Ok, I am new to the Atkins diet, on day 3 and have lost 3.5 pounds. I have two questions in reaction to some stuff I have read on here that is confusing to me. Let me preface this by saying that I have been a member of eDiets for a year, and on Monday chose to switch to Atkins due to slow results and also Crohns. For those of you who don't know, eDiets is a pay website that will give you food plans and exercise plans to help you reach your goal, and also have lots of support and challenges to keep you motivated. They let you pick the plan, and then give you a menu with many foods to choose from. So here are my questions:

1) If you do 20 carbs as is needed during induction, but 4 of your carbs come from something that is not on Atkins induction list, say carrots or a piece of chocolate, are you going to eliminate your ketosis by eating them, even if you are still at 20 carbs? Or is the point just to eliminate them so as not to cause cravings and binges? eDiets lets me chose my veggie, and doesn't exclude any of them, even though it is supposed to be an Atkins plan.,

2) I have read taht in the absence of insulin taht fat in fact only gives off 5 calories instead of 9. If ediets has me on 1500 calories, with 90 grams of fat, am I in fact 360 calories short due to reduced calories of the fat? I have suffered from starvation mode in the past on eDiets where my metabolism could not keep up with my activity level based on the calories I was eating, therefore I didn't lose weight. I don't want this to happen again, once this intitial spurt occurs, but then again I don't want to eat an extra 360 calories if I don't need them, ya know? Can any one help?

Thanks a bunch in advance
Nannie

) If you do 20 carbs as is needed during induction, but 4 of your carbs come from something that is not on Atkins induction list, say carrots or a piece of chocolate, are you going to eliminate your ketosis by eating them, even if you are still at 20 carbs? Or is the point just to eliminate them so as not to cause cravings and binges? eDiets lets me chose my veggie, and doesn't exclude any of them, even though it is supposed to be an Atkins plan.,

I have been on the Induction phase for around 3 months now...I am still new to Atkins, but I can help you a little. Yes, eating something like carrots of chocolate will take you out of ketosis. They contain sugar, and sugar is not allowed during Induction. it makes no difference if you are within the Induction carb count if you eat sugar, or grains or whatever you aren't supposed to eat. Eating even a bite will make you stop the ketosis phase. Plus, I'm pretty sure that chocolate is very high in carbs, is it not? Hmmm.

Cutting these items out will help eliminate cravings and keep you in ketosis. Every now and then you still may feel like having something sweet, but that's normal, in my opinion.

I definately reccomend buying Dr. Atkins' book, it is not expensive at all and it will detail what to eat and why you should eat it. It helped me like crazy. If you look at my stats, you'll see that I haven't updated. I don't own a scale, and so I weigh myself rarely, but I have lost quite a bit in the 3 or so months I have been on Induction. All my pants fall off me and have had to be sewn.

Also, you will not starve on this, and that is nice

I'm not sure about the rest of your questions but I'm sure someone else will have something more informed to say to answer your question. I hope I helped you a bit.

Hi,

I think that you might be trying to confuse two different ways of eating. My suggestion is to forget what you were previously doing, and stick with the LC plan ( assuming that is your preference) rather than try to relate it back to what you were previously doing.

The whole thing about LC eating is it completely changes the approach to nutrition.

On induction stick to only the foods specified - the purpose of induction is to switch your body over to using fat as fuel rather than carbs. Anything not on the list could jeopardise this metaolic change. Plus - having things not on the list will not help you get over the cravings.

On Atkins you do not need to count calories so I would not get concerned about them. It is true that in the absence of insulin (genreated by carbs) excess fuel cannot be stored as fat. So eat plenty of fat - it is your fuel and you will pass any not used.

If you haven't read the book it is very important to get hold of it and stick to the plan as outlined.

HTH
Lesley

[QUOTE]Originally posted by last15
[B]2) I have read taht in the absence of insulin taht fat in fact only gives off 5 calories instead of 9. If ediets has me on 1500 calories, with 90 grams of fat, am I in fact 360 calories short due to reduced calories of the fat? I have suffered from starvation mode in the past on eDiets where my metabolism could not keep up with my activity level based on the calories I was eating, therefore I didn't lose weight. I don't want this to happen again, once this intitial spurt occurs, but then again I don't want to eat an extra 360 calories if I don't need them, ya know? Can any one help?[QUOTE]

I'm also new to Atkins - 3 weeks. But I do know that 90 gm of fat on a 1500 calorie diet is not enough! Your calories from fat should be 65 to 70% from fat. To calculate the % of fat calories, multiply fat gms by 9 (calories/gm) and then divide by total calories. For example, 90 gm X 9 = 810. 810 / 1500 = 54%. Calories from carbs should be 5 to 10% (multiply by 4) and calories from protein should be 20 to 30% (multiply by 4).

The total calories you need to keep from starvation mode depends on your activity level. I think your body will tell you if it is not getting enough. You should never be hungry!!!

I agree that you should definately read the book. You must understand WHY the foods on induction are limited. Eating anything with sugar totally defeats the purpose of induction.

Hope this helped some. Good luck!!

Thanks for your quick replies. As far as trying to stick with the old program, Atkins now offers their program on eDiets, as a partnership between the two companies. I just follow it through eDiets because I don't have to come up with my own menus/meals. They have a questionairre that Atkins developed that you fill out, and they develop your menu based on how you answer those questions. It is still the Atkins program, just in a different forum. I was thinking that maybe it is allowing me to eat veggies that are different because I was only 14 pounds from goal weight and am very active when I started the program. As for the chocolate, it was a small chocolate truffle that was 2 grams of carbs, and I was considering it.

I know that you don't normally count calories in Atkins, but with any diet, if you take in too few calories your body will think that you are starving it and will slow down, regardless of the activity level or program. I just wanted to make sure that did not occur once this initial spurt of loss was over. Today, for instance, I have only taken in 1200 calories even though my basal metabolic rate is 1359 without any activty whatsoever. I am totally not hungry, but I know if I continue to go that low then it will slow the progress.

I do have the book, and have been reading it. It tells you what you have told me, but I didn't know the exact reason for avoiding carrots during induction-if it was just because of cravings, or because of something else. The chocolate makes sense, of course . I may have to get some more answers from eDiets, but I wanted to ask someone who has done it that could tell me their ideas on it!

Thanks again
Nannie

Hi,

I read something on one of these forums that has helped me a lot. I wish I could remember the poster so I could attribute it correctly.

Anyway, the post said something like "[you can't have *any* sugar during induction], not even one M&M."

This has helped me two ways: first, to keep my own focus. Second, to tell everyone else who says "how about just one bite?" I tell them I can't even have an M&M and then they get totally distracted from trying to make me cheat...

I think eDiets is cool, and have considered getting back on their plan ever since they picked up Atkins. But www.AtkinsCenter.com has a similar recipe/shopping list thingee. Tho eDiets version is admittedly better, just not free

In Dr. Atkins own words, from DANDR...just one bite of a food not allowed during Induction can be the "kiss of death".

Hi last15,

All carbs are not created equal. They impact your blood sugar in different ways depending on how easily digested they are. This is a concept called the glycemic index. Here's a great website to use as a starting point if you'd like to learn more.

The reason that carrots and chocolate(with sugar) are not allowed on Induction is that they are high GI (glycemic index) carbohydrates which are rapidly digested by the body, causing an undesirable insulin spike. I would qualify this however, with the thought that if your truffle had 2G carb, then I doubt there was too much sugar in it, so you're probably okay. If eating that truffle stopped you from ending up face-down in a plate of carbs then it was a good choice. Just be careful of the dreaded carb creep. Because you have so little left to lose, you will need to stay strictly to your plan.

Good Luck,

Dig