4th week more temptations and more hunger
 

The past 2 days have been really tough for me.

I have never experienced any real temptations on this plan and if I did I was able to nip it in the bud eating a low carb toffee bar net .4 carbs for the entire package.

But one thing I've noticed this week and as I said the last 2 days is I'm really jonesing for some ice cream.

I've also been hungrier than usual.
breakfast
3 thin slices of roast beef rolled up around 3 slices of mozzarella cheese *total cheese was a bit over 1oz*

Lunch:
10 black olives
chicken salad w/ 5 oz of chicken canned, 2 tablespoons of mayo.
1 cup of salad mixture *tomatoes, and mushrooms included)
1 tablespoon of blue cheese dressing
1 table spoon of olive oil

Dinner:
BLT 2 Lettuce leafs romaine lettuce
3 tablespoons of mayo
6 slices of bacon
tomato and mushrooms *total for day was 1/2 cup of each*

2 snacks throughout the day:
early snack:1Hebrew national all beef dogs w/ mustard.
late snack *only because I worked until 3 in the am*
another hebrew national dog.

Dessert:
1 Russel Stover Toffee Bar for dessert

100+oz of water. Combination of bottled waters, and flavored 0 carb 0 cal waters.

Now I'm in Ketosis all the time. Have been from day 1. My colors are either the very dark purple, or the one just below it.

My weight loss is avg. I was bouncing from 305-308 but now am definitely 305 daily.

I do notice inches lost especially in profile pics.

But the thing is I'm just hungry all the dang time.

I usually excercise just about every day, have only excercised once this week, but me and my family have 3 straight days of swimming planned starting this afternoon.

It looks like I'm eating plenty, but I'm thinking of just splitting it all up into more meals throughout the day.

For instance I am trying this today. Instead of A normal breakfast would be 3 eggs and 4 slices of bacon, today I had only 2 eggs and 2 slices of bacon.

If I get hungry in a couple of hours I figured I could eat another 1-2 slices of bacon and so on.

I think part of my problem is I'm still working off some of the old habits of not eating at set times and finally eating when I'm really hungry and eating more than I need to at 1 sitting.

What other tips would you guys have to stave off the hunger pangs?

Only have time for a quick response, but I agree that eating more times per day will help. However, I personally don't think you're eating enough calories or fat. Why don't you have a huge steak for dinner instead of a BLT salad? I think you need more foods that will fill you up.

Good luck!

Ok...I am a big time addict to certain foods so take that into consideration but ME personally...I could NOT eat a toffee bar. I can't eat sweets of any kind.. they trigger my cravings. I don't care if they say they are safe. For me they are not safe. I have to stay away from them. Also the bacon...I got all messed up with some turkey bacon and I was craving like mad for a week. I kept eating more and more bacon and I was not understanding why I kept craving again. The bacon had too much sugar. When I switched brands, problem solved. Same with the blue cheese...I switched to Marie Callendar with no sugar, and the cravings stopped. I find there is always a reason for why the cravings start up again and you have to go on a witch hunt for the specific food item that is screwing with you...get rid of it and you're back in business.

I don't think you are eating enough fat either. Try snacking on almonds or sunflower seeds. Eat alot of beef.....

Thx for the suggestions guys.
I will see what I can do.
One thing I did do Armywife was switch bacon.
I got some offbrand bacon because the store I was at was too expensive for my regular bacon.
I'll look over the ingredients.

After really analyzing my diet I can see that I'm needing more fat.

There are some days where I'm only getting 55-60% of my calories from fat and 30-35% of my calories from protein.

So I changed up some things even more this morning.

I went back and looked at some of my older menus where I wasn't all that hungry and I was getting 70%+ calories from fat.

So I increased that starting today and right now I feel full, first time in about a week.

I had the full breakfast, 3 eggs but this time I used 2 tablespoons of butter and 2 oz of cream (next time I'll only use 1oz made the eggs too fluffy)
and 4 thick slices of bacon and I am full.

I noticed here in the past week I could eat something for dinner and be hungry 15 minutes later, or feel like I hadn't eaten at all.

I'll report back after a week or so on how things worked out.

I'd say also that you need to eat more protien for dinner Plus a veggie, like Brocolli/cauliflour. Also eating too much bacon can pile on the salt, which will make you retain water. I'd also say watch the sweets, if your doing induction, its a no, no even thou they are low carb, Sorry. Cheers Kathy

Good for you that you are at least doing the search and figuring it out. I find that there is always a reason why you suddenly are getting hungry again and you have to play detective to figure it out. Before I started atkins I believed having cravings were a normal part of life but now I know that they are not. If you crave something there is a reason for it you just have to do some detective work to find the offending food.

I agree with the others and you. It seems as though you are avoiding food which is keeping you hungry. Are you still on induction? Try adding a small amount of strawberries and whipped cream or low carb bread with butter. Instead of having eggs over lightly eat them scrambled with cheese and asparagus ( I hope you like asparagus ) or broccoli. Have a half slice of low carb toast with butter. Make sure that you are comfortably satisfied. I ( this is my opinion ) think that You should see if it is possible to go longer than 2 hours without food. I have a keto granola that is very high in protein and eventhough it is cereal, I can go for 3-4 hours without a meal. But I eat it with cream and strawberries or raspberries. Also, I space my carbohydrates evenly ( 7-10 grams per meal ) throughout the day to keep from have a spike in insulin. The idea is to keep my insulin stable. I eat 3 meals a day and I snack on macadamia nuts, low carb toast with cream cheese and LC jam is da bomb. I have a whopper of an appetite and I am learning to control it which gets easier every month.

Black57

Finally 141 lbs.!!!

Hi vegasman,

Why don't you fill in youir location so we'll be able to give you clearere advice? If you are in the UK I can tell you where to buy low carb ice cream. If you're not you can try things like sour cream drenched in sweetener.

Also there are recipes for low carb ice cream in the recipes section.

Butter mashed with a little cocoa powder and sweetener and then frozen can help up the fats in your diet as well as provide something sweet.

Vegasman, I second RC with that if it's lc sweets you need-I felt so guilty doing this when I started OWL, but it was so yummy: sour cream, sweetener (or Atkins raspberry syrup) and a pinch of cocoa powder (baking cocoa, no sugar)
Otherwise, add more fat & protein. Every evening with my calcium pill, I eat some sunflower seeds and cheese (lots of calcium). I find having a late night snack is good for my blood sugar.
Eri

Thx for all the responses guys I'm taking this all in.

I've upped the fat in my diet. I noticed it was at times only 55-60% of my daily intake.

Since I did that, I'm not as hungry anymore and the sweet cravings have all but ceased.

I'm also eating more calories, and looking at my intake now I'm getting 70-75% fat, and 20-25% protein.

Sorry about that...will do, but just to let you know I'm in Las Vegas..hence the nick Vegasman :)