fat grams or calories?

M

Mean Mr. Mustard

< 25 Posts
which should i be watching most if i'm looking to lose weight? i've heard different people say different things. but for example, i just ate some raisins, which have 130 calories per servings and no fat grams. it that better for you than something with 70 calories and 3.5 fat grams per serving?
 
if calories in &#60; calories out, you will lose weight. Low fat diets can be beneficial, but a low-fat, high calorie diet will still cause you to gain weight.
 
if you work out just watch fat grams, you will need calories so it doesnt matter if you eat a lot of them, fat is the killer, stay away from high fat and you will lose weight. you wouldnt believe the fat content in many of your everyday foods.
 
I am on the southbeach diet -- so far so good

good carbs, lean meat, small meals, high fiber and lots of veggies-- ultimately mean low calorie

I realy don't read fat grams, then again I don't eat much in the way of processed foods that tend to be the types of fats that are bad.
 
Neither. Carbs is the key. For me, fat content is irrelevant.

I love the Atkins diet. 40 pounds and counting. I ran (and finished) the Capitol 10K yesterday. Right now I'm eating sliced provolone with a jalapeno cream cheese spread. For breakfast tomorrow I'll have bacon and guacamole. For lunch I'll probably get a double meat double cheese burger from Short Stop and take off the bun.

Allsome.
 
Yeah, that's pretty ******* horrible. Enjoy your myocardial infarction.

And fat is necessary. Adjusting calories in vs. out is the best way to lose weight, and fat has more calories than carbs or protein.
 
Instead of fat grams, look at calories from fat. Those should be 30% or less of the total. Obviously, you can't do that ALL the time - need to enjoy the occassional dough-dough or slice o' pie, etc...but, a good rule to go by.

(there, now you're up to 4 different answers
tongue.gif
)
 
great, so now i'm up to four different possibilities instead of just two. thanks guys.

in all seriousness though, i appreciate the feedback. it sounds like different things work for different people. guess i'll just have to figure out what works best for me.

but if there are any nutritionists out there who think they REALLY know the answer, i'd be interested in your input.
 
For the last week+ I've been monitoring my calories in. I'm trying to eat more often as well. I used to never eat breakfast, a late lunch, and a very late supper.

Now, I try to drink a slim fast in the morning. A Powerbar 3 or so hours later. A snack when I get home. And a supper around 7pm. I've cut back on cokes and milk. Best drink for a diet: limeade. I just get a bunch of water, squeeze a couple limes in it, and put some sweet 'n low in it. No calories and citrus curbs appetite.

I've lost about 8 pounds already, and I haven't been hungry. Haven't picked up my activity level yet either. And that was even cheating over the weekend with a burger from Bennigan's on Friday and a burger and tots from Sonic on Saturday.

I'm not taking in a lot of calories per day (maybe +-2000). I'm a BIG guy, so just to maintain my weight I need like 4000 calories a day. So I'm losing weight just from the deficit I'm running. When I pick up the activity level, I'll start taking in more calories.
 
Longhorn Al, you will drastically accelerate that if you sub a sugar free protein shake in the morning and a quality nutrition bar over PowerBar. Powerbars are basically candy bars. Get a Zone bar or something similar.

I think South Beach is a much more reasonable diet that Atkins. Guapo's diet actually will make you lose weight, but I am not on board with eating that much saturated fat.
 
It doesn't take a ******* genius to lose weight the right and sensable way....

#1) Exercise 3-4 times per week 30+ minutes. Do some push up while your at it...lift some weights if you can.

#2) Absolutely no fast food, no cokes, candy, junk food and no ******* fried foods.

#3) Drink lots of water. Absolutely no alcohol if you can help it.

#4) Eat smaller portions of red meat (Three 3 oz portions/week is all you really need for body for muscle maitenance...no ****) and eat more lean meats (chicken, fish)

#5) Eat slightly larger portions of fruits and vegetables. Watch your bread intake..don't gorge yourself on breads.

#6) When you go out to resturants, only eat half your meal and take half home.

If America followed these 6 steps, there would be no obesity epidemic. Problem is that most America have no ******* discipline, self control, and self esteem to follow this kind of lifestyle.

Americans, for the most part, are weak minded, lazy SOB's.

I lost 35lbs (210 to 175) following this lifestyle for 9 months. Yes it is hard as **** the 1st month, but once you make the adjustment and your stomach shrinks back to "normal" size, it is easy. Losing 3-4 pounds per month is the heathly and safest way to do it.

Prove to yourself that your not a ***** and lose weight right way. Now go do it and stick with it...good luck.
 
every post i have seen about watching calories instead of watching fat keeps mentioning that you dont have to worry about fat if you dont eat processed foods. well i hate to break it to you but unless you live in the biosphere 95% of us americans are going to be eating processed foods. so in other words you better watch the fat in the processed foods that you will be eating most of the time.

very simple, exercise, dont eat foods with a lot of fat in them = HEALTHY weight loss. that atkins diet BS will kill your ***..
 
I'm curious as to why the anti-Atkins crowd thinks it will kill me. Is it the 75 pounds I've lost? The dramatic improvement of BP and Cholesterol (which did not improve on the AHA low-fat diet I lost 40 pounds on three years ago)? While I must admit that I have days eating like Guapo, it's really all about eating healthy unprocessed foods: meat, vegetables, dairy, some fruit and whole grains. The diet also stresses exercise and drinking lots of water. Sounds like a killer to me. As opposed to a low-fat or severe caloric restriction diet, I actually enjoy this diet and feel full every day. I've stuck to it for almost a year and a half, and have no interest in going back to any other way of eating.

If someone can produce a study that shows that a lowcarb diet is harmful to you, I'd readily listen, but no one (other than the Physicians Committe for Responsible Medicine -ie PETA) has shown negative effects from actually doing the diet. We have been brainwashed for the last three decades that low-fat is the way to go, but in those last three decades, Americans have gotten fatter than ever.

How hard is it to eat unprocessed food? You can cook a chicken breast and a salad/vegetable as fast as you can heat a frozen pizza or some other frozen meal.

As an aside - I think that the current Atkins Nutiitionals, Inc. will be the undoing of the diet. IMO - they have altered the goel of the Atkins diet frm helping people lose weight to trying to make lots of money off of the Atkins name. It's disappoiting to see them pushing so many low-carb "products" instead of the natural foods that Dr. Atkins actually based his diet upon. Having read both the original 1972 version of the Atkins Diet and the newer Dr. Atkins New Diet Revolution, you can tell that Dr. Atkins didn't write the latest books, and his diet has been seriously bastardized.
 
aspertame --aka the sugar sub is also known to slow down metabolism
 
Atkins is fine if you don't consider it a license to eat bacon wrapped, deep fried, cheese crusted meatballs. You can basically eat all the green veggies you can stomach and if you just eat smart protein I don't believe there is any harm in the Atkins at all. It is a jedi mind trick for your body and I don't think it can be maintained indefinitely. It is a way to accelerate weight loss, but it's not a sustainable lifestyle. The carb deficit it requires is incompatible with breaking bread with your friends or going out to dinner. You just can't eat like you are going to be served. Alcohol ruins it as well and we Americans just don't like ourselves enough to go through life without numbing our sensibilities.

Probably the easiest rule to follow is to not eat food handed to you through a window and to get some exercise. It is a simple matter of thermodynamics. If you put more gas in the car it will drive longer. If you overfill your car, it will spill out. If you overfill your body, it will grow a new tank.
 
When I look through the journals on nutrition, it seems to me the consensus, still, is that there are no data suggesting long term weight loss results with low carb diets are any better than with any other diet. Which are themselves pretty poor, as there aren't any diets that people stay on for long periods.
Rather than take anyone's word on it, or any "diet book" as gospel, look through the Journal of Clinical Nutrition, or JAMA; at best you'll get "insufficient evidence."
 
I like what EJC said (his 6 steps). I've used a variation of that & lost 38 lbs since January 1st (started at 320 lbs). I don't necessarily count calories or fat grams, I just try to use common sense about what I should & shouldn't eat.

Here's my normal diet:

Breakfast: Slim fast or Honey Nut Cherrios

Lunch or Dinner: Lots of salads, baked chicken, grilled chicken (also put in salads), grilled salmon on the George Foreman grill, baked fish, and lots of fresh vegetables.

Snacks: Cantelope, bananas, watermelon, nectarines, grapefruit, and Yoplait yogurts.

Foods I've avoided/cut back: red meat, fried foods, bread, cokes (even diet cokes), ice cream, chips, candy, peanuts, fast food, and if I eat out/only eat half.

I've also been on the treadmill at least 25-30 minutes EVERY day, plus 30 minutes of additional exercises & weights every other day.

If I need to cheat, I try to limit it to one meal per week.
 
cut out the bananas and it could help-- they have a glycemic index of 1-- they go into your bloodstream as fast as table sugar
 
I'm a firm believer of calories in &#60; calories out but it all relates to a lifestyle change. I bought a treadmill in January and now run 20 miles a week. I also cut down my portion size, started eating breakfast every morning, take a multi-vitamin and drink a V-8 every morning. I was 227 lbs in 2004. I weighed in today at 207 and counting. Even after taking 2.5 weeks off of the treadmill to let a sore hamstring heal I maintained and did not put weight back on. I feel fantastic!!!
 
color_pyramid2.gif
Willett has one of the better revised food pyramids.

In reality you need a balance and in any diet you need fats. Most importantly you need exercise to burn the fat.

Overall Calories are a function of weight loss, but if you care about whether your body is going to devour stored fat or muscle then you need to be much more concerned with blood sugar levels. That is why most diets where there is a significant exercise component call for 6-7 small meals spread throughout the day. this prevents your blood sugar from getting too low or too high.
The Link Willett is one of the best in his field, with one of the largest study groups ever. there is an excellent article in Discovery Magazine on this and more on blood sugars and his theories regarding insulin resistant cells.

IF you are exercising then you should be thinking bang for the buck from the calorie perspective. Now that I am back on the fitness wagon my diet is simply a way to fuel my body. I am eating lots of smaller meals and really enjoying racheting up my exercise.

the bottom line is that if your blood sugar levels get too low your body senses "starvations" and starts to burn muscle. When it gets too high after being too low then it "saves" whatever calories you put in your body for storage for later use. (fat).

I have easily lost 13 lbs of fat and added 4+ pounds of muscle during the same period (just under a month). Gone from couch potato to swimming over a mile at a time, now ratcheting up the bike and run. Gonna do a triathlon at the end of July. i will still be overwieght but a LOT more fit.

One other thing I learned from my research is that "cycling" your diet is NOT a bad thing. If you keep you blood sugar levels in good shape you can sort of go off the diet for a day on the weekends and this helps reestablish your resting metabolic rate back up to a higher level.

Endless caloric restriction will result in the typical rebound of weight gain.... unless you plan to starve forever....
 
This thread is pretty comical.

Never eat any food that has more than 20% of calories from fat?

OK. No more eggs, steaks, cheese, guacamole, bacon, nuts of any kind and on and on and on.

Its pretty easy to not eat processed foods. I hardly ever do. Pretty much only when I get wasted.

I guess I started on Atkins, lost 80 lbs and now maintain on my own plan that is generally low carb but I'm not super dogmatic about it and will carb up on certain occasions and after working out. You have to know your body and figure out what works for you. I've been doing this for going on 3 years and I don't feel like it is totally sustainable for the poster who suggested it was not.

I monitor calories a lot more than I do carbs though. If I eat 50 grams of carbs one day and 115 the next I don't sweat it at all if its coming from good foods. People who try to eat low-carb while relying almost entirely on 'low-carb' products are absolutely fooling themselves and will never have full success.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Weekly Prediction Contest

* Predict HORNS-AGGIES *
Sat, Nov 30 • 6:30 PM on ABC

Recent Threads

Prediction Results Threads

2024 Schedules

Back
Top