Question on fat servings for maintainers.
 

I am trying to lose weight and am currently morbidly obese. I am calorie counting and keeping my calorie count from 1200 to 1400 per day. I am 50, sedentary and can barely walk to the bathroom at this point in life. I want this fat OFF!! once and for all. Been dealing with it since puberty and am sick of it.:mad:

Anyway my question.......in my plan, I have 4 servings of fat but that just seems kind of high. When you maintainers were losing your weight, do you recall how many fat servings you had daily? I just want to make sure I am on the right track....not going too low with my fat servings but not going too high either.

I'm not sure what you mean by "servings", as I tend to think in terms of grams of fat, or fat as a percentage of daily calorie intake. But four servings a day doesn't sound like too much to me.

What I can tell you is that everyone's dietary needs are different, and may change over time. Our dietary needs also depend on our exercise regime.

I lost weight on a very low-fat diet, but then switched over to a higher fat diet (basically a "cleaned up" version of the South Beach Diet) for maintenance. I was scared of eating so much fat at first, but after a while found that I felt much better on it, and that a little fat provides satiety.

Don't be afraid of fat! If you're interested in learning more about "good" fats, I would strongly recommend The South Beach Diet.

ETA: I guess what I'm trying to say is that the best way to lose weight - and keep it off - is to find a way of eating you can stick with for the rest of your life. I didn't do that, but if I could go back and do it all again, I would have started out on a healthy plan like The South Beach Diet.

Hey! :wave:

Even on Medifast, which is a low calorie diet (lower than what you are eating), one can eat up to 2 servings per day of fats, depending on other choices. That's for weight loss, and for maintenance it is higher.

A "serving" in Medifast terms is 5 grams fat or fewer--so it would be a teaspoon of butter (although regular Medifast discourages butter) or 1 tablespoon of a "light" salad dressing, and so on. Basically, the equivalent of 30-45 calories of fat per serving.

So I wouldn't worry about 4 servings, if your "serving" is comparable.

Jay

My servings are the same as you described. 1 teaspoon of butter, etc.

I'm doing an exchange plan and 4 servings of fat just seems, at the moment, kind of high to me and I thought I could swap out a couple of fat servings for something more nutritionally dense. An example would be to swap out 2 fat servings for one protein serving so I could have an extra boiled egg (or swap 2 fat servings out for one dairy serving so I could have an extra glass of milk perhaps)

I'll also be getting fat from other things like meat, fish, and eggs (all in thier appropriate servings sizes of course) so I won't be going totally without fats in my diet because that would most likely be bad for my body.

I'm basically wondering if I am on the right track. I have lost weight on this plan in the past (back in 1996) so I guess I am just overthinking it too much.

I would do South Beach but I want to have a couple of servings of starchy foods daily (like rice or oatmeal) and some fruit.

I'm not quite a maintainer yet but have lots a decent chunk of weight so far. ;)

I've never limited my fats at all and do eat butter on whole grain toast on a daily basis. Basically, I really work on getting in protein/veggies/fruit and then eat some whole grains+fats too. Almost all of my fat (in terms of just pure fat, not counting meat/eggs/dairy etc) is 1 pad of butter in the morning for breakfast on toast and then olive oil that I use to cook with. However, I certainly do get in plenty when it comes to meat (I eat a lot of red meat!), eggs, dairy (i mostly eat just full fat dairy), and avocados (yum!).

If you're talking about 4 servings of just pure fat a day (so butter/oil etc) that would be hard for me to get in too. However, if it's included with meat/dairy/avocados/nuts etc it doesn't seem too bad.

Yes, they are included. That is what I wanted to hear. I guess I need to stop worrying over it.

You can always skip Phase 1 and go directly to Phase 2. Phase 1 is designed to cure people of cravings for sugar and processed carbs.

In that case, I think 4 servings is just fine and should be pretty easy to get. ;) There's no reason that they have to come from butter/oils and meat/dairy/avocados etc are great because you're getting in protein and lots of other great stuff too.

It's 100% normal to worry about these things. It's hard when you're just starting a diet and you haven't hit your groove yet. Don't worry eventually you'll get there and be a pro at this! :D

I will keep it in mind Redpanda. I am having sugar cravings lately which is my fault for indulging in way too much ice cream over the summer and mindlessly adding sugar to my tea or the occasional cup of coffee. I try not to eat processed carbs and for the most part I don't but I have indulged in some in the past couple of months. Not a lot but I do admit that I had some and that was not in my best interest.

I just want to try my plan for a while and see how things go. If they do not seem to be working out I will seriously look into South Beach. I am not ruling anything out at this point in my life and I do like the South Beach plan because it does allow beans (which Atkins never did) and I love beans.

I do appreciate your help even if it seems like I don't. :) :hug:

No worries - as we say in Australia! :)

Hi there -

It wasn't until I logged meals on myfitnesspal that I realized my fat was considered above recommended. However as long as my calories are in range I really just don't care. My biggest sources = nuts, PEANUT BUTTER, and avocados. :)

The calories have been what has mattered for me.

I'm also on an exchange plan, and on my 1800 calorie reduced-carb exchange plan, I get 6 to 8 fat exchanges. Four servings of fat is actually quite low, unless your eating quite fatty meats and full fat dairy (and even then, your fats are all coming from animal sources, and you still need healthy vegetable fats).

Four fat exchanges only comes to 130 to 180 calories. If you're on a 1300 to 1800 calorie diet, that's only 7 - 10% of your calories coming from fat. That's extremely low. 30% of calories coming from fat is pretty good, and 20-25% is exceptionally good.

Now you're getting more than 10%, because of the other fat in your diet (though I'd be surprised if it was more than another 15% unless you're choosing very fatty meats for your proteins).

Also, even though you're getting some fat in your diet outside the fat exchanges, they're all animal fats (from dairy, meat, fish and eggs). You want to include healthy plant fats as well - from things like avocado, nuts, healthy vegetable oils (like canola and olive oil) and nut oils...

When I first did this exchange plan, back in 1996, I was on the 1800 meal plan. I lost 27 pounds the first month (got to 330 pounds) but the plan itself was pretty high carb (8 servings daily) and I was doing a Richard Simmons workout tape daily as well as walking my son to school twice a day and just generally living life. I walked everywhere because I do not drive. Since then I regained over 150 pounds and can barely walk to the bathroom much less around the block.

To make a long story short a few days ago I tweaked the plan to give me 1700 calories. I thought it was 1400 but I just recounted them and it is 1700. My addition was off.

I gave myself 10 protein exchanges, all coming from whole eggs, fish, seafood, scallops, shrimp or beans. I rarely eat beef and chicken and never eat pork.

Since I am pretty sedentary (due to my size) I am worried about my calories being too high. That is why I picked 1400 originally (but since learned I goofed up my math). I am worried about not losing and I sure as heck to not want to maintain this weight (450 pounds on a 5'3" woman)

My tweaked plan is:

10 protein servings (1 ounce, 1 egg or 1/3 cup beans)

6 non-starchy veggie servings

4 fat servings (from butter, olive oil, nuts or avocado...sometimes mayonnaise but not often)

2 dairy servings (if I choose a high fat serving I have to count in the appropriate number of fat servings)

4 starch servings (rice, oatmeal or starchy veg. I do not eat bread)

2 fruit servings

Does it look ok? Anything I can do better? My foods are all non-processed and I try to eat high quality high-nutrient foods. I want to do the best for poor abused body and get it healthier.

I can't comment directly on number of servings of fat, but it sounds like your plan is fine to me. There are a couple things that caught my attention though -- it's off topic from your original post so if I'm out of line please ignore...

1) RedPanda is right that you need to pick a plan you can stick to for life.
2) You said you tried this plan before in 1996 and then gained all the weight back.

So my question to you would be, what are you doing differently this time so that you can stick to this plan for life, even though you couldn't before? I think it's important to spend some time thinking about this. Maybe before you weren't really ready to do it, and you are now, and that's fine. But if there was something about the plan itself that made you unable to stick to it before, you may want to consider whether the same thing might happen again.

In any case, stick around and good luck! :)