Whats more effective ?

vibes23

A calorie controlled diet (sticking to the 2500 cal per day)

or low carb diet.

If i wana lose wieght which of the above would i do?

g'em

I'd love to give you a quick either/ or answer, but it's not quite that simple. It really all comes down to how *you* as an individual respond to various foods. Some people can quite happily maintain high carb diets without fear of putting on weight, others (like me) only need to look at a loaf of bread before puffing up like a sumo wrestler.

Very low-carb diets aren't to everyone's taste either - they come with a range of not very pleasant side-effects like bad-breath, dizziness, light-headedness and sometimes nauseau, and it affects some worse than others.

I'd be inclined to get your diet under control first - eat a nice balance of all three groups (carbs, fats and proteins) and try and figure out what foods you like and don't like. It's very much a trial and error thing, but for every error you make you generally learn something valuable.

For example: I know that high fat food keeps me fuller for longer and I lose weight fastest. But I can only stay on high fat diets for about a month at a time before I get queasy after meals and my taste buds start rebelling. I know that even when I'm low-carbing I have to 're-feed' with carbs every 4-5 days if I want my energy levels up. If I'm losing weight there's usually about a 7-10 day delay in physical results after changing around my diet.

So, long story short, trim back your calories slightly and discover what foods you like and like you back. Cut the junk/ processed foods and add more water, fruit and veg in your diet and you'll likely find that the weight will start to slip off anyway!



Just to be really pedantic though: the answer is low-carbing

olaola

I would suggest looking at it in a different way. You should be training yourself to eat properly. Long term, low carb is not really sustainable. Which method will get you into better habits for the long run?

rubadub

Well 2500kcal a day is maintenance for a normal man, 2000kcal for the average woman. So it will make you lose fat if you are not also exercising. You should look at a deficit of ~500kcal per day for 1lb of fat loss per week. This could be 500kcal less food, or 500kcal more exercise- better to be a combination though.

A low carb diet usually results in you eating less calories anyways. I am trying to lose fat at the moment, and am trying low carb. It automatically means your food choice is limited so you eat less as too much of the same thing is boring. Also it is easy to get calorie dense carbs down you, I could eat a 1/2 sliced pan in a day without thinking about it. That much calories in the form of chicken or steak is a huge amount.

Also protein acts as a appetite suppressant, so when on low carbs, it is generally a high protein diet too- so I find it easier to stick to. Works better in the long run, and that is what matters, what you can stick to.

If you want to lose fat then lifting heavy weights is an excellent way to do it.

mack1

olaola wrote: »

Long term, low carb is not really sustainable.

Of course it is - why not?
Cavemen survived on a low carb diet for about 2 million years just fine.

Low carb FTW!

rubadub

mack1 wrote: »

Cavemen survived on a low carb diet for about 2 million years just fine.

What was Schwarzenegger's quote? something like -man was not designed to be sedentary, he was designed to run 40kilometres a day and hunt wooly mammoth!

And most cavemen died in their 30's

but seriously NO carb would be hard to sustain, low carb is fine for me. Oats in the morning, and a little sugary sauces in other meals. I find it easy to cut out bread & pasta.

Whenever I went to buffets I always avoided bread, rice, pasta- always filling up on the good stuff, now I just eat like that all the time. Steaks morning, noon & night at the moment!