Hello everyone,
I am new in this forum, and I am very excited about being here,
i have 70 lbs to loose, right now I am 250.
i am doing Atkins since last year, and it was going well, but couple months during this period i stopped doing atkins and went to normal eating and gained weight very fast.
my question is, all those sugar free and low carb staff, can you really trust those, i mean are they really low carb?
also, about Atkins diet, is that something you will need to do all your life, or when you reach your goal weight is that possible to go back to fruits and etc., without gaining weight?

Welcome...As far as things go for me...I must leave the low carb candy, bread alone as it starts me going off Atkins...I do will on Atkins until a major problem hits me then head for the sweets...I wish I wasn't like this....Good Luck to you and as far as your wondering if you can have fruit, you can have berries, and melon after induction...1/2 cup...

There is a reason the 4th and final stage of Atkins is called Lifetime Maintenance. This is like any other way of eating, if you leave it behind you will not have long-lasting results.

You can read here for more info:
http://atkins.com/Archive/2001/12/15-62766.html

Welcome Maximus76,
Everyone is different and so how you treat your eatting habits depends on what you want and what works for you. For myself, I treat this as a wol (way of life). From your question, I think you have seen that if you switch back to old eatting habits you will gain weight.

As to the lc products, personally I think some of them can be very helpful when used in moderation. Some people have problems with them. You will have to see what works for you.

The part where you mentioned going back to fruit after reaching goal and going off of Atkins, double check your copy of DANDR. After induction, you move into OWL by climbing the carb ladder. Some of the earliest things you add back are berries. I am in OWL and eat fresh strawberries, melon, apple etc. and still lose weight. If you follow all of the stages of Atkins you can incorporate a lot of wonderful healthy whole foods into your food choices. Good luck.

Marie

I've found that Low Carb junk foods usually don't work for me at all... the ones with high alcohol sugars will stall me. I've learned to avoid any sort of candy, "health bar," etc.

Now I try to stick to high fiber, low alcohol LC junk foods... one of my favorites is the "Endulge" series of ice creams, especially the ones with 4-5 grams of fiber per serving. They're delicious and the fiber helps a lot with a low carb diet. I also like the "Carb Countdown" chocolate milk. These are both low in net carbs and high in nutritional value. They're basically the only "Frankenfoods" that I eat now and I'm happy with them. I get my chocolate/sweet fix without stalling myself while also benefitting from healthy nutrients.

I'd suggest finding one or two HEALTHY LC treats and sticking to those. I know it's difficult to break the addiction to candies, cookies, different sorts of ice cream, etc... but if you can find just a small handful of safe, tasty treats to stick to than you'll be a lot better off. Make sure they're actually healthy, though... there are a lot of healthy LC treats out there, you just have to read the labels and choose wisely.

thank you guys for replies,
i found them very helpful, you can't even imagine how happy i am that i found this forum, otherwise everyone else eating "normal" and only me on atkins in the family, and sometimes it's hard to not to have someone with same goals, but now i have you guys
i have another question, here in SF,CA we have Trader Joe's stores and sell organic healthy foods, and i found lots of seeds and nuts, and they seem pretty low n carbs, especially pumpkin seeds, and it makes perfect snack, and also sunflower seeds, what you guys think?
is it OK to snack on those seeds, instead on smth else?
if someone else is experiencing this.

PS: is anyone in CA?

Hi Maximus,

I would suggest you buy the book and read it......it's worth it and it's an easy read....LOTS of people here will second that. Also, one thing that I've changed this time (this attempt at losing weight) is my attitude. How long do I do LC??? Forever!! Unless you make this a change in your way of life, you'll gain it back again.

Atkins does NOT mean only meat, you get fruit, veggies, etc also. You can even up your carbs when you get close to maintenance.

Here is a thread I created for people new to this forum. Some things won't apply, because you've LC'd before, but read through it. I collected these thoughts from my own experiences and those on this forum.

Welcome to this board, it IS an awesome place!!

http://67.18.87.132/showthread.php?t=175492

"when you are done with Atkins"......

Never plan on being "done".

Atkins is NOT a diet. It is a lifestyle. You have read the book right?

In any event welcome aboard and good luck.

Maximus, if you follow the plan as directed and progress through all 3 stages of the plan on your way to your goal weight you will have a pretty good idea of what you can eat and still maintain your weight by the time you get to your goal. This also allows you to gradually introduce carbs and different foods back into your diet in a way that doesn't shock your system like going from induction to maintainence levels would.
If you stay on induction all the way to your goal weight, you won't have any idea how to maintain that loss once you get there.
Yes...modifying your eating habits is something that you will have to do for life if you want to keep the weight off for life but that doesn't mean you will be in weight loss mode forever. Eventually, you will reach your goal and then stay on maintainence, whatever that level will be, to maintain your losses.
To get an idea of what maintainence looks like for most people, you might want to consider reading "Atkins For Life". It's not nearly as restrictive as you might think.

Diets are for life. If you just stop doing what you did to lose the weight, you'll gain it all back.

Since the last phase is called LIFE MAINTENANCE I guess I'll be on it for life.

Follow the PLAN according to the book and you won't ever gain the weight back.

Atkins is a way of life. You will eat sensibly for the rest of your life ... eating "normally" is what got us overweight in the first place.

Have you read the book? You will move through phases of Atkins where you are allowed more foods like fruit, etc. If you haven't read the book ... you need to.

Some people don't like the "frankenfoods" -- the low-carb processed foods. I would steer clear of them at first ... maybe add them in eventually and if you quit losing I would cease eating them.

This is a way of life and I love it been low carb for 2 years and would not go back

i understand it is better than those other diets that make you starve all the time, but i miss fruit...
ok, here is question, since i am in low carb diet when i go to work out, i don't really have energy, and my trainer said that i need to consume carbs as well for energy, and here is the question:
in which was is it better to eat carbs?

The main thing that atkins teaches you is self control. All of a sudden, one day out of the blue, you can control your eating. It's insane, something perhaps you haven't been able to do all your life, and then POW.

So, once you do this for an extended period of time, going back to the old way of eating doesn't seem to be an option. You will forever be thinking "how many carbs and sugars are in that"?

I eat fruit, look and see which fruits are less in carbs. For example, for some reason a peach is less than an apple. I would rather eat a peach any day of the week anyhow.

Grapefruit has a lot of wonderful properites, vitamin c, and also is claimed by some to stimulate the metabolism. Rhubarb sweetened with splenda. I always liked raw rhubarb, used to take stalks out of the garden and chew on em.

Good Luck, keep up the good work.