Not binging, not losing! page 2

[JoPaleo]

You could probably eat a larger breakfast then maybe you wouldn't be so hungry at dinner time.

Agreed. Add some meat and some veggies. Keep everything else the same and give it a couple weeks to see if it helps with the binging. Keep us posted.

[emmie]

I have had a similar problem, and I've read that any form of restriction will spur the binge monster, so it becomes a vicious cycle. We binge and then try to do 'damage control' by eating very little, but that brings on another binge.

By eating freely, you have no impulse to binge, so if you want to lose weight, I'd suggest you restrict very, very carefully, so that it doesn't appear to be restriction at all. We need a caloric deficit for weight loss, but if you resign yourself to losing slowly and just cut portions slightly, you may avoid the urge to binge.

[ChocoTaco369]

Menu

A typical day - 2 fried eggs for breakfast, sometimes with a beetroot.
Lunch - 213g wild salmon, salad with beetroot, tomato, maybe olives.
Dinner - Lots of meat (two lamb chops / three turkey escalopes / two tins salmon / two burgers / prawns etc) with lots of veggies - courgette, mushrooms, occassionally butternut squash.
1 piece of fruit a day - max 2 - either pink grapefruit or sharon fruit, as a daytime or evening snack.

Two questions:

1.) Do you exercise, and if you do, do you lift (specifically the Big 5)?

2.) Is there a reason why you're avoiding carbohydrate?

[Daydreamer]

Beetroot is a carb.

[ChocoTaco369]

Well, carrots and lettuce are carbs, too. Beets are pretty fibrous and what's there is slow sugar. I mean significant carbs - potatoes, sweet potatoes, bananas, plantains, parsnips, etc.

[SoccerGrok]

well, carrots and lettuce are carbs, too. Beets are pretty fibrous and what's there is slow sugar. I mean significant carbs - potatoes, sweet potatoes, bananas, plantains, parsnips, etc.

word!!!

[YogaBare]

Thanks for the support everyone. I appreciate that 21% bodyfat isn't bad, and I'm trying not to think about the weight too much... but I'm not used to staying at my "heavy weight" so it's hard! It seems paradoxical that I'm not going down to my "thin" weight even though I've stopped binging and am not eating nuts or chocolate... I guess it will prob take a while for my body to go to whatever it's natural weight is.

I actually am not exercising much at the moment - normally I lift my own body weight (I'm a Yoga teacher) and sprint x 2 times a week, but I really feel my body needs rest and recovery at the moment so I'm not forcing myself to do anything.

Re. avoiding starchy carbs - I have hypoglycemia, and starchy carbs aggravate it big time. My body is pretty used to eating fat and proteins now, so if I crave any sugar I just have fruit and it does me.

I'm female, and yes that's me in teh avatar.

I guess I have to be patient...! I'll keep eating my fill and see what's happened after a month or two.

[ChocoTaco369]

I actually am not exercising much at the moment - normally I lift my own body weight (I'm a Yoga teacher) and sprint x 2 times a week, but I really feel my body needs rest and recovery at the moment so I'm not forcing myself to do anything.

If you are not exercising, your body composition is going to suffer. You are clearly consuming a caloric excess, and if you are sedentary, it means you have low levels of anabolic hormones. Your excess weight is going to trend toward fat. Your options at this point are really to either eat less calories or start lifting heavy weight to try and coax your body into recomping that weight into lean muscle.

You can try tricks like seasoning your food less, not mixing fat and carbohydrate or paying attention to foods that make you feel fullest longest. This will decrease food reward, leading to less consumption, and you'll find yourself less hungry less often. It kinda takes some fun out of eating, though.

Re. avoiding starchy carbs - I have hypoglycemia, and starchy carbs aggravate it big time. My body is pretty used to eating fat and proteins now, so if I crave any sugar I just have fruit and it does me.

Are you sure you have hypoglycemia? Do you have a blood glucose monitor? Or are you self-diagnosed?

Hypoglycemia isn't really caused by simply eating carbohydrate. When you do eat carbs, if you are becoming hypoglycemic, I'm willing to bet you are consuming a caloric excess, eating it along with too much animal fat or you're eating too much protein.

1.) When you mix fat and starchy carbohydrate, it becomes ultra-palatable. You will eat more calories in fried potatoes than you will steamed or boiled potatoes pretty much every time. If you are consuming a significant calorie excess, that means you're consuming more than you can comfortably handle in one sitting, which could lead to feeling lousy because it's simply more than your system can handle.

2.) Mixing lots of starchy carbohydrate with animal fat can promote blood sugar issues. Palmitic acid + starch could be problematic. Try consuming lots of starch with next to no fat. Think well-trimmed chicken breasts and white potatoes. See if you react poorly to carbohydrate in the absence of fat. I feel best keeping fat and carbs separate. If I am having a starchy meal, I keep fats lower. Similarly, if I'm eating some fatty meat, I keep starches mostly absent.

3.) You're consuming too much protein or dairy. Animal protein and dairy causes a large glucagon response. If you want to feel like crap, wake up and fast until you've hit 16-24 hours, then eat a tub of 0% Greek yogurt. I bet your hands start shaking and if you check your blood glucose, you'll be around 60-65. Hypoglycemia! Brought on by the large glucagon release of protein. Try eating your carbs and protein in a 1:1 ratio, meaning at least 1 gram of carbs for every gram of protein. You can go as high as 2 grams of carbs per gram of protein. If you do not want carbs, I think it's important to make sure the protein is quite fatty. Eggs, pork ribs or pork shoulder, dark meat chicken with skin, ribeye steak...these are good meats to eat in the absence of carbohydrate. Eating pork loin or chicken breast will have you consuming a lot of protein in a sitting without a carbohydrate source. That's rough on your body and quite stressful.

Anyway, that's my two cents. Also factor in that low carbohydrate diets cause your body to become insulin-resistant. Regularly including healthy starch sources in your diet with increase your body's natural insulin sensitivity. In addition, heavy weight exercises such as squats, deadlifts and presses will greatly enhance your insulin sensitivity by increasing your muscle glycogen storage, leading to increased glycogen storage efficiency.

[imnes]

I had to search Google to find out what a Turkey Escalope was. Sounds tasty!

British Turkey recipe -- British turkey escalopes wrapped in parma ham