I Normally do not eat Breakfast which makes my first meal Lunch. Usually a Salad or sometimes I have eggs for Lunch. By the time I have lunch (between 12-2:30pm) I have already drank 1.5-2 liters of water. With lunch I drink another 1/2-1 liter. Between Lunch & dinner sometimes I have snacks, not very often, I am not hungry. I don't feel I should eat if i am not hungry, Right? I have been having Chicken breast, chicken thighs, steak, Pork chops, hamburgers, or chicken wings for dinner. I will eat veggies or a small salad with my dinner. By the end of the day I drink 1 gallon-1 gallon 1 liter of water a day.
I have been reading posting saying that if you do not eat enough fat that you will not lose weight, right? I have lost weight now being the beginning of my diet but I dont' want to get stuck. But like I said before Most of the time i am just not hungry. I did not gain this weight because I overeat. I gained it because I am not active anymore, in the sense that I am not working anymore & also the meds that the doctors put me didn't help. Am I supposed to eat more even though I am not hungry?
I would appreciate any suggestions Thank you

Candice

Hi Candice!

Skipping meals or waiting until 2:00 pm to eat will keep your metabolism slow. Your body needs regular fueling to keep that metabolism up and running! If you're not hungry, eat a small meal, but DO eat something, especially in the morning. Breakfast is the meal that gets your fat-burning furnace going for the day. If you're not hungry, try eating several smaller meals instead of 2 bigger ones. You also need to get enough calories to keep your body from going into starvation mode and enough veggies for the vitamins and micronutrients that you can't get from a pill. You need veggies for both lunch and dinner and with breakfast, too if you can work them in (try a veggie omelet). You do need to eat enough fat to lose weight. 65-70% of your daily calories should come from fat.

Thank you for writing back Lisa. I don't really understand that whole fat % thing.. http://forum.lowcarber.org/showthre...&threadid=47303 I wrote more about it here. When I was reading posts last night I came about alot about not eating breakfast so I decited to eat 2 hard boiled eggs this morning, I at them at about 10:30am. Like I said in my other post I have read the atkins book but still do not understand someparts of the diet. I have also gone to some of there other posts & websites that say why we should eat fat but like I said I was at that fitday.com & it said that I was over my fat % and I haven't really eaten that much....
Thank you

Candice

Hi Candice,

Yes, 65-70% of your intake should be fat.
If you go to Newbies Questions and click on the "sticky" Hot Links, scroll down until you'll come to links to several earlier threads about fat.
There's a lot of great info there and I'm sure you'll find some that will help.

Rosebud

so in grams that would be the 120 I saw? after eating dinner tonight I am only up to.......
Calories Fat carbs protien
Totals: 1287 87 4 114

What do I eat now??

Thank you

Candice

Hi Candice,

Are you using www.fitday.com ?

I'm not sure what you mean by the 120.
From what you've posted above, you need to eat more. You should be eating 10 to 12 times your body weight - so your minimum number of calories should be 1700.

If you start a journal and post your menus, we could give you more specific help. Meanwhile, consider adding more fat by putting butter on your vegies, using lots of oil in your salad dressing and using plenty of full fat mayo (check the labels for sugar - Helmans is a good brand).

HTH.

Rosebud

What I ment by 120 was fat grams....and I was wrong by those number I added by cups instead of by size. This is what I did.. or rather what I at today.

Cals Fat Carb Prot

2 hard boiled eggs 154 11 1 13

6 chicken wings 52 3 0 5

1 c. Lettuce 7 0 1 1

2 T. Creamy buttermilk Ranch 143 15 2 0
Dressing

1 c. Pork rinds 174 10 0 20

3 med. Chicken Thights Skin on 426 27 0 43

1 c. Broccoli 25 0 5 3

3.75 liter Water

Total 981 67 9 83



Now what am I doing wrong? I ate breakfast, Lunch, a snack, & dinner. What can be added? I had been eating cheese for the last two weeks but I keep reading posts that it is BAD for me.....so I didn't eat any today.

Thank you

Candice

Hi Candice,

Firstly, I think that the fitday defaults might be your main problem!
For example, 6 chicken wings are going to have way more than 52 calories! You may have forgotten to put "6" in. So your calories are probably higher than you think. By a rough estimate, you probably had around 15-1600.
Whatever. 6 chicken wings is fine for your lunch. Your dressing looks good, nice and fatty! Maybe add some mayo to your hard boiled eggs.

You could do with some more vegies. Just lettuce has very little nutritional value, try adding tomato, peppers, some other tasty salad vegies. You've only had 9g carbs before subtracting for fibre. Remember on Induction you can have 2 cups salad + 1 cup green veg. You can also add olives and ½ avocado.
I don't know where you heard that cheese is bad for you. It's not. Some people prefer to eat dairy free, others have found that cheese is the food that slows them down. Doesn't mean it's bad for you. Dr Atkins says you can have 3 to 4 ounces on Induction.

Relax a bit, matey. On the whole you're doing fine. That extra fat is going to roll off you before you know it!

Rosebud

I guess I could put a little mayo on my hard boiled eggs. As for the salad, I don't care for tomatoes, peppers or other salad veggies. To tell you the truth I am not a big veggie fan at all. The only veggies I will eat are broccoli (cooked) & corn. one of which I can not eat. I mean I will eat lettuce, I don't mind that at all as long as it has something on it, & sometime I will eat celery if it has something on it also.
So you are saying that 6 chicken wings have aound 600 calories? The chicken thights didn't have that much. What I did was just put in one ounce on the calculations because I though the meat off of those wings didn't really weight all that much, I didn't really think to weight the bones, I mean I'm not going to eat those.

I read those posts in the Newbie's questions. A few of them Helped. But I guess I just still need help with my menu.

Thank you
Candice



How bad is 1 1/2 grams of carbs from starch for me right now? I bought this jello instant pudding mix & made it with water but it has starch in it..... I can not eat it can I?

Hi Candice I have a few suggestions for you.



Eat the broccoli - it's a wonderful choice. High in fiber and iron. If you're going to use lettuce choose romaine (the kind they use in ceasar salads) it's the highest in fiber. Try throwing a cup of spinach in with your lettuce, you'll hardly notice it with the dressing.

You're going to find that over the course of your LC journey something amazing is going to happen. Your tastes are going to change. Foods you didnt used to like will taste 'different'.

Vegetables like asparagus and zucchini are foods I never used to enjoy - but now? Drenched in butter and parmasan cheese?

Remember, to get calories up use fat. Fat is calorie dense (it has 9 calories per gram as opposed to protein and carbs which have 4 calories per gram). Fat is your friend. A little goes a long way. One tablespoon of butter has 120 calories, 0 carbs = all FAT.

Fry everything in butter and / or olive oil. Throw hard boild eggs, olives and avocados into your salads. Cook and eat your chicken and chicken wings with the skin on. Choose fattier cuts of meat. Use twice the amount of mayonnaise you'd normally use.

Rosebud is right - cheese is something that varies from person to person. I personally have no problem with it - many don't. Until you've discovered that you do, eat it! It's packed with fat and protein and it does a great job getting calories up.

Nat

Thank you Nat.
To tell you the truth I will eat zucchini & green beans cooked at restaurants but I just hate cooking them myself......I don't know if that is being spoiled working in great restaurants for years. When I get home, I will scrub & cook and they taste like dirt! I know that it is in my head..I really think it goes back to when I was young & my mom used to feed me beets *YUCK* and I swear they taste just like Dirt.
Don't get me wrong I can cook even though I am trained to bake. It is just taking me a while to comprehend all of this because of a medication I am on. I really am not this dumb *laughing* I can sit and read something over & over 5 time & still not get it. I am taking a medication called Topamax. It really messes with my concentration
I appreciate all of the help you are are & RoseBud are giving me.

So let me get the Straight,
I need to eat more fat & calories because if I don't my body will go into starvation mode & will start cannibalizing its muscle which will lower my metabolism making it harder & harder to lose weight? Stalling me. If my body has enough fat it will know that it is not starving & I will be in ketosis. If I am in Ketosis my body will not have enough insulin to store my dietary fat as body fat so the dietary fat it is burned. And this is what makes me lose weight....
Right, no?

Thank you
Candice

Essentially, yes. You do need to eat to keep your body functioning. Calories have to come from three places; carbs, proteins and fats (the macronutrients). When you restrict carbs you're left with the two alternatives, proteins and fats.

Protein is needed, protein is essential. It is the protein that is broken down into basic amino acids and used to build cells, repair cells, make enzymes, etc. etc. One gram of protein has 4 calories, just like carbs. Eating the bulk of your calories every day from protein would be a daunting task - meat is filling.

Fat, on the other hand, had 9 calories per gram - it is what we call calorie dense. It is also metabolically neutral. It will not cause a change in insulin or glucagon levels. Insulin, as we know is the fat storing hormone. Glucagon is it's opposite - the fat burning hormone. The two cannot work at the same time - for one to be present the other must not be. When we eat protein insulin and glucagon are realsed in equal quantities, when we eat carbs insulin is released, and when we eat fat neither are effected. This is why it is so difficult to lose fat on a high carb diet - you need glucagon and it cannot be present if you're constantly eating carbs and releasing insulin.

Therefore, getting the bulk of our energy from fat will not effect insulin levels, restricting carbs will keep insulin low, and eating our protein will keep our body happy and functioning. This combination is what allows us to burn fat, be healthy and not go hungry.

Getting the bulk of your calories from fats is also a lot easier than getting it anywhere else - because fat is so calorie dense. And let's face it - it tastes good

HTH
Nat