On OWL rung 1, please review my menu

[thefemalegreenday]

Hey, so Ive been doing OWL rung 1 for awhile but the weight loss is massively slow, could just be because I'm in a normal weight range though.
Keep in mind I'm a vegetarian, thats why i have such an exceedingly large amount of eggs.

Typical menu

Breakfast : 2 boiled eggs.

snack : 1 hard boiled egg

Lunch : Cup of avocado, half a tomato, table spoon of spring onion, and a table spoon of chives.

snack 2 hard boiled eggs

Dinner: The same as lunch normally, sometimes ill add a table spoon of sour cream to it. With another egg and a cup of pumpkin
Now for my 5 net carbs , one cup of cauliflower and one cup of celery.

calories: 1035
fat: 63%
protein: 19%
carbs: 18%

Thanks =)

[amandarose]

Re: On OWL rung 1, please review my menu

sooo new to this so forgive me if I sound ignorant. This is just based on advice I've read from more "experienced" members. I think maybe you should use the Fitday program to check out your levels for Fats and all. From what I understand its a website and I am getting ready to find it and take my own advice. Its so weird to think that if I don't get enough fat I won't lose. Anyway I will keep checking back cause I want to see what you are told. in 1 lb I will officially go from overweight to normal range, but I know I need to drop another 10 to really feel good, and I haven't lost anything for a few days. Trying not to worry.

[thefemalegreenday]

Re: On OWL rung 1, please review my menu

Wow, thats really awesome, good work! Well why don't you post your menu here too, then we'll both get help ^_^
=] I'm hooked on fitday, its like my drug XD

[fetch]

Re: On OWL rung 1, please review my menu

I don't know your height/weight/age/activity level combo to know for sure, but barely over 1k calories a day seems really low to me. Too low of a daily caloric intake will stall you just as fast as too many.

Since I'm not a veggie, I am not really qualified to comment on your example menu. All I would suggest is make sure you have enough variety in your diet by learning new foods and recipes that meet both Atkins and veggie requirements so that later down the road you don't cry of this WOE being "too boring" or "too restrictive" to carry on. It is a hard road indeed to try to subsist for any length of time on single food components randomly thrown together versus an actual meal. Never mind the fact that for me, eating the same meal twice a day would drive me buggy outside of only my very favorite-est meals.

Just as an example, you seem to do dairy so I would assume you are lacto-ovo? I took a baked gratin recipe that recommended turnip and/or rutabaga (too starchy for me right now) and substituted in daikon radish (plus some butter and cream) and it was a fantastic side dish for my supper. Okay, so I used bacon fat in my version to fry the daikon a bit first, but there's no rule that says you can't just skip that step and use butter and cream only and bake for longer.

And what about other protein sources like tofu and tvp? Vegetable protein sources?

Best wishes,

[thefemalegreenday]

Re: On OWL rung 1, please review my menu

Im 5'2, at 51.6 kgs, Im worried abit as well that its abit low.. But I'm not like starving myself, I eat till Im satisfied.

I eat Tofu somedays.. But its very bland..
Yes, I'm a lacto-ovo, but I'm quite scared about adding any of the diary.. I only eat half an ounce of sour cream, rarely cause im terrified ill stall or it'll trigger a binge.
Do you know the limits for those foods?
I know cheese is like 3 to 4 ounces, but is it the same for cream cheese and sour cream?

I don't think I can eat turnipy stuff until the starchy rung.

=] Thanks for the reply

[fetch]

Re: On OWL rung 1, please review my menu

If there's any dairy that's going to stall you, it would be cheese. And that's usually because of eating the max 4 ounces or more without realizing it and contributing to a daily caloric intake too high to allow weight loss. In my opinion, you don't currently have that problem. I don't know your binging history and even if I did I couldn't predict how you'd react to more dairy in your diet. All I can recommend is try it and see how it goes, starting with the minimum dairy first (3 ounces of aged cheeses), 2 tbsp. of cream (not full cream milk but cream alone) and 1 ounce sour cream or 3 additional ounces of cream (not necessarily every day for this one but certainly allowable). Cream cheese falls under the aged cheeses category. If it goes well, start bumping it up to the max side of things.

Turnip is listed in the "other vegetable" category even back in Induction so you could have up to 1 cup of it as long as you only had two cups of the salad vegetables category of Induction veggies. Daikon radish is listed in the salad vegetables so you could have as much as three cups of it in theory if that's all you ate. Rutabaga is the one starchy enough to wait until the proper rung.

If you don't have the book, I'm pretty sure in the Induction forum the allowable veggies are in a sticky post at the top. On page 174 of DANDR there is also quick and dirty lists by vegetable, dairy, nuts and seeds, fruits and juices categories of things to add back for each rung of OWL. Obviously there is more you can add than what is listed if you calculate it yourself, but it gives you a starting point. I wouldn't be surprised if you could find those lists in a sticky post in the OWL forum.

If you're scared of dairy, which is really a HUGE way for you to boost your daily caloric intake since you're a veggie, I fear you're making a very challenging endeavor (following Atkins as a Vegetarian) only that much harder and increasing the odds you will not be able to sustain this way of eating for a lifetime.

While you may be eating to satisfaction because of the appetite suppression aspect of ketosis, it can screw you up if you're not eating enough calories to begin with. You will catabolize protein from you muscle reserves much like the low fat/low protein/high carb diet does. You will drop your metabolism. Your decline in weight loss will likely become an outright stall and then you'll drop your calories even more to try to get the scale moving again. This happens a couple times and you become one of those people wondering why you can't lose weight or even gain when you're only eating 500-800 calories a day. Then you complain about and curse your super-slow metabolism that doesn't allow you to eat more than that when you did it to yourself. It's a pretty vicious cycle I've seen repeated many times across the low carb boards over the years.

Yes, if you boost your calories right now you will likely see a weight gain. But that's only until your body realizes it doesn't have to try to conserve every calorie coming in and once everything normalizes out again you should see consistent weight loss again as long as you don't swing the pendulum to the opposite side and overeat caloric-wise.

[thefemalegreenday]

Re: On OWL rung 1, please review my menu

Your so right.
I already have a bad metabolism, do you think its to late? I've had experience with anorexia and I think that slowed it down quite abit.. Plus I had an emotional eating disorder as well.. Thats why I'm afraid ill binge on dairy, I had the emotional eating disorder last year when I did low carb as a meat eater, I would go through SO much cheese and cream cheese... I gained quite abit.

Gaining weight now sounds horrible =/ I worked hard to get this off...What if I slowly over a long period of time increased my calorie intake? What range do you think it should be at?

[fetch]

Re: On OWL rung 1, please review my menu

I don't reside in the it's "too late" camp, even if you've abused your metabolism in the past. Hopefully, if there's any thyroid or adrenal issues you've had them addressed medically already.

While Atkins touts the "calories don't count" party line, that's really only for the first part of the plan. According to Eades, Atkins knew that when Induction was done correctly, the appetite suppression would kick in and many people would end up eating at a level of 1500-1700 calories which was definitely in the weight loss range for the majority of those doing the plan.

But I digress. What I'm getting at is calories do count. If you overeat calorie-wise, it's possible to even gain a bit on "low carb" as you experienced. I know I can consistently eat 2000-2500-3000 calories on Atkins by eating a lot of what you did - meat, cheese and other dairy. Want to guess what I did? I lost about 20 pounds and then ran up and down the same 10 pounds for over two years. And I ended back near my starting weight at least three times.

Since I don't work in the field, I don't know the specifics of increasing calorie intake if you want to avoid triggering any eating disorders. I would imagine slowly is fine, maybe aim for a 50 calorie/day increase every week or two? That'd put you at around 2-3 months to get to 1300. I'm going to link you to a calculator that I really like. And while I only guessed your age and exercise level, it looks like it the low end of the range listed is what you're doing now. But you know what, when I aimed for the low range listed for for me, my weight loss was nonexistent; I aimed for the higher range and have been doing well - about 1.5-2 pounds/week. Granted, I only have two weeks worth of data under my belt, so take that with a grain of salt. But what I like is it also gives you maintenance figure as well. Just remember, like it's disclaimer, it's only a guideline.

Also, you are near your goal - what, 3.5 pounds to go? The last 5-10 are always tough and sometimes your body just doesn't like it. I was 135 for a good chunk of my "adult" life - 17 to 28. When I got fat due to poor dietary decisions and I did Atkins for the first time at almost 30, I lost over 30 lbs and down to 140 like *snap* that in less than three months. I never did get down to 135 again, though. The closest I got was 138 and I didn't look "right" - too stick-y, all arms and head - and I was definitely under-eating due to my situation at the time. I'm positive there was some muscle loss. 140 wasn't all that great either, to be honest. Turned out 142-145 was a good weight for me and I didn't have to fight my body or diet to be there once I was eating normal again (normal low carb/Atkins, not "normal" standard American diet). I looked great, felt great. Then I quit tobacco and got old and decrepit had a premature mid-life crisis and ate my foods in the wrong priority for over two years (meat, fats/oils, dairy, veg instead of veg, meat, dairy, fats/oils) so here I am. Again.

HOW TO: Calculate Your Daily Calorie Needs

[thefemalegreenday]

Re: On OWL rung 1, please review my menu

The site says 1848 calories.. Which would be a **** of alot for me.
I didn't lose weight for ages when I used butter, cause it keep my calories to around 1600. I've seen on the boards that some people on here can only get away with a 1200-1300 range on atkins.
But I like your method of adding 50 a month, that sounds pretty good actually and something that wouldn't stress me out to much. I've got 1.6 kilos to go, but honestly I don't mind how long it'll take any more, with just 1.6 kgs, I'm looking great! =)

OWL is so comfortable its going to be hard to change bits of it, Ive been on rung 1 for awhile now, do you think I should move up now?