Hi Kelly & Wendy--

I have a confession to make...I've only been on the Fitday.com site once, and didn't spend a lot of time looking around. I'm taking part in a study that requires me to log all of my meal, meds, exercise, etc. data in a spreadsheet, and I use a huge paper book to look up my food values. I do know, however, that typical carbs from fats on the Atkins diet should fall between 60%-70%, but that during Induction the bulk of your carbs are supposed to come from veggies. (This is to distinguish Atkins from an early predescessor - Stillman - that basically consisted of ALL protein!)

The original Atkins formula called for NO calorie counting and, except for special circumstances (like figuring out a "stall" or tracking down a physical problem), calories really play no part in the Atkins formula. Fitday supplies the info, but you can safely ignore it most of the time.

As long as you get your salad ingredients and veggies from the list in DANDR, you should be off the hook in terms of exact weights and measures...you should be close to your 20 carb/day Induction limit, and have a reasonable amount of protein when you use fats to satisfy your hunger. The only other important limitation is on the amount of cheese in your diet (and I suspect that has more to do with keeping you regular than actual weight gain.) By deducting fiber carbs from Total Carbs, you are being encouraged to keep a reasonable quantity of fiber in your system.

I'd be the first to admit that my approach lacks the precise balance of the Fitday.com ratios, but I'm not sure that Atkins cares about exact ratios, as long as you are staying healthy and losing weight.