If 2 years down the road you look back and wonder what worked and what didn't, if you don't record your water first thing I would notice is that you didn't have enough water. If you end up working with a personal trainer or dietician/nutritionist they will want to know how much water you drink daily. Sure it doesn't make a different to your RDI but water certainly has a lot to do with weight loss.

It's a trial and error process, and carb counts need to be customized to the individual and the diet plan that works best for you. I learned a lot by Googling "how many carbs per day" and reading some of the articles. Several of them said that 124 was the minimum needed for a healthy diet. So I decided I would see what happened if I kept my net carbs below 124. I don't always hit that goal, but when I'm consistent about it, I lose weight. I'm also very careful about where I get my carbs from -- mostly, I try to eat my carbs in low glycemic fruits, vegetables, grains, like hulled barley and quinoa, and sprouted grain bread, with an occasional meal of whole grain and flaxseed pasta. I do not eat any potatoes, white bread, cakes, cookies, sugar, etc. on a daily basis, though I do splurge on something at least once a week. And I measure my portions very carefully. At the same time, I keep my dietary cholesterol under pretty tight control, eating lean proteins -- mostly turkey and fish. It sounds a lot more complicated than it's actually turned out to be, once I got the hang of it. Good luck.