Hows does my diet sound so far?

[6bluewant1pink]

Hows does my diet sound so far? I start in January! Do i need to take anything off or add something? I sure could use all the help i can get, praying for pink after 6 boys. thanks!

Foods:

Salad also organic spinach, NO BREAKFAST, NO SNACKING ,Pasta (calcium kind), cucumbers, strawberries,Apples(without peel), LOW LOW PROTEIN(baked or grilled chicken(only like 1 to 2 times a wk if that),green beans, white rice, yogurt,low sodium string cheese,sugar free chocolate ice cream (this is all i came up with so far).

Drinks:

caffeine free Diet Coke, Crystal light , peppermint tea, Organic milk, 1 cup of coffee a day, Bottle water.

I am gonna walk 1 hour a day/light yoga.

[LacePrincess]

That's a very limited list of foods. It's ok to give yourself leeway as long as you stay within calories/protein limits. Easiest way is to ditch all meat except for one or two cheats a month if you can. Milk's fine too as long as you're counting your protein. A lot of us do a lot of ice cream as treats quite often.

You can start out very limited and strict if you like, but it's ok to let up the reigns a little in subsequent cycles if you need awhile to get your bfp. Being overly regimented is a recipe for stress and that'll ruin your sway. Going vegetarian and snackless will get you a majority of the way there.

If you need food ideas check out the sticky at the top of the forum. Almost nothing isn't allowed on the LE diet although you want to minimize meat. Tofu and eggs are good hearty alternatives as long as you stay on top of the protein counts.

[Violet_]

Sounds like you are getting a lot of ideas from the ingender diet. That is similar to what they recommend. I know as I was on a similar diet before finding Gender Dreaming.

From what I understand with LE diet you can pretty much have anything as long as it is low in calories, and comes within your protein limit for the day. Perhaps just try to limit salt and stay within your potassium limits. Try to keep some variety so you don't get bored and stressed.

[wannagirl21]

I was browsing through a thread that was started in the pink section of what the girls ate for their diet and they gave me alot of good ideas I will try and find the thread for you cuz it has helped me out alot for a variety of things to eat.

[Tiggerian]

Personally - And I may have it all wrong - but I've gone vegetarian, but as long as I stick to my protein, fat and calorie limits I more or less eat what I want. If I have something with nuts or oats I limit the amount a lot.

E.g. I eat Nakd bars when I need to stabilise my bloodsugar (I got some issues with insulin) and it contains nuts, but I account for it by taking from protein levels.

I eat smaller portions too.

My day looks like this:

Morning:
1 cup peppermint tea with aspartame
1 glass water with dissoluble C-vitamin (this I'm taking atm as I've been very ill lately and can't seem to shake it. I'm not TTC'ing yet though and C-vit does not store in the body). The fizz helps keep hunger away too - I will stop this as soon as I shake my illness and start TTC though.

Midday:
1 sandwich (white bread) or (today) 1 white bread 'finger' with a quorn sausage, low salt tomato sauce (little) and onion.
Fruit (dried, bar or fresh), savoury biscuits or some carrot sticks

Dinner:
Today I had a baked potato, no skin, with low fat cream cheese, leek, spring onion, half a quorn sausage, 1 clove of garlic and a few button mushrooms.

[6bluewant1pink]

Thanks Ladies! OMG meat is gonna be HARD to stop eating i love love chicken LOL. But to increase my chances of having a girl i have to do it! I am really wanting to get a variety of foods but see it is so limited on the girl diet. I so ENVY all you boy swayers WHY do you all get to eat all the good stuff :hair: (Joking) LOL. I do plan to pay to get a custom diet plan done. Have any of you got one done?

[LacePrincess]

Yeah, you really need to cut the meat. If you go vegetarian it makes it MUCH easier to stay on the diet without being too observant about it since you have a lot more leeway to cheat without blowing the diet limits on veg options.

Don't sweat the salt - it doesn't sway and most of us have blown the salt limits. It comes up a lot and really, it doesn't sway, and it's much better to 'cheat' on salt than to lose it on a big fat steak.

I agree with Tigger, you'll probably find yourself gravitating to the same few meals for the most part out of habit and because it's easier. Routine is good! Mine usually looks something like this:

7-8am - coffee with a dab of flavoured creamer and milk. Folic acid and Vitex (Vitex on CD1-14 only).

10-11am - daily cardio exercise

noon - lunch, usually a big salad, 2 slices of white toast with a little butter, and something for dessert (around 200 cals for dessert)

2-3pm - another cup of coffee with milk or a caff free diet coke

5:30pm - dinner, usually vegetarian or eggs a few times a week. Chicken/fast food on the occasional cheat day.

10pm - final 'meal' usually sweet treats like cookie/ice cream

And that's my routine! It's easy for me and not hard to stick to. I don't miss meat at all because I can get away with having cheese/cream sauces quite often as I'm doing intense cardio almost everyday. Depending on your metabolism/exercise you might or might not be able to have rich foods like that. The backbone of my diet is white breads, rice, and some pasta.

[Tiggerian]

I don't miss meat either - the only time I struggle is around O and right before AF. It's hard to go against your body's natural signals which is to get nutrients on board. But I try!

I've implemented the LE principles slowly and have been doing it since end October now. I think thats made it easier as its just habit now!

[black&gold]

I've been doing the LE Diet for 6 weeks - the first 3 were okay, but one week wasn't great because I was on vacation but did skip breakfast and *tried* to always chose vegetarian options when we went out - never ate meat. but this past week and the coming two weeks before my attempt I'm being VERY strict. I find it hard to think of options as well because I feel like everything is cheating for some reason. My days are literally always the same.

12:00 I have a pita with 1tbsp cream cheese (or ricotta which I did today and tasted great, way less sodium and cals too!) with cucumber and iceburg lettuce. The odd time I add grape tomatoes. I usually have a piece of white bread toasted with unsalted butter after, and maybe some unsweetened organic applesauce.

5:00 I have white rice with zuccini, cauliflower and green beans. I usually put either lemon juice or some balsamic vinegar in the veggies while their cooking and maybe come cumin. It's super dry, but I've come to not mind it. Then I'll often have a piece of toast again, or some yogurt

9:00ish I usually have a 3rd meal because I am never at my calories and STARVING. I usually have some puffed wheat, or puffed rice cereal with milk, some cookies, or some form of dessert.

I almost always stay in my sodium limits, am always under protein limits and aiming for 1100 cals a day - that's because I already weigh very little and to lose anything I need to eat a lot less. I'm only doing it for 3 weeks as well, so if I don't get a BFP this cycle we are easing up. DH is doing it fully with me and we are both SO looking forward to a BFP and a celebration meal after the 2WW!

I'd love to hear more meal ideas as I'm also curious what others do. I'm suprisingly not bored with my choices though.. totally crave my lunch everyday!

[LacePrincess]

I crave my lunch everyday too, MsBlakely! Mostly because I bake my own bread from my own sourdough starter and man oh man, there is NOTHING yummier than warm crispy toast from homemade bread with some salty butter. I could eat that for every meal and not get sick of it.

[black&gold]

Ahh, that sounds SO good!!! I need to make some of my own bread!

[atomic sagebrush]

I'd like to see you eating a bit more variety of foods - how are you doing on your potassium???

[atomic sagebrush]

Thanks Ladies! OMG meat is gonna be HARD to stop eating i love love chicken LOL. But to increase my chances of having a girl i have to do it! I am really wanting to get a variety of foods but see it is so limited on the girl diet. I so ENVY all you boy swayers WHY do you all get to eat all the good stuff :hair: (Joking) LOL. I do plan to pay to get a custom diet plan done. Have any of you got one done?

It's not though - it doesn't HAVE to be. have you seen this thread? http://genderdreaming.com/forum/trying-conceive-girl/16780-low-everything-diet-nutshell-version.html I feel like you're going off of the one thread I wrote ages ago trying to blend all the diets into one, that was so restrictive that no one could stick to it.

[atomic sagebrush]

I crave my lunch everyday too, MsBlakely! Mostly because I bake my own bread from my own sourdough starter and man oh man, there is NOTHING yummier than warm crispy toast from homemade bread with some salty butter. I could eat that for every meal and not get sick of it.

:agree: I made homemade Craisin bread when I was swaying and I had it for a meal with butter and a light sprinkle of sugar - just that for a meal and nothing else!

[Wishing4Princess]

so I need advice on my diet. just wanted to mention that I will be TTC again in a couple months, after a 5wk M/C. I am also very fertile, since I conceived all 3 babies w/ 1st month TTC.

I was on LE diet for 8 months prior to this last pregnancy, and the last month of being on LE..my diet consisted of:

No breakfast
Lunch: white rice w/ zucchini (1 cup)
Dinner: white rice w/ zucchini (1cup) and a small iceberg and cuke salad

I was starving every day and was superrrr agitated all the time. my biggest prob was that I was always so angry and had major anxiety.

This time I am planning on staying vegetarian, mainly living on salads as such:

No brkfast
Lunch: 3cups shredded iceberg lettuce, 1 tbsp parmesan cheese, 1 tbsp dried cranberries
Dinner: will have the same as lunch, but would like to add a 1/2 cup cooked pasta or 1 cup plain white rice, w/ 1tbsp butter

This would totally help me stay full for a longer time. what do you ladies think??

I know it's not much of a difference..just increasing my portions. if I wanted to stick to a 1500 cal diet...would this be too much fat or protein, is there room for me to increase the parm and butter? thanks.

[LacePrincess]

Uhm, Wishing.....not to sound negative but it worries me what you said you were eating. No wonder you were starving! I honestly don't get how you weren't fainting from hunger everyday. Two cups of white rice and a few low carb veggies adds up to less than 500 calories for the DAY. That's not an eating plan, hon. That's starvation, pure and simple.

I DO NOT see how you can get to 1500 cals on what you're suggesting now.


Lunch: 3cups shredded iceberg lettuce, 1 tbsp parmesan cheese, 1 tbsp dried cranberries <--- This is what, 100 calories at the most?!????

Dinner: will have the same as lunch, but would like to add a 1/2 cup cooked pasta or 1 cup plain white rice, w/ 1tbsp butter <--- So here you have 100 calories of salad and 300 calories from the pasta/rice and butter.

Unless you're not listing an entire meal, that is still FIVE HUNDRED calories for the DAY.

Alright, I'm sorry to sound harsh (and if you read my 'I'm a crazypants' thread from today you'll see that I'm just a leeeeeeetle off my sanity right now, lol), but this IS NOT OKAY. This is not the LE diet, this isn't even a sane diet, this is starvation. Full stop.

Please read the LE diet thread link Atomic posted above. You're supposed to be eating limited but SAFE amounts, and what you list is nowhere near enough.

[Wishing4Princess]

Uhm, Wishing.....not to sound negative but it worries me what you said you were eating. No wonder you were starving! I honestly don't get how you weren't fainting from hunger everyday. Two cups of white rice and a few low carb veggies adds up to less than 500 calories for the DAY. That's not an eating plan, hon. That's starvation, pure and simple.

I DO NOT see how you can get to 1500 cals on what you're suggesting now.


Lunch: 3cups shredded iceberg lettuce, 1 tbsp parmesan cheese, 1 tbsp dried cranberries <--- This is what, 100 calories at the most?!????

Dinner: will have the same as lunch, but would like to add a 1/2 cup cooked pasta or 1 cup plain white rice, w/ 1tbsp butter <--- So here you have 100 calories of salad and 300 calories from the pasta/rice and butter.

Unless you're not listing an entire meal, that is still FIVE HUNDRED calories for the DAY.

Alright, I'm sorry to sound harsh (and if you read my 'I'm a crazypants' thread from today you'll see that I'm just a leeeeeeetle off my sanity right now, lol), but this IS NOT OKAY. This is not the LE diet, this isn't even a sane diet, this is starvation. Full stop.

Please read the LE diet thread link Atomic posted above. You're supposed to be eating limited but SAFE amounts, and what you list is nowhere near enough.

wow, really?? I thought that if i ate any more than that, I would be following a boy diet..i am confused. well the other thing is that i'm not that hungry any more..i mean my appetite has gone down alot, since I went on the LE diet.

could you modify my diet w/ this the list that I have here (just having 2 meals/day) i'm confused about portions:

-dried cranberries
-shredded parmesan cheese
-iceberg lettuce
-pasta
-white rice
-green grapes
-jack and cheddar cheese sticks


that's all i'm into eating now a days. I mainly like salads and cheese.

[LacePrincess]

wow, really?? I thought that if i ate any more than that, I would be following a boy diet..i am confused. well the other thing is that i'm not that hungry any more..i mean my appetite has gone down alot, since I went on the LE diet.

could you modify my diet w/ this the list that I have here (just having 2 meals/day) i'm confused about portions:

-dried cranberries
-shredded parmesan cheese
-iceberg lettuce
-pasta
-white rice
-green grapes
-jack and cheddar cheese sticks


that's all i'm into eating now a days. I mainly like salads and cheese.

Yes, really. :) I'd like to thank you for being open and receptive, as sometimes people get really defensive about unsafe eating habits.

No eating normal amounts and maintainable amounts will not sway blue! If you starve yourself not only will you be miserable, but you will also crash your body, your metabolism, and possibly your fertility as well. The LE diet is not about starvation or deprivation.

The nice thing about the LE diet is you can eat anything you want as long as you eat enough and don't eat too much protein and fats. (Again, do read the link above for details). It's really easy if you don't have any meat. It's fine to have salads and all, but you're not going to get much calories from it, so you MUST make up for that elsewhere. If you are shooting for 1500 cals and you really want to stay with that very limited list (and please do start adding in more variety if you go crazy on that, I couldn't subsist on such a short list of foods for very long!) what you need to do is push up your calories with the bread and pasta. One slice of bread (manufactured stuff, not homebaked) is usually around 110-120 calories. A cup of pasta or rice is around 240 calories. At the very least double the portions if you insist on only eating 2 meals a day - so you must have 4 slices of bread or 2 cups of pasta per meal, and also enough cheese sticks to get your calories to 1200 at a bare minimum and 1500 is probably better to start with.

If you want to you can go to caloriecount.com for a free calculator to keep track, there's a huge database of foods on there.

It's probably easier to go to 3 meals a day, as if you only had 2 meals a day you have to scarf 600-800 calories at a sitting, which you might have trouble doing. Another easy way to get your calories up is to have a sweet treat at the end of the day. My third 'meal' has always been just dessert - ice cream and cookies sort of thing. It's pretty easy to add another 400 calories in dessert!

[Wishing4Princess]

But it seems that I could easily go over protein and fat if include bread, pasta, even cheese (but i love this stuff). I can't do sweets..I get pretty bitchy after eating sweets ..lol..ice cream is more tolerable than some other empty calorie candy like sour patch, skittles or swedish fish. I used to drink CL, but soon after I drank 2 oz. my blood sugar would drop drastically and it was like I wanted to eat the world ..lol..I was then miserable and hungry..so I just dont do well w/ sugar. i guess I could have insulin resistance or whatever it's called.

i do better w/ veggies rather than bread and rice and other low glycemic carbs etc. so just seeing what foods put me in a better mood, without increasing my blood sugar too much (i already have low blood sugar--this is probably why I have boys?, grazing all the time!).

seems that veggies keep me satiated for longer periods, but then i worry about too many nutrients..if that's all i'm having throughout the day. I never liked vegetables before i discovered the LE diet. now I notice i tolerate it better than most foods, and I lose weight rapidly, consuming veggies.

Also, i'm 5'1", weighing 100lbs (I also lose weight very easily overall).

maybe I don't need 1500 cals? maybe the 1200 cal is good enough for me?

[black&gold]

Wishing4Princess - I'm not a pro at this yet as I just started the LE Diet 3 weeks ago, but I'm aiming for 1200 calories (this is ONLY because my first attempt is next week so I wanted to drop at least a pound or two. I'm 5'6, and now 103 (lost 2 lbs) but if this cycle I don't get pregnant, I'm upping it to 1500) and I often don't understand how what I'm eating doesn't equal more. I've been charting EVERYTHING - probably a good idea because it really helps you see. (I use the MyFitnessPal App on my iphone and you can literally scan the barcodes of everything you eat and it charts it so you know all the amounts - so fabulous!)

I eat fairly similar to you it sounds...

Lunch: I have a pita with 1tbsp cream cheese, iceburg lettuce and cucumber. That's only about 150 calories.. so I often have a pience of weight watchers bread (I found it had the least amount of sodium and its 45 cals a piece) toasted with unsalted butter, sometimes this cinnamon spread that I buy and it's so good. I often then will have an unsweetened applesauce, or some rice crackers with a light babybel cheese.

Dinner: Rice with zuccini, cauliflower, green beans sauteed with lemon juice and some cumin. I started making cauliflower mashed "potatoes" and they are so good. Its just cauliflower, with 1 tbsp skim milk and I add a tiny bit of ricotta (parmesan would be so good) and it's delish - I don't even count the calories of the cauliflower because apparently we don't have to?! Then I'll often have another pieces of toast with butter, or some form of dessert/candy.

At this point - just like today because i literally listed everything for you - I have 400 cals left and I'm only at 20g protein, 500 sodium, 15g fat cals so I will definitely have some more dessert type snack around 9-10 as my last meal because I can never get enough

Basically.. if you feel comfortable with what you're eating (I'm nervous to go wild and eat everything in small amounts. I like to have the super bland stuff.. just makes me feel better about my sway) then always add one or two pieces of toast in there with unsalted butter and that will help kick up the cals and you're still TOTALLY swaying pink as white bread is so low nutrients.

Anyways, hope that helps.. sorry for blabbing on :)

[LacePrincess]

Wishing, you HAVE to hit 1200 calories. You're very tiny already and you need to be careful - trust me you don't want to lose your ovulation. I'm also only 5 feet tall, started the LE diet at around 107lbs and had to gain a tad because I started to see my ovulation go right off the rails.

Being so slim you need to aim to maintain - please don't lose any weight. It is still LE diet if you maintain but keep blood sugars low. And yes, your previous grazing is definitely boy friendly, but otoh if you have existing hypoglycemic issues you need to work with that too.

Don't even worry about 'nutrients' in veggies. Seriously. You have to eat a metric tonne of broccoli and even then it wouldn't sway as much as having red meat all the time. If you're eating more veggies now then when you had boys, you're already swaying and there is no need to go to extremes. More strict on the LE diet is not better at ALL.

If you find you can't tolerate sweets, then at least up the empty carbs. I do understand that protein is awfully hard to stick to. You can allow yourself a little higher, up to 50-60grams of protein a day, and that might make it easier and stil be LE friendly. I also have eggs a few times a week, it's hearty but not meat and it's fine for the LE diet.

Anyways, you might find that you can't tolerate going too harsh on the LE diet because of your blood sugar issues, and that's ok! You've got to work with what you can manage. But at the very least please make sure you're hitting 1200 especially at your low weight.

[Wishing4Princess]

I'm not trying to sound stuck up or anything..but i was on the LE diet for 8 months...very strict, towards the end, where i just ate Rice and bland sauteed , cooked down w/ water peeled zucchini. I ovulated each month..didn't affect my cycles at all and I got pregnant the first time I decided to TTC (unfortunately had a m/c at 5wks). I know exactly what you mean, though..I appreciate your concern. Just saying that by eating more carbs like bread and rice I get moody. when i add avocados and eat lettuce and cheese i feel better..milk does not help me at all..it's the worse thing..my body doesn't tolerate it. I guess I can start with 1500 cals mostly veggies ..as I get closer to my attempt, I can aim for 1200.

[Wishing4Princess]

Msblakely, I like your diet! and I have seen many other ladies w/ similar diet,w/ few things different like adding a yoplait yogurt instead of cheese..but really doesnt make such a big difference..as long as we watch protein and fat intake .

I mean if you don't have much time to be on the diet, then it makes sense to 'sort of' starve yourself..lower your cals even more, b/c youré on a compressed time frame.3 wks on the diet isn't recommended, but if u dont have much weight lose, but in a hurry to get pregnant and trying to send a signal to your body that times are tough, then sudden and drastic change IMO is good..specially around ovulation, I have seen ladies go even lower around ovulation, like having one meal a day. they got their girls that way..

the diet didn't do anything to my cycles or ovulation..even though I was on it for 8 months. I was still fertile mertile. haha..so it really depends on your body.

yum, the mashed cauliflower sounds good!! will give it a try some time. ohh, what is the cinnamon spread?. where can I find it?

[LacePrincess]

Yes you will have mood affects on the LE diet. Unfortunately, that's the nature of the beast. :( If you've seen my anxiety/LE diet threads that I've started the past few months, I have been having a very difficult time on the LE diet with regards to the effect on mood.

The very nature and purpose of the LE diet is to overconsume simple sugars and to deliberately crash your blood sugars and maintain low blood sugar. The crappy side effect of this? You will tend to feel like sh!t. And if you're like me and have a history of depression/anxiety, the diet triggers the mood disorder and makes it worse. That's just what it is.

By levelling out with fats/proteins, it'll make you feel better mood wise but then you sacrifice the whole point of the LE diet. Avocados, btw, are very blue friendly. Yes it's a fruit but it's also chock full of healthy fats so you can't have it regularly.

Anyways, do what works for you, and we're all different. :) Just make sure you count everything and make sure you're eating enough! You canNOT go under 1200 at a bare minimum. It's fine if you can get there with veggies, but I honestly can't see how you can primarily have low carb veg and still hit 1200 without raising the grain/starches. Just make sure you're not sacrificing your health for the sake of the sway.

[atomic sagebrush]

so I need advice on my diet. just wanted to mention that I will be TTC again in a couple months, after a 5wk M/C. I am also very fertile, since I conceived all 3 babies w/ 1st month TTC.

I was on LE diet for 8 months prior to this last pregnancy, and the last month of being on LE..my diet consisted of:

No breakfast
Lunch: white rice w/ zucchini (1 cup)
Dinner: white rice w/ zucchini (1cup) and a small iceberg and cuke salad

I was starving every day and was superrrr agitated all the time. my biggest prob was that I was always so angry and had major anxiety.

This time I am planning on staying vegetarian, mainly living on salads as such:

No brkfast
Lunch: 3cups shredded iceberg lettuce, 1 tbsp parmesan cheese, 1 tbsp dried cranberries
Dinner: will have the same as lunch, but would like to add a 1/2 cup cooked pasta or 1 cup plain white rice, w/ 1tbsp butter

This would totally help me stay full for a longer time. what do you ladies think??

I know it's not much of a difference..just increasing my portions. if I wanted to stick to a 1500 cal diet...would this be too much fat or protein, is there room for me to increase the parm and butter? thanks.

That is NOT LE DIET. That is starvation. Even your new diet is not good enough. You MUST get 1200 cals a day minimum and I very very very much prefer that people eat 1500-1800 cals a day. You need 40-50 g protein a day and 25 grams of fat MINIMUM.

Also, you MUST get 700-1000 mg sodium and 2500-3500 mg potassium or you RISK DEATH. You can seriously DIE from not getting enough sodium and potassium.

Low carb vegetables are free foods meaning you can have as much as you want without even having to count calories. Zucchini, iceberg lettuce are free and unlimited.

Here is the link to the short version of the LE Diet. http://genderdreaming.com/forum/trying-conceive-girl/16780-low-everything-diet-nutshell-version.html

[Wishing4Princess]

Thanks Lace and Atomic, I totally understand what you are saying. I am totally upping my calories. thank you!

[Wishing4Princess]

That is NOT LE DIET. That is starvation. Even your new diet is not good enough. You MUST get 1200 cals a day minimum and I very very very much prefer that people eat 1500-1800 cals a day. You need 40-50 g protein a day and 25 grams of fat MINIMUM.

Also, you MUST get 700-1000 mg sodium and 2500-3500 mg potassium or you RISK DEATH. You can seriously DIE from not getting enough sodium and potassium.

Low carb vegetables are free foods meaning you can have as much as you want without even having to count calories. Zucchini, iceberg lettuce are free and unlimited.

Here is the link to the short version of the LE Diet. http://genderdreaming.com/forum/trying-conceive-girl/16780-low-everything-diet-nutshell-version.html

Atomic, I am 5'1" and weigh 100 lbs. I think 1200 calories would better for me. 1500 is too much..I don't even have much of an appetite.
So for 1200 calories, what is the max grams for protein and fat?? still 40-50grams protein and 25grams fat? or is it a different amount? Thanks!

[atomic sagebrush]

wow, really?? I thought that if i ate any more than that, I would be following a boy diet..i am confused. well the other thing is that i'm not that hungry any more..i mean my appetite has gone down alot, since I went on the LE diet.

could you modify my diet w/ this the list that I have here (just having 2 meals/day) i'm confused about portions:

-dried cranberries
-shredded parmesan cheese
-iceberg lettuce
-pasta
-white rice
-green grapes
-jack and cheddar cheese sticks


that's all i'm into eating now a days. I mainly like salads and cheese.

You don't need to limit yourself to those foods. I am not sure where exactly you're getting your info from but if it's from a thread anywhere on this site let me know because I need to fix it. LE Diet is not just about limiting yourself, it's also about making sure you get enough food for your health and to sustain a healthy pregnancy.

If you DO want to limit yourself, then you need to be eating more of the foods, not tiny portions. You can also still eat 3 meals a day, you don't have to eat just 2 meals if you don't want to. Some people do better eating bigger meals 2x a day and others do better with smaller meals 3x a day, so if you can't eat that much at one sitting, you need to start eating 3 meals a day. Just push breakfast to 11, then eat in the afternoon and again in the evening.

[atomic sagebrush]

Atomic, I am 5'1" and weigh 100 lbs. I think 1200 calories would better for me. 1500 is too much..I don't even have much of an appetite.
So for 1200 calories, what is the max grams for protein and fat?? still 40-50grams protein and 25grams fat? or is it a different amount? Thanks!

Yes, still 40-50 g protein and 25 g fat. That is a minimum requirement to sustain your ovulation and have a healthy pregnancy.

When your body feels like it's starving, it shuts down hunger so you are able to somewhat still function in times of famine. That is NOT a good thing. You need to force yourself to eat more until your appetite returns to normal.

[Wishing4Princess]

OMG, Atomic! I really was putting myself in deprivation!! that's crazy. I thought 40 grams of protein and 25 of fat is just for 1500 calories..now that I think back, my sway had to have been a damn good one!. I am still confused about one thing, how in the heck did I ovulate each month, w/ so little food consumption?! I ovulated each month and conceived 1st month I went for an attempt.

Anyway, thanks for clearing that up for me!

[atomic sagebrush]

Msblakely, I like your diet! and I have seen many other ladies w/ similar diet,w/ few things different like adding a yoplait yogurt instead of cheese..but really doesnt make such a big difference..as long as we watch protein and fat intake .

I mean if you don't have much time to be on the diet, then it makes sense to 'sort of' starve yourself..lower your cals even more, b/c youré on a compressed time frame.3 wks on the diet isn't recommended, but if u dont have much weight lose, but in a hurry to get pregnant and trying to send a signal to your body that times are tough, then sudden and drastic change IMO is good..specially around ovulation, I have seen ladies go even lower around ovulation, like having one meal a day. they got their girls that way..

the diet didn't do anything to my cycles or ovulation..even though I was on it for 8 months. I was still fertile mertile. haha..so it really depends on your body.

yum, the mashed cauliflower sounds good!! will give it a try some time. ohh, what is the cinnamon spread?. where can I find it?

It DOESN'T ever make sense to starve yourself. Ever, ever, ever. Because if you only have a short time on the diet, your body goes into panic mode and will start making testosterone out of the last drop of your body fat if it thinks you need to fight for survival. Plus, whenever you drastically cut back calories, you risk your ovulation. Your body is like "WTH is going on here!?!" and shuts down the baby-making machine in favor of the keeping-you-alive machine.

Plus, then if you don't get pg you've kinda played your cards and the only place to go is up - you can't keep it up forever.

[atomic sagebrush]

OMG, Atomic! I really was putting myself in deprivation!! that's crazy. I thought 40 grams of protein and 25 of fat is just for 1500 calories..now that I think back, my sway had to have been a damn good one!. I am still confused about one thing, how in the heck did I ovulate each month, w/ so little food consumption?! I ovulated each month and conceived 1st month I went for an attempt.

Anyway, thanks for clearing that up for me!

You're lucky.

People actually CAN ovulate at low caloric intakes (after all, our ancestors subsisted on a rotten banana, a handful of termites, and a couple bites of scavenged antelope and still had babies) but it's just not a reliable thing, nor is it good for your health or the health of an unborn baby to do so.

[atomic sagebrush]

I'm not trying to sound stuck up or anything..but i was on the LE diet for 8 months...very strict, towards the end, where i just ate Rice and bland sauteed , cooked down w/ water peeled zucchini. I ovulated each month..didn't affect my cycles at all and I got pregnant the first time I decided to TTC (unfortunately had a m/c at 5wks). I know exactly what you mean, though..I appreciate your concern. Just saying that by eating more carbs like bread and rice I get moody. when i add avocados and eat lettuce and cheese i feel better..milk does not help me at all..it's the worse thing..my body doesn't tolerate it. I guess I can start with 1500 cals mostly veggies ..as I get closer to my attempt, I can aim for 1200.

Reminder - low carb veggies are FREE meaning you can have as much as you want. You don't need to count the calories in them, meaning you need to get calories from elsewhere besides veg.

[atomic sagebrush]

Wishing4Princess - I'm not a pro at this yet as I just started the LE Diet 3 weeks ago, but I'm aiming for 1200 calories (this is ONLY because my first attempt is next week so I wanted to drop at least a pound or two. I'm 5'6, and now 103 (lost 2 lbs) but if this cycle I don't get pregnant, I'm upping it to 1500) and I often don't understand how what I'm eating doesn't equal more. I've been charting EVERYTHING - probably a good idea because it really helps you see. (I use the MyFitnessPal App on my iphone and you can literally scan the barcodes of everything you eat and it charts it so you know all the amounts - so fabulous!)

I eat fairly similar to you it sounds...

Lunch: I have a pita with 1tbsp cream cheese, iceburg lettuce and cucumber. That's only about 150 calories.. so I often have a pience of weight watchers bread (I found it had the least amount of sodium and its 45 cals a piece) toasted with unsalted butter, sometimes this cinnamon spread that I buy and it's so good. I often then will have an unsweetened applesauce, or some rice crackers with a light babybel cheese.

Dinner: Rice with zuccini, cauliflower, green beans sauteed with lemon juice and some cumin. I started making cauliflower mashed "potatoes" and they are so good. Its just cauliflower, with 1 tbsp skim milk and I add a tiny bit of ricotta (parmesan would be so good) and it's delish - I don't even count the calories of the cauliflower because apparently we don't have to?! Then I'll often have another pieces of toast with butter, or some form of dessert/candy.

At this point - just like today because i literally listed everything for you - I have 400 cals left and I'm only at 20g protein, 500 sodium, 15g fat cals so I will definitely have some more dessert type snack around 9-10 as my last meal because I can never get enough

Basically.. if you feel comfortable with what you're eating (I'm nervous to go wild and eat everything in small amounts. I like to have the super bland stuff.. just makes me feel better about my sway) then always add one or two pieces of toast in there with unsalted butter and that will help kick up the cals and you're still TOTALLY swaying pink as white bread is so low nutrients.

Anyways, hope that helps.. sorry for blabbing on :)

Not to keep beating a dead horse here but PLEASE be sure you are getting 700-1000 mg sodium and 2500-3500 mg potassium a day. You can keel over dead, with absolutely no warning, from eliminating them from your diet.

You need more protein and fat, but those are cumulative things, whereas the sodium and potassium are very very very critical to be getting enough of daily.

[black&gold]

Thanks Atomic, I'm definitely getting 700 sodium for sure and I don't know about potassium because with myfitnesspal it's not always marked accurately. I'm definitely going to watch it more closely.. I never ever knew how much potassium I ate before though as I never charted. Maybe I'll have some banana tonight to help with that.

for example, today it says i've only had 20mg potassium. That's obviously not possible as i've had cream cheese, yogurt, pita, bread lettuce and cucmber. Obviously there is more than that because often people never write out the potassium when they record the food in the app. Anyways, I read to try and add raisins, banana, oat bran to yogurt and that bumbs you up to over 1000mg so I'll chose one or two of those options a day to help!

Wishing - the cinnamon spread is called Imperial Cinnamon Spread. I buy it at the grocery store right near the PB, Jam, nutella etc. I'm in Canada though so you may not be able to find it.. sooooo good :)

[atomic sagebrush]

Yes, the tracking sites suck for potassium unfortunately.

Might want to give ye olde coconut water a try as well.