HELP...... Portion Control page

[Primetimegirl]

Okay, so I have been primal for 3 weeks now. I have had no fruit, sugar, grains, beans, or anything that is forbidden. However, I think I am having a bit of an issue with this notion of "eat when your hungry and stop when your full." If I were to follow this I would eat large amounts of food, as I think I am doing. I am trying to lose my last 10 pounds and instead I am finding it. In 3 weeks time I have put on 8 pounds. I am constantly bloated and hungry. What am I doing wrong? Before going primal I used to eat oatmeal every morning, kefir, cookies, breads, sandwiches, etc and I was not really hungry as much as I am now and I was much smaller and my clothes fit. Now my clothes are getting tighter. I need to nip this one in the butt before it snowballs.

Typically, I eat this:

2 buffalo patties cooked in coconut oil with 1/4 avocado and about every other day or so I have 2-3 fried eggs in coconut oil for breakfast.

about 30 g of walnuts, macadamias, pecans, whatever nut I have on hand.

6-8 oz. chicken breast with baby broccoli, asparagus, or spinach. (the veggies I do not measure at all)

More nuts as I love nuts

6-8 oz. of salmon, chicken, beef, or whatever meat I have for the evening and another good portion of green veggies.

I only drink water with lemon in it and green tea through out the day.

I am working hard on cutting out the nuts as I tend to overdo it at times. I have not had a whole bunch of energy to do a bunch of exercise, but I do have 2 little kids to look after. Any help or input would be great.

[belinda]

Well, you know the nuts are a problem. Not just that you're eating nuts, but that you're eating them as two snacks a day (or at least it looks that way). You'll probably do better with 4-5 hours between meals where your body can focus on digestion (and burning fat) instead of throwing more fuel on the fire, as it were.

If you're ingesting all the calories your body needs to function (and maybe more, if you're putting on weight) then you won't burn any body fat.

[RachelZoe]

You know what? I am used to people saying that nuts are high in calories...and I believed it....but then I took a look at the container of nuts my boyfriend bought to eat all week...and it's 3000 calories. Which might not be much for him, but it would be for me, especially as a "snack food."

What I am doing:

I eat three meals a day. First meal is high in protein, like bacon and eggs. Other meals also need to be high in protein and fat or I get hungry. I do one plate for each meal. The plate IS my portion control.

No snacking.

[loafingcactus]

The above mention some good strategies. My strategy is food tracking in sparkpeople.com

One or some of these strategies should work.

[jfreaksho]

1. What do you weigh? How tall are you? What is your bodyfat percentage? How have your measurements changed since you started? That will give us a starting point to help you out.

2. Be careful with the nuts. If you are eating "more nuts, because I love nuts" then you may be eating out of boredom or habit. Stop all snacking and put the nuts on the top shelf for a few days.

3. Are you eating because you are hungry, or because you feel like eating? Right now I feel like eating because I'm bored. (I just had some full-fat yoghurt a little while ago.) You might feel like eating because you are experiencing symptoms of carb flu and are using the nuts as a crutch. Your meal sizes seem appropriate, so I would try to eliminate the snacks. You want to keep your insulin levels low by keeping your blood sugar low. If you are constantly eating nuts, you will be constantly stimulating insulin production, even if it is for just a few grams of carbs.

4. Be patient. You've only been doing this three weeks. You are trying to readjust from at least a couple decades of bad eating habits. Give it a month or more to let your body heal.

[peril]

You have gone low carb and low fat (well for two meals at least). Read the section of the book that tells you how to calculate your macro requirements and try to stick to that. Without such guidance you are shooting in the dark. And lose the nuts and any snacking between meals

[RitaRose]

I do have a spoonful or two of almond butter most days, but I honestly try to snack on things like boiled eggs or or pork rinds. Sometimes I'll have an apple or carrots or few cherries (not a whole bunch) or something like that, but I find snacking on something high in fat and/or protein makes me snack less often.

[onalark]

I have nuts on standby in my work drawer. I only tap them if I actually feel hungry (stomach growling, starting to think the day-old donuts in the break room look good), and I only eat 5. I count them out -- 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 -- I eat them slowly, and I don't exceed that arbitrary number.

Nuts are just way too easy to throw down the piehole.

[O_O]

Sure would be nice to get some pork rinds. They line the store shelves with chips but won't sell pork rinds.

[RitaRose]

Oh, and seeing the reply about "3 weeks" reminded me: I kind of plateued right around then. I'm still not sure why. But I kept with it, and now I'm starting to lean up some more.

Also, make sure you're reading labels on anything from a package. I picked up a package of frozen meatballs once, and the ingredient list was literally about 6 inches long, almost the full length of the package. No thanks.

Make sure you're getting good sleep, too. It's a bigger deal than you would think.