For me it's protein. If I don't eat enough protein I snack a lot more and usually it's stuff I shouldn't be snacking on and I don't lose weight. Since doing low carb I don't snack at all at night, which was usually my most difficult time of the day. And water...I have to drink a lot of water or I get bloated... Good luck!

Disclaimer - my primary concern is blood sugar control. I am now right about where I want to be in terms of weight right now. That said, I see the same things causing issues with both. Common foods that can hinder are nuts (including peanuts even though they are really legumes), seeds and dairy.

I am currently doing some elimination experiments and have decided cheese and almonds are not an issue for me, but peanuts are the devil in food form. This really sucks because I like peanuts. They are great for eating at a baseball game straight from the shell.

I still have macadamia, pecan, walnuts, pumpkin seeds and sunflower seeds to test. I started doing without all of them several weeks ago and will bring one in at a time to measure effect.

Another thing I see frequently is people thinking they must eat a certain amount of fat. If you are trying to lose weight, keep the carbs down, eat enough protein (this gets sticky because you will hear all kinds of numbers here) and only eat enough fat for satiety. The rest of the "fat" you burn will come from what you have in your personal storage. As @heatherrk45 stated, it is common to overeat if you don't get enough protein due to how satiating protein is.

If you normally eat 2000 calories a day, you would be hard pressed to eat 2000 calories of protein. Even if you did, you may not eat again for a couple of days. That said, your body has its limits on how much it can process. Unfortunately, that varies broadly. Best advise I can give is experiment. The low end is around 0.8g per kg of lean body mass (if you are 200 lbs and have a body fat percentage of 30%, your LBM would be 140 lbs or about 64 kg). The high end would be 3 g per kg of LBM. For the example I gave, that would mean a range between 51 g a day and 192 g a day. Big range.

The more active you are, the higher that number will likely be.

As for exercise, the truth is you lose pounds in the kitchen and ounces in the gym. That said, you will get more benefit from strength training than from aerobics. The absolute best is to get a lot of low level movement (think getting 10,000 steps over the course of the day just by moving more) combined with 20 minutes 3-5 times a week of heavy lifting. You do not have to worry about getting big and muscular. What this will do is give you enough muscle mass to increase your basal metabolic rate so you burn more calories when you are doing nothing.

Good luck!

My two favorite dangerous bunnies....

I have a list!
Atkins bars
Heavy cream
peanuts
Artificial sweeteners

Sabine_Stroehm wrote: »

macchiatto wrote: »

I have a theory now that low carb tortillas and possibly low carb protein bars cause stalls for me. Not positive yet.

As a low carb tortilla lover (they don't give me tummy aches like bread does), what's your theory?

Just that they cause stalls for me. No theory on why. I'm experimenting with Joseph's lavash flatbread now to see if that has the same effect. i was mostly eating La Banderita low carb tortillas before; maybe there's something in the ingredients that makes me stall?

Everything and anything. The other night I made a simple cauliflower bake and ended up eating all 10 oz. I need to find my control switch. Even protein doesn't seem to work at stopping my hunger sometimes, especially after working hard on the farm.

I'm avoiding baking low carb goodies. I've banished any type of nuts....almonds more because of the excessive Round Up used in growing them. I think I'll get rid of dark chocolate and Atkins bars next. If it's not in the house I can't eat it.

But here is the problem, my hubby is underweight due to kidney and dialysis problems. He has no diabetes problems so I have to keep fattening goodies, cakes, pies, donuts, ice cream and cookies around for him. And they have to be on the shelf where he can see them, or he'll forget they are there and wont eat them. Just like I hide the good stuff from myself so I don't eat it, I have to tempt him with it at the same time. I see those donuts and treat myself to a bag of peanuts. The chocolate cookies beckon me, so I eat 3 squares of 73% chocolates after having already eaten my carb limit. Sigh, I have found that if I cover his treats with a dish towel, I'm less likely to move on to treating myself with low carb items. But I have to remind him they are still there under the towels and I hear them whisper my name....