sorry, last question - am i eating enough?!

[trying in spring]

I just wondered if someone could have a quick look at my average day's food. Today i was almost ready to pass out and have 2 young children to look after - not good!!!

Skip breakfast

Lunch - 2 egg white omlette with tbsp Parmesan cheese and leeks.

dinner - white rice small piece chicken breast, green beans and cucumber.

drinks - glass semi skimmed milk and sprite zero.

i added a couple of rice cakes, low salt ones with a bit of low fat cottage cheese and tiny bit of low fat hummous between lunch and dinner to stop me passing out!

(I'm only 5" and lost 7lbs in 3 weeks - am now just over 7 1/2 stone).

Also, if i cut back on chicken and poached fish which i've been eating as recommended in ig diet, how do i make up with the protein? Do i just eat rice and veg for dinner?

sorry, so many questions, but i thought i had it all worked out on the ig diet, but want to change to le one instead.

xx

[cape grace]

Hi i think this looks fine...i think the idea is to have low blood sugar for as long as possible so skipping breakfast is an easier way to achieve this. I personally gave up chicken and meat and have a large lunch full of mixed salad or a soup and a yougurt and/or fruit like green grapes and strawberries. i make sure i am very full to avoid snacking and by dinner i am hungry again with low sugars again. i usually eat a big dinner and dont limit my diet to rice and veg cause i would find the diet too hard to sustain if i did that so i mix between veg stir frys with noodles and veg lasagne or roasted veg wraps with goat cheese...i try to add stuff i love like cheese so as to helps me to stay on the diet long term and allows me to avoid being tempted by cake or choc or nice breads. also i avoid milk and eat sugar free gum to help with hunger or cravings. I dont think you should be nearly fainting with hunger or loosing your hair or putting yourself into poor health on this diet cause u wont get preg and u will not stay on the diet. its hard enough as it is so i try to keep calories down and to keep in daily limits of protein etc.. good luck !!! Hope this helps

[atomic sagebrush]

Did you add up your totals at all?? It's hard for me to know because I don't know how much you ate and how much cals there were. It doesn't look like enough fat or calories to me and almost certainly not enough potassium. You're not supposed to be starving and about to pass out.

1500-1800 cals (altho since you're only 5 feet tall you might want to eat fewer cals)
40-50 g protein
25-60 g fat (20-30% of your day's totals)
700-1000 mg sodium
2500-3500 mg potassium

If you stop eating the chicken and fish, you actually will find you may feel much more satisfied because you can add in more calories without going over on protein. Chicken/fish/egg white/skim milk all have a lot of protein for very few calories so you are starving because even mostly carb foods have some protein and if you use up your protein on those foods, you have nothing left to eat the rest of the day.

Also, low carb veggies like green beans, leeks, and cucumber, you do not have to count for calories, fat, or protein. They're free and you can have as much as you want and you do not need to count them at all. Higher carb (sweet tasting and/or starchy) veg like beets, carrots, corn, and all fruits, you do need to count calories but they are free for protein and fat because they have practically none. High protein veg like peas and beans and lentils, you count for cals and protein, but they have very little fat and so are a great way of getting protein AND they typically have more cals per serving than chicken, egg whites, fish, and skim milk.

Other sources of protein are tofu, nuts, spaghetti/rice, skim dairy, cheese, sunflower or sesame seeds, hummus, beans/peas/lentils, bread, tortillas, etc.