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5 lbs of food a day

PostPosted: Tue Jul 12, 2011 6:04 am
by cpgraettinger
I've lost 4.5 lbs so far, in 2 weeks following the MWL program. Most of that in the first few days. I haven't been perfect but I've been pretty darn good. Had some bread yesterday with homemade gooseberry jam - hey, a girl's got needs, and homemade jam is one of them! :-)

Still a work in progress but I'm feeling pretty good about the quality of the food I'm eating. The really interesting part of the last 2 weeks has been weighing how much food I eat to feel satisfied. Turns out I eat about 5 lbs of food each day, at about 20 ounces each at 3 meals and 2 10 ounce snacks. I find this to be very exciting and interesting. I've learned that I don't have a bottomless stomach, that I do have a fairly stable need for 5 lbs of food a day. I'm encouraged by this - that I'm not out of control when it comes to food, that I do have natural limits! Hooray! This is information I can work with. Since I desire 5 lbs of food/day, I can focus on keeping the calorie density (CD) of those 5 lbs to approximately 300-400 cals/lb and I'll be taking in 1500-2000 cals/day. What I don't know yet is how many calories/day is best for me to get to my ideal weight, losing at a rate of 1 lb/week. I'll be happy with a nice slow pace of one pound/week.

So my next set of experiments will be to track the CD of my food and try to keep it within the 300-400 cals/lb for each meal. I think the MWL aims for something in that region too, but since I'm not perfect, I intend to track it myself.

Ooh, I almost forgot. Other big news is that by eating to my full satisfaction (the 5 lbs per day), my sugar cravings have dwindled significantly. I'm so excited about that. With sugar cravings under control I feel like I can reach my goals! That's the first time I've believed that in a long, long, time!

Re: 5 lbs of food a day

PostPosted: Tue Jul 12, 2011 6:57 am
by Mrs. Doodlepunk
http://www.drmcdougall.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=6032

Check Jeff Novick's post on this thread, about halfway down the page. He lists the caloric density of various food categories that we eat on this program.

Re: 5 lbs of food a day

PostPosted: Tue Jul 12, 2011 8:15 am
by MmmCarbs
Hi,
It is fascinating, isn't it?

Here's another link about the calorie density approach posted by someone here http://recumbutt.wordpress.com/2011/04/ ... iedensity/

PostPosted: Tue Jul 12, 2011 9:12 am
by Ege Bamyasi
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Re: 5 lbs of food a day

PostPosted: Tue Jul 12, 2011 8:55 pm
by sksamboots
I love the 5 pound a day plan. I think you should stay away from counting calories but hey thats just me. Glad you are here :nod:

Re: 5 lbs of food a day

PostPosted: Wed Jul 13, 2011 6:16 am
by cpgraettinger
Thanks to all of you for the pointers and encouragement. As for counting calories, I won't count calories per se, but I will weigh my food (in lbs, ounces) for a while as I develop some recipes that I like that are in the 300-400 cals/lb range.

Re: 5 lbs of food a day

PostPosted: Wed Feb 29, 2012 5:46 pm
by scooterpie
I noticed your question in the SMcD's forum. I'm not one, so I can't used that forum but I still wanted to chime in.

I eat B Rd Mill Extra Thick Oats too--my favorite oats at the moment:-)

I only use about one-third cup of oats, abt 1T flaxmeal, sometimes a couple T miller's bran and less than a cup of frozen blueberries. That is a hugely filling bowl for me. I like "plain jane" things with only a few ingredients.

I had trouble with nighttime eating (overeating) once upon a time and a book that helped me greatly was Overcoming Overeating by Munter and Hirschmann. There's a website by the same name. It is a different book with ideas I had never thought of before. Not a diet book and not just about nighttime eating.

I wish you all the best!

Re: 5 lbs of food a day

PostPosted: Thu Mar 01, 2012 7:55 am
by cpgraettinger
Thank you Scooterpie, I'll check out that website on overeating. Bob's Red Mill oats are delicious aren't they? Thank you for the exact measurements of what you eat.