[Bellissa]

Fellow dieters,

I've been following the South Beach diet, but I have found that over the last 4/5 days not only has it reduced my sweet craving, but I have no desire to eat food, I have no appetite. Wednesday I ate around 800, yesterday 890, today I am at 650. I started college back this week, my schedule isn't super busy but I am walking around campus and biking. I feel like I should be wanting more to eat but I feel like I am loosing my appetite more and more. I love the fact that I lost a few pounds already but I don't want to end up binging and gaining it all back. I'll slip into depression again. I don't know if I should keep up eating and see if my normal appetite comes back or if I should try to fit in 900 more calories for this day (its 8:00pm).

Please help.

[Onsecondthought]

Hi Bellissa,

I feel your pain. I'm on day 12 of SB and since I've started, I've rarely been able to eat more than 900 calories on any given day. I know that there is a limit on the number of nut servings that you're suppose to have in Phase 1, but in order to increase my calorie counts, I've been eating at least 2-3 servings of almonds and/or peanut butter daily. On days I'm really struggling for calories, I'll even throw in some avocado/guacamole.

As for what to do today, 900 calories is low, but if you're not hungry, I would go to sleep and when you get up tomorrow, try to add a few more servings of higher fat snacks throughout the day: add nuts to your cottage cheese and/yogurt; nuts and avocado to your salad, etc.

I hope this helps.

[Ruthxxx]

If you post a menu, perhaps we can spot something to help "up" the calories in a healthy way. Also, please check out the Revised Phase I food list in the stickies. It has changed from the old book and you may spot some new foods to add - like dairy and tomatoes.