Are low-carb diets good when you're not really dieting but just maintaining?

[CAESAR7]

I know low carb diets are good to lose fat while losing weight but is there any benifit to eat low carb when trying to maintain your current weight? For example, if one were eating 2500 calories day to maintain a current bodyweight, would eating barely any carbs do anything for that person? I'm not sure if this has been addressed already but any input would be greatly appreciated.

 

[sawastea]

I tend to have low carbs when I'm losing weight. When I'm maintaining, I'll stick with a traditional 40/40/20 or 40/30/30 split. No need to deprive yourself

By low carb, are you referring to keto or a reasonable number, like 150g?

 

[Boulder257]

In order for maintenance, the most important aspect is that you stay around your Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR). After you determine what your BMR is, you need to stay within that threshold in order to maintain. Carbs are not our enemies and are essential for energy. Also, don't forget that anything can be stored as fat if it is consumed in too high a quantity. You can eat all of the protein you want and no carbs and still gain fat if you are above the BMR threshold.

In order to determine your BMR try this formula:

Weight in pounds divided by 2.2 (to get KG)
Then multiply by 24
Then multiply that number by the body fat multiplier (.95 for 10-14% BF, .9 for .15-.17% BF, .85 for .18-.22% BF, .8 for anything above).
Then multiply that number by the activity multiplier - (1 for not active, 1.1 for active, 1.2 for exercise daily.)

 

[heregothere]

boulder -- that formula is waaaay off.

 

[Boulder257]

I respect your right to disagree, but if you are going to the least you can do is please post why and what formula you use? You can't just say it is way off but offer absolutely nothing in return to back up your claim. This is the formula that the ISSA teaches its Personal Trainers and has been using for a long time.

Not to mention the fact that I took about 15 minutes to put this post together to help someone and you discredit it, without support, in one sentence. That's not fair to me, the ISSA, or the people that I am trying to help.

Let me run you through an example of the formula:

Male, 220 lbs, 12% bf, works out everyday...

220/2.2 = 100 (divide by 2.2 to get kilograms)
100*24 = 2400 (multiply by 24)
2400*.95 = 2280 (multiply by BF multiplier)
2280*1.2 = 2736. (multiply by activity multiplier)

Therefore, the BMR for that individual is 2736 calories per day.

 

[CAESAR7]

Gotcha, thanks for the replys...

 

[Lao Tzu]

I respect your right to disagree, but if you are going to the least you can do is please post why and what formula you use? You can't just say it is way off but offer absolutely nothing in return to back up your claim. This is the formula that the ISSA teaches its Personal Trainers and has been using for a long time.

well there are alot of factors affecting metabolism. Genetically set metabolic rate, exercise amount, muscle mass, pharmaceuticals, etc. etc.

I am 262 and roughly 23% bf and i exercise most days out of the week (1.2), so i should only need 2743 but i have lost about 2-3 pounds a week for a few months (before i hit this damn plateau in september) on 2800 calories a day.

Maybe now that number is correct but it wasn't for a few months when i was losing weight and eating that much each day.

 

[Boulder257]

The formula is meant to be an estimator. We should all know that each person is different.

 

[Nathan101085]

2 things

First your formula is off a little bit the idea behind it works like this. The human body takes in 3.5 ml of oxygen per min per kg f bodyweight at a resting heart rate or 1 MET. so to find out your resting heart rate or RMR which is different from BMR, BMR means what your body needs to function minus ANY movement on your part BMR is not totally practicle, RMR or resting heart rate formula can be if you add workouts in seperate but basically if you constantly ate below your BMR your metabolizm would slow crazyily (not ideal for weight loss). The following should clear it up though so anyway your take in 1 MET per min at resting heart rate. So if you rest for 24 hours a day you do 1 MET or 1xkgx1440(mins in a day)\60 (mins in an hour) which comes out to 1xkgx24. This is an RMR. Now the activity portion is what was really off 1.1-1.2 means totally sedentary to almost bed rest. RMR generally makes up about 60-70% of total days calories assuming you get out of bed. So as long as you move around a little bit I would suggest the multiplier be AT least 1.4-1.6 1.6 if you do a good amount of walking but 1.5 is about office work and walking from car to house and walkign in house and brushing teeth and what not. Also there is the thermic effect of food which makes up a little bit less than 10% which you should add on. This is the calories needed to process your food so the resting calories you burn in a day should look more like this. 1xkgx24x1.5=CALS+.05 of it. I cant recommend a low carb diet for maintaining or anyone else who isnt trying to cut drasticly because carbs are an easier source to pull your glucose from than protein. The human body will adjust how its ratio of what it burns on a min to min basis based on your macro nutrient ratio simply because
step 1. u eat carbs insulin levels go up minizmizing fat burn and maximizing carb burn
step 2. u havnt eaten carbs for a few hours and insulin levels go down fat burn comes back up
or step 1. u dont eat carbs insulin levels dont go anywhere u keep burning fat that uve eaten
step 2. a few hours after eating fat your insulin levels are still low so ur still burning more fat cals
step three is the same for both equations
3. you are under your calorie req for the day so insulin levels are low and you burn more fat
or 3. your udner your calorie req for the day so you burn fat
lets say both these diets ate 2300 cals well then there would be the same exact amount of fat loss at the end of the day if the req was 2600 cals. Really the ONLY danger of eating hi carbs is that IF u spike your insuline then ull store the carbs and get hungry and be compelled to eat again. Eating low carb is a way to eat low calorie and still feel full thats all there is too it. 1 Carb calorie cant magically turn into 5 cals of fat because its the devil or something at the same time neither can fat. So however you get those calories in you'll be okay as long as u keep the total within reason. Now for maitnence u remember that number we got well u use that formula to find out cals u burn working out too. This time we change the MET number different excersing have different oxygen needs sooo well call our exercise req METS N. METS again being 3.5ml of oxygen per kg. SOO Nxkgxhere we put mins over 60 once again. we exercise for 20 mins soo Nxkgx20\60 is the cals we burned this doesnt count the elevated metabolic rate post work out due to our higher heart rate but its a good estimate. Anyway do all this THEN find out how many cals u burn in 1 week so add your workout cals to your RMR and let your RMR be your rest days then if u wanna maintain look at your heavy day caloric needs (heaviest work out day) if its 2-3000 cut 200-450 cals from each day if its 3-4000 cut 300-600 each day if its 4-5000 cut 400-750 each day and IF its 5000 and up cut 500-900 cals out of each day.