Lost 8 Lbs In A Week?

[Lisa16]

Hi all.

I started seeing a dietitian a little over a week ago because I have lots of food sensitivities and my diet is getting pretty complicated. I am supposed to lose 20 lbs. I am gluten-free, casein free, sulfite/fate free, nitrite/ate free with a side of no msg and very low sodium (for blood pressure). I am also sensitive to food dyes. Really I am down to eating fresh veggies, fruits and meats, nuts and egg whites. I was pretty much doing this before I went to him.

I have been gluten-free since December 1, 2007. I walk between 2-4 miles every day.

Anyway, he put me on something close to a diabetic diet, with fairly restricted carbs (only 135-140g per day). I lost 8 lbs the first week, and I think this is pretty extreme weight loss considering where I started. I am not so sure it is healthy. He seems to understand about the celiac, but I am not 100% sure this is the right kind of diet for me. It almost seems like Atkins gone wrong.

Does anyone have experience with this kind of thing? Does 8 lbs in a week sound extreme for a celiac who was 20 lbs overweight (now 12)? Is it time to look for a new person?

Thanks!

[Tim-n-VA]

First of all, on any weight loss plan, I would discount the first week or so and your body is adjusting. Beyond that, long term extreme weight loss (more than a pound a week or so) stress the body, especially the liver.

Added note: After I submitted my reply I noticed you also have a waterfall picture for an avatar. I took the one I use near Ithaca,NY. Where was the one you are using taken?

[Jestgar]

  Tim-n-VA said:

First of all, on any weight loss plan, I would discount the first week or so and your body is adjusting. Beyond that, long term extreme weight loss (more than a pound a week or so) stress the body, especially the liver.

What Tim said. You lose a lot of water the first week or so.

[ShayFL]

I will agree with Tim. The first week can be deceptive. Likely a lot of water weight and some could easily come back. From here on out, you should not lose more than 1-2 pounds a week. If you do, then add a few more carbs in (although 140 carbs a day is NOWHERE near Atkins, nor too restrictive).

I find that if I eat more than 30 carbs at one sitting, my blood sugar spikes. So this diet is actually better for your pancreas and blood sugar control.

Keep us posted.

[Lisa16]

Thanks for the reassurances! I really got scared there. I will stick with his plan then. I also got glutened at the dentist during that week, so the water is a good bet.

I am also relieved to hear that 140 carbs is not too few (I was going by the recommended daily allowance percentages on the labels and it looked like he had me at about half of normal.)

Tim-- the picture is of Goosberry Falls up by Duluth in MN. They are beautiful falls. Where is yours? My other avatar (the personal one) is the Crosby Serpent statue, (also from here in MN.)

Well... here's to a slow last 12 pounds. I would hate to stress my poor liver. We have been through quite enough with untreated celiac for over 23 years!

Lisa

[Tim-n-VA]

Buttermilk Falls, just south of Ithaca, NY is a relatively large fall. There is a trail along the stream that passes several smaller falls. This is about one mile up the trail.

[sickchick]

I did that when I went off dairy. Your body will balance out. I walk hard every day too. Down the hill and back up.

You might crave more protein (I do when my body needs it)

Pay attention to your system right now and don't ignore the little signs it might be telling you!

What's your diet like? I would suggest adding about twice your normal lean protein intake, especially during the Summer when you are more active.

hope this helps!

lovelove

C

[Lisa16]

Thank you so much C!

Yes-- going off dairy is pretty recent (about 1 month.) Maybe it is that. That had a pretty surprising result for me in a lot of ways. The bottom number of my BP dropped about 30 points for one thing.

I am pretty restricted in my proteins-- chicken, egg whites (the yolks get me from the sulpher I think,) nuts, legumes and shrimp. My boyfriend is Buddhist so no pork and no beef and processed deli meats are out because of the msg/ nitrates/ salt/ etc.

Oh-- and for some reason, since going gluten-free I have had a wild craving for boiled beets and spinach. I mean, if I don' eat them everyday I feel bad. They tested me for nutritional levels in May (after 6 mos gluten-free) and the numbers al came back good-- even the calcium.

Here is a typical day. Nothing has added salt. Veggies are boiled and eaten plain. My diet guy isn't counting the carbs in the veggies, and the veggies have to be cooked or I can't get anything out of them:

breakfast-- a waffle and 1 tbs. peanut butter 30-40 g carb and 2 egg whites boiled

snack 1-- low salt chips and salsa or celery and hummus or a fruit or a thai shrimp tapioca roll 15-20g carb

lunch-- chicken curry or thai chicken or something like that 30-40g carb

2-3 vegetables

2 fruit servings

snack 2-- as above

dinner-- shrimp or chicken or legumes 30-40 g carb

boiled white rice

2-3 veggies

1 fruit

oh yes-- I drink 2 cups of tea (trying to get rid of caffeine) in the am and drink water the rest of the day.

snack 3-- as above

I guess this is the 6 small meals plan and right now he just wanted me to restrict the carbs. I will try to eat more protein.

[sickchick]

Looks like you are eating perfect! Good job.

Some other things that might help for adding whole proteins, do you like Quinoa? That is a whole protein, and I know when you eat Hummus with Brown Rice Crackers, that creaters a whole protein as well.

Tuna is a great source, I sear mine and it's so easy and yummy (if you guys eat tuna lol

I lost 10 pounds the first month after removing dairy from my diet. I was @ 120 now I kinda fluctuate between 108- 110. I need a new belt I think! HAHAHA

They say you need more protein so you are doing fine, if you are happy then don't change anything but if you are feeling a little 'naked' adjust your proteins, Doll.

We're lucky because we can have nuts and eggs, there are so many who can't!

It took me about a month to adjust to no caffeine- drinking tea is a good substitute for you.

sending happiness

[cyberprof]

  Lisa16 said:

Thank you so much C!

Yes-- going off dairy is pretty recent (about 1 month.) Maybe it is that. That had a pretty surprising result for me in a lot of ways. The bottom number of my BP dropped about 30 points for one thing.

I am pretty restricted in my proteins-- chicken, egg whites (the yolks get me from the sulpher I think,) nuts, legumes and shrimp. My boyfriend is Buddhist so no pork and no beef and processed deli meats are out because of the msg/ nitrates/ salt/ etc.

Oh-- and for some reason, since going gluten-free I have had a wild craving for boiled beets and spinach. I mean, if I don' eat them everyday I feel bad. They tested me for nutritional levels in May (after 6 mos gluten-free) and the numbers al came back good-- even the calcium.

Here is a typical day. Nothing has added salt. Veggies are boiled and eaten plain. My diet guy isn't counting the carbs in the veggies, and the veggies have to be cooked or I can't get anything out of them:

breakfast-- a waffle and 1 tbs. peanut butter 30-40 g carb and 2 egg whites boiled

snack 1-- low salt chips and salsa or celery and hummus or a fruit or a thai shrimp tapioca roll 15-20g carb

lunch-- chicken curry or thai chicken or something like that 30-40g carb

2-3 vegetables

2 fruit servings

snack 2-- as above

dinner-- shrimp or chicken or legumes 30-40 g carb

boiled white rice

2-3 veggies

1 fruit

oh yes-- I drink 2 cups of tea (trying to get rid of caffeine) in the am and drink water the rest of the day.

snack 3-- as above

I guess this is the 6 small meals plan and right now he just wanted me to restrict the carbs. I will try to eat more protein.

Lisa, that sounds like a good diet. Did your dietician give you a website or handout? Does the diet have a name? I've been toying with the idea of giving up dairy... and I need to lose 20-40 pounds.

~Laura

[Jestgar]

Open Original Shared Link

[Lisa16]

Laura-- he did give me a computer print out that reads like this:

breakfast-- 30-40g carbs

snack 1-- 15g carbs

lunch-- 30-40g carbs

snack 2- 15g carbs

dinner-- 30-40g carbs

snack 3- 15g carbs

There were protein guidelines too, but I will have to look for the sheet of paper now buried on my desk. He made me an individual plan, but I think this is a pretty standard plan. I have heard it referred to as the "6 small meals plan." It is really good because you get your calories regularly and you don't get hungry. By the way, he is basing the carb count on the diabetic diet guidelines (he gave me a little book) which works with exchanges, but it isn't a diabetic diet exactly. One exchange of carbs= 15g. This would be 1 serving of fruit (the amount varies with the particular fruit). These do not necessarily match up with what a package says. After looking at about 3 weeks of my food logs, he felt the problem was that I was eating too many carbs (especially in the form of fruit.)

Oh-- I think the dairy is terribly important, at least for me. I broke down and ate some experimental plain m and m's last night and the bottom number of my blood pressure shot up from 81 yesterday (low for me!) to 100 this morning. This was after not eating any dairy for a month. I had read on here that sometimes if you go off dairy and stay off it awhile, you can tolerate it again. This does not seem to be the case for me. Maybe that will help you decide.

Lisa

[Jestgar]

  Lisa16 said:

Laura-- he did give me a computer print out that reads like this:

breakfast-- 30-40g carbs

snack 1-- 15g carbs

lunch-- 30-40g carbs

snack 2- 15g carbs

dinner-- 30-40g carbs

snack 3- 15g carbs

There were protein guidelines too, but I will have to look for the sheet of paper now buried on my desk. He made me an individual plan, but I think this is a pretty standard plan. I have heard it referred to as the "6 small meals plan." It is really good because you get your calories regularly and you don't get hungry. By the way, he is basing the carb count on the diabetic diet guidelines (he gave me a little book) which works with exchanges, but it isn't a diabetic diet exactly. One exchange of carbs= 15g. This would be 1 serving of fruit (the amount varies with the particular fruit). These do not necessarily match up with what a package says. After looking at about 3 weeks of my food logs, he felt the problem was that I was eating too many carbs (especially in the form of fruit.)

Oh-- I think the dairy is terribly important, at least for me. I broke down and ate some experimental plain m and m's last night and the bottom number of my blood pressure shot up from 81 yesterday (low for me!) to 100 this morning. This was after not eating any dairy for a month. I had read on here that sometimes if you go off dairy and stay off it awhile, you can tolerate it again. This does not seem to be the case for me. Maybe that will help you decide.

Lisa

I'm curious how you can be sure it was the dairy and not the sugar (or the chocolate).

[cyberprof]

  Lisa16 said:

Laura-- he did give me a computer print out that reads like this:

breakfast-- 30-40g carbs

snack 1-- 15g carbs

lunch-- 30-40g carbs

snack 2- 15g carbs

dinner-- 30-40g carbs

snack 3- 15g carbs

There were protein guidelines too, but I will have to look for the sheet of paper now buried on my desk. He made me an individual plan, but I think this is a pretty standard plan. I have heard it referred to as the "6 small meals plan." It is really good because you get your calories regularly and you don't get hungry. By the way, he is basing the carb count on the diabetic diet guidelines (he gave me a little book) which works with exchanges, but it isn't a diabetic diet exactly. One exchange of carbs= 15g. This would be 1 serving of fruit (the amount varies with the particular fruit). These do not necessarily match up with what a package says. After looking at about 3 weeks of my food logs, he felt the problem was that I was eating too many carbs (especially in the form of fruit.)

Oh-- I think the dairy is terribly important, at least for me. I broke down and ate some experimental plain m and m's last night and the bottom number of my blood pressure shot up from 81 yesterday (low for me!) to 100 this morning. This was after not eating any dairy for a month. I had read on here that sometimes if you go off dairy and stay off it awhile, you can tolerate it again. This does not seem to be the case for me. Maybe that will help you decide.

Lisa

Thanks Lisa. I don't have a problem with blood pressure and I don't seem to react to dairy with obvious symptoms. However, I am having a terrible time losing weight and my son is casein intolerant, so I started today eliminating dairy. I want to see what happens and it's easy to do since he is GFDF.

I need to start being more strict on carbs and see if my weight moves with that change and DF.

~Laura

[ShayFL]

When I was heavy....all I had to do was eliminate dairy and ALL sugars/refined carbs and the weight just melted off without any other effort on my part. So good luck to you!!

[Lisa16]

Jestgar-- you ask an excellent question. The only thing I am sure about is that I feel better without dairy. I suppose it could be the chocolate, but here is my reasoning. It may be faulty, but so far my theory holds:

When I was still eating tons of fruit but no dairy the bp numbers were low for me AND

just like the gluten sensitivity, high blood pressure runs in my family. My great grandmother had it, but still lived to 98 even though they couldn't treat it. Same with my grandfather (d. 97), grandmother (d. 87 of lymphoma), their siblings (all d. of intestinal-related cancers), my father and his sister. Unfortunately we either cannot tolerate the drugs (allergic or odd reactions) or the ones we do tolerate do not work like they should.

I had a severe allergic reaction to a bp med that put me in the ER. Faced with this, my only choice is to lose weight, exercise and eat the best and safest natural food I can find. I never drank alcohol (allergic to sulfites in wne, beer is out and the rest tastes like poison to me-- truly yuckky.) I never smoked. Why double dare death? Also, my blood sugars are consistently in the 70s. My cholesterol also always been super low (from the celiac.)

Then it hit me-- a kind of epiphany--what if all of us really had a food allergy that was causing this??? So I started to think, what would my great grandparents have eaten that they could have been allergic to? They were farmers in Nebraska. We know the wheat piece of it because I got sick and was lucky enough to get diagnosed. Now gene tests reveal everybody has the gene (it is on both sides, yet!). But what if it is dairy causing the bp problem? I sort of doubt they would have eaten very much chocolate (but maybe) and anyway most of it is made with milk. What if it is something that simple? So I decided to give up dairy. I felt so much better after a couple of days and after a month I was really doing well. It was like the gluten-free miracle all over again. My bp numbers were low.

So that is why I think it is the dairy. Maybe the reasoning is faulty, or maybe there is something I am not seeing yet. I am still figuring things out. The celiac diagnosis really opened up a whole new world and several cans of worms (gluten-free of course!) I think diet is the single most important element that affects our health. And i am really tring to get mine back.

Lisa

[Jestgar]

Sounds pretty well thought out. I guess you could always check your bp after a chunk of cheese if you wanted to confirm it. Or after a spoonful of sugar. I know some people have problems with cane sugar, but not fruit sugar. It might be worth your time to check the cane sugar connection; at least you'd know and it would help you make decisions. I guess I'm saying you may react to sugar (or chocolate, but we'll leave that one alone as long as possible) as well as dairy.

[Lisa16]

You know, I didn't think about the sugars being different at all, but I think fructose and glucose are even different molecules, now that I think about it. And I suppose it could even be the food dyes in the m+ms! But I bet my ancestors didn't consume a ton of food dyes-- I don't think they ate a lot of processed foods at all.

Okay-- I have a plan. I will wait until the numbers are back down and then I will have a little milk and see what happens. If that is not it, I will try the sugar theory. I definitely agree about leaving the chocolate until last

Thank you so much for sharing your thoughts. This is a whole new world for me (I never paid attention to what I ate before the diagnosis because they alwyas said-- oh, it's IBS and not diet related and there is nothing you can do but ride it out.) I really appreciate experience and insight my fellow gfer have to offer!

LIsa

[Jestgar]

be sure to post your results. I'd be interested in hearing what happens.

[rumbles]

Hi, Lisa!

You mentioned that you have a lot of food sensitivities, you feel better when you take dairy

out of your diet, and that after going gluten free, you crave beets and spinach to the point

where if you don't have them, you feel bad. These things might be linked together, - they

sound like something that I experienced (along with uncontrolled fluctuating blood pressure

problems) but I need a little more info to see if any of the other symptoms are similar, - I

hope you don't mind (if you don't want to answer any of these on the public view,

send me a pm).

When you say you feel bad if you don't eat beets or spinach, - can you describe how you

feel?

Do you suffer from stomach upsets? If so, how many times per week average, and

does it seem to be happening a little more often than it use to?

Do you have acid reflux? If so: often, sometimes or rarely?

Do you take antacids or acid reducing medication (such as "the purple pill")?

Do you have stomach ulcers that you know of?

Do you ever feel your heart beating faster or stronger when you lay down at night or

if you lay down after eating?

Do you get tired after eating?

Pat

[Lisa16]

I am down three more pounds today! It has slowed down.

But I think that even after I hit the goal, I will still try to eat this way.

Lisa

[Jestgar]

It's not bad, once you get used to it. I went low carb because of food intolerances and although I've since discovered that potatoes and a little rice are ok, I still don't eat them. I just got out of the habit.

[Rya]

So, did your dietitian explain why he's restricting your carbs? It seems odd to me.