New to CAD, Hello?
 

Hi there. I am new to this - just read CAD cover to cover last night. My body loves low-carb - it clears up my eczema and acne and reduces my weight! The problem is, as someone with a looooong history of eating disorders (I have been in recovery for four years) , I find that the restrictiveness of Atkins can trigger a lapse. I am hoping that CAD will allow me the psychological freedom to treat my body well without feeling trapped. For instance, when I am doing Atkins, I worry and obsess if I know we are going to someone's home for dinner because I do not know what will be served.

One question - does anyone out there do what Dr. Rachel Heller did to lose her weight, i.e. fast all day and then have a balanced RM? In the past, my body has felt healthiest and been at its lowest weight when I waited until dinner to eat. That seems to be my body's natural hunger pattern. Then all the "small, frequent meals" advice came along, and I plunged into insulin trauma!!!! Just wondering.....

Thanks so much.
Jean

Hi Jean-
I do not do what Rachel Heller writes about, but there is actually another plan that is on this site that is a one meal a day plan- it is a type of IF, and I bet you can look around some of those threads and find it. It is also a book that you can download- here is the link. I am not endorsing this plan or recommend it in any way- I have not done it and will not do it- but it is a plan.

http://fast-5.com/Fast-5-ebook100.pdf

If you read CAD you might also want to read a later book, like CALP.
Please let us know what you decide to do and how it goes-

E

I'm thinking that fasting all day and eating one meal might lower some people's metabolism more so that weight loss is slower than if you ate breakfast and lunch. I know when I was eating less and less, my metabolism slowed down so much I was very tired and not losing.

I do the CALP plan- I eat 2 CMs and 1 RM everyday- and it works for me. That is all I know-
E

I have done this, and actually do it most of the time when I'm on CAD.

It's not really on purpose, my body just is very seldom hungry untill it's time for the RM. Some days I'll eat 1 other meal (CM), or even 2 (but rarely).

I find that CAD gives me wonderful freedom from constant thoughts about food & eating; when is it time to eat? what shoud I eat? try to choose something helathy, but usually fail (or eat something healthy & then follow it with something bad, because I crave carbs), constantly thinking about sweets or junk food, etc. etc...

When on CAD I just kinda forget about food & eating. It's so wonderful for me. The only drawback is, although I feel great (esp. in my head :p ), I just don't lose much weight. But this is probably my own fault, my RM is probably not balanced enough & I could really use more exercise (I'm working on both :) )

Just want to note: I don't have a strenuous or demanding job or kids or a lot of other enegy demanding things to do, so this could be part of the reason why this works for me (or the whole reason, who knows?).

As for the effect this has on the metabolism, it's debated a lot, basically (mostly) unknown and probably varies from person to person. The more muscle you have, the more you burn, so the best thing you can do is gain more muscle (by lifting weights, it doesn't have to be hard/heavy or boring :D )

Hope any of this helps :) My advice is find out what works for you & makes you feel good & then just kinda trust your body to tell you what to do. Just my 2 cents :) Good luck :wave:

Five years ago when I found the CAD, I did the first book and ate whatever I wanted at dinner starting with a salad. I lost about 1-2 pounds a week. It was great. When I went into menopause, I didn't lose or was losing a 1/2 pound a week. At this point I need some more active exercise like Billy Blanks. I think the problem with weight training is that it bulks you up and makes you look fatter. I think aerobics is good to get the weight off and then when you're pretty close to goal, add the weight training in for toning. When I exercise with resistance, my stomach sticks out more.

I havae always done CALP with a pretty balanced RM. Even now, when I think I am overcarbing in my RM it is still pretty balanced.
I do walk and lift weights, but I did that before CALP and have not changed my routine at all. CALP and LC made the difference for me.

Eno, girl, you are a walking advertisment for the CAD! :) I dropped another pound so as of today I am at I was last week.(172) If I lose a pound by tomorrow, which is my weigh day, that means I've lost another pound this week...the plot thickens..LOL.

thanks- it really is WONDERFUL. GOod luck tomorrow-
E

Welcome, Jean!! :)

I know plenty of people who eat once a day for losing weight. Some maintain doing that (in my opinion that would be sad for me especially). I used to do that, and frankly I was the thinnest I ever was, but these days I need to keep my blood sugar steady with at least something for breakfast and sometimes another CM before my RM. Things have changed with menopause and hypothyroidism which mimics insulin resistance, so I've read.

Jean I eat one meal a day on CAD and there is a thread on hear that the ladies on CAD eat one meal a day. They stalled on cms and now are losing eating one rm a day. To me it is freeing not to have to worry about what to eat all day and wonder if it is too much. I have trouble controling myself.

I read pro's and cons on that. Some say it lowers the metabolism and puts you in starvation mode, others say it kick starts more weight loss...

I don't know PearlWhite but her story is nearly identical to mine. I can do CAD so easily because even at my heaviest I was never a night eater or a breakfast eater--it fit my eating schedule to just eat once a day. I don't have a stressful job or kids either, and that probably does help some. The weight loss was NOT fast...only about a half a pound per week but it was STEADY. I CAN and DO occasionally eat twice per day....a couple of my best friends will sometimes call late at night and say they are swinging by to pick me up for a "pancake run"...which means we are going to the truck stop. I'll have bacon and eggs or something CM (LOW carb) and watch them snarf down pancakes. It's so livable to be able to "diet" and still go out with friends and enjoy life.

I've done it on occasion, like for a lab test LOL, but I always ate breakfast..lately, I've been eating hb eggs and I'm getting really sick of them. Can't eat chicken..I'm going to have silken tofu smoothies..It says 0 carbs on the label. Anyone use a lot of tofu? I'm a semi-vegetarian.

I don't eat tofu, but a friend of mine does and it is fine. I eats lots of egs. I don't like HB, but just about all the other ways to cook them!