Hi all

I am soooooooo new to this diet and so far, all I've done is GAIN weight!!!

I've got lots of questions but the main ones right now are:

How much cheese is too much cheese?
How much bacon is too much bacon?
How much dressing is too much dressing?
How often can you eat throughout the day?
How late into the evening can you eat?
Can you eat Pork Rinds, I heard they have no carbs or sugar?

My basic menu for the day is this:

2-3 eggs in the morning with a slice of cheese on 1 or 2 of them (due to working in a FISH AND CHIP truck and this being the only morning fare I have time for, it works for me)

I MIGHT have a grilled wiener if I'm hungry before I leave to come home.

At home I'll either grab leftovers from dinner the night before, eg: chicken or steak, maybe put it on a salad with olive oil and vinegar dressing and that normally fills me up.

If I'm hungry I will grab a few pork rinds to snack on or a boiled egg (HATE olives)

Dinner is meat of some kind (yes, fried!!! coating made of heavy cream and egg to wet the chicken, dipped in crushed pork rinds with spices, yummy!!!) Actually, I prefer to bake it in the oven...lol
I will have grilled or sauteed veggies or a salad with cheese (cheddar, mozza, feta or swiss) bacon. That fills me!

I drink 6-8 bottles of water a day but don't snack much at night 'cause I'm not hungry.

I drink coffee though although I have cut the quantity in half or less on this, no sugar, no cream....no aspartame.....I've been sooooooooo good!!!

So why am I lethargic, tired, achy and feel like I am putting ON weight instead of taking it off? This is day 5 for me and I wanna quit already!

Please, if ANYONE can help, please do.....

Oh, I am horrible at 'counting' carbs, so if anyone can approximately figure out what that daily amount adds up to, please let me know, it might give me a basis to go on!!!

Sorry this is soooooo long winded but I have been looking for DAYS for a site that is comprehensive and where people know what they are talking about, thanks!!!!!!!!!

Hi Aurora, welcome!

I'm sorry you're feeling so cruddy.
Unfortunately, low carbing tends to that to us. The good news is that it doesn't last very long, and you'll probably be feeling a lot better in a few days.

Are you taking any supplement? A multivitamin is a good idea. The other things that will help you feel better are calcium, magnesium and potassium. Because we lose a lot of water when we low carb, we also lose some electrolytes, and that can produce the cruddiness.

Calcium and magnesium work best when taken together in a 2cal:1mag formula. You'll need 1000:500 a day, in divided dses, unless you are postmenopausal, in which case you'll need 1500:750.

400mg potassium daily will help you enormously. Can be taken as tablets (99mg); do take with food or they'll irritate your tum. Or you can use a potassium salt such as No Salt - just sprinkle on your food.

The next important thing (more important actually ) is to drink lots and lots of water. At least 2 litres/64 oz plus 250 mL/8 oz for every 25 pounds you need to lose.
Seems like a lot at first, doesn't it? But it really does help.

As for your specific questions, do you have Dr Atkins' New Diet Revolution? Because that's where he explains the nitty gritty of Induction.
Cheese: 3 to 4oz daily.
Bacon: as much as you like.
Dressing: as much as you like, as long as the carbs are counted.
You can eat as often as you like. No need to go hungry, in fact hunger is a BAD thing.
Some people don't eat late at night - others have no problem. there are no hard and fast rules.
Pork rinds: yes.

Cheers!

Rosebud

One more thing...

Do you know about www.fitday.com ? In case you don?t, it's a free site where you can keep track of your carbs, calories, fat etc.
This thread Fitday.com How To's gives some hints on making it a bit easier to use.

Two more things...
If you go to "Low Carb Tips" on the orange bar at the top of the screen, you'll find a lot of handy hints.

Happy low carbing!

Rosebud

It seems like your skipping lunch(not a good thing). Add lunch, maybe a salad with ranch dressing. I would cut the cheese down a little. What kinda veggies are you cooking for dinner?? Hopefully its low carb ones. Coffee causes stalls in some people so you might wanna switch to decaf. It seem you have High protein, not that much fat or veggies. Most of what you eat should come from Fat, so I would increase fat(olive oil, mayo, salad dressing, heavy cream, butter etc), decrease your cheese, increase good veggies(lettuce, cabbage, brocolli, califlower etc), switch to decaf coffee and add some heavy cream in it...and try to eat at least 3 meals a day, otherwise your body will think you're starving. Hope that helps.

You aren't the only one gaining. I have gained one pound and been on induction for over twenty days. I recommend the book (atkins) though. We can get through this! Also look for hidden carbs such as in coffee which has one carb per cup! And 3-4 oz of cheese a day, no more than 24 oz. of meat a day. only a few tbls. of cream. Cut out all aspartme type products this known to cause stalls in some. Plus only use three packets maximum of splenda and count each one as 1 carb. vegetables are 2 cups of low carb veggies and 1 cup higher carb veggies a day. Get a full 20 carbs in a day mostly from veggies. Go to atkinscenter.com for a full list of allowed foods until you get the atkins book. Good luck I hope to be losing with you soon!

wow, fast replies, thanks all!

OK, I'll cut cheese down, if not out altogether for the next few days.....I CAN'T STAND MAYO, so that's out....I'm not skipping lunch, I just grab some leftovers or a salad, but am always thinking that I'm overeating

I hate decaf but will try it and will also add the heavy cream (what's the best kind in Canada?) I have whipping cream which I have to say I have NEVER bought in my life and haven't the first clue what to do with it, isn't THAT funny!!! I just heard it was a good thing...lol

The only vitamin I am taking is super vita-vim which has 75 mg of magnesium, 150 mg of calcium and 25 mg of potassium in it, this apparently isn't enough huh?

My salads consist of approximately a cup of cut veggies like cucumber, celery, radish, peppers with either iceberg lettuce or spinach as a base.....approximately 2 cups of that. I split it up during the day between lunch and dinner. Maybe I should try ranch dressing???

When I cook the veggies for dinner I don't have a salad normally, I will stir fry asparagus, celery, bok choy, peppers, normally spiced with garlic and pepper 'cause I don't know yet what other ones I can use and I stir fry it in olive oil.....that ok? I heard broccoli is higher in carbs and frankly, I'm terrified of eating too many carbs right now so scared to use too much of it.

Thanks for the tip on fitday.com but I'm so bad at figuring out calories and counting carbs and fats (frankly they confuse the hell outta me) that I'm not sure I'm ready for that yet. Maybe soon.......

I have the New Diet Revolution book and I get a lot of information out of it but again, it's confusing to me, simple as pie to everyone else apparently!!!

Now, I never mentioned this before but I use NO sugar substitute whatsoever although I have a box of splenda sitting on my counter staring at me, again, no idea what to use it with.

OK, I'm starting to sound like a real dumb ass now, am gonna go for a while before I get really frustrated with myself and cry!!!

Thanks again, I will definately keep your tips in mind and check back tomorrow!

I suggest two books to you:

Dr. Atkins' New Diet Revolution
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/t...=books&n=507846

The Secret to Low Carb Success!: How to Get the Most Out of Your Low Carbohydrate Diet
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/t...=glance&s=books

Between these two, there are LOTS of answers to all kinds of questions.

Good luck.

Hi Aurora....
Sorry you aren't feeling so good yet, but it will come. I am only on this diet for 3 weeks yesterday and already 12 lbs My only problem is that the 12 lbs cam off in the firt 2 weeks and now I have has a week on no weight loss. I havne't done anything differently but no weight loss So, maybe someone can tell me if this is normal and what I might be doing wrong.
I'm pretty much on the same menu as you....I have eggs with cheese and bacon most mornings, meat and veggie leftovers for lunch and meat and veggie and salad for dinner....if I get hungry I eat a bar. Ths only thing that stands out in what you wrote that might be a problem in the hot dog....one of my co-workers lost something like 70 lbs on this diet and she warned me about hot dogs and lunch meats.....something about it containing fillers. Not sure but try to cut out the weiner and lets see what happens!
In the meanwhile if anyone has any suggestions about why I haven't lost in a week and if that is unusual or normal PLEASE let me know!
Thanks and take care,
Nina

Hi Aurora,
Give Fitday a try.....you don't have to enter the carbs & cals, they do that for you. You just enter what you eat. I hated journalling and all that stuff when I was in WW & Nutrisystem but I use fitday with ease. It's a big help to me. Another tool I use is http://www.nat.uiuc.edu/mainnat.html where you enter the ingredients for what you are cooking and it analyzes it for you.

Many people here swear by ratios of fat to total calories and also recommend eating 10-12 x your goal weight in calories. It is difficult to get that right without something like fitday.

You also have to religiously read labels no matter how sure you are it's lo carb, I almost bought a turkey tenderloin to grill yesterday, good thing I looked at the label! It had 4 carbs perserving as they had injected it with a marinade. Now how "homestyle turkey tenderloin" translates to sugar marinated I don't know..............but I'm glad I caught it.

Salad dressings.....I love blue cheese and that is less than 1g per serving. Oil & vinegar is great, but balsamic and rice & wine vinegars are higher carbs I think.

I take coral calcium and potassium in addition to a multivitamin, that helped me feel a bit better.

Good Luck!

You guys are WONDERFUL!!!

I woke up this morning feeling a little better, I looked at my scale (which I just bought yesterday, first time I've had on in my house in 20 years I think!!!) but I looked at it and walked away!!!

I finally found a use for the whipping cream......I went half an hour without a coffee and decided I couldn't do it so I had a cup of coffee with whipping cream and splenda, DANG, I didn't know how good that could taste!

Hubby is a sweetie and brings me a coffee almost every day from Tim Horton's or Starbucks, I told him that from now on if he does that it's gotta be decaf, I'm going to treat myself first thing in the morning with my regular cup as compared to a pot I used to drink, then go with water the rest of the day, which is easy to do!

I don't have a lot of time to look into fitday on weekends so I will do that Sunday or Monday night, thanks for the advice, that sounds like one that I could possibly follow!

As for reading labels......that's how I found out about the pork rinds.......imagine my surprise when I saw ZERO CARBS and NO added sugars on that, I was amazed, but even then, I was still skeptical as to whether or not I can eat them...lol I don't have a lot in the day but when I do have them, they take away that need to munch feeling. I'm a snacker and those are PERFECT for me as I've always loved them but stayed away because of the high fat content in them! I just don't know how much is too much? Or with those, is there any such thing?

I'm going to go out today and find some potassium, I think that will help tremendously, I need some more energy to start a VERY SMALL exercise program, I just don't have the energy for that yet!!! I've never been big into exercise but we bought an elliptical trainer that I think will help and when I feel comfortable enough I will start walking outdoors, we live in an area where I just don't like walking in so indoors will have to do for now.

Nina, I'm not sure but I think that is normal to plateau a bit but not sure when that happens, think it's different for everyone. Me personally, am staying away from the bars for now, too much temptation!!! I still don't understand the part about 19g carbs in the bar but on the front of it it says 2g carbs.....maybe I should try a diet that is much simpler to figure out, I dunno...lol

Not much more to add right now so I will check back later!

Keep up the great work everyone!!!!

Hi Aurora1968.

If you are looking for a low impact exercise, try Walk Away The Pounds by Leslie Sansone. You pop the tape in VCR and do the walking in one place in your home. I started with the 1 mile walk.
(and I'm still there LOL) She also has 2 mile and 3 mile walks, plus some others for abs and such.

Someone on this forum recommended it to me and it is fun.

Good luck and don't forget to measure. It helps when the scale won't move.

I've heard a lot about measuring, but I havne't done that yet.....maybe I'll get hubby to measure tonight.....

All I know right now is I AM GOING TO DO THIS!!!!!!!

Maybe in late summer I'll feel comfortable in a bathing suit and can take son to the waterslides and actually go down them.....hmmmmmmm, maybe next summer *LOL*

I'll take a look for that video, might find it here somewhere! Thanks!!!

Just a question off topic, if the location on your stats says, "United States", then why are you wondering what the best heavy cream in Canada is? Only wondering.....good luck on your LC journey!!!

Thanks for bringing that to my attention.....I didn't realize that it said that! I've changed it, and amazingly, all previous posts changed to Canada too!!! Cool!

Bedtime now.........will post again tomorrow!

If anyone has any more personal tips or clues, don't hesitate to gimme your two cents worth

Thanks!!!!

Two days has gone by and still no change

have tried adding more fat and calories to my diet but to no avail, just not sure what I'm doing wrong!!!!

Thanks for the help though, appreciate it