Low carb or low fat?

[sofkop]

Which one will equal more wieght loss?

I'm struggling to understand what would help me lose the most weight.. once I find a routine that I find fullfilling I find the amount of carbs is quite large or the amount of fat or sugar is quite large. I'm not sure what it even means tbh.

HELP!

[Kleineganz]

In general studies have shown a low-carb diet to be healthier, and according to Dr. Donald Hensurd at the May Clinic "In general, low-carb diets may result in a little more weight loss in the first 3 to 6 months." (source: http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/low-fa ... rb/MY01446)

However he makes a good point - the first focus should be on calories. You need to understand what your Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR) is and know how many calories (or how few) you need to consume to lose weight. When you're first starting a lifestyle change (not a diet - diets never work because you will regain the weight after going back to your normal eating habits), it's important to record everything you eat every day and calculate the calories you consume. Over time you won't need to do that as much as you'll be fairly familiar with how many calories you're consuming.

The focus behind "low-carb" is to eat healthy, lean protein, lots of fresh veggies and some fresh fruit. Cut out added sugar, and other processed carbs like breads, pasta, and starches like potatoes and rice. If you follow that, make sure not to overdo it on calories, drink plenty of water, and get some exercise daily, you should become a fit and healthier person.

Another trick is not to fear fat. You don't want to consume so much fat that it takes you over the amount of daily calories you should be eating, but there are lots of healthy fats that your body needs. Olive oil and coconut oil are two good examples of good fats. Consuming some fat with your food can also slow down your body's glycemic response to the carbs in them (even veggies, and especially fruits, have carbs ... low-carb is primarily low or no processed carbs).

The 20 Benefits of Low-Carb Diets: http://lowcarbdiets.about.com/od/lowcar ... nefits.htm

[Decayedbeauty]

Weightloss should be slow and steady. So with that said, low-fat or low-carb temporarily won't help. You'll have to commit to a lifestyle change or else it's just yo-yo dieting.

The best thing you can do is keep a log of what you're eating currently for a week or two. Then look at what youre eating. Look at the types of foods, fats and carbs you are eating. Look at your calories. Decide where you can make some changes that you can stick with. If you're not a salad person, it probably wouldn't best to commit to a diet where you eat lots of salads. If you aren't willing to give up dairy, you probably wouldn't want to go vegan or paleo.

Neither carbs or fat are bad in themselves, by the types can be, so you can swap them out or make reductions.

If you go on a crash diet, such as severe calorie reduction you can lose weight quickly, but it's difficult to maintain and eventually you will stop losing and go back to eating like before and the weight will come back. Or you can do a steady weightloss that's easier to maintain and keep the weight off.


Personally I do reduced fat vegan. That works for me, but maybe not for someone else. I also exercise regularly, but weightloss is mostly diet.

[Min]

if you ate the same amount of calories with a low-fat or low-carb diet, the results would not change. Calories ultimately determine how you lose fat mass, since excess energy (calories) results in the increase of body fat. All diets work to reduce your caloric intake in direct and indirect ways -- even if they claim not to.

With that said, low-carb diets can help you initially shed more weight because of the depletion of glycogen. This results in the loss of water, which may make it look like you lost a lot of weight initially doing low-carb, when in fact it's not fat loss. High protein diets (aka low-carb diets) can also have a satiating effect on hunger, making it easier to diet.

It's also largely dependent on you personally. As the saying goes, the best diet is the diet you can stick to.

[Kleineganz]

if you ate the same amount of calories with a low-fat or low-carb diet, the results would not change. Calories ultimately determine how you lose fat mass, since excess energy (calories) results in the increase of body fat. All diets work to reduce your caloric intake in direct and indirect ways -- even if they claim not to.

With that said, low-carb diets can help you initially shed more weight because of the depletion of glycogen. This results in the loss of water, which may make it look like you lost a lot of weight initially doing low-carb, when in fact it's not fat loss. High protein diets (aka low-carb diets) can also have a satiating effect on hunger, making it easier to diet.

It's also largely dependent on you personally. As the saying goes, the best diet is the diet you can stick to.

Not all "low-carb" diets are "high-protein" diets - you're thinking Atkins, which forbids veggies for the first 1-2 weeks. Those kind of "low-carb" crash diets are a recipe for failure, I agree. Instead I think it's wiser to adopted a long-term low-carb lifestyle.

This entails eating wholesome, low-fat protein (could be meat, could be from veggies like soy, legumes, etc.), lots of fresh veggies and some fruit. Cutting out things like processed sugars (including honey), processed grains that are made into breads, pastries and pasta, and high starch foods like potatoes and rice.

Also taking into account the glycemic index of foods can be helpful, and is the guiding principle behind a sensible "low-carb" lifestyle, but other factors also have to be considered - especially as a woman gets older. At my age simply restricting my calorie intake is not enough. My metabolism has slowed down a lot, my hormones are out of balance so there are a lot of other factors.

Also your body processes fats and carbs quite differently due to the insulin response, and therefore not all calories are considered equal. Here is a study reported on WebMD that discusses this: http://www.webmd.com/diet/news/20120626 ... y-suggests

[Alka]

not all calories are the same, you need to look at how it's metabolised in your body to know. for example fructose is metabolised into fat in your liver completely, while sucrose is 50/50. It has ato do with glucose and blood sugar levels and I really recommend watching this video, before I had no idea calories are not just plain calories:

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also when you change the way you eat, exclude pasta/bread/grains your heart starts using kerat**** (sorry forgot the name and google didn't help) as fuel which is how our body was designed to work. Did you guys know that carbs are not the primarily fuel our body was designed to work on? And surely not the processed carbs.

anyway, for healthy weight loss I'd eat veggies, very little fruits, eggs and lean protein like chicken breast, lean fillets and loads of sea food and fish. also substitute coffee with green tea and sweeten with stevia instead of sugar or anything else. that is what I aim for right now, but I work in the events industry and there's always amazing food around... and I have very little self control and will power

[dollfayse]

Low fat diet I recommend. You need carbs to burn carbs. You need fat, protein and carbs. I took biology and this is what I learned.

[nooteloo]

Honestly it doesn't really matter; while some studies have proven low carb as better, if you can't stick to it there's no point. People are always debating different techniques when they almost all work, as long as you are in a caloric deficit you should see improvement x

[Ciaokitty]

Imo medium carbs from good sources + medium healthy fats is the key.