My Menus - Input Please

[Doves]

Breakfast -
3 oz turkey patty
2 fried eggs
1 oz cheese
bran muffin - 3.3 net carbs - my recipe

or 3 eggs w/ 2 oz cheese and 2 oz spinach omelet and bran muffin

Lunch -
small can of tuna mixed w/ mayo (sometimes a 1/4 tsp of dill relish - no sugar in it) or 6 oz chicken breast or cheeseburger with waffle bun (my recipe - 2.3 net carbs)
salad - several cups of mixed greens, 2 radishes, 1 oz each sliced cucumber, raw zuchini and mushroom; 8-10 small olives; 4 walnut halves chopped and 1/2 tsp unsalted sunflower seeds. Dressing is always 2-3 tbsp olive oil and little red wine vinegar

Dinner -
usually chicken (once week roast it and enjoy some crispy skin), or salmon or talipia fish or steak or cheeseburger (1 oz cheese)
4 oz steamed cauliflower with 1/3 c cheese sause (my recipe - 1.7 net carbs) or 4 oz of one: stir fry bok choy, mustard greens, zuchini, asparagus.
11 almond halves

Beverages - usually about 100 oz water, 1 diet Hansens root beer (sometimes with 1 tbsp cream - some on this site suggested and it is wonderful - thanks), hot tea (just yesterday started putting 1-1/2 tbsp half & half and 1/3 pkt splenda in it - drank 2 cups like that.

I try hard not to snack because I am usually not hungry between meals. When I do its head hunger. If I snack it is usually 2 oz cheese or about 2 - 3 tbsp sunflower seeds (only when really depressed like yesterday).

Am I getting too much fat? I fry my fish - sometimes dip it in egg and coat it in mixture of gluten, wheat bran, whey protein pwdr - doesn't use much. Also I use a mixture of mayo and a little wasabi (like horseradish) with my talipia since I can't use lemon. Usually eat salmon plain or a little mayo.

I am staying in ketosis pretty well. I don't know if I can cut my quantity down much. Perhaps I am eating too much for someone who's exercise must be limited. (temporarily!!!)

Thanks all for your input. I'm very grateful for your help.
Karen

P.S. - I had one "high" carb dinner this past week - I made a cassarole out of chicken breast, asparagus, broccoli. The sause was mainly sour cream which is 1 carb per tbsp. I think I had about 10 carbs in that meal. This is the first "cassarole" I've made since August - it turned out good, but maybe it wasn't worth it.

[Shelleyg]

Hi Karen,
It looks like you are doing Atkins? First and foremost, do you have the book? It is very enlightening to help you with your meals.
For the most part, your menu looks pretty good. You might be getting a little to much fat if you eat over 3-4 oz of cheese and over 1oz of nuts and or seeds on the same day(they are very calorie and fat dense food items). Also, 3T of olive oil might be a little much at one meal. Try mixing your olive oil and vinagarette dressing in a 2:1 ratio...like 2 teaspoons of oil to 1 tsp of vinegar and see if that will work for you. Do you like other full fat dressings, like Caesar, Ranch, or Green Goddess? Olive oil and vinegar are fine if that's what you like.
Your water amounts sound great...congrats on that! That seems to be an area where a lot of folks get in trouble, but you are doing great!
Try cutting your fat intake a bit and see if you are still in ketosis. Excess dietary
fat is burned before stored body fat.
If you are past induction and find you are still hungry, increase your veggies, add some berries with a dob of real whipped cream.
Keep tweaking until you find what's right for you. Also another thought, you might just try eating *clean*...meaning just whole, pure foods, no mixes, no casseroles etc, just meat and veggies and fat.
Post often and let us know how it's going for you.
HTH

Shelley

[teelbee]

Doves, it looks like you are eating the right things, but perhaps not in the right proportion for your current metabolism. For tweaks, I'd suggest considering the following:

You may be eating too much protein. Excess protein is converted to glucose. Try cutting back your protein by 1/4 to 1/3 and eat addtional low carb veggies instead. For example, instead of 3 oz turkey, 2 eggs, and 1 oz cheese; have 2 eggs mixed with steamed zucchini and/or mushrooms topped 1/2 oz of grated parmesan. Here's an article that gives some guidelines on how to determine the optimum amount of protein to eat, Understanding Protein Amounts

Possibly, there is too much fat in the form of cheese, sauces, cooking oils and dressings. As Shelley notes, dietary fat can slow the burning of stored fat. Try cutting fat by 1/3; and, again, add some more veggies.

You are probablly perfectly fine on the following point, but I'll just toss this out for thought. Could there be some hidden carbs in some of your recipes?

As for water, a rule of thumb is to drink 1 oz. of water for each 2 lbs. of body weight. You might try adding another couple of cups of water a day and see if that helps flush out the fat.

[Doves]

Thanks for the suggestions. I checked out the article - very helpful. Sounds like I am getting too much protein. I'll have to go back and look over menus to see just how much I am actually eating. USDA site is sooooo helpful with numbers.

I thoroughly checked the recipes I use for Bran muffins and waffle buns/bread with USDA numbers - no problem there - I have the carbs right - will post in recipe section soon. (and the bran is helpful too !)

I forgot when I posted the menu that this week I made some quick bread - a test - turned out ok and I've been eating a slice each day in addition to other food. I am getting more than I realize. Sounds like I need to plan more in advance since losing doesn't come too easily for me. I'll bet the extra food has contributed to the problem also.

Thanks again - both of you,
Karen

[Rob]

Karen
Are you using a food tracker like www.fitday.com ? I would suggest you do that for a while and see where your numbers really lie. And once you are able to add exercise you'll do much better, I'm sure!

[Rob]

Oh I forgot to include this link that makes it a bit easier to calculate protein needs once you have your BF%.

http://www.he.net/cgi-bin/suid/~zone/prothd1

[Doves]

Thanks, Rob - I'm going to try fitday.com.
Re: protein - I followed the other calculations pretty well (using my calculator, of course. Found I need about 85 gms protein. I think this sounds reasonable so if I give myself between 80 - 90 as a plan it should help.

I am really hoping that I can start short (I do mean short) walks next week - see how it goes. Ankle is better and better every day - yeah!
Karen

[Doves]

Rob - I tried the FitDay.com - it was wonderful - a lot of work to get all my salad stuff in there but it was good to see. I input my typical daily menu and I was happy that the fats were 56%, 33% protein and 11% carbs? something like that - anyway I felt on target to plan guidelines. I need to tighten up - occasionally I have snacked (more out of mouth hunger and frustration than anything else) and it is usually nuts or seeds - more than I need, especially since I'm not hungry between meals.

Thanks all for your input. I know that when I can exercise more the weight will come off (yes, it will).
Karen