An AHHHAAAAA Moment (somethings gotta change)
 

It is funny how sometimes the obvious, is sooooo obvious that it is staring you right in the face and you dont see it. It finally clicked.... I have been simply OVEREATING. My portions were too big and I grew up with the mentality of finish whats on your plate. Also I have the, eat it all today syndrome, like there may not be a tommorrow to enjoy that certain thing.

It wasnt adding fat that hurt me, I just was adding probably too much fat on top of too much food. I started looking at alot of peoples fitdays and realized that the amount of food I was eating is just too much. I GET IT.... add fat to a "very reasonable" amount of food, and you wont get hungry! DUHHH, I feel like an idiot! :doah: A Homer moment!!! The joy of this is..... yesterday I ate a more reasonable amount of food, added a little fat, and

IM DOWN A POUND TODAY!!!!!!!

(Ended up at about 1500 calories, and a pretty good fat/protein/carb ratio - something like 68/26/6) and that is even adding some berries in!!! Im going to shoot for that ratio and up my carbs a smidge (been at 20 and under for too long so adding fruit & cottage or ricotta, already added the other veggies in the carb ladder) and keep plugging on.

Thanks for all your helpful posts yesterday. I think sometimes we just dont see the forest for the trees.

I know what you mean about finishing whats on your plate. I've have it drilled into me from a young age, even now no matter how full I am I hate leaving food on the plate!

The light comes on....I'm starting to get it as well...just takes a while sometimes!

I realized that there is no way a human can loose weight on any eating plan unless they...
1. reduce the calories consumed daily
2. burn the calories
3. or do both

I started to look at my food portions on Atkins and found the same thing. Yikes!

Fortunately I am not hungry on Atkins as long as I don't go near the highly marketed products with sugar alchohols.

*One thing that took a long time to sink in is that even though Dr. Atkins says to eat any meats... by choosing fish, which is lower in calories, instead of steak I would loose weight better.

I think a lot of times we equate "won't be hungry" with "eat all that you want", and of course it doesn't help that society, the restaurants and fast food industry all seem to be about bigger portions and "getting more for your money". Combine that with things instilled in us when we were young (Clean Plate Club? Those "starving kids in China"?) and inappropriate food choices and look where it gets us :)

I think one of the most important things being on the Fat Fast taught me (today is my first day back on induction) is that you DON'T need a lot of food to feel satisfied.

Debbie

Strictgirl hit the nail on the head. You must burn more calories than you consume in order to lose weight. I finally started losing weight again when I starting watching calories. I had been probably consuming 2,500 a day (since fatty meat and cheese are so low in carbs, I thought they were freebies!) and cut it down to 1700. At 1700 I still felt full, as long as I made good choices, and my body had all it needed to function properly, but I wasn't gourging myself. It really forced me to learn portion control.

Use a smaller plate!
 

I made progress moving to a smaller salad bowl. I was telling myself that lettuce didn't matter, and maybe that was true. But it takes a whole lot more salad dressing to cover a lot of lettuce!

Great epiphany! Learning portion size was a big breakthrough for me, too. And kudos on the pound gone.

Remember, Dr. Atkins said, "I never said calories don't count, I said carbs count more."

I found 10-12x my weight in calories to be a good range for me, give or take. I was able to lose at a pretty good clip, still feel satisfied and have variety in my meals.

I think it's crazy to just start dumping a lot of coconut oil or whatever on your food to try to boost your fat. I was usually around 65% fat or maybe a wee bit higher by using just enough fat to cook with or flavour my meals.

E.g. of a typical day (plus whatever fat natually occurred in my meats)

1 or 2 tbsp salad dressing
pat of butter on veggies
1 or 2 tbsp to saute or fry something
2-3 oz light cream in my coffee
1 or 2 oz cheese

If you're using a lot of oil, butter or dressings, eating fatty meats, making lots of cream cheese yummies and melting cheese over your meat and veggies at dinner -- that's really going to add up, in terms of calories.

At higher weights, you can get away with this and still lose, but once you get closer and closer to goal, many people find they simply cannot eat that much fat and still lose.

Horray! So many people reach the conclusion that the diet is a failure because it never occurs to them that perhaps they're just eating too much.

I stalled out badly, only took me about 8 months to realize I had to cut the calories to lose weight.

Congrats on having a logical mind! :)



I won't cut my salad size down... never! What I do do is use about 50/50 oil/water in my salad dressing, or buy a lower fat variety. Fewer calories that way! I still get to eat my enormous salad.

Thanks yall for the support! Im finding that if I eat what Im "truly" hungry for, now that Im "really" watching and thinking about my portions, today after I plugged in what I have eaten and will eat for dinner tonight, again Im hitting around 1500, with NO hunger and thats including butter, olive oil, etc. Now on days that I work out, especially lower body (weights), it will go up slightly because of the protien shake, but thats okay, I know Ill burn it up. I just feel like I have a grip again, and that my friends, is such a GOOD feeling.

POOKALEE!!!!!!! Isn't that the most amazing revelation?! I just figured that out on Monday, after 6 MONTHS of low-carbing. Don't tell me to eat "whatever I want to feel satisfied," and expect me not to go to town with that! Doesn't that just make you sick at the time you wasted doing low-carb, when all the while you could have been losing? But we can't change the past, I know. What IS comforting, though, is that at least I know that once I am at goal, I will be able to maintain weight, since that is basically just what I've been doing. So good luck to you, congrats on the wake up call, and happy low-carbing!!
~Starkat

Yes, it is indeed very important to find the distinction between satiety and being "stuffed." If you have only eaten half a plate of food and you are no longer hungry, YOU SHOULD STOP EATING. If you feel hungry ten minutes later, then eat a few more bites. Even though Atkins says this, we often believe what the media says about us: "They stuff themselves with steak, bacon and cheese and expect to lose weight."
Steak, cheese, and bacon---mmm...

It's sooo nice to see this kind of thread :).

A lot of people want to believe that in order to lose weight it isn't necessary to restrict the food you eat. So, they convince themselves of all sorts of nonsense to explain why they aren't losing, like they aren't eating enough, or they aren't eating enough fat, or they added 10 berries to their diet, or whatever. The majority of the time people stall on Atkins because they just don't understand that calories, except in rare circumstances, are more important than carbs when it comes to losing weight.

It's important to understand why restricting carbs works. Restricting carbs helps get a body in a catabolic state as do many other things, but ultimately whether or not catabolism occurs depends exclusively on energy balance. When there is no energy the body has no choice but to become catabolic, break down it's own fat (and other tissues), and use it for energy. If the body does not do this it would die. Therefore, for the overwhelming majority of people with weight problems, watching portion sizes - for life - is a crucial element in obtaining and maintaining normal weight... an element even more important than watching carbs. By watching the amount of calories you consume you have much more control over the process of whether or not your body is in a state of anabolic fat weight gain, catabolic tissue loss, or equilibrium.

The body naturally wants to maintain its weight, except in rare circumstances. Examples of such rare circumstances are: diseases or recovery from diseases which promote weight loss (type 1 diabetes, coming off of an insulin resistance promoting diet, post-growth spurt in childhood) or weight gain (eating a high carb diet which promotes hyperinsulinemia from insulin resistance (also, type 2 diabetes), pregnancy, pre-growth spurt in childhood).

Because many people who are fat tend to be unnaturally fat because of their high carb diet, for awhile there is a "grace" period upon starting the low carb diet where you can lose weight without even trying to limit calories. The body was only retaining so much fat because of the carbs, so taking them away causes your body to get into a catabolic mode. The longevity of this grace period tends to imply the degree to which your old weight was unnaturally elevated by carbohydrate consumption.
After awhile though the body intervenes and once again tried to maintain the status quo. It's unlikely you will regain the weight you lost, just so long as you adhere to carb control, but your body will again ask for enough calories to maintain it. Weight loss comes to a screeching halt at this point.

Once you've reached this stage, you have two options.
A) Accept the truth, begin watching your food intake, and make a conscious effort to try to exercise more. There are many variations of this type of dieter. Some tend to hate the idea of restriction so instead they exercise like a fiend to compensate for their food intakes. Others hate the idea of exercise so they eat very little as a compromise (like me :) ). Most fall somewhere in the middle. Either way, generally speaking in order to keep weight loss going on a steady clip they reconcile with the fact that in order to lose any more weight they must make a conscious effort to get the body to be catabolic... merely trading soda for cheese and not paying attention at all to how much you are eating isn't going to do it anymore. The body doesn't want to lose any more fat and wants to maintain its weight. You will have to force your body to be lower weight from now on. Now the body may naturally maintain the forced lower weight if it is on a LC diet... but the body will not put itself lower if it doesn't have to.

B) Accept the truth, and stay the same weight. Usually this stage of acceptance of overweight is preceded by a period of self torture. The LCer frustrates herself to no end by doing unproductive things like "waiting out your stall" (sometimes for months or even years!), trying quack cures like the fat fast, raising fat, lowering fat, raising carbs, lowering carbs, pills, drinks, herbal supplements, or other "miracle solutions". The dieter does all this because the dieter doesn't want to accept that ultimately they must keep better track of their food intake, do more exercise, and/or restrict food more if they want to lose more weight. Deep down inside I think they know they must do this, but they don't want to accept it because restricting to lose weight feels too much like being on a diet. People with a long history of starvation diets on LF are especially prone to behaving this way.

Some unfortunate people who are especially prone to hyperinsulinemia just can't obtain a normal weight, even on a low carb and reasonably calorie restricted diet. The strong hyperinsulinemia means their body can't become catabolic like regular people's can... it requires much more severe caloric restrictions to be made in order to lower insulin low enough to facilitate catabolism. In this rare case, acceptance of overweight is their only realistic option, either that or force weight loss through unhealthy starvation level caloric intakes. However the overwhelming majority of people are not this badly insulin resistant/hyperinsulinemic and can maintain a healthy weight if they make the additional motion to watch calories & exercise more..

That is great to hear Pookalee! It is nice when a light clicks :) And ItsTheWoo, that is one of the best explanations I have read!! I love your posts - they always seem to click with me! Thanks!

Yea... Its kind of counter productive to lose weight by cutting veggies! It certainly isn't healthy. Use low cal condiments instead and your problems will be solved. Here are some low cal & carb condiments that taste great:

-mustard
-ketchup
-vinegar
-salsa
-herbs & spices
-splenda
-small amounts of high carb foods go a long way to add flavor & texture (fruits, juices, grains & starches in tiny amounts can add a big punch for not a lot of calories & carbs)

For example, boiled and mashed cauliflower can be made with a ton of dairy and have a ton of calories. Eat a lot and you will be low carb but probably won't lose weight. Now you can either take a smaller portion, *or* you can use less dairy to dress it, and instead use more spices/salsa/chives and other low calorie/carb things to make it taste good.

For salads I usually make a huge bowl full, and then buy a very low cal dressing *or* I make my own. I use just a teaspoon of oil with lots of lemon juice, vinegar, ketchup, onion or whatever taste I am trying to create. If you want a rich creamy dressing, like caesar, then you can buy a zero cal imitation one or you can use only 1 tablespoon mixed with lemon juice instead of two.

IMO the biggest challenges for me are making choices. Choose your calories wisely and you can lose weight on a calorie restricted plan without feeling deprived.