Plateaud and scared to eat fat :(

[pingufan]

Hi,

A bit of background. I've been following the Terriann123 plan for 7 weeks. The plan is primarily high protein, low carb but low fat too.

The typical plan is unlimited meat (minimum of 250g for lunch and dinner) the meat can be chicken, beef etc. Unlimited mushrooms, onions, peppers, salad (not tomato)

Bacon & sausage can be eaten twice a week, eggs max 2 a day.

They advise low fat mayo once a week, can have herbs & spices. No other fats except frylight for cooking or 20g of low fat cheese twice a week. You can have up to 2 fat free yoghurts twice a day too.

You must also eat 50g meat/egg/yoghurt/whey shake as a snack 3 times a day between meals

She sells her own whey protein drink of which you can have up to 3 a day if you drop a yoghurt.

After 10 days of this (the 10 day boost) you can start to add veg 4 times a week but very small portions. (Or you can have 1 slice of bread 3 times a week in place of the veg). This is called stage 2

After a week on stage 2 you drop the veg/bread and can have fruit (berries / melon) 4 times a week. This is called stage 3

You then alternate weeks 2 & 3 till at target.

I've been on this plan nearly 7 weeks and have lost 1st 1lb but the last 2 weeks nothing much. I've been reading a lot about low carb diets and lots about this plan fly in the face of the basic rules - especially the low fat. I read 'Escape the diet trap' book and he recommends no sweeteners - on this plan you can have up to a litre of fizzy diet drinks a day plus the whey shakes have sweetener and sucralose in them, you can also have sugar free jelly (although I don't).

In a nutshell I feel stuck - not losing much weight now on the TerriAnn plan, I don't think all the sweeneters are doing any good and I don't think the fat free yoghurts are either.

I feel I need to up my fats - eat full fat yoghurt, use mayo, eat cheese etc but I'm scared of putting on weight - its' bad enough that im not losing on this low fat plan! Any advise? Shall I try it? What are the portion sizes of the fats - how much mayo / cheese/ butter oil etc is it ok to use?

[lowcarbforthewin]

A litre of fizzy diet drinks a day?! Jesus! That's so bad for you. It makes your appetite increase for one.

I think take a leap and switch to what we're doing on bootcamp. I know it's really daunting to start eating fat but you only have to look at previous bootcamp posts, people lose weight, it drops off them. They report feeling healthier than ever. The Mediterranean diet, which is regarded as the healthiest in the world, is full of feta cheese and Greek yogurt and tons of olive oil. It is ok to eat fat. I first convinced myself this was ok because I read a diabete forum where people were doing low carb. They were being monitored and all of them were losing weight, their cholesterol was going down, blood sugars improving and triglycerides were improving too. It seemed to me all the evidence pointed to fat being a healthy thing to eat.

I'd reduce your protein, up your fat and see how you do for a month. If things haven't shifted on the scale or gone up (very unlikely!) you can change back.

[pingufan]

Thanks - I'm going to take the plunge but am unsure of portion sizes - espcially when it comes to the fats.

Would a large chicken breast be considered too much protein? For instance todays lunch is an oven cooked chicken breast with chinese 5 spice on it on a bed of lettuce / green peppers and about a teaspoon of full fat mayo drizzled over the top.

Is that type of meal ok?

I'll be sncking on a boiled egg around 3pm and tea will be beef mince made into a bolognese sauce with peppers / onions and passata (the rest of the family will have pasta with theirs) - I'll just have a bowl of that on its own - should I be adding more fats to that?

[BIWI]

That sounds like a really weird plan!

On Bootcamp, which I see you've 'visited'!, we eat high fat, medium protein and low carbohydrate.

No artificial or processed foods (as far as possible).

But the key thing is to eat as much as you need to stop you being hungry.

Your lunch would be better as:

A chicken breast, roasted with the skin on, with lettuce/peppers and an oily dressing, with a large dollop of full fat mayo.

To your tea, I would make sure you've fried the mince (which hopefully won't be lean mince, although it's actually pretty hard to buy mince that isn't these days!) in plenty of oil. Replace the onions with shallots, as they are less than half the amount of carbs, and be careful about how much passata you add, as that can be quite carboy too. Have it on its own, and add loads of Parmesan on top.

[pingufan]

Thank you so much for taking the time to answer all my questions _ I can see its turning everything I know about 'dieting' on its head. Yes, it would have been lean steak mince lol, yes my chicken breast was totally lean with a thin drizzle of mayo - I need to relearn everything we have ever been told! x

[BIWI]

It's my pleasure!

It is a bit of a mind-blowing experience to start with! But lots of support and help on the Bootcamp threads to get you into it.

Good luck!