Hi,

I've been on Atkins Induction for 4 days now and it's going well (well, as well as it can having given up 85% of the foods I enjoy/like/am addicted to/etc.).

Working hard at sticking to 20 grams of carbs/day, but am confused about heavy cream.

The container says it has 0 grams of carbs, but the Atkins carb counter says there are .8 grams per 2 tablespoons. Considering I use between 2 and 4 tablespoons per cup of decaf (of which I usually have 2 or 3 per day), that's quite a large chunk of my daily allowance of carbs.

So, can someone explain what the real scoop is?

Thanks,

Joseph

The carb count is just over .4 for a Tablespoon of heavy cream. The manufacturers are allowed to round down... hence the 0 carbs you see on the container. Most of us count it as 1 carb and actually round up to be on the safe side.

You need to limit the cream to 2 -3 TBS a day. This is a legal food on Atkins - but is restricted (like Cheese). I have gotten into trouble with the cream because I love it so much and cannot seem to keep the portion control. Once I start having it ... I want MORE! LOL!

DoubleD,

Thanks very much for the clearly authoritative answer.

I was hoping the truth were otherwise, but it is what it is.

Guess I've got to learn to drink decaf with 1 tblspn of cream.

And, I've got to go back and adjust my spreadsheet of carb intake.

Ugh!

One more question, if you don't mind (and yes, I really did carefully read the entire book): I love cheese, such as Tomme de Savior, Drunken Cow, Boucheron. How would I definitively ID the carb count? Alternatively, how would you recommend estimating it? And, how restrictive should I be with these foods (during induction)?

Thanks very much!

We're all different -- I use heavy cream in my coffee everyday. I measure it and use 1/2 T per cup (I usually have about 3 cups every morning). I also use it ALOT in cooking as I experiment with all kinds of low-carb recipes. I think you can use it as long as you're aware of it every time you do! Don't expect that you can have 1/2 cup daily, but don't worry about a little more than the 2-3 T "allowed".....experiment! I also use 1/2 cream, 1/2 water in my coffee if I feel like I've been using too much

Use the hidden carb calculator to the right of this screen.....it's amazing how many are hiding in the foods that say they have none! We LOVE cheese. I calculate how much we can have each day by looking carefully at the ingredients and then double checking them on the calculator. My favorite in Brie.....I spread it on low-carb toasted bread and use it for salad croutons....

Thanks, LOL MOM,

I love both cream and cheese also. So, I'll try a TBLSPN of cream per cup of decaf and I suspect I'll get used it.

I'm in induction now (and plan to stay for a while longer) so I'm staying away from experimenting with cream for now (though, I'm looking forward to whipping something up (I know, not too funny)).

I've been using almost entirely non-processed foods, so I can keep good control of the carb intake. Of course, now that I've readjusted the accounting for the cream carbs, I'm at 23, 32, 21, and 24 grams per day for the past 4 days -- substantially higher than what I thought I was doing.

Fortunately, I guess the facts that somewhere in there is a bunch of muscle on an otherwise large frame combined with good exercise almost every day has led to losing a few pounds.

A good example of the hiding of carbs is soy sauce -- My wife made roast chicken last night with soy sauce, after examining the bottle and seeing the label read 0 grams of carbs. Well, the Atkins Counter says it has .9 per tblspn (and certainly isn't on the approved foods list). Needless to say, my frustration with not being able to eat her chicken and both our disappointment over her kind gesture failing just made this endeavor ever so slightly harder.

Hi Joseph...

Have you found Fitday.com? It is a free site where you can chart all your food and the nutrients are entered automatically. You can check food items for carbs etc quite easily. Rather than checking several sources, I have just been going with their values. You can also enter your own "custom" foods by entering the values on the packages.

You might find it helpful. Sorry I don't know how to put links here, but just try search fitday.com.

GOOD LUCK
Sue

Hi Sue,

I never heard of fitday. Just went to the site and will explore more.

I'm quite comfortable with Excel (I'm in the business), and much prefer to manage my own data files, so I'm more inclined to use my own tools.

The question of using multiple sources for carb content info is a tricky one, so it seems to me. There's definetly seemingly contradictory info out there. So, I suppose we have the following options:

1) Pick a source and swear by it
2) Use multiple sources and take the highest values
3) Use multiple sources and take an average value
4) Use multiple sources with sort of a reliability weighting

I think the bigger problem (at least for me at this point) is trying to discern packaged foods carb content. The package labels seem invariably misleading -- sometimes too high (as in not providing the fiber or alcohol sugar breakdown of carbs) and sometimes too low (heavy cream, for example).

Thanks very much for the info and the URL (it was, BTW, www.fitday.com).

please - I know I know all these people saying NO CHEATING- but there is no way i would have turned down the chicken dish- the sauce had only what 2 carbs for your serving? Give yourself the occassional permission to eat 2 carbs or I fear you set yourself up to just binge out due to total frustration. Much better to eat 2 carbs than give up big time. This is a lifetime deal- not a one night thing.

I understand your point, and it's a good one.

However, I am unable to discern which foods, among those not on the acceptable foods list, are dangerous and which simply add to my daily carb count.

I would have eaten the chicken, and skipped the Jello, if not for the concern that perhaps the soy sauce was more detrimental that the 2 carbs. (I also neglected to mention here that she also used a teaspoon of black bean sauce.)

It would be way too easy for me to start bending the rules/justifying my behavior/etc. -- for me, I think it's easier, for now, to follow the rules as best I can.

Before I binged on carbolite snack foods, my weight loss was pretty steady aside from the usual daily fluctuation. I have to say, I probably use about 1/4 cup of heavy cream a day for cooking (not a coffee drinker), and on some days when I have sweet tooth, I'd eat 1/2 - 1 cup of heavy cream (before whipping) with splenda and sometimes with cocoa powder. I haven't even been counting the carb count on cream even though I will start counting after reading this thread. But I just wanted to say that aside from making me feel sick and my blood pressure rising (some say it shouldn't, but it does me), I haven't had any problems with heavy cream and weight loss. In fact, after eating a big batch of cream, I usually see a loss the next day. It could be a YMMV thing though, so don't take my word for it.

Oh, and Joe, Excel probably works, but fitday is really easy to use, and it will give you a pretty accurate ballpark figure of the foods you're eating if you don't have the nutritional information (labels) off hand.

Yaseruzo~!,

I had just read a posting/reply of yours elsewhere and it made me think that maybe there's more than meets the eye with regards to the packaged low net carbs foods -- hence my new posting in the forum.

Interesting....So 1/2 to 1 cup of cream and your weight loss is NOT affected. I guess your overall carb count was low enough.

But, why would it make you feel sick and raise your blood pressure (and why would you continue to eat it)?

(Please don't misunderstand the question as a criticism -- it comes from a person who is admittedly horribly addicted to carbs and recently got extremely bad news from the MD, so I'm certainly in no position whatsoever to criticize anyone's eating behavior.)

Also, concerning labels, there is also the amount: "less than one gram". This means anywhere between .4 and .9 or so. In this situation, always round up to 1 gram, just to be safe.


Also, to get a feel for hidden carbs, do a web search for "Glycemic Index" and print out the list. If you are most worried about foods that have multiple ingredients, simply look up the top 3 ingredients on the list to better rate that product.

Finally, when purchasing products, always make sure you assess the total calories and carbs for the *entire* package. Then hold the package away from you and think to yourself realistically, how many servings is this for me? Then redo the calculations in your head if the grams and calories are to your liking.

Be wary of products that claim to be low in carbohydrates ( or you just think they are low in carbs) that have odd quantity for serving size. They are usually doing that to manipulate their nutritional info.

Just as an extreme ( bad) example: New, Low Carb Pretzels. Serving size: 1 mini pretzel. Calories: 12, Carbs: 2

Tom C

Hi Joe

Well, I really didn't know that the heavy cream was making me feel sick until I realized how high it was in saturated fat (probably psychological). So, after realizing that, I started checking my blood pressure throughout the day after eating cream, and it has consistently gone up all day long until I felt aweful before bedtime. So, that's why I turned to those "low net carb" snack foods to sooth my sweet tooth, and it was a huge mistake! Also, regarding the rest of my carb count, I always eat at least 20g of carbs after subtracting fiber, so sometimes my carb count is close to 30+ and even more if I eat cream because I wasn't counting the carbs in the cream. I'm thinking that eating 1/2 to 1 cup of cream in one sitting is a little (well, a lot) extreme, so I'm going to try to limit that. I like fitday because it helps me keep track of not only my calories and carbs, but a lot of other things like fat intake, vitamins, ect.

I just learned today (right here) about the rounding down of carb levels on labels -- not really shocked, just disappointed.

I got a spreadsheet of glycemic index, but now have to figure out what it all means.

Ironic how the people who are reading the labels for portion size/carb content are probably the people who are least likely to stop at a portion size of 1 mini-pretzel.

I've yet to explore fitday.com, but it does sound interesting.

Now I'm really weary of those packaged low net carbs products (even more so that before). Sort of counter-intuitive to think that a delicious chocalate, peanuty, chewy, make-you-feel-great candy bar could actually be consistent with losing weight.