Don't you find most of that is water though? I did a week long carb-binge and gained 7 pounds. It was gone after 4 days back on PSMF. I peed lots.

I went to my gyno yesterday and he is running some blood tests on me. I asked him if he could run the full gamut of thyroid tests and he responded with "Why not!" He said that I had bulging eyes which is characteristic of tyroid problems. I am excited that I am finally having these tests, but a little bummed out that I really might have a problematic tyroid. Oh well. I have to wait two weeks before I can get my results. I hope ALL my tests come back clean!

Don't forget to ask them to mail you copy of the tests you can post the numbers with the ranges. Don't just settle for "normal". Lots of doctors pull that crap and people have nothing like normal numbers.

Pilot, just wait until you are over 60, so get into the low cal groove now. It has taken me to now, that's Day 12, to break past my pre break low...this morning it was 153.5 and that's only a half pound for pete's sake. So this says my maintenance calories must be about 1100!! But, like Nancy says, the 'normal' eating during the break put on 6 lbs and that was lost straight away.

But I dunno about the resetting metabolism hypothesis...the break had me feeling better as I was cold and not feeling good just before I went on the break, and am still feeling pretty good now, but my metabolism is just as sluggish as ever. I tend to think this is because I am so sedentary when away from my gym workouts.

That could be it, Valewis. Have you tried drinking green tea? I have heard/read a lot about its positive effects.

So last night I went to bed at 8:30pm! I usually get up at 5:30 weekday mornings, so by Wednesday, the sleep loss does catch up with me. The good news is that I am not dizzy today. Hopefully the extra sleep helped me to 'refocus' or fight off whatever was lurking.

Thanks for the support, Kcooky!

PICKLES! They're the perfect PSMF food. I didn't bring much food with me to work today, but I always keep kosher dill pickles at work. I eat a pickle, its about 5 calories per oz -- which you probably burn off just eating -- and chase it down with a diet soda (obsessing cream soda these days).

Anyway, it really takes the edge off the hunger and lasts for quite awhile.

I am only so-so on the taste, but I really like the fact that they knock my hunger down for so long.

Hey, I go to bed at 8:30 too! I used to be such a night owl, but then I changed then when I wanted to go home early in the afternoon from work. I love it! So much less traffic.

Yes, pickles were one of my favourite diet tricks too! I ate them during the low fat days and during the low carb/ Atkins days. I used to really love the sweet ones (Bick's Yum-Yums) but they haven't been in my fridge in ages!

Okay, I know that I have asked how many carbs everyone eats, but what about the other macronutrients? Does anyone know how much protein and fat they are consuming?

For me its about 30% fat, 20% carb and the rest is booze. No, just kidding. Protein.

My numbers are about 35-40% fat, 10% carbs, and the rest in protein. Nancy...how do you keep the fat down?! I was reviewing my menu and it seems that the bulk of my fat comes from my chicken breasts. That is fat that I cant avoid--the only times that my fat is around 30% is when my calories are around 450-500 --that is not something I can do on a regular basis!

I checked the scales this morning and Im back to my pre-binge weight!!!!! As a matter of fact, I was even able to drop a pound also!! WOHOOOO!!! ITs Friday and Im not feeling the same urge to binge as I did last week end. My only concern is that bc it will be raining ALL week-end, Ill be stuck in the house and more likely to want to eat. I will be cleaning and doing other activities around the house to keep me busy though...I just CANNOT hang out in the kitchen!!

Are you eating the skin on the breasts? Or, are you not using the skinless breast meat entry in your fitday? Grats on the loss!

I downloaded Lyle McDonald's UD2.0 and have been reading it for the last couple of days. There's a lot to digest here. I am trying to work out the fat/carb/protein numbers and plan a baseline meal to see what it would look like. Although I have not been counting protein, my guesstimate looks like I need to eat twice as much as I have been on my low carb days (UD 2.0 is carb cycling) Have any of you drastically increased protein intake and if so have you had any problems with digestive/kidney functions?
Just a bit intimidated....
Thanks in advance.

There's always been a lot of sort of dubious lore about kidneys and high protein. I bet a quick search on kidney in the message forums would show you links to pointers about studies that it was only ever a concern in Kidney patients. And, there's even been conflicting stories about that! Something recently was published where kidney patients on high protein diets actually did better!

HAHAHAHAHAHAHHAA!

C and I love our wine. Whenever we're together, she pops open a bottle of something... and we will drink it all night long. I save all of my calories, carbs, sugars, nitrates, nitrites for that lovely bottle of wine! hahahahahaha!

Nancy...I think the high fat content applies to chicken thighs. I looked over my fitday entries and it was the thighs that had the most fat content. The thighs that I bought however were 97%fat free, so the fitday entry is probably off. Im not dwellin on it too much bc I still manged to loose a pound. Am keeping my fingers crossed for this week end though.

C and I love our wine. Whenever we're together, she pops open a bottle of something... and we will drink it all night long. I save all of my calories, carbs, sugars, nitrates, nitrites for that lovely bottle of wine! hahahahahaha![/QUOTE]

The last time I drank wine, I got drunk off of a glass and a half! I felt sooooo good!