BellaOnline Forums Food and Wine Low Carb Newbie/Biggest Loser

Hello, I am new to this forum. I was invited by Lisa Shea to join in on the weight loss challenge.I'm sticking to my low carb commitment but the weight just is falling off of me like it did the first time I tried it back in 2003. I lost 60 lbs. in 4 months then. Thus far,I have only lost like 3 lbs and that was the 1st week. I haven't lost anything this past week. I just don't understand it.
I am in a lot of pain due to fibromaligia so my exercise time is limited but it was then too.
I plan on sticking it out though.
Are you all doing Atkins or just watching your carbs? I notice a lot of you are eating fruit. I love fruit but I didn't think you could have it on a carb controlled diet.
Thanks for letting me join in,
Dana

Hi Dana, welcome and congrats on your 60 lb weight lost, i will be so happy when i can say i lost 60lbs. seems to come off so slow, don't get discouraged your doing great.
sorry about the pain your in. stick to your program, and you will do fine. good luck

Dana -

Different people are in different stages of low carb - the 20g / day limit is only for induction, i.e. the first two weeks. So definitely as you move forward your carb count goes up and you can include a wide ranges of foods in that menu plan.

There are many different components to losing weight - so it includes how healthy you are in general, how you're taking your vitamins, how much water you're drinking, how much sleep you're getting, what types of food you're eating etc. So say if you were relatively healthy in 2003 and your body was metabolizing well, then you could lose weight easily. If you are less healthy now for some reason and your body isn't metabolizing well, then you won't lose the weight as easily. So we need to take a look at everything.

Can you post a sample menu for the past day or two - i.e. what you ate all day long? That would help us to help you!

Typically, I eat the same things over and over every day. I always take my vitamins.


breakfast:
3 scrambled eggs(nothing added but a little butter)
2 sausage links or bacon
1 decaf coffee

Lunch:
1 cup romaine lettuce
about 6 oz. of either grilled chicken, beef or venison
1 tb. dukes mayo & 1 tb. sourcream (mixed together with salt & pepper, chives and a little ranch seasoning added)This is so yummy!

Dinner:
usally, same thing as lunch with a cup of brocolli or cauliflower.

Snacks:
1 diet soda(no aspertame)
pork rinds w/ ranch dressing.
occasionally, a atkins candy bar
celery stalk w/ ranch dressing

I drink plenty of water

Well first definitely I want to say to try to get as much variety in your diet as you can. If you keep eating the same thing you're going to get bored and start eating high sugar food just for something different. So yes scrambled eggs are good, but give omelets a try, or low carb shakes can be really yummy. That's what I have for breakfast.

Are you really not hungry with that little food being eaten? You want to make sure you get enough food into you that you're full. If your body is hungry it will think there's a famine going on and cling to your fat to hep save you from death.

It doesn't sound like you have a whole lot of greens in your diet. You really need a healthy supply of vegetables to keep your body going well. Also I don't see any fish in there? Fish is really important for its omega oils.

Can you add Tunafish in instead of the chicken/beef sometimes? How about grilled tuna or swordfish? Those are *really* yummy ...

Broccoli and cauliflower are good but that is really "one thing" so all you're getting for veggies is lettuce (which is rather low in nutrition) and the "cruciforms". There are LOTS of other vegetables which have many other nutrients in them that you need. What other vegetables do you like? Do you like spinach?

I think I am getting enough calories b/c I tracked it for a while. I never feel hunger on this diet.
The above diet is typical however since starting to eat low carb
Besides what is listed above I have had:
Spinach(raw, hate it cooked)
Mozzarella cheese sticks
Cheddar cheese
Cream cheese
Crab legs
Tuna(canned, as we don't have a decent market for fresh fish here, I wish I still lived at the coast)
Shrimp
Onions
Zucchini
Cubed turkey
Sugar free jello
Sugar free whipped topping
Olive oil
Pork cutlets
Tomatoes
Slim jims
venison jerky(my husband makes)

Let me think here, yep! I think that's pretty much it. Some combination of the above everyday. Usally, whatever I have on hand.

Since the weight has not been coming off that well I have been afraid to add more carbs yet.

I do battle a slow metabolism(I have hypothyroidism) everything is ok there though I just had it checked.

I personally think it is my lack of much exercise. I have been putting off going on any kind of pain regimen for my fibro but now that the FDA has approved a couple I think I'll talk to my doctor about it. If I didn't hurt so much, I for sure would be doing more exercise. In the meantime, I think I'll do the couch potatoes workout(thanks for posting that)

I would like your recipe for a low carb smoothie, there's a lot of mornings I'm just not in the mood for meat & eggs.
Thank you for the advice(it's so nice to have support)
Dana

OK that list is MUCH better!! You need some variety in your diet or you will go insane I love zucchini! Spinach is very good for you

The thing about adding in carbs is that your body might actually feel freer to lose weight if you have slightly more. It's like with water. If you drink too little water you will actually bloat, because your body clings to the water it gets to save it up. If you drink lots of water, you will not bloat, because your body feels free to release it.

I'm not saying to overdose on sugar and bad food But I'm saying that maybe adding in some more zucchini, or tuna, or other healthy things will help to nudge your body into allowing the fat to release. We definitely find here at our house that if we go *too* low carb we stop losing weight. It's a balance.

Muscle mass is also key. Here's the ironic thing about being heavy. When you're heavy, you have a lot of muscle (to support that weight moving around) so when you start to lose fat you end up with lots-of-muscle-less-fat which then burns calories because muscles by their very nature are fat burning. But if you start out thinner and then gain fat but are sedentary, you have lots of fat but little muscle. So then when you lose weight you lose some fat, but you don't have lots of muscle to keep the metabolism revved and burning energy. I hope I said that to make sense.

The summary though is if you are a long term obese person who starts to lose weight, often you lose it quickly because you have tons of muscle in you that was lugging the fat around. If later on you are sedentary and gain weight you might not build the muscle up to the same level so you don't have that built in advantage. You have to build up your muscle to gain the metabolism benefit. So yes, exercise is key not just because it actively burns fat while you exercise but because just HAVING muscles in your body will burn fat 24 hours a day 7 days a week, even when you are sleeping.

Do any gyms around you have pools? That is *great* low impact exercise ...

I don't make smoothies in the morning, I drink EAS low carb shakes which I *love*. Anybody else here a smoothie drinker?

I make my own, very simple shakes. Just pour light soy milk in a glass and add a scoop of vanilla protein powder, then stir, shake, blend, whatever. It's fast & I like the taste better than canned shakes.

And, I make flax muffins with the protein powder, but not nearly as often as it would take to use it up in a timely manner, so that's why I bought it in the first place. I was surprised I like the shakes.

When I get really spunky, I'll throw in frozen blueberries and maybe some cinnamon and blend for a nice frothy shake/smoothie. It turns a cool purple color!

There are tons of ways to make low-carb shakes. Some people use silken tofu, but I don't really care for it. You can also use cream, avacado, cream cheese, and so on.

Oh, you can also make a coffee-flavored one if you freeze coffee cubes, then add them to your blender with a low-carb milk or cream, and some splenda. Add some chocolate sugar-free syrup if you like a mocha. For a treat, use some low-carb ice cream.

And, of course, yogurt. I get the sugar-free kind and sometimes that, plus some soy milk & protein power is all you need. But, you can always add vanilla (or other) extracts, cinnamon, nutmeg or other spices, and fresh or frozen berries if not on induction. Some people add ground flaxseed, but I don't like the texture of it in a shake. I do like the flax crackers & muffins, though.

OK I did try a soy milk raspberry smoothie once and it was nice, but like I said I like my EAS shakes better personally. We all have different taste buds! Here's the raspberry recipe.

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Oh wait and I have a strawberry version too -

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