"Plate room" question

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Goodcooker
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"Plate room" question

Post by Goodcooker » Thu Jan 24, 2013 7:17 pm

Lastnight I got a six inch subway sub. Brought it home and put it on my dinner plate. Counted out serving size of pita chips onto plate and there was still room on my plate. My question is the first week in should I be concerned about serving size? I was hungry when I went to bed lastnight. Should I have thrown an apple or something on there? When I orderd my sub lastnight I was SOOO hungry that I came close to ordering a foot long!!
One of the things I learned the hard way was that it doesn't pay to get discouraged. Keeping busy and making optimism a way of life can restore your faith in yourself.
-Lucille Ball

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Blithe Morning
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Post by Blithe Morning » Thu Jan 24, 2013 8:57 pm

At the beginning I think it's best to err on the side of too much rather then too little. We have a one plate rule, not a clean your plate rule. There is nothing that says you have to eat everything on your plate if you find yourself pleasantly sated after, say, 9 inches of sub.

And yes, you can have a foot long if you want. Why didn't you? Are you still trying to cut back to hurry along the weight loss? If so, my suggestion is that you don't do it. No S is the only diet in the world where you start out in maintenance phase and then start tweaking if you want to lose more or faster or what have you. If you are too strict with yourself at the start then you will just associate No S with another deprivation diet.

I sometimes eat a big side of chips, sometimes smaller. I don't really pay attention to serving sizes except for by guess and by golly. Fist sized, deck of card size, fit in the cup of one hand; that sort of thing is useful up to a point. But even that can drive me crazy if I get too focused on it.

wosnes
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Post by wosnes » Thu Jan 24, 2013 11:42 pm

I get a footlong now and then and still have room on my plate for some chips or fruit or whatever. But yea, I would have added fruit or something to fill the plate.
"That which we persist in doing becomes easier for us to do. Not that the nature of the thing itself has changed but our power to do it is increased." -- Ralph Waldo Emerson

"You are what you eat -- so don't be Fast, Easy, Cheap or Fake."

jellybeans01
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Post by jellybeans01 » Thu Jan 24, 2013 11:45 pm

the reason I don't say err on the side of more is that being on here for so long I have seen several people fallow the diet for some time and not really lose weight. When it comes down to it is not the three plates that makes you lose weight it is the idea that you are going to be eating less. Men and women are so different in this area. If you are a woman who is smaller, you probably won't need three full plates of food a day. I am 5"4 and I have 7 inch plates I eat from and that works for me personally. A larger guy could probably lose on three large plates. So if you need to lose weight to stay motivated I suggest less is actually more.

ironchef
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Post by ironchef » Fri Jan 25, 2013 1:27 am

jellybeans01 wrote:the reason I don't say err on the side of more is that being on here for so long I have seen several people fallow the diet for some time and not really lose weight.
Point well taken, but the poster was asking about the first week. In the first few weeks I'd be more concerned about the person getting the habit firmly in place and avoiding snacking.

I think each of us goes through a bit of an experiment, where we learn (by being hungry or over full) what we need to put on a plate to be satisfied, but still get hungry for our next meal. That individual learning curve can take a while.

Goodcooker
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Post by Goodcooker » Fri Jan 25, 2013 1:43 am

I am understanding now. Thanks. Tonight I filled my plate with a whole baked sweet potato, lean ground beef w/ mushrooms and peppers, and steamed green beans. Half way through I was feeling full. I didn't finish my plate. I am hoping lastnight was just one of those "holy crap I'm starving" nights. I ate at 5:30. It's now almost 9:00 and I am still full. No growling belly in bed tonight! :)
One of the things I learned the hard way was that it doesn't pay to get discouraged. Keeping busy and making optimism a way of life can restore your faith in yourself.
-Lucille Ball

heatherhikes
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Post by heatherhikes » Fri Jan 25, 2013 11:41 am

ironchef, ditto.
I have noticed, when there is a tendency that I don't get hungry an hour or so before meals, I know that I eat too much.
As ironchef said, it's a learning curve.
__________
H.

oolala53
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Post by oolala53 » Sun Jan 27, 2013 5:50 am

I started making it a practice pretty early on to have about half a plate of freggies.

I'd drink some milk before I'd try to go to sleep hungry.
Count plates, not calories. 11 years "during"
Age 69
BMI Jan/10-30.8
1/12-26.8 3/13-24.9 +/- 8-lb. 3 yrs
9/17 22.8 (flux) 3/18 22.2
2 yrs flux 6/20 22
1/21-23

There is no S better than Vanilla No S (mods now as a senior citizen)

leafy_greens
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Post by leafy_greens » Tue Jan 29, 2013 4:34 pm

But do you have to fill the rest of your plate with fruit? Can it be the footlong? Fries? Potatoes? Apples seem too "diety" to me.

milliem
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Post by milliem » Tue Jan 29, 2013 7:29 pm

You can fill your plate with whatever you like. General health guidance suggests half a plate of fruit/veg, quarter plate of carbs and quarter plate of protein if I remember correctly. However you are free to choose what you like! One of the benefits of NoS :) Ultimately though if you are packing your plate regularly with calorie dense foods, you won't lose weight. The idea is that as the habits become solid, you pay more attention to what's on your plates and tweak here and there to ensure that you aren't overeating.

Personally I don't think I've had problems losing lots of weight because of what's on my 3 plates on N days, it's because of wild S days and weekday failures. Different people may have had different experiences however.

leafy_greens
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Post by leafy_greens » Tue Jan 29, 2013 7:33 pm

But isn't the idea at first to not focus on losing weight but to fix your food issues? If you don't eat enough, you will be hungry between meals and dreaming about food. So I would say not worry about filling the plate with lightweight stuff until you have mastered eating 3 meals a day.

milliem
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Post by milliem » Tue Jan 29, 2013 8:05 pm

leafy_greens wrote:But isn't the idea at first to not focus on losing weight but to fix your food issues? If you don't eat enough, you will be hungry between meals and dreaming about food. So I would say not worry about filling the plate with lightweight stuff until you have mastered eating 3 meals a day.
Oh yes definitely, the focus should be on habits first, I'm thinking long term (and reasons why people don't necessarily lose weight at least at first). Ultimately though NoS wasn't developed to help people with food issues, it was developed as way of eating for Reinhard to lose weight without having to resort to unsustainable diets. A happy side effect however is that it's about sane choices and moderate habits, it can be very helpful in having a better relationship with food! I always worry about diets that see food as 'good' or 'bad' etc.

oolala53
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Post by oolala53 » Wed Jan 30, 2013 12:11 am

I know it should seem obvious that Reinhard set out to lose weight, but interestingly, I got the impression that what he was content to aim at eating moderately. Snacking constantly, taking seconds, eating sweets a lot- those are not moderate habits. He assumed he would lose if he cut out inordinate eating and he was right-- for him. He admits that he lucked out to some extent because he lost weight quite quickly. We don't know what would have happended if he had stuck to his plan but not lost, as some have done. We might be using a very different program!

He also implies that the kind of eating of "plenty" that might happen in the beginning is not meant to continue. Eventually people are meant to eat moderately for them. A short woman's moderate amount of food is not going to be the same as a tall man's. Reinhard never talks about purposely limiting his meals, but if his meals are typical of the ones he has described in the intelligent dietary defaults, they are quite modest. I don't think most men would be content with a bowl of optimized oatmeal for lunch very often. ?? He talks about having bread, cheese, and fruit for breakfast- certainly not eggs, bacon, toast and hash browns, though technically those are acceptable.

But No S cannot allow a person to defy the laws of chemistry and physics. It is possible to overeat consuming three plates of food a day.
Count plates, not calories. 11 years "during"
Age 69
BMI Jan/10-30.8
1/12-26.8 3/13-24.9 +/- 8-lb. 3 yrs
9/17 22.8 (flux) 3/18 22.2
2 yrs flux 6/20 22
1/21-23

There is no S better than Vanilla No S (mods now as a senior citizen)

ironchef
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Post by ironchef » Wed Jan 30, 2013 4:25 am

leafy_greens wrote:But isn't the idea at first to not focus on losing weight but to fix your food issues? If you don't eat enough, you will be hungry between meals and dreaming about food. So I would say not worry about filling the plate with lightweight stuff until you have mastered eating 3 meals a day.
Absolutely. I think impatience / trying to fix everything you don't like at once is one of the big reasons No-S doesn't work for some people.

The thing is, after half a year No-S ing, I often *feel* like some fruit and veg on my plate. Not because I have to, but because it is delicious and I enjoy it and I know I'll feel good after eating it. However, sometimes my dinner plate has something like white rice and red duck curry - yum! Between the duck, rice and the coconut cream, a very energy dense choice. However, I'm not making that choice at every meal, the next night maybe I'll have a chicken and veg soup. This isn't something I aimed at or made rules about, it seems to have happened naturally over the months No-S ing.

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BrightAngel
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Post by BrightAngel » Wed Jan 30, 2013 4:25 pm

oolala53 wrote: Eventually people are meant to eat moderately for them.
A short woman's moderate amount of food is not going to be the same as a tall man's.

Reinhard never talks about purposely limiting his meals,
but if his meals are typical of the ones he has described in the intelligent dietary defaults, they are quite modest.
I don't think most men would be content with a bowl of optimized oatmeal for lunch very often. ??
He talks about having bread, cheese, and fruit for breakfast- certainly not eggs, bacon, toast and hash browns,
though technically those are acceptable.

But No S cannot allow a person to defy the laws of chemistry and physics.
It is possible to overeat consuming three plates of food a day.
So very True. :D
BrightAngel - (Dr. Collins)
See: DietHobby. com

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