Had too many veges yesterday =/

[Georgiana]

Re: Had too many veges yesterday =/

CalorieKing is also good. I would suggest you keep track of the fat, protein and calories too, in case you ever need to tweak something to your diet.

To increase your calories, you don't necessarily have to eat more. What you can do is simply add more fat to the food. 1 g of fat has 9 calories, so you don't need to use a lot. For example, if you have cooked vegetables, put some butter on them. Or dip your veggies in mayo. Or add more olive oil to your salads (just 1 tsp has 40 calories). If you eat canned tuna or chicken, add some mayo to it and make it a salad. If you eat soup, make a creamy one with heavy cream. Just by tweaking a little what you are already eating, you can increase your caloric intake without eating mountains of food.

Also be careful to eat enough fat (50-65% of your total calories). It is the ratio of fat to carbohydrates that counts the most in getting into ketosis and staying there, because excess protein will be converted into glucose (sugar). Fat also helps in keeping hunger at bay, so it might save you in days when you are tempted to overeat.

[thefemalegreenday]

Re: Had too many veges yesterday =/

Today I think ive had a really good day, =] instead of snacking all day I put my dinner veges in a box and had some when I was hungry, plus I had a nice big chicken thigh for lunch =P cooked to perfection. I think if I just continue this way ill be fine ^_^.
I wasn't hungry throughout the day and I also wasn't stuffed, it was just the right amount. I guess its about what mood I'm in =P to be honest I have the worst mood swings though.

[Georgiana]

Re: Had too many veges yesterday =/

Good for you to pull out a good eating day!

I think we all have our good and bad days. As long as the good days are more than the bad ones and you don't go down the slippery sugar slope, the results will show.

[thefemalegreenday]

Re: Had too many veges yesterday =/

Totally =D
I had another today, really good days.. I think its just realizing that fat is good.
Its just so hard to think like that, but when I do I eat really well.
My snack box is working perfectly, maybe by this time next week my jeans won't be so tight!
I don't understand why I have bad days.. There so not worth it aye. And its like, when you eat that much you don't enjoy the food, its almost flavorless.
Do you do alot of exercise?
Its just I'm a really busy person because of school, Im homeschooled so I don't walk to school as well.. I do about half an hour on the tredmil every morning but Im thinking its not enough.
Do you think more is better?
x

[msanjelpie]

Re: Had too many veges yesterday =/

45 minutes on the treadmill would be perfect... and if you can put it on a slight incline so that it feels like you are walking uphill, that's even better

[Georgiana]

Re: Had too many veges yesterday =/

Do you do alot of exercise?
Its just I'm a really busy person because of school, Im homeschooled so I don't walk to school as well.. I do about half an hour on the tredmil every morning but Im thinking its not enough.
Do you think more is better?

Dr. Atkins defined a "regular exerciser" as someone who exercises vigorously 5x a week for at least 45 minutes. He also wrote

Do not exercise more than five times a week.

so that your muscles have enough time to rest and recover.

Now it depends what you are doing on the treadmill. Are you walking or running? At what speed and inclination? Are you monitoring your pulse while exercising?

Here's what I do (more or less) consistently.

• yoga almost daily for 20-45 minutes (unless I'm late for class )
• stability ball about 5x a week for 10-20 minutes
• running 2-3 miles 5x a week
• weights 2-4 times a week for 30-60 minutes (but lately I've been slacking here )
• hula hooping (20-30 minutes) or skipping (up to 10 min now) 2-3 times a week
• squats, push-ups, stair climbing... these are thrown in whenever I take a break from work (and I'm not on ADBB )

[thefemalegreenday]

Re: Had too many veges yesterday =/

Wow, thats alot of exercise!
I have a yoga ball, well my older sister has one, I might borrow it though =]
I think 45 minutes on the tredmil sounds good, maybe some crunches too.
The weathers just not nice enough at the moment to go for walks or be outside though..
But my tredmil suits me fine, Oh plus I have an exercise bike too, haha I guess I have my own little mini gym.

[thefemalegreenday]

Re: Had too many veges yesterday =/

Damn it, I swear I can't go a week without being stupid.
I've eaten like a pig again today.. >_> plus I had cheese, which stalls me, REALLY stupid.
I swear I must've gained a pound or 2 today.. So annoyed.
My family was in the other room eating chocolate the other night and I was thinking of how strong I was being and then THIS happens.

[Georgiana]

Re: Had too many veges yesterday =/

Did you go over your current carb level? And what did you binge on -- veggie? meat? just cheese? Maybe you can post a "binge menu" here (most of us have/had our "binge days" and we've seen it all, so you don't have to be ashamed posting it) and the exercise you do during a "binge day". Also post what you would consider an excellent eating day and the exercise you did during such a day, and then post a "regular day", again with your exercise. Once it's all written down, we might be able to see if the "pigging out" happens because of a systematic error in your menus, in your exercise routine or if it's just your brain asking for a "treat" while your family has theirs.

[thefemalegreenday]

Re: Had too many veges yesterday =/

Good normal day
exercise half an hour in the morning on tredmil, fast walking.
Stretches, and whatever other exercise I feel like doing.
Breakfast: two eggs
Lunch: big chicken thigh
Dinner: Whatever meat, normally two serving sized. (I like a big dinner) And I have three cups of veges. 2 celery, 1 cucumber, sometimes abit more.
I normally have 8 or more glasses of water and don't tend to use salt or just very little. (you know it can cause cancer? Kinda scary.)

Bad day (this is what I ate today, they differ some days)
No exercise
2 eggs
Chicken thigh
Dinner, (meat [chicken thigh and a wing and normal veges)
cucumber and lettuce, about a cup
the chicken fat liquidy stuff warmed up with 2 cups cauliflower,
bit more than half an avocado,
2 egg Omelet with more cauliflower and butter.
Cheese, 4 ozs (more possibly.)
Plus alot of salt. =/
I didn't do exercise cause the only time I have when Im not doing school work is like 6:30 in the morning and at the moment its freezing in the mornings.
Pretty sure I went way over the carb level.

Other binge days ill just binge on cheese (the really bad binge days)
Some times it'll be alots of meat, anything I can find, which will continue throughout the day.
and yeah sometimes Ill just have to much cauliflower.

I was doing so well.. =/

[Georgiana]

Re: Had too many veges yesterday =/

I'll be writing a lengthy reply in a second... but first, what does "two serving sized" mean for you? A serving size of meat in DANDR is about 6 oz; a serving size of meat at our canteen is only 3-4 oz. So what's a serving size for you?

[edited to add] How do you cook the eggs and the chicken? And do you have any dressing with the vegetables?

If you don't weigh the meat, 3 oz is about the size of a deck of cards.

[Georgiana]

Re: Had too many veges yesterday =/

Alright. Let's look at what FitDay gives me for one of your "good days". Since chicken seems to be a staple in your menu, I assumed you are eating 2 chicken thighs for dinner.

Calories: 832
Fat: 50.8 grams (55%)
Carbohydrate: 11.7 grams (5%)
Dietary fiber: 4.4 grams
Net carbs: 7.3 grams
Protein: 78.6 grams (40%)

And below are the vitamins and minerals in your menu, compared to the Recommended Daily Allowance (RDA) or Adequate Intake (AI). The numbers you see represent percentages, which is why there is a horizontal line drawn at 100.



Now let's look at your "bad day".

Calories: 1702
Fat: 119.5 grams (62%)
Carbohydrate: 50.2 grams (11%)
Dietary fiber: 23.6 grams
Net carbs: 26.6 grams
Protein: 112.9 g (27%)

And again you vitamins and minerals:



The BMR of someone your age, height and weight is about 1450 calories. If you do 45 minutes of moderate exercise, sleep for 8 hours and the rest of the time do very light physical activity (e.g. reading, eating), your total energy requirement goes up to 1650 calories per day. Now add to this the metabolic advantage Atkins has, which allows you to eat about 200-300 calories more daily, without gaining weight, and what comes out is that an average person of your age, height, weight and lifestyle can eat approximately 1900 calories per day, without gaining weight. Any caloric deficit will result in weight loss.

Of course, these numbers represent simple estimates. However, the difference between 832 and 1900 calories cannot be justified by any estimate. Your body asks for "bad days" in order to compensate for days when your calories and nutrients are dangerously low.

You seem to have a "bad day" every 10 days or so. If you eat 900 calories 9 out of 10 days and 1700 calories 1 out of 10 days, your average daily caloric intake across these 10 days is about 1000 calories. Again significantly lower than what your body needs in order to support its daily needs and proper growth. What your body is then forced to do is save energy and the way it does this is by slowing down your metabolism. Here is what Dr. Atkins wrote about this ("Dr. Atkins' New Diet Revolution", Chapter 2, page 19):

When you restrict the number of calories you eat, your metabolism shifts into survival mode, meaning it slows down to conserve energy. When you go back to a higher-calorie diet -- as you inevitably must -- your body is still in its mode of burning calories slowly. So it becomes extremely hard to continue or maintain weight loss.

So instead of trying to stay at roughly 900 calories, you should increase your food intake to allow your body to come out of the slow burning mode. You might stall or even gain a few pounds when doing this, but you will be healthier and, after a period of adjustment, you will lose weight faster while also consuming the necessary nutrients, vitamins and minerals. Once you find an equilibrium, your days will be more uniform, so the number of bad eating days will automatically decrease.

A few other things. You consider yourself to be in OWL Rung 1. During OWL Rung 1, you are not restricted to three cups of vegetables any more. All you have to go by are net carbohydrates, so total carbohydrates minus dietary fiber. If you had, let's say, an average of 12 net carbs during Induction, with 8 of these coming from vegetables, then during the first week of OWL Rung 1 you should eat 17 net carbs and 13 of these should come from vegetables. It doesn't matter if you eat these 13 net carbs in the form of 4-5 cups of cauliflower or 8 cups of celery -- there is no restriction on the cups of vegetables you can eat, as long as you stay at the appropriate net carbohydrate level.

Based on the amount of vegetables you eat, your "good day" menu is in fact an Induction menu. Your "bad day" menu is an OWL Rung 1 menu, which is how it should be.

An Induction menu should have approximately 65% fat, 5% carbohydrates and 30% fat. As you move to OWL and climb the "Carbohydrate Ladder", your fat intake will slightly decrease (~50% by the time you reach Maintenance) and leave room for more carbohydrates. Protein should stay the same -- 30%. So based on these percentages, your "good day" menu is too high in protein and too low in fat. Your "bad day" menu however looks much better.

The "bad day" menu is how the menu of someone who is in OWL Rung 1 is supposed to look like. The "good day" menu is only sabotaging your weight loss efforts and your health. If you eat daily a little more than you would in a "good day" and consume more vegetables and nutritious foods, your body will stop asking for emergency binge days.

Since you do not seem to be aware of how many calories and carbs you are consuming or of what your percentages are, I would suggest (again) that you use FitDay or a similar online tool to track your meals. It might be time consuming at first, but it will be easier once you get the hang of it. Plus, it will allow you to adjust your eating so that you stay healthy while losing weight.

[thefemalegreenday]

Re: Had too many veges yesterday =/

2 chicken thighs. Plus the one at lunch. plus 2 eggs.
Im sure that would've added to to atleast 1200.
I hard boil eggs but I put the chicken in the oven.
I not use any dressing or anything, just have it plain.
id say 6oz then.

Well I kinda stuffed up before, like doing this whole thing so I thought id start on introduction again just for 2 weeks. Because before when I was on it I had like a cup and so that kinda messed things up when I tried rung 1.

Ill add more too my lunch, I really think im eating enough though, Im already losing weight really slowly, won't it make it even harder?
Im not sure I want to gain, even if its just alittle, its really scary when it happens.
But I agree totally. Ill try making my diet seem more like one on here, theres just not alot of teens to compare with..

=/ Its just to cold for exercise. Ill do crunches during my breaks but I can't really do tredmil till everything heats up again, or I start feeling numb x.x

Thanks so much for doing this though, I really needed to hear it =]
I tried calorie king, my calories were around 1300-1400 somedays but I just don't have the time like I did before.

[Georgiana]

Re: Had too many veges yesterday =/

2 chicken thighs. Plus the one at lunch. plus 2 eggs.
Im sure that would've added to to atleast 1200.
I hard boil eggs but I put the chicken in the oven.
I not use any dressing or anything, just have it plain.
id say 6oz then.

I think you are overestimating your calories. One large chicken thigh has 200-230 calories, depending how you cook it, so three chicken thighs would be 600-700 calories. One large egg has 75 calories, so two will have 150. Two cups of celery have about 30 calories. One cup of cucumbers has 15. So they add up to 800-900 calories.

Put some dressing on that salad, because your fat intake is too low. Fat helps you get easier into ketosis and will also keep you full between meals. Plus it is very healthy and tasty.

Your breakfast could use a little more food too. Either cook the eggs differently (with some fat) or just eat them with some fat or have something else besides eggs. Why not make a quiche, slice it in eight servings and have a slice every morning? A slice typically has 250-300 calories, depending on the recipe.

Well I kinda stuffed up before, like doing this whole thing so I thought id start on introduction again just for 2 weeks. Because before when I was on it I had like a cup and so that kinda messed things up when I tried rung 1.

There's no benefit in doing Induction again. Because you've been eating low carb for a while, you probably won't see a faster weight loss. The weight you lose will also not allow you to find your degree of metabolic resistance. And you don't have to get into ketosis either, because you're already there. So Induction is pretty much pointless for you. I'd say it's better if you stick to OWL Rung 1 and do that correctly.

Ill add more too my lunch, I really think im eating enough though, Im already losing weight really slowly, won't it make it even harder?

800-900 calories is not enough. As I've said, if you keep your calories artificially low, your metabolism will be forced to slow down.

Im not sure I want to gain, even if its just alittle, its really scary when it happens.

Weigh only once a week. Then you shouldn't notice a difference.

Once you start eating more, your metabolism will accelerate and you'll lose weight while eating more and getting more nutrients in. It's not only better for your general health, but for your weight loss too.

=/ Its just to cold for exercise. Ill do crunches during my breaks but I can't really do tredmil till everything heats up again, or I start feeling numb x.x

Put more clothes on and get that exercise in. You know what type of exercise Dr. Atkins recommended for those who are under 35 yr old and have a BMI below 30? Jogging, basketball, squash, racquetball, inline skating, jumping rope, cross-country skiing, spinning... starting at 25 min, 3x a week.

[thefemalegreenday]

Re: Had too many veges yesterday =/

Wow, really good advice.
Yesterday I think went really well. I cooked up lots of little chicken drumsticks and I snacked on them whenever I felt I was hungry. So I ate quite abit more than I normally would but I think it turned out good.
I have Orthrexia so I guess thats why I take this so difficultly. Im like obsessed with trying to make everything smaller... But ill recover, it just takes abit of time =]

Your right, ill start rung 1 from today ^_^

Actually.. I do love jump rope! That sounds like a good idea