The FastDay Forum

I'm afraid of fat too @callyanna but I'll come with you for a try. You go first. Go on

ok, you're on! Bought full fat Greek yogurt today to replace my diet one so that's my first change. Will also ditch the low fat salad dressings and make my own vinaigrette using olive oil and will continue to use coconut oil in stir fries and the few time I bake muffins, pumpkin bread or similar.
As for the carbs will continue laying off the cereals, white rice, pasta and stick to the occasional slices of sourdough or good rye bread.
How about that for starters? Do you think that's ok @Wendy Darling What about you?

I developed a taste for peanut butter.... Whole Earth from Sainsbury's has no added sugar and the crunchy version is GAWJUS. Of course, to allow me to eat the PB, I have to reduce my carbs, so that means no toast or crispbreads to spread it on... and it doesn't really go with celery (but full-fat cream cheese does nicely ) So that's a "win some, lose some" situation. Maybe once a week I say "hang the carbs" and have PB spread on apple slices.... yummmmm

Oooh, yes, Whole Earth peanut butter. I quite like it on celery (quite partial to it on a big chunk of sourdough too). Makes a great ice cream treat, zapped with a frozen banana and a splash of vanilla extract.

*drool* That's one to definitely try once I am back at maintenance! What proportions, please?

I've not asked the boys at the gym in detail but there's an argument that fat round the middle is hormone related. ...

Hormones do have an effect.

Paraphrasing from Gary Taubes' book, Why We Get Fat on the topic of menopause, page 119:

"LPL [lipoprotein lipase] is the simple answer to many of the questions about why men and women fatten differently.

In men, LPL activity is higher in the fat tissue of the gut, so this is where men tend to get fat. As they age they secrete less testosterone (which suppresses LPL) so they get more fat.

In women, LPL activity is highest in fat cells below the waist to fatten hips and butt.

After menopause, women's LPL activity catches up to that of men, and so they tend to put on excess fat there too."

Note that insulin and estrogen level also affects this, in that higher estrogen levels limit fat deposition. Menopause reduces estrogen levels, which means more fat can be deposited.

(Hopefully I abbreviated this section of this book accurately.)

Oh my goodness, have I completely fallen in love with NUTS! Whole almonds, walnuts, hazlenuts and pistachios (raw and unsalted).... a weighed measure of these gives me FAR more pleasure than a biscuit or a chocolate bar these days, but of course they are so high in fat that I'm having to REALLY restrict them at the moment. Can't wait to get back on maintenance

How are nuts in terms of satisfying your appetite? I've read some things that indicate that nuts (assuming, of course, they are not covered in salt and/or fat) are (1) very satisfying calorie-for-calorie, and (2) not as high in calories as they seem, because a good portion of the calories in nuts stay trapped in the form and pass through your body undigested (this may depend on preparation -- a nut butter made from roasted nuts may be more-digestible than simply throwing raw nuts into your mouth and chewing, for example). The second one might have something to do similarly to how fiber is either undigestible or less-digestible depending on whom you ask.

I just ate a ton of nuts, and I'm stuffed! I could see nuts easily making up more than half a low-carber's calories in any given day, because they are high in fat, low in (non-fiber) carbs, and unlike meat they don't come attached to more protein than your body can process in a day.

Hi:

I love nuts and have a large jar of mixed nuts sitting next to my chair.

They also illustrate how higher fat eating works. When you eat fatty foods, you fill up quicker and don't get hungry again until a long time later.

Hi:

I love nuts and have a large jar of mixed nuts sitting next to my chair.

They also illustrate how higher fat eating works. When you eat fatty foods, you fill up quicker and don't get hungry again until a long time later.

This is what I hope will happen and I won't miss my usual carby snacks!

I had been thinking about writing a post about being frightened of fat. I too have been indoctrinated into fearing fat ( Rosemary Conley, Slimming World to name 2)I have been trying to add a bit of good fat to my diet - I added a small teaspoon of coconut oil to my porridge, which I make with unsweetened almond milk, this morning. My weight loss is so slow anyway I am frightened of jeopardising it by adding 'hidden' calories.

But to make most low-fat foods palatable, they added sugar. Look at bread labels...that's the hidden calories, there in the additives. Yoghurt too...low-fat hot chocolate has sugar as the largest constituent.

I'll have to hold my hands up here as someone that can eat dripping, however, it does depend on your body type. I have to feed my OH more carbs as he's dissappering. Classic ectomorph.

I used to limit nuts to 8. Veritable feast for 28 calories.

Hi:

I can't argue about the wonderfulness of nuts and the possibility of eating too many, but for me if I eat nuts, I don't eat something else.

One of the teachings of the low fat mantra is that fat has a lot of calories so if you eat fat you will get fat. The fact that if you eat fat you eat less is nowhere in the mantra.

Carbs, on the other hand, can and are constantly eaten. Even the best diet on the planet - the DASH diet - requires six eatings a day, and also recommends eating protein so you don't feel hungry soon after eating.

It is interesting to think about how the Atkins diet works. The Induction Phase allows you to eat as much fat and protein as you want (if you keep your carb intake below 20g a day). And when you do eat as much fat and protein as you want, weight literally melts off.

The reason Atkins drives low fat advocates crazy is because eating a lot of fat and losing weight are supposed to be mutually exclusive. It is not, and low fat advocates have absolutely no answer as to why (although science does).

[Betsysgr8]

I keep walnuts and almonds in the freezer, they have such a high fat content that they don't actually freeze but stay fresh without thinking "ooh I've had these awhile must gooble them up before they go bad". Having them in the freezer serves another purpose, you have to choose to have them by digging them out and getting a portion and returning the remainder to the freezer. I only take out an amount that I can close my hand around .5 ounces = 15 grams or 1/2 a serving size.

great discussion!

I also love nuts, although I suspect I might be a little allergic to peanuts (not really nuts, I know), since if I eat too much peanut butter (another of my loves from childhood), my belly and guts don't love me. I've also had problems with salted peanuts in the past.

But I never have a problem with having a packet of nuts go off! Just gets eaten too quickly. And I'm loving the permission to eat them - dry roasted unsalted almonds are my favourites - I know raw is probably better, but maybe this is an interim step? Also love cashews, although they are higher carb.

As far as buying "real butter" as my original family used to call it, I managed to buy some, and my favourite full-fat cheese from the supermarket, but it was bizarre, I had a voice in my head saying, "the checkout chick is going to make a snide comment about your butter & cheese" - I could hardly make myself do it! I did also try to buy some full-fat milk, but I really don't like the taste of it. Ditto red meat with fat - yucko!! I rarely eat red meat anyway, but the thought of a greasy lamb chop is just too much!!

So bizarre, now that I have permission to eat butter, I find I have to consciously make myself - before, on the rare occasions I'd have butter in the house, I'd slather it about an inch thick on mountains of bread - well the mountains of bread have gone, anyway, as has the half butter/half marg spreadable stuff. I can finally use the butter-keeper in my kiwi-made frig to keep it spreadable. I'm having around 1-2 low GI barleymax wraps on feed days - 10g carb/10g fibre including heaps of soluble fibre, resistant starch and antioxidants, so I reckon they're a good bang for my limited CHO budget these days.

good luck to all trying to increase their fats!

[Debs]

This is a great post and ties in with what I am trying to do on my ADF experiment. I lurv nuts, and have a bag of mixed ones in my room and a bag or roasted, unsalted in my desk (my favourite too!). I am eating them with gay abandon on my eating days, and eating as much as I like but am not eating a huge amount!

I have jars of nuts on my dresser in the kitchen but I don't eat them with abandonment, they get carefully weighed and put into a small pot so that they look more. I find about 10 whole almonds will surprisingly take the edge off hunger pangs - so I seem to get a bigger reaction to the proportional size of the food!

I read an article about raw nuts recently that said that people who eat them are less likely to be overweight (hmmmm.....) and that although nuts are high in fat and calories, they don't know whether they get processed differently by the human body to say, a doughnut of the same calorific value. Not sure whether I believe that but they are a tasty, filling low-carb option - and healthy too in measured doses.

In any case, I find myself wandering into Holland & Barrett and drooling at the bags of raw nuts...when I used to do the same at the sweet section in Sainsburys!!! Who knew.....

I eat alot of raw almonds and walnuts. They are my go to food when I need to feel full but good, and I attribute them to being fortunate enough to have good skin. My favourite are spanish almonds because you can often get them unpasturised and they are so sweet. Here is why I eat walnuts http://www.lef.org/magazine/mag2011/aug ... uts_01.htm

Whole almonds, walnuts, hazlenuts and pistachios are my select few. I've gone off cashews since I saw what they really are.... I just can't get over that photo of them green and weird looking....

ETA: Ooh, great article, Karen... nice to see my chosen nuts also feature. Shame about walnuts allegedly helping you sleep (the few I popped last evening clearly FAILED!!! ) But also good to see them touch on the idea that although walnuts are highly calorific, they can help with weight loss