing myself since it’s the bulk I want to lose.</p>
<p>I am getting plenty of protein and sufficient fat. I went to Burger King for lunch today for my “normal” meal. Had their salad with Caeser dressing and then a Whopper Jr with some onion rings. Loved every bite of it. Woke up too late for breakfast–had a bad night with my summer cold cough and the Nyquil that my son gave me really knocked me for a loop. Tonight I’ll have a large salad with balsalmic vinegarette and salmon. Tomorrow, I’ll have the 2 eggs again for breakfast, salad with chicken for lunch and a full dinner. </p>
<p>I can see where my problem is. I crave snacks terribly. And I can’t seem to stop with them. I’d prefer to snack all day, than to eat full meals. I’m going to give this diet a week or 10 days, and then look at the Livestrong. That it has more carbs in it interests me greatly. It’s already pretty clear that this diet I am trying is not a keeper. I think that for a diet to have long term results it has to be close to the way you like to eat not a total change. I think the issue I have is lack of will power to stop when it comes to eating things I like, which tend to be the carbs. I can eat a whole loaf of home made white bread (many swear mine is the absolute best–I used to get orders for it, more than I wanted to take), banana breads, Osenbe (japanese rice crackers), penne vodka…the list goes on. My favorite summer dish is cold thin Japanese noodles to dip in a sauce with thins sliced, ham, cucumber, omelette strips, green onion, fishcake on the side. But the main event is the noodle–the horrible white flour carb. From what I understand that is the kind of stuff that gives you the gut.</p>
<p>I just went on the Livestrong site and filled out my info. According to them I can only eat 455 calories a day to lose 2 lbs a week and today I am already over on my caloric intake. Can someone explain this to me? Maybe I had better stick with the high protein, low carb diet. No way I can live on 455 calories a day.</p>
<p>Whoa, you must not weigh very much! It figures out your calories from your current weight and your weight loss goal. I thought 935 calories a day was bad.</p>
<p>2 pounds per week is a VERY aggressive wieght loss goal. That’s nearly impossible to sustain unless you are very obese to start with. You would have to be eating 1000 calories a day less than you burn and that is going to be out of the question for most men and nearly all women. </p>
<p>What Livestrong is saying, in your case, is that it takes 1455 calories for you to maintain your weight (you must already be quite small), so losing 2 pounds per week would require 1000 calories less than that. Obvously, that isn’t in the cards, so your strategy would be to eat somewhere around 1200 calories a day and run a “tortoise-style” fat loss race.</p>
<p>My obese employee is trying to get back on her Weight Watchers program. She is the organizer of our WW at Work group. I was really proud of her at lunch today. She had plain tuna and some tomatoes. I knew it wouldn’t be enough food for her. Sure enough- late afternoon she had a bag of really disgusting chips. It is frustrating because she has been at this for YEARS and knows what to do. She simply can’t do it. I worry so much about her health.</p>
<p>I think that is probably a very common problem. People try to diet too aggressively. Instead of cutting back their calories a bit and getting the ball rolling, they try to lose it all in a week, cut their meal-time calories to the bone and then can’t sustain it because they are trying to force themselves to live on ridiculously, unsustainably low calories.</p>
<p>A very obese person has a huge caloric need. It’s absurd for someone like that to try to instantly cut back to a 1200 calorie a day diet. It’s just setting themselves up to fail.</p>
<p>cpt, That level of calories is impossible. Livestrong assigned me 1500 calories/day for my desired 1 lb/week weight loss. I’ve never wanted to track, but since I started (yesterday) I see the advantages. What’s more, it’s very motivating somehow. </p>
<p>You might want to ease into a lower-carb plan. I am finding that I am eating almost 50% of my calories from carbs now on what I consider a somewhat transitional plan. Most of them are good carbs, though - fruit and vegetables and whole grains. I think this is a good start, but I am sure that I will want to lower the carbs at some point. </p>
<p>I have the mid-section bulk as well. I always had a completely flat stomach, before kids. I am hoping to get back to some sort of reasonable shape!</p>
<p>Cpt,
One thing to keep in mind is something that i learned a long time ago and have found to be true. You lose weight first in the areas that you gained it last. For me, that means I lose it in my face, neck, arms, tummy, hips and then thighs. When I gain, it goes to my thighs first. </p>
<p>So it might take a while for you to notice a change in your tummy if that is where you tend to carry our weight.</p>
<p>Try not to get too discouraged! This is hard! I had a big burrito for dinner tonight
There I said it!</p>
