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I have cut out all oils, and eat only rice, white and brown, jasmine, with beans. I eat some veggies and alot of fruit. I have lost weight and feel great but I have been stuck at my weight for about two weeks now. Any advice. Could all the rice be inhibiting my weight loss. Also im thinking of cutting down on my fruit and upping my veggie intake. Im not complaining I LOVE eating like this and feel wonderful, I would just like some advice due to the platuea.
FYI, I have lost about 13 lbs in about a month in a half. I have gone from 223 to about 210.

Congratulations on your weight loss. I'm with ya. I love rice and beans.

Recently, forum member Atom mentioned having a dinner guest from Costa Rica, and he asked her what she typically ate. The answer... "...for breakfast: rice and beans. Dinners: lentils and rice. Lunch: rice and beans."

That stuck with me. A couple days this past week, I broke from my usual oatmeal for breakfast and had rice and beans. I think the R&B kept me satiated for longer than the oats and I plan on eating that more often for breakfast.

However, the McDougall plan suggests limiting beans to no more than one cup a day, due to high protein. And limit fruit to two a day, so more veggies is good.

Does the protein and beans limitiation still stand? My understanding was that Doctor McDougall, in his earlier years, made a correlation between too much protein with risks to health. My understanding is that it has been discovered (The China Study) that it is the animal protein, not plant-based/vegetable protein, that is the risk factor involved. Are there studies out there that too much protein from a natural source (i.e. beans) could not be health promoting? I have heard to limit beans but I have always been skeptikal about this. Beans are pretty filling so I think it's hard to eat more than a cup at a serving, but I am liable to eat maybe two cups a day sometimes.

I don't know. I'd like to find out as well. This diet suits me very well because I love starches and beans. I could be happy eating nothing but potatoes, rice, beans and corn all day... everyday.

I recently discovered a way of cooking beans by pre-soaking them in a salt brine that made them really tender and yummy. I had to fight myself not to eat the whole pound that I made in one day. I'm reluctant to make them anymore for fear of overeating on them.

Ric, you and I might as well be twin brothers. I am in the same boat as you as far as food is concerned. We can our beans and they are cooked perfectly with the canning processing and have so much more flavor than the canned beans at the grocery store. They are buttery, cooked to perfection and really easy to make. If you were my next door neighbor I'd deliver you a couple quarts. If you learn anything about that vegetable protein vs. animal protein subject, please let me know.

You are on the right track! Fine tuning calorie density can be a big key
Jeff has posted about this many times but here is one

http://www.drmcdougall.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=6032

Eat more veggies, less fruit. Don't eat white rice. I suspect that if you make these changes you'll see improvement.

If I recall correctly at one of the ASW there was a presenter who talked about excess protein (think it was the time before last).

excess animal protein, of course, is very bad, but I also recall the presenter said that excess plant based protein was not good for us either.

I'm curious about this too. I've read the 1 cup a day advice, but I've noticed that so many recipes here have beans. It seems to me that many people are eating more than a cup a day.

I've been concerned that beans stall me too, though I don't know why. My suspicion is that coming off an LC diet that maybe I had too much protein for so long that my body needs to burn off the protein stores, but I have no idea if this is possible. When I LCed, almost everything I ate was protein. Now, I noticed my weight drops after days when I consume very little.

So, if things remain the same as has been, beans need to be limited.

Getting back to the topic, how much rice is too much? I eat as much as 3 cups of cooked long grain brown rice a day (one cup dry).

The answer is, "It depends..."

Individual metabolism, weight loss/maintenance goals, amount of exercise, what else is being eaten. Those are a few of the variables off the top of my head. In short, there is no "the answer".

I doubt the rice is the culprit. Increasing veggies and decreasing fruit sounds like a good strategy, as well as eliminating or severely limiting dried fruit and fruit juices if you're eating any of those.

Since canning season is nearing, and I don't want to hijack this post, could you make a new post and share some of your canning expertise?

And to the OP:

I don't know if there even is an issue with your weight loss, 2 weeks after a big drop might really not be much to be concerned about. You might want to limit your fruit intake, and up the veg, but I don't think the rice and beans is really the culprit. Maybe try only having fruit every other day and adding a salad in opposite days. Everybody is different here and I have heard all sorts of "plateaus" long and short. Best of luck on your journey, I know you will find the proper balance for your body.

yeah. sometimes havin a lot of rice doesn't work for some folks. Potatoes and sweet potatoes tend to help with weight loss a bit more than rice. I'd try and make half your starches tubers and get in a lot move veggies and small fruit intake and you'll drop again.

I'm currently on an elimination diet for an autoimmune condition. During the first few weeks plain brown rice and winter squash were the only allowed starches. So I ate a lot of brown rice! As a result my weight dropped like a stone - and I wasn't overweight to begin with. Comments were made at work.

Anyway, I had to increase my rice levels to double what I had been eating just to stop the freefall. What I discovered is it wasn't the rice, but the stuff I was using on it that made weight-loss difficult in the past. The elimination diet doesn't allow any sauces, dressing, gravy, etc. Just a little salt. I was eating cups and cups of plain brown rice and a whole winter squash every day and I still lost weight until my BMI fell below 19 and I looked like a walking skeleton.

As the weeks have progressed I've added back other grains like quinoa, gluten-free oats and corn. But I learned a valuable lesson - starches aren't fattening, but what you put on them can be.

Kate