I am on my 7th week of low carb eating. I am eating prepared foods from The Personal Trainer site. The last couple of days I have been craving carbs and hungrier than I have been since I started. In fact this is the first time in the 7 weeks that I have actually been hungry. The last time I did a low carb diet years ago, I lasted 2 months then suddenly wanted pure sugar and went on a bender that didn't quit and resulted in twice the re-gain of weight.
I am afraid I am approaching the same thing again. Next week I have to travel for work and will have to go off of my prepared foods. I am afraid I am going to cave in and start eating sugar again and will not be able to recover.
How can I stop the cravings? Am I psychologically sabotaging myself? or could the cravings be caused by the lack of sleep and stress I had this week?

The journey isn't perfect...just keep going!! Food is inconsiderate...it never thinks of us as much as we think about it!!!

I travel for work too...salad is available pretty much everywhere...so make good low carb choices. If I know where dinner is going to be I look for an online menu so I know what I can choose before I even get to the restaurant! Takes more work and effort but I am worth it!!! And so are you!!!

Thank you, salad is what I am going to shoot for. I will most likely be eating at the hotel, so I plan on talking to them about food choices that will be good for my plan.

I'd hit the complex carbs. Corn, hummus, lentils, kidney beans, onions, tomatos, strawberries.

Catgoyle: Sending you positive thoughts for this week. I thought of another strategy too! I follow Atkins so I will ask for a bunless burger with a side salad (no crouton) instead of fries - for me keeping the carbs off my plate helps to curb the temptation - I've belonged to the clean plate club for a long time so if something ends up on my plate I eat it!! Not good I know but I work with it!! Even if I eat "high" (lots of low carb) - I still feel more successful than if I went on a bender (I didn't get fat overeating vegetables!)...I think many of us have your same fear!! I'm 40 weeks in and have to think about better food choices everyday!!

I've been doing lettuce burgers the few times I have had burgers over the past 6 months. 5 gives wraps theirs in iceberg. It actually was pretty good because the flavors inside pop way more than with a bun to me.

Tried that twice. Then one at Boardwalk. I think it is a chain that just opened a place near me. They wrapped it in romaine. And I got a turkey burger. It was a really good combo. So very doable. Good luck on the cravings. Perhaps it was stress, I am sure it will pass. Try to also exercise when on travel and still drink as much water that your normally do.

Maybe think of the most filling low-carb food you can and just have a huge meal of it.

For me that's steak and veggies usually. I'll eat like 600 calories of steak, a salad with cheese and avocado, broccoli, cauliflower, beets and carrots with butter on it and I'll just eat it all for dinner.

Although I am not as low-carb as most people. I shoot for under 100gs a day and I also allow myself weekly honey and sugar indulgences, as long as it's under 100 calories of my day and never more than 25gs of simple carbs at one time.

This gives me the opportunity to have some treats on the weekends. Also, if I really want sweet during the week I have fruits.

But I've found my cravings for sugar are so manageable now, it's almost like they're hardly there. They come and go, sometimes strong and sometimes not, but even the strongest cravings have been easily laid to rest.

I find it also helps to say to myself "You don't eat that type of thing anymore, you eat other foods that you love."

I've found that a Tbps of coconut oil goes a very long way to curbing sweet cravings with me. Another thing that seems to do the trick is the fat of a pork chop or a piece of steak.

There may be something to it other than just my crazy: I've seen a lot of lc sites recommend upping your fat to deal with cravings.

Weighing in here (yes, pun intended)

I'm a low-carb/slow-carb kinda gal. Basically doing Atkins (and I still keep it WAY low, like under 30 carbs a day, never more than 35 carbs, and I just past the 11 week mark). But, once a week, I spike my carb intake on purpose (a "cheat day") so my body doesn't adjust to thinking it needs only 30 carbs a day, and sets that as "normal". In fact, weekly Friday is my cheat day, and I usually get a lg hot mocha to drink (over 70 carbs in a 20 oz alone). So far, even cheating with a big carb push (well, that's still low carb considering what the world thinks it "normal"), I still lose weight. This is the third week trying it this way (recommended by another low-carber here at 3FC) and each week, esp if I'm sorta stalled at a certain weight for days on end, the net weight loss for this period of time is about 3.8# (actually, my cheat day here signals the end of "week two", so it's not really three weeks, just ending two weeks). Hey, I'll take it! Average of almost 2# a week loss would be over 100# in a year with a weekly day to eat however many carbs I wanna.

Just wanted to share....

Suzanne/MrsKevin

Well I am back from the trip, and boy it was terribly hard! All the meals were catered since we had to keep working on the project through out the time we were there. The breakfast were bagel and croissant egg sandwiches. So I eat only the egg. The lunches were also sandwiches with salads on all but one day which was all pasta!! That was terrible, dinners were no better. So I basically eat some egg for breakfast and had lettuce for lunch and dinner. I stubbornly stuck to my guns. We also had to walk to and from the hotel. So of course thinking I did so good sticking to not eating the carbs and only being able to eat salad, I thought I might have lost some weight. But no!!!!!!!!! bloody scale didn't move!
Ah well, at least I didn't gain!

Gosh you did great! I tried fat fasting so that I could have it as a strategy for busy days and travel. A big bag of macadamias and you could just fat fast through travel next time... It's pretty hard core but the scale moves nicely, and sometimes the total removal of food choices feels really liberating.

I have not been losing as I thought I should, I have stuck to the meals and have not cheated. I have added more fat into my meals and that hasn't worked. Someone suggested that my body has adapted and I need to shake it up. I am not sure how to do that. Do I start adding in complex carbs now? or do I start fasting on some days or what? Anyone have any advice? I am 8 weeks into it and feel like giving up.

It took me a little while to figure out where my carb intake "sweet spot" was for weight loss. I began around <75 carbs per day. Then lowered to <60... <50... <40... <30 and finally the weight began pouring off. I'd suggest trying the different levels for 3 or 4 days and see how you do and how your body feels. Then lower or increase. In my case, I'm incredibly carb sensitive and gluten intolerant. It's all about seeing what works for you.

I have been doing no more than 25 grams of carbs per day. I lost really fast for the first 5 weeks, but the last 3 weeks nothing happening.
I too have always been very carb intolerant, even simple fruit makes me crazy hungry. So thinking that going higher on carbs would not be a good idea, but who knows? I guess as long as the scale keeps going down and not up, no matter how slowly, it is all good.

Hi Catgoyle, I see it's been a few weeks since your last post- how are you doing now? Have you thought of doing one day a week where you really spike your carb intake, then going right back on plan (kind of like the slow carb diet recommends)? It might be worth a shot, as long as you think you will be able to get back on track the next day.

I admire you for sticking to plan while you were on travel! That is not an easy thing to do at all, especially when food is being catered into a work environment like that.

I know you said you already upped the fat, but have you checked your calories at all? Believe it or not, the biggest losses I've had so far were times when I had a high fat/higher calorie meal the night before. (Think wings, or greasy cheeseburgers without the bun). Of course I haven't been doing this as long as you have and every body responds differently to different things.

I wish you the best in journey! Keep us posted. =)