Craving veggies, but tyring to stay low carb page 2

[sbhikes]

Instead of eating egg whites and lean meats, and then adding your fat thru coconut and nuts, eat whole eggs and fatty cuts of meat....and all the veggies you want! Veggies are great for weight loss!

^ This.

Why are you killing yourself with egg whites and lean meats? You'll die of choline deficiency and starvation. And didn't you see the Primal Blueprint pyramid? There are two versions. One has meats in the biggest box because that's where the majority of calories come from. The other has vegetables in the biggest box because that's where the most volume of food comes from. Eat your vegetables and put butter and whole egg yolks on them. BUTTER. Not coconut oil. You read somewhere it has magic weight loss properties. That's why you're focused on it. Forget the coconut oil. It's not magic and you need real butter.

[SleepingLion]

Alright; I can eat veggies all day long, but my problem is that I'm counting calories simply to make sure I don't eat too many veggies. So that leaves me with proteins, which I have no issue with, and fats...mainly coconut oil, coconut milk (in smoothies) and a handful of nuts every day.

I feel like I'm getting into the paralysis by analysis mode with the nuts, because I keep reading about how too much will either stall weight loss or cause weight gain. Oh...and I hate cooking. I live off of egg whites, lean meats, fish, egg white protein powder and the good fats I mentioned above. However, I miss my veggies! This is my 4th week being primal - it looks like I've lost ~5lbs. Coming from an eating disordered background (anorexia athletica), I feel like this is at a snail’s pace...of course my perception is still a little skewed. I recall losing a lot of weight years ago without trying, simply by consuming a ton of fruits and vegetables…which confuses me a tad more.

Thoughts?

I'm not surprised you're craving vegetables. There doesn't seem to be much food in your food. You need superior, dense sources of nutrients - not just fats and proteins in isolation.
Protein powders are useful as a tool if you're in a hurry but IMO should not be a staple part of day to day nutrition.
I find it somewhat surprising that you're counting calories to "make sure you don't eat too many veggies" but have no problem with adding lots of fats to your diet instead, and nuts!

Ditch the nuts, don't go out of your way to find the leanest cuts of meat and only add sufficient oils for cooking in & dressings maybe (added fats shouldn't ideally be a significant calorie source), eat the entire egg, not just the nutritionally inferior white part, and have your veggies.

[heatherdarbs]

All of these posts are validating what my intuition tells me...sometimes with the chaos of information overload I need quasi-permission to move ahead. Coming from an anorexic background, the challenge comes with patches of quicksand.

Veggies, it is; the nuts can go and nothing in a carton if its original package is in a shell sitting right next to the alternative. I appreciate everyone’s response; sincerely. I didn’t expect even one response to this boring topic!

Oh...and I bought bacon yesterday...maybe I'll have some, now

[inesenite]

I agree wirth what others are saying. First of all, get rid od all foods that are not whole (powders etc.), I would take any sort of powdered protein only after heavy weight lifting. Second, add as many veg as you like as long as they are low carb - all leaves & cruciferous veggies, cucumbers, courgettes, mushrooms, tomatoes (not too much, I am obsessed with tomatoes, so sometimes they increase my carb count quite a lot. You can even eat carrots as long as they are raw (cooking them makes sugars more available). Third, more fats from butter and likes and less nuts.
Best of luck overcoming your ED and getting healthier!

[KKDMB]

What the heck is with the fear of carrots? Poor, demonized, delicious cooked carrots. Where the heck is ChocoTaco? We need him here.

When I first got into PB I was there too - but trust me, you will neither die not gain weight if you want sauteed carrots! I even eat.... *DA NA NA*.... sweet potatoes. Several times a week. And my fat loss is still going quite nicely! I've noticed this with myself, and has been confirmed by a lot of other posters, that carb cycling seems to be quite effective. Being in ketosis all the time... eh. Its fun at first and nice to dip back down now and then but after that first initial high you seem to get it isn't necessarily the end-all-be-all. So, if you want to cycle carbs, not drive yourself crazy, and still promote fat loss - on your down days, have a salad for one meal and another do some sauteed spinach, broccoli, or whatever generally lower-carb ish veggie you like. (And if you have a salad for one meal, broccoli/sauteed spinach for another, you CAN still have carrots, blueberries, or a small sweet potato and still come in under 50g for the day). Then on activity days (lifiting, sprinting, etc.) go for it! Have a sweet potato, plantain, etc. And if you don't have an autoimmune issue and you can tolerate nightshades, then WHITE POTATOES ARE OKAY TOO.

Jeez, PB is not a crazy cult. Just eat REAL FOOD, ditch your powders and eat the yolks. If you still want to count your macros (which I still do sometimes just to keep an idea of where I am), that's totally cool! Read Mark's recent post on carb re-feeding and cycling for weight loss. I thought I had to only eat 10-50g a day or the fat loss would stop, but after the initial quick drop you see with strict carb limitation.... well, you might start considering sweet potatoes again. With cinnamon. Yum. I'm not sure why new PBers, myself included, get this psychotic fear of carbs. The forum seems to be coming around, especially with Mark's most recent posts, but seriously? No cooked carrots? Not even on exercise days? Not all PBers agree with that. But some do. Dr. Peter Attia is the lovechild of all things ketosis and seems to be doing very well. Others have noticed an extreme benefit from carb cycling. Best of luck!

[oxide]

paralysis by analysis mode
egg whites, lean meats, fish, egg white protein powder
Coming from an eating disordered background (anorexia athletica),
I feel like this is at a snail’s pace...of course my perception is still a little skewed.

You're still struggling with the remnants of the eating disorder and CW dieting.
Since I don't know your height and weight, I can't offer an opinion on the 5 pounds.

For heaven's sake, eat the whole egg.
For heaven's sake, eat some grass-fed beef from Trader Joe's, good fatty stuff.
For heaven's sake, eat some veggies, just choose ones with fewer carbs, like kale or mushrooms.
You might be craving water too.

[inesenite]

What the heck is with the fear of carrots? Poor, demonized, delicious cooked carrots.

No problems with cooked carrots at all in terms of primal lifestyle. However, if someone wants to eat under 50g of carbs a day, cooked carrots might be difficult as they are higher in carbs (my usual 300-400g portion of veg with my meat would end up being 40g carbs - too much for one meal . Personally I don't lose fat if I'm over 50-70 g of carbs a day, even with intense workouts. It might have smth to do with the fact that was on very low carbs to go under 20% bf, now I am under 16% and for a woman (non-athlete who has been overweight before) it's quite lean. Now I have reached my bf% goal and have stared eating more starch, including carrots, sweet potatoes and other tubers but I still have to be careful with them.

[heatherdarbs]

I do eat real eggs, but I've conditioned myself to egg only egg whites from my historical behavior (caloric); so when I eat real eggs, I'm giving in. I don't consume a huge amount of nuts and my weight loss continues, so it doesn't appear to have a negative effect, so far. Also, in terms of veggies, I was trying to adhere to the carb curve in the book, for fat loss. Someone said they were surprised that I counted for veggies, but not for fat. Although, I was counting for the macro nutrient - I can peg calories in a second w/out online tools; not so much the grams of prot/fat/carb.
Another thing that confuses me a bit is the mention of avoiding the carb/fat combo, together - does that include veggies? I stir fry them in coconut oil; pretty yummy and satisfying. I need to smack the perfectionist out me, that's for sure; I’m starting to annoy myself

[heatherdarbs]

I've started going to my farmers market down the street and am keeping that in mind. I like the display of the colors anyway, so that shouldn't be a challenge! I do love salsa, but I suppose I can keep it under control

I haven't had fast food in 6 years - ick

[Dr. Bork Bork]

Prior to this pregnancy, I would happily down an entire bag of steamable vegetables on a regular basis (and 1700 cal big @$$ salads). EAT SOME FRIGGIN VEGGIES, MAN!