when you are saying wholemeal would that be whole wheat to me?  :).   You have to REALLY look at the calories. I try to use the whole wheat tortillas that are closer to 80-100 calories, and bread that's about 45 cal per slice.  You do really, really have to look closely though..

Yes, wholemeal is whole wheat in the States.

I have not seen any whole wheat tortialls in the UK that are less than 200 calories per tortilla.

The numbers you mentioned make more sense than just going by fist size. A fist size of granary bread is a lot of calories too!

I will have to rethink this bread thing again. It seems there is more to it than just a fist size. thanks.

Ditch the bread for better carb options like quinoa, sweet potato, steel cut oats, berries, apples and things like that.  

Aren't I helpful?  :)

Hi Jess,

Yes you are :o). I was opting for the easy way out because bread is "filling". When I have an apple or a sweet potato and a portion of protein, I just sit there counting the minutes to my next meal. But obviously, I am going to do that and add lettuce and salads to make the meal a bit more filling when I need it to be.

Typically what's filling is the fiber.  It leads me to believe you were eating too much with the bread and/or too little otherwise.  If you're hungry before 2 hours then you should take a closer look at your portions. 

Ruby,

in my opinion, it is always better to deal in grams of cho/pro/fat than it is in "portions", thats just too vague of a description for me.

I hear you Charlie! But I left the kitchen scales behind me since I started BFL to go by fist size and palm size instead.

Doing grams is not weighing food.  It's knowing that a you need 25 grams of protein and carb per meal (an example - not necessarily true for you) and then planning your meals around that.  Palm/fist is a good guide, but not good for all foods, like eggs, cottage cheese and others.  I know my red quinoa is 29 grams of carb per 1/4 cut.  That's more than I want.  I then make under 1 cup and divide into 4 portions.  

I know the protein/carb content roughly as I used to weight everything, check it out on calorie counters, etc.

Now i left all that behind me for the fist/palm size thing. I know I am getting enough protein. It's the carbs I'm worried about. In the meal samples on this site, a breakfast borrito here in Britain is 400 calories.

Dburg said in the States a tortilla is between 80-100 calories versus 200-300 here in the UK. So, many meal samples are just "lost in translation".

Sometimes I have a protein shake (32 grams of protein) and an apple for a "meal". That leaves me feeling absolutely famished.

I'm confused.  The protein and carb count has nothing to do with the physical weight of the food.  It does in that 3.5 oz of chicken is about 24g of carb, but what I'm talking about here does not require a scale.  

I know. The point i am making is that if someone asks you how much protein is in soy you will say per what or say x amount per x weight.

I get around that by not eating soy.  :)  I'm convinced it's poison.  

Ruby it is very simple. You can guess by using palm/fist methods. Because that is what you are doing when you use that. But at any point when you stall out, and you need to know that you are hitting your macros at the end of the day, knowing how many grams of protein, carbs and fat will be much more accurate that a guestimation.

So do your palm/fist method and dont worry about it, until you need to.

@ Jess LOL LOL

@ Charlie, you're right, otherwise i will over-complicate it for myself.