Some advice please....

    This site uses cookies. By continuing to browse this site, you are agreeing to our Cookie Policy.

    Welcome to our Australian Low Carb Forums. Join us for free support, information and recipes to help you with your low carb diet. We're a friendly bunch so please register and join in the fray, but most of all have fun! If you like us please share and spread the love!

    • Some advice please....

      Hello,
      I have been doing LCHF for two weeks and this time I’m doing it slightly different. In the past when I have done it I have predominantly followed Atkins and never really managed to get past the induction phase. :S
      This time however, I have taken a slightly different approach and am having more whole foods- meaning not only bacon and eggs etc.

      On average this is what I have everyday…

      1 coffee with full cream milk in the morning on the way to work (I don’t have breakfast, never have and I’m OK with that)

      Lunch: a medium sized container of salad (kale, baby spinach, coriander, parsley, spring onion) dressed with about 1tbs of apple cider vinegar and a drizzle of olive oil, I don’t measure the olive oil but it’s not on the skimpy side, nor is my salad saturated with oil. I also have about 100g of some type of protein, either, poached, baked on on the BBQ.

      Dinner: Pretty much the same thing, salad/steamed veggies dressed with olive oil and some kind of protein.

      I have plenty of water throughout the day and other than that 1 coffee in the morning I don’t drink anything else.

      If I’m still hungry or just want something to have to change up the taste a bit, I may have 1 flat tsp of a peanut butter which only has coconut oil and peanuts (no added sugar,salt etc) or a couple of teaspoons (heaped) of coconut yoghurt (again no added sugar).

      Don’t get me wrong, I’m happy with my results so far, (have manged to go down from 102.7kg to 97.8kg) but I understand that it’s the first couple of weeks and my body has lost water weight. I want to make sure that if I continue like this, I’m continuing on the right path.
      I’m worried that I may be having too many carbs. I’m not very good with measuring things, when I make my salad I usually make a big bowl of it and portion it out for the upcoming week and only dress it on the day. It’s all done by eye.

      To all those out there who have done this for a while and are experts- does this sound sort of OK regarding what I am doing?

      Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

      Thank you :)

    • Welcome Pickles :)

      I would probably be more concerned that you may not eat enough. I know you're having milk with your coffee which is carby but your food is very low carb, the carbs in your salad will be next to nothing. Use this as a guide to what veggies to choose from: Carb Counts for Vegetables

      Be prepared you may need to eat more, there's a good chance your calories are around the 1000 mark as you're really only eating twice a day.

      Your food is very clean, unless you don't tolerate dairy I don't think 1 coffee with milk is going to break the bank but you're likely not eating enough.

      The first 2 posts in this thread may give you an idea what 1500 and 1700 calories look like: Low Carb Menu Ideas

      The 1700 calorie menu has similar lunch and dinner to yours.
      Low Carb in a Nutshell ~ Carb Counts ~ Research ~ Measurements/Conversions ~ Glossary


      Let me know if you think of anything else handy from the site to put here.

    • I'm the same way, I prefer to eat whole foods and plenty of low-carb salads and vegetables and I can't really stick to the typical Atkins induction menu. I find it works, especially if you are choosing vegetables that are low carb and not calorie dense. I'm also not very big on measuring and weighing.

    • An easy way would be to add some avocado, fattier cuts of meat etc

      By doing this whilst you can get away with it means when you're closer to goal you have things you can cut out and still enjoy your food :)
      Low Carb in a Nutshell ~ Carb Counts ~ Research ~ Measurements/Conversions ~ Glossary


      Let me know if you think of anything else handy from the site to put here.

    • Yes avocados are good for you, enjoy them!

      I haven't seen coconut yoghurt but I reckon its a great idea. It will mostly depend on whats added to it. I couldn't find nutritional info on their site but I found a couple of stockists near me so I will keep my eye out for it.
      Low Carb in a Nutshell ~ Carb Counts ~ Research ~ Measurements/Conversions ~ Glossary


      Let me know if you think of anything else handy from the site to put here.

    • Yes absolutely, I would recommend weighing out 100g next time so you can eye ball portions easier but other then that it's perfectly fine :)
      Low Carb in a Nutshell ~ Carb Counts ~ Research ~ Measurements/Conversions ~ Glossary


      Let me know if you think of anything else handy from the site to put here.

    • Pickles wrote:

      Big Bill, how long have you been eating this way? Do you have any tips?


      Thank you
      Pickles, I have been doing LCHF for just about 6 months now. I've fallen off the wagon a few times but I really don't like the way I feel and I get right back into it. I'm nearly halfway to my goal weight and I feel so much healthier.

      Tips? Not really. I'm not a breakfast person and lunch tends to be mostly vegetables. Today I am having a few thin slices of ham and a plastic container of lettuce, some mayonnaise and some really nice strawberries which I ate mid-morning. Sometimes when I have lettuce I will have a few cherry tomatoes, but not today. Other days I will have some steamed broccoli or steamed cauliflower with some slivers of parmesan (or similar) cheese shaved off a block of the real stuff with a potato peeler. Sometimes I feel like something more substantial so I duck out and buy myself half a roast chicken.

      Even before I was doing LCHF and I was eating terribly in general, I still had a similar lunch because if I had carbs at lunchtime I would have a blood sugar crash and be falling asleep in the afternoon.

      For snacks during the day I sometimes have very dark chocolate (Lindt 90%) or sugar-free peanut butter (trying to eat less of that).

      In the evenings I mix it up a bit. I might have a curry or a stir fry with steamed cauliflower instead of rice. Or roast chicken. Or psyllium pancakes. Or cheeseburgers without the bread.

      I love pumpkin, especially pumpkin soup, but I found that even low-carb pumpkin soup triggers cravings so I tend to have just a small piece of roast pumpkin if any. You need to try a few things and take notice of when you have cravings for carby foods and then figure out what triggered the cravings. I've found that is a big part of the journey that I have learnt thanks to this forum.

    • Thanks Big Bill!

      Today is exactly 2 weeks where I haven't eaten any sugar or processed foods whatsoever and I feel great!-Ii have no cravings for any of the sweets which I used to eat at all. I used to eat lots and lots of cakes and junk food!!

      I started swimming last night and will hopefully continue it over the coming weeks and months along with some weights at the gym (I can't believe i'm joining the gym again!!!)

      I'm OK with eating the same or similar food everyday, I'm sure I'll get sick of it at some stage but for the time being I'll stick to what I am eating I guess. ( kale is delicious!!)

      My main concern is that I'm not eating the right balance of things...like 70% fat, 25% protein and 5% carbs (is that right?)

      For example today I had my salad and two sausages (bought from a reputable butcher here in Melbourne) and 2 tsp of mayonaise (helmans brand)
      I have no idea how much fat, carbs and protein are in the sausages- I can only go by a round about kind of estimate using online calorie counters- I don't know if thats good enough.

      I worked out what I had yesterday, again it was hard because the food was prepped differently to what options I was given etc....does that make sense?

      I guess if I stall or gain, I can cut back- but what would I cut back on? fat or protein?

    • I would try not to worry too much about numbers unless you get to a stage where you really need/want to. Just remember if you have something lean add some fat to it if its something really fatty like pork belly, lamb loin etc then that's more then likely enough fat. But the important bit as Bill explained is learning what you feel best with. Some people have their cravings triggered by too much protein or protein on its own such as eggs, some salads, particular fruits, dairy, too much sweetener or sweet foods, a type of sweetener, packaged foods (e.g. protein bars) and so on. We're all different, part of making something work is to go through the journey of learning how to listen to your body and find what foods or combination of foods suit you best. Sometimes its only during a particular time of our cycle that we get these triggers from certain foods or it could be because we skipped a meal, weren't active enough that day, too active, bored... It all depends.

      Fat and fibre can help slow down the absorption of a meal and keep us satisfied for longer. With sausages I guess just go by whether they seem lean or fatty, I'm guessing fatty ones would be moist, lean ones dry. You could ask your butcher if he is using lean or fatty meats but I think if they're lean they usually state it.
      Low Carb in a Nutshell ~ Carb Counts ~ Research ~ Measurements/Conversions ~ Glossary


      Let me know if you think of anything else handy from the site to put here.

    • If you are eating those sausages regularly and not getting cravings for sweet and carby food then they are most likely fine. I remember years ago looking for low carb sausages overseas and the American sausages all had high fructose corn syrup added.

      I can occasionally have a can of something like Pepsi Max or Coke Zero and I'm okay but if I have much more than that it can trigger cravings. I also got cravings when I made low-carb cheesecake. Listen to your body.

    • Hi, I'm not having sausages too often. maybe once a fortnight to 3 weeks (if that). I'm pretty sure they are full fat and not low fat ones. They're a gourmet sausage (lamb,spinach and pinnate and the other was Moroccan) Thank fully I don't have any cravings after I eat them.

      I walked through the bakery section at the supermarket tonight and I thought to myself how much I would love something sweet- but I then made myself think about it some more and I realised it wasn't necessarily the food I wanted but the way it would make me feel when having something sweet and creamy. I felt very good that I was able to differentiate between really wanting it to eat and wanting the memory. Hopefully I have turned a corner and will change my way of eating once and for all.

      I went swimming again and I thought that I would be starving afterwards, but I wasn't. In fact I haven't had dinner and don't want to eat for the sake of it.

      That's ok right?

    • I would suggest having something even if small but make sure it has some fat. Its not a great idea to be extending the overnight fast when you're losing weight especially for women and at the start of the diet when a lot of the hormones etc are released from the fat cells. This is the danger time for developing gallstones so you need to regularly eat fat (e.g. breakfast, lunch, dinner), doesn't have to be much (maybe minimum of 15g in a sitting) and this will signal your gall bladder to empty. Otherwise all this sludge in your gall bladder from the processing of hormones will sit there and form into stones until one day you will eat some fat and your gall bladder will do what its meant to do and go to empty but the stones will get in the way and cause you pain.
      Low Carb in a Nutshell ~ Carb Counts ~ Research ~ Measurements/Conversions ~ Glossary


      Let me know if you think of anything else handy from the site to put here.