Carbs and Maintenance

 
Hah !!!!! Gotcha !!!!

Frickin Carb Wars !!!!

Here is my take on Carbs and Maintenance.......

Just like Weight, BMI, Calories, food volume, monthly household budgets...... every other thing we keep track of that has bad implications if you go over the number.

I'm in the early stages of what I figure is going to be an ongoing case study on myself to find how many carbs I can get away with.....

This is the balancing act between types of foods, calories and exercise. Exercise probably being the great equalizer making the sweet spot much bigger and a easier target to hit. Without exercise the target zone seems VERY NARROW.

I think....well at this point we all know that we are all different and our tolerances for different foods can be very different.

From what I can see......Still Fawn, Bosco Girl, usafwife and several others represent the small percentage of us that are "Winners" in the entire eating process and are able to eat pretty freely....not saying they don'****ch or try.....just sayin they found that they hold a weight without much effort.

Yah! I want that !

I think from what I can see..... I'm not one of them...... nor am I on the other end of the spectrum.... I think (jury still out) I am going to be able to be able to eat a "fair" amount of carbs.

My point is ......you gotta find your number (range) and there are many variables.....it's a moving target!!!

frisco

 BUT..... IT Has to include Mexican food, I even occasionally eat it in the losing stage, so I know I will include it in maintenance!!!
Kathy

 Oh Frisco, I should have known.  I almost moaned when I saw the title.  Not again!  :)  You are right the exercise seems to be the big difference in how many carbs people can tolerate.  I also think different people are triggered to eat by different things.  If you can't eat just one cookie, than it doesn't matter how many calories or carbs, one cookie has.  That is me.  If I eat one Peppridge Farm cookie, I am done for, I might as well count the calories in the whole bag, because that is what I am going to eat tonight.  That doesn't happen to me with steak even a great steak from Alexander's Steak house will not trigger me.  You can even slather it in blue cheese sauce, I am still OK.  That is the big difference for me.  Carbs for me equal desire ( and not in good sexy kind of way).  I wish this wasn't true, I wish I could just eat a little, but my history shows me pretty clearly that it is just the way it is.  

Elina_7,

Ditto. I am the same.

except, you have a hold on it.

I do not.

But, I will continue the fight...

people are triggered to eat by different things
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TOTALLY agree!!!

This is my take on it... after almost 2 years on maintenance:

1) People use words in ways that don't necessarily have the same meaning. So you need to be careful when people talk very generally about what they do.

For example, you can have two people both say "I eat whatever I want to only in smaller quantities" and, if you watched those two people eat, you would get two very different pictures of what that means.

Because "whatever I want" can mean anything and so can "in smaller quantities".

2) People say "eating X made me fat" but it's not really true. What made us fat is eating more calories than we burned. Sure some people have foods that trigger them and some people have foods that don't agree with their body and for some people those foods are carbs. But I don't believe in putting any food completely off limits or in demonizing whole food groups and that includes carbs.

That said, I don't feel like I eat "anything I want". I do limit carbs. But not because they are evil. I limit them because my body runs better if I get X amount of protein and don't go over Y amount of carbs on a regular basis. If I don't limit my carbs, I won't get in my protein and I will have cravings and hunger that sabotage me. But that means I can't eat 300-500 g of carbs a day. I still eat a lot of carbs compared to the losing phase.

Also, while I don't eat "anything I want" at the same time I feel like I eat everything I want to.

What I mean by that is that every day I have urges to eat this and that. Some of them are quite serious and some aren't serious at all. So, every time I pass by the pot of M&Ms, I think "I want some". but I don't eat some every time. Does this mean I'm depriving myself? Not really. I know that urge isn't *serious*. It's a reflex. I see food, I want it. Even if I don't want it.

OTOH, I do eat M&Ms. And cookies. And pie. And carbs of all sorts. But I kind of mentally keep track and I just make sure that (a) I've gotten in all my protein or am on the path to doing that by the end of the day and (b) I'm not going to eat a lot more calories than I'll burn.

I do think that this is what some people do naturally. What most people who don't battle their weight do naturally. It's not as natural for me. But my goal is to make it more natural even if that means sometimes I go astray and have to back-track to a less natural way of keeping track.

For me it is not as simple as "calories in..... calories out" equation.  For instance my BMR is usually around 3000 cals  (estimate....not the super accurate tests)  So lets say it is closer to 2000 cals..if i am in a 1000 cal deficit (I eat approx 1000 now)....I should lose about 1 lbs every 3.5 days!  I do not.  I also know.....IF the "bulk" of those calories are from "carbs" (any type...like 50%) or approx  125 grms of carbs....my loss will slow WAAY down!  So for ME at least..... it does not seem to be as simple as "cals in..... cals out".  For you the "great equalizer " does seem to be exercise!  You need more carbs cause your body burns them quickly as fuel.........mine ....not so much!  But hey.....that's just me......maybe I'm a freak?

I don't think you are a freak. Pre-op I lost about half the rate the online calculators said I should. I think that's very common among people who are MO and/or have done a lot of yo-yo dieting. It's even documented that yo-yo dieting lowers your metabolism.

But this remained true even when I lowered carbs and raised protein.

However, people who are insulin resistant (and diabetics fall into that category) will find their metabolism gets lowered when they eat certain carbs. So it is calories in = calories out but the calories out changes based on what you are eating even though your obvious activity level doesn't change.

I have very few symptoms of insulin resistance and I think I'm not. My body runs better with a higher mixture of protein and fat than the "experts" recommend but my body doesn't hate carbs. 

It does hate milk though. ;-)

It could be all the smart stuff MacMadam has said, but I personally vote for, you're a freak.  :)   Hugs and Kisses Jim.  Have a wonderful weekend with your freaky self.

Just like Weight, BMI, Calories, food volume, monthly household budgets...... every other thing we keep track of that has bad implications if you go over the number.

I'm in the early stages of what I figure is going to be an ongoing case study on myself to find how many carbs I can get away with.....

This is the balancing act between types of foods, calories and exercise. Exercise probably being the great equalizer making the sweet spot much bigger and a easier target to hit. Without exercise the target zone seems VERY NARROW.

I think....well at this point we all know that we are all different and our tolerances for different foods can be very different.

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right on buddy! i totally agree!