I've just started this LC business and am now on day 2, a long way to go ahead...

I am drinking 2 litres of water a day, and am struggling to reach my calorie input as I feel full all the time. Is this normal or should I be picking recipes with a greater # of calories for the main meals?

Currently, a day's menu looks like:

Breakfast
4 slices bacon
2 fried eggs

Snack
3 small meatballs

Lunch
Tuna Mayo Salad

Snack
2 chicken satay sticks (no sauce)

Dinner
Salisbury Chicken

Snack
3 small meatballs

I also throw in a Whey drink at some point in the day to give my protein levels a boost.

After this lot, I feel stuffed and don't feel like eating anything else, but I'm still 500-800 calories short.

Any advice?

Why do you feel you are 500-800 calories "short"? How many calories do you feel you should be consuming?

You could use some veggies in your menu. Frying your eggs in real butter, putting dressing on your salad, butter on your veggies would bring up your calories.

Looks like you're on some kind of meat and egg extravaganza - not exactly a low-carb eating plan. More like no-carb...lol! I know for myself, I couldn't last more than a few days on a meal plan like you've described. I like my veggies!

I see from your profile that you haven't had a chance to read any of the major books out there (such as Dr. Atkins New Diet Revolution or Protein Power), and so consequently, you probably don't realize that most of your carb intake (low as it might be) is supposed to come from low-sugar vegetables such as fresh spinach, brocoli and/or salad greens.

If you want to increase calories, perhaps you should increase your intake of good quality fats by eating things like avocados, grilled salmon and so on.

Hope this helps, and good luck with your weight loss goals.

I agree with Citrus, I could not live on a diet like you posted.

You really should increase your vegetable level.

I recomend that you pick up a book, and read about the diet that you wish to follow. This way you will know what good carbs you should be eating. It will also help you understand why you got to the weight your at and what to do to get it back in control.

Good luck!

Marie

I agree, more veggies are essential - one because you'll get very bored of only meat, and secondly because LC is meant to be just that - low carb not no carb. It's scientifically proven that you need to balance the fat/protien/carbs (carbs in veggies) to make a blanaced plan that works!
Great going so far, but ensure you actually do eat veggies!

Thanks for the feedback all. I do have some (75g) of spinach and some mushrooms with the chicken in the evening, but apart from that it is pretty sparse.

I'll pick up a book at lunchtime and see just how many mistakes I've made so far. At least it's still early days

I'm aiming to eat around 2500 calories a day with exercise too. I think that part of my problem is that I have starved my body for so long that it is permanently in store mode with a low metabolism. Some day's I have been lucky to break 1000 calories (not healthy at all).

Thanks

get some more vegetables in there, especially broccoli! and spinach

Books are on order, the wonders of ebay/amazon

Whilst I'm waiting for delivery, would I be ok on induction with 2 cups of mushrooms/peppers/celery/cucumber/lettuce & 1 cup of spinach/leek per day?

I can't stand broccoli or cauliflower, something about the texture...

And who's bright idea was it to measure these by the cup rather than by weight? I get more in if I slice them smaller

Thanks for your help

Yep, those vegetable servings sound pretty good. If you can, make that lettuce a dark green type, and avoid iceberg lettuce which isn't nearly as nutritious.

Think of it this way - you're trying to get the most nutritious vegetables within the daily allowable amounts. Be picky...and ask, "What's the most nutrient dense vegetable I could eat and enjoy the taste of?" Spinach is very good, and is very low carb due to the fibre content. Brocoli is also excellent, but you mentioned you don't like the taste of it, so that's out (however, you might want to try it sometime in something called "Chicken Brocoli Casserole", found in the recipe forums).

Maybe once you get the book, you can type out lists of the foods you can have and put them on the fridge - this will help you get creative about what to eat. You can mix and match your way into all sorts of wonderful meals. Then...if you start to get bored, start reading the recipe forums here, particularly the "induction friendly" ones.

Good luck

PS - on edit..I just looked in my Dr. Atkins New Diet Revolution book, and your planned vegetable intake is ideal (if you decide to try Atkins) - that is, two cups of salad vegetables and one cup of "other" vegetables (under which spinach is listed).

Dr. Atkins.