Newbie with questions!

[Lady Marmalade]

Hello all you calorie counting peeps, hope you don’t mind a newbie weighing in. I'm switching over to calorie counting from Atkins. I've lost over 20lbs this year with low carb, but the weight loss has slowed right down to a crawl and because of that I was finding it harder to stick to. Thought a change of diet might help re-start the weight loss and also that the old "calories in<calories out" formula can't fail to work. Hopefully!

Has anyone had any experience of switching over from low carb - am I likely to gain in the first week? Did it take a while before the weight started shifting again? I've just had a weekend away and decided to have a 'between diets' break and went, oooh, just a weeny bit mad with the bad foods, so that gain has already been taken care of! One thing I'm a bit nervous about is losing the appetite-suppressing effect of ketosis. Do you guys spend a lot of time hungry?

I've never done calorie counting before so it's all new to me. I've signed up to Tesco diets, they do all the working out for me and keep me to about 1300 cals a day, I figure I'll use that as a way of learning the ropes. Anyone used Tesco diets before?

My first week's shopping delivery is later on tonight, I've had to improvise today as we had no bread in and the milk had gone off. So far today I've had:

Brek
2 eggs scrambled - 150
1 tsp veg oil - 40
1 packet (6) melba toasts - 94
1 tbsp Flora - 68
Total - 352

Lunch:
Tesco L/C chicken salad sandwich - 285
Muller light yoghurt - 100
Apple - 50
Total: 435

How am I doing so far?

 

[LaLaLou]

Hello hello! Welcome to the CC side

I haven't had experience with switching for low carb to CC, but there are a few folk on here who have, sure they'll come along and give you some advice soon enough.

I obviously only speak for myself, but I don't spend any period of time being hungry, when I'm hungry I eat. The difference is that I'm now snacking on better things like fruit, rice cakes, low fat yogurts, cereal bars etc. And when eating the "right" stuff I have lots of cals to use. I tend to eat three main meals and a few snacks throughout the day.

Your meals so far sound good. I try and make sure I get in a fair bit of fruit and veg per day, not that it always works out that way! Must get better at it, hehe.

I don't use a diet service, but I do use an online calorie counter, it's good to write down your daily intake. I'm a bit of a fussy eater, so prob wouldn't be able to follow a set out menu to the letter.

Good luck!

 

[lemon_fizz]

Hello and welcome.

I never let myself get hungry as that would freak me out into a binge! I have 3 small meals with 3 small snacks in between, that way you eat little and often so keeps energy up and blood sugar stable. Plenty of fluids help too. Sugar free squash, tea, coffee etc.

I bought a cal counting book from the newsagent for a couple of quid, then just add cals eaten as I go through the day. I like that you can chose to eat exactly what you want as long as you stay within your cal allowance. You can actually eat foods you like! I wouldn't enjoy a pre-set rigid diet.

I haven't ever done Atkins but I know when you change diet plans, there is often a little gain as your body gets used to it.

Best of luck with your weight loss.

 

[Lady Marmalade]

Thanks for the welcome, Lou & fizz.

I've been looking at your daily menus on the "What are we eating today" thread and tbh it looks like you all eat plenty, I can't believe how much food you can have for under 1400 cals so I don't think I'm going to feel all that deprived - especially now I can have all those forbidden carbs!

The Tesco diets do let you change things and add things in, it's quite flexible. I obviously do need it as a guide as this morning I could not believe how small a 25g portion of bran flakes is! I have a lot to learn about portion control I think... Luckily I've got some snazzy new digital kitchen scales to help me.

I'm a bit concerned that I was hungry again by 9.30, but I guess it's a learning process and I will eventually find combinations of meals and snacks that keep me fuller for longer. I'm also doing stuff like moving items out of my meal plans and having them as snacks in between meals - so I haven't had my breakfast apple yet, will have it in a bit to tide me over until lunch. Trying to stick to my usual daily 3 litres of water too, only now I can have tea as well!

As for recording things, I have the *geekiest* spreadsheet set up to record all calories in and calories out, and every little thing in between. Sad, but I'm on a steep learning curve here and need the reassurance.

Quick question - about how many cals in a cup of tea with semi-skimmed milk?

 

[lemon_fizz]

I measure 200ml of semi-skim milk (100 cals) each morning, leave it in the fridge in a jug and use it when I want tea or coffee, rather than calculate amount used for each drink.

I find that all cereals even the very hi-fibre ones only fill me up for an hour or so. Protein keeps me happy and full the longest.

This suits my lifestyle as I am at home most of the time, I appreciate this may not be practical for a working person. Although people I worked with in the past used to bring in their measured milk in a little bottle.

 

[Jot]

Hi LM,

I was doing atkins for a while and lost 11lb, but when i switched to ccing it took 3-4 weeks for the scales to move in the right direction, I am losing on average 1lb a week, but I much prefer the variety of food ccing, good luck. x

 

[Lady Marmalade]

I measure 200ml of semi-skim milk (100 cals) each morning, leave it in the fridge in a jug and use it when I want tea or coffee, rather than calculate amount used for each drink.

I find that all cereals even the very hi-fibre ones only fill me up for an hour or so. Protein keeps me happy and full the longest.

This suits my lifestyle as I am at home most of the time, I appreciate this may not be practical for a working person. Although people I worked with in the past used to bring in their measured milk in a little bottle.

Thanks fizz. I know what you mean about the protein! I kinda miss the way my eggs & bacon would fill me up, although I don't miss the cooking & washing up! I'm finding that glugging plenty of water is helping keep hunger pangs at bay but I might look at adding a bit of protein in as well.

 

[Lady Marmalade]

Hi LM,

I was doing atkins for a while and lost 11lb, but when i switched to ccing it took 3-4 weeks for the scales to move in the right direction, I am losing on average 1lb a week, but I much prefer the variety of food ccing, good luck. x

Hello Jot! Good to see you again chuck. :wavey: Hope all's well with you. I saw Bren has been posting here as well, I've been wondering how she's been getting on.

I had a WI this morning, I'm stuck with two weekly WIs as I can't change the WI day with my online diet service from the day I joined up (Thursday), although I technically only started the diet on Monday (due to a NAWTY weekend away...), so that's my 'real' WI day. Anyhoo, it seems that I've lost 4lbs since Monday! Amazing, although it is probably all water weight put on due to having so much wine and I fully expect the loss to slow right down. Happy to see it go, though, of course!

I'm hoping to lose a steady 2lb a week. So far I'm enjoying the variety too (although having to get used to smaller portions), and also enjoying not having a house that stinks of fried food!