This sounds good!
How much fat do you think that is?

It is 15-20g depending on your cheese. I used a low fat feta.

Hello ladies,

My OCD is kicking in as I'm supposed to start Phase 3 tomorrow but am not ready... The recipes look great but i'm not prepared yet to do these beforehand. I think my problem is that I haven't written my breakfast out (which I will print spreadsheet to add things).

So my question is, what is the most simplest phase 3 breakfast there is.

I have Ezequiel bread and eggs. I can get cheese, cereal, what type of yogurt, granola, fruit? I'm so nervous that I'm contemplating staying on Phase 2 for another week to get prepared.

Sorry for the ramble, but i'm in need of help.

First phase 3 breakfast--OMG it was soooo good. I had a toasted Sourdough English muffin with 1.5 tablespoons of natural peanut butter, 1 cup of nonfat plain Greek yogurt sprinkled with cinnamon and vanilla powder, and a cup of blackberries. I have been craving peanut butter for months, and it tasted so good! 433 calories, 42 net carbs, 15 g fat, 29 protein.

My laptop died, my new job doesn't have internet, and it's virtually impossible to post & link on the stupid phone - finally sneaked onto hubbys desktop quickly...

I went to C&P a sample breakfast breakdown and just saw your post mom!

Basically, you need to break down each 'component' of your breakfast into fat grams, carb grams, protein grams, and calories and make sure you follow "the rules"

You need protein from a whole source (not a packet), a grain - with only 30g of carbs of less, a fruit - with only 20g of carbs or less, and a dairy - with less than 15g carbs and less than 120 calories.

Lay out your fat/carbs/protein/cals in the Phase 3 worksheet (that helps A LOT), and then figure out your totals - your total protein should be 25g or more, total fat should be 15g or less, and total calories between 400-500. You can add in a fat if you have the allowance.

Here is the Phase 3 Worksheet:
http://www.3fatchicks.com/forum/atta...-worksheet.pdf

Here is the Phase 3 Fact Sheet:
http://www.3fatchicks.com/forum/atta...al-protein.pdf

Here is a post with some handouts from my coach on Phase 3 & 4:
http://www.3fatchicks.com/forum/4426395-post225.html

Here is a great Phase 3 Thread:
http://www.3fatchicks.com/forum/idea...ighlight=Phase

Liz, I love the worksheet. I used it last night to figure out my breakfast for today.

Thanks again Liz. I've printed everything out and will work on this tonight. I continued w/a Phase 2 day today instead of starting Phase 3, as I was not prepared.

This thread is GREAT!! I will be starting on Saturday and I am SO excited!!!
I am still 3.4 lbs from my goal but I'm ready to be getting back into 'normal' and back into my running. So I'm hoping I lose a little bit more on phase 3 but if not, I'm okay. My number was kind of just tossed out there. I honestly didn't think I would hit 125 and I've passed that. I haven't been this weigh since high school!! LOL never thought I'd see it on my scale again.

For those on phase 3 and 4 (maintenance?), what is the best way to keep track of all your numbers? This is A LOT of information and I'm a little bit anal about number tracking. I cannot just write it down in a book and then rewrite it every day.
Do you use excel? an app on your phone?

I'm using my fitness pal (iPhone/iPad app).

Thanks for all of the advice here. I'll still be in phase 1 for quite a while...but I have been looking at the Phase 3/Maintenance threads...

My question...do you know how many fat grams you can have in a day? I understand that it's less than 15 for breakfast. What about for the entire day. Just wondering... I do like my avocado, raw almonds, and flax seeds - so I'm wondering how they will (or won't) fit into the scheme of things.

Your day on phase three (after breakfast) is the same as phase 2. I don't know about phase 4 yet.

I've been looking into what life will be like in maintenance and mainly just being HEALTHY. I will tell you that I've found some great articles on livestrong.com but to answer your 'fat' question, I like this ratio:
For high-protein diets, daily recommended calories should come from 30% protein, 50% carbs (whole grain, complex), and 20% from fat.
Now to calculate this, it's a little complicated and I am SO slow at figuring this out. But if you don't have a program that does the math for you, you take the GRAMS OF PROTEIN X 4= total calories from protein. Same for carbs. But for fat you multiply the grams x 9 to get total calories from fat. Then you add up the total calories that day and divide it by the fat calories to get the %.

I thought having my >1 g carb dressing wasn't going to hurt anything and it tasted so much better than the WF ones. But then I started to do these equations and realized i was maxing my fat out everyday cause even though the carbs were next to nothing, the fat was 9g! 9x9=81 calories from fat. And when our total calories are less than 1000, I'm having almost 10% from my dressing! I only have another 10% and if I had beef for dinner (15-20 grams), well now I'm over 25%!! UGH. So I went back to tasteless or no dressing salads. BTW, I was losing at a slower rate so that should have been a clue that i wasn't "cheating" right. LOL :P

Anyway, I think in maintenance, you can have all those yummy things you listed as long as you keep the total amount/day down (e.g., have leaner meat). I don't know if they care when you have fat...I know they are keeping our carbs in the mornings right now...

Hi All - I shared Liz's worksheet with my coach and received the following feedback - Just thought I'd share. It isn't substantially different. If anyone knows of any other adjustments, i'd appreciate sharing.

Thanks Liz - for this form. It is much easier this way.

** When it comes to the GRAIN, you are looking at net carbs. Take your carbs minus the fiber and that's the number to look record.
** Under the dairy, you put <15 g carbs ....that needs to be omitted there is no gram count on the dairy.
**The cheese (in the example area) does not going under dairy, it's actually its a fat and u must count the grams of fat, protein and calories.
** The cottage cheese you wrote down for example is a protein, you can count it as a dairy but you must add up the protein grams, fat, and calories.

My coach also said Net Carbs - which I am calculating as Total - Fiber, I know some also subtract Sugar Alcohols, but I am conservative - although not sure how many grains have Sugar Alcohols anyways.
I actually lump dairy & fat 'together' (sort of) - I'll add in the fat if my totals accomodate having it after adding up the calories and grams from everything else. It is definitely a balancing act!

Regarding the <15g carbs from Dairy - on page 3 of my Phase 3 worksheet (link below), on the 2nd paragraph (right above the table with the suggested serving sizes) it does state the following:

"Meals should consist of 30g or less of grain carbohydrates, 20 g or less of fruit carbohydrates, 15 g or less from dairy carbohydrates. Aim for about 25 g of protein and try to keep total fat less than 15 grams. Breakfast should be between 400 and 500 calories in Phase 3."

Also, regarding the Cottage Cheese - on page 4 of that same Phase 3 worksheet it lists Cottage Cheese as a suggested serving under Dairy. But agree that the protein does go towards your total.

Link: http://www.3fatchicks.com/forum/atta...al-protein.pdf

Ingredients
2 Eggs
4 oz Egg Whites
3 Apricots
3 oz Fat Free Cream Cheese
1/3 cup Sugar-free Pancake Mix
4 tbsp No-Calorie Sweetener (to taste)
1 tsp Vanilla Extract
WF Pancake Syrup

Directions
1. Mix together Eggs, Egg Whites, FF Cream Cheese, Sweetener, & Vanilla together. I used my immersion blender to get it all blended.
2. Add in Pancake Mix and gently mix together with a fork (don't want to over mix), pour into pie pan.
3. Cut Apricots into thin slices and arrange on top of pancake mixture.
4. Bake at 350 degrees ~18-20 minutes until puffy.
5. Lightly spread WF Pancake Syrup on top for a 'glaze'

Phase 3 Nutritional Information:

Product_____________________Serving____Fat_______C arb______Protein____Cal

Protein-------------------------------------------------------------------
Large Eggs..................2 egg.....10.0g ..... 0.0g......12.0g......140
AllWhites Egg Whites........4 oz...... 0.0g ..... 0.0g..... 13g ....... 67

Grain------------------------------------------- <30g --------------------
Maple Farms of VT SF Pancake...1/3c... 3.7g ..... 8Ng ..... 16g ...... 120

Fruit------------------------------------------- <20g --------------------
Apricots....................3 (*35g).. 0.3g .... 11.7g ..... 1.5g...... 51

Dairy------------------------------------------- <15g --------------- <120
Fat Free Cream Cheese.......3 oz...... 0.0g ...... 6.0g ... 12.0g...... 87

TOTAL_______________________________ <15.0g ______________ >25.0g___400-500
......................................14.0g ......25.7g ....54.5g .....465

*This was Delicious. I added the glaze on top since I made it the night before & wanted to keep it 'moist' in the fridge overnight, and it was!
*I am going to replace the FF Cream Cheese with 1/3 cup Part-Skim Ricotta and see how that turns out. There are a lot of recipes for 'ricotta pancakes' in the internet ether I am eager to adapt!