The FastDay Forum

I ate my low carb lunch - scrambled eggs with ham and cheese and a grapefruit at noon today. I had one trader joes dark chocolate mini peanut butter cup later on and now it is 6:30 PM and I am STILL not hungry!! I went for a 3 mile walk this morning and did some things around the house. I don't really know what to do. I feel like I should eat and if I don't I'm going to be really hungry by lunch tomorrow, but I don't even feel like it!!!

(Please don't throw things at me! )

That sounds great @cblasz - you must be pleased with your achievements! I hope you didn't eat if you weren't hungry, but are mindful that if you are hungry then you can continue to make wise choices. Sometimes the euphoria of "success" with sticking to plans for eating and exercise can keep the hunger at bay for a while too!

Enjoy your holidays as a chance to look after yourself and do the things you want to do.

Just curious, what carbs do low carbers eat? Is it only carbs in low-carb veggies and low-sugar fruits, in general, or do you ever have wholegrains or starchy veg? I have seen mention of low-carb breads/wraps - what are these made of?

Thanks!

[Tracieknits]

@Sassy1 My endocrinologist said to count the carbs in everything, and subtract out fiber (in the US they include the fiber and sugar in the "carbs" count - I heard a rumor that they don't do it that way elsewhere).

So today, I had a small portion of a "crackslaw" from dietdoctor.com. The cabbage was the carbs. I had a snack of cheese and salami which apparently had a carb in it. I had dinner, consisting of a salad (minor amount of carbs in green salad, red onion and baby cucumber), steak, a bit of roquefort, dressing (3 carbs in 2 tbsp bottled -- will use that up and get away from carby dressing) and then 100g of raw potatoes that I coated in oil adn spices and roasted until crunchy. Came to 55g roasted. After dinner I had 1/3 cup strained wholemilk yogurt and 18 cherries. I'm counting 49 net carbs for the day, after adding 1 oz peanuts

@cblasz - that's awesome you weren't hungry. I spent much of the day quite hungry (just remembered I also had a hard boiled egg with mayo). Then at dinner, I was full and done pretty quickly -- couldn't eat half the salad I had made for myself.

Thanks for that detail, @Tracieknits.

I wondered whether you will be banning any carbs from your diet, or just keep portion size small for the higher carb foods? And even if you ban some from your regular diet, will you on occasion have them?

What do others do?

Well, I did end up eating some small snacks last night. Since I am doing 16:8, I didn't want to wake up starving this morning. I'm sure it was not the euphoria of sticking to my diet. I had done that all week already and was looking forward to the healthy low carb meal I had planned! I physically was not hungry.

As far as what carbs people eat, I think depends on how low carb you are trying to go. I am tracking in MFP and trying to stay under 100g. So it's a balancing thing. If I want to have something a little higher in carbs for dinner, I have to make sure I don't have too much the rest of the day. Obviously big sugar items are out and everything is whole grain, etc. I certainly have starchy vegetables, sweet potatoes are one of my mainstays. I have these whole grain noodles that I like, that I will have on occasion. But I also like this spinach tortellini and alfredo sauce, that I know I can't really have when I'm trying to do this. I try to focus on protein and then add in somethings to go with it - eggs, meat, cheese, yogurt, etc. I'm trying to keep most of my sugar natural from fruit, etc. I guess it's similar to a diet where you count calories. If you want something high calorie, you save calories from the day for it.

But I am also allowing myself 2 free days where I can splurge. My goal is still try to do pretty good on those days, but maybe I just don't worry about counting every carb those days. I feel like I need that in case of things like picnics at someone's house or just so I don't feel too deprived. I have a feeling though that if I am doing well I'm not going to want to splurge too much and "ruin" it.

Anyway, that's just me. Other people may be different and I may have to adjust as I go along. And again 100 is pretty moderate, if you are trying to do less than that, then you would have to be stricter.

[Tracieknits]

Unless you're going for a ketogenic diet, you can include moderate amounts of higher carb foods (like bread, potatoes, rice, pasta), so long as you factor them in. My biggest worry about including these foods in a low carb day is that I don't want constipation, so I want to ensure there's enough fiber in my food. So I added potatoes to the salad, but I wouldn't have had them otherwise. I measured them raw so I could be sure how much I was having once they were roasted, and I kept the portion reasonably small.

If I were having a low carb day, I would avoid spending all my carbs on sugary/starchy things and only eating cheese, meat and fat for the rest of the day. I don't think that would end well And yes, I learned that the hard way.

Today we've been out at a dog show so limited real food possibilities.
This morning I had 2 white coffees.
This afternoon I had a jacket potato with tuna mayo and a milky black tea, and a handful of nuts and cheese when we got home.
Tonight will be green salad with a tin of salmon and hard boiled egg followed by live yogurt.
I'll probably add in a teaspoon of coconut oil and a White decaff coffee with added inulin later.
At least my step count and time walking is good and high today

P.S. Just worked out my macros:-
Protein - 69g
Carbs - 73g
Fats - 55g
Sugars - 23g (a bit high but the yogurt has honey in)
Happy with that

[Tracieknits]

Well done!

Thanks for that breakdown, @Azureblue, that is interesting. I might work out how my normal diet is constituted - I am curious.

Was it you who mentioned a while back that you have gradually put back on about a stone of your initial loss? That is my experience too (I am guessing the amount - you may have have picked up that I don't weigh myself - based on measurements I had to take for a costume, and how my clothes fit). My concern is that I will continue to gradually put the weight back on... The "commitment" concept has resonated with me, and I am hoping that is going to help. I am pretty sure that my weight gain is due to overeating, not a slowing of my metabolism.

Good luck and best wishes for reversing the trend!

@Sassy1 - I was wondering if you don't think it would be helpful to weigh yourself once a month or something? Just to really have an idea? (I'm a very mathematical and logical type person, so I like the numbers!)

Hi @cblasz

Thanks for thinking of me and making suggestions. I do appreciate your interest.

As I mentioned (in a post somewhere!) recently, I do agree that weighing is a more sensitive measure of a change in weight than how clothes fit, so can be helpful in picking up gradual weight gain before it gets too much.

But, for me, the pluses for weighing are far outweighed (ha ha no pun intended) by the minuses.

After months and months of keeping detailed records of my weight and other stats, I started reacting in a negative way to whatever the scales said - if they were down, it was an excuse to eat, if they were up (and especially if I felt I had been eating okay), I would also eat.

For a while, I did stand on the scales but got my husband to look at my weight, keep a record and tell me if it was going up or down.

Then it was about that time that a friend sent me some info from Kate Horwood that gave lots of reasons for not weighing yourself, and all the reasons resonated with me. So I decided to stop weighing. (I posted the link, not that it got any reaction!)

I realised that the real issue is not what I weigh but what and how I am eating. I had been making eating decisions based on the numbers, rather than my hunger levels. From my reading of Kate's and Amanda Sainsbury's work, among others, I have come to believe that if I eat mainly nutritiously, from a wide range of whole foods, according to hunger, then my weight will stabilise at a healthy level that is appropriate for me, given my genetics and amount of activity.

I do eat nutritiously from a wide range of whole foods and have for a long time. But when I was heavier, I also ate much more of the less nutritious foods. Since starting 5:2, I have been able to make some changes to my diet and other eating behaviours, but my main remaining challenge, as you know, is that I can overeat in the evenings. (And this is where your link to the article about commitment may be a game changer for me. I really hope so. But it is still very early days.)

So no weighing for me!

PS I am also a very mathematical and (generally!!!) logical person (majors in maths and stats and spent my career in stats) and that partly led to my obsession with what was happening with my weight. You should have seen the Excel spreadsheets and graphs I produced, and formulas I created to track what was happening with the amount of fat in my body...!!! I was tracking calories too, and relating that to what was happening to my weight. My husband tells me I became very obsessive. [Probably still obsessive, but in a different way (ha ha too!).]

Thank you for you open honesty @Sassy1, that all makes perfect sense.
I'm a bit that way myself so now avoid counting calories because that's not the point, it's the nutrition and health that's important and reacting to your microbiome's signals.
I've always found this forum to be so helpful and friendly because folk are willing to share their knowledge without judgement, I've certainly learned masses here.

On the confession side, my yesterday was a carb-fest due to a family birthday gathering, so it's back to real food today, hurray!

Have a happy day folks

Hi @cblasz

(And this is where your link to the article about commitment may be a game changer for me. I really hope so. But it is still very early days.)

So no weighing for me!

PS I am also a very mathermatical and (generally!!!) logical person (majors in maths and stats and spent my career in stats) and that partly led to my obsession with what was happening with my weight. You should have seen the Excel spreadsheets and graphs I produced, and formulas I created to track what was happening with the amount of fat in my body...!!! I was tracking calories too, and relating that to what was happening to my weight. My husband tells me I became very obsessive. [Probably still obsessive, but in a different way (ha ha too!).]

Hi @Sassy1 - thanks for taking the time to explain all of that and it makes sense! I'm so glad that article has helped you. There are other similar articles that you may be interested in. If you just google "why willpower doesn't work" or something like that, you will find them!

@Azureblue - I had a similar day, so I'm glad I'm not the only one! I do think I need to try to do better even at those types of things though. Tonight I'm going to an Italian restaurant, so that's going to be bad too, but this is definitely a more special event, so I'm ok with it!

[carieoates]

Good afternoon fellow de- carbonators. I did try and get back here more but my life is very very hectic at present. No kitchen to cook in and awaiting the kitchen fitters, won't be till 21st August. Am sick of BBQ and salads. Bread has had to be reintroduced to my diet more than I like but needs must.
But potatoes, rice and pasta are an occasional treat these days. So I'm almost there. Been trying to be good weekdays and then have a jolly weekend. When you're busy renovating, decorating and such the clock soon says it's way past dinner time and often a takeaway has had to be ordered.
I'm soon to become a nana and my teenage daughter has left school and those who know me on fb saw her in her prom regalia. I will be back more over the summer as I break up from school in a fortnight,, not that I wil, be bored as I have a mountain of painting to do in our extension.... Thai kitchen that's about al, fro me. Will be back soon. I promise. Thanks for calling me in though guys.