Ultra low carbs for a long time
 

I've been on Atkins for almost 150 days now. Over this period I've averaged about 14 grams of carbs per day. Initially, I had a hard time to stay below 20 grams, but over time I've developed a varied diet of gourmet food (see à la carte) — I have multiple experiences of working in restaurants in France. It’s now become difficult to plan meals with higher carbs. My question is simply, it there a risk to remain eating less than 20 grams of carbs per day?

I seem to recall reading that Atkins started people off on much lower carb intake than the current 20 for induction, but upped it to 20 because he found people didn't lose any faster on super-low carb intake (and I'd imagine it is harder to maintain in real life).

Atkins' book says 6 months to a year is fine. But, how's your energy level? Just curious because I stayed at about 14-16 for the first 3 months and felt so weak and low energy that I've decided to up my carbs to feel better. I'm curious if you've had that experience. I know what you mean about being scared to go higher. I seem to go from one extreme to the other (trying to get out of that!!)--either I'm too low-a lot of the time around 10 grams or I binge and go way, way over. Maybe one is causing the other??

Anyway, Dr A says it's fine, so if you feel okay, go for it. I guess one concern that may come up is that if you stay low for too long, it actually might stall you so if you do happen to stall, try boosting carbs for a few days and see if it gets you losing again...

my $.02 ;)

N.

I don't go that low all the time but I found that most of the food I eat only has trace amounts so there are many days when I'm well below 20.

Dr. Atkins did say something about "six months or more" in the book, but other comments he made both in the book and in interviews indicate you can stay on induction (below 20 carbs) as long as necessary. He also did an interview where he talk about the Eskimos and that study where two guys who lived with them for a while agreed to be studied while continuing an all meat diet (definately under 20 carbs a day) for year. I wish I could remember the study and the specifics, but bottom line was that Dr. Atkins said that people have done zero carb diets with no problems.

I think the big thing that concerns most people about the really low carbs is that it would mean one wasn't getting the nutitional value from the veggies. I think if you supplement, its fine. I've seen too many other successful, long term low carbers who have done well on very low carbs to believe otherwise :) Since you don't lose any better on zero carbs...why deprive yourself? If you don't feel deprived, then I can' t see where it matters.

My carbs only go up when I include the low carb junk food. I would rather stay on the low side of 20 personally :)


L

Great website. I just sent you an email.

Its fine. I really haven't had any reduction in energy — which is usually high — since i started Atkins.
So far, I haven't had a stall, yet. I measure my weight each day, but use the 7-day average to determine results. I lose about a pound or so per week on a steady basis.
I seem to remember that he had a couple of examples where people stayed in induction for up to 6 months, but not more.
I eat about a half a pound of veggies a day.

I only eat unprocessed food — no low carb products that aren't natural. I prefer to start with raw ingredients — vegetables and meat — and proceed from there. I cure and smoke my own bacon, chicken, and sausages. If I didn't live in a condo I'd probably grow my own veggies, but luckily, I have a wide selection of good produce close to my house.

I initially had problems planning meals because I wanted to be accurate in my calculations — vegetables cannot be measured accurately with a measuring cup. I wound up developing a web-based application to plan meals, develop recipes, and track my statistics. A couple of friends who are also doing low carb diets asked to use the software, so I set-up beta test access to it. If you'd like to try the software to help with your meal planning, click here. Then click on BETA TEST SIGN-UP to obtain a password. There's also about 70 of the low carb recipes I've developed on the site. I think the recipe are partly responsible for why my daily carb intake is so low. I'm able to maintain a varied and tasty diet using these recipes as a base.

there's an example in DANDR of a woman (he said she's a singer) who apparently stayed on Induction levels for 2 years.

N.

That's the one I remember in his book, too...where he was talking about the tortoise and the hare...or was it the turtle...lol. I just remember him talking about how slow she lost and her being on induction for two years and losing well over 100 lbs. and how if she had moved on to OWL she may have gotten frustrated and quit. Anyway...if you do a search on the net, you can find transcripts of Dr. Atkins wherein he speaks about these types of issues as well.


L

Bouland's web site
 

Bouland, I tried to private message you but you can't yet receive private messages (I guess you're new to the board). I tried to be a beta-tester for your site and it won't let me in because it says there is no such user. Suggestions?

Hi Lucky1:

To sign-up, go to http://www.hertzmann.com/lcc/ and click on BETA TEST SIGN-UP. This will pop-up a window with a form for you to fill out requesting a password. If your browser prevents new windows from opening, even when generated with an internal path, then you will not be able to sign-up. Sorry.