My doctor

jgnatca

Thin crust pizza. Open faced burger. Salad instead of fries.

optionsgod

astrampe wrote: »

Being overweight puts you at a bigger risk for sleep apnea, so yes, losing weight would lower the risk..
As for carbs - your diary is not consistent, but its obvious that you eat about 2.5 times as much carbs as protein.....And as far as I can see, a lot of junky carbs. Pizza and hamburger and fries on the same day? Thats a load of empty calories with little nutrition.....
-
- If you lower your carbs and up your protein, you might find that you will need significantly less calories to keep you satisfied. Also, you are a big guy, and only eating 115g of proteins is really low.....You want to keep some muscle and lose fat, so you need more protein.....

thanks, that one day you looked at was a day I just messed up. I was on the road and did not prepare any food, not letting that happen again. I said I will have one cheat meal on Saturday's.

How many carbs and proteins would you say per day ?

astrampe

Oh, ok, we all have those days now and then! I have my macros at 35p/35c and 30f....I lift heavy, am in my mid forties and try to keep as much muscle as possible..... For me it works out to about 130g of carbs, 140g of protein and 40g of fat, depending on how much I worked out.
Higer protein works for me, as it keeps me satisfied longer and prevents cravings. If I eat too much carbs, my blood sugar spikes and rops too much, which just makes me want more carbs....
You can custom set your macros. On my one "off" day, I eat as much carbs as I feel like...

optionsgod

I must find my groove as well as continue to educate myself on all of this.

optionsgod

So for those that chimed in. I went to the sleep apnea doctor today. He checked me out. He gave me an allergy test, lung test & metabolic test. It turns out I am allergic to trees, grass, mold, horses, and corn ! I really had no clue about any of this especially the corn.

Lung test was fine.

Now the metabolic test I was hooked up to a breathing machine for 10 minutes. Basically my rate was 2300 calories. So the doc said my metabolism is good. He wants me on a 2000 calorie diet. I said I have been doing between 1700 for the last 2-3 weeks, he said that is even better and don't go below that. He would of recommended that after a little while but didn't want to overwhelm me to quickly.

They are checking with my insurance to see if they can send me for a over night sleep study.

So overall I feel more committed this time to changing my life then ever before. This site helps a lot and seeing all of the success stories is incredibly inspiring.

optionsgod

are we allowed to bump

lemurcat12

Did your doctor say to lower your carbs or to do a low carb plan? Was there some background to it, like your talking about being more successful on Atkins or him saying that he'd seen many be successful in losing by lowering carbs, or perhaps some suggestion that it was needed due to a particular health issue (as opposed to losing weight)? From what you've reported it sounds more like advice on how to lose weight, but if you aren't sure you might want to check. If it's related to a specific condition you'd want more specifics, like how low, any particular foods to be wary of, that kind of thing. A referral to someone for help or written information would be expected.

If it's just "lowering carbs is often a good way to lose weight and losing weight would be good," that's true, although there are other ways to lose weight that work best for many people. Lowering carbs (not low carb) actually works well for me, in the context of an overall healthy diet. What I did sounds somewhat like wamydia above--I changed my breakfast to focus on getting more protein and veggies plus some fat (veggies are carbs but don't have that many carbs, since they are low calorie), my preferred breakfast is a vegetable omelet, I tend to have starchy carbs at either lunch or dinner but not both, and try to add more vegetables plus maybe fruit or dairy to replace the calories the starchy carb (grains, potato, etc.) would have taken, and I largely cut out snacks and try to concentrate my calories on my three meals (plus sometimes dessert), as I tend to have more macro-balanced meals and snacks are often easy to make carb heavy just based on what's around or tends to be offered. I also cut out calories that I ate because they were there without really appreciating, which me tends to be stuff like rice and bread, although if you love these things my method won't work as well. Most significantly for me is I really stress getting at least 120 grams of protein (currently) and lots of vegetables--getting more of one macro tends to cut down on others, and I also tend to get some fat with most of my protein.

After I did this I started logging on MFP and set my carb macro so that it would hit around 100 grams, as that was how I seemed to be eating. Now I'm eating more overall and doing lots of exercise, so I raised it to 40% (around 160). If yours are at 300 or so it sounds like cutting them might be an easy way to cut calories, but if you really love them it might be more challenging. One thing to do is log what you do eat (and reconstruct a few days if you can) and then you can see how to cut calories as some things may stand out to you.

There's also a low carb or keto group here (or maybe a few), which would likely have advice, but might be too hard core if you aren't planning to go really low.

Kalikel

Glad to hear it went well and you're on the right track!

I hope you get your sleep study!

NikonPal

nycpips wrote: »

told me to lower my carb intake, anyone follow a low carb plan?

I have permanently reduced my carb intake and don't miss a lot of former favorites... As for sleep apnea - I have had severe apnea for years and will be re-tested next year. I always believe in listening to my attending physician.

As an example, I always keep in mind that just because "2 slices" of bread is listed as one serving; nothing is stopping me from cutting back to 1 (or a 1/2) slice.

Here is a link to a small sample of the meals (WITH PHOTOS) I eat on a regular basis -- and have eaten for over 1 year.

http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10024389/fast-food-frozen-dinners-are-tempting-but#latest

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jrose1982

nycpips wrote: »

that is true, I did the atkins diet awhile ago, it worked great but then it really messed me up. So I wouldn't go crazy. If I could just be more aware of what has a lot of carbs that could be useful ya know? Hypothetically if I'm eating 300g per day now I could go to 250. Nothing extreme.

Start by reducing your bread, pasta & potatoes - I think those are the worst offenders (being high-carb, high calorie, and high availability). There may be others that I'm missing. Maybe read up on low-carb diets, make a list of foods that are restricted. Then research those foods and further refine the list to the ones that have the greatest impact on you. Since you're not going very low-carb, you can probably ignore any restricted vegetables (for example, I think winter squash and sweet potatoes are on the no-list for very low-carb, but should be fine for you).

Once you have a list of foods to cut back on, reduce it to one from that list in a day. Keep fruit to 1-2 servings a day. Going from 300 to 250 shouldn't be too hard.

Or you can take a daily meal planning approach. Start with vegetables, protein, and fat for each meal. Then add fruit to whatever meals you want it. Then add some higher-carb foods as they fit. If you do a complete plan for a day, then you just have to follow the plan and don't really need to think about it.

To lose weight, you'll need to eat less calories. Figure out your calorie limit, then you can use your hunger to tell you whether or not to keep lowering your carbs - I mean, if you're still hungry eating all your calories, you might want to reduce carbs further and replace those calories with fat. This might help you figure out a good carb-limit for your needs.

jrose1982

nycpips wrote: »

astrampe wrote: »

Being overweight puts you at a bigger risk for sleep apnea, so yes, losing weight would lower the risk..
As for carbs - your diary is not consistent, but its obvious that you eat about 2.5 times as much carbs as protein.....And as far as I can see, a lot of junky carbs. Pizza and hamburger and fries on the same day? Thats a load of empty calories with little nutrition.....
-
- If you lower your carbs and up your protein, you might find that you will need significantly less calories to keep you satisfied. Also, you are a big guy, and only eating 115g of proteins is really low.....You want to keep some muscle and lose fat, so you need more protein.....

thanks, that one day you looked at was a day I just messed up. I was on the road and did not prepare any food, not letting that happen again. I said I will have one cheat meal on Saturday's.

How many carbs and proteins would you say per day ?

Protein: I've heard 0.7 g/lb of lean body weight. You can find calculators online to help you estimate your % body fat. Subtract that from your weight to find your lean body weight.

Carbs: I've read that people should be less than 150 g/day - but that wasn't a very good source, and was based on a lot of generalizations. It looks like you're going for 230 right now? So long as that's less than you've been eating, it's a good place to start. You can always adjust it later as you get in stride.

RodaRose

nycpips wrote: »

So for those that chimed in. I went to the sleep apnea doctor today. He checked me out. He gave me an allergy test, lung test & metabolic test. It turns out I am allergic to trees, grass, mold, horses, and corn ! I really had no clue about any of this especially the corn.

Lung test was fine.

Now the metabolic test I was hooked up to a breathing machine for 10 minutes. Basically my rate was 2300 calories. So the doc said my metabolism is good. He wants me on a 2000 calorie diet. I said I have been doing between 1700 for the last 2-3 weeks, he said that is even better and don't go below that. He would of recommended that after a little while but didn't want to overwhelm me to quickly.

They are checking with my insurance to see if they can send me for a over night sleep study.

So overall I feel more committed this time to changing my life then ever before. This site helps a lot and seeing all of the success stories is incredibly inspiring.

That is cool about the metabolism test. It is great to have solid information.
Corn products have many names and are in much of our processed food. I hope that the corn is not really an issue for you.
Good luck with the sleep study and everything else as you go forward.

joyfuljoy65

I am also a carb queen who has lost weight by keeping those "evil" carbs in her new way of eating by that lovely word MODERATION. There is no point 'dieting with low carbs' for a few months and then eating 'properly' and piling all your hard earned weight loss back on. This is a life style change so make it one you can keep to for the rest of!!

happieharpie

I prefer to limit carbs, and my doctor and I work together to achieve my best health results. I don't call what I do by name. It's not Atkins or Paleo or South Beach. It's what I do to feel good and lose weight. I eat lower carb veggies and fruit, eggs and nuts, occasional meat/fowl/seafood. I've lost 85 pounds and feel the best I've felt in 20 years.