Newbie wondering if this is too much fat page 2

[NinjaNina]

Maybe you should try it once..its such an eye opener to actually have the figures..
I knew I was eating a lot of fat but NOT that much.

[Gadsie]

Some people are a bit unclear about amounts of calories. They tell you that you can eat as much as you want if you are low carb. However they assume that you will be full very soon so you don't want to eat more.
Eat veggies for micros. And some meat. Don't add fat, just don't avoid it

[NZ primal Gwamma]

Ninja Nina welcome to this delightful community. I am about 13 weeks in and am finding that if I up the fat intake a little - I don't need much to eat at all. I haven't tracked calories as such, but only eat when hungry. I have started losing weight again after a 4 week plateau. You will find a comfortable spot for your body and if tracking works for you, stick with it. I will certainly start tracking if I hit another plateau.

keep us posted

[Metric]

Ninja Nina,

I find that if I eat higher fat (fatty cuts of meat, cooking with fats, 10 - 10% cream in my coffee, no nuts for me), I am less hungry. I tried to stick to this, especially at the beginning because I was so distorted about true physical hunger and psychological hunger. Had I not eaten enough fat, I would have binged later in the night. The days that I eat less fatty meats, I find myself craving carbs like crazy. Just give yourself the time to settle in.

[Daydreamer]

I'm pretty sure your body will naturally get more peaceful about your WOE
If I need 3500 kcal or so it's just because I need to "catch up" with the way my body should have developed itself during all these years Forgotmylastusername, so yeah, I'm pretty sure you don't eat 3500 kcal a day either But... well, around 2400/2500 or so seems normal for a young adult, or even up to 2800 for some. Well, it all depends on you eventually ^^

Haha, being gluten free is actually quite easy. To be honest, if you HAD to eat bread, traditional and fresh french baguette coming from a good bakery would be the best choice hands down. Many people told me it's nothing like the bread that's sold in USA. But to be honest, with a huge past of chronic anxiety, congenital hypogonadism/pubertal problems (probably due to being conceived with IVF or something ilke that), auto immune disease (vitiligo), headaches/migraines, digestive issues, acid reflux, asthma...etc I think avoiding gluten and in general eating the paleo way is the best gift I can get for my body.

And to be honest, I grew up with so much baguette that I don't find them that exceptional at all
And I've never been a big fan of sugary desserts like baked goods. Of course, a french croissant tastes good, it's something obvious. But I love real food too, even more than french croissants, and the difference in my quality of life, energy levels, peacefulness, and intellectual blooming is well worth the effort (which is absolutely minimal considering the way I'm very satisfied with what I eat even taste-wise )

Keep at it, I'm pretty sure it's the best thing you can to show respect to your body too
Some days I binge like there's no tomorrow (which is quite normal considering the fact I need to eat like a teenager), with mostly proteins and fats, and to be honest, it's so satisfying that I go like a day and a half without eating anything and without thinking about it, because I have plenty of energy and just don't feel the need to eat now that I have reach a "healthy" bodyweight (even if I'm still developing muscle wise...etc). It could be seen as a binge-purge pattern but it's absolutely not since I don't feel guilty (well, can be disappointing at first and external influence can cause a slight guilt feeling but that's it), and I don't have to restrict myself from eating the day after that, nothing like the disordered behavior I used to have when I was very very hypogonadal and felt like my life was taken away from me and I had to create myself insane and stupid challenges, and fell in some kind of temporary ED (which did nothing but making my health worse than it was, if possible.).

Good luck and enjoy the journey

[Englishman in Oz]

Nina, if you lose 40lbs eating 3500kcal a day with that activity level, I'll eat my own face.

[LauraSB]

Ninja,

Your ratios (63%fat/11%carb/25%protein) are similar to what a lot of people post here. My own are 50/25/25 and I've been losing weight at a pretty steady clip, so there's a bit of a workable range for weightloss. But your total calories are probably going to prevent any kind of weightloss. I know a lot of people here are completely against calorie counting and if they're reaching their goals without it, I would agree it's an unnecessary effort, but a lot of overweight people (myself included) have a very poor sense of how much fuel they're putting in their mouths and they aren't going to face that honestly until they start counting.

Using calorie calculators available on the web, a 24yo, 5'2", 167lb woman whose only exercise is a bit of walking needs 2000-2200 cal/day to maintain that weight. That same woman at 128lb needs 1700-1900 cal/day. Sure, those counters are estimates, but they're not completely divorced from reality. 3500 cal/day is not realistic if the goal is weightloss. I wouldn't recommend trying to stick to 1700 cal right away. That would be tough and you'd probably be hungry, eat more, feel bad about it and eventually give up. Some downward pressure over time on the total amount of food you consume, with or without counting, will get you to the same place eventually.

And 1200 calories in beer? That's like 5 or 6 pints, right? Is that a regular thing? Aside from the calories, alcohol inhibits fat burning - Definitive Guide to Alcohol on a Low Carb Diet | Mark's Daily Apple - so you're working at cross purposes if you increase your fat and drink a lot. You may find that as you reduce the amount of food you eat and lose some weight, your tolerance for alcohol will decrease. I regularly drank 3 pints in an evening before I started eating better and now I really can't handle more than 2 (I'm 5'3" and 150 lbs at the moment, down from 195).

If you're anything like me, after a few months eating primal (or even mostly primal) you're going to feel great and everything about food will feel so much easier. So be patient with yourself.

[janie]

Hi Nina-
I'm 5'3" and have lost nearly 70 pounds. I have consistently kept fat at about 60-65% of calories, protein somewhere between 70-100 gms (varies by day) and carbs below 50gms. In the beginning it was hard to keep calories under 2000. As I lost weight, I had to lower the calorie intake somewhat. I'm near my goal now and eat around 1200-1500 calories per day. I'm also more active than I was at the higher weight.

So I agree that your calories and micronutrients are currently too high to expect consistent weight loss. I'd also agree that it is hardest in the beginning and gets easier and easier over time.

[NinjaNina]

Hi all,

Thank you everyone for your replies.

Gadsie; This may well be the case as the days go by. I never really care for butter but when I started it felt good to eat it as is. Sorry if this sounds yucky.. I stopped doing that! Hopefully my appetite will adjust and I will be falling under 2000kcals a day.

Nz Primal Gwamma; hi and thanks for welcomming me. I don't think I'll track regularly because I find it tedious but I'll do it when I'm in doubt or hitting a plateau. I'm glad you're back to losing weight and well done on sticking to it.. a month of plateau can be very challenging and testing to the strongests of wills.

Metric; I've never been much into butter but I find it hugely satisfying. I must admit , like you said I worry about falling off the waggon and having a grains binge that I've kind of over compensated with my kerrygold butter. As you said I hope once I've settled in I'll be able to balance things out.

Daydreamer; Thank you for the informative post. I suppose it's like you said, being surrounded and used to seeing/smelling something can desensitise you a little bit. I too am partial to a freshly baked croissant but I'd eat that and not even 30 minutes later I'm hungry. I don't know if I'll be able to go as long as you without food and hunger but I certainly am impressed that my need for snack, although still there is gradually diminishing. I used to be an eating machine..from the moment I wake up til I fall asleep and sometimes even wake up to eat more!
I'm glad to hear that you're overcoming your ED. My main motivation that led me to finding this is weight loss but since I've started reading posts, blogs and articles on primal/paleo living I become more and more convinced of the health benefits. I am so pleased that this is helping you and that you are comfortable doing it.

Englishman in Oz; hahahaha.. is that a challenge then? No, I wasn't saying that I will eat this and lose.. I was shocked to see the numbers and I thought that can't be right..or can it and thats why I posted here.. so many things I've been taught about food like that fat is bad for us, that wholegrains are good have been shaken up by reading MDA so I wondered if calories..etc also don't matter.. since a lot of what was a given then is not necessarily correct under eating primal. I mentioned my stats (weight, age, goal weight) not to say hey i'll eat this and get to this weight but to give people an idea .. i could be a marathon runner 6'5 and 180lbs or a body builder with different/greater needs.

Laura SB; Hi, thank you for converting my figures to a ratio, its interested seeing it in a percentage like that. Yes I drank a alot some nights 4 pints but the last couple of weeks with the summer holidays and probably due to increased alcohol tolerance I was nicking down 6 pints of lager! I haven't drunk since switching primal. The 3000kcals+ are without any alcohol. I'm sure it will benefit my health to cut it out for now and cut down in the future. I too whenever I stop drinking for months and start drinking again just 2 pints make me drunk. Well done on your massive weightloss, what an inspiration!!


janie; hi there thank you so much for your response. As I'm getting better at feeling fuller for longer as the days go by I feel that it will be achievable for me to stay under 2000kcals and can understand how as time goes by and as I get smaller and nearer my goal I'll have to re examin my intake again. It's been 6 hours since I had my breakfast and I can easily go for another few hours before having dinner...where as on day one and two (where I got those figures from) I was eating every 2 hours mainly out of habit and fear of going off the program. Your 70lbs loss is AMAZING . Your ratio is clearly working so they are definitley food for thought for me.


Thank you everyone for replying. I appreciate your helpfulness and good luck xx

[sbhikes]

Ninja, I'm confused whether you are a young man or a woman but you are eating quite a bit of food for almost anybody. And that's a huge amount of protein. The range is between .7 to 1 gram of protein per pound of lean body weight (not total body weight.) For me at 5'3" that's probably around 70-100 grams. If you are a football player, maybe you are getting enough protein.