I upped my carbs today from 30 to 35 and after all was said and done I had consumed 2300 calories! That can't be good!!!

Michele

Hmmm....my average calorie intake for a day is about 2k, and my carbs are in the 30-35 range. I am losing steadily, but I have a lot of weight to lose....about 110 lbs total. How long have you been LCing, and perhaps post a menu for eveyrone to see?

Robin

"Many of life's failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up." Thomas A. Edison

Started Protein Power 10/22/03
Doing a hybrid of PP/Atkins
255/238/140

From what I know, if you're eating less than 20 calories for every pound of body weight, then it isn't too many. 20 for each lb is what it takes to maintain weight. You should absolutely not eat less than 10 calories for every pound of body weight (or at least, not for very long) because that is starvation.

So for me: if I want to stay 150lbs, I need 3000 calories a day. If I don't want to send my body into starvation mode, I need to eat at least 1500 calories a day.

Now, I know Atkins says that calories don't matter as much as the kinds of foods you eat, and I think there's some truth to that. But I also think that if you eat too few calories you can really hurt your body and mess up your metabolism, and even on Atkins you can eat too much and not lose. But 2300 sounds OK.

_____________________________
Just started: 153/?/130
5' 3", 24 years old

"Jazz speaks for life. The Blues tell the story of life's difficulties, and if you think for a moment, you will realize that they take the hardest realities of life and put them into music, only to come out with some new hope or sense of triumph. This is triumphant music."
-Martin Luther King, Jr.

been doing Atkins for about 5 weeks now.

Breakfast: Mock Danish + 2 slices bacon

Snack: hard boiled egg

Lunch: 2 cups romaine lettuce topped with hard boiled egg, 3 oz turkey breast and 3 tbs ranch dressing.

Snack: few pork rinds + 1 carb piece of beef jerky (Lawreys)

Supper: 3 oz baked chicken breast coated with parmesan, italian dressing mix and garlic powder, 4 c raw cabbage cooked with 2 slices chopped bacon and 2 tsp chopped onion and a flax meal muffin

Snack: celery stick with natural peanut butter, 10 macadamia nuts and 1/4 cup cream cheese jello desert

150 oz of water!

I'm stuffed too!...LOL

Michele

Michelle, I wouldn't dwell on calories at this point. The question to ask yourself is whether or not you've made good choices in selecting the source of those extra 5 carbs. If you are at 35 now, a relatively early stage of OWL, your choices probably still be on the lower rungs of the "carbohydrate ladder."

OWL Carbohydrate Ladder

So if you are making good food choices, in ketosis, losing weight and feeling good--well you are doing fine.

At any rate, mathematically speaking, one gram of carb is about 4 calories. Five grams is about 20 calories. So the carb count alone is not what is upping your calories.



BC
172/108/108--5'2"
Zone since 4/98

thanks BC....I think the cream cheese is what added up so fast calorie wise....haven't checked keto stix yet today

Michele

I have to be careful about fats, because they really do add up quickly. I get enough fat in my diet without planning to; extra fats like cream or butter are a treat.

I'm eating 30 to 35 carbs a day at 1500 cal a day, so it's certainly possible to do it. But most of my carbs come from veggies with no butter or sauces.

Michele,

Please don't let yourself get too worried about calories. Remember, we metabolize them differently when we follow a low carb eating plan. As Dr. A says in DANDR:
<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><font size="-1">quote:</font><HR>...it's not that calories don't count, it's just that you will burn more of them, with less hunger, when your body is operating on a fat-based metabolism. <HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

At this stage, just starting OWL, I think you should just keep track of your carbs, get most of them from veggies, keep your protein levels where they should be, and let the plan work. If you're losing, and feeling healthy, then obviously you're doing just fine.

Trina

Cooking is at once child's play and adult joy.
And cooking done with care is an act of love.
- Craig Claiborne

Ok, First as always YMMV. Some people need to watch calories as they get closer to their goal weight. Some people need to be more careful with fats. But that may not be your issue. I average about 1600 cal a day but I weigh 144 lbs, female, not a lot of muscle (working on that), and sit in an office. I have had a few over 2000 calories and I can tell you it never affected me one bit. As long as the 2000 calories were good calories and I stay within the carb allowance.

If you are male, have an active job (male or female) and have more muscle you should be eating more then me and everyone says I eat all the time.

Remember this is not about calories, it is about eating right.

travellost-51 yrs Young
1/20/03 195/145 first time
1/5/04 second time
150/144/135
"I am allergic to carbs they make me break out in fat"

calories schmalories


"Do, or do not. There is no 'try'."
- Yoda ('The Empire Strikes Back')
Start Atkins 9.1.03
225/198/130ish
Valentine's Day Goal: 180

I was gonna say, Tara, "What's a calorie?"

I for one never believed in the "a calorie is a calorie", and you have to burn off all you intake to lose weight. For one I always wondered what got flushed and how we made it calorie free when it left our bodies...

I think over all, we send many of the calories we consume on their way if our bodies can't process them into fuels and whatnot. I've lost almost 80 pounds and haven't counted calorie or fat gram one.

Mikeyrat

Started Atkins 5/30/2003
337/258.5/237 - 6'2" 43 YO
Wife: 224/194/165 - 5'11"