Weight Gain, please help.

[roundcoconut]

Does anyone currently on the boards have any experience with weighing daily and charting their rolling averages?

Because that's exactly what seems to be called for here. Can anyone talk specifics? You chart the average of the last how many days?

If the OP is legitimately trending upward, upward, upward, then we want to KNOW that and adjust.

There is nothing more anxiety-producing that putting on ten pounds and being told that it's not really ten pounds. Staying "on-plan" (I don't love that concept) is meaningless if you have to buy a larger pair of pants at the end of the week. Seriously!

[Mrs. Doodlepunk]

Does anyone currently on the boards have any experience with weighing daily and charting their rolling averages?

Because that's exactly what seems to be called for here.

If the OP is legitimately trending upward, upward, upward, then we want to KNOW that and adjust.

There is nothing more anxiety-producing that putting on ten pounds and being told that it's not really ten pounds. Staying "on-plan" (I don't love that concept) is meaningless if you have to buy a larger pair of pants at the end of the week. Seriously!

If a person has been following a low carb diet, it is very likely they would gain several pounds the first week of eating this (McDougall) diet. I gained 6 pounds, I'm 5'3".

It might be 10 pounds of water which sticks around along with the glycogen in the muscles that is supposed to be there. Another way of looking at it is a return to health. Before, while low carbing, the dieter was in a stressed condition and the glycogen reserves were gone. Now they are back. That is good. The 10 pounds is not fat, it's water.

When I first started eating this way, it took a couple of weeks before I noticed any changes. I was bloated and gassy, but then all of a sudden, I was down by something like 10 pounds and just shocked. Mr. D told me one night "It's hard to believe anyone can lose weight eating this way!" as he sat down to eat a plate full of brown rice and the barbecue bean sauce recipe from the book on women's health. I think it's stewed tomatoes, green pepper and onion, vegetarian baked beans and some extra plain canned beans, plus a little barbecue sauce and even BROWN SUGAR. We loved that, in fact I should make it again, haven't had it in a while. Anyway, one day Mr. D came out and told me he had lost almost 25 pounds. That might have been like 3 months in.... hard to remember now, it's been a while!

It is completely legit to ask the OP to hang in, review the principles and be sure no real high fat items or high sodium things are being eaten, and just keep going. If you're following the free program on Dr. McD's page, or from one of his books, it's all the same. You just eat and don't stuff yourself too much and you'll lose fat eventually.

In the beginning it's important to have the food taste good. As you go on, things taste better and you can easily give up the fancier recipes, but most of us need help in the beginning knowing what to eat and how to fix it. I like the Esselstyn cookbook the best at the moment.

I'm one of those people who likes things to taste good. In the beginning, I made recipes and stressed myself out completely by trying to cook two or three things for every meal. Now I pick the starch (tonight it's brown rice) and then the vegetable (cooked Asian vegetables with a little soy sauce) and we will eat that. Condiments might be some hot sauce. Keep it simple, relax, eat and be happy!

[raezdays]

Thank you all kindly for your replies.

I have taken into account all you have said. I would like to respond to the idea about food. While I don't think eating should be a "pleasure seeking" activity, I also don't feel I should have to sit down dreading eating food because it has no flavour. It is an activity we do 3 times a day. Many of you say, cut out soy...but the creaminess has helped me replace some of my favourite foods, such as yogurt, and milk. (Remember, this is my first week, I am trying my best.) I have eaten NO oil, sugar, flour, processed food, etc.

To clarify what you have all asked, before I started the vegan whole plant diet, I was eating fruits, veg, meat, dairy...and rarely grains, with the exception of whole raw oats with yogurt in the mornings. My BMI was a little high at 25.7. I started this plan, not just about weight loss, but also to live a healthier lifestyle. My concern over a 10lbs weight gain is valid. I already was pushing overweight status.

I want to live a healthy lifestyle, but I also want to be able to enjoy what I put in my mouth...I believe we have taste buds for a reason.

I will continue for another week and see where I am at then, but if it includes more weight gain, I guess I need to consider that being overweight is a health risk as well as a psychological downer.

[Hopingthisworks]

Hi raezdays, glad you came back

It is understandable that you are worried about the 10 pound weight increase. I would panic if it were me.

Other factors which could be an issue, any change in medication, an increase in sodium (seems unlikely, but some people might find the food a bit bland at first so put more salt on it that they can reduce over time), and if you are a woman, your menstrual cycle.

Also I don't know if your scales is totally reliable. Mine is a bit tempremental and can give the impression of going up a kilo overnight, which I know is impossible in terms of fat-gain. When I weigh myself I usually do it 3 times and take whatever comes out twice as the most likely correct (I also look at the overall trend).

I really hope the weight thing flattens out this week and eventually starts to come down.

About the soy, I still eat tofu and soy milks some of the time. I find the tofu fairly filling for the amount of calories it contains. But other people find it helps to cut it out while they are trying to lose weight, so it does seem to vary a bit.

You could always log your food onto http://www.cronometer.com and see how it is coming out. I personally hate calorie counting, and one of the advantages to this diet for me was not having to calorie count, but it might throw up some answers?

I don't know but are you drinking any calories? You don't mention this.

[roundcoconut]

raezdays, I like your comments on food and weight, and I think I'm on the same page as you with both!

Re wanting food to have flavor and to enjoy the food that you eat:
Whole natural foods ARE full of flavor. They ARE enjoyable! The difference is that they're not addictively stimulating. But flavor? For days!

No one here would ever tell you to specifically partake of plant foods you do not enjoy. Like, yellow squash doesn't have a lot of taste when eaten raw, but is quite delicious when cooked (even in the microwave) -- so eat it after it has been cooked! Another thing I eat often is cucumbers -- even organic cucumbers sometimes have a bitter skin, so eat them without the skin! There's nothing to be gained in eating whole natural foods in ways that gross you out. Food is yummy, just by being what it is. So, yes, if you like broccoli, eat broccoli. If you like sweet potatoes, eat sweet potatoes.

I wouldn't necessarily encourage you to continue with EXACTLY what you've been eating, for another week without tweaking, since there is a decent chance that that the calorie density and/or salt content of the foods that you're eating has you in weight-gain-or-water-retention mode. Your scale says you are ten pounds up, which isn't trying to discourage you, it's just trying to say, "Dilute out the calorie density of your food" and "lower the sodium content", even if just by a little bit. I understand you like incorporating tofu and sauces -- no problem, but you can still lower the calorie density of what you're doing and get the sodium down lower.

It doesn't seeem like much needs to be tweaked to get the calorie density right. You've already figured out how to eat without the oil, the flour, the sugar, and the animals -- now it's just a matter of a couple minor fixes to the proportions of your foods.

Would you be willing to tweak what you're eating a bit until the scale tells you you've got it right? I understand you will not be willing to eat plant based if it pushes your weight any higher, and that's the only reason I would ever ask this of you.

[Partly Cloudy]

Does anyone currently on the boards have any experience with weighing daily and charting their rolling averages?

Because that's exactly what seems to be called for here. Can anyone talk specifics? You chart the average of the last how many days?

If the OP is legitimately trending upward, upward, upward, then we want to KNOW that and adjust.

There is nothing more anxiety-producing that putting on ten pounds and being told that it's not really ten pounds. Staying "on-plan" (I don't love that concept) is meaningless if you have to buy a larger pair of pants at the end of the week. Seriously!

http://www.fourmilab.ch/hackdiet/e4/
I've used this online tool for a few years (on and off, not daily!) and have found it to be really useful feedback to help me know if I'm on track. It helps you to see trends in your weight (going up or down) that would be invisible day-to-day because of normal fluctuations.

The author is an engineer and has an interesting free book online. The online tacking tool might look a bit "techy" at first glance, but I've found it easy to use.

http://www.fourmilab.ch/hackdiet/e4/comptools.html

http://www.fourmilab.ch/hackdiet/e4/signalnoise.html#Fa79

Hope this helps!

[raezdays]

Hello all once again.

Thank you all...and I have good news to report!! I have evened off this week, and the 10lbs is almost gone...only 1.5lbs left of the 10 gained. I did manage to cut out most the soy, and I have added a tiny bit of olive oil in. Just a teaspoon at one meal every other day.
I also, maybe bad, added back coffee (organic), which I drink with almond milk, no sweetners.

I also found an amazing recipe for meatless meat using walnuts, cauliflower, tomato paste, and Braggs Aminos and cumin. This has really been a life saver for me. I have done away with cream sauces using tofu, and am trying to use the natural creaminess of tomatoes when cooked into paste, and then adding water back in. I have also started cooking oatmeal (rolled oats) in the morning, and adding rice milk. I have also switched off of soy milk to rice milk (unsweetened of course), and this I think has helped keep calories down I believe. If I have cravings, I have been eating fresh ground coconut added with organic no-sugar added applesauce, instead of reaching for grains.

I have also noticed I am not as swollen this week either...as my ankles were getting pretty puffy. I have also been really conscience of getting enough water drank during the day.

A big special thanks to "Roundcoconut" for your support, kindness, and understanding!

[roundcoconut]

raezdays, I'm SO, SO happy that you are liking your food and liking your body and are feeling good about what you're doing and the results you are getting. It makes a HUGE difference!

Eating in a way that can become your new normal is a really good thing! It is fine if your new eating patterns are consuming SOME emotional energy, but I'm glad you're not putting pressure on yourself to immediately forego anything and everything that is suboptimal.

I, too, drink some caffeine every day, and am totally happy with my health outcomes. (I like black tea, am experimenting with green tea, and indulge in real coffee once or twice a week.) If either of us experience insomnia or anxiety, then maybe that'll be our cue to change, but let's just go with it for now!

Let us know how things go for you as you settle further into your new patterns and make little adjustments for greater pleasure or greater nutrition. Much kindness!