Hi- I'm new to Atkins (day 4 of induction, and lost 3 lbs so far, plus 8 lbs on a looser low carb plan modelled after Jonny Bowden's). I have a few basic questions:
1. Can eating too much meat stall me? Last night I managed to eat 3/4 lb of steak (free range, so low saturated fat) with no problem, but I can't believe that's ok!
2. Should I limit butter to a few tablespoons a day, like I'm supposed to limit cream? If not, why not, since they seem like essentially the same thing?
3. And is it really ok for me to eat lots of olive oil? I know it's good for me, I just seem to be able to consume an awful lot of it at one sitting (when you follow a basic mayonnaise recipe using a cup of olive oil, an egg yolk, 2 tablespoons of lemon juice, half a roast red pepper, and a few garlic cloves, you end up with an amazingly good sauce with just 3 or 4 carbs to the cup.)
4. And if I eat cheese like Brie or Gruyere , which only have 0.1 g carbs/oz, can I eat more than a few ozs a day? Or will that stall me?

I'm nervous about gaining weight, even though I'm in ketosis and loosing weight. It's hard to believe all this fat is ok! Do any of you recommend limiting protein or fat sources to a certain amount each day?

Thanks for any advice!

The only thing you should be limiting is your carbohydrates.

Have you read the book yet? It would help you out lots. You can borrow a copy from the local library I'm sure.

Thanks for the reply--I have read the book, and have it with me, but hearing from others about their experiences helps. Would anyone be willing to let me know how much meat and butter they tend to eat, on average? Thanks!

Use Fitday.com for tracking ratios.


Your ratios should be:
60-70 percent FAT
25-30 percent Protein
5 percent Carbs.

This is for induction. After that the carb percentage comes up a bit and the fat and protein adjusted.

As long as you're eating the 60-70% fat, you'll be doing great! Many people follow the guideline of eating 10-12x your bodyweight in calories each day. You want to eat on the high end of that or more if you're exercising. Eating too few calories can cause you to stall as easily as eating too many.

Good luck!

For calories are you supposed to eat 10-12X your body weight or your Goal weight?

thanks

your current body weight

Actually it is for desired weight according to the ACSM.

Take your goal weight x 10-15 (depending on how active you are) - 20 percent of daily maintenance calories.

For instance:

I weight 145.

145 x 14 = 2030
2030 x .20 = 406
2030 - 406 = 1624

So if I wanted to maintain my current weight I should eat around 2000 calories. If I want to lose I should be around 1624.

Hope that helped.

Hi funky!

Butter and cream are not the same thing. Butter is nearly pure fat and so far as I know you can eat as much as you like on Atkins. Cream still has lactose (milk sugar) in it so it has to be limited.

When I lived in Spain they all said: 'Olive oil doesn't make you fat' I scoffed at the time, now I realise it was true. Here they say: 'Salo (cured pig fat) doesn't make you fat' and now I believe them.

It takes a while to shake off the low fat way of thinking we have all been brainwashed into - but it comes! The Spanish and Belarusians, who eat loads of olive oil and pig fat respectively, are not generally overweight by the way!

I should think you could eat more Brie than cheddar. Brie has the lowest carb count of any cheese if I remember correctly.

Good luck with this way of eating. And as the others said, it's the carbs you have to watch, they have a habit of creeping up on you.

Regards,

Robert

I eat previously unimagined amounts of mayonaisse each day. It really does work!

kiwi

It really is an amazing to relearn about food.

Once you are in ketosis you appetite will definitely decrease but don't worry about anything but the carbs. When you are hungry eat! It is the very best thing about this WOE.

I found that I need to eat more to lose. It's still flabbergasts me after all the years of denying myself at every... EVERY meal!

Would anyone be willing to let me know how much meat and butter they tend to eat, on average? Thanks!

I started this last Tuesday, so today is my 5th day. Every day so far, I've had scrambled eggs with cheese cooked in about 2 tablespoons of butter. A couple of mornings, I added 2-3 slices of bacon or link sausage. For lunch, I've had a salad with vinegrette(sp) and a cheeseburger w/o the bun. I've had a fatty steak (rib-eye is my favorite) almost every night, along with a vegetable or salad. Tonight I'm going to added mushrooms sauteed in butter.

As of this morning, I lost 10 pounds.

This is not typical, I guess, and I'm trying not to undereat or not eat enough greens. If I'd eaten this last week before starting Atkins, I would've gained pounds!!!!!

Anyway, hope this helps. I haven't limited my meat, cheese, or butter, and have lost a ton of weight already (I'm sure mostly water weight.)

Meat with veggies or salad is the main thing I eat. And I eat as much as I want, which is maybe 50 percent more or double what I ate when I ate "normally".

Butter and olive oil are the two main fats in my diet. I fry with either depending on the taste I want and I make French salad dressing with olive oil. Also (when I remember) I take a dessertspoon of flax oil a day.

I have lost 44lbs so far which has made me comfortable with my present weight although I would like to lose another 10 kilos (22lbs).

Good luck. Your menu looks fine. Maybe you could try to vary it a little or you're going to get bored.

Robert