CrazyVegLady wrote:Yes it’s roughly 50%, and I’m limiting salt and avoiding oil.
Just when I went for seconds I didn’t grab more veggies, mostly because I would have to cook more
I read your post on the Food and Recipes board, which helps to know what you’re eating. All good, except for maybe the hummus. If it’s not homemade, it’s undoubtedly loaded with oil. Even homemade hummus recipes can have tahini, which I avoid for weight loss. My homemade hummus is no-salt chickpeas, garlic, aquafaba (the water from the chickpeas), a little lemon juice, a little roasted cauliflower, and maybe some spices if I’m feeling adventurous.
Cronometer can be useful as an occasional nutrient check, but it will drive you nuts if you use it all the time for calorie counting. Just think calorie density. (If you haven’t seen Jeff Novick's video on
Calorie Density, I highly recommend it.) Potatoes are about 400 calories a pound. So 3 pounds of potatoes, 1200 calories. Broccoli is about 150 calories a pound. So even if you ate 3 pounds of broccoli, you’d only be eating 450 calories. You’re not going to gain weight on that. Rest assured, you don’t need to count calories if you faithfully apply the principles of calorie density. I lost all my weight and never once counted a calorie.
I know when I first started this way of eating, I thought I was STARVED all the time. I finally figured out the difference between feeling hungry and feeling unsatisfied. When you go from eating a high fat diet to eating a diet much lower in fat, you’re going to crave fat. I mean really crave fat. Those fat receptors are going to be empty and screaming. So I was thinking I’m starving to death when in reality I was perfectly well fed but still wanting olives and peanut butter. (Well, to be honest, really wanting pizza, but I knew that was definitely off the menu. It did, however, give me a clue as to why a good meal of starch, veggies and fruit left me "hungry.")
This may not be the case for you. If it is, it may take up to 3 months for your body to adapt to lower fat eating (and if you cheat, it takes longer, because a high-fat meal or snack restarts the process to a certain extent — ask me how I know this
).
If you’re not having a problem with cravings and are truly hungry, just trust the program and keep eating starch with vegetables and fruit. Maybe add in some different starches to see if they satisfy you better. For example, I love sweet potatoes, baked until they’re really soft. I don’t eat oats in the morning, because I find I get hungrier faster after a meal of oats. I often have my oatmeal for dinner! There’s no rule that says you can only eat "breakfasty" foods for breakfast.
I also mix starches. One of my favorite meals is a huge bowl (like a mixing bowl) with a layer of brown rice, a layer of smashed pinto beans (
Mary McDougall's recipe, which I think is great), a ton of chopped salad (romaine, spinach, tomato, onion....whatever), topped with salsa. Takes forever to eat but very filling.
You'll figure this out. It takes a while to see what works for you and what doesn’t. The scale is also not your friend at this point. If you can stop yourself from weighing every day (not easy for some of us, including me), it’ll help keep you from worrying so much.
Goose