I was getting pretty hungry today, but I was waiting for a friend of mine to come and she was bringing lunch. While I was waiting, I didnt want to spoil my apetite so I ate 4 small walnuts.

Today as I was going through my fitday I noticed I forgot to add them in but didnt think it was a big deal!

4 walnuts have over 100 calories! those tiny little things! What a waste of calories, I am so upset, since I am trying to watch my calories somewhat and just didnt expect it.

But the calories are not so important as they have fibre and protein and fat. And are fairly low on Glycemic Index. You may be concerned about calories (although Dr. Atkins didn't think they were important), but 4 walnuts are NOT going to stall you. Many people find that they lose weight if they eat walnuts - I don't know why.

I hate getting the OMG look at the calories in that! That happened to me the first time I entered a bunless hamburger. I was shocked that EXTRA lean for a 5.3 oz raw burger was nearly 400 calories!!!

Alli

Nuts are high in calories so we do have to watch them but they are extremely nutritious and in moderation, can be an excellent addition to your foods! Don't worry just walk a bit more and watch your other calories . Orchid

MyJourney, I just looked at a few of your FitDay entries, and unless you missed a bunch of food you're consuming way too few calories. You should be eating at least 10x your bodyweight, which would put you at around 1700 calories a day.

You are basically setting your body up for starvation mode, where it will check out what you're eating and go into self-preservation and stop losing weight.

At your age, you should have a fairly decent metabolism, and while you may not lose real quickly, long-term weight loss doesn't happen overnight.

And having said that, nuts add a ton of minerals and phytonutrients to your diet that often times the only other significant source is a vitamin supplement.

As mush as I would love to there is no way I can eat close to 1700 calories and lose weight.

I wasnt concerned about a stall. I love nuts and have never had a problem with them. Its the 100 calories for just 4 little ones that threw me. I estimated in my head no more than 50 calories and it was more than double.

My metabolism is fried. I can maintain my weight eating more calories, but I will not lose at all. Not even with tons of exercise.
My doctor actually accused me of cheating on my diet once because my weight has not budged even 1/4 of a pound in over a month.

I have PCOS which makes it harder for me to lose weight, and the doc insists that I am not getting the full benefit of my diet because I am highly insulin resistant and glucophage will help, but I took it for 3 days and had horrible side effects and just went off of it. Without restricting to 1200-1300 a day or so there is no way my scale will move.

Though I imagine 1200 is enough to keep my body out of starvation mode, and I do eat good amounts of fat and protein to keep me satisfied so I am not usually hungry.

My shocking moment came after last 4th of July. I had a polish sausage while we were watching fireworks (no bun of course) when I got home I entered it into fitday. 1 polish sausage had almost 1,000 calories! I rally didn't let it bother me though. The fire works were fun and I really enjoyed the sausage (they have a wonderful jalapeno relish to go with it) and it's not like I eat that way every day

I understand . I also have to watch cals, so to see the numbers like that really messes with your mind. I'm actually going to bounce my cal count around for a while. I think I've become too predictble and I've quit losing.

The bag of walnuts I have says 200 calories for 1/3 cup or 30grams

I *love* toasted walnuts on my salad. It's my crouton replacement. But yes, if I leave them off, my salad calorie count is about half! But I almost never leave them off, because they're too wonderful.

I'm like you, I gotta eat not more than 1400 calories to see .5 a pound come off each week. Lately I've managed 1200 calories and it's a pound a week. This is a nice change from the year long stall. Funny thing is, my body has ALWAYS reacted this way, so I don't give the starvation theory a lot of credit, or its a lot lower than 1200 calories. Even when I was 10 or 15 years younger, I had to rachet down the calories to lose weight.

Oh, another thing I thought of. I did this in increments. First I aimed for less than 1600 calories a day. Still wasn't really losing. Then I aimed for less than 1500. Started to budge a bit. Then 1400... ok, some progress. Then I found my appetite was MUCH less and I found myself thinking... lets try for 1200. And found it wasn't hard at all.

As far as what to eat for a short tide-over... sometimes I find a teaspoon of peanut butter is a good option. I think its about 30 calories. Another one is an Italian soda. Between the bubbles and the cream, it fills up the hollow space nicely. That's about 51 calories if you use 1T of cream.

Italian soda with davinci syrups does the trick for me too. Aren't those syrups awesome?

Almonds are a lot less calories and higher in nutrients than the walnuts, maybe grab those instead next time. I think it's only 81 or so calories for 11 almonds (which is what I usally count as my usual serving size) Still I totally see where you are coming from, nobody expects 4 little nuts to have soooooooo many calories!

Jenn

did you have 4 "walnut halves" or 8? 8 walnut halves are 4 nuts so maybe you really did only have 50 cals??

Almonds 164 calories per ounce, Walnuts about 185 per ounce. I wonder what size almonds they're talking about when they count them out. The ones I get at Trader Joe's are about twice the size of ones in those roasted flavored almond jars.

Oh come on
I just checked out her fitday, it looks to me as if she is getting 1250 on average... that might be fine for her. The 10xs your weight forumula is based on non-science, much like the 8 glasses of water "rule" and many other stupid diet rules.

People should eat only as much as their body asks for, and stop eating when it doesn't want any more. Your body knows what it needs. A lot of people are probably reading this and thinking "yea right, that will make me fat". No it wont. In an otherwise healthy person, feeding mouth-hunger makes you fat, feeding body hunger makes you thin.
The tricky part is determining between mouth hunger and actual body hunger... your mouth will say "eat a huge portion of brownies & potato chips" even if your body is saying "feed me a small piece of steak and a green salad w/ asparagus". Mouth hunger, or "cravings" should be "satisfied" so it doesn't become excessive, but not fed to its full desire. Body hunger should always be fed to full satiety.

Eating more when you really don't want to eat more isn't going to do anything but make you fatter or stall you out.

I lost most of my weight eating as much as my body said it needed. Sometimes I ate a lot, sometimes I ate very little. Now that I am close to maintenance I eat more calories & carbs (I finish meals feeling stuffed now), and loses have slowed because of it, but during the weight loss phase I was much more mindful of portions.

I think a big part of the misconception that you need to eat a lot to lose a lot comes fromt he fact that many, many people binge right before a woosh.
Here's what actually happens. Right before your body lets go of water-weight that it was holding on to because of previous calorie/carb restriction, your body does this thing where it makes you really hungry (you just want to eat and eat even if you've just eaten, it's strange). This sometimes leads to over-eating and binging. Then, the next day, you get on the scale and notice you are down two pounds. Conclusion? Eating all that stuff made you lose weight. In reality, what actually happened is not eating all that stuff for the past few days made you lose weight. In other words, the weight loss caused the binge, not the other way around.

So, binging and over eating to lose weight won't get you anywhere because the over eating is caused by the weight loss, not the other way around.

This doesn't mean I am saying starve yourself if your body is asking for a lot of food. I do think people should always listen to their bodies hunger, even when it is asking you to over eat in response to weight loss. This is crucial to maintaining metabolic integrity and avoiding leptin depletion, plus, we are making a lifestyle change here. If you deny your body food, you will eventually cave in. The point when you cave in will make you feel really really guilty, which will lead to emotional binging in a big cycle. Plus, counting calories excessively totally disconnects you with body hunger which over a long term pattern results in over eating.

Assuming you are feeding your body food that it thrives on, just going with your body's signals will always lead you in the correct path. Your body wants to be a healthy weight, it doesn't want to be fat and it doesn't want to be underweight. This is why atkins didn't advocate counting calories, he wanted people to listen to their body and its needs.

However, I do advocate calorie counting if for no other reason than to have a picture of what you are eating, and to see if mouth hunger is getting excessive. When you are eating LC fun foods it is very easy to eat too much because of the mouth-hunger factor. For example lets say your fitday for the past month shows you've increased calorie consumption by 100, and then 200, etc. By reviewing your food journal and keeping track of portions/calories, you can see where ethos calories are coming from. If this trend correlates with the addition of LC brownies and cookies, I think it is pretty obvious that your body doesn't need or want those calories, and unchecked mouth hunger is causing the eating.