Because I am new with the hole low carb thing. I wanted to no, when on a low carb diet what is the proper postion size when eating?

I am always wondering am I eating to much to little?

What do you all think?

Rena

Let your natural hunger mechanism help you with this. It may take some adjusting to know when you are truly hungry and/or full, so eat until you are satisfied.

One thing I have done is schedule myself to eat SOMETHING every two or three hours. I have never been hungry as long as I've done this and all I count is carbs.

YOU CAN DO THIS, Rena!!!

I second that. Your body will let you know when you've eaten too much fat or protein; you'll get sick. However, you get little feedback about too many carbs until much later, when it's too late.

It's ironic, but now that I'm restricting carbs and giving myself permission to eat all I want, I find I want less. I used to suffer from insatiable cravings and would pig out frequently. Now the cravings are gone and I control portions naturally. Watch the carbs, get in tune with your real hunger, and the rest should take care of itself.

I track my food intake on fitday.com. Some days I enter everything and am amazed at how few calories I ate, even though I'm fully satisfied.

I "third" that. With the people I personally help, that is the hardest thing to wrap their minds around; the fact that you can actually eat until you are full! We've heard all of our lives that if you eat too much, you'll get fat. I find that people continue to eat too little of the right foods and too much of the wrong foods.

Simply put, eat all the protein and fat you can stand. Eat controlled portions of good carbohydrates and you'll be just fine. Even after you lose tremendous amounts of weight, the rule still stands. Don't get cute, eat plenty of fat and protein and carefully control those carbohydrates for the rest of your life.

When you sit down to eat, have a modest portion of protein, fat and your veggies. If you're still hungry, grab more meat until you're finished eating. Don't get full on veggies, get full on the meat. If you eat this way, I dare say that you don't even have to count!

All the best,

Charles

WELCOME RENA!!!! Congrats on your decision, you will love the freedom of low carbing! You can do it!
Hugs!

I hope I am not hijacking a thread here but I do have a question about the portion control. I am new here so bear with me.

It was mentioned that when you sit down for a meal & if still hungry to eat the proteins until full, but to control the good carbs.

I also saw it mentioned that when someone put the info into fitday that they had consumed less calories as well.

Getting to the question here: Do you pay attention to the calories as well or just focus on the carbs?

Right now I am just focusing on the carb portion control & not the protein portions which once I put the info into fitday I was a little taken back by the (high) number of calories.

Thank you in advance for input.

Bungee---Charles is right---do not worry about the calories---just keep the carb count low-----

what do you consider to be high calories?

there really is no magic number---eat until you are full---your body will tell you when it has had enough

Dr Mike has 2 good articles that explain low carb hunger and calories



Leptin, low-carb and hunger

Is a calorie always a calorie?

Bam - thank you for the articles, very interesting.

I haven't been watching my calories, just carbs - seeing weight come off & then put everything into fitday yesterday & just got a bit panicky - need to listen to my body more and a bit less of my brain!

All great advice. I just wanted to add my own experience. I started LCing, and would eat until full. The only thing is that I never realized that I was probably eating too much, because I was getting Thanksgiving full at every meal. You don't need to get Thanksgiving full, you only need to eat until you are satisfied. Now that I have hit goal, and gained back, I am experimenting with foods, and have started eating only half of what I used to eat. Instead of a 4 egg omlet, I order a 2 egg one. Instead of eating everything on my plate, I cut everything in half, and eat one half, then I wait 20-30 minutes, and if I am still hungry, I eat the other half.

I wish I would have experimented more, and figured out how to really read my body before, because I feel like I could have stayed at goal.

Great advice, Simon!

Great advice, I second Jimmy on that! I might add, that if done properly your appetite will make a natural adjustmust downward over time until you are eating the right amount for you. You just have to learn to listen to it.

Valerie, ITA? What is this?

Charles, thanks again for the advice/input. I tend to lean more towards meat that vegetables, but I can only eat so much before I'm done. I am not disagreeing with you, you seem to know a lot more than I do about the pharmacology of fat, but I am not one who enjoys fat. I don't avoid it, but when I am eating meat with a higher fat content, 6 or 8 ounces is usually my limit. I do not like the way fat tastes, and I don't like the way it feels in my mouth. In another post, you suggested eating rib-eye, which I still plan to do, but typically if I am going for a steak, I would choose NY strip, cooked with the fat on, but then I cut away the visible fat, because when I get a mouth full of it, it grosses me out. I am the same with chicken fat, I think it is slimy and nasty. When I eat higher fat meats, I end up feeling like my teeth have an oil slick on them.

As for the Thanksgiving full, I ate to this point at every meal while losing weight, and I lost at a steady pace; When I first started, I recorded everything I ate, and my calories were between 4 and 5K, which blew my mind because I was losing. My problem is that I do not want to live a life where I will never again have pizza and beer with buddies, I do not want to have to constantly educate the fire guys about my way of eating, my intention, however good or bad people here might see it, is to lose weight, and return to a semi normal way of eating, where I can enjoy the foods that others are enjoying at any given meal, and know that I can be a little stricter with my choices after that in order to balance it out. I know I can never go back to my old ways of eating an entire large pizza with a 2 liter of coke. But, I cannot imagine a life where I have to constantly order something different everytime I go out with friends, or where I have to teach everyone I eat with about low carb in order to be able to enjoy a meal with them. My mom has been driving herself crazy trying to figure out what I can and can't eat, and ultimately admitted defeat, so now every Sunday I have lunch with her she cooks pot roast, because that is the only thing that she knows I can eat. I want to get to the point where I can enjoy food, and the company I am with without worrying about what they are cooking. I know I cannot ever return to 100% normal, but for the times I am with buddies or family, it is just better to enjoy spending the time without worrying about it.

My problem never was losing. I lost a great amount of weight, but when I tried to transition to higher carbs (50-60 a day), I found that in my mind I was not satisfied unless I got that so full I had to unbutton my pants feeling. I know I added the wrong foods now, and that nuts and LC chocolate were not the right carbs to add back, but everyone has lessons learned. This time around, I am trying to understand what healthy portions are, and how to listen to my body so that I am not feeling like I need to hurl after every meal. I am still concentrating most of my food on protein, but I am reconditioning myself to understand that I do not have to stuff myself to be healthy. What I have learned this time is that I can get by fine with about half of what I was previously eating, and still be satisfied, and still lose. I am feeling a lot better, and for instance, tonight I got a call right as I was finishing dinner. Previously, I would have been dreading getting in the truck, because I knew I had eaten too much, and was uncomfortable. Tonight, I was fine, I got in the truck, and did what I needed to do without feeling like I was going to have to loosen my belt, or blow chunks.

As I said before, you obviously know much more than me about all of this, and I look at all your posts as education, not as harrassment, and I am looking forward to hearing your take on the novel I just posted . Thanks again!

ITA = I totally agree.

Thanks SJM. I have been able to figure out most of the accronyms, but that one got me

I just wanted to add a few things to the wonderful advice that you all have already given.

Some people, like myself, appear not to have the best "appetite satisfaction" feedback. Our bodies don't tell us when we're full until it's too late ... when we're stuffed.

The best ways to cope with this, in my experience, are as follows:

1. Slow down! Many of us are used to eating in a rush. This can make it hard for us to feel the sensation of being full ... again, until it's too late.

2. Try not to eat while watching TV - especially if you're alone. I think this can, in some people, mess up the signals that our stomachs send to our brains. In other words, we get distracted and don't pay attention to how much we really need to feel adequately full.

3. I hardly ever drink with my meals anymore. I feel like this helps me better determine when I am, in fact, full. And, I believe it may help me digest my food better.

I do however drink a little bit after meals ... to drink my supplements.

4. If overeating is a big problem for you, try to keep written or mental notes that indicate how much food you have to eat to get to the "stuffed-point". By understanding, both visually and mentally, the amount of food that is required ... then you can avoid going beyond that point.

These are just some ideas that I think about. They may not be very good or right for everybody. I'm just throwing 'em out there ... in case they might be useful.

I have found that after a few days of clean eating that I tend to be hungry less often and when I do eat I start feeling full after only about half the portion size I used to eat. This especially happens if I am eating meat and veggies. I will often only finish half of my steak. I don't mind I just take the other half to work for lunch the next day.

Good point Linda Sue. It's a "lifestyle", that means we can never stop. It's like being diabetic, if you want to stay healthy you can't start eating sugar again.

Those are excellent points, Linda Sue and Melodie. I certainly have no intent of adding whole grains or legumes either. However, once you've survived the stages of Atkins, you should have great knowledge of what your body is capable of and you can venture out there and find a wide variety of good foods.

Now, I'm definitely not saying go the whole grain route, but admittedly, my food base isn't very wide. I'm sure there is some stuff at a Thai restaurant or a Morrocan grill that I can eat just fine. Now that I know I have a safe zone of foods and I know the correct way to eat them, I feel like I can venture out just a bit and I still have my safety net. I'm suggesting that could be a source of power that keeps you from going overboard, and also a beacon should you get lost like many do on maintenance.

Even if your ACE is 80g of carbs, only 40g have to come from low glycemic vegetables. That means, you have your ribeye steak, your broccoli, and the rest is open for perhaps a new fruit or exotic vegetable every now and again.

Have you ever tried one of those Ranier cherries, or added some fresh mango to your carbsmart ice cream, or some of those clemontine oranges, or fresh kiwi.....

The cherries are my favorite and I hate to say they are going out of season. Getting back to Simon's problems with the pizza and such. I don't think it necessary to give up everything for the rest of your life. I think you build in cheat meals once in awhile and if it doesn't absolutely send you off to the races them it's fine. My trainer friend always says it's not what you do one in awhile that counts it's what you do most of the time that determines your success. As you know I'm not a big fan of the scale with one exception, when you reach maintenance. Then I say weight and nip any gains in the bud before they get too far along.

Help!

Charles, if you read this, put me in check. What is it that I need to know?

I seem to be continually stalled. I started doing only calorie restriction. Then, I stalled after losing about 65 lbs. I started walking more and hired a trainer to learn how to work out with weights (which I still do, btw), but I got very disappointing results. This past winter, I started doing carb reduction, but not Atkins, and that didn't work either. From July 2006 to May 2007, I only lost about 10-15 lbs despite constant effort. I finally decided to try Atkins again, which didn't work for me when I tried it 7-8 yrs ago. I figured I needed to give it another go, b/c others were having success with it.

Well, Atkins didn't work. Then, I saw Jimmy's magnificent results during his Kimkins month and made adjustments to my plan. Seems like a I had a couple of whooshes and stalls since June - went from about 305 to now the 280s. I'm stalled a-f*ckin-gain! I want to scream!

Last week, I went back through my carb/calorie logs and realized I had gotten a little sloppy. My carbs were typically over 30 and quite often over 40. I also had been eating an average of 2200-2600 calories.

So, I rededicated and refocused my efforts. I cut my carbs back to 25 and TRIED to cut my calories back to 2000-2200, but I couldn't make it work. I've NEVER had the experience that calories don't matter. The only time I saw some real results was when I kept my carbs between 30-40 (before I "got it" and decided to rein that in) and my calories between 1600-2200 (lean meats, a la Kimkins).

Okay, so where do I go now? This past week, my carbs have ranged from 25-32, but my calories have been crazy high, like 2400-3000. Not losing. Slow elims and too much salt (water weight) have been factors, but overall, I still seem stalled.

Last week, I was down to 282 (in a whoosh from 286), then shot up to 288 yesterday, and then 286 this a.m.

Any suggestions?

Fitlanta,

I'm not Charles, but is it possible you are eating too much protein and not enough fat? Fat is the fat mobilizing nutrient, not protein. Protein under certain circumstances has the ability to be used as sugar at a rate of about 50%. Some of the Kimkins ladies have had great success when converting from Kimkins to Groves. The philosophy behind Groves is replace carbs with fat and not protein. If you will look at the pinned topics under Groves in the diet section you will see some links. Give them a read and maybe you can get a different point of view on your eating. Good luck! Charles may tell you something different, but that's my take on it.

Fitlanta:

First, take a deep breath. We can do this.

I want you to freeze your menu just a little bit. Better yet, send me what you've been eating the last three days, in Breakfast, Lunch and dinner format. How many days do you lift weights?

Let's see if we can kind of duplicate some of the right types of food over the course of 4 days to a week and see what happens. Then, we can make adjustments based on what happens.

If this is "water retention" time, let me know that as well.

Send me this info, and we'll get started.

Charles

Simon, JMHO, but you have to find what works for you, for life.

You might find a way to have pizza and beer with the guys once a month or even once a week, but then again you might not. If you're watching your body, you'll learn the lessons it has to teach you.

Just 'cause the SAD (standard American diet) caught up with you early, doesn't mean it won't catch up with your buddies within the next 1-2 decades.
----
Thanks, everyone for the opinions on the maintenance issue. I really appreciate this; it's been on my mind a lot.

Fruit/Veggie treats. How I handle these kinds of treats is to enjoy fruit or veggies in season at the peak of freshness. Okay, I live in southern Wisconsin where there are sometimes cornfields as far as the eye can see. :-) And I do enjoy corn on the cob, fresh, as much as my neighbors.

Canned corn, yuck. Frozen corn? I used to eat a lot of it, but I don't miss it. Corn on the cob from the grocery store? It's okay, but not for me.

But once a year--not including this year--I have had about 1//4-1/3 of a cob of corn, the freshest one that comes my way for the year. I've had it dripping with butter and with a little salt. And it's sooooooo good.

And it's enough. I don't need three of them to have my treat for the year.

I don't eat peaches, just to "get my fruit in." But when we had a chance to buy some within 24 hours of orchard picking, we bought a whole bushel. I had 1/6 of a peach the first day. I double-checked the carb count and had 1/4 of a peach the second day. Sooooooo good. (Next year I'll probably have a 1/2 each day. LOL.)

The second serving I had with a dollop of nutmeg-flavored whipping cream. Soooo good.

It doesn't need to be a large quantity to be a really delicious celebration of the season. I really have no desire for a canned peach or a frozen peach or a dry and not very tasty supermarket peach.

Concord grapes are in season. We have three different kinds of grapes here on our property. I've had two Concord grapes. (Next year, I can be a bit more generous with that, probably a standard small serving.)

Right off the vine, they put Welch's to shame, for sure, but I don't need a whole cup of grapes to enjoy that intense flavor. LOL. And I do mean intense. I'm not used to sweet stuff so one grape about knocked me off my feet. LOL.

I also had one white grape and one champagne grape from our vines.

I think I had one cherry this year, but it might have been two. I know I had a taste though.

So, I do allow some fruit, but mostly only peak-of-freshness fruit and just a little. The only kind of supermarket fruit I eat are berries and cantaloupe. Small quantities.

So, on Maintenance, I know I can handle a small serving rather than just an itty bitty taste, but I'll probably still keep it on the once-a-year, seasonal schedule. When it's REALLY, REALLY good then it's worth it to me.

I try to lift weights 4x/wk, but I usually only make 2 (typically Sats and Suns). I have a lot to do at home on a daily basis (trying to help my mother, who's trying to regain her mobility). Please don't think I'm making any excuses, b/c I would not do that with somebody I have asked to help me. When her doctor has cleared her for a proper weight loss regimen (long explanation), I'm going to have her livin' la vida low carb.

I was retaining water from eating too much salt. I made a low carb cheesecake and put salted pecans on it, plus I ate some of the pecans. I'm a MAN, though I realized after creating my profile that the name sounds kinda feminine. I was trying to merge fit with my hometown - hence, Fitlanta. If it matters, I am 6' tall and a 48w. A good doppelganger for me would be Young M.C. I'm now about the size/build he started on Celeb Fit Club, and I'd like to get down to about his ending size/build on the show.

My menu yesterday (9/18):

Breakfast: eggs/cheese, 2 pork skin pancakes
Snacks: 2 deviled eggs (1 whole eggs), 8 cheese crackers (per LindaSue's recipe), chicken salad
Lunch: 7 chicken wing sections, 2 tbls Ranch drsg, 2 deviled eggs (1 whole egg)
Dinner: 1 cup of green bean casserole (diamondwife's recipe), 5 Publix Mardi Gras wings, 2 squares cheesecake (2 lb cheesecake cut into 15 squares)

I made all the foods myself with the exception of the Publix wings and half of the chicken salad. The Mardi Gras wings don't have any carbs in the seasoning. A deliworker let me check the package. I use Mrs. Stratton's chicken salad, but I mix in a can of chicken, 2 boiled eggs, and a dash of mustard. The chicken salad is 2 carbs per 1/4 cup (by my reckoning) by the time I am done. I made the cheesecake with only 1/8 cup Splenda and the 1 tsp Stevia - different but tolerable if you just have to have it.

My menu today:

Breakfast: turkey sausage - egg - cheese sandwich on a pork skin pancake
Snacks: 2 deviled eggs, 1/2 cup chicken salad
Lunch: 6 wings, 2 deviled eggs, 2 tbls Ranch
Dinner, 6 wings, 2 tbls Ranch, 1 cup steamed broccoli (w/ sprayed on butter), 1 cheesecake square

Added a little later: Here is my calorie/carb breakdown for today. The number of the left is calories - on the right, carbs.

300 pork skin pancake 2
150 turkey sausage 1
60 egg patty 1
90 cheese 1
300 deviled eggs 2
480 6 wings 3
100 ranch 2
150 chicken salad 3
450 6 wings 1
75 broccoli 2
275 cheesecake 2
2430 20


My menu tomorrow:

Same as today, but my breakfast sandwich will be on an Irene low carb bun. I may substitute a chicken breast or two fish fillets for the wings at dinner.

My calories were super-high both Sunday and Monday, though I only recorded my numbers. I do an Excel spreadsheet everyday to count my cals and carbs. I do not remember all the foods I ate, though they were ALL low carb.

Thank you for your help. I need some refocusing - desperately.

Everyone seems to be on the same page here, we just have different ways of expressing it.

Npnfeef - I see where you are coming from about the allergy/diabetes aspects, but since I do not have either of those conditions, I bascially feel like a pain in the rear about groups of people making exceptions just for me. They do it, I have a lot of very supportive people in my life, but I do not expect them to change the way they eat or cook just for me, so if I go to the firehouse for dinner, and they have made brown sugar glazed ham, rather than refusing, I would like to get to the point of eating and enjoying it, and monitoring the rest of the week/month strictly in order to balance the health and weight gain aspects of eating that. I agree with you about custom ordering when placing an individual order, I can find something everywhere, and have no problems ordering what I need to eat, but it's times like when my mother goes out of her way to make her awesome red velvet cake for my birthday, and I have to tell her, thanks mom, I appreciate the thought, I'll have to pass on the cake - it broke her heart which in turn broke mine.

Melodie - what you were saying about building in cheat meals is what I was trying to say. Thanks so much for getting it out clear

I never want to go back to my old ways, and by and large, when my buddies and I go out, we can all order individually, but there are times when they want to chip in and order pizza delivery, or when we go out for wings, and it is just easier to place one huge order than 10 individual ones. These are the times I was talking about when it will be nice to just eat normal, and not have to run out to grab food for just me, or place a separate order for naked wings and a salad.

I'm in it for the long haul, and once I am past weightloss and into maintenance, I believe that on the occasions where this becomes an issue, that I will be able to eat with the group and it will not be a bid deal.

Filanta - thanks for the gender identification brother! I was thinking you were a woman too, but it was not the name, it was the "water retention" Like charles, my mind went to female issues

I am not Charles, and someone else might have another opinion, but here is what I think. First I have a question. When you realized your carbs had gotten away from you, did you do a 2-week induction? I have found that this helped me to get my body back into fat burning mode. REmember, that one bite being the kiss of death - a lot of people take this a lot of ways. My take on it is that one bite of a higher carb food, or in your case - letting your carbs creap too high, can take you out of ketosis, and you need to be in ketosis to properly burn fat. So if I were you, I would drop back to induction for a few weeks.

Now, let's look at your food. Is there a reason you are eating Turkey sausage, and using butter spray? Does the chicken salad have a higher carb count because it has sugar in it? Are the LC rolls a norm? Things like pork or beef sausage are good ways to get fat into your diet. Butter makes everything better, and it is also a good way to get fat in. If the chicken salad has sugar, you really need to ditch it - read back to the kiss of death line. Really look at the ingredients of the low carb rolls, and see if there is any sugar, starch, flours etc. Just because it says LC doesn't mean it's good for you. Also, if it were me, I would consider ditching them too.

Did you keep food journals? If so, go back through them and see what was different when you were losing. I have even re-created a few weeks of mine, just to see if it was really a stall, or if it was what I was eating. I have never really stalled, my weightloss has stopped, but it was due to what I was eating, not my body.
Hope this helps,
Si

Fitlanta:

Okay. First, I deeply apologize. I really don't know why I thought you were a woman, I have no idea. Maybe the screen name, but that's no excuse really.

That menu does not look like the menu of a 282 pound man, I'm sorry. Fitlanta, I am 161 pounds and I can eat 12 chicken wings for lunch. I may even need an Atkins bar before dinner if Mrs. Washington doesn't get it fixed within 6 hours of lunch!

All of this counting is making both of us crazy. For the time you work with me, I really want you to stop counting. Most of these food counters are faulty. The body is not a machine. You can't plug yourself into someone's ratio and expect to have success. When I write of a ratio, you have never seen me give figures or percentages. I say that you have to find the correct ratio for your metabolism. What is that? Well, you have to find it. How do you find it? By eating. You my friend, have not been eating.

If you've read my posts, you know I don't buy the protein to glucose business. There are very limited times where excess protein is converted to glucose. Believe me, there is no excess protein in your diet. Melodie might not have noticed that you are a 282 pound male. The liver only makes enough to stabilize blood sugar. Lean meat can sap your energy and lead to a "malaise" but that's more if you're "fat adapted" to begin with.

Just as calories are different, protein is also different. As I've written before, quoting Dr. Eades, It's not "you are what you eat, but rather, you are what your body does with what you eat." You get a lot of protein from eggs, sure enough, but it's not the same as the fat and protein that you get from a ribeye steak. It's just not. Trust me on this one.

Your breakfast:
eggs/cheese (how many eggs?) 2 pork skin pancakes.

My breakfast:
Three egg cheese omelet, two sausage patties. 1 Atkins bar (I don't know, I wanted something sweet on the way to work.) (I'm lovin' these colors, Jimmy!)

Your snack:
2 deviled eggs, 8 cheese crackers, chicken salad

My snack:
None

I ate enough at breakfast where I was full until lunch. I ate my breakfast at 8:30. I ate lunch today after doing my workout, at 2:30. That's six hours without being hungry for a snack. Why do you think that is? My two sausage patties trump your pork skin pancakes. I could have eaten 4 sausage patties if I were so inclined, and I would not have gained a pound. I would not have been full eating your snack, despite weighing over 100 pounds less.

Your lunch:
7 chicken wing sections, 2tbls Ranch drsg, 2 deviled eggs

My lunch: (today - NOTE: Yesterday was Golden Corral where I got "Thanksgiving full on steak, pot roast, rotisserie chicken, salad, sugar free cheesecake) I'd list that one, but it wouldn't be fair to you.)

1/2 pound ground round buger wrapped in green leaf lettuce, tomato slice, 1 tsp mayo, 1 tsp mustard, 1 large onion slice, 1 slice American Cheese3 cups (I think) of tossed mixed green salad w/ onions, tomatoes, cucumbers, mushrooms, American cheese, a 1 cup of Oil, packet of salt and pepper.

My lunch was based on plenty of fatty protein and olive oil all over my salad greens. This will fill me up to the point where I won't need to eat until 8:00 tonight. No snacking necessary. (I know this because this burger is one of my safe harbor foods -- see below) I would have eaten two of these burgers if I was 282 pounds, I can tell you that.

Your dinner:
1 cup of green bean casserole, 5 wings, 2 squares cheesecake

My dinner: (last night, I was still stuffed from lunch)
1/2 pound ground round buger wrapped in green leaf lettuce, tomato slice, 1 tsp mayo, 1 tsp mustard, 3 dill slices, 1 slice American Cheese

1 big coffee mug of Bryar's Carb Smart Rocky Road

Your dinner looks like you are on weight watchers. Mine was the lightest dinner I had this week.

The bottom line Fitlanta is you have to eat like you are 282 pounds. Lean meat is not going to get it done. I've posted before on the science of all major low carb diets. It's based on the Inuit Eskimos. These guys ate fatty protein. They got their fat and protein with one shot, no drizzling, no sauteeing, it was what it was. They did not suffer from any of the maladies we currently suffer from.

If you did Atkins, you know that in Chapter 7, Dr. Atkins discusses the "metabolic advantage." He shows studies that prove that people on a high fat diet, can burn body fat at a rate of two times that of someone who eats nothing at all. You have to make these principles work for you. If you're going to fast, then just fast and quit playing around with lean meat. If you're going to burn body fat, you have to eat high fat and protein. Leave the casseroles and salads for others to eat.

When you lift weights, you need to pick a heavy weight that you can only lift about 7 times. Lift it, then move on to the next exercise. Don't use the gym as an excuse. The main thrust of my workout is right here:

More Power to the Pushup!

To do my workout, you do not need a gym. Two 20 pound barbells can be purchased from your local sporting goods store for about $10. The small exercise balls cost a little more than they should in my opinion, but they are nothing compared to a gym membership. You can install a pullup bar in the doorway of your home like this guy:



I add situps and planks, but all you need for that is floorspace. You can certainly get by with one or two days a week at the gym, but you have to make it count when you are there. I don't care if you walk or do any cardio at all, but make those weights count.

To see results, take my food menu and do your best with it. Cut down your list of foods and just eat close to the same thing for a week and see how your body responds. If you want to stay with the foods on your menu, eat a big omelet with sausages. Use 3 or 4 eggs. You are 282 pounds. Make sure you feel really full after breakfast. For lunch, eat 12 to 15 wings. Make sure you are good to go when you get up from that table.

For dinner, 12 to 15 wings and that cup of broccoli with the sprayed on butter. Eat it for three days and see what happens. If you are losing, change up your dinner by substituting ground beef or a steak. If you are still losing, eat two cups of broccoli. Try that and let me know how it goes. I have a feeling you'll lose quite a bit of weight.

All the best,

Charles

I eat until full - sometimes too full. But because I'm sticking to my plan, I'm still losing weight, but slowly. No doubt if I ate less, I'd lose more. I'm starting a very popular book called The Beck Diet Solution, which is a book on cognitive therapy and weight loss, to be used with any eating plan. It teaches you, through exercises, how to eat until satisfied, but not stuffed, and also how to handle weight loss situations in life. It's about retraining the way you think about food and weight loss.

I've always had a problem with portion control and I'll tell you why - because I lived a life of low calorie starvation diets most of my life.

The thing with the Paleo Diet is that lean proteins and healthy fats, nuts, fruits, veg, are so filling. I truly believe as time goes on, I'll learn to eat when hungry and stop when truly satisfied.

O.K. Charles, don't get your boxers in a bunch HeHe (just kidding). No I didn't notice the 292 lb man part. Sorry.

Simon,

I adore Red Velvet Cake. I probably would have had a piece, and made sure you left the rest of your cake with your Mom, and then had a really careful couple of days after that. The problem with that can be (as you mentioned in your post to fitlanta)it can interrupt ketosis and fat loss. Whenever we have a social occasion I always send everyone home with doggie bags and make sure the stuff is out of my house.

Charles, I love you too, but I don't totally agree with what you are saying. Some of us just don't see it as that black and white. There are some gray areas here.

Food is an integral part of our society, and always has been and yet somehow those before us managed not to be obese. Breaking bread runs deep within the fiber of our social fabric and it's not going to go away because we are "low carbing"so to speak. If we don't make some coping strategies part of our basic "lifestyle" toolbox some of us are bound to fail. Part of the lesson to be learned here is how to keep that pizza and beer from opening the proverbial "Pandora's box".

It has been my personal experience that I can have a cheat meal, (and I very much agree with what Jimmy says about it being planned) without bringing it all down on my own head. It's not realistic to think that people are going to spend the rest of their lives eating perfect. There are always going to be birthdays, holiday parties, and situations where it's not going to be possible to eat perfectly. Yes I know all the advise about eat before your go to the party, bring your own food, and all of that, but that is not a natural way to live and it will be abandoned by many. No, you've got to learn to cope in a high carb world to be successful.

Many of us are not as disciplined as I suspect you are, but that does not mean we are all doomed to fail. There are many more ways than one to skin this cat and stay healthy and happy as well.

O.K. Charles, you get a pass. I think we should ask Simon how he plans to incorporate the pizza and beer back into his life, because it sounds important to him.

I was big enough to not want to ever go back there again, and I haven't, not for 7 years. However I have backslid about a size and that's why I am doing what I am doing. The backsliding made it obvious to me that my "coping" was not working for me. It's a learning process we all go through, and hopefully we learn. We also have to deal with the changes our body throws at us over time as well.

But we can't agree on too many things, like you said, what fun would that be.

As far as other people noticing what you eat, I have had some really odd reactions with this. Even before I started to eat this way, I was a SUPER picky eater due to lactose intolerance (at least you can EAT pizza and beer...whenever I've had pizza, I've always picked the cheese off! I've gotten some LOOKS and more than just a few remarks with that one, let me tell you...), the fact that I've never really liked breaded foods, I don't have much of a liking for alcohol, and I thought I hated strawberries for the longest time because I had some bad-tasting strawberry candy. How wrong I was on that account, though. I love strawberries now. Not to mention all the awesome fats I used to limit and/or abstain from...oh, the wasted years. =P However, it seems like people are noticing what I eat now a lot more than before... I don't know why, either, but I think it's funny. I'm used to it, though, so I don't think I'll be caving to peer pressure anytime soon, and DEFINITELY not on a regular basis. I just feel better eating this way. I like actually being Thanksgiving-full and not feeling guilty about it for a change. I like listening to my body, and eating all the delicious foods it needs me to eat. If people start judging me on how I eat, I'll say they're being ridiculous and then we'll move on with our lives. If I were you, I would just enjoy the company of your friends without worrying about what they think about you.

Charles said:
[This is precisely the thing that many are not learning. Once you get used to what that feeling of "full" is, then you can cut those protein and fat ratios just a bit, and get your veggies in plus whatever else you can metabolize. I'm not saying to finish your ribeye at all costs, I'm just saying that one has to learn satiety because it's not so common in our world, despite what people say. You can be full every day and not gain weight. If you eat little at your meals, and then overdo it on carb-containing snacks, you still won't be full and you will gain weight. What a paradox!]

I hear what you are saying Charles. The thing I forgot to include is that I always eat butter on those veggies and on my steak. Or else Blue cheese on the steak. I use plenty of fats when I am cooking I fry eggs in butter etc. If I am making an omelet I always add a tablespoon of heavy whipping cream for every three eggs. I don't get hungry for hours after meals and usually don't get really hungry until I actually start cooking and smelling the food.