I don't know about you, but if I ate just oatmeal, I'd be starving about an hour later. That's why I would put a protein with it, personally. I know, that probably does not answer your actual question, sorry!

i put almond slices in my oatmeal when im cooking it.. it adds more protien

A and D. In this case mostly A


To multiply the amount of protein in just oatmeal in order to get your meals allotment of protein grams, you are going to be consuming a lot of extra carbs. In order to count the food as both a carb and a protein, in my opinion, they will need to be close to a 1:1 carb to protein ratio. Oatmeal has, I think, about a 5:1 carb to protein ratio (or more), so I would definitely consider it a carb with a protein "bonus".

Also, while oatmeal contains a good deal of protein, the protein is not complete protein in that it does not contain all of the essential amino acids. This limits to the usable amount of protein. Which is why those who do not partake in animal proteins (which are all sources of complete protein) learn how to combine the different incomplete proteins so that all of the essential amino acids are provided. Technically, it is not absolutely necessary that these be combined in the exact same meal, but they need to be combined while the unused amino acids are still in the bloodstream before they are converted to glucose and burned as energy or stored as fat.

I'm not up on which incomplete proteins should be combined with which (although a common one is rice with beans) so I'm not sure what you should look to have with or in the meal after your oatmeal if you which to "complete" it with another incomplete protein. A vegetarian website would almost definitely have this information for you.

Thanks DP! That article was exactly what I was looking for, specifically this part:

Bill's advice seems to target about 40% carbs, 40% protein, and 20% fat (which is largely contained in the whole foods you eat, even "lean" meats). Since you'll be doing weight training, shoot for at least a gram of protein per pound of lean weight daily, regardless of your specific goal.

I'm going to tweak Bill's ratios because of my PCOS to 30% carbs, 40% protein, and 30% fats, with all of my carbs coming from whole grain or lower GI sources. Because I'm such a dork about these things, I've created a excel spreadsheet with those different ratios at different calorie levels, and then meal plans for each calorie level.

I'm never sure where my calories should be, so I try to cycle them somewhat through the week. I had thought about going and having my metabolism tested at the lab down the street. For $40 they will test you and tell your exact basic metabolic rate. I've used various online calculators, but they all give me different numbers, which vary wildly.

Hmmm, I see. I always add some protein to my oatmeal, usually in the form of walnuts, which also add Omega-3's. Otherwise, it doesn't hold me for long. As one who doesn't eat a lot of meat, I'm always looking for alternative protein sources. Usually I end up with cottage cheese and beans (not together!) Even when I do eat animal protein it's not much. DH and I usually split a boneless chicken breast for instance, and then often don't finish the dish I used it in. DP, borrowed your lunch idea and last night sauteed zucchini, onions and red peppers, then added some curry sauce. I had mine over some leftover rice, DH had his over potato. Very yummy! We eat mainly chicken and salmon, with occasional beef and pork. I guess I need to do a little research to see how much protein I'm actually eating. I go through spells of entering my food in Fitday which will tell me. Need to get a little more consistent with that. (Not as compulsive as you Dixie )

So I found out that my gym is running a 6 week program where you keep track and go to the gym 3x a week. At the end, everyone who did gets entered into a drawing for prizes. Some are bigger - like a ski area one-day pass - others are smaller - like a t-shirt or water bottle - but it's something to keep you going during the cold dark days of winter. And for a change, I'll be in town for the next six weeks, so I signed up.

I'm planning to be ready to go on Sunday!

So is everyone starting with Sunday as their free day then? I just realized that, and I had been thinking all along that the BFL plan has you start on a Sunday. Then I think I just realized yesterday when I looked up a few things up that it could technically start on a Monday. Mondays are hard tho, ya know, having to do this new, every 3-hr eating thing on a work day? Might need the weekend to do the first day. Does anyone care on which day we start? I will be all messed up anyway because I would prefer to do my workouts on Fridays/the weekends and take my free day/day off during the week which tends to be more crazy for me.

I was telling the teachers at dd's school today about what I'm doing. They were all talking about what plan they're doing now, and BFL says you should publicly commit to your goals, so, what tha heck - it seemed like time to confess. One of the things I was telling them was that really nothing is off-limits, that you just try to eat smarter. Yes, I can have a white baked potato. You wouldn't have cheese & bacon (unless canadian) over your grilled chicken at a restaurant, you would ask them to hold that; that you would try to get your veggies steamed plain without the seasoning/butter sauce often used, etc.

But I'm right in saying that you COULD, if you choose to, eat from the menu, right? But perhaps your results would not be as great as if you asked them to hold the cheese/bacon, or use low fat cheese/egg beaters, for example. I think that's pretty liberating.

I know I will be enjoying my one portion of fat each day. Likely via a spoon and the PB jar (if it's not on the salmonella recall list by next week!)

My trainer gave me a list of protein exchanges that approx = 25 gms of protein. If anyone wants it, PM me. All of these exchanges are animal based, btw. I think it would be too hard for me to get the protein I want with the carb levels I want doing non-animal based foods.

I look for 25 gms of protein 6 times a day. My oatmeal has 6 grams of protein so it would not meet that goal for me if I had it alone. I make mine with protein powder (although I know that is off limits for you, sportmom) but one of my favorite things to do with my oatmeal is blend it with cottage cheese and eggs and cook like pancakes.

Gotta get the kids from school.....

Fran, what day to start doesn't matter to me. I'm pretty much already doing it, except once the challenge is "on" my personal goal is no missed workouts. I do take a rest day from exercise if needed, but not on the same day each week, and I won't be taking any free food days or meals, since I don't do well with those.

jam: yeah.. i dont do well with free food days.. it turns quickly into an all out binge.. haha it's all or nothing with me.
imgonna focus on my exercise this challenge.. because my eating is pretty much under cntrol.. but im slacking in the work out world.

My plan is to stick with a free meal each week, rather than a free day. And I guess I've already started this week!

I don't care what day we start, Sundays are my "alone" day, as DH is at work and I'm off, so I think I may start on Sunday and that way if I did take a free day it would be a Saturday when we're both off. Right now I usually just take 1 free meal a month. That let's me justify my monthly pms ice cream pint. Although I guess it would technically be 2 meals since it now takes me 2 days to eat a pint of ice cream. Back when it was my drug of choice, I could finish off a pint a day and still want more.

I finished most of my pantry stocking this morning. Between the rice and beans, I think most of my carb choices are in place. I already had a freezer full of lean protein, so I think I'm set.

DH is going to take my pictures when he gets up. I need to do my measurements and body fat. I'm going to try a new method for calculating BF, my scale said 38% last month, so it will be interesting to see if there is a difference. When I had it done at the old gym in Dec it was 33%. Maybe I should just average the methods? I really want to find somewhere closeby with a bodpod. Or submersion.

Off to find my tape measure...

Argh!! I can't find my tape measure!!!

Hey guys, what is ff milk and lf cheese? I see that full fat dairy is on the list of fats to avoid, but i don't see ffmilk/lf cheese mentioned. Is it a protein? It can't be a fat, if it's ff, right?

My skim milk has 12 grams of carbs per serving and 8 grams of protein per serving. So, it's both and you could use it for both looking at an all over meal plan, I suppose.

Wow. Looks like everyone is busy planning for this challenge this week. I'm so excited. I kind of began this week. Like Cheryl, my everyday eating really is still based this way. My "challenge" for this challenge is to eliminate the little deviations that have crept into my diet.

Things like finishing my BFL 40,40,20 meal and then looking in the pantry for some pretzels and dousing it in mustard. Certainly this kept me at my current weight and needs to stop.

Or the eight to ten almonds I might throw back in betwen my lunch and my afternoon snack. Not exactly something that is going to cause me to gain a whole lot of weight but it is something that again could hold me back from losing more and reaching my long term goal.

I'm on a quest to find a body fat analyzer this afternoon. I've always been curious in the summer the difference between my winter size vs summer size. I know that I have always been able to peel off an additional three or four pounds after losing the winter weight gain. This year I want to know how that translate into body fat measurements.

NEW SHOES! I GOT NEW RUNNING SHOES! Oh Elena I know that happiness you felt over your zumba shoes. I replace them every year but I think maybe it should be more like every six months. These feel so WONDERFUL. I ran and I ran and I ran with NO PAIN. I then did some kick *** sprints around the track. Like I could feel my hips fully extend behind me during the sprints. : WOW! That was great. EVERYONE should experience just how wonderful that feels!

Interesting note though. I cooled down a little, did some chin ups and then attempted back squats. I did load the bar a little heavier than usual for my first set but what I found was that my hip flexors were really really tight when I got down into the lowered position. It was so darn hard to pull myself back up and out of that flexed position in my hips. Do you think the sprints had something to do with that? That has never ever happened to me before. It felt like they were locked. I just kind of hung there a little bit and then had to push through it to the top position again.

When people would describe how difficult the squat was for them to explode from the hips I cognitively understood that but never experienced it. Well, today was my turn. Kind of felt like I might need those stays just in case today. By the third set all was right with the world and I was able perform the squats with much better range of motion and pull myself up without feeling that downward resistance from my hips. Anyway, just thought I would share. Don't sprint just before squatting.

By the way, which day are we officially beginning anyone? Sunday usually is my off day but I'm willing to forgo it. Really. Fran, I can't believe you thought of Sunday as a free eating/meal day. That is just too funny.

Fran: About the nonfat/lowfat dairy. I usually see the dairy, milk, as a carb. It does have a little protein in it but really, it's has more carbs in it. If I'm looking to add it to a meal, it would be counted as a carb choice for me. I would then need to add something predominately protein like whey powder, or prepare eggs or have turkey or chicken to eat with it as I drink it. Overall though, I rely upon Fitday to keep these macronutrients in the correct percentages.