Don't want to lose weight

[Riverj]

Originally Posted by Georgiana

As I understand, Riverj has been eating eggs before without any issues (from his May 27 posts).

Here are more questions for you, Riverj.

Did you seek help from a mental health professional for some of these problems?

No, the problems I listed are not specific to mental health and even anxiety is actually caused by overeactive countegulatory hormones (epinephrine) a problem commonly lamented by and see on people who suffer from the same glucose metabolism impairment I suffer from. There's a good book by this poor english woman who was diagnosed as mental ill because of reactive hypoglycemia and went through **** and overprescriptions until she found out what she suffered from and cured everything with diet. I don't want to risk being misdiagned by someone who doesn't understand my glucose metabolism problems.

As I've said in my previous post, that's because the way you've been adding carbs back is not how you should have done it if you were following Atkins.

Can you open your book on page 89 and check #1 and #2 there? And then open it on page 112 and read the section that starts there? Also, just to make sure we're talking about the same book, could you tell me what you have on this pages in your book? I wouldn't want to give you advice from a different book as your problems are already very serious.

On pag 89 I have a sample menu for a diet of 20 grams of carbs.
On pag 112 I have the carb ladder

You said you're tracking your carbs. So can you post here a graph showing your carbohydrate intake since you began low carbing? Like, day on the x-axis, carb intake on the y-axis?

I was tracking my carbs on a meal by meal day by day basis, by mind or writing it on pieces of paper I throw away. I'm not taking a diary. Should I?

What does "more" mean? More than what? More by how much? And from what foods?

More might mean like an extra peach, two slices of whole wheat bread instead of one, adding legumes to my meal. Like 15 grams of carbs more.

I also realized that balancing meals is psychologically hard for me.
What I mean is that when I used to eat an high carb diet, it was hard for me to think of something to add to my main carb meal (i.e pasta and veggies, rice and greens) and the idea of cooking a piece of meat, sausage or boiling an egg to balance the carbohydrates seemed complicated and annoying.

Likewise on a low carb diet, it is hard for me to think of something to add to my main low carb meal (i.e meat and veggies, eggs and greens) and the idea of cooking a bit of beans or whole grain, toasting a small slice of bread or boiling half a sweet potato seems complicated, counterintuive and annoying to me.

Clearly the "extremes" are more practical and less limiting. Eat everything as long as is low fat. Eat everything as long as is low carb. Don't think about combining, balancing or having a main serving and a side dish.

Intuitively the eating system that makes more sense is a main dish of meat and vegetables plus one or two pieces of fruits after your meal.

At this point I just need to find the amount of carbs per meal that works for me. On induction you have probably 7 grams of carbs per meal. At the point I reached in OWL I was probably on 15 grams of carbs per meal. On an high carb diet I was consuming 70 grams of carb per meal.

So I need to find a good compromise between 15 and 70 while also finding a practical way to eat based on such levels (i.e. based on normal servings and not on micro-portions to weight, with the rest spoiling in the fridge and one flavour covering the rest: a "zone" sandwich with 15 grams bread and 30 grams ham anyone?)

[Georgiana]

Originally Posted by Riverj

On pag 89 I have a sample menu for a diet of 20 grams of carbs.
On pag 112 I have the carb ladder

Alrighy... umm... so, you don't have the '72 or the '92 versions, because those don't have a Carbohydrate Ladder. And you don't have the 2002 version either, because that's not what's on pages 89 and 112. I don't have "The All-New Atkins Advantage", but you probably don't have that one either because on page 89 there should have something about OWL. So what book do you have? Who's the author, the publisher? When was it published?

I was tracking my carbs on a meal by meal day by day basis, by mind or writing it on pieces of paper I throw away. I'm not taking a diary. Should I?

I don't know... Do you think there might be a connection between the foods you are eating and your weight & blood sugar problems? Maybe some correlation that needs more than a 2-3 days to discover? I bet you can't remember a whole week of foods, including amounts, carbs, fat, protein, percentages, calories, food combinations, etc. But if you can, please post everything here as it would help us understand what's happening to you.

More might mean like an extra peach, two slices of whole wheat bread instead of one, adding legumes to my meal. Like 15 grams of carbs more.

Good. So this means you discovered you can't tolerate peaches and wheat in ~15 net carb amounts. See why it's good to follow OWL by the book and only add 5 net carbs at a time?

Likewise on a low carb diet, it is hard for me to think of something to add to my main low carb meal (i.e meat and veggies, eggs and greens) and the idea of cooking a bit of beans or whole grain, toasting a small slice of bread or boiling half a sweet potato seems complicated, counterintuive and annoying to me.

No one forces you to eat beans, whole grains or potatoes.

Your problem is losing weight when eating too few carbohydrates. There are basically two ways to solve this --- eat more (i.e. increase calories by eating more fat, more protein, a few more carbs) or eat more carbs.

Intuitively the eating system that makes more sense is a main dish of meat and vegetables plus one or two pieces of fruits after your meal.

Why would this make more sense?

At this point I just need to find the amount of carbs per meal that works for me. On induction you have probably 7 grams of carbs per meal. At the point I reached in OWL I was probably on 15 grams of carbs per meal. On an high carb diet I was consuming 70 grams of carb per meal.

It's not only about the amount of carbs. For your blood sugar issue, it also depends from what foods these carbs come from (5 g of pure sugar are not the same as 5 net carbs from broccoli) and what you are eating them with (how much fat, protein, fiber). For your weight issue, it depends on your caloric balance (which is also influenced by the type/amount of carbs you are eating, exercise level, etc.).

So I need to find a good compromise between 15 and 70 while also finding a practical way to eat based on such levels (i.e. based on normal servings and not on micro-portions to weight, with the rest spoiling in the fridge and one flavour covering the rest: a "zone" sandwich with 15 grams bread and 30 grams ham anyone?)

Eating smaller meals throughout the day would not leave the food spoiling in the fridge, because you should end up eating the same or even more (to gain a few lbs). And you would not have to weight micro-portions either---given that you don't weight anything now, I doubt you'd start doing it anyway. But you are measuring foods now when you are testing carbs (using your GL rule) and when eating carbs (you included carb counts in your posted menu), so you'll just keep measuring the same foods, just in smaller portions. I don't see why this would be more difficult.

In any case, you were given a lot of advice here and this will hopefully help others who are in situations similar to yours. Right now we are running around our tails here (surprised? ). Did you decide what your strategy will be from here? Will you keep doing what you've done until now and just randomly test foods? Will you increase your calories from fat and protein and add just a few more carbs from the foods you learned you can tolerate? Will you test new foods in correct OWL amounts?

BTW, are you a student? Are classes done in Italy too? If they are, then you should have more time to concentrate on your health problems and eating, and also roam around the boards for advice.

Oh, and I'm very curious to know what book you have, because you certainly don't have DANDR.

[Riverj]

I have Dr. Atkins New Diet Revolution
Harper Collins Publisher
Robert C. Atkins M.D.

The first part is "Why Atkins works"

[Riverj]

I think I want to eat more carbs because more calories doesn't seem to work for me. I hate tried to add lot of heavy cream to my veggies at some point increasing calories a lot, but still feeling sick and losing weight. Also more calories seems more expensive than more carbs and I'm on a tight budget.

Designing low carb meals as meat + veggies + fruits seems to make more sense because fruits can be eaten on the own (unlike most carbs that needs to be combined with the other foods to be palatable) and are already controlled in their portions. There's also less preparation involved.

I will test food properly according to the 5 grams rule but where do I begin from? 50 grams of carbs a day? Where I left?

I'm a student but I'm not sure what classes are

[Georgiana]

Ah, okay... I get it now! You must have the one with this cover, right?

Originally Posted by Riverj

I will test food properly according to the 5 grams rule but where do I begin from? 50 grams of carbs a day? Where I left?

Did you read post #26 in this thread?

I'm a student but I'm not sure what classes are

Classes are courses.

[Riverj]

That's the one I have indeed

[Riverj]

I have noticed that the more carbs I eat the more fatty foods lose appeal.
When my carbs were very low I liked pork fat with the melted grease in the pan, I liked heavy cream on everything and fatty sausages with fried eggs in butter or parmesan breaded wings fried. But the more I climb the carb ladder, the less I think the idea of eating those stuff is nice; when I open the fridge or think of what eating. It's like as if my mind don't want to mix grease and sweets. Low fat meats (which I hated on induction) seems more attractive when the diet is richer in fruits, veggies, legumes. Any thought?

[Riverj]

Originally Posted by Georgiana

Post some of your current menus (include quantities for everything) and then we can make suggestions starting from what you're already eating.

I don't know quantities.
But foods I have been eating since starting the low carb diet are: sausages, salami, chicken wings and thighs, fresh bacon, bunless burgers, steaks, shrimps, prosciutto, cod fillets, eggs fried or hard boiled, omelettes, cream cheese, blue cheese, swiss cheese, mozzarella, brie, avocado, mayo, lettuce, greens, asparagus, zucchini, onions, broccoli, cauliflower, green beans, mushrooms, bell peppers, cucumbers, cherry tomatoes, strawberries, cherries, plums, apricots, walnuts

[Scotty]

I think you need to see a Dietician and a Doctor because you sound like you have an eating disorder and it would be dangerous for anyone here to try and help you.

[Georgiana]

Originally Posted by Riverj

That's the one I have indeed

Fantastic! And do you have the paperback or the hardback book?