Eating more veggies and my carb count is skyrocketing...
I've been focusing on a primarily veggie diet the past 2 days, and my carbs have been significantly higher than before because veggies have a higher carb count than meats and cheeses. This is worrying me a lot because I don't want to stall out, but I'm really enjoying my veggies.
Typical menu:
breakfast: 2 egg omelet with shredded cheddar cheese
lunch: veggie burger w/ a side of broccoli salad (steamed broccoli, cheese, bacon, onion, and a mayo/vinegar/splenda dressing)
snack: atkins shake
dinner: a square or two of my spaghetti squash dish (spaghetti squash, tomato, onion, garlic, and seasonings topped with cheese and then baked)
snack: either some sugar-free candy or some nuts, maybe a sweet drink made with one of my sugar-free syrups. Tonight I had skillet-melted cheese with pepperoni dipped in some ranch.
Now...primarily my carbs are coming from veggies, but those "extra" carbs adding up along with my veggies are freaking me out. Today I was at about 30 carbs (about 19 of them from veggies I think) with 120g of fat and less than 100g of protein. Do you think maybe I'm snacking more because I'm hungry due to lack of protein? I'm not the biggest meat fan and it's a big pain to prepare, so maybe if I kept deviled/boiled eggs on hand and snacked on those along with my veggie dishes (of course prepared with butter and oil ) it would help. Any advice?
My carb counts are pretty inaccurate right now because I don't have a food scale. It should be arriving sometime this week. I think my numbers are pretty close, though.
It does look as though you're not getting nearly enough protein. Protein and fat keeps us from being hungry on Atkins and helps tame the urge to snack.
And I see a lot of artificial sweeteners on the day you posted. Sugar-free candy, shakes, and other "fake" foods are bad news on Atkins for many people. The fillers in veggie burgers are usually carbohydrate-rich. Remember, Atkins is not designed for vegetarians.
Jerseygyrl and Atkins recommends shopping from the outer perimeters of the grocery - fresh vegetables, meats, poultry, fish, cheeses, butter, sour cream, cream. I find the fewer convenience, prepared foods I eat, the more I lose.
I know preparing meat, chicken and fish is a pain. I have weeks that I can't face cooking. I buy a rotisserie chicken and make a big container of chicken salad and cook a roast, a small pork tenderloin or make a meatloaf so I can have several meals without cooking. I also depend on the sausage, egg and cheese quiche for quick protein-packed meals; one recipe gives me about 6 protein meals. I use it for breakfast, lunch or dinner.
Your deviled eggs idea is a good one. I do that too sometimes.
Last night, I made short ribs, enough for two meals. This morning I'll be making the quiche - it's become my convenience food go-to.
You might also try sending JerseyGyrl your menu in a private message and asking her what she advises. It's going to be okay; we're doing fine. We just have to go back to the 1972 Induction list and take our food cues from it. Have a good day!
Yeah, I try not to eat too many artificial sweeteners but sometimes it just happens. I love the Atkins shakes/bars for convenience (and I'm receiving practically a year's supply in the mail for Christmas--definitely motivation to stay on plan just so all of my low-carb goodies don't go to waste!) and I love the taste of veggie burgers. If I make meat patties at home, it kinda grosses me out. I eat a veggie burger low in carbs, 2 per patty, and the ingredients aren't too awful so I figured it would be okay. I have 2 more patties, I think I'll finish off the box and not buy them again. Maybe there's something in them that's causing me to stall.
I have seen the scale go up, but it could be water due to TOM coming sometime this week. Maybe I'll start adding bacon to my omelet and meatballs to my spaghetti squash etc to get more protein. I need to find ways to prepare meat that doesn't make my food seem too rich or greasy. Lately I've been craving more fresh clean foods (which isn't a bad thing!). Thank you for the advice; I'm going to try to tone down my carbs and up my protein. Basically I need to find a balance...I have the veggie part down, now I need to get the protein back.
I've been thinking about what you've been eating...I doubt it's really too many veggies. I'm with you...I think it's the lack of protein and unprocessed fat - like the fat that's in sausage, beef, bacon, butter, olive oil. I lose best when I prepare the food myself and stay away from heavily salted, processed meats like deli ham and hot dogs. There's a ton of salt which will cause many people to retain water...and then there's the TOM factor too.
Can you add a handful of shrimp to your salads? They're pricey, but a pound will go a long way on salads. What about chicken breasts if the beef is too heavy and greasy?
Lucky you! An Atkins box...what a sweet mama you have. You can always experiment and use the bars and shakes for a couple of weeks in moderation and then not use them at all for a couple of weeks...see what happens.
When I strictly limit cheese to less than an ounce a day and cut out artificial sweeteners of all kinds, I lose twice as much as I do when I'm eating them every day. I'm not saying I do that every week; I'm just saying I should if I want maximum weight loss every week.
Islandchick says we have to play around and find out what works for us; we may have to readjust our typical menus to continue losing for our Valentines Challenge. Let's think about it...(translation: I'm not doing all that great, but I'm thinking about it!)
I agree that it takes experimentation to see what works. I think I'll be more successful once my food scale comes in the mail--my carb counts are probably really inaccurate because I have trouble eyeballing an ounce of broccoli or 4oz of meat. I might find out that I've been eating way more carbs than I thought I have!
You know me, I'll definitely keep updated on what I figure out...I need to find my "niche!" I was losing more steadily before I started getting brave and adding sweetener and more cheese...now I've been stalling a bit. I think I'm going to go mostly back to basics and then start slowly adding things in, starting with my bars/shakes. I'm also going to limit cheese to STRICTLY 2-4oz daily...I probably go over that a lot.
Cheese is definitely a deal-breaker for me. I LOVE cheese and ate lots of it before I started Atkins...is that a red flag? I have a food scale, but don't always use it. I'm trying to back away from the cheese slowly; I'm certainly not giving it up.
I think I've posted this before, but my aunt, who fought a life-time battle with her weight, told me once that her doctor told her that for every ounce of cheese she ate, she'd retain something crazy like 12 - 16 ounces of water. WHAT??? Don't know if it's true or not, but I've never forgotten it because I was so horrified!
Oh wow! I LOVE cheese too--LOVE it. It makes everything taste better! I definitely need to limit my cheese. I've been eating lots of melted cheese in my omelets in the morning AND more spread out through the day. That could be a huge contributing factor! Thank you for the info.
I totally understand. Cheese is my favorite go-to, go-with everything food. I managed to use only a sprinkle of grated parmesan on my spinach salad tonight. I've had a cheesecake muffin today (cream cheese 1 1/2 oz. per muffin) and a sprinkle of parmesan. That's a super-low cheese day for me.
If we limit cheese to 4 oz. per day and eat it every day, it adds up to 1 3/4 lbs. of cheese in a week. HOLY COW!
Eating more veggies and my carb count is skyrocketing...
) it would help. Any advice?
