The Green Faces Diet discussion was closed, so I decided to start a discussion up again.
I’m a 34-year old woman starting the “Green Faces Diet” for the first time after seeing a friend and her mother have great success with it. There isn’t a whole lot of information on it, other than what I’ve read here and as a newbie, I wanted to know what I was in for, get some recipe ideas and just get some encouragement. I couldn’t find anything directly relate do the GFD, so I started a blog to document my 21-day journey as I’m learning and tweaking it (not changing the foods, though.)
I do have a question, though…
If you’re not using the carb supplements mentioned on the diet here, should you add a carb-up day? My weight-loss/fat-loss seems to have come to a screeching halt after 5 days (I’m on day 7 now) and I don’t know how to kick it into high gear again. You can view exactly what I’ve been eating on my blog and see my weight and body fat progress if it would help with feedback!
I look forward to any help I can get!
Thanks!
Kristin, Austin TX
It is likely that any weight lost in the first few days were mostly water. This is common in most diets, but particularly true for low carb ones. Keep carb ups to a meal at first and go based on how you feel, for example if you are feeling run down. Weight loss is around 1-2 pounds a week on a decent diet, perhaps up to 3 for the first few weeks.
There is some info on how to cheat and set carb levels in this article:
and one on cheat meals (adjust servings based on your weight):
Without knowing your present activity levels or body comp, it’s pretty hard to determine whether you need to have a carb or cheat day. But I would guess that after 7 days, no. Carb supplements are not something that the average female needs when they start dieting for fat loss, and since you can eat unlimited green veggies (from what I understand) it’s not like you aren’t getting enough carbs.
[quote]Kristin4Health wrote:
If you’re not using the carb supplements mentioned on the diet here, should you add a carb-up day?[/quote]
Are you using any type of workout nutrition? In the article, I discussed how the carbs that are part of the workout nutrition function as a type of “carb up”. If you’re not getting any carbs in shake-form when you’re training, I’d consider having some carbs either with breakfast or with the meal immediately before or after your weight training. Depending on your size and training, it could be once a week to start or only on training days.
What’s you’re current height and weight?
I’m confused as to how progress can come to a “screeching halt” after five (or even seven) days on a plan. What does that mean?
Exactly how much progress did you see (as in, what did you weigh seven days ago and what do you weigh today?)
Also, are you tracking inches lost as well as bodyweight? Simple scale weight isn’t always an accurate indicator.
Like Diana said, we’d need to know exactly how you’re training (days, exercises, sets, reps, and cardio) and your current general condition (honestly - very chubby, a little soft, in good shape already, etc.) The more info we have, the more we can help.
While what I wrote may be true, the points Chris Colucci made are more to the point and specific, considering that he is the author of that T-Nation article, I would follow his path of advice in this matter, rather than my own.
A Google search for (kristin “green faces diet”) will bring up the other sites she posted on. The first paragraph is the same always. Then a link to her blog (which T-Nation mods likely deleted in her post), here she asks a specific question after. My question is why is she on day 7 (reported 6/26/11 @ sparkpeople) and here, while her blog has that date as day 3?
Perhaps she is legit and posting a few days later on her own blog, but it seems fishy with the copy and paste first posts, seems like a traffic baiting strategy. She has also posted at primermagazine and musclechemistry, the former on a Josef Brandenburg article (he had 3 articles on T-Nation). It is funny how the RD on sparkpeople misses the point.
Either way enjoy the Google search hits if you must, but I am done posting on this thread.
Just want to point out if that’s a picture of your plate (and not just one randomly off the internet) you are not following the Green Faces diet correctly.
