Your biggest challenge is not deciding what/how to eat (low carb, or low calorie, or whatever) - it's sustaining your healthy eating habits over 6 or so months to lose the weight - even during the unhappy weeks when you don't lose or even gain - or when other things in your life go haywire and you just want to eat your feelings - and then for a lifetime after that. For that, I recommend Weight Watchers or teaming up with a friend or something.

Put another way - losing weight won't turn on whether you go low carb or intermittent fast or whatever. There are many different ways to eat light, clean, and healthy. The crucial test is knowing how to get back up on the horse after the pizza binge, or the unplanned dozen cookies, or that late night bag of chips, and then you do it again and there's a second slip up a few days later, and before you know it you've just slid back into old eating habits. Stopping that slide is the key. It's a mental game, not a nutritional game. And THAT's the hard part. But it can be done.

P.S. Speaking from experience here. I lost 25 lbs and have maintained for nearly 3 years.

I did both. Worked well for me an I realized how much simple carbs are adding to my daily calorie intake. I swapped it with protein/veggies and some complex carbs. It seems like it's a good and natural combination for weight loss, but much better if you add in some physical activity, so you don't feel sluggish in the long run.

Im in your exact same shoes OP. Exact.

I've lost nearly 20 pounds since August. I started with a one-month "detox" - absolutely no processed carbs, alcohol or sugar. Basically like Phase 1 of the South Beach diet but I did eat fruit. I tracked and aimed to keep my calorie intake at 1200, offset by whatever exercise I did that day. But I didn't exercise a ton to be honest. I really focused on re-setting my hunger and eating. I went from 158 to 148. Then I slowly started adding healthy carbs back in, but aimed to keep the calories at 1200 (again offset by exercise). I started exercising more but would eat some whole grain carbs to provide energy to do so. I'm now holding steady around 141, would like to get to 135 and maintain around there. I did not lose much between December 20 and now, but trying to get back on pace to lose .5 pounds per week (calorie intake was re-set at 1600 a day) and I feel good about what I've been able to do, and I did not starve myself or feel deprived over the holidays.

My other piece of advice is to weigh yourself daily. Yes, some days you will see you "gained" a pound, but I find it very inspiring and helpful to see the pattern over time. And if you weight is up for a few days, you can make the instant adjustments. And track all your food and exercise.

Good luck to you!

In the end they are the same. To lose weight you need a calorie deficit. People tend to achieve this when they go low carb because most carbs are easy to overeat and thus make it harder to stay low calorie, but in the end the way you lose weight is by having a calorie deficit. If you go low carb and still manage to eat 3000 calories a day you will not lose weight.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Both. Keto is pretty much low carb and low cal. Throw in some intermittent fasting and you'll be good to go.

This sounds exactly like an eating disorder.

NP. You can actually eat a lot of good food during that window. You can eat a ton of lean protein and vegetables for relatively few calories, and it's filling.

Anonymous wrote:Both. Keto is pretty much low carb and low cal. Throw in some intermittent fasting and you'll be good to go.

This sounds exactly like an eating disorder.

Low cal, w lots of fruit and veg. Keto gave me leg cramps and sapped all my energy. I could barely climb the stairs.

Yes, Keto or low carb will see the most drastic results, but you need to factor in much of the weight loss may be water weight. Also your starting weight matters, so if your goal is to look good in clothes your better metric is probably how you look in the mirror. For example, 20 pounds weight loss on a 200 pound person would look much less drastic than a 20 pound weight loss on a 150 pound person.

Another vote for both.

Both. If you do lower carb and swap in vegetables instead you pretty much have lower cal by definition. That's what worked for me. Ultimately losing weight requires a calorie deficit.

No matter the diet, you have to eat fewer calories and/or increase activity to lose weight.

Decreasing your carbs inevitably means you eat more protein/fat, which keeps you fuller longer. Ultimately you end up eating less (hopefully). This could backfire if you eat so many fats, you end up eating as much, or even more, than your body needs: think five blocks of cheese or something similarly high fat.

Eliminating carbs also leads to an initial drop of water weight, as carbs hold on to water.

Ultimately, both low carb and low fat could get you to the same result - it's just how your body reacts to either diet. Alternatively, you don't need to eliminate any particular food group/ macro to lose weight - you could just limit your portions by cutting them in half, or doing intermittent fasting, or any weight watchers. . .

Personally I've had luck with all versions although I feel foggy/sluggish on very low carb/keto.

Both. Keto is pretty much low carb and low cal. Throw in some intermittent fasting and you'll be good to go.

Try Keto.

I can see how low cal would work but what about low carb? It wouldn’t be long term I don’t think but if the end goal is 20 lbs lost, what have you tried that works? Signed 5’4” 170 lbs