EAT ALL YOU WANT (debatable?)

[AtkinsBarbie*]

Hi you guys.I notice after reading thru lots of post that some here eat until full and some eat and try to watch calories.Before atkins i was a binge eater now that i look back i can see why i was so heavy.I used to eat carrot cake,Apple danish ,cookies of all kinds ,cheesecake,puddings pizza and everything else you can imagine.now that im on atkins the beauty is i can eat real food and not worry about portions and the weight is just melting away!like for instance for dinner i had one cup of brocolii,20 buffalo wings (no breading just baked)and a 64 oz bottle of water.after i was done i wasnt stuffed or sluggish(i felt so friggin great and satisfied ) but some will argue that it was too much food.so basically my question is do most people watch the portions or do most go by eat liberally until full?

[Elizellen]

Re: EAT ALL YOU WANT(debatable?)

Mainly the idea is to eat till no longer hungry but not stuffed, which seems to be how you are doing
Are you getting fat with those wings? Not enough fat can mean you need to eat more of a food than if it has enough fat with it.
Also as your body gets smaller you will need to make sure you are eating to appetite rather than to habit.
Say at your start you weighed 300 pounds your body would need more food to be satisfied than later in your Atkins journey after you have lost 100 pounds. So you need then to think about reducing portions to make sure you are not eating more than you need because you are used to having that much on the plate.

[bocajoes]

Re: EAT ALL YOU WANT (debatable?)

I think that fat is the key. It satiates you, plain and simple. Yesterday I had Faye yogurt for breakfast, and I was starving a few hours later. The day before I had two eggs and some cheese for breakfast and I was fine until lunch. The difference was the fat in the cheese and the little bit of canola oil that I used to cook the eggs. Ditto for last night's dinner - I made guacamole as a side, and it filled me up to the point where I didn't need a main; I was okay on guac and a salad.

[not2late]

Re: EAT ALL YOU WANT (debatable?)

As Elizellen wrote, there is a difference between being no longer hungry and being stuffed. For those of us (me included), who over-ate our way to a large size, it might be difficult to distinguish the two.

Dr. Atkins suggested eating 1/2 of the food and asking if yourself if you are no longer hungry. If you aren't, then walk away from the food. If you should feel hungry, then eat some more.

I used a different method. After a typical meal, I would stand up. If I could feel the weight of the food lying in my stomach, I knew I over ate. Similarly, if I felt so full that I had difficulty breathing, then I knew I over ate.

Moreover, as you become a smaller person, generally your food intake/calorie intake will decrease. And Dr. Atkins did mention that you decrease your food as you appetite decreases.

As bocajoe wrote, fat is very important. It has twice the calories of either carbs or proteins, so you get a greater "bang for your caloric buck", but it also helps to keep you satisfied between meals.

Also, Atkins is a high fat diet. Not a high protein diet. and if you overdo the protein, you run the risk of gaining weight (because you are making body fat from that excess protein).

[SugarFreeSheila]

Re: EAT ALL YOU WANT (debatable?)

I do not restrict my portions, and simply eat until satiated. For a lot of people, that is a form of portion control if you think about it!

[2big4mysize]

Re: EAT ALL YOU WANT (debatable?)

learning to feed our hunger and stop eating is what we all have to learn to be atkins successes. Just cause a food is carb free and legal doesn't mean we can eat as many as we can hold.

If a new atkinseer has trouble feeding just hunger and stopping then they will need an artificial braking mechanism for their eating and counting cals could be a tool they have to use until they learn that eating a small portion of a high fat protein low carb meal will actually keep them from being hungry for hours.

Many folk think they have to tank up cause it is a long time till the next feeding but witrh atkins you can eat any time you are hungry so that need to tank up is gone from a feeding.

the example elizellen gave of the 100 pound lighter person needing smaller portion is right oncause that 100pound lighter person has actually lost 900 cals off her BMR as the human body doesn't need the same amount of energy to do the exact same thing when it is 100 pounds lighter.

[kline1972]

Re: EAT ALL YOU WANT (debatable?)

well sugarfreesheila looks amazing

[liv]

Re: EAT ALL YOU WANT (debatable?)

well sugarfreesheila looks amazing

Love her new pic. I wonder where she is?

[kline1972]

Re: EAT ALL YOU WANT (debatable?)

doesn't matter

[liv]

Re: EAT ALL YOU WANT (debatable?)

she is a bit like that travelling gnome with her pics - always somewhere exciting.
And always looking great. So I just wondered (With that kind of parallel parking it almost looks like in Europe somewhere)
OOPs a bit off topic this. sheepish smile.

[kline1972]

Re: EAT ALL YOU WANT (debatable?)

gnome is a great analogy

[mission to lose]

Re: EAT ALL YOU WANT (debatable?)

Love her new pic. I wonder where she is?

Definitely looks like Europe...this is where we need everyone's help to identify---LIV-world traveler, Sham-ENG, Georgiana-GER, Sally in Italy-
we have friends from Ireland, Greece, too.

Or, we can ask Sheila LOL

[mission to lose]

Re: EAT ALL YOU WANT (debatable?)

Hi Sheila,
Liv and I are intrigued by the picture of you with the umbrella. Wondering if it was taken in a country in Europe?

[mitzimarie]

Re: EAT ALL YOU WANT (debatable?)

Hi Sheila,
Liv and I are intrigued by the picture of you with the umbrella. Wondering if it was taken in a country in Europe?

I'm not Sheila, but I can tell you that it was taken in January 2010 - Valletta, Malta. That is per her website (I'm a big fan, and visit it often)

[kline1972]

Re: EAT ALL YOU WANT (debatable?)

i have lived in europe often