Upping Carbs W/O Upping Calories?

[gonnabskinny]

As I have increased the carbs each rung on OWL, the calories have also crept up. This week I have jumped up to 40 net carbs and have also averaged about 150 more calories than last week. Any suggestions on how to increase the carb count without increasing the calorie count?

[mitzimarie]

Re: Upping Carbs W/O Upping Calories?

As I have increased the carbs each rung on OWL, the calories have also crept up. This week I have jumped up to 40 net carbs and have also averaged about 150 more calories than last week. Any suggestions on how to increase the carb count without increasing the calorie count?

Don,

I, too, moved to 40 net carbs this week and also noticed my calorie average increase by about 100 or so calories. I'm hoping that it won't affect me adversely, as I was consistently a little on the low side calorie-wise prior to this week. I don't like to change 2 things at one time, though. If I have no weight loss, is it because of extra carbs or extra calories? I don't weigh till tommorow morning, and TOM graced me with his presence yesterday , so I don't, and probably won't, know how this increase in both carbs and calories has affected me since TOM causes water retention for me. I guess I will have to do another week at my present counts and see then.

[Brook]

Re: Upping Carbs W/O Upping Calories?

I just use a little less butter/olive oil. :shrug: It's an easy place to level out the ratios and create balance. It's not meant to be a 75/20/5 ratio throughout. The numbers should be balancing out as we progress. That doesn't have to mean more calorie intake. If you keep everything the same and just add in carbs, you'll naturally be adding calories....so that's where I tweak and it works for me.

HTH
~Brook

[mitzimarie]

Re: Upping Carbs W/O Upping Calories?

I just use a little less butter/olive oil. :shrug: It's an easy place to level out the ratios and create balance. It's not meant to be a 75/20/5 ratio throughout. The numbers should be balancing out as we progress. That doesn't have to mean more calorie intake. If you keep everything the same and just add in carbs, you'll naturally be adding calories....so that's where I tweak and it works for me.

HTH
~Brook

Hi, Brook

Believe me, I have been playing the tweaking game since I started using Fitday in mid-April. My percentages are looking good. I no longer eat oil, butter, and rarely use salad dressing any more to get the numbers I want.

[mitzimarie]

Re: Upping Carbs W/O Upping Calories?

Don,

I, too, moved to 40 net carbs this week and also noticed my calorie average increase by about 100 or so calories. I'm hoping that it won't affect me adversely, as I was consistently a little on the low side calorie-wise prior to this week. I don't like to change 2 things at one time, though. If I have no weight loss, is it because of extra carbs or extra calories? I don't weigh till tommorow morning, and TOM graced me with his presence yesterday , so I don't, and probably won't, know how this increase in both carbs and calories has affected me since TOM causes water retention for me. I guess I will have to do another week at my present counts and see then.

Today is weigh day and I'm happy to report that although TOM is visiting, I still lost 2 pounds last week, so I know that I can handle 40 net carbs and I had suspected I needed to up my calories a little anyway, so I am good to go! Starting Rung 3 today.

Don, the very first sticky in this forum addresses moving up the rungs without increasing calories. It's pretty informative.

[not2late]

Re: Upping Carbs W/O Upping Calories?

Have you all increased your fat and protein intake too? Even by a little???

The 'fatty' OWL Rungs are the Dairy Rung and the Nut/Seed rung. When you add those items into your menu, you should either swap that rung food for a serving of added fat (oil, butter, mayo, etc.) or cut back on the added fat by a serving or half serving. 1 tablespoon of butter, oil, salad dressing or mayo has about 100 calories. 1 ounce of Induction cheese (Swiss, gouda, cheddar, etc.) has about 100 calories. 2 tablespoons of liquid heavy cream has about 100 calories.

For example, you've been averaging about 1000 calories per day (I'm using simple numbers so my simple brain can do the simple math for it). 650 of those calories is from fat, 350 from protein and 50 from carbs. Then you add 5 net carbs of cottage cheese (about 170 calories per 5 net carb serving). Your total cals will be 1170 IF you don't swap that cottage cheese for 1 serving of added fat. BUT if you have the cottage cheese and cut back on your Induction cheese amount by 2 ounces, your total daily calories will be about 1000 calories.

[mitzimarie]

Re: Upping Carbs W/O Upping Calories?

I think I am cool now on the calorie issue - I wasn't eating enough, so increasing by 100 or so a day is just what I needed.

I haven't paid attention to how many grams of fat or protein I have been eating, only my percentages. And since I finally figured out how to use Fitday, my percentages have been great. I plug everything in ahead of time and tweak what I need to, to get near my constant figure of 30% protein, and my fat percentage has gone down in proportion to the amount my carb percentage has gone up. I am now actually enjoying doing the "Fitday Shuffle" everyday.

[gonnabskinny]

Re: Upping Carbs W/O Upping Calories?

Megs, yes my protein did go up and my fat grams actually come down slightly. I have had a difficult time keeping my protein up to 30% of my total, so I had to raise it a little. I averaged 162 grams of protein per day this past week and finally hit 30%. Ideally, I would be somewhere in the 150's on a 2000 calorie per day diet. So I think I can tweak that a little and still achieve the right balance. Fat grams actually dropped a little to 122 and that is about right (average for the past 14 weeks has been 129). Like I said carbs are now up to 40 net. Also, my current BMR is 2275, so just like Mitzi maybe I should have been getting more calories anyways and shouldn't worry so much about the increase.

Here were my average stats from last week.

2137 calories per day
122 fat grams per day for 52% of total
162 protein grams per day for 30% of total
40 net carbs per day for 18% of total

Mitzi, thank you for the reminder about the sticky and congratulations on another good week. I had read that sticky before, but needed to go back and read it again. Each time it makes a little more sense. I think this is why most of our weight loss is supposed to happen on OWL. This is where we need to figure all this out so that it will become second nature.

[mitzimarie]

Re: Upping Carbs W/O Upping Calories?

Hi, Don...

I think your average stats from last week look great! Did you lose weight last week?

I have been re-reading stickies and you're right, they seem to make more sense now.

Please continue to keep us up to date, OK?

[mitzimarie]

Re: Upping Carbs W/O Upping Calories?

I haven't paid attention to how many grams of fat or protein I have been eating, only my percentages. And since I finally figured out how to use Fitday, my percentages have been great. I plug everything in ahead of time and tweak what I need to, to get near my constant figure of 30% protein, and my fat percentage has gone down in proportion to the amount my carb percentage has gone up. I am now actually enjoying doing the "Fitday Shuffle" everyday.

Umm... Well, having said this about my "great" percentages, I now need to say that my fat percentage is kind of high and my protein kind of low for today. Today was the first day to have nuts in my daily count, and yep, it sure does jack up the fat. I will have to work on shaving the fat elsewhere on "nut" days.