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**cypressgirl** · April 30, 2006, 01:25 AM

Re: Question re: fat & calories

Go back to the fitday screen with the high calories and make sure that you logged each menu item with it's correct portion. It is really easy to overlook one. If you did overlook it, it's default amount may be much higher than what you actually had.

Without the amounts written in it would be hard to accurately say but it doesn't seem like an overwhelming amount of food. In fact, I think you should have more veggies. You are really doing yourself wrong by not getting in enough veggie carbs. The only day you even came close to the limit was day one and it had to be whatever was in the tuna salad - I am guessing that it wasn't a huge helping of veggies

We discourage counting calories but I will share this helpful tidbit. The veggies that you are supposed to be eating are adding a few carbs but they also help fill you up and contribute very few calories to your day. If you purposefully avoid those legal carbs and eat fatty foods only, you are gonna way up your total calories for the day - or go hungry - either of which is not highly recommended.

Add a few veggie carbs and eat only to your hunger. I am sure your food intake will level out at a point that you will be satisfied with!

**atkins_again** · April 30, 2006, 06:44 AM

Re: Question re: fat & calories

Thanks, cypressgirl. That makes sense. Though I honestly haven't been hungry - in fact I've had to MAKE myself eat breakfast and sometimes dinner just to make sure that I get at least 3 meals a day. Not only have my cravings for sweets and carby food reduced significantly (almost eliminated, I might add), but my craving for food, period, has gone down dramatically. And that's saying a LOT for me, because I'm normally hungry or at least thinking about food 18 hrs a day! LOL. Is that strange, or is that normal for people in Induction?

As for veggies, when I did the FitDay logs, I did notice that I'm not eating enough. I mostly eat them during lunch (lettuce w/ the tuna salad on Day 1, and and baby spinach on Day 3), but I agree that I need to get more in. I'm having a BBQ today, so I'm grilling a bunch of veggies and keeping some of them for next week. NOW I'm hungry just thinking about it. Haha!

Thanks again for the informative response. I really DO love this site! Yippie for ADBB!

**not2late** · April 30, 2006, 01:35 PM

Re: Question re: fat & calories

Through food analysis done on Induction during the Duke University study, the percentages for Induction should be about 65% fat, 30% protein, 5% carb (these are teh percentages of the total calories).

You don't want to over-eat proteins because excessive protein turns to glucose, which is stored as fat.

As for fat, it take very little added fat to make a meal "high fat" (over 50% fat by calories).

It's not a good idea to "force" yourself to eat food portions you think you need to eat. Eat only that amount that satisfies your hunger. If you aren't hungry, eat a small snack of fat/protein/carb. So if 1 hardboiled egg and 1/2 cup of celery is enough to satisfy your hunger for breakfast, that's all you should eat.

Don't worry about starving: your body won't let that happen. If you only eat the amount your body needs, you'll not only lose weight, but you'll also learn your natural hunger/satiety cues. In other words, on some days you'll be hungrier than others depending on your activity level. Re-learning those hunger cues are very important, because you'll learn to self-regulate your food intake naturally. Why do I say 're-learn'? Because when we are born, we only drink that amount of baby formula or breast milk that we need. When we become toddlers, we pick up the bad eating habits of eating to satisfy mom's or dad's idea of how much we should be eating, not our energy level.

Therefore, don't eat a meal unless 1. you are hungry or 2. you have gone more than 6 waking hours without eating. Same thing goes for snacking: don't eat it unless you are hungry.

**atkins_again** · April 30, 2006, 09:05 PM

Re: Question re: fat & calories

Thanks, not2late. I didn't know about protein turning into fat. Wow, that's a revelation!

As for forcing myself to eat, I read on the stickies that I have to eat at least 3 meals a day. That's what I meant when I said I force myself to eat, because I normally just skip breakfast, unless coffee counts as breakfast.

Also, I definitely need to re-learn to listen to my hunger signals. As a kid, my nanny made me eat every single morsel of food on my plate, and now as an adult, I still feel guilty about leaving food, but I combat it by putting small servings on my plate one at a time, and eat until I feel full. When I eat out (like I did last night), I usually ask for a small plate and share my entree w/ others and put small portions onto my small plate and only refill when I finish my food.

**tabekat** · April 30, 2006, 10:49 PM

Re: Question re: fat & calories

Personally, I never watched portions, but I did count carbs. when i was hungry I ate and I kept myself full all the time. You are allowed "LIBERAL PORTIONS" of meat, fish, eggs, 4 ounces of cheese and 3 cups of veggies.

Once you go into ketosis your appetite decreases naturally on its own.

**not2late** · May 1, 2006, 07:03 AM

Re: Question re: fat & calories

Originally posted by atkins_again

Thanks, not2late. I didn't know about protein turning into fat. Wow, that's a revelation!

As for forcing myself to eat, I read on the stickies that I have to eat at least 3 meals a day. That's what I meant when I said I force myself to eat, because I normally just skip breakfast, unless coffee counts as breakfast.

Also, I definitely need to re-learn to listen to my hunger signals. As a kid, my nanny made me eat every single morsel of food on my plate, and now as an adult, I still feel guilty about leaving food, but I combat it by putting small servings on my plate one at a time, and eat until I feel full. When I eat out (like I did last night), I usually ask for a small plate and share my entree w/ others and put small portions onto my small plate and only refill when I finish my food.

Yup, alot of people don't realise that excessive protein converts to protein (mainly because it's in chapter 17 and they haven't read that far ahead in the book)

If fat intake is too low you will not burn fat aggressively. Moreover, excess protein converts to glucose and can keep fat from becoming the primary fuel

Other sources tell us that about 58% of the protein we eat is converted to glucose. Therefore if we eat 10 extra grams of protein, we'll convert that to 5.8 grams of glucose (carbs), which is the equivalent of eating 1 cup of tomato slices. However, eating the tomato will at least provide us with fiber, vitamins and minerals which meat do not.

During Atkins a meal is made up of foods with fat, protein and carbs. Dr. Atkins never said the amounts you should eat per meal. He only said eat the amount to satisfy your hunger, to never gorge, and to spread your carbs throughout the day. So if that 'amount' is 1 chicken leg, 1 cup of zucchini cooked in 1 tablespoon of olive oil---that's your meal. Again, if you are hungry after your meal, by all means have a small snack --usually fat/protein. Eventually you'll learn how much you need to eat. Through my own experience, I can still put away half a chicken, but I've learned that isn't because I'm feeding my 'hunger'/energy needs but rather feeding my 'wants'.

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