Hi all! I just started a low-carb pesco-vegetarian diet today. I have been losing weight for the past year, but I've plateaued out for the last month or so and am finding it hard to stick to my pesco-veg low-fat diet, since I'm not seeing results. I thought I'd give this a try and I'm hoping it will help me lose those last 5-8 lbs! I'm going to try to do the Protein Power diet, so my goal is to stay around 30 carbs a day during the induction period. (I'm assuming that less carbs/day will also work)

So far so good - I felt good today although I had a few moments of dizziness/heat flashes. I'm assuming that's normal. It's actually quite a treat to be able to eat oil liberally!! I'm enjoying this immensely so far because I've been on diet restrictive in fats for so long. My worst fear though is that I'll do this wrong and end up gaining weight, so I thought I'd try to get some feedback on what I ate today to make sure I'm on the right track. Here's what I ate today, please tell me what you think:

Brunch: (this filled me up so much I wasn't hungry when lunch came around!)
2 eggs (the omega 3 kind) - 1.5 carbs
1 tbs butter - 0 carbs
2 oz grated parmesan - 1 carb
1.5 cups baby spinach - .75 carbs
a few hungarian peppers in oil - 1 carb
.5 cups of coffee with 1 tbs fat free half and half - 1.5 carbs
total - 3.75 carbs

Snack:
42 grams mixed nuts (macadamia, almonds and cashews) - 5 carbs

Dinner:
9 spears asparagus, grilled with a liberal amount of olive oil - 3 carbs
1.5 cups baby spinach - .75 carbs
8 oz salmon with olive oil drizzled on top - 0 carbs
1 tomato and 2 cloves of garlic - 3.7 carbs
3 diet sodas - 0 carbs (I NEVER usually drink this many diet sodas in a day but I went to a party and it was the only thing I could eat/drink!)
total - 7.45 carbs

Snack/Very Late Lunch:
2 veggie dogs - 2 carbs
1 oz cheese - 1 carb
1 tbs lemon juice with soda water - 1 carb
42 grams mixed nuts - 5 carbs
total - 9 carbs

Total ECC for the day: 25.20

This count seems low to me, what do you guys think based on what I ate? I looked up the foods in a carb count database so it should be right but it still seems low. Am I going crazy on the fats? Am I eating too many calories? On my low fat diet I probably only eat 2/3 - 1/2 this many calories. I seriously feel guilty eating so much oil/butter!! I do exercise quite a bit though so that might help (cardio 4-5x/wk, strength 2x/wk, yoga 2x/wk). Anyway, all input is welcome!!!

Many thanks!!!

Bella...your menu looks great, although by my recollections and the rough counts I'm able to do from your stats and the activity level you listed, you'll need at least 80g of protein per day--maybe more. The eggs were 14g, the parmesan 8g, nuts maybe 6g, the 8 oz. of salmon around 54g...so 82g protein, plus the veggie dogs, which vary. The only thing I might have done was split the protein more evenly throughout the day to keep yourself fueled all day.

The thing is, at your age (28) and size (5'2") and only wanting to lose 5 pounds or so, you may need to pay more attention to portion sizes. I know you're happy to have discovered fats, and that's fine...but you do have to be a little bit more careful about them if your so close to your goal weight.

You are doing a LOT of cardio and relatively little strength training, and I'm wondering if increasing your lean muscle mass wouldn't be done more effectively by cutting the cardio to twice a week and adding in another session each of strength and yoga...

Each of us is different, but at this point just reshaping your body by tricking up your exercise may be more effective than trying to convince 5 lbs to leave through diet alone.

Gaelen, thanks so much for the feedback! I will try to increase my protein intake but that will be tough, I'm already eating as much as I can! I have slowed down with the crazy overload of fats now that they are no longer forbidden... I actually prefer lighter meals anyway so I don't feel so heavy!

Thanks for the advice on the exercise as well.. I actually do get more than 2 strength training sessions in per week now that I think of it. I take 2 classes for 1 hour each, and 15 minutes of another one of my classes is devoted to strength 2x a week, so that's 2.5 hours per week. Also, I sometimes swim on the weekends so that's a good toning workout as well. I love my cardio though, I seriously think I'm addicted and don't want to give it up!

On that note, I worked out strenuously today for the first time on this diet, and I was very nervous about how I would feel but so far it's been great! I have more energy than usual and I barely even broke a sweat! I feel like I am in a slightly altered state actually, and my dreams are much more vivid than usual. Ketosis is a strange thing. I don't feel horrible at all, which is excellent! I just have to work to drink enough water since I'm always thirsty (like another recent poster!). I love never feeling hungry though, that is something I am not used to after about a year of low-fat dieting!!

By the way, I weighed myself this morning and I weighed 127.5! I'm sure a lot of that loss is water weight but maybe a little bit is fat lost too, so I'm happy!

Anyway, thanks again for the feedback!