Hello and clarification please!!

[Beakerrn]

Hey all!!! I'm on day 12 and FEELING wonderful! Hungry, but wonderful. My first question is about fats. I know a lot of people have eggs with avocado in the morning, but I'm confused. It recommends 1 thumb size serving of fat, so if I scramble my 3 eggs, veggies in 1tbsp of coconut oil, can I STILL have avocado? Or is that too much?

Secondly, it's day 12 and I'm SO hungry!!!!! The first week wasn't so bad, but the past couple days have been tough. Shouldn't it be getting EASIER? Not harder??

Third (and please don't chew me out...I know I know) I'm not losing any weight. Like ANY. It's not really bothering me because I LOVE the food and I FEEL great, but isn't that weird??? How can I be eating the cleanest, healthiest food I EVER had, 1300-1800 calories give or take (I just plugged a few different days into my fitness pal just out of curiosity) AND being more active (nothing strenuous, just more active) and losing NOTHING?

Here's an example of my meals:

Breakfast: 3 eggs, spinach, onion, half bell pepper in tbsp coconut oil, berries and a banana

Lunch: 2egg salad with 1 tbsp homemade mayo, celery, carrot, Apple, a few blueberries, half bell pepper

Snack: pistachios

Dinner: ground beef with onion, pepper, spices, sautéed broccoli slaw with kale, Brussels sprouts in coconut oil and green beans.

The hunger isn't....unbearable...but definitely there. Especially after lunch and dinner. I eat my meals around 9, 1 and 5:30 or 6 and I have to be in bed by 8 or 9 JUST cause I'm hungry!

Am I missing something??? Please tell me it's gonna all come together....soon!!!

[Tom Denham]

You need to eat more. I suspect you need more protein, fat, and veggies. Review the meal planning template - http://whole30.com/downloads/whole30-meal-planning.pdf- and make sure you never eat less than the minimum. 

 

Many people fail to understand that filling your plate with veggies assumes cooked veggies and seriously means filling the plate! Salad takes up a lot of space, but offers little food volume. You have to eat salad by the bucket to get serious food volume.

 

So many people get confused by the fat recommendations. Think of it like this: Never eat less than the recommended amount. Feel free to eat more! Yes you can have avocado in addition to cooking fat. 

 

Regarding weight loss... The big thing that makes weight loss happen is having your hormones get into a good rhythm. That often takes 30 days, not 12. You do not lose weight in a linear fashion. When your body gets its act together, weight loss happens. Until then, you are in a holding pattern. Not eating enough keeps your hormones out of whack and stalls losing weight. Your body holds onto fat when it is hungry. It is trying to protect you from death! You have to eat enough for your body to believe it is safe to release fat. 

[Beakerrn]

Gotcha! That makes sense.

Just to clarify, my lunch was not salad with eggs....it was EGG SALAD made with 2 whole eggs, homemade mayo and celery.

I suppose I could eat more veggies, but I feel like I'm eating a TON already. At least a cup with each meal. Fat is no problem! I do not fear the fats and can EASILY eat a bit more. I feel like my protein is appropriate too.

[Physibeth]

Gotcha! That makes sense.

Just to clarify, my lunch was not salad with eggs....it was EGG SALAD made with 2 whole eggs, homemade mayo and celery.

I suppose I could eat more veggies, but I feel like I'm eating a TON already. At least a cup with each meal. Fat is no problem! I do not fear the fats and can EASILY eat a bit more. I feel like my protein is appropriate too.

 

A palm sized serving of eggs is as many as you can hold whole in your hand without dropping them. For most women that is 3-4 eggs. Aim for closer to 3 cups of veggies at meals. You mention you are eating your first meal around 9, are you getting up around 8? Eating meal 1 within an hour of waking can really help set you up for a better day. Also you can try saving your 1-2 fruit servings for your later meals...I find eating fruit at meal 1 makes me hungrier all day. If you are hungry between meals do eat...but make it a mini meal that contains protein and fat and perhaps vegs as well. Snacking on nuts is a habit we want you to break. Something else I'm not seeing is starchy vegetables. Try adding a serving a day especially if you are active.

[Beakerrn]

Ok so breakfast today: 3 egg scramble with diced onion, bell pepper, spinach and green beans in coconut oil topped with half an avocado, about half a sweet potato diced and cooked in coconut oil, 4 cherry tomatoes, a tiny bit of compliant salsa and a small handful of blueberries.

Yes, most mornings I do get up later around 8 or 9. On the days I work, I'm up at 6 to be at work by 7 but I still don't eat until around 9 because I'm a nurse and I work 12 hours. If I eat that early, there's a chance I won't get my lunch and i can't make it 12 hours without a lunch.

[Beakerrn]

Btw...that was a HUGE breakfast!!!

Not to keep focusing on weight loss, because I KNOW that health is soooo much more than weight and I KNOW this is a very healthy way of eating. And I TOTALLY get all the science behind it, but I AM struggling with seeing how the amount of calories I'm eating can possibly lead to weight loss. It seems the calories are in a very healthy MAINTAINANCE range, but not in a weight loss range for me.

I realize adding exersise, especially heavy weightlifting and hiit would solve this issue, but what if I dont? Will the hormone corrections alone create loss even without a caloric deficit???

[MeadowLily]

If you're coming from a pre Whole 30 lifestyle of dieting and tracking calories, carbs, macros, micros, fats, points, steps...the Whole 30 Food Reset may be more than what you've been eating in the past.   It's common for "reasonable restriction" to feel like too much food.  It will take time and often longer than 30 days for this approach to rebalance out a past history of dieting.

 

Over-restriction over the course of a lifetime, Periodic Dieting or other variations of dieting only put us further in the hole. This is a Food Reset that can establish an overall better relationship with food than you've ever had before.  It will take time to wrap thoughts around the concepts.  You have to throw all Periodic Dieting or continuous dieting knowledge out of the window.  It only brings in more confusion to the Whole 30 process.

 

A Whole 30 is a Clean Slate.   Honor your hunger and do not look backwards over your shoulder at calorie counting. 

 

As  I cleared out the clutter of diet propaganda that had expanded to fill every available convolution of my brain, the fat went away with it.  Dieting gave me an Overfed Head.  If we don't honor our hunger with real whole foods, we trigger the primal drive to overeat.   Excessive hunger can turn us into thrill eating machines.   Don't worry about the calories and everything will fall into place.

[Beakerrn]

Thank you so much!!! It is definitely a liberating experience to not have to think about all that stuff!!

[ladyshanny]

Calories are the determination of how much heat a substance gives off when it is lit on fire.  Since humans don't actually light stuff on fire to digest it, calories are quite useless. 

 

As an example, you could eat 1800 calories worth of beer, pizza and chocolate.  Every day.  For....hmm...let's say 30 days.  Or you could eat fresh, whole proteins, veggies, good fats and lots of water every day for 30 days.  The two are not equal.....not by any stretch of your imagination.  Your body USES the amino acids in protein to build your bones and muscles and cell walls.  Your body USES all the vitamins and minerals and fibre in veggies for all of its processes. Your brain is made up of the good, healthy fats and every single body process requires water.  

 

We don't count calories because it's irrelevant. And yes, your body can eventually start to release weight when it's hormonally safe, even though you are eating "a lot" of fresh, nutritious, healthy food because your body can actually use everything you are giving it.