Hi guys!

This is going to be a longish post!

I started BSD June 2, lost 15 pounds the first week, 5 lbs. the second (cuz I had zero appetite), nothing lost or gained week 3, a few pounds lost week 4, and week 5 where my total loss was another 5 lbs. so 25 lbs lost so far and week 6 starts tomorrow.

My problem is my appetite came back in week 3 and I think the problem was my carbs were probably about 50 gr. I eat too many vegetables. I find if I stay at 10 g of carbs, I have no appetite.

To figure this out and experiment, on week 4 and 5 I turned to the Atkins shakes which have a lot of fat and protein and very low carb. It worked, but I started adding big salads with protein and have slowly tapered off the Atkin shakes because week 6 I want to go back to real food.

I have not cheated at all with sugar or carbs, but several days during the two weeks I went way over 800 calories, because I craved fat and protein. Sunflower seeds are my weakness, and twice I ate extra chicken breast slathered with extra olive oil which pushed me well over 800 calories

My cheats didn’t cause any weight loss or weight gain.

Since I was also cheating with a lot of sunflower seeds, I decided to add them to my list of 800 calories so now I can eat them without going over, as they are my “treat”.

My problem is 800 calories gives you pretty little wiggle room to add more fat and protein. And that I have to cut down on veggies because they make my carb level too high for me and I get hungry.

1 eat about 4 OZ chicken breast daily with 1 Oz goat cheese in a big salad with a teaspoon of olive oil, plus my 2 coffees with heavy cream and almond milk, and sunflower seeds and hard boiled eggs.

I was eating 4 cups green beans and chicken sautéed with 8 cloves garlic and 2 T olive oil, but it had too many carbs for me.

Any suggestions on how to increase my olive oil, fats and proteins, and still include a lot of veggies (at 10%) and sunflower seeds to stay at 800 without craving fat or protein?

Any advice is appreciated.
Thanks!

Ilovecatsanddogs, there are many experienced BSDers on the forum, and we would be happy to have a look at your
menu plan if you you could present it in terms of your macros. By that, I don’t mean percentages, but how many grams
of protein, carbs and fats you eat each day. Are you drinking 2-3 liters of water ?

Hi Ilovecatsndogs (I do too!!) —
You sound well on point, but maybe just cut back a bit — four cloves garlic instead of eight, one cup green beans instead of four — just dial it back on the carbs but leave your protein up and you could put grass fed butter on the veg.
If you need more bulk, I always rely on “greens”, like kale, spinach, chard, watercress, rocket, collards etc .. which have so few few carbs and so much fibre that they are practically “freebies”.

I am concerned you may partly be experiencing cravings or hunger because your diet is poorly balanced and very low in a whole raft of essential nutrients (minerals/ vitamins/ essential fatty acids/ prebiotics).

Dr Michael Mosley and Dr Clare Bailey advocate a really wide variety of nutrient dense wholefoods; macros really are not more important than micros.

Hi allocators, Firefox, and californiagirl!

Sorry, didn’t receive a notification that my post had replies.

Allie I don’t really know the amounts of macronutrients per day because with the ap fitness pal, I have to log in each ingredient, individually per recipe. So I kinda gave up on it.

Instead I keep notes of my recipes on the “note” section of my phone for calories, but not fat or carbs.

I eat once a day, as I have been for years, and drink my coffee for lunch and breakfast, no hunger at all or desire to eat.

When dinner comes around I am not hungry either. I usually eat half my dinner, eat very slowly and chew thoroughly, and stop when I feel the slightest bit full. Later I eat the rest of my dinner.

Maybe it’s not really hunger I’m feeling later, just cravings for fatty stuff.

I usually eat chicken breast, a little cheese, olive oil (tho sparingly cuz it’s high calorie), and lots of salad and broccoli and spinach, hard boiled eggs, etc. I often make stir frys.

I also add radishes and cucumbers and kimchi on the side.

I’m trying to get in more fat so at the grocery I just bought some fresh salmon, tins of sardines in brine which I’ll saute ( never at sardines before) until they’re seared, and a big can of cooked salmon I’ll mix with mayo.

And yes I’m going to cut down on the amount of veggies I eat so that my carb count will be lower.

After writing the first post I went on an all out binge for the first time— cookies, sunflower seeds, eggs, cheese, crackers and butter, etc. luckily I didn’t have any bread in the house! Gained about 3 pounds so won’t be doing that again! This is the first diet out of many that I had actually stuck to. So I won’t be discouraged by my cheat and was back on the diet the very next day.

Thanks for all your advice! You all are such nice peeps and soooo helpful!