Hello
I’ve been eating quite healthily over past few days. Made good food choices.
However I have just downloaded the my fitnesspal app and entered all food consumed today. I consumed 2000 calories. Am horrified. I’ve eaten nuts, seeds, tofu, avocado, olive oil as thought needed protein and fat to fill up. I have felt full…just.

But when app totals calories am well exceeding the 800. How do you all feel reasonably full on 800 and get enough fat and protein?

Maybe I am just deluded!

Advice very much needed. thanks so much.

Ps I am a veggie

What were you doing before your current crisis with your father?

Maybe do a search on the top right with the word “vegetarian”. There are many vegetarians here.

I am not a vegetarian

It isn’t the end of the world – yes, well and truly over the 800 – but 2,000 is the normal RDI
thing is, to learn from it and not do it again – maybe planning more and logging what you intend to eat at the start of the day for a bit until you’ve got better at estimating.

The other thing is whether you really were hungry when you went to eat more, or craving/boredom/autopilot?
Have a look at the mindfulness section of the book again, or read some of the mindfulness threads – or diversionary tactics when you get an urge to eat something – a drink, hot or cold (not G&T!), or an activity

Hi Nedds Mum!

My take:

First you need to check that you have entered the food correctly in the app. Sometime people, (like I did), enter the wrong quantities and measurements. I mistook one egg for 100 grams of egg, and was able to eat twice as much when I realized my mistake. But if everything checks out, you must conclude that you have been eating more that the ‘diet’ prescribes… 🙁

Secondly, if you have been eating to much and need to reduce your intake, why would you be concerned about getting fat in your diet…? We all carry around with us fat to survive on for weeks! 🙂 So if I were you, I would simply focus on reducing the calorie intake to 800 and the carb to 50 grams. What yo then can eat, whether a veggie or not, will become quite easy, you will simply eat more protein and vegetables…

Look at posts by Orchid – she is vegetarian, and posted a lot on veggie topics – posting less now because she did amazingly well and reached her goals.
(search for Orchid, then on her profile. click on “replies created”)

One thing I found when I was counting everything fanatically was that days when I didn’t have meat or fish were ones when I tended to have more carbs. I’m not saying you can’t achieve 50g of carbs on a veggie diet, but you will find it harder – and if its complex carbs from beans and pulses + veg, it may not be a problem.

Hi Nedds mum
I agree with MortonOsloNorway that you really don’t need to be concerned about getting lots of extra fat in your diet initially. As long as you eat full fat everything and things like avocados you will be getting enough fat.

When you do the 800 calories you go into fat burning (ketosis) and you are burning stored fat. After a few days the body gets good at using your stored fat for energy and you stop feeling hungry – and the weight melts away. That is why you hear that people just stop feeling hungry – you just need to get over the first few days though when you may feel hungry, although not everyone does.

If you add in lots of fat from your diet your body will burn the fat you eat as well (or probably instead of the stored fat). If you also eat too many carbs you come out of ketosis, stop burning fat as your body goes down the easiest route and starts burning glucose. It doesn’t matter how much fat you eat then because the body will always burn glucose first.

That is the genius of the 800 calories at the start of BSD. It is really hard to eat too much fat and too many carbs if you cut out the bad carbs. On 800 calories you are only burning stored fat. Later when you are much closer to target you will need to think about upping fat because the body can’t burn the stored fat at a fast enough rate now because there isn’t an abundance of easy to get at fat to provide all your energy needs and your body might start burning lean muscle mass as well. But in the beginning there is an abundance of stored fat to use. Of course you do still need to make sure you do eat full fat in your 800 calories.

Then there are the issues that Frog has flagged up – and she has given some really good strategies to tackle these issues.

I think fat is important to make things taste nice and to make you feel satisfied. It is a Mediterranean diet and healthy fats are part of that. BUT you do need to measure nuts, oils etc. carefully because they are so high in calories. I’m not vegetarian but I don’t eat meat every day. I find eggs really filling. An omelette with some cheese keeps me full. The spinach quiche in the BSD cookbook is lovely.

Nedds Mum!! Have just looked at your username properly. Give yourself a break and don’t worry about measuring and calories right now. That’s an order 😁You are eating healthy foods and doing your best in the circumstances.

I agree – you are making healthy food choices and your health will be improving in lots of ways even if you are not losing weight.

Save the weight loss for when things get easier.

Wow, thanks so much for the replies. Very interesting and learnt lots.

Schnitzel, things are tough at the moment but just feel I need control over my eating habits. I understand what you are saying though. Days I feel anxious about dad are very tough days.

Krysia – I agree, although I’m not losing at mo I do feel healthier in myself. I believe my skin looks clearer.

Morten – have just checked out the app again. I certainly hadn’t Inputted all foods correctly but was still over yesterday but by not as much so thanks for that!!

Frog – I’ll take a look at orchids posts. I have much to learn. Thank you 🙂

Have just posted this on my other post.

Thank you all for such fab advice. I do think that little by little I will get there.

I am learning as I go along. I’m making huge mistakes and I am actually very pleased that I am aware now (thanks to MFP app) where I was going wrong. Such an eye opener.

So this morning, I pulled myself together and weighed myself. Been a difficult week and I knew I had gained.
I’ve been trying to follow the diet for 7 weeks now. I had lost 8 pounds but have regained 4lb.
I am therefore still 4 lbs down. Result.

Now that I have MFP to help I feel strangely positive despite the ‘gain’.

I’m going to put the 7 weeks behind me and restart on another 8 weeks. After all I’m starting 4 lbs lighter than I was. I understand where I went wrong and hopefully won’t repeat the mistakes. This will take me neatly up to Xmas.

Thanks for all your wise words over this past week. Really is much appreciated.

Shalimar – great advice. I’ll dispose of the junk food. Too much temptation.
Hope you get to your aquabics soon 🙂

Snoop – dads situation hasn’t improved. He’s very poorly. It is out of my control hence why I am desperate to gain control over my eating habits. It’s giving me another focus but is proving difficult when I get very anxious.
Have just had my lunch and had 12 almonds (an improvement on 20+) I’ll continue to cut back on those. Had half a tablespoon of olive in my salad instead of 1. So making small changes. Lunch overall was smaller. Hopefully I’ll hold out til dinner now.

Flash – well done to you too for avoiding the bread and biscuits. It’s so hard isn’t it?!
Enjoy the afternoon tea tho. Keep going…

Jules maigret – wow, love the container idea. Think I’ll give it a go as my downfall too is nuts. You are clearly so committed. Thanks for the advice.

So here goes to the next 8 weeks.

I found the 800 a real contrast to the normal low carb regime. But then I decided that to change my eating habits for 8 weeks would definitely be worth it. I know that I can eat following Atkins type rules and not put on weight, but on the other hand I like the idea of adding healthy carbs, so will try the 5:2 once (fingers crossed) I have lost my weight.