I used up my inspiration and energy in writing this long e-mail answer, so I'm sharing it here in this article. 

 Someone asked me the following question:

"Can you tell me how many carbs you limited yourself to
when you were on low carb?
Did it work well for you?
I seem to have more luck counting carbs."
 

Here's my answer. 

I think that low-carb is an excellent diet plan, and if it is a workable plan for you, go for it. Personally, whether I'm doing low-carb or not, I've found that it is necessary for me to track my food, and count calories.

All of my own research and experimentation and observation leads me to believe that Calories Count, even when doing low-carb, and IF there is a "calorie edge" to eating low carb, it is a very small one, probably not more than 100 calories a day.

I've seen that people who choose to eat more calories than they burn ...over time... while doing low-carb will still gain weight. Low-carb -- when it's VERY low carb -- tends to be more satiating, and more and more I suspect that --- over time --- it works primarily because people ingest less food.

My experiments with low-carb have been during maintenance at normal weight, so it can't be fairly compared with someone in the weight-loss phase.

I am intrigued by Gary Taubes' position about carbs, (see the BOOK TALK Section at DietHobby.com) and did a lot of experimenting with it in 2011.

I have experimented with what is known as ZERO carb -- which actually turned out to be around 5-10 carbs a day, because I choose not to give up my very small amount of plain, Greek yogurt.

However, during most of my low-carb experimentation, I worked to keep my carbs around 20 or less.

When I'm doing my "normal" - "balanced" food plan, my carbs are usually around 50-80 or less. For me, a normal, really high-carb day would only be about 100 carbs. It just turns out that way, because I don't have a large enough calorie allowance for more.

My own experience .. so far .. because I expect to be doing further future experimentation with low-carb
is that ... either because of the lack of variety in the food, or because carbs cause more cravings (& at this point for me I can't honestly say which)

My appetite tends to be satisfied at around 1100-1200 calories a day, which is just a tiny bit ABOVE my calorie allowance to maintain my current weight, and over a long period of time, would still involve a weight-gain, but I didn't lose any actual fat weight at that calorie level on 20 carbs or on zero carbs.

What happened for my body, was that my weight dropped between 3 to 5 lbs DURING THE TIME I was low-carb, but I feel very certain that this drop was only due to water-weight, because within a week or two of returning to a very-low-calorie, "balanced" diet of around averaging only 800 calories, and my weight quickly adjusted to the previous number.

This happened to me 4 different times, each time after more than a month of successful low-carb eating so I never experienced even a real fat loss of even 1 or 2 lbs,after weeks and weeks of low-carb eating.

That's the personal data I have so far, but it isn't conclusive, and I will be doing more experimentation.

My preference is to receive diet questions in the comment section of DietHobby.com rather than in e-mails, so that the comment and my answer will benefit all of the readers there.

Due to my time limitations, When I spend time writing a long e-mail answer, there's a good chance it will wind up as a future article, anyway.

Like it just did. 

This is a picture of one serving of food from my new cooking video,
Fish in Foil
which is located at DietHobby, under RECIPES,  Mealtime.

For several years, I have been corresponding with a person
who remains mired in obesity primarily due to her inability
to resist the allure of Intuitive Eating.

In her defense of her current Intuitive Eating Program,
she recently said:

"There's some sort of saying I've heard
about how thoughts affect feelings which affect behavior,
and this hypnosis program tries to change thoughts and feelings". 

I believe that positive thoughts can change our feelings (emotions)
and therefore result in a change in our behavior.

However this is a psychological process.
while
Hunger involves a physiological process.

We use the word "feelings" for two different sensations.

feelings can be emotions = psychology
feelings can be body sensations ….. hunger = physiology

This is the basic flaw in the theories of Intuitive Eating.

When I experience the strong feelings that tell me I need to urinate,
I can think positive thoughts, and this can make me feel better emotionally,
however, these thoughts will not change my body's physical sensations
which are associated with the physiological process of urination,
and…ultimately …. my body will follow through with the specific behavior
that my body feels is needed.

Urination is an physical process, over which we have learned
to achieve a measured amount of control,
and when we receive the signals from our body,
we don't have to give in immediately, and
we can choose to temporarily delay the process of elimination.
If we do not choose to delay…we will commit a socially unacceptable act.
and, eventually …no matter what we are thinking… the body will do what it does.

Hunger is also a physical process, over which we have learned
to achieve a measured amount of control.
and when we receive the signals from our body,
we don't have to give in immediately, and
we can consciously choose to delay the process of eating,
and we can consciously choose what foods to use to satisfy that immediate hunger.

However, if an obese, or reduced obese, person eats only in response
to the signals of their body (feelings of hunger)
they will remain fat…
(which some consider a socially unacceptable act)

Because the body has it's own agenda,
It will do everything it can to protect its fat stores.
An obese person's body isn't going to naturally try to become normal weight,
the obese person's body sees it's job is to keep its fat.

All of the positive thinking in the world
will never change the natural inner workings of the body.

We can't fly.
We must urinate.
Hunger signals from an obese, or reduced obese, body
come from the body's perceived need to protect fat stores,
and despite positive thinking .. no matter what our emotions tell us…
Once we have become Obese,..or reduced obese..
our bodies will signal us to eat in a way that will make and keep us fat.

In order to become normal weight, and stay normal weight,
we … who are obese or formerly obese...
will ALWAYS have to over-ride our body's "natural" signals,
and use the CONSCIOUS PROCESS of choosing to eat
the types and amounts of food that will keep our body normal weight.

Intuitive eating is a lovely fairy tale.
But Prince Charming is never coming with a glass slipper,
and an obese person will never become normal weight by listening to their body.

                     
I'm always interested in reading new dieting books
about new dieting plans, and unique ways to eat
in order to lose weight or maintain weight-loss.

Here in 2012, with regards to my dieting hobby,
I'm having difficulty finding anything that looks
"new and unique" to me.

I've been doing Google searches,
and searches of new publications at Amazon,
but nothing stands out.

My primary dieting method continues to be
logging all my food into my computer software program,
and counting calories…working to keep my calorie count
lower than my body's energy burn….
The simple measurement for this is …
If I'm gaining weight over time,
then I'm eating more calories than my body burns.

I've studied the issue of metabolism,
and come to the conclusion that any possibility of raising
one's metabolism by what one eats, or how one exercises,
is a crock of ****.

I'm still very interested in the Habit concepts set forth in The No S Diet,
and I continually research and experiment with possibilities
of implementing more Habit concepts in my own dieting life.

The last two years, I learned a great deal about low carb, zero carb,
zero wheat, and Paleo ways of eating.

For a few years before that, I investigated and experimented
with different types of fasting plans,
like QOD, Alternate Day Eating, Eat Stop Eat, Fast 5, etc.

I've spent a lot of time investigating Intuitive eating type diets…
i.e. listening to your body, eating when hungry, stop when full etc;
that "dieting makes you fat" and have come to the conclusion
that this advice is very wrong for people who are obese, or reduced obese,
and in fact, I believe that this type of diet
(which is a diet that is allegedly not a diet)
is the VERY WORST of all the many diet's
I've ever investigated, tried, or experimented with…
INCLUDING things like the cabbage soup diet, human growth hormone,
hypnosis, acupuncture, Beverly hills diet, Cambridge diet,
the cookie diet, slim fast, weight-loss supplements etc, etc, etc..

Of course, during my lifetime, I've also belonged to all of the major
diet clubs and organizations, like Weight Watchers, Jenny Craig,
Nutrisystem, TOPS, Overeaters Anonymous and on and on and on..

This year, 2012, I'm not finding any books or clubs or diets
with concepts that are new and unique, or interesting to me,
and right now, I'm finding that kind of sad.

My hobby with dieting is still full-steam-ahead, because I'm
very busy with this DietHobby website, with my DietHobby YouTube channel,
and with the diet forums and other dieting websites that I frequently visit.

Still, right now I'm missing reading about new and interesting concepts,
and experimenting with them.
My current weight-loss maintenance simply involves a recycling of
dieting concepts that have worked for me before, even though I'm
rather bored by many of them.

Keeping my calories as low as possible is crucial,
and although I'm been having great success with my diet,
my body keeps fighting my weight-maintenance efforts.
Despite all my low-calorie and exercise efforts,
year after year, as I age, my weight keeps gradually creeping up. 

I'm cheered by the fact, that as long as I continue to keep on with my efforts,
even if this creep does continue,
as an elderly person, my life probably won't be long enough
for that process to return me to obesity. 

So, this past couple of months….
besides being really, really busy,
I just haven't found a lot of things worth talking about,
that I haven't already written about here.
So check out the archives, and read up on my past articles.

Eventually, I'm going to figure out the next step for my Dieting Hobby,
and when I do, you'll be the first to know.

 
This is a picture of one serving of food from my new cooking video,
Oatmeal Banana Muffin
which is located at DietHobby, under RECIPES,  Mini-Meals.