Hi,

Here are my totals for today - I am adding fat like crazy but protein compared to fat is still off and my carbs are too low

Protein-----Fat----------Carbs
90.43g-----132.26g----15.12g----Total grams consumed
38.03%----55.61%----6.36%------Percentages consumed
15-25%--- 60-70%----15-20%----Target Percentages

Today I had mushrooms for breakfast, swede (rutabaga) hash brown with salad for lunch, a half piece of cheesecake and cream for a snack, fish with gratin cauliflower and broccoli for dinner and will have strawberries and cream for later.

A breakdown of my food for today is:-

Breakfast - 200g mushroom, 15g butter, 20ml cream
Lunch - 60g swede, 25g onion, 50g bacon, 1 egg, 30g lettuce, 15ml olive oil, 2 slices swiss cheese
Afternoon Snack - 1/2 piece of cheesecake, 20g double cream
Dinner - 7.5ml olive oil, 7.5ml butter, 140g snapper
100g cauliflower, 50g broccoli, 1/2 egg, 15g romano, 30g cheddar
Snack - 100g strawberries, 40g double cream

I really don't feel the need to eat more than this - this looks like a good healthy combination of foods to me and I feel satisfied. Are these percenatges ok? Is 55% fat enough for 38% protein? I ate a lot of veges (I thought) but they don't add up to even 7 carbs (nearly 10 if you count the strawberries) This is starting to mess with my head - I don't know how to eat better than this and it's consuming all my time trying to figure it out

Hey Vee,

More carbs will change the percentages and fish is pretty much pure protein which will throw you off a bit. I'm not used to dealing with grams (dumb Yank that I am, Isn't that what you say he,he) so I'm having a hard time visualising the amounts, but by weight the 2nd largest quantity of food on your menu was fish. The carbs are easily fixed, and don't obsess too much about the protein, you're not that far off.

I'm not that mad with her menu either, but I like to see protein at each meal. Can she add a little bacon to her breakfast? I'm not doubting her totals, but just mushrooms to break the fast from the night before?

By the way, are you losing on this regimen? If you are, I'm shutting up. If you're not, I can see why.

Regards,

Charles

I agree, Charles. If you are losing, then don't change what ain't broke. The percentages are VERY good, Vee, so try getting that protein in at each meal. It's a plan for success! You're DOING IT!

Vee: My thoughts..It seems as though your carbs were NET carbs not whole carbs because all those veggies/strawberries would certainly be more than 15 carbs! I'm not saying that this is a bad thing at all, because it looks like a good menu plan.

ITA with the guys and would say that you definitely need protein at each meal, especially breakfast.

How do you calculate your stuff? I did a quick run down with fitday for your protein and got around 60-65 for your daily intake. I didn't count the protein in the veggies or the cheesecake, but everything I could "tell" was protein.

Plus, your fat was way up there before I added any REAL fat in from your
menu..like the butter.

I was just a bit confused about this...as to how you figured it out.

Barry doesn't want to make this difficult, but he does want to make us aware of what we are eating and what works for each one of us..

Thanks for posting.

Hey Carolyn,

I see something new has been added under your name. Congrats and thanks for helping out. As always I look forward to your contributions. This is going to be a great forum!

I ran Vee's menu through MasterCook. I had to sub a few things like the heavy cream for the double cream and I plugged in 1/2 serving of one of my crustless cheesecake recipes. Other than that, everything else should be pretty much correct because she gave exact weights for them. This should be pretty close:

1825 Calories; 145g Fat; 97g Protein; 36g Carbohydrate; 10g Dietary Fiber; 26g Net Carbs

LindaSue: You were always the math whiz...Thanks for doing that..

Vee: If you are losing on this, then great..if not do a bit of tweaking, gal..

Hi everyone,

Thanks for your replies and encouragement

After whining and whinging about being stuck, I hopped on the scales this morning-lo and behold I had lost 1/2 kg (1.1pds) - yay I have broken the 65kg (143pd) barrier for the first time in years!!!!!!

Here are my totals for today

Protein-----Fat----------Carbs
84.11------175.31------18.72----Total grams consumed
30.24------63.03--------6.73------Percentages consumed
15-25------60-70-------15-20----Target Percentages

These look better hey? My percentage of carbs are still low but the protein is down a bit and the fat is up - protein is still a bit high but is made up for by the lower carbs. Am a bit happier with this.

Mel - 29g is approx 1 oz so 140g of fish is about 5 ozs - is that too big for one serve?

Carolyn - to calculate my values I use the nutrition panel, followed by Food Standards Australia which is the equivalent of your USDA website. When I can't find it there I go to USDA. The funny thing about this australian site is that it lists the foods with available (net) carbs already calculated so, yes I have been counting net carbs. I have noticed differences when you compare the sites but what can you do? Example -
Rutabaga (swede) is 3.7g/100g on the Australian site and 5.63g/100g on the American site - both these figures are net. I don't know why there are variances and who knows which is closest to correct....

Linda - I was nowhere near 26g of carbs according to my measures but, as I said, I have noticed variations between the 2 sites mentioned above so I assume Fitday is based on the US site. I also go by the nutrition panel first - if I can't get the information there then I defer to the sites. The differences aren't huge but a carb here and there add up, which I guess explains the difference in your calculated carb values compared to mine. The fat and protein was close though!!!

Charles - I don't want you to shut up - your input is very helpful & valuable I have a hard time putting protein into every meal coz it puts my total for the day up too high (I feel). If I do have protein every meal, then I'll have to reduce my portions - which is always an option I guess. Breakfast is a funny meal for me - some days I wake up and it's "Bring on the bacon and eggs!!!!" - other days it feels like I just can't handle that.

Jimmy - thanks for your support I was starting to get frustrated so it's nice to get the encouragement. Doing a spreadsheet with the percentages updated as I input my foods has helped - as I said I hate Fitday, so this spreadsheet works for me. BTW - love the photos - what an amazing transformation. Check out the smile!!!!!

Thanks for all your input everyone - I knew I could count on you all

Thanx Mel

Absolutely! ITA with Melodie.

I haven't read Barry Groves' book yet but I was curious to see how many carbs I would need to eat per day if I followed the percentages that he recommends. I came up with the following chart that you might find useful. It looks like I would need to increase my carbs per day by quite a bit rather than lower my protein intake. My daily menus tend to fall within the 1800-2000 calorie range. My protein and fat per day are the most like the 2000 calorie day but I'd have quite a struggle trying to eat 75 grams of carbs from veggies and fruit. Getting carbs from things like cheese and nuts wouldn't work because they would also increase protein and fat. Veggies and fruit would be pretty much the only options for getting my carbs up. I've read a lot of posts here about struggling to get protein down when it really appears that getting your carbs up would be an even bigger challenge.

PER DAY:
15% CARBS
20% PROTEIN
65% FAT

75 grams carbs
100 grams protein
144 grams fat
2000 calories

68 grams carbs
90 grams protein
130 grams fat
1800 calories

56 grams carbs
75 grams protein
108 grams fat
1500 calories

45 grams carbs
60 grams protein
87 grams fat
1200 calories

38 grams carbs
50 grams protein
72 grams fat
1000 calories

30 grams carbs
40 grams protein
58 grams fat
800 calories

Hey LindaSue,

Thanks for those figures- they are very helpful. ITA with your comment about getting carbs up to the right ratio - these figures aren't net carbs tho are they? OMG as I am typing this, I just had a realisation - Barry doesn't use net carbs for his plan does he??? So the 15% ratio for carbs is WHOLE!!!!! No wonder my carbs are always low on my spreadsheet - I've been counting net carbs. What an idiot how could I have missed that????? That's why your carb count for my menu the other day was so different to mine.

I wonder if we wanted to regig the percentages to show net carbs what do you think they would be? Just wondering.....

Can I even do Groves properly if I'm counting net carbs? Damn - that's just burst my bubble I know I'm tired but I'm usually not this stupid.....

Vee..I hear ya on the net carbs..We all had to learn it was whole carbs otherwise we would eating veggies until they came out of our noses..
We are all learning. Each day is a new experience for all of us in the lowcarb world..

Well - I have been mulling over this all day and I am going out on a limb. I am going to modify Barry's carb ratio to count net carbs!!!!! He'd probably hang, draw and quarter me but I have been low carbing for about 7 weeks and I am used to counting net carbs now - all the recipes I have adopted and regigged to metric are all net and my aussie website for nutrition values already calculates net carbs too, so I'm not starting again. Everyone says you need to do what works for you, so I'm having a go here - nothin to lose but the weight!!!!

Barry says:-
Protein 15-25%
Fat 60-70%
Whole Carbs 15-20%

Vee's trying:-
Protein 25.0%
Fat 67.5%
Net Carbs 7.5%

I figure the protein and fat are in the range Barry recommends so that's good and the rest is net carbs. I seem to be the kind of person who needs to keep carbs pretty low to lose weight so this percentage works for me. Also the focus is still fat and protein, which is in the spirit of Barry's program. I'm not going to beat myself up trying to hit exact figures - just using them as a guide.

My figures today:-
Protein 27.45%
Fat 68.85%
Net Carbs 3.69%

So I'm definately in the ball park. I ate well today and I feel good I will have a few strawberries and some cream later and that should help my carbs up a little. I know I'm supposed to aim for the ratios at each meal but that isn't very practcal sometimes. However, I have had protein with every meal today - just smaller portions so my protein level is under control : )

I rediscovered yesterday that too much fat gives me a headache. I deliberately pushed up my fat intake the last couple of days and I think I went too high, because my protein grams were high I had to have too much fat grams to keep the ratio right. I remember overdosing on fat when my mum used to make aioli with fish and hard boiled eggs at easter. I used to eat masses of the stuff and end up with this weird headache - I got one yesteday and I am sure it was too much fat/oil - interesting....

Are there any glaring problems anyone can see with my plan????

What do you think?

Vee, I thought that Barry suggests eating at least 50 carbs per day, not just 15-20. I think your protein is a bit low too. From your daily totals, it looks like you're eating around 1,000 calories per day or less. Are you sure you're eating enough?

Linda - I must be tired. I have just edited my post. I meant % not grams - I'm definately eating more than 1000cals a day!!!! I couldn't survive on that!!!!!

Sorry 'bout that

Hi..

Sugar alcohol carbs are very difficult to calculate. Sometimes people count them as "half" which puts them way up there in the carb categories.

I DO think it is the type of carbs that is more to be concerned with than the amount of carbs sometime. You cannot overeat broccoli, for example, but fruit is another story. If your carbs are mainly LC veggies, then you are probably fine whether you net them or not.

Good point Carolyn, I wasn't really thinking about the fruit, but the veggies and nuts. Fruit can get you into trouble although I enjoyed a nice little bowl of cantaloupe for desert last night. But I could afford it with the other stuff I ate.

50 grams total carb vs. 20 grams net carb

If we're talking mostly veggies with some fruit and nuts and an occasional wholesome treat, there is *very* little difference here.

Thanks Valerie!

Wouldn't it be easier to get your carb count up to Barry's suggested amount by not subtracting the fiber?

Vee, I'm relieved to hear that you're eating more than 1,000 calories, LOL. In fact, I looked at what you'd originally posted a second time just to make sure that you'd typed grams instead of percent but it said grams. Thanks for clearing that up.

By the way, I've been trying to keep up with the Barry Groves threads for future reference. My friend, Nancy (Nanki), is still reading her copy and she's going to mail it to me when she's finished. We have a low carb book and cookbook exchange thing going on. You can mail books pretty cheap using the Media Mail rate as long as the package only contains books (or media).

After you read it let us know what you think Linda Sue.

Hi, everyone, Melodie and I are already acquainted. She turned me on to Barry Groves. I am nearly finished with the book and, boy, I cannot tell you the relief I am experiencing! I have "endured" a low calorie/low fat diet for months on end. I just could not function mentally at the level I prefer. Melodie and I met over at the ill-fated Kimkins forum and we were both uneasy with the plan right from the start. Anyhoo, after that experience I just knew something was wrong with not eating enough fats. So, Barry's book with its scientific data really impresses me. AND, I already have positive results to report: yesterday was my first day at eating as Barry suggests; for the first time in my life, I think, I went from lunch at 1PM to dinner at 7 PM without any hunger or buzzing in my ears or any of the hypoglycemic indicators! Yippee! My lunch was a slice of dark rye with lots of melted Havarti.

Thank you, Melodie, for getting me onto the right track...we always said that you just have to do the research and do it again if it is not working for you.

I am so happy to meet some new friends here!

Bronwen

Hi Bronwen,

So glad you made it over here. I hope you will join us and continue to post. This is a great place to be with a lot of wonderful, and helpful people. Hugs to DH and the "kids".

Hi MelodieG and Barry Groves fans. I'm currently following Atkins for Life but after reading many of your posts about Barry Groves Plan am very interested in it. Could you just, in a nutshell, tell me the basic difference between Groves & Atkins plans? I need to know that I can seriously switch over before getting his book and all that entails. Thanks for any info you can give me. Pat

Hi Pat,

Sorry, I don't know how I missed your post. There is really not that much difference. The biggest one being induction which Groves does not have, he believes in cutting your carbs slowly to avoid the "Atkin's flu".

His is a very natural approach to weight loss, a no counting philosophy, just that if you are eating the proper amounts of fat, your appetite will naturally dictate the right amount of food for you. He limits carbs to 15% of your intake and there are really no foods that are not allowed within the limits. In a nutshell the advise he gives is simple "replace carbs with fat, not protein". If you look at the pinned topics at the top of this forum there are some good links that will give you a good overview of the plan which will help you decide if you want to buy the book.

I think it would be an excellent plan for maintenance, because it is "natural".