I started Phase 4 this past week, but I'm struggling to understand what may be considered Carb poor versus Fat Poor. I tried asking the regional director at a recent workshop, but she wasn't much help. She told me to refer to the Phase 4 worksheet.
For lunch I had a roasted chicken Caesar salad from Nordstrom Bistro. I substituted Dijon mustard dressing for the Caesar dressing and I did not eat the croutons. For dinner I had spaghetti noodles with tomato basil and mozzarella sauce (no bread).
I started Phase 4 this past week, but I'm struggling to understand what may be considered Carb poor versus Fat Poor. I tried asking the regional director at a recent workshop, but she wasn't much help. She told me to refer to the Phase 4 worksheet.
For lunch I had a roasted chicken Caesar salad from Nordstrom Bistro. I substituted Dijon mustard dressing for the Caesar dressing and I did not eat the croutons. For dinner I had spaghetti noodles with tomato basil and mozzarella sauce (no bread).
Does anyone have any advice?
Am not in maintenance but I believe you'd get more information and feedback from the maintainers thread.
Maintenance is a totally different ballgame from the other phases. You really have to figure out
- what will work for you in the long term, and
- what your body is going to respond best to
There are no firm guidelines for how to "measure" carb poor versus fat poor. Once we are in maintenance, everyone's daily calorie needs are going to be different based on body type, level of activity, metabolic and hormonal makeup....and the amount of carbs/fats your body can handle without packing back on the pounds is going to be different for the same reasons.
I'm still early in maintenance, but for me, "carb poor" just means I try to keep my starches and bread-based carbs to a minimum but I don't hesitate to have a serving of cheese, avocado or oil based dressing with my meal. "Fat poor" means that I avoid cheese and cream sauces but I have a serving of whole grain or a sweet potato with my meal. So far it has worked pretty well.
The best thing you can do is make sure you are logging what you eat (many of us use My Fitness Pal) every day, see what your calorie intake is and how you feel - you will eventually figure out what your "sweet spot" is for daily calories. And in the beginning, weigh yourself every few days - you need to know how your body is reacting to the added carbs and fats. If your weight starts to creep up again or you feel bloated and gross, you will be able to narrow down what caused it and adjust your eating plan. Maintenance is a lot of trial and error, but I think eventually (if you stick to it), you find a happy place that will work long-term
Maintenance is a totally different ballgame from the other phases. You really have to figure out
- what will work for you in the long term, and
- what your body is going to respond best to
There are no firm guidelines for how to "measure" carb poor versus fat poor. Once we are in maintenance, everyone's daily calorie needs are going to be different based on body type, level of activity, metabolic and hormonal makeup....and the amount of carbs/fats your body can handle without packing back on the pounds is going to be different for the same reasons.
I'm still early in maintenance, but for me, "carb poor" just means I try to keep my starches and bread-based carbs to a minimum but I don't hesitate to have a serving of cheese, avocado or oil based dressing with my meal. "Fat poor" means that I avoid cheese and cream sauces but I have a serving of whole grain or a sweet potato with my meal. So far it has worked pretty well.
The best thing you can do is make sure you are logging what you eat (many of us use My Fitness Pal) every day, see what your calorie intake is and how you feel - you will eventually figure out what your "sweet spot" is for daily calories. And in the beginning, weigh yourself every few days - you need to know how your body is reacting to the added carbs and fats. If your weight starts to creep up again or you feel bloated and gross, you will be able to narrow down what caused it and adjust your eating plan. Maintenance is a lot of trial and error, but I think eventually (if you stick to it), you find a happy place that will work long-term
Good lucK!
Great advice - I am close to moving to phase 3 but will save this for phase 4. I want to do my best to keep the weight off.
Thank you Scorbett1103! I wish there were ratios for carb vs fat to follow similar to the guidelines we had in Phase 3. When I choose a salad for lunch at a restaurant, many vegetables have carbs then there is the oil in the dressing and some cheese that are considered fat. In maintenance should we continue to follow the Phase 3 guidelines for breakfast?
Can a person have too much protein? I've read that at minimum it should be 1/2 of a person's lean body mass in grams, but that seems fairly easy to accomplish. Can we have too few of carbs? I've also read to maintain weight carbs should be around 150 grams. Finally, I've read fat grams shoud be 20 to 25 percent of a person's daily caloric intake (e.g. 44 to 55 grams for 2,000 calories).
Thank you Scorbett1103! I wish there were ratios for carb vs fat to follow similar to the guidelines we had in Phase 3. When I choose a salad for lunch at a restaurant, many vegetables have carbs then there is the oil in the dressing and some cheese that are considered fat. In maintenance should we continue to follow the Phase 3 guidelines for breakfast?
Can a person have too much protein? I've read that at minimum it should be 1/2 of a person's lean body mass in grams, but that seems fairly easy to accomplish. Can we have too few of carbs? I've also read to maintain weight carbs should be around 150 grams. Finally, I've read fat grams shoud be 20 to 25 percent of a person's daily caloric intake (e.g. 44 to 55 grams for 2,000 calories).
Thank you everyone for your input!
You don't have to worry about the carbs in veggies, they are negligible in the grand scheme of things - veggies (other than starchy veggies like potato, peas and corn) are unlimited once you hit maintenance. You want to be aware of the things that add 20-40g carbs per serving or more - breads, pasta, high sugar items - when you have your carb-poor meal.
Breakfast is up to you, I have chosen to continue eating P3 breakfasts through maintenance, they are nutritionally well balanced and just plain yummy! Breakfast is now often my favorite meal of the day
There are MANY opinions out there as far as what is the right amount of protein, fat and carbs for the average person, in terms of grams. Can you have too much protein? You can, but the amount you'd have to eat (unless you have known kidney issues) is more than you would realistically eat in a day even if you had a big portion at every meal. Can you have too few carbs? Remember that while in Phase 1 you were taking in about 20-40 net carbs per DAY. That's extremely low, and we all survived Fat (when it's good fat) is not the enemy - if you are choosing healthy fats and limiting your "bad" fats, you don't have to micromanage it too much.
At the end of the day, your best bet is to find a guideline that makes sense to you, then tweak it to meet the needs of your body. Don't be afraid of the added fat/carb - just be aware of what you eat every day so that you can head off any problems before they get out of hand.
If you would like a starting point in trying to find your personal maintenance, you might want to start by using the attached meal planner.
Unless you absolutely hate them or feel too full, start with the phase 3 breakfast. For lunch, have a protein, veggies and a fat source that will give you 10 to 20g of fat (this could be in addition to whatever fat is part of your protein).
For dinner, it's a little more open in that the sheet says fruit AND 1 to 2 servings of starch. You might want to start with 1 serving of starch OR fruit.
A serving of starch is going to be 15g of carbs, so read your labels to figure out how much potato or pasta or break or whatever you might like. You can also have up to 5g of Fat at dinner (like a couple of shakes of parmesan cheese or a tsp of olive oil).
For snacks, start out conservative. If you really only had one during p1 and really liked that, keep it to one. It could be a bar, yoghurt and fruit, 100 calories of nuts, items like that. You might experiment as to whether they need to be protein/fat or protein/starch combinations (as in, no cheese and crackers or cheese and fruit) or if you keep the portion small enough (100 calories?) and are only doing it once a day, maybe then 1/2 oz of cheese and a couple of small crackers or something similar that is a mix.
Protein requirements are pretty individual, too. Even at 100 lbs, I think you would be fine eating 75g of protein per day (at or below what you had on P1). I would be sure to get 50g per day as your minimum.
In terms of carbs, that is super individual. 150g may be far too many or it might be ok. If you aren't using a formal tracking system like my fitness pal, I think I would pay close attention to the carbs for fruit and the starchy carbs. Excluding snacks, you would probably be at about 80g carbs ON THOSE TWO TYPES OF FOOD ONLY. The balance would come from your vegetables.
I am always playing around with stuff on P4. So far what helps the most is making sure I get the protein and the vegetables in at both lunch and dinner. Also, I usually just have one snack.
I think at your goal weight you will need to be the most conscientious about portion size. Your age will play into it, too, as well as amount of exercise/activity. Those two things play a large role in how many carbs you can handle.
For your lunch example, you probably would have been fine with the original salad without the croutons, keeping the full fat dressing. If you want to toss out a couple of days of what you ate, I can give you ideas of what was good and what to tweak, if you would like.
And do pop over to the maintainers thread as everyone often discusses what they are trying and where they struggle.
Thank you Scorbett1103 and Infoplease! You both are life savers!
I have been using My Fitness Pal throughout this journey and expect to continue. It helps to keep track of food consumption during the day.
Today I had an IP premix chocolate drink on my way to church since I didn't have time to eat breakfast beforehand. After church I ate an English muffin with light cream cheese, 1cup blackberries, and 1/2 cup of Silk unsweetened soy milk. Fat 13.71, Carbs 47.84, Protein 27.5, Calories 372
For lunch I ate 4oz of Tilapia with 2 cups of steamed summer squash, 4 almonds, and one Colby Jack Cow Pals snack. Fat 11.61, Carbs 6.05, Protein 39.65, Calories 242
For dinner, one steak kabob and 2 cups roasted cauliflower, bell peppers, and red onion. Fat 6.03, Carbs 9.8, Protein 27.08, Calories 202. Should I have chosen a different vegetable such as a baked sweet potato?
Last night I had 6 oz of spaghetti with tomato, basil, and mozzarella sauce from an Italian restaurant. I believed it to be fat poor because of the pasta, but could the cheese have made a difference?
Thanks! I'll also checkout the maintainers thread.
Thank you Scorbett1103 and Infoplease! You both are life savers!
I have been using My Fitness Pal throughout this journey and expect to continue. It helps to keep track of food consumption during the day. Do you have a target calorie range from MFP? I would think it would be between 1200 and 1500 depending on your activity level and age.
Today I had an IP premix chocolate drink on my way to church since I didn't have time to eat breakfast beforehand. I've done similar--kinding of having a snack before breakfast--it works if you don't do it all the timeAfter church I ate an English muffin with light cream cheese, 1cup blackberries, and 1/2 cup of Silk unsweetened soy milk. Fat 13.71, Carbs 47.84, Protein 27.5, Calories 372So does that total include the IP drink? Either way it looks about right.
For lunch I ate 4oz of Tilapia with 2 cups of steamed summer squash, 4 almonds, and one Colby Jack Cow Pals snack. Fat 11.61, Carbs 6.05, Protein 39.65, Calories 242Was this satisfying? The proportions look good. The calories might be a little low. As long as the carbs are coming from vegetables--even the formerly deadly carrots--you can pretty much have what you would like. Or, you can play with upping the number of almonds.
For dinner, one steak kabob and 2 cups roasted cauliflower, bell peppers, and red onion. Fat 6.03, Carbs 9.8, Protein 27.08, Calories 202. Should I have chosen a different vegetable such as a baked sweet potato?Actually, you could have some sweet potato AND the other vegetables. This meal looks a little light in calories. Is that fat only from the meat?
Last night I had 6 oz of spaghetti with tomato, basil, and mozzarella sauce from an Italian restaurant. I believed it to be fat poor because of the pasta, but could the cheese have made a difference?Because it is restaurant food, it probably had too much fat--depends on how much cheese & oil you think they used--BUT you can think of it as a "slip" and just not worry about it. It should have no impact unless you are doing it every night.
Thanks! I'll also checkout the maintainers thread.
So my non-professional opinion is that you are off to a very good start. You are doing well at looking to keep the "rules" yet make them work for your lifestyle. Some related questions: how many calories are you typically eating each day (averaged over the course of a week, say)? Are you still losing weight? Do you see 105 as your max or the weight you want to be (what do you see as your range--103 to 107 or 100 to 105?)
Like many, I am feeling my way through Phase 4. I am a month in, and have held steady on the scale, despite being away on a business conference (too much wine, but behaved reasonably while eating out all the time) for a week of it.
I had to simplify the way I approached my day. I couldn't keep counting grain calories, and fruit calories at breakfast, and also needed to stop fussing over what made a lunch carb-poor and a dinner fat-poor. So here is Phase 4 according to Shawsy.
Phase 4 breakfast is just like Phase 3 breakfast. I follow those guidelines. Now that I know what I like, I have settled into a bit of a routine. Half a cup of cooked quinoa, or amaranth, or buckwheat or teff for my grain, served hot with a couple ounces of soy milk and eaten like porridge. Change up the fruit every day for variety. Egg white or whole egg omelet. Coffee with or without soy milk depending on my mood. Dairy has not been agreeing with me and I am not missing it.
Lunch. I eat a lunch much like Phase 2 lunch. Lean protein (usually leftover from previous night, or an egg white omelet that I cook in the morning at home and bring to work to microwave), a couple cups of veggies and a salad with olive oil and vinegar. I can control the fat by adding enough olive oil.
Supper. I eat a supper much like Phase 1 supper, but I add back in some grains. Half a cup of whatever grain I had at breakfast works well for me. (I cook up a batch of grain that lasts several days and keep it in the fridge.) I use only enough olive oil to make the meal palatable - cutting up vegetables and mixing with quinoa/grain in a salad served cold with olive oil and vinegar is pretty delicious.
Snack. I am a bit all over the place on this. I have tried some protein bars and they seem okay. RTD EAS Carb Control shake and a piece of fruit seems more satisfying though. I'm still finding my way.
kpmartin - your menu looks very good, depending on what your daily calorie intake is you could definitely add a small sweet potato or another grain to your dinner as well as the veggies you had. If what you ate filled you up though, no need to change it! We aren't OBLIGATED to eat fats at lunch and carbs at dinner, but if we want the option it's there. As long as your daily nutritional intake looks good and you don't feel hungry right after a meal, you're fine.
RE: the dinner out - unless there was a quarter cup of mozzarella melted on top of the pasta, chances are the sauce just used a little for flavor and it probably didn't add much fat to the meal. You can always ask the restaurant if they have a nutritional guide, we have to do it all the time for my husband who is a Type 1 diabetic and needs to know carb amounts for his insulin dosing.
Phase 4 Help
