Meat-a-holic struggling with sway

[Bepan]

Hi - TIA for further advice! I'm 29 and I've got 2 little boys, still breastfeeding 11 month old, will TTC from November. I've tried to follow LE calorie/fat/protein restrictions for about 6 weeks, and have managed most days by a vegetarian diet and no breakfast. And I've lost 5kg (had lots to lose, down from 91 to 86, I'm 165cm). I think the massive change from my usual protein-heavy diet is making me feel lousy.

Usual LE diet:
- Breakfast (8ish): no food (1 piece dry toast if I'm nauseous), coffee with equal and skim milk
- Lunch (12 or 2): large bowl of baby spinach, tomato, spring onion and vinegar-based dressing +/- a piece of toast +/- some lollies. Also a Diet Coke.
- dinner (5or 6): a "lite n easy" dinner (without meat or don't eat the meat) or pasta with haloumi/mushroom/onion and a couple of glasses of white wine and extra toast if I'm starving
- I'll also have coffee throughout the day at work
- The toast is just Coles white loaf, not fortified

Cals: 1800
Protein: 45g
Fat: I find it hard to get this one up, occasionally I'll add more oil to my dinner, usually it's around 30g
Sugar up through the roof most days...

I'm not doing much exercise, I'm working more than I can handle in a stressful job



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[familymatters]

Have you seen the LE meals inspiration thread? Some of my go-to LE meals are white rice and stir-fried zucchini, rice cakes with tzatiki and low fat cheese, pumpkin soup, roasted sweet potato and cous cous. I'd be inclined to swap the baby spinach for iceberg lettuce as spinach is packed with vitamins and fairly boy friendly I think. Try and find that thread and have a read through, you won't be able to sustain the diet for another 6 months if you are just eating toast and lollies lol!

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[Bepan]

Thanks for your reply - it is basically toast and lollies! I need to cook more and do meal prep in advance I think.


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[Throwaway_panther]

You don't have to go vegetarian for LE! Just eat less meat while maybe going even lighter on red meat.

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[familymatters]

Meal planning/prep is key I think. Not that I do enough of it but it is very helpful to keep you on track and not bored with the diet.

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[Erin514]

If you do LE diet from Aug - Oct, your Nov. attempt will have a solid 12 weeks behind it and your odds will be great. Anything before August isn't shown to make a huge difference on the odds (not saying it won't help, just saying the impact might be so small you have to ask yourself if it's worth the risk that you'll get frustrated and stop before your attempt).

If weight is coming off fast and you're having trouble with such low protein, why don't you ease into it more gradually? Eat more meat and allow yourself higher totals, and gradually work your way to the diet you want by August. You have enough time to take baby steps here and it will probably be like second nature by August. Just my 2 cents. :)

[Erin514]

Also, you know it's ok to up limits since you're still breastfeeding, right? 30g fat is very low!

[Bepan]

Thanks so much everyone - I think I'll bring chicken back into my diet, and relax the numbers til 12 weeks out :)


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[Bepan]

Yeah I'm struggling to stay under with protein, and struggling to get high enough with fat - I'll have a look at what I'm eating (introduce more baked veg and chicken and see if it looks better)


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[Bepan]

Also bought a bunch of dips and rice cakes to mix it up. Thanks again everyonexx


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[Beau82]

Yes to what everyone else said but I also wanted to add that the toast may be doing more harm than what it's worth hunger-wise. For me anyway, toast/bread/bagels go right through me and about an hour later I'm even hungrier than I was before. I've had weeks where I've stayed away from it and opted for veggies with dip for lunch instead and I'm easily filled up until dinnertime. But sometimes I'm in a rush and a toasted bagel with peanut butter is just quicker and easier to prepare, an hour or two later I'm ravenously hungry again. Try a couple of days eating rice cakes or veggies (things like cucumbers, celery and mushrooms don't need to be counted on the LE!) and cutting out the toast and see how you do then.
Definitely up your fat and protein though. I'm not going vegetarian, I'm just trying to cut out the red meat and cut back on other meats. I still have chicken though, just not a lot of it. I don't eat a lot of ground beef but I try to use ground chicken instead now (except for hamburgers).

[atomic sagebrush]

You aren't eating enough and there is AGES to go till November so we need to adjust this so you're feeling better.

When breastfeeding, you increase to 1800-2000 cals, 50-60 g protein, 50-60 g fat. 30 g is the barest minimum. I would also have you go up to 3 meals a day (still push breakfast back so you're eating at 11/12, then dinnertime, and a bedtime snack) Additionally, you don't count the cals, or protein, or fat, in low carb vegetables so that salad is going to need some stuff on top - cheese, fruit, nuts, an egg, whatever to get more nutrients out of that.

[atomic sagebrush]

Yeah I'm struggling to stay under with protein, and struggling to get high enough with fat - I'll have a look at what I'm eating (introduce more baked veg and chicken and see if it looks better)


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I do want to reiterate that you DON'T count protein, fat, and cals in any low carb veg like the spinach - so you may have even more food to work with if you were counting those in your limits. :)

[Bepan]

Awesome, thanks :)


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