Well, I was *hoping* that Core would help me continue on the road to
weight loss after not being able to do so on Atkins.

It seems like a real healthy program. As I mentioned in my previous
note, where I summed up the different diets I've been on over the years,
it seems like sensible, low-glycemic with reality checks built in to
prevent abuse.

Week one I lost 1 kg (2.2 lb) which was a small loss for somebody at my
weight (119.5 kg to start = 263 lb), but I found the Core eating list
easy to abide by and continued for a 2nd week.

This morning, the end of week 2, I weighed in and found my weight had
creeped up to 119.0 kg, a weekly gain of 0.5 kg (1.1 lb). This was not a
daily fluctuation, because I'd been sneaking peeks all week and saw my
weight gradually creep up.

I think I know what the problem is, but unfortunately my thinking leads
me to conclude that Core doesn't provide enough weight-loss guidance for
me (while I can imagine it working better for others).

The problems, as I see them, are (1) some items on the Core list itself
and (2) the lack of specific limits.

In other words, everything that makes Core enticing to begin with. :)

Some examples:

(1) While potatoes, whole grain pasta and brown rice are limited to one
serving a day, other starchy and even rather high caloric vegetables and
fruits are not.

What does this mean for me? Well, I like broccoli. But I love corn. I
like green peppers. But I found I really like red kidney beans.

Since all of these vegetables and legumes are on equal Core footing
(unless I am misunderstanding how Core works), and since none of them
seem to particularly trigger hunger cravings in me, I've been eating the
vegies and legumes I love more and more and the lower calorie vegies
like broccoli, spinach, green beans and green pepper less and less. Corn
and legumes are just more satisfying to me.

But they are relatively much higher calorie too.

(2) Soba (buckwheat noodles and buckwheat flour) are on the Core list.
So if I was hungry in the afternoon I might have "zaru soba" from the
convenience store. These are just plain, cold buckwheat noodles. Almost
zero fat. But at 370 calories a serving it's higher calorie than, say,
having an apple instead. But I find the noodles more of a comfort food.
I don't overeat them. And just buy single servings. So I am definitely
just eating to "satisfaction" and not stuffing myself. But things like
that add up throughout the day.

(3) This is probably the worst offender, calorie wise - meat and
poultry. Just looking at the Core list, beef, chicken and fish are on
the same footing, as long as you select the lean cuts of meat with no
visible fat.

I like fish and chicken, but found myself eating more meat than fish at
dinner. I was always scrupulous about selecting cuts with no marbling or
extra fat, but even so meat has at least twice the calories of fish, on
average.

All these things have added up, obviously, to prevent me from losing
weight. And I didn't even mention bananas this time, because I avoided
them this week. But given a choice, I would much rather eat a banana
than an apple.

So I find myself here Friday morning wondering what to do now...

I see basically two choices (don't mention exercise - that is needed, I
know, but I want my eating choices alone to promote weight loss, not
hold me back) as far as dieting goes:

1. Try to create my own Core list, eliminating all the foods I like from
the current list. That is overstating it, I know. :)

It might be possible to modify the Core list in certain places only. For
example, I might decide that WW is ridiculous to include beef in Core
and just remove it, forcing me to eat mostly chicken and fish and use
flexpoints if I want beef. Maybe a dozen modifications like that would
help...

2. Go back to trying to count calories, despite my repeated lack of
success in doing this since going off my 700 day low-cal successful diet
in 2000.

Both are hard choices. I don't see any advantage in trying to journal
and count WW points over just counting calories. Both seem equivalent to me.

How are others doing on Core? Does anybody else experience the same
problems I do?

doug