Discussion Board

I'm just getting started with MWL after getting started with McDougalling the past couple months (still loosely, but I'm ready to get serious) and I try to eat what I'm supposed to for MWL and then wait 20 minutes to see if I'm still hungry. Most often, I am. I feel like I'm probably eating way too many calories and I know we really don't need to count them but I don't want to gain weight after losing 30 lbs recently. I'm wondering if this feeling of wanting to eat brown rice and potatoes non-stop will pass after a while or if I need to be more careful right off the bat?
Thanks!
Laura

Yes - but for me I think it was a little "in my head" not the feeling in my tummy. After being deprived of potatoes for years of dieting, this Irish girl - said let me at 'em and I wanted seconds and thirds. This was on MWL and I still lost. Eventually, I got to the point where some days I really am not hungry when mealtimes roll around and I kind of stick to the salad/one starch serving to one veggie serving mode and that's all I want.

For some reason, with me rice is different. There I always want seconds - but potatoes either white or sweet are not a seconds type starch for me. It's a puzzlement why, but for sure the wanting a lot of those starches tapered off in a pretty short time, I think like 2 weeks for me.

I should confess an exception - I crave certain starches when I have high fibromyalgia pain and have posted to that effect -- but above I am talking when all things are going along normally.

Good luck, let us know how it goes over time Michelle

Laura, it may help you to feel better about eating the starches if you think in terms of pounds. For example a typical meal for me is a bowl of veggies and a big bowl of rice. My big bowl of rice probably weighs a pound or two, depending on how hungry I am .

So you can enjoy several POUNDS of starches/day and still see good results when you follow the MWL plan. However, if you are unhappy with you rate of fat loss, you can eat a larger portion/bowl of veggies and a bit less of the starches. Just adjust your intake to find what is right for you. Eat when you are hungry and eat until satisfied.

Keep us posted!

This is me too. I am embarrassed to say how many weird diet plans I tried and many of them excluded starches or I had to count every grain of rice I ate. I absolutely love the fact that I can eat what I enjoy (which is rice and potatoes ) and look forward to losing weight. Hopefully this feeling of wanting to eat constantly will pass quickly for me.



Really? POUNDS? Ok well I don't know what my bowl of rice weighs but it's smaller than a coffee mug so I should be ok. I usually have my veggies on the side but if I mix them in maybe it would weigh a pound? I'm glad to hear that a large serving is ok. Maybe that's why I'm wanting seconds and thirds - I'm starting with a fairly small or a medium portion and I maybe I really am still hungry. I am officially starting MWL today after practicing for about a week so I'll see how my weight does this week and go from there. If I need to adjust and add more veggies that's what I'll do.

Thank you for the replies!
Laura

Yes, Laura, eat as much as you need to feel comfortably full! When I first started, my portions were (to me, a lifelong dieter) enormous. To give you another perspective, I usually had at least 2 cups of rice with 2 cups of cooked veggie mix. I'm talking measuring cups--I don't know what your version of a coffee mug is, so I'm trying to be precise! So, 4 cups of rice and cooked veggies, with either a salad or raw veggies before that.

I no longer eat such proportions every day, but I also have begun to notice that I go in waves--a few weeks of a very big appetite, tapering off to a few days of very little appetite, then a few weeks of what seems to be a normal appetite--being slightly hungry at mealtimes. So start to pay attention to the longer swings of your hunger, and see if you find a pattern. Sometimes it's comforting just to know there is an up and down pattern, and that you're not stuck in an escalating growth of appetite!

Laura, I was struggling this week as well with food quantities - I really felt like I was way overeating even though it was all MWL appropriate. After many years of thinking I can only lose weight (which I obviously did not do very effectively) if I was hungry all the time, it feels almost scary to eat starches till I'm full. My body is responding though, and I'm just trying to be patient while my head catches up. So, no great answer for you, but I understand what you're saying

Hi SewingMom...I ate a lot the first few weeks and about week three, my appetite was greatly reduced. Over the weeks my weight loss was alright, but I began eating more starch and actually gained last week. This past week I've cut back on my starch, added more raw vegetables and fruits and am back to losing weight. Maybe some people can eat pounds of starch daily and lose weight, I wish I was one of them, but I'm not. For a few months I was doing 30 minutes a day of yoga, I now do 60 minutes a day. I could barely get on the floor when I started, now I'm turning into a pretzel and losing 20 lbs. has made a huge difference. I'm coming off of 42 years of weird diets, you are definitely not alone on this!

That's what I like about MWL, you don't have to be hungry all the time. I've added more raw vegetables and fruits to my diet this past week and I've been very satisfied. I've been eating raw cucumbers, cherry tomatoes, celery, baby carrots, and romaine lettuce.

I still eat lots of starches and I've been doing this for a little over 3 months. I eat a plate full of potatoes and vegys 3 times a day, plus Shredded Wheat and original Almond Milk (there's been a debate whether this is MWL or not, but it hasn't affected my weight loss and gets me off to a quick and healthy start to my day) for breakfast. I average about 6 to 8 medium sized potatoes a day. I don't measure or count calories, but I do eat about half a plate of starch and half a plate of vegys. Several days a week, I'll add a cup of beans to one of my meals.

So, if you are getting hungry 20 minutes later, you are probably not eating enough to begin with. I suggest you double your current meal and I think you'll find that it will be several hours before you're hungry again. I can go about 4 hours between meals before I even think about food. AnneC

Thank you!
I've been adding more potatoes to my day which makes me happy I think I am starting to feel like starches are something I can eat. I've always felt like I couldn't eat them - they were forbidden or too many calories. Maybe that's why I am so afraid to add too many. I appreciate your support and encouragement!!
I'll weigh in on Friday and see how things went this week. As long as the scale moves down - even a half a pound - I'll be very happy