Quote:
Originally Posted by Elfie
Perhaps I misunderstood, but it appears that I'm also supposed to calculate my daily calories which are based on my protein/fat/carb ratios. Yet some people talk about eating 2000-3000 calories while mine calculate out to about 1300. Could someone clarify? Thanks!
|
I never did buy either of the Kwasniewski books as they were rather expensive - but there was certainly a lot of talk about this earlier in the thread! And all of that made it seem that the OD was pretty flexible, and not a hard and fast number, which made a lot of the advice seem sort of conflicting. For example, JK has a clinic and Poland, and supposedly he has every patient there, regardless of age, sex, size, on a 3000-calorie a day diet. And of course that doesn't tie in with his protein requirements, or his ratios - so all that has to be pretty flexible too!
For me, it seems I pretty much *need* to keep my protein at about his ideal level to control my blood sugar. It's finally sinking into my thick head! I resisted it for a while (like a year or more?
) as I really *like* my protein, and being able to have a nice big juicy steak or a thick hamburger with bacon and cheese seemed like one of the perks of being low carb! But it doesn't seem to work with my blood sugar.
And if I stuck to the 1:2:.5 ratio that works out to 66g protein (264 calories), 33g of carb (132 calories) and 132g of fat (1188 calories) or 1584 calories a day. But I'll be honest I would find 1584 hard to live with. I mean I don't need *tons* more than that. But since being back on the OD my calories have been running from about 1700 to 2100 daily. I'm *trying* to keep the protein about on the mark, but I've been leaning more towards the 0.8 ratio for the carbs, and 2.5 to 3 for the fat, so my ratio is actually more like 1:2.5:.8.
But I think JK does talk about being able to eat more calories if the body is healing, etc. And I *am* losing weight, slowly, and I hit a new all-time low (well "all-time for this LC go-round, which began in 2006) yesterday. And best of all has been my blood sugar control. I have been struggling with that - and I kept avoiding the fact that the last time I did the OD I was getting BG readings down in the 80s. But after I went off the OD I never saw that again - and struggled to even get below 110, or even below 120, and my morning FBG number was always way higher than I liked.
But this week my BG numbers have been consistently in the 80s during the day, and PP numbers are averaging lower than my *low* numbers were when I was still enjoying all the protein I wanted. Yesterday my FBG was 97. I have not seen a reading below 100 since I last was on the OD, and certainly never for FBG!
Last night I had a potato and leek 2-egg frittata for dinner, with shredded cheddar on top. I added a lot of sour cream to the fritatta to bring up the fat numbers. My protein for the day hit 65g, just about right on the money for my perfect numbers. My one-hour PP reading was 114, my 2-hour PP reading was 101. By bedtime I was at 87 again, and this morning my FBG was 77!
Who'd a thunk that cutting protein and adding starches would do that.
But the bottom line, I think, is JK doesn't feel people should be hungry either, and if you are you should eat. But basically I would feel go light on the protein increases, rely more on upping the fat, and possibly the carbs a bit too. JK does seem to feel that if you have to eat carbs the starches are the least problematic for the body to handle - which goes contrary to just about all the LC preceived wisdom, but I'm beginning to feel that way myself. Got a bunch of new sweet potatoes and winter squash in my CSA order yesterday, and looking forward to trying them out.