How fast to go on P2

iVillage Member
Registered: 01-20-2006
How fast to go on P2
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Sun, 02-12-2006 - 10:26pm

I'm confused because reading the "getting started" info it says if weight loss stalls you may be going too fast adding carbs back in... but then in another section it says it's normal to stall or even gain at the beginning of P2. ??? So how do you know if you are moving too fast or not? I'm not sure my scale is accurate to 1/2 lb so even if I'm moving down slowly, it may not be detectable. I like to *think* I've lost 1/2 lb but it could all be a delusion. ;-)

I'm almost done w/1st week of P2... should I go ahead & move to 2 fruits & 2 grains even if I don't see a loss on my official weigh in day? How can you tell if you are adding too fast or adding items that don't work well for you? Do you just go ahead w/first 3 weeks and adjust things at that point if you aren't losing? Or should you stay on top of it along the way? Any insight would be most welcome!

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iVillage Member
Registered: 01-20-2006
Tue, 02-14-2006 - 9:30am

Ok to follow up my own post, I found the details today! :-)

The women ate 1700 calories per day.

One group ate 125 g protein and 171g carb. Translates to 500 cal pro and 684 cal carb. Percents are 29% pro, 40% carb.

Other group ate 68 g protein and 246 g carb. That's 272 cal pro and 984 cal carb or 16% pro and 58% carb.

Current recommendations are adults eat 45-65% cals from carbs and 10-35% cals from protein. So what the study actually shows is that for weight loss, you want to be in the high end of the normal range for protein consumption. Restricting protein (which I have *never* done...I simply can't eat every serving size and still be comfortable so I try to balance all my portion reductions fairly evenly) will not aid weight loss.

When I entered a late P2 menu into fitday.com, using 7 oz of protein from meat & egg sources because I know I rarely eat the full 8 oz each day, it indicated SBD would be 42% carb, 27% protein. Side note, vegetable matter does have protein unless it has been refined so whole grains add slightly to your protein intake, as does milk. SBD ratios are early identical to the study; both are slightly below recommended carb range. If anything, the study backs up SBD and following the principles will naturally put you in optimal weight loss ranges (although as I mentioned late P2 could easily exceed 1800 calories which could be problematic for those w/lower goal weights).

Better than my late night ramblings? ;-)

Here's more info on the exercise portion of the study:

Each group was then split between women who were asked to walk 30 minutes a day, five days a week, and women who were required to walk at least that much and participate in two 30-minute weightlifting sessions per week.

The low-exercise group was voluntary and averaged less than 100 minutes per week. The other group was supervised and averaged more than 200 minutes of exercise per week, Layman said.

All the women who exercised at least 200 minutes per week lost about the same amount of weight whether they ate a high-protein or a high-carb diet. But almost all the weight lost by those who ate the protein diet was fat, while almost one-third of the weight lost by those on the high-carb diet was muscle.

Last, kudos to Dr. Layman for using women for the study! So many people automatically use middle-aged men for every study w/human test subjects, it's hard to know if results translate to women. Big thumbs up to his research group!

Avatar for kimmieindallas
iVillage Member
Registered: 03-26-2003
Tue, 02-14-2006 - 9:46am

Yea, it is possible that you will have to count calories (ick!). But probably not.

I found a little more detail about the study FYI http://www.beefusa.org/uDocs/protein_exerciseresearch.pdf

(oddly, I was reading my FitnessRX mag last night - my absolute favorite mag for physiology - and it reference the exact same study which was how I was able to find it because they actually cite specific references in this magazine)

Yes, all calories were the same, all were obese women. In short, one was 30% protein the other was 15% protein. They don't get really detailed about the carbs but it doesn't look like they restricted them to low glycemic carbs. More an average american diet kind of thing. To me that means that given low GI carbs the results would have been better for both groups.

But, yes, we agree, it isn't the 9 g of protein versus 6g of protein (I don't think Dr. Agatston says how many grams, just to try a certain number and fine tune it for you) that matters but more the percent of total calories.

You seem to be really close to your goal. There are a few women on here who have continued with quick weight loss as they approached goal and some of them (Doreen) even without significant exercise. But most have to struggle to get those last 5 lbs (or less) off. It may take months and months if you only have 2 lbs to goal. Especially if that 2 lbs is only 2% of your total weight. You've only been at the same weight for one week. It is very very common to not lose weight the first week of Phase 2. I suspect it is a little early to be considering reducing calories since this is only your second week of Phase 2. You might think to give it a few more weeks first. The "extra calories" are real metabolism boosters. This is important. Cathy didn't start watching her calories closer until she had been at a true stable weight for several weeks.

Good luck!

Kim

(edited to add that I didn't see your second post until after I posted this LOL! Looks like we are both pretty geeky? I'm an engineer so I come by it honest. So what is your excuse? LOL!)




Edited 2/14/2006 9:56 am ET by kimmieindallas
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iVillage Member
Registered: 01-20-2006
Tue, 02-14-2006 - 11:21am
Microbiologist. ;-P
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Registered: 12-19-2002
Wed, 02-15-2006 - 12:27pm

A week ago, I posted a great article about this study you're talking about on one of my other boards, Diet and Fitness At Work.

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