Hi Jessica,

Your breakfast bacon is very high in fat--that is the first place to start cutting fat calories. You can always have grilled chicken though--it is low in fat and high in protein. All good things.

Instead of butter, have you tried the Brummel & Brown yogurt margarine? You can't cook with it, but it is very low in calories and works on breads, corn, etc, etc. I think it tastes pretty good, and it is not particularly synthetic.

Try canned tomatoes! Canned tomatoes have almost NO calories, plenty of nutrients and they have bulk enough to make you feel full (plus they're cheap). Put your other canned veggies (or fresh, if you have them), in a pot with some canned tomatoes and some herbs and spices and you'll have a hard time topping 100 calories. Depending on how you season your medley, you can eat them with pasta or rice and a nice lean protein (ie, throw tomorrow's chicken drumstick in a pot with tomatoes and whatever veggies you have instead of frying the thing and save yourself a bg handful of calories). Tomato-based dishes are, in my opinion, the secret to a low-calorie diet.

You should be proud of how hard you are working--just make sure that you get enough filling calories. You didn't eat anywhere near enough food yesterday. Find the money for baby spinach and veggies. They stand between you and starvation.

I didnt mean to sound harsh, I was typing with one hand while nursing. The fewer words the better!

OK, reading the journal part of your fitday you state you're eating turkey, chicken or tuna, so the bacon is chicken or turkey variety? Enter that in there, instead of NS as to meat type and your fat will come down. The biggest contributer of fat was the fried chicken. Even not eating the skin, you still get the fat that it was cooked in. Next time, maybe prepare it as you would, skinning it, coating it, you can try whole wheat bread crumbs for this, and baking it. That will remove some fat. You'll get it figured out.

ok, then that shouldnt be entered in as fried breaded chicken. What I do is find the raw chicken that is closest in form to what I have (skin on, skinless, bone in or boneless). Then if I add anything while cooking, I log that. I would only use an entry like "fried chicken" If someone else made it and I was just guessing at the ingredients

Once you find your favorites you'll be sailing.

Next time you buy chicken, enter the nutrition info from the package if there is any (as a custom food) for some reason fitday makes it really hard to start with just plain chicken!

LOL, you're not frying, you're sauteeing. Big difference. If you're sauteeing without any fat, I think it is the equivalent of broiling, stewing or grilling for calorie calculating purposes. Don't count calories that you're not eating!

(If things are sticking to your oil-less pan, add a little stock or water to help them along.)

I am low carbing it too. First of all, for low carb diets, your carbs are too high. The sunchips are ok, I guess, becuase they are baked and made from whole grains, but the biscuits totally messed you up, as did the sweet potatoes, (though sweet potatoes do have a high nutritional value, you may just want to eat this in moderation). Try cutting out all white foods such as white bread, biscuits, rice, pasta, and white potatoes. These food are loaded with carbohydrates, and are digested just like sugar. If you must eat bread or rice, try eating brown rice or wheat bread instead of white. They are much lower in carbs, and more healthy all the way around. Replace some of those starchy white carbohydrate rich foods with different vegetables. Most veggies contain some carbs, but they are a more natural form of carbs, and they are digested differently by the body. They are not digested as sugar, like starchy foods.

I tend to eat alot of lean meat, mostly skinless chicken or seafood, but even beef and pork once in a while. But I stay away from breads and rice and pasta, unless it's brown. Even then, I only eat them in moderation. And I eat lots of vegetables. But there are not a whole lot of vegetables that I like or that I have tried. Someone made a suggestion to try a new vegetable every day or two, google it, learn to prepare it, and see if you like it. Sounds like a good idea. I think I might try that.

And, if you want to lose the weight, you really must leave those soft drinks alone. They are high in sugar, carbs, and other bad stuff, and they are really bad for your kidneys. I saw a TV program once, and they showed someone pouring coke, (or was it pepsi???) on a steak, and the acid in the soda ate a hole right through the steak! The acid in the soda also had the power to eat the corrosion off of a car battery post. And, me, the big dummy, just kept on drinking the stuff... The stuff is just plain bad for you. Try drinking iced tea instead... You can make tea and lemonade, I really enjoy spearmint iced tea, rasberry and peach teas are good too.... Tea is high in antioxidents that are very good for your health... and it tastes really good too. I drink about 70 to 100 oz. of iced tea a day, mainly becuase I hate plain water....

BTW - I really enjoy your posts.

Hi, lots of good advice for you here. I may have missed it if someone else suggested it, but just wanted to add a good way to increase your calories without adding fat.

Beans are high fiber, high protein, high nutrient, relatively low calories, filling and VERY cheap! Add them to stews, stirfrys, salads, soups (can also be blended for a creamy soup without the fat), tacos, and tostadas. Blend them for dips or sauces...you get the picture.

Black beans are awesome, AND versatile, I make a pot of black bean soup, we have that one day for dinner, the next day I have some stuffed in half a whole wheat pita, with spinach, sprouts, a smidge of avacado and some ff yogurt blended with cucumbers and spices. I use whats left over for mexican caserole, just stir in brown rice, top with some shredded chicken and salsa, YUMMY!!

Is that what was happening to me with psyllium husk? I started using it and was having dibilitating cramps. I went off it and it took days and days before I could feel good again. I was putting about a tablespoon on my cereal in the mornings. I want to add it back in but have been afraid.