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[Joolie]

Here is what I ate yesterday, which was a stressful day. I'm trying to get the stressful situation under control...it's not helping my general health, including my attention to proper diet. What changes can I make dietarily to kickstart my weight loss again? The scale isn't budging and I have had terrible cravings for carbs and nuts (went a little crazy with pistachios one day this past week, so I'm not replenishing my supply). I have a fish allergy but otherwise will eat anything. I was thinking of trying an all-meat diet, something Dr. Mike Eades has mentioned in his blog occasionally.

I have a lean body mass of 97 pounds and am carrying an extra 15 pounds of fat, with far too much of it in my abdomen. Although I had no vegetables yesterday, I have a green salad on most days, with blue cheese dressing and things like carrots, radishes, cucumber, onion, olives, avocado, cheese, meats, sunflower seeds etc. as possible additions. I measure and count everything in FitDay.

1500 calories, 27 ECC, 78 g protein, 122 g fat for the day.
BREAKFAST
1/4 c blueberries
1/2 c coconut milk
1.5 scoops whey powder with stevia
splash of vanilla
SNACK
1 oz. cheddar cheese
LUNCH
2 jumbo eggs
2 t Smart Balance margarine (has palm, soy, canola, flaxseed, olive oils; I will get butter when this runs out!)
3 thin slices bacon
SNACK
1 oz. cheddar cheese (was absolutely ravenous for even more snacks throughout the day)

DINNER 1.5 beef hot dogs (not my favorite)
1/3 c salted cashews

[mcarr36]

Try cooking the eggs in coconut oil. Coconut oil really does wonders for me! Have almonds or walnuts in place of cashews. Less carbs.

[Spruce Goose]

We have some folks around here that are around the same weight as you. I'm sure they'll stop by when they see this post and offer some advice. We also have some folks that are good at looking over menus.

I don't fall into either category but here are some random thoughts based on what you posted. Everyone feel free to correct anything I screw up :)

Calories:
These almost seem a little low (at least your count for yesterday). I thought that I'd previously read that women need around 1600 calories just to perform normal body tasks. Going below that on a consistent basis could cause your body to start fighting for every calorie.

Margarine:
Glad to hear you're swapping to butter in the future. It'll up your calories but everything will taste more delicious :)

Cravings:
Something could be setting you off. Do you normally have carb/nut cravings? Google search leads me to believe pistachios are 4 net carbs per oz. If you went way over this week and normally don't have cravings this could be the trigger. Nuts are also very calorie dense so make sure you accurately count how much you eat when entering into fitday. They could account for a huge swing in calories without realizing it. If you normally have cravings, you might try dropping some things you eat on a regular basis for a week or so to see if the cravings subside.

Rut:
Sometimes if I eat the same thing my body seems to adapt. Even though it seems everything is right for weight loss I'm still not losing. When I hit this situation I try to change things up. Try to switch up what I'm eating, play around with the amount of fat and protein (while still hitting protein minimums) I'm eating.

I don't know what your goal weight is but I'm guessing you're fairly close to your goal. From what I hear (nowhere near my own goal :P ) it gets a lot more difficult to lose as you get closer.

Hope this helps and hope someone else chimes in with better info!

[Joolie]

Thanks for your comments! I will try cooking with coconut oil. And yes, I guess I'd best avoid nuts in general, especially the relatively high-carb cashews.

I'm undecided about optimal calories/day. Some days I have 1200, today I will be above 2000. I am 48 and weigh about 140 pounds now. I have around 15 pounds to lose and I don't think I want to lose any lean body mass. I've done basal metabolic rate calcs online and they've been all over the board. I guess trial and error will be the way to go.

[isisrose]

You've gotten some really good advise already. You may consider also cutting the berries for a bit. The fructose in them could also set off some cravings. I would try adding them back later in very small amounts and with good fat and protein (e.g. cottage cheese). Just my humble opinion.

Also if you can't control how many nuts you eat, then don't eat nuts for now. And it may be the stress. Sometimes that causes us to crave more of what we can normally control. Does that make sense?

Also you really do need more calories especially as a woman. Spruce hit a really good point here. You don't want your body going into survival/famine mode. If you find you really can't eat more food, then add some more fat. This is a very easy way to up the calories without increasing the portion. Remember fat isn't the enemy. Yes don't go hog wild on it, but do eat enough.

I too am glad you are giving up the margarine, or as I like to call it--plastic goo!