Hi all,
I feel like I am screwing up again (I messed up LC many years ago).

According to the Atkins app I am supposed to have:

carbs - under 22
fat - 112 to 152
protein - 82 to171
cals - 1,800 to 2,200

And here's what I had yesterday (for instance).

breakfast - 3 scrambled eggs with spinach and sausage. Pinch of mozarella cheese.

lunch - tossed salad with grilled buffalo chicken. Ranch dressing. 6 wings with garlic parmesan.

dinner - dozen wings - garlic parm (I had ordered enough for lunch and dinner)

PM snack - string cheddar cheese with a little ranch dressing. These are smallish, had four or five.

According to the app, that day ended up being:

carbs - 20 (ok)
fat - 206 (over)
protein - 197 (over)
cals - 2759 (over)

And going back through the previous week, I noticed that while I am pretty good around the carb count, I am often in the red with the others. And in the last few days I've actually added a few pounds.

My drink is either diet lipton peach tea - 0 carbs. Or Zevia -0 carbs.

So I am hoping to nip this in the bud early.

Any thoughts greatly appreciated,

Rob

Have you noticed a drop in appetite??? That drop in appetite usually causes food consumption to decrease, which drops all the numbers.Then the weigh sheds as the adipose tissue supplies the fuel the diet is now lacking.

You could try one of these.

Skip break fast.
Push all food into one time block of the day, over a 6 hour period.
Cut back a bit on all meals.

Just to double check.....are the wings low carb? My BIL makes lucious wings and they are NOT low carb.

Try a 12 hour fast per day. I go from 7 PM to 7 AM without any food. This really made a difference in my weight.

For me it's simple, under 20 carbs per day, twice as much fat as protein, and under 1600 calories per day.

Believe me, I'm 65 pounds down, healthier, and that is worth giving up all the food I gave up.

Bob

thanks for the replies.

- skipping meals doesn't work with me - I will overeat.
- yes, the wings are LC - just the wings, garlic and parm cheese.
- without planning on it, I don't eat between about 8pm and 8am.

What I am worried about is the high calories - almost 2800 seems like a lot.

Rob

All you need to do is reduce the portions of meat and fat, tweak it to fit in the macro ranges. Less dressing, less meat. That will automatically reduce the calories as well.

For example, have a cheese omelet for breakfast with 1-2 slices of cheese and skip the sausage. Skip the wings at lunch, or halve the portion.

The formula, which works really well, is 4-6 oz of "protein" (meat or fish or poultry or 2-3 large eggs), 1-2 tablespoons of added fat (mayo, dressing, olive oil, etc.), and 4-5 g NC of foundation vegetables per meal x3. That should get you within the prescribed ranges. Have snacks that fit into or optimize your macros for the day. Avoid nuts as they are high in fat and protein.

You may want to play around with the food tracker and see what foods in what amounts fit into your day.

The only thing I've counted was carbs under Atkins.

_

How long has you been low carbing?

Do these meals satisfy you?

What so you feel you could cut without consequences, in terms of protein, fat, or carbs?

If you cant skip a meal, you are not likely in ketosis. Ketosis drops appetite. I push breakfast later and later, until after 12. And can push it to 2. If a really crazy day, to 9 pm. And not be hungry all day.....when fat adapted and in ketosis.

Push all the three meals into a smaller wondow. If 12 is not working, try 8.

Parmesan cheese is carb dense. Perhaps use less parmesan.

breakfast - 3 scrambled eggs with spinach and sausage.how many? 3-4? Maybe try 1 Pinch of mozarella cheese.

lunch - tossed salad with grilled buffalo chicken. Ranch dressingck carbs. 6 wings with garlic parmesan.try fewer extea wings as salad had buffulo chicken

dinner - dozen wings - garlic parm (I had ordered enough for lunch and dinner)

PM snack - string cheddar cheese with a little ranch dressing. These are smallish, had four or five.

Also, you didnt clarify how your appetite is changing....


In Atkins,he focuses on counting carbs. As welearn more, other steps help.

Rob,I think you're being way, way, way too hard on yourself.

Be kind to yourself.

Like others say, once you do the tweaks and hit the sweet spot, everything will fall into place.

You've done great. Give yourself a pat on the back.

I agree with others. Try eating the evening meal, then nothing till lunchtime next day. I did that, and it solved the blood sugar cravings so quickly that dieting was simple.

Otherwise just cut down a bit on portions.. You might simply be ladling on the ranch dressing, rather than measuring it with a tablespooon. You might be piling on a load of protein rather than thinking how much is appropriate for you.

Watch the artificial sweeteners.. One night I had some low calorie juice as a treat, and I got terrible cravings that night and all the next day. It might be worth trying sparkling water instead?

If you gain a few pounds over a few days, it'll be water and not fat, so don't be so hard on yourself.

I found it terrible to consider the road ahead when I was 220 lbs. Having to put the stats in filled me with shame. To consider the weightloss seemed like such a mountain to climb and it's so hard to get on track, especially with blood sugar issues like I had, and you have too.

I totally admire and applaud anyone with a longer road than I had! You are amazing and brave to even get here and never forget that. I couldn't even admit my weight when I joined.. I only started recording it after I'd lost a bit of weight.

Be proud and just don't go away. People here understand you so well. We've all struggled and have had to try lots of different things before we managed to get it right. we cheer each other on for every lb lost, because some of those pounds can be very hard won.

Oh, wait, SNACK?

You want to stop goosing your insulin. First thing I'd do is skip the snack!

Alas, we are all different. I have to count calories as well as carbs. But I'm 170 and the rest of the family is +300lbs.

Bob

Rob, I think you're doing fine. Most big dudes can get away with what you're eating and lose just fine. Not so much for us ladies and/or people at or close to their healthy weight, but I wouldn't worry about that for now. Keep that in your back pocket until next year when you're 225.

Just to throw some more thoughts out there... are you successfully losing weight? If so, update those stats. If not, are there possibly other things slowing you down, like medications? What's your lifestyle like right now: working? Physical job or desk job? Laid off and boredom-eating? You don't have to share that, just something to think about. I've been laid off since March and have tried to channel my boredom into interesting LC recipes that I wouldn't have bothered with when I was working.

I agree with the tips others have offered up, even though they may be contradictory to each other. Some of us have issues other than weight to work on. It takes some time and experimenting. But my biggest rule of thumb is this: compliance trumps EVERYTHING ELSE. One of thes biggest factors in compliance is satiety. You shouldn't feel deprived. Another is being happy with your food. You should enjoy your food. One my sayings is that I eat like a godd*mn queen. Doing this "perfectly" isn't better if you get fed up and quit. I go through stages of being really motivated to eat "cleanly" then stages of sloppy LC. Well, sloppy LC is still LC and way better than the alternative. The point is that I'm still here 18 years later and happy with my results.

Best of luck, and keep us posted.

One more suggestion...have you read the success stories and journals of "bigger dudes" mentioned by Kristine? Ken (khrussva) Grav and Thud (He has answered some of your questions) come to mind, there are others, but I know their stories of how they controlled hunger To start may offer you tips to work up to the reduce your eating window advice.

Ken's yearly summaries show his long process to change, Grav figured how to eat lunch at his workplace buffet (I’ve been there ) both have their tips here on this site, on the DietDoctor success stories and Grav has spoken at conferences and a podcast. https://www.dietdoctor.com/literally-60-man-used https://www.dietdoctor.com/way-eating-saved https://forum.lowcarber.org/showthread.php?t=478328

This forum has 15+ years of experience tucked away on various threads

Good to be aware but I'd forget about the calories for now - hitting that 20 carb mark consistently is something you have control over, what you don't have control over is how hunger day to day. Let your body dictate that. Check out Ken's experiment where he's been eating 5000 calories a day to try to "reset" his metabolism. Don't get caught in the trap of reducing calories to see short term reduction on scale - it's a trap and game you can't win in the long run. Feed the body, just avoid the shit (sugar, starch, etc) for some time and see what happens.

Experiments in progress here:

https://forum.lowcarber.org/showthr...000#post9380000