Better results with more fat, less carbs?
I wondered if anyone (preferably females- but am grateful for anyone's response) has reduced the beans and increased fat intake getting better results?
I've been doing slow carb for 8 weeks now and have found that it took me the whole week to lose my cheat day gain and looks like the same for this week (cheat day is on sunday.) I know I could be a little more sensible on cheat day (but really don't want to!) and am doing all possible damage control.
I've read about some women cutting/reducing beans so was considering maybe having just one serving and adding 1/2- 1 avocado/ or other healthy fat per day. Any thoughts?
My typical diet
Breakfast: one egg, 7 egg whites, spinach and 1/3 can of beans
Lunch: turkey or chicken with broccolli
Dinner: Same as lunch
Snacks: lettuce, up to 10 almonds, an egg, diet coke (I've really tried to cut it out)
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I think eliminating the almonds and Diet Coke would be the way to get better results. Try cutting those before you cut legumes.
Legumes are necessary so you don't feel tired and sluggish during the day, and they increase satiety so you don't feel the urge to snack. Cutting them would probably give you faster results, but it may be at the cost of feeling drowsy and lethargic all day.
I try to have a minimum of about 3/4 cup of lentils/black beans per day. I don't have legumes for dinner.
I agree with 42Wired, cut out the almonds and diet coke. Also, though your breakfast is more than adequate for protein, try reducing the egg whites to 4 egg whites, 1 egg, spinach and 1/2 cup of lentils or beans. Just make it add up to 30g of protein minimum for breakfast.
Also put in at least 1/4 cup of lentils or black beans in your lunch at least. Then, I bet you won't be needing the diet coke and the almonds later on. If you do SCD correctly, you won't need snacks at all. If you are getting hungry within 2 hours of eating your lunch or dinner.....increase your protein a bit more. That will help your cravings.
You are not alone in that it takes nearly a full week to lose the cheat day weight! I get that most weeks. There's only been 1 week where the weight dropped off within 2 days (and that was probably because I drank grapefruit juice with every meal on cheat day.... and had several big poos the next day).
Before, I was eating nearly 350g of beans a day, but I've cut down on the bean intake to 20g in morning with 3 eggs (2 yolks), 90g at 11am with salmon and lots of veg and 90g at 3pm with chicken and veg. No beans at night.
I had 1 night this week where I ate 3 skewers of chicken breast and 2 jumbo chip shop sausages - I would've assumed that this would stopped me losing, but it didn't. Maybe there's something to this?? I'm not suggesting you do this btw.. They taste good but they're made of crap and fat.
How much protein are you eating per meal? 7 egg whites seems a bit much, unless you're not eating much protein in your other meals.. You can probably get away with 3-4 eggs in the morning.
A rough estimate is to have 1g of protein for every pound of lean muscle mass.
I have probably had more fats than most on this, because in the beginning before reading the book, I thought nuts were nothing to worry about and was having a half cup a day of them. I still lost weight very well! Now, I don't have a half cup of nuts each day, but I do once in a while have 25 almonds or a 250-cal sleeve of peanuts as a late morning snack. This would usually be on a day when my breakfast was way too early because I can be an insomniac sometimes...so when I wake too early, I go ahead and eat my breakfast within 30 minutes. If that's at 3 a.m. and lunch is 1130, I have had to do the nuts thing. Or a whole avocado, with salt.
Also, I use 2-4 T of butter a day for cooking my fish, eggs (most are whole eggs/more fat) and for adding to my lentils or veggies.
In 6 months, I have lost 34 lbs. I might have had a faster rate of loss without the fats, but I don't care. This rate is super for me and I'm ecstatic about it. I'm also extremely satisfied with my meals, and my skin and hair are gorgeous! People say I glow! I attribute that in part to the fats.
Now, I know some SCD-ers are reading this and crapping their pants.
But the bottom line as always is to try it for yourself and see! Test, track, and tweak. Bodies do respond differently and all you need to do is listen to yours. A week or two of increased fats as a test is not going to turn you into a rhinoceros overnight. LOL
I eat a LOT of organic walnuts, raw almonds, roasted peanuts, or pistachios on cheat days when I feel like it. I end up retaining a LOT less water weight that way, and it also makes traffic in the south bound lane (if you know what I mean) move more quickly.