Just a question about portion

[djfmf]

so this is what i had for breakfast today

0630- Breakfast
Two Fried Eggs

Egg White Omlette(bacon, tomato, mushroom, ham and cheese)

Two 1.9lbs bottle of water

Two Crystal Light To Go Flavor Packets(Peach Tea)

Supplements

if you didn't notice i do drink a lot of water at each meal sitting and i end up feeling really full afterwards... 30 minutes later i'm already using the bathroom. anyways i usually try to finish both bottles of water before i finish my meal and i know we should only eat until our appetite is satisfied, not stuffed. my question is if i finish both bottles of water and only ate half my omlette and 1 egg, should i just stop eating or finish up? if you were to look at my portion in person it is relatively small, i just don't wanna end up starving myself because i'm a pretty active person. so i usually choose a small meal to eat but my goal at each sitting is to drink 2 bottles of water.

i just wanted some thoughts on the subject and a few opinions.

[Mothercooter]

Re: Just a question about portion

I think if you hadnt gotten enough to eat and only felt full because of the water but your body didnt get satisfied, you would have felt hungry again really shortly after, your body telling you it needed more food. But if you stayed satisfied until the next meal Id say you got enough.

[msnicksmom]

Re: Just a question about portion

Eat when hungry, until satisfied. So, if you get full on a little food and a lot of water, but get hungry again an hour later, that's OK. Learn your hunger cues and your satisfied cues.

[Rubysugar]

Re: Just a question about portion

Good job on drinking your water and I echo Denise. If you get hungry later eat then too. Not eating enough food and fat can actually slow your loss. I try and eat a little veg in the morning with my meal to keep my menu and my blood sugar balanced out. You want to try and keep each meal in balance for fat, protien and carbs. My breakfast is usually the high carb meal coming working out at about 7 carbs each morning. Either way it's important to make sure you are getting your 2 cups of veg in with that water. Keep up the great work!!

[not2late]

Re: Just a question about portion

That's what I call "water filling". It's a trick the low cal dieters use to fool their bodies into thinking they have enough food. Since water is non-caloric, they have a full sensation at a lower calorie intake. The trouble is that when your body finishes processing that water and the little food you actually ate, you feel hungry once again. The other problem is that our stomachs are muscular pouches that can stretch to accomodate food. For the folks with a modest weight loss goal, keeping their stomachs stretched at start weight lengths might not hurt them in the long run. But for folks with serious weight loss goals, keeping their stomachs stretched out might not be a good idea.....having a size 6 body with a stomach that is used to accomodating a size 26er's food intake will make it difficult to assess satiety.

Our stomachs contain "stretch receptors". When food enters our stomachs, the stomach will stretch. At a certain point, the stretch receptors will be activated and will signal the brain "Okay, you can stop eating now!" Imagine if you keep your stomach stretched out during your weight loss journey....at the end, you'll need to fill your stomach to your heavy weight capacity in order to activate those stretch receptors. It will work, provided you have an adequate supply of non-caloric fluid at hand. If you don't, you might end up over-eating in order to "fill up".

With Atkins, we don't have to do that because ketosis is a natural appetite suppressant. However, we still need to re-learn those satiety cues. So we need to be very aware of what and how much we eat and we must also ask ourselves: do I need to eat alittle more, or am I satisfied? during our meals.

[djfmf]

Re: Just a question about portion

i don't like to snack and i only eat three times a day. I never really feel hungry because i drink another bottle of water every 1-2 hours, thats why i drink 12 in a day. i feel satisfied from meal to meal so i never try to sneak a snack.

[2big4mysize]

Re: Just a question about portion

remember when you are eating only eat enough food to satisfy your hunger and stop if you find you are eating the same amount every day then y9ou are not listening to your hunger and need to cut back until you find it. just as your car doesn't need 20 gallons every day you don't need the same amount of fuel everyday unless you do the exact same thing every minute of every day and even then you would have some alterations as body systems clyce

[Lyssie]

Re: Just a question about portion

For the record, I know you're in the military, so it's entirely possible you're more active than me, but I only eat the egg white omlette for breakfast if I am looking for something large to have, usually I only eat half of it. So I don't think that you're going to starve to death if you had half the omlette and a fried egg. Another note, I have no idea how big a 2lb bottle of water is, and if you start the day by downing a lot of water after having nothing, of course you're going to be on the potty relatively quickly.

[not2late]

Re: Just a question about portion

I think he means a 1 pint 9 oz bottle of water, which is roughly 1/2 liter. That has a dry weight of approximately 1 lb 4 oz.

1 pint = 2 cups or 16 fluid oz. So a 1 pint 9 oz bottle of water is 25 fluid ounces or 4 cups of water. 2 of those bottles would be 1 liter or 50 fluid ounces.

Volume-wise that's alot of water. So it doesn't surprize me that while he feels "full" immediately after his meal, he feels hungry between meals: he's stretching his stomach too much and not getting the calories he needs.

Again, that's a trick the low cal dieters use to feel satiated during their low cal meals.

[G-Mom]

Re: Just a question about portion

I am with Megs here. Downing 2 bottles of water and forcing it, isn't helping your stomach, nor is it setting up good habits. Honestly, many folks here also only eat 3 meals per day without snacking, but I don't think that is a good idea, especially for an active military man like yourself.

If you can, have two small snacks between meals. You need to feed AND hydrate your body for it to work properly. You exercise like mad, so you need to feed those muscles! Sorry to be so judgmental, but I think you need to EAT, being an active, young man. If you were my son, I would say the same.

[djfmf]

Re: Just a question about portion

well i weighed myself with the bottle of water and without on my digital scale and it was a 1.9lb difference. the container itself weighs practically to nothing. you could say i am having snacks twice day, my mid morning One Girl Scout Cookie and my PM after workout Protein Shake. the three meals a day is more than enough energy for me in a day. i never go hungry in between because i drink lots of water.

just remember people, i am on a different diet plan than the ones who "follow by the book" on this forum. i'm perfectly fine with the way i'm losing weight. but it's nice to hear other peoples thoughts, i was just curious about the way i was eating and wanted someones opinion and not a "wrong or right" type of answer. =)

[not2late]

Re: Just a question about portion

Okay so the military weighs liquids....Highly unusual but I guess they would need to in order to calculate weights for transportation.

A 1 pt 9 oz bottle of Deer Park water weighs 1 pound 4 oz. So you can estimate that you are drinking about 2 pints of water per bottle.

2 pints = 1 quart or 32 fluid oz or 1 liter.

I do have a suggestion for you. You might want to get a hold of a sturdy plastic bag gallon-sized bag and get a visual image of the amount of water you are drinking with your meals.

And you might want to read these links:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Competitive_eating particularly the training aspect.
http://www.mamashealth.com/organs/stomach.asp re: stomach capacity
http://www.healthbanks.com/PatientPo...ID=HW5aa155258 stomach stretch receptors and satiety

BTW, we know you aren't following Atkins. That's why many of us aren't commenting on the foods you choose to eat on your diet. However, I think if you don't wish to get "by the book" advise, you might want to put in your siggy or in your posts that you are not following Atkins, but your own low carb diet. That way people responding and reading your posts will not be confused and you won't be aggravated from the "by the book" advise.

[Lyssie]

Re: Just a question about portion

I would have to say that you're eating at least 4 "meals" per day if you have a protein shake, I'm not really sure about your cals on the cookie :P

Anyway, I still wouldn't be worried about starving to death, or about trying to finish the rest of the food if you're not hungry. I would go with the group and try to get your water dispersed throughout the day though, like they said, then you know if you're actually still hungry or not or if its just the water talking.

[djfmf]

Re: Just a question about portion

I would have to say that you're eating at least 4 "meals" per day if you have a protein shake, I'm not really sure about your cals on the cookie :P

Anyway, I still wouldn't be worried about starving to death, or about trying to finish the rest of the food if you're not hungry. I would go with the group and try to get your water dispersed throughout the day though, like they said, then you know if you're actually still hungry or not or if its just the water talking.

i'm a little lost with what you meant about dispersing my water in a day, if you read my journal i usually have 2 bottles of water at each meal and one bottle ever other hour for a total of 12 bottles by the end of the day before i go to sleep. isn't that dispersed? the Girl Scout cookies varies, like the ones i'm having now "Thanks A lot" has 150 calories and 22g(minus 1 for fiber) in carbs for 2 cookies. i wouldn't want to eat a full serving so i'm spreading it out by having just one a day, that's half the carb intake at least. i still have a box of samoas, peanut butter cookies, lemon creams, short bread and cinnamon oatmeal to finish before deployment.

it's weird how my eating habit has changed for the better, like eating a cooking for example. your regular person not on a diet would have a cookie and roceed to eat a few more or a whole tray. i used to be like that before because i love food but now i can control my urges and limit myself to only what i feel will satisfy me. while i never really made it to lifetime maintenance on atkins it did help me overcome an eating problem and it taught me how to eat more sensible.

i'll edit the sig, makes sense i guess.

[not2late]

Re: Just a question about portion

What we mean by spreading your water out is that: spreading it out throughout the day rather than loading it during your meals.

1 of those bottles is about 1 quart or 32 ounces. IF you drink 2 of them, that's 64 ounces of water. If you drink 2 of them with each 3 daily meals, that's 252 ounces of water for your meals alone. 252 fluid ounces is about 7.8 quarts or about 2.4 gallons.

You currently weigh 160 pounds or 70 kg. A 70 kg person according to the Holiday-Segar fluid calculation formula requires about 2 liters of fluid daily for normal physiologic functioning.

If you are drinking the 252 ounces because you are thirsty, I would recommend that you seek medical attention at once. There are medical disorders, such as diabetes insipidus and brain tumors, that interfere with thirst regulation.