mjbrenner Member

I also use a strainer and rinse my beans well. This gets rid of a lot of the salt. Beyond this, the 4HB slow carb diet does cause many of us to process extra water. With extra water intake and expulsion, you shed electrolytes, including salt. My sodium intake is a bit high on the 4HB diet, but I've found by blood pressure…

Ron, can you contribute positively to the discussion? If the advice you quoted is bad, can you explain why in a way that helps others to understand? That would be a great benefit to the conversation. To the OP, there is general, though not universal, consensus that carb-heavy foods with more fiber and less sugar are better…

I have found benefits when taking green tea extract as a supplement, but it's far from a magical weight loss pill. It appears to help, but only a little bit. To get a benefit, I need to take a good deal of it, which is not very cheap (4500 mg green tea extract for 1125 mg EGCG daily, spread over three doses). This is way…

It is easy for all of us to suggest that your husband is out of line and being inappropriate, but none of us have an insider's view of your family dynamic. Manhood is a complex ideal, and it can be very difficult for anyone to bring together the disparate ideas of what makes an ideal man. Instead, I suggest that you find…

There is not necessarily a strict metabolic advantage to low carb diets, but many people do find it easier to manage cravings and keep hunger at bay when on a low carb diet. Only you and your doctor know how you respond to carbs and are able to make that call. Many of us who do use low carb or slow carb diets also maintain…

Veggies and dip Cheese, meat, and crackers (you don't eat the crackers) Crab-stuffed mushroom caps I hope this helps.

My understanding is that the "Fat Burning Zone" is a big load of hooey. It simply exists as a place where people can generally work out longer and burn more calories, rather than working too fast and needing to stop early. If you can burn more calories by working harder, then I say go for it. That said, if I am wrong, then…

How long have you been on the diet? Breaking the sugar addiction can take a while. If you share your diary, people may be able to help you more. For me, I just remind myself that I can eat my craving on cheat day, which is never more than six days away. Some people carry a small pad with them and write down the foods they…

We eat a late dinner in my house, so it's usually not too big of a deal. I do budget for two glasses of red wine every night, though. When the snacks are calling me, I ask myself, "Do I really want to give up my wine for boxed cookies?" With that comparison, the cookies almost never get touched.

I do not understand why people harp on this. Muscles does weight more than fat per unit volume. A pound is a pound, but I do not think that most anyone who claims muscle weighs more than fat thinks otherwise. Whenever we claim X weighs more than Y, it is inherently implied that this is per unit. The only unit that makes…

You should do strength training before cardio. It's an oversimplified explanation, but strength training needs carbs, and cardio can happen on carbs or fat. Since you won't burn fat until you run out of available carbs, you should do the strength training when they are available. Kettlebell swings are a great exercise for…

A small change in thigh size can make a HUGE difference in how pants fit. Your thighs may not look very different from when you start, except more toned, but pants may still become a far easier fit. Keep it up!

Did you increase your deficit the other days of the week to make up for the spike day? Meaning that if your goal was 200 calories per day, you'd do six days at around 1650 and then one day at 4000?

Atkins can be great, but like any eating strategy, there are limits to it's greatness. If you can be rigorous about the foods you consume, then Atkins, South Beach, and Primal/Paleo can be good choices. It doesn't matter if you have a metabolic problem that requires a low carb diet or not, there is no inherent flaw in…

It sounds like your immediate family is being supportive and wants to be accommodating, which is great. One of the best thingfs you can do is to help them find easy ways to accommodate your new eating strategy. For example, my parents were visiting on one of the rare occasions we do have fried foods at my house. I had some…

Full fat cottage cheese

I have a planned "cheat" day once per week. I can easily hit 3000-4000 calories on my cheat day, but I also try to be under by a couple hundred calories most other days of the week to make up for it. Overall, my weeks end up pretty much right on my calorie budget on a regular basis. The other six days of the week, I try to…

Years ago, eggplants used to be quite bitter and required salting. Today, eggplants have been bred to be far less bitter, so they do not require salting. Salting is not a bad idea, however, if you plan to fry the eggplant. Eggplants can really soak up oil, and salting them (and microwaving for a few minutes as well) helps…

I'll do one high-carb day per week along with increased calories. This is both to keep my metabolism high and provide me with a way to have the high-carb foods I love, albeit with much less frequency than I used to have them.

Are you rocking a lower-carb diet? Similarly, are you eating lots of simple carbs? Lots of people get cranky when their blood sugar is low. You've lost a good deal of weight (yay!), so this might change the needed dose of any medications you are taking. If a pill's dosage is body weight dependent, then you could now being…

Sausage with sauteed eggplant topped with a small amount of tomato sauce Make a wrap using a low-carb tortilla - Joseph's is a good brand Hamburger with lettuce as the bun Stir-fry Soup - mushroom or chicken are good choices Grilled chicken breast with grilled veggies

Alton Brown has a really, really easy beef jerky recipe. This is far cheaper than buying ready-made jerky at the store, and you have complete control over what goes into it. http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/alton-brown/beef-jerky-recipe/index.html

Body fat scales are really, really bad at measuring body fat. They are, however, decent at measuring hydration. Your body fat is not skyrocketing, but the amount of water in your body is - this will look like a body fat increase on your scale. An "average" woman needs about 2.2 liters (9 cups) of water per day, and an…

I still limit my calories, because I have found that I won't lose weight if I don't. That said, limiting my calories has not been a real problem for me at all on my low-carb diet. I don't get hungry like I used to.

I am the cook in my house, and I prepare healthy meals for my wife, a notoriously picky eater. Since I am eating low-carb, and I do not expect her top be, it is often as simple as puting a potato in the oven or a small side of pasta on the stove. When my wife likes the healthy meals, I am more likely to cook them for the…

Miracle Noodles is a brand name of shirataki noodles. Shirataki are noodles made entirely from glucomannan, a soluble fiber. They have no calories and no net carbs, which makes them pretty amazing, no matter if you are under a caloric restriction diet or a carb restriction diet. There is another variety of shirataki noodle…

I just want to say that I am sorry for your loss. My wife miscarried with our first child in December, after much time and many treatments to get there. I understand your drive to reclaim a part of your life as strongly as possible. I don't have anything to offer on dealing with family, since the best of families still…

My shirataki noodles arrived earlier this week, and I am in love. They are not a perfect replacement for wheat or rice pasta, but they are not bad either. Taken on their own merits, like I would any new type of noodle, they are fantastic. They make a great addition to a stir-fry, and their chewiness makes them especially…

There is a real, albeit small, benefit to drinking ice cold water. Consuming cold water cools down your body's core temperature,and your body needs to work harder to get back to normal operating temp. There is reasonable evidence that drinking enough ice cold water, maybe one liter twice a day, can stimulate brown adipose…

I had to drastically cut my carbs to prevent binging. Finally breaking my sugar addiction is what I needed, but it really depends how much of your binging is craving vs. emotional. I still emotionally binge on a rare occasion, but it is much less frequent without the carb compulsion. Of course, not everyone's body responds…