Hi gang!

I've been lurking on this thread for awhile. I have always been a calorie counter, but just finished reading Good Calories and Bad Calories and have been experimenting with low carb. I've read atkins, looking at Primal/Paleo etc. For the last two months I've been eating low/slow carb, and I've gained a couple of pounds. I really think this is the way to go, and I'm hoping you can help me figure out what I'm going wrong.

I eat meet (more chicken and turkey than red, but enough red meat), lots of vegetables, except for potatoes. I rarely have a sweet potato. Will have some fall squash. I have one or two servings of fruit a day, but no more, and often only one serving of fruit. I eat no wheat, rice, grains, sugar, or sugar substitutes.

I have been eating a lot of nuts and drinking a fair amount of wine. Do you all think that might be what's getting me?

Do you all do portion control or calorie counting along with your Paleo/Primal-ish lifestyle?

I'd really apprecaite any feedback!

I have to share this. I am 45 years old and my cycle has been all over the place the past year. I've had crazy symptoms and was convinced I was ending peri-menopause (which I thought I was in for about the past six or seven years ...) and entering menopause. Since reducing grains about two months ago, my last two cycles have normalized and I'm not sure I am even in peri-menopause right now, let alone approaching menopause. I think I had a lot of weird little problems that are self-correcting now that I am eating better foods (no grains!). Maybe, just maybe, this pre-diabetes will go away!

Hi Mahalia,

I was ravenous when I first gave up grains. Probably due to addiction. I allowed myself to eat until I got over the "withdrawal". And I gained a pound or two, but that weight is now long gone.

How long ago did you eliminate grains? How are you feeling? Getting hungry is not good, so you should eat. That being said, it's important to be mindful of calories to some extent. (I don't count anymore, but if I gain or stall, I pay attention to what I eat.) You may want to scale back a bit on the nuts and wine and see how that goes. I had to reduce nuts and cheese to lose any weight.

Welcome and good luck!

Sf40, I eliminated wheat two months ago, grains has probably been only two weeks, now that I think about it. I find I'm really not hungry, but I do eat a LOT of nuts. I eat cheese but I don't think I eat so much of that as I do the nuts.

Maybe I will try cutting down on nuts and wine and see if that helps. Does anyone know why nuts are sometimes a problem? They aren't more calorie dense than fat, and they aren't carbs...

Mahalia, one thing you don't mention is what fats you eat (aside from nuts) and how much. Much as wine is the yummy if you want to lose weight, you may want to reduce it to 6-12 oz a week.

While nuts aren't carbs, they have carbs. For example, 1 oz almonds (about 24) has 15 g fat, 5 g carbs, 6 g protein.

Svelting,

Good point about the nut carbs. I eat enough of them that they are probably adding up.

I'm eating a lot of olive oil (I love to roast my vegetables in it, and use it for salad dressing). Others fats from from some cheese, I occasionally use heavy cream (last night I made roasted butternut squash with goat cheese and some heavy cream), avocados, and some butter. I'm not really sure how much fat I'm eating, but it seems I'm getting fair amount at every meal.

Breakfast either includes cheese with my eggs, nuts in a small amount of plain yogurt, or sausage as fat. Lunch usually involves olive oil and maybe some cheese, and dinner is similar, but more fat from meat. Definitely lots of olive oil.

My sense is that cheese is ok, but now I'm not sure. It seems like I can eat a whole lot of nuts, but I don't know that I could be inclined to eat enough cheese for the carbs to get me. What is your experience?

Is this the one you mean? Lies, Damned Lies, and Medical Science

To provide a link, copy the URL of the article, then click post a reply, click on the little "globe with the chain" icon, it's the 8th one from the left on my post reply dialog, the row that starts with "B", paste the URL in the box that pops up and click ok or accept and you're done!

Mahalia ..... I've been away for the weekend so I need to read and catch up... But I wanted to address that wine and nuts will definitely stall your progress every time I have too much wine I stall...I find I have to be extremely vigilant with wine portion control... I'm not sure WHY nuts stall me too, but I just know that it does unfortunately ... I definitely need to count calories at times just to bring me back to reality...

I drank too much wine and non-Primal foods this weekend but I only gained 1lb, not so bad...

I watch both my carbs and my calories ... my software tracks both. Nuts and cheese have two things in common ... carbs AND calories! For me, I find it easy to overeat both.

That said, I would sooner overdose on cheese and nuts than more processed food. I never go into the "death spiral" of voracious uncontrollable appetite with cheese and nuts.

But ... especially for me, a post-menopausal, hypothyroid woman ... calories do count. So, if you're trying to lose weight I would really limit both these food items.

I weighed in at 155 this am, Ilene. Are you still 155?

Of course, you are mostly rippling muscles and I am just rippling.

You are supposed to be the yoga expert. Can you give any advice on the gentlest, stretchiest, meditiationest type?

I'm gradually transitioning (over a month or so) from a lower-carb, very-low-fat plan to primal. This week my target is to get my fats up to 50% of total calories. If I have to slurp olive oil or lick coconut oil off a spoon to get it there, so be it.

You might want to track your food for a few (2-3) days on Fit Day or My Plate (livestrong.com) to see what your macronutrient balance is. It could be eye-opening. As I understand it, you don't need to (or even need to want to) do this all the time, it's just a useful check periodically. I use MyPlate because so many foods are already there without my entering them. Others here use or have used FitDay. Thank you, Deity, for Web 2.0!

Welcome Mahalia,

Are you doing any tracking? I use MyPlate on livestrong.com. I am trying to keep my carbs down to below 50 and that usually means my calories are about 1000. I am concerned that I am not getting enough calories and that my metabolism will slow even more. But I seem to consistently lose weight and don't want to change anything. I will try to up the calories some and the carbs to about 100 when I hit goal and start weight lifting.

I also love nuts and cheese but I just hate to record the carbs, so I say no today but maybe yes someday. I have also cut out my glass of red wine at night. I will certainly have some when I go out however.

I cannot stress enough how much help tracking has been. I am always surprised when I enter a new food. I had a large apple today and some pulled pork on romaine (44 carbs). My blood sugar rose to 168 after an hour and then down to 141 after 2 hrs. Now normally one would think an apple and some lean pork might not be so bad. But my system sure didn't like it and I would not know about this without tracking. I even felt a little whoozy after I ate it.

Thanks for all the great suggestions!

I have done tracking on ************ and sparkpeople when I was counting calories. I'm really trying to get away from that, because it makes me cranky and I'm trying to find a way of eating where I can not track. But I do think that tracking for 2-3 days could be really helpful, since I've changed my diet a lot and really don't know how many calories I'm eating. I know it's a lot more, and frankly it's surprising that I didn't start gaining immediately.

I wonder if I could do a halfway thing and have a set amount of nuts, cheese, and wine that I allow myself that I don't go over, instead of tracking everything. I may try that as a half measure (and eyeballing my calories, which often works for me and I haven't been doing) just to see if something changes.

It's good to get confirmation that those three food items give other people trouble as well. I'll cut back on them and see what happens. If that doesn't work I'll track it online more rigidly for two to three days and see what that says.

For those of you who drink wine, how much do you drink before you find that it affects your performance/progress?

Actually I'm 156 this morning .... I am not rippling muscles at all! Where did you get that idea ... The other rumor is I am not a Yoga expert either although I do Yoga and enjoy it a lot... thank you so much for the vote of confidence though... But I can recommend Hatha Yoga, my parents did Yoga classes along with the rest of us for years, well into their 70s, that's the beauty of Yoga, there's no age limit. Hatha Yoga I think is pretty much the basic type of Yoga. To start you need to know the Sun Salutation the video says it's for beginners but whether you're a beginner or not everyone does the Sun Salutation at the start of every Yoga session. Don't feel badly if you can't touch your toes, just bend your knees and do what you can. Yoga is not a competition. The SS is meant to warm up the body and limbs to start the session. If you possibly can you should take a few classes just to get yourself acquainted with all the terms and exercises... I know you'd love it! ... OM ! Namaste ! Hope this helps

Yes dear?

I've drifted far away from tracking mostly because I'm doing just fine. If or when I decide I want something else ... like maybe some muscle definition ... I'll track to see what I can tweak. In the mean time ... I'm doing just fine!

Maybe I should try on the jeans the kids brought me from the states first before I say that

I really struggle with giving folks advice that doesn't jive with what their doctors are telling them. That's one of the reasons I've gone incognito.
Personally, I listen to my Doc and work with what I know about my body. We have a wonderful relationship and I know he'd listen to me but I also know that he'd tell me I was wrong if my physical findings said so. And I would listen.
I don't know a doc who would disapprove of South Beach.