I hope ketosis hits soon, right now I'm starving I can white-knuckle it for a couple days, but this reminds of why low-fat diets never worked for me, LoL.

At least I can eat my lunch in about 15 minutes

Debbie

Don't starve! Work your way down in calories gradually. Give yourself some time to adjust. Be sure to have snacks available. No, a little grumbly in the tumbly is ok, but if you're REALLY hungry, make sure you've got snacks available. I have an emergency can of tuna in my desk drawer in case I get too hungry.

Last night I had to get up out of bed because I realized I was too hungry to sleep. I made a quick snack of a slice of turkey breast lunch meat, 2 pickle slices and a hunk of FF cream cheese. Actually was quite tasty.

There isn't really a whole heck of a lot I can snack on without going over my protein limit. Like I said, I'm not a big veggie eater, not without something to disguise it I already split my protein from my breakfast and lunch so that I could have the mid-morning and mid-afternoon snack. Especially since I have been eating that way on Atkins (4 mini-meals + dinner). Now if this was all protein, no limits, I'd be set, I'd snack on my homemade beef jerky all day. What can I say, I love meat

I'm not fainting from hunger or anything like that. More like, as Pooh would say, "Rumblies in my tumbly."

Debbie

Whoops! That's a protein minimum, not maximum!

For veggie snacks, do you like raw sweet red peppers? I make some dip with half FF sour cream, half FF ranch. Not bad! Cucumbers... they're just water with crunch.

You know, it's really weird, but there was absolutely NO fat free ranch dressing on the shelves when I picked up salad dressing. Not even a spot for it. All they had was the fat free Catalina (which is my favorite for salads anyway) and fat free Thousand Island.

I can handle raw broccoli & cauliflower with ranch dip. Mixing it with sour cream sounds pretty good too, and I imagine I could "spice up" some sour cream to make a decent dip too (home made taco seasoning sounds good, especially for the peppers - unfortunately colored peppers are $4/lb here ). Cucumbers I can take or leave but they always "talk back" to me all day when I eat them I used to be able to munch on carrots all day but they upset my stomach anymore and besides they're too starchy/sweet and off limits.

I'm going to re-read the book when I get home, because if I can have more protein I'll be set. I have some deli ham & turkey, plus the beef jerky, plus tuna, etc. The thing is, I can seriously put away some meat if I'm not careful that would probably add too much to the calories.

Debbie

Hey! This is something I never thought of!

You know, I'm thinking chicken strips, some of this taco flavored Sour Cream, some salsa wrapped in a big lettuce leaf might be rather nice!



Weird! I had no problem with it, I found Hidden Valley Ranch.

I've had trouble finding fat free dressing that doesn't have 5-10 g of carbs per serving. I don't like white dressings, so ranch isn't a problem. I did get lucky and find Marazetti FF Italian with only 4 g carbs per 2T, and that really improves my salads. Plus, I'm not a big dressing eater anyway and 1 T is plenty for my salads. But most of the FF bottles I pick up have lots of carbs in them.


I don't seem to be craving snacks. I'm oddly surprised that I'm not hungry and I go around saying "I suppose I ought to eat something now". I do get the "munchies" though, out of boredom and not hunger, and can usually satisfy that with celery, cucumber, or fruit-flavored SF chewing gum. Or, I just find a project to work on.

I did my refeed yesterday and again suffered, but not as badly as last week. I lost another pound for a 3-3.5 pound total loss. I was hoping I'd lose a little more and not have to stay on this diet as long, but it looks like I may end up doing a full 6 weeks. Longer won't be an option, since at the end of the 6 weeks I'll be going on vacation. Went to the same place last summer and I was able to stay low carb very easily, so I don't think I'll have a problem being on maintenance. I will have one "splurge" meal on the last evening like I did last summer.

Tag, is it your understanding too the protein # is a minimum, not a maximum?

Definitely. From pages 31-33 (I just re-read them) you figure out your protein grams, make sure you consume them, then add 1-2 servings dairy and allowed veggies, and that's it.

The number of protein grams you have is based on your diet category and your activity level. Values range from 0.8 to 2.0 g/pound LBM. I definitely would not go lower than the value calculated. (Except yesterday I broke that rule - I just could not eat anything more after my refeed.)

I eat more than the 125 or so g protein I calculate for my LBM, but I take calcium citrate tablets and only get 1 serving of dairy a day (one oz FF cheese). I'm not a milk-drinker and even make my protein shakes with water. So my calories stay under 800 and often just over 700.

Super interesting link!
I will try this myself. I am 57 and hypothyroid, and I have been stuck forever it seems on Atkins. Does not work very well for me unfortunately. Maybe this will.
Thank you ladies for such a wealth of information!

Well, I just reread it myself and I take it to both be a minimum and a maximum amount of protein. He specifically says you can eat an unlimited amount of veggies but nowhere does he say that the protein is a minimum. In fact if you read his breakdown of calories vs. protein I would definitely say you're not supposed to be eating much more than what your specific amount is.

All that being said, until I do get into ketosis again and hopefully lose my appetite, I will probably be eating a bit more.


Debbie

P.S. Nancy, in case you didn't notice I answered in your journal, re: beef jerky

Im disappointed bc I cant eat anymore pork or lamb chops. They are 2500- 300 calories each. AARRRGGHHHH!!!!!!! So basically, Im only allowed tuna, chicken and turkey breast, seeing as they have the least amount of calories right?

And Im HUNGRY!!! Starving actually! I already blew my caloric intake today bc of the Pork Chop and Lamb Chop that I brought with me to work today. Tomorrow, Ill be having three egg whites, water, salad, and three chicken breast, so Ill be doing much better. But it seems like all I can think about is food. Is anyone also taking appetite suppresants?

Debbie, for category 1 dieters there is a range of grams of protein, for instance, Cat 1 dieters who weight train get 1.5 - 2.0 g/lb LBM. For some people there is some flexibility in the amount of protein consumed. Lyle does mention that the protein is needed to avoid catabolism of muscle tissue (p. 14, 21) implying that there is a minimum to consume to avoid muscle loss, but I don't see anything in the books (either Rapid Weight Loss or The Flexible Diet) where he specifically says to NOT get more or less protein.

Eating extra protein probably only adds more calories, and perhaps it is used for gluconeogenesis. In the interest of maintaining as large a calorie deficit as possible I guess it makes sense to not go too much over the calculated value, but other than that, I don't think extra protein will hurt anything. Consistently less protein than the calculated number, however, would likely result in too much muscle loss.

Hope this helps.

Looks like you have something on your list for your "free" meal!



I take an EC stack 3x a day, but have been cycling (8 weeks on/4 weeks off)since fall, and never really noticed a lack of appetite before. I was taking Hoodia (Desert Burn) for a while (Feb - April) and noticed a DEFINITE lack of appetite with that. However, it got a little too pricy for me. I'm guessing my lack of hunger now is from the protein.