Im new and am carb-freeing it w/atkins, can any1 help me??
 

First of all, i havent read the book yet, or got it, because i havent had time, ive been working, but this is what i ate today and i wanna know if im following it right so far, TODAY BEING THE FIRST DAY I STARTED THE ATKINS LOW CARB DIET, i know this phase im in now is called induction, but heres what i ate, for breakfast at 10 am i had 2 eggs with shredded cheese (carb free) and the eggs had 1g each egg, (they r egglands best) and then i had 5 strips of bacon (0 carbs) and then a glass of tea (0 carbs) with a dose of splenda to give it a lil' taste, and that had about less then 2 carbs, and i worked all day until just about 1 hr ago, and 30 min ago i ate a hamburger with chopped onions, with 5 strips of bacon again, all of that listed should be carb free, oh and on top my burger i had same mayo and some shredded cheese, and to drink i had a carb free tea w/ a lil splenda ....thats all i had all day today...am i doing it right???? i hope so, my stomach keeps growling so loudly, but i dont feel hungry, is anyone out there that can okay-it that im doing atkins right??? cuz i really wanna lose weight!!! please any1 can u help!
sincerely,
newbie me in florida

Sounds like your doing pretty good, but let me just give you a heads up. If you are hungry eat, don't try to keep your diet low fat or low calorie that will cause your body to go into starvation mode and you will loose weight much slower than if you keep your carbs at around 20g a day, Oh and please get some veggies in your diet that is where the majority of your carbs are going to come from and without them you will be in a world of hurt in the next couple of days (you'll be constipated). Other than that looks good but remember the veggies!!

Sorry.....no....you're not doing it right.

You've had no veggies all day?

You really need to buy a book and read it fron to back....but here's a link to Atkin's website that will help you get started: http://atkins.com

The rules of induction are there, as are the acceptable foods.

Your daily meals should be something like this:

Breakfast: Eggs, bacon and cheese, great (but cheese has 1 carb/serving and bacon usually have carbs from the processing)

Lunch: Salad of 1 - 1 1/2 cups romain, couple slices tomato, a few slices of cucumber, some meat...about 4 oz, and/or cheese, eggs, other protein source. Full fat salad dressing (lights are loaded with sugar).

Dinner: MEat, fish, poultry with a higher carb veggie and 1/2 salad.

Use real butter, mayo, salad dressings. Real all labels of repared foods. Check the carb counts AND the ingredients. Use real, full fat cheese too. Cheese should be limited to 3-4oz/day.

The first few days may be tough....especially if you ate a lot of carbs prior to starting. Keep with the plan for at least 14 days....you should notice feeling higher energy and less cravings after a few days to a week or so.

It's very important that you eat on this plan. YOu should plan at least 3 meals, (or several smaller meals) a day. Eat as much as you want of acceptable foods, eat until you're satisfied, not stuffed. Try to stay away from artificial sweeteners as much as possible....and for the first two weeks, try to avoid any of the meal replacement bars and candies. (I think the shakes are fine, since they rarely contain the malitol and other sugar alcohols that are found in the bars and candies.)

Get into the habit of reading labels. If you must buy something that has sugar in it, get the one with the lowest amount. Stay away from trans-fats of all kinds. Look for "hydrogenated" or "partially hydrogenated" on the ingredients label....those are transfats. Try to eat as many natural and unprocessed foods as possible.

Drink lots of water...especially in the first few days. Take at least a multivitamin (with a meal) daily.

Hope this helps. And welcome to LCing and the forum!

If you look at the actual carbs on the bacon package you will see that they have anywhere from 0.4-7.0 carbs per 3 slices. So eating 10 slices a day could be netting you as much as 22 carbs. You need to avoid the "maple" bacon or other sweetened bacons (a lot have sugar in them).

Splenda is not carb-free either - you should be counting 1 carb per packet.

Onions have 5 carbs per onion - probably had at least a carb on your burger.

I wouldn't start this diet without reading the book. Someone wrote several hundred pages on how to do this right - it's dangerous to get into this without more information than you have.

Check out this website since you don't have the book to help you with the rules of induction:
http://atkins.com/Archive/2001/12/15-325810.html


THis site is for the list of induction foods.
http://atkins.com/Archive/2001/12/15-464579.html

It is really helpful though to read the book so you can understand how and why Atkins work. It really wasn't developed to be a quick fix. It is supposed to help you to learn how to eat better for life. There are 4 really important steps to that. Induction is ONLY THE FIRST Phase. So don't get hung up on the rapid speed of weight loss you get with the first phase. It is really only a phase to help get you started and to break old addictions to foods that you may have. OWL is a slower and healthier way to lose the weight so I aways suggest people get started with it after the two weeks. Don't be afraid of carbs, they aren't evil things. It's just a point of eating the RIGHT carbs and introducing them back slowly enough into your diet. Best of luck with Atkins. Follow the 4 steps and you will do great!

Jenn

Everyone is giving you great advice. You need to read and understand how to do this diet and keep it as an eating lifestyle, not a diet. You need to add veggies and you should not go longer that 3-4 hours between meals. Don't skip meals.

Black57

Research
 

I too never read the book but I did ALOT of research online and will admit that I spent my first 4 days doing it wrong because I had such faith in the "low calorie" condiments that I had always used while dieting. (Cocktail sauce, bbq sauce, ketchup, etc...WOW, what a mistake). One I got that figured out, I've done really well. I have to agree with the others though about veggies...and also didnt notice whether or not your drinking water...you need to drink lots of it. I have a hard time getting enough water unless I regulate myself, so my little trick is that I cant have ANTHING to eat OR drink unless I first drink a glass of water. Since I basically graze all day on about 6-7 "mini meals" (I've found that my appetite doesnt require or want a big meal anymore) ... I get plenty of water. GOOD LUCK!!!

Veggies veggies veggies veggies!!!!!!!!


So yeah, I think the 3 FULL cups of (mostly salad) veggies a day are very very important. You need the fiber (if you ever want to poop again) and you need the veggies.

Go easy on the tea-- you're not supposed to have any caffeine. I cheat with a small cup of coffee a day (you'd have to pry it out of my cold dead hand), but I do it knowing it's wrong. So if you're going to do it, know that it's wrong. ;)

Go easy on cheese (no more than 3-4 ounces a day), and go easy on bacon (nitrates), and go easy on splenda (1 or 2 packets a day are ok, but count them as one carb each, and keep in mind that they stall some folks).

If you haven't been able to get the book yet, go to www.atkins.com
It's the official website, and I suspect that most of the book is available online in the articles section. READ the rules of induction--- it's a whole lot more complicated than just limiting it to 20 grams a day!

Good luck! And eat your veggies! Salad is your friend!

:read2: Read the book! Drink your water! Missy

Be careful of the bacon! Eat real meats, avoid the nitrates in processed meat as much as possible. And as was said above, eat your veggies - they are so important!

I agree. Bacon can be really dangerous, not to mention giving you a wicked head ache. Water is also really important. When I was in induction, I drank 4 to 5 liters a day. It really helped with the sugar withdrawl.
PS if you don't add water and veggies you will soon discover the "irregularity" problems that come with not enough fibre and water. Remeber this a low-carb lifestyle not a no carb diet.

Caffeine is NOT bad if you only have a few cups/day. The one exception being if you have heart irregularities.

Caffeine before working out gives you a metabolic boost (http://forum.lowcarber.org/showthre...hlight=caffeine).

And now they feel caffeine in "moderate" amounts, defined as 5 cups/day, is heart healthy. Dr Atkins was against caffeine, but in this case I think he was wrong. (Although I do think 5 cups/day is more than "moderate")

Also....I must caution. It is unusual, but too much water can be dangerous too. Especially if you don't get enough sodium and potassium in your diet. Most plans recomend taking potassium daily, but I'd strongly caution against taking more than 1-2/day without MD advice, since too much potassium (or too little) can cause heart rhythm irregularities (which can be dangerous).

(Sorry the nurse in me come out from time to time to give short lectures :D )

Just to explain my water intake, I had a schedule that meant I was actively exercising/walking all day, which meant i needed a lot of water. Plus, my doctor told me that at my highest weight, I had to drink more water than a smaller person. Now, I drink 8-12 glasses a day depending on how much activity I have to do.

One thing everyone failed to mention is that you may feel lousy the first week or so. THIS IS PERFECTLY NORMAL. It's the side effects of withdrawing from all the sugar in our modern low-fat diets. Hang in there, drink your water and thie WOE will work for you.

Also please be aware that the less weight you have to lose, the slower the process might be. I see by your profile that your looking at losing 40 lbs, so it may take a little londer then someone trying to lose 100 lbs.

You will do fine, dont lose your cool, just the weight. Eat lots of salads and meat/chicken/fish. You will find lots of helpful info and friends here.