The MakeMeThinner Support Forum

[Dayna]

First, the spinach: I sometimes like to use spinach leaves for my salad greens, and in that case I measure out two cups. The other night I tried making a scramble by cooking up 2 eggs with my "salad" (2 cups spinach leaves, half cup of diced tomatoes and green pepper, very yummy). That got me to thinking. 2 cups of spinach cooks WAY down, and at that point is essentially a steamed vegetable, but isn't 1.5 cups worth. I don't think it's even 1 cup worth. So my (possibly very obsessive/compulsive about measuring) question is, if we're eating cooked spinach, should it be 1.5 cups worth? Or 2 cups of raw, cooked? Or is this a ridiculous question?

Now, the cheese: It says in the Quick Start we can substitute 1 cup low-fat cheese for our lean. So I went to the store, looking for low-fat cheese. I discovered that part-skim mozzarella (your basic stuff) has the same fat and calorie content as low-fat monteray jack. So does regular mozzarella count as low-fat cheese? I've got some sitting in the fridge, but I am NOT going to eat it until I get the official okay. Darn it, I'm sticking with this program, come heck or high water! But that mozzarella would taste soooo good sprinkled on my spinach salad . . .

- Dayna, the Slightly Paranoid

[iwontplaythefoolnemore]

I've actually thought about the spinach thing myself. I can't wait to hear the answer.

[falisamarie]

OK I am going to give you my opinon and if I am wrong I am sure someone will chime in and tell me. If the spinach is uncooked it is 2C however you can have 1 1/2C cooked. Not real sure what the difference is but that is what I have been told and what it says in the Quick Start Book so I would assume it to be that way and do it that way unless someone tells you differently (and if they do please let the rest of us know.)

Lisa

[DogMa]

Nancy's out of town but will probably chime in here when she can.

I have no idea, although I think Lisa's probably right. If not, it won't kill anyone to eat a little extra spinach; it's super low in calories AND carbs.

As for the cheese, I don't know. I've stayed away from even the low-fat stuff so far.

[Guest]

Dear ParaDaynaNoid ~

First of all: thank you for not eating it before you asked about it.

Second of all: I always measure my protein and vegetable portions to be sure that I am getting enough of them. Vegetables do cook up and so does the meat so that's why we weigh the meat AFTER it's cooked and the same with the vegetable portions. Some vegetables cook up more than others but since the vegetables listed on page 5 of our Quick Start booklet have been purposely selected I follow the nutritional guide exactly as it is written. They do have high water content; there will be a difference in the volume when it is cooked.

For consistent weight loss, follow the guide, eat only the 2 cups of raw spinach or the 1.5 cups of the cooked spinach (and yes, the 1.5 cups of cooked spinach started out to be a lot more than 2 cups of raw spinach).

Re: cheese If the nutritional analysis is the same, then it should be ok. I did not eat any cheese during phase 1, the weight loss program. I did eat a hard boiled egg once in a while.

Now that I am on maintenance, I do eat cheese sometimes - it is usually parmesan, feta or asiago. If I have bleu cheese, it is usually about a tablespoon o a salad and then I eat no dressing.

Since it says low fat cheese - I would go with low fat/no fat cottage cheese or the low-fat low cal Cabot cheese.

[Dayna]

Thanks very much for the info! Perhaps I'll just put all cheese - lowfat and otherwise - in the "not now but later" category. And next time I do a scramble, I think I'll add frozen spinach, instead of fresh. That should make it easier to measure out something that will be 1.5 cup-ish after cooking.

- Dayna

[DogMa]

OK, I still don't quite get this. Why would it be OK to eat so much more spinach if it's cooked than if it's raw? The nutritional content would be the same - actually, the vitamins and such would be HIGHER in the raw spinach. And the water content would be higher, which is a good thing.

Not that I'm planning to run out and eat 20 cups (or whatever) of raw spinach.

[BerkshireGrl]

Why would it be OK to eat so much more spinach if it's cooked than if it's raw? ... Not that I'm planning to run out and eat 20 cups (or whatever) of raw spinach.

I'm guessing just because most people don't WANT TO eat a gigantic bushel of raw spinach... but yeah, I think if you could calculate what X amount of raw spinach would cook down to 1.5 cups, sure, why not eat it?

....... musical interlude .......

All right, folks... because I am a big geek, I looked up raw/canned/boiled spinach on FitDay to answer this very question.

1 1/2 cups boiled spinach = 62 calories
= 9 1/2 cups raw spinach

1 1/2 cups canned spinach = 74 calories
= 11 cups raw spinach

In true geek fashion, I posit that boiling is less calories because the process leaches more content out of the spinach than high-pressure canning.

So... you might be having some, um, digestive excitement after that 9-11 cups of raw greens.

[DogMa]

Ha. Well, yeah, I wouldn't actually WANT to eat that much. But someone might want to eat more than 2 cups of it raw, and it seems like that would be perfectly OK.

And I almost went to look it up, actually, big geek that I am. But I decided I should probably do some REAL work instead. Ha.

[BerkshireGrl]

And I almost went to look it up, actually, big geek that I am. But I decided I should probably do some REAL work instead. Ha.

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