Carbs vs Calories Topic

JJ1 03/10/18
I've always always done low carb. I'm a expert at that. I found it wasn't showing results like before so about 5 days ago I switched to calories and downloaded this app. My friends have used it for years. It's got me on a 1010 calorie/day diet to finish up my goal and I swear I feel like I'm failing because I eat more and have things like milk I haven't had in long time....

Dietitian 03/10/18 replied to JJ1
Hi JackieJenkins, switching from low carb to even moderate carb is a transition. When you first weigh yourself after introducing carbs back in, you will find a small and immediate uptick in water weight - this is a normal and expected change. It is not an increase in body fat. On low carb diets, especially in the presence of intense exercise, transition to a more moderate carb intake will do this. And that is okay and appropriate to your body's needs (rebuilding glycogen stores is important for athletic performance as well).

Aside from a weight change from hydration/water weight, if you are tracking your food and beverage intake accurately, and you are creating a calories deficit, you will lose weight. The challenge is to be patient - there is always error on the part of how MyNetDiary estimates your true caloric needs and how we track exercise and food/drink intake. On a low carb diet, people create such a large calories deficit that even with error in tracking, they lose weight. But eating low carb for the long term is not necessarily sustainable for a lot of folks, as you found out.

So, back to tracking. We have a lot of resources to help people track as accurately as possible. Even if you think you already know all of this stuff, I think it is good to review it if you are stalling out. Probably, the most common problem I see with tracking is the drift - we stop measuring/weighing our intake and start to guess more. Or we dine out more and that adds a huge amount of error in terms of underestimating intake.

This post is helpful since it contains lots of useful tips and links: https://www.mynetdiary.com/tips-for-losing-weight.html

And for logging basic foods, be sure to read this: https://www.mynetdiary.com/tips-for-losing-weight.html

Let us know how you do, Jackie. I believe you can finish to goal - but the weight loss rate will likely be slower than what you are used to on a low carb diet.

Best,
Kathy (Dietitian)

WomanOfMeans 03/13/18
Is there a way to follow a Keto diet with this app? On Atkins I just gained weight or maintained. How do I change the settings? I also would like to know the net carb range for a pre diabetic?A TED talk doctor was sharing how a KETO diet is best and also may me good for neurological conditions too.So I thought I would give it a try.Please advise how how to set this app for KETO. TKS

Dietician 03/13/18
Hello Melissarussell-
Welcome to MND! Glad you found us. With the maximum membership or stand alone Diabetes Tracker you are able to customize your macronutrient goals. Simply go to the PLAN section of the tracker and you will then see a vertical tool bar appear. Select the second option: Fats, Protein, Carbs. You can then enter your specific carb goal (grams per day) into the system. Typically for KETO consider the following: 75% fat
20% protein
5% carbohydrate
Here is an article that Donna wrote last year that can fill in any gaps that may exists around the keto plan. https://www.mynetdiary.com/ketogenic-diet.html
Best, Joanna (Dietician)

TomDibble 03/30/18
I am also on a very-low-carb diet. I use MyNetDiary to track my calories and net carbs. With the "maximum" membership I was able to switch carb reporting to "net carbs" (since fibers can add calories but not akin to other carbohydrates), and added "Net Carbs" as a measure on my home screen (there is also the default Fat/Carb/Protein macros breakdown which does *not* respect the "use net carbs" setting, but I just ignore the percentages there for the most part).

The tips around water loss when starting a VLC diet and equal water gain when ending it above are exactly spot-on (as expected with a dietician). I'm not in complete agreement with the ketogenic-diet link above (I certainly have not had trouble sticking to a very-low-carb diet; almost all restaurants around here easily cater to low-carb wishes when we go out, and there are about a bajillion delicious recipes around for low-carb meals of every flavor; I don't think there have been any ketone body odor issues either, unless no one is telling me I stink :) - that said, my experience is anecdote and I'd expect Donna's article is based on multiple patient experiences), but keeping those in mind as potential effects and going in with your doctor's blessing and eyes wide open is certainly a good plan.

Dietitian 03/30/18 replied to TomDibble
Hi TomDibble, thanks for sharing your experience - good to hear you are doing well with your low carb plan.

We have asked about replacing total carbs with the chosen carb counting method for the macronutrient summary. I'll ask again why they don't use our chosen carb counting style (I use diabetes carb count). But I think it is because the total calories are based upon calories/gram for the total fat, total carbs, and total protein grams. So, if they use any carb counting type other than total carbs, the macro %s would not add up to 100% - because net carbs and diabetes carb count are always lower in grams than total carbs. But I will check on my assumption and reply back to you.

Best,
Kathy (Dietitian)

Carbs vs Calories