I need some help from folks who are counting calories as well.

I am hungry all day and its hard to keep my calories at 1500 or below. Is there anything you eat that you find keeps you fuller longer (besides eggs)?

Or

How do you handle your days and not go insane lol.

Thanks, Leenie

I think fat works best for me. Lately I've been using snacks like cream cheese wrapped in Proscuttio (very thinly sliced ham). Also macadamia nuts, even though they're off the charts calorie-wise, they are VERY filling for me.

However, what I'm also discovering is that the message to stop eating seems to be getting to my brain slowly! So I limit myself to consuming one proscuttio bomb or .5 an ounce of macadamias and then drink something like Crystal light and I wait and see if I'm not hungry. I'd give it a good 20 minutes.

When I don't wait then often I over feed and feel REALLY uncomfortably full.

I'm trying to keep my carbs to around 30 and my calories to 1300-1500, often they end up around 1600, but I don't sweat it too much.

Today I'm having:

Lowcarb cereal and lowcarb milk
-proscuttio fat bomb for a snack if I need it (about 85 calories, 1/2 slice of proscuttio and 1/2 ounce of cream cheese)

-Cream Cheese and bacon sandwich (450ish calories)

-2 Proscuttio fat bombs if I need them in late afternoon

-Enormous salad with goat cheese and walnuts red bell peppers

-Italian soda for dessert (club soda, cream and SF syrup)

I can appreciate your concern about counting calories when you could eat and eat and eat.

I just finished my first week of induction. I aimed to keep my caloric intake to 10x by body weight (10x175=1750 cal. per day). I actually had some days where I ate over 1900-2000 calories. I stayed in ketosis however, because when I was hungry, I snacked on full fat/protein items. I figured it's best to fight my hunger with a minute steak and cheese, than give in to a cookie craving and blow it all.

So, after 7 days on a clean induction I dropped 5 pounds and 7.5 total inches. It's a motivator to know I lost 10% of my goal "to loss" in a week and still wasn't deprived of food. Granted, my toddler's waffle smelled like heaven to me but I didn't budge.

Now, it's day the first day of week two of induction and I can honestly say that my hunger is just now finally diminishing somewhat. I am not going to say I will now eat only 1700 calories a day but I don't think I'll be reaching into the 1900-2000 range either.

Here's an example of a typical day's food:

Breakfast
2 or 3 thick sliced bacon
2 eggs fried in bacon fat
1 cup green cabbage fried in pan with a little bacon fat

*This meal is very filling and extremely tasty. I find stir-fried cabbage to be the perfect morning carb. It stays with you can has lots of fiber.*

Lunch
1 cup lettuce with 2 or 3 tbsp blue cheese or HV Ranch dressing (made from packet---toss that icky bottled stuff!)
1-6 oz. can tuna in water (tuna in oil would be a better choice to boost fat but I'm using what I have in the pantry)
Real bacon bits (homemade)
OR
Whitefish salad, 2 oz. (2 grams carbs)
1/2 cuke
1.5 oz. blue cheese cubes marinated in olive oil and herbs (Rosenburg brand--yummy!)
Radish

Snack

Minute steaks (2) with 1 oz. cheddar cheese (sometimes I add a teaspoon of worcestershire sauce)
OR
2 Hardboiled eggs with 2 tbsp mayo

Dinner
1 lb (you see right) bl/sl chicken breast pounded thin, coated with red curry paste and sesame oil, pan seared. (This makes me drink lots of water!)
1 cup broccoli sauteed in sesame oil
OR
Other protein dish with 1 cup veggies...always sauteed or stir fried.

Cheers!
Bridgit
175/170/125
Mini goal 155 by April 16. Would need to loss 3.5 pounds per week.

Oh thanks so much for the idea's.

I LOVE shredded cabbage, thats a wonderful idea to mix it w/eggs.

Proscuttio fat bombs OH HOW YUMMY!!!

You know I hate to ask the question about calories over and over but its the only way to get wonderful ideas like the ones you've just given me.

THANKS AGAIN !!

Often times, even though I'm technically not hungry, I want to EAT. So these are some tricks to keep me from overeating:

-- Combine larger quantities of low-calorie foods (veggies, chicken) with smaller quantities of fat (oil, butter, cheese). I always feel fuller if I feel like I'm eating more.

-- Find the best way to space your meals throughout the day. I have a 300 calorie breakfast, about the same for lunch (meat), an afternoon snack around 3:00 of some veggies (spaghetti squash is my fav), and dinner around 7:00. Then, if I have any calories left over, I'll have a small snack around 9:00. No other snacking allowed for me!!

-- Find other things to do when you feel like eating . . . keep yourself occupied!

-- If a craving hits, I'll occasionally have 1/4 to 1/2 of a serving of Atkins shake (I use the mix), or a bit of Keto Hot Cereal.

-- Eat mints, drink tea. I hate having chicken breath.

I hope these suggestions are helpful.

scarpetta, where are you from? I'm from Exton, we might be neighbors.

Love the idea of Proscuttio fat bombs - I usually just sit with about 200 grams and just eat it like that - gets very boring - shopping on Saturday for cream cheese.

Vikki

Karin,

Me and mine live in Abington, Montgomery County. I used to live in Frazer (graduated from Great Valley HS).

I was a city girl for 20 years so this suburban living is taking some getting used to. I swear living in the city kept me thin. Walked or rode my bike everywhere. Always on the go. Smoking and drinking and plain forgeting to eat, 'cause I was having so much fun. Oh well. Reality bites

For me veggies always helped keep me full and cals low. For some reason having a large salad was more filling then a hamburger that had twice the calories and fat. I think it's just psycological and the idea of having a larger meal.

I'm looking through my journal for when I started counting cals. I wish I had started the journal when I first started induction so I could have my menus from back then. I may have to see if I kept a list on the Atkins site.

It really helps to spread your meals out through the day. When I was having 5-6 meals I could keep them at around 200 cals each, and since I was eating often, I wouldn't get hungry.

Here is a very low cal day I had once. I wouldn't go this low, it was an accident I did this day.

Meal 1
Zucchini hashbrowns and egg
tea

Meal 2
Avacado roleld up in turkey breast

Meal 3
Large salad with chicken breast (* I didn't note it in journal, but I probably used extra lite olive oil for dressing)

Meal 4
Pork loin cooked in crockpot with Atkins maple syrup and dejon mustard
Cauliflower
Asperagus

Even with the large amounts of veggies I had, I was way low on carbs and cals. It is an example though of how you can eat alot of food while keeping cals and carbs low by including veggies.

Total: 1086
Fat: 83 745 70%
Sat: 38 346 32%
Poly: 5 49 5%
Mono: 32 289 27%
Carbs: 22 41 4%
Fiber: 11 0 0%
Protein: 70 280 26%


Here is a day that is closer to 1500, and even includes lasagne (lc of course)

Breakfast
2 eggs with crab, mayo and spinach

Meal 2
Large salad with chicken in spicy peanut sauce

Meal 3
Zucchini veal lasagne (yummmy!!!)

Meal 4
Left over pork tenderloin.

Ok the lasagne turned out amazing. That is definetly something I have to force myself to watch portion control on.

Recipe
Around 2.5 zucchini cut length wise. I used the slicer blade on my cheese grater
1/2 15oz container ricotta
1/2 package Lite tofu, firm
1 pound ground veal
1 cup Ragu lite
8oz Mozzarella

Basicaly I fried the zucchini slices. Then used the same pan to brown the meat. I mixed in the ragu with the meat.

In a seperate dish I blended the tofu and Riccota. I think I added some italian seasoning too.

Then I layered 1 layer zucchini (8x8 greased glass baking dish) followed by 1/2 meat mixture, then 1/2 riccotta. Then placed mozzarella slices on top. Then I added another layer of zucchini, the rest of the meat mixture, the rest of the riccota and another layer of mozzarella slices. I was worried that I needed another layer of "noodles" but it turned out fine. Then baked at 350 for 30 mins. I let it sit for at least 10 before cutting. It was a tad greasy thanks to the mozzarella, but the taste was great.

Per serving it had about 5 net carbs, mostly from the ragu, mozzarella and riccotta. protien 31g, calories 302

I wanted a second slice, but new I had better behave myself. Besides if it's like regular lasagne, they are always better the second day

Total: 1483
Fat: 105 946 65%
Sat: 56 500 34%
Poly: 11 99 7%
Mono: 28 249 17%
Carbs: 17 41 3%
Fiber: 7 0 0%
Protein: 117 468 32%

Hi Leenie -- I wish I could help you. It seems to me that the board is filled with people who are trying to up their calories -- not me. I'm eating on average about 2000 calories per day. I don't think I'm overeating -- it's just what my body tells me I want to eat. On a typical day I might have:

B: 2 eggs scrambled in 1 tsp. butter and 1/2 oz. cheese, a starbucks 12 oz. decaf with splenda and 2 T half and half
L: Mock Potato Salad (made with cauliflower) and some hot wings
Snack: an ounce of smoked almonds and a diet rite raspberry soda
Dinner: an 8 ounce steak and a tossed salad with a bit of tomato, cucumber and onion, and 2 T caesar dressing
Dessert: 2 sugar free jellos with 1/4 cup homemade whipped cream (made with splenda)

To me this doesn't sound like pigging out, but when I tally up the calories it's at or near 2000. To be honest, I don't know how people stay under 2000 -- I wish I could. I am losing weight, but at a snail's pace. Apparently I should be limiting calories to about 1400 to lose weight, but there is just NO WAY I could eat that little and stay satisfied. It's a conundrum for me -- whether I should try to cut my calories and feel deprived (which is one of the reasons I went on Atkins to begin with -- I wanted something I could live with long term rather than a deprivation diet) or just eat what I feel like eating LC wise, within reason, and see what happens.

Boy you guys are great! SMOOCH!

My calories are usually 1800 and I will not lose, its been since Christmas that the scale hasn't budged but when I lower my calories to 1500 then it starts to go down its amazing how that little bit will make such a difference. DARN!

I try not to eat when Im bored or for any other reason but being hungry. Just seems that I am caught between a rock and a hard place. If I eat low calorie I'm always hungry, if I eat high calorie I don't lose and thats staying below 25 gm of carbs.

Oh well lol.

HUGS

I too eat consistently 1800 calories. I've lost 7 lbs since the beginning so I'm not going to sweat it too much. I'm hungry, I eat period. I drink all my water and exercise 6 days a week. I think that must be my only saving grace with my appetite.

I'd love to eat less, but so far haven't been able to.

Good luck to you though, keep me updated with any good ideas though.

Jenny

i actually tend to eat a lot too-- 1800 is normal, above and beyond occurs often...... at first, i felt really guilty and tried to restrict myself even though i was loosing at at a good pace. I got myself down to 1300-1400 for a week. the result? I lost nothing! When i returned to high cal, i started loosing again...go figure

Hey Leenie, haven't seen you since the 'baggy jeans' challenge back last year.
My opinion is that if you are hungry... eat!

If you deprive yourself, you will eventually just flip out the other way and binge. Eat enough of the foods that you know are on this WOL and satisfy yourself.

Maybe you aren't eating enough fat to feel satisfied? This is a great time to get avocados. How perfectly sinful to eat avocado with sour cream on top!

I like the idea of prosciutto bombs. Isn't that very expensive though?

Wishing you the best of luck!

Yeah Prosciutto is pretty expensive, so I cut them in half. The meat is so flavorful you don't need a lot of it.

I was thinking of toasting some almonds or walnuts and stucking them in the middle. Or even a strawberry!

Bridgit I made the cabbage & eggs this morning OH YUM, I even filled a tortilla with it and ate it so fast I almost lost my fingers... HAAA it was good, thanks for the idea.

S&P my hero lady, look at you, your doing fantastic HUGS. I'm still here and yes trying to Low calories and low carb. Haven't lost in 3 months and I know why, I'm eating entirly to much, nobody's fault but my own.

But one thing for sure, I will not give up, I will make this work and become a perm life style.