No, I don't do refeeds (not in my category) and my free meals are just once a week and are more of a 300 calorie increase to rev up my metabolism. Lyle said that we didn't have to and that is was more for a psychological break and/or not being a pain when we socialize with friends.

I know that you are suggesting that I might need the psychological break, but I think it would do me more harm than good. I need to stay on and stay away from starchy carbs. I know that if I go off, it will be a disaster! Yesterday I had about 1400 calories so maybe that will fulfill my need and I can get back again today. We shall see....

I don't know where to ask this, so I figured I might just ask here for starters. I have had some wheezing pretty much all my life, and recently I've noticed others say the same thing, and that it (or full-blown asthma) went away when they cut out milk products. In another place, casein was specifically referenced as the culprit in milk.

Now, Lyle recommends taking your calcium supplement with a natural source of calcium to assist in its uptake, so I've been doing either low-carb yogurt or FF cottage cheese. I won't be too happy cutting those out, but I can deal. However, since I've gotten pretty bummed out on canned chicken breast I've cut down my intake of that and replaced some of it with a whey protein shake. Whey is derived from milk, correct? If so, would including the whey protein mean that I am not abstaining from milk products? Or is it just the casein in milk that can trigger the wheezing/asthma reaction?

It is important to use whey protein ISOLATE and not concentrate. The former has so little lactose (0.1 gram of lactose per tablespoon ) as to not amount to anything. If you can't eat dairy, take your calcium with other food. But whey protein isolate ought to be just fine. I believe a search of information from whey PI sites should answer most of your questions.

Darn, my mix is a blend of isolate and concentrate. I mean, I don't know that I have a problem with dairy but it's just something that I was considering giving a shot. There's a good chance I'm going into the military and being able to kick my wheezing habit by then would be a great help. I guess I can buy another brand of it, but I still have ~4.5 pounds of this left and money doesn't grow on trees...at the same time, I don't have much time left to experiment so maybe I should just go ahead and buy something else. Thanks Val.


EDIT: OK, I just read the label thoroughly and the company claims that this blend does remove almost all of the lactose. There is only 1 g of sugar (3 g total carbohydrates) per 30 g of shake, so that has to be a good sign. Does anyone know how this dairy thing works? Is it important to completely abstain or is a few grams per day OK? And is it the lactose or casein that causes the problems (or both)?

EDIT 2: Durrr, it's called lactose intolerance for a reason. My fault, that just dawned on me.

truffle I believe its the casien that will get to you and I think that whey protien isolate is out. My sister has allergy related athsma and said that cutting dairy really helped. I too cut dairy because my allergies were out of control. It really helped me too. Casien is in ALOT of products and is the glue like substance that is used to sick labels on cans, and that is why those with allergies to casien get alot of gluey mucus-boy did I ever. I cut dairy and lost a lot of fat-like 10 lbs. I indulge now and again. If it is a small amount its not too bad but if I am excessive-as I am known to be, I will suffer.(not to metion retain water)


Go to notmilk.com
if you never want to drink milk again. I'm pretty much turned off for life.

Truffle if I'm not mistaken lactose is what causes most of the gastrointestinal difficulties and casien is what causes the respitory problems. My daughter abstains from casien because she is autistic and it worsens her sympthoms.

Those are two separate issues - lactose intolerance and a milk protein problem. Generally the protein is what will get you in terms of respiratory probs - if it bothers you at all, and the culprit is pasturization because it denatures the proteins. This is not recommended unless you have a reliable or certified source obviously, but when I switched to raw dairy there was NO gastrointestinal distress and my asthma cleared. The bloating was a lactose issue for me - I only get it with milk and yogurts - but not with aged cheese, the respiratory prob was a protein thing and not having to deal with the denatured proteins fixed that.

Thank you Val, pinkquinn, and Meg.

Well, I've broken down completely...no more canned chicken for me for a while. The 20 oz packages of turkey or chicken found in stores both have 125 g of protein, so I've moved on to cooking food. Since 20 oz of meat is also a lot of food, I think I should be able to abstain from the protein shakes for long enough to determine if it is the milk that is causing my wheezing. We'll see what happens.

Back after a diet break! I noticed a few things:

1) I only gained 1 pound! *dance*
2) My appetite on/off switch seems to be working better.

One evening I made a pot roast with parsnips and potatoes, so it wasn't low carb. I put a "serving" on my plate. Wolfed it down and went back for more. By the time I got back to my seat I realized I couldn't eat any more. I didn't want it. It was such a weird feeling!

And my chocolate obsession seems to be calming down. I was starting to ramp up my bittersweet chocolate eating. One day I went nuts and had WAY too much, then I felt nauseated. Since then, I can eat about 1 oz and feel like eating more would make me sick.

I had bought a 1 pound bar of this stuff from TJ's and I've had it sitting out in plain sight and it doesn't call my name. Unheard of!

Nancy,

"Unheard of!"
Ha!!!! I have noticed the some of my cravings are deminishing also.

WTG only gaining one pound on diet break. My brakes set me back about 5

Woohoo Nancy! 1 lb on a diet break is very cool!! I managed to find more than 5 on my last trip

Truffle - I think you'll be pleased with cooked chicken It's so much better than canned!

I'm back down to 263 today. I would LOVE to see a 2lb whoosh... that would put me back in VT. I am really looking forward to breaking out of the 60s! I can't wait to hit 258... that will make a 70lb total loss for me!

I am with Pink..if I eat any carbs at all I put on weight. I only had 1 smallish dinner roll, no butter, about 1/3 of a potato, and a small piece of cheesecake at the dinner on Sat night, and bang, 3 lbs are back. Today, 2 days later, am back at 150.5. Still 1.5 above new low. But my measurements are down a trace. I think I may still be losing fat as I do exercise a fair amount.

And the appetite thing works for me too now. As to the chocolate, here's what I have been doing. Since starting the diet in July, every night I have had one square of Lindt's 70% dark choc with two sf minties. This was all I could have because the sf candies give me dreadful wind- even just 2 do it. Anyway, I found that treat after dinner was good, and enough. So that went on for months and I got used to it. Then, a month or so back, I decided to ditch one of the sf minties and use one real sugar one. I have been doing that ever since. The chocolate and the candies all live in a drawer. I have never in my life before had sugar candies in a drawer and didn't eat a bunch of them. My non-fat friends could do this, though- have one cookie or one candy as a treat and leave it at that.

This is all good.

Cindy, lets all look forward to seeing the new low, eh. Putting on the water weight with eating a few carbs is frustrating.

You know what we need? We need a scale that tells us how much of our weight is water and how much is fat! There is something demoralizing about that jump in weight which we know intellectually is water, given that the jump happens almost overnight, but still find discouraging. I am still entranced by the number it seems...(see first paragraph of this post LOL).

You might want to see if the type of carb makes a difference. I've noticed since going gluten free that I don't gain as much. I think there's something about wheat that really makes me bloat up.

I'm also not having that horrible pounding heart beat when I carb-up when I don't eat the bad grains.

I think I am experiencing that water weight gain right now! I was down to 225.5 and then one morning I was 227 and now I am 228! What is with that? Yah, I did eat a bit more calories the last couple of days, but there is NO WAY that it is fat! Eating 1400-1500 calories is a normal amount of food so it must be water! I think it is from all that NF cottage cheese! I love the stuff (I was addicted to it before when I did my LF diet) and it has a lot of carbs. So tomorrow I am starting out again, on a stricter PSMF to get that water off. Hopefully I can hit my low of 225.5 by the weekend!