I love vegetarian enchiladas. I make then with mushrooms, spinach, egg plant, zucchini, onions, and olives. I’ll put a little bit of avocado and 1 tablespoon of sour cream. So I doubt the vegetables are what’s the problem. I’m pretty sure it’s the flour tortilla. I noticed even when I’m still within my calories for the day, if I eat a tortilla I will still be hungry and/or my weight will explode the next day. I don’t eat carbs as it is except vegetables and the tortilla I eat with the enchilada. I would hate to give up the one favorite dish I like. Is there a way to prevent the after effects?
Why, exactly, is your weight ‘exploding’ the next day a problem? If it’s a transient effect, then just ignore it…
From the sounds of it, you’re on a low carb diet. If this is the case, then consuming the carbohydrates is causing your body to store water and glycogen (which would be depleted due to the low carb diet), hence the short-term weight gain. It’s not a problem. It’ll make your training sessions better the next day.
^I think clarifying just how bad the effects are would be informative. Are we talking “it makes life genuinely unpleasant because I’m bloated and gassy” or merely “my weight goes up a pound or two, and it’s back to where it was two days later.” The former probably means you have an issue with wheat or gluten; the latter can be dealt with.
I don’t really believe in the concept of a whole “cheat day” (promotes too much binging and kind of a weird relationship with food, IMO) - but I will say: I train “fasted” Monday-Friday (early in the morning), and I generally avoid wheat/gluten altogether. However, on Saturday mornings, I sleep in a little, walk to a nearby coffee shop, buy a paper, a cup of coffee, and (gasp!) a bagel-and-egg sandwich before going to the gym around 10 o’clock (instead of the M-F schedule, 6 AM). I allow this special indulgence because that’s usually the day I’ll be going to the gym with intent of setting PR’s, and I want to be well-rested, well-fueled, and readyb to rock.
If you want to be low-carb (in general) without giving up your favorite meal, one way to do it is making Friday night your enchilada night, and making Saturday your biggest gym day (i.e. the day you always try to set a new squat PR, or something like that).
The rules on this are different if you’re trying to follow a purely ketogenic diet, in which case all carbs must be approached with caution. But I am guessing that’s not you.
I would also note that you can have that entire meal without a tortilla. All of those goodies can be easily put into a frittata, or an omelette, or piled atop a bed of romaine, or just on a plate. I know it can be satisfying to have a “sandwich” or “burrito” or something to hold onto, but there’s no rule against grilling your mushrooms, spinach, eggplant, zucchini, onions, and olives and dropping them on a plate topped with a nice dollop of sour cream and some sliced avocado.
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I actually didn’t realize I was on a low carb diet. I initially was trying to cut calories to fit my daily needs and just be healthier overall. Carbs happen to be a lot of calories for me. I’m a stay-at-home mom so I’m limited to 1200 calories in order to get to the weight I want to be. I was researching what the high protein/low carb diet was last night because I have heard that is a good diet to be on and stumbled across what carbs actually do to cause the weight gain. It’s water that helps hydrate muscles so it’s water weight. I would go up two or three pounds. This morning I lost the water weight and then some so I was probably over thinking it. I appreciate the responses.
What others said. Also, I don’t know what your height/weight is, but 1200 calories is really, really low for anyone. Unless you are already quite petite or have a medical condition that affects weight loss, that’s almost certainly a lower number than what you ought to aim for. You didn’t ask for advice on it, so feel free to ignore me, but where did you get that number as a goal? A lot of dieting websites/magazines have this mentality that if cutting some is good, then cutting more must be better. It can actually be quite harmful to long-term progress though if you start out too low.
After an indulgent weekend my weight swung 7 pounds from last Sunday to yesterday. In reality, I probably lost about 1 or 2 pounds of fat last week, right on plan. The rest, as stated already, is just my body doing body things with water and glycogen.
I’m not sure where you’re at or where you’re trying to go, but you want to get rid of the idea that you can get a few pounds fatter in a day. Or a few pounds leaner in a day, for that matter. It doesn’t work that way unless you’re really doing something extreme.
Many recommend weighing in once per week. If you choose to weigh in daily, don’t get too bent out of shape if the scale doesn’t go down every day or even if it goes up as long as you continue to trend downward over time.
I’ll also second the suggestion to examine your calories. 1200 is very low for just about anyone.
I’m 5’ 10" and currently 216 pounds. I go on My Fitness Pal periodically to adjust numbers if needed. I stopped going on the forums because I realized some of those people are nuts and some just are giving out bad advice. The calories actually says 1280 I think. I’ve lost 84 pounds so far and am shooting for another 26 pounds. At the 80 pounds mark I had plateaued for a month or so. I figured out I was eating to much. That’s when I was really watching how many calories I was eating and began to lose the weight again. The 1280 calories is set for 2 pounds per week of weight loss, but it varies.
x3 on 1200 cals -especially at 5’10.
Look into reverse dieting. A run of Biotest’s Indigo something to look into a few months down the line -makes you handle carbs way better
My Fitness Pal is notoriously poor at calculating deficits. It’s truly incredible that you’ve stuck with that low of an amount despite a one month plateau. A far, far better calculator is Alan Aragon’s TEE calculator (google it). There are a lot of dangers in going too low on a cut. Honestly, the very best thing you can do for a cut is learning about some of the science behind it and why some things work while other things don’t. Aragon is one of the most credibly sources out there on this information, but there’s also some great stuff on this website (depending on how well you fit the target audience). Seriously though, if you want to change your weight dramatically and with it change your quality of life, understanding more about your body and learning why things work is incredibly useful knowledge that will take you much farther than a calculator or (as you’ve already discovered) the genuinely bad advice that gets pushed around on weight loss forums.
I actually eat quite a bit of food, but it’s low in calories. I eat more volume than calories. Lots of vegetables. I couldn’t possibly eat that much in calories anymore. I no longer eat until I’m in a food coma. I eat until satisfied. Eating that much is what put me at 300 pounds in the first place. I was no longer working a very physical job, but I was eating crap. Then I became a stay-at-home mom and sort of felt lost. I kept eating the same amount and was no longer active. I had to adjust my food habits and began exercising. Now I weigh a little less than when I was working. I’m sure I don’t understand reverse dieting, but this is working for me and I’d rather not fix something that isn’t broken yet. I’ll look in to the Indigo.
It’s only off by 220 calories. I can’t use the Aragon equation because I don’t know my lean body mass percentage, but if I use the Owen equation it comes out to 1500 calories. The Owen equation is almost as accurate as the Aragon equation. There are some days when I need to eat a little more and I do, but I don’t go overboard with it. It’s usually an extra 100-200 calories when I need it. I’m not even close to starving myself. I wouldn’t be able to stick with the diet if I were doing that. I eat more volume than calories. I eat lots of vegetables. I find I stay full for longer periods of times, my blood pressure is no longer high, my acne cleared up, I’m not tired anymore, my sleeping pattern has improved, and I can be more physically active just by my diet alone.
Excess carbs are not good for our body.
excess anything is not good for anything, hence the use of the word “excess”
Where are you getting “excess” from? Most of my carbs come from vegetables and once a week I’ll have one tortilla to make my enchilada.
wasn’t referring to your post. Was referring to the one that said “excess”