Hi, folks,

I signed up for ediets.com doing the Atkins plan, and I have to say - I absolutely love it.

My life is *way* too busy and chaotic to survive on my own with regard to meal planning, shopping, etc. Ediets offers a host of support boards, consultations with nutritionists and counselors, etc, but what I needed was STRUCTURE.

They have super meal plans for every carb level of Atkins, from Induction to maintenance. The plans can be customized to handle things like no dairy, no soy, etc, and there's a huge list of meals to choose from if you don't like something that pops up on your pre-generated plan. There are pull down lists for allthe meals and it actually feels like you're looking at a menu for a restaurant. Every recipe I tried was quick, easy and tasty.

The structure is three meals a day, plus a snack, but they advocate taking a thing or two from the 'meals' and using them for an extra snack or two during the day.

Cost is $5 a week, with optional, extra charges for a few things that I don't use (Vitamins, counseling tapes, a fitness plan, etc). To me, the cost is worth it for the meal plans and the shopping list alone.

A few downsides: they do try to sell you extra stuff. They work a lot off BMI, which is not a particularly helpful statistic. I emailed them about my high muscle mass (Just *how* do you expect me to get down to 128 (the bottom of my supposedly 'healthy' weight range) when my lean mass is already 130-135?) and they upped my portion sizes, but not my carbs.

They also offer ZONE plans for you Zoners out there.

I'm including a link, but if the mods don't like that, they can take it out.

Oh, and my first week of Induction? 8 lbs gone.

(EDIT: I put a sample meal plan day in my journal.)

Cheers,

Friday

http://www.ediets.com/dietprofile/d...m?ver=WEB030502

I checked out your journal and I like the menu ideas! Thanks for the link. Something to keep in mind when I run out of ideas for new recipes, although dh and the kids are picky. I am with you on BMI being a load of cr~p. My dad is very muscular, and to be in his "healthy" weight range he would have to have 0% bodyfat. As if that is healthy!

Jen

I posted one more meal-plan day in my jounal.

One other note: Their boards are pretty good. Ours are better.

Cheers,

Friday

Hiya!
My question...I've been on PP for several months (mmmsince Nov. I think) and I really like the idea of this...can you start at any level you like? I don't think I want to go down to 20 but MY difficulty lately is STICKING to the 30-40/day because I've been so successful. Also...does it accomodate those nights out where you aren't cooking your own food??

Fridayeyes,
I'm not an e-diets member but I get their newsletters and I'm addicted to the "Weight of the World" serial that runs on Thursdays. It's camp-tastic!

Ok. I was a little bit aprehensive, but just KNEW I had to try it because I was sooo intrigued and I love it! It has given me a whole new perspective on LC'ing and more importantly? It's keeping me HONEST. I think my stall of late has been due to the "oh..this iddy bit of XYZ won't hurt" The problem was that all those iddy-bitty's were adding up to no weight loss! I can already feel the difference! The good news for me is that I wasn't GAINING weight when I was cheating so much so I know that I'll be able to go off this and maintain..but not for another 30 pounds AT LEAST!

This sounds interesting. Since I am not loosing weight on Atkins after 3 months maybe this would help me. Could someone who is on it explain what ediets do for you that fitday or the boards does not. For your money, what tools are you getting that is assisting your weight loss?

Hi Cindy

I was originally on Protein Power and saw really good results but they dwindled down to a crawl. When I took a step back I realized that I was cheating like crazy. But it really isn't cheating when you do it every day, right? It's just not following your plan. So what ediets does for me is provide structure. It does the same thing this site does in terms of tracking success, there are journals to write in etc. As far as fitday goes, ediets will give you a nutrional breakdown for all their menu items...it's only a click away and you don't have to pull in all your ingredients because it's already there for you.

I still don't consider it a diet though. Because I'd allowed myself to use my hectic life (busy work AND buying our first home) as an excuse to not keep plugging away. With all the excitement going on around me, I needed help in planning my meals..that is where I was failing. I'm not quite using it like they intend...I printed out the menu for this week and as I eat a meal I cross it off, but I havent' eaten in order. FOr instance..yesterday, I ate Thursdays' Breakfast, Monday's Lunch, and added some Bacon to Friday's Snack for dinner. My goal is to eat off the menu but not necessarily in the order they prescribe. It's not a whole lot different from planning your menu for the week adn deciding that you'd rather have Friday's meal on Tuesday...except someone else came up with my menu plan.

If you haven't been successful on Atkins..I'm not sure what the ediets Atkins plan could do for you. Perhaps a different plan is what you should be looking for? But if you think that Atkins is right but you aren't using it correctly, then ediets might help then.

hope this disertation was helpful..

Giggle4fun,

Thanks for the info. I noticed that we both started off at the same weight but where you have lost 40 pounds ( Great Job!) , I have gained 10 ( on Summersizing).

Could you post a days worth of meals so I can see what you are eating and in what quantities. THis may assist me in correcting my eating habits.

Thanks,

Sure thing! Here's Monday so you can see what ediets spit out for me

Breakfast:
Ranch Style Eggs (3 eggsscrambled with 4 cherry tomatos sliced, 1 green onion)
4 slices Roast Beef (Hilshire Farms deli sliced) ~4c total

Lunch:
Mediterranean Chicken Salad (field greens, 3 cherry tomatos, ground flax seed {my addition}, roasted chicken thigh sliced {i buy the frozen chicken fajita and sub cuz it's easier}, italian dressing (didn't want to buy Atkins Sweet Dressing) ~ 7c total

Dinner:
Turkey Stir Fry with Bok Choy (Turkey breast, green bell pepper, fresh mushrooms, green onion, bok choy, hoisin sauce, teriyaki) ~ 10c total

Again...they recommended Atkins products for the hoisin sauce and teriyaki, but I just use a light teriyaki (3c/Tbls) and regular hoisin (8c/Tbls). But you don't eat the entire Tbls of either so I counted 1/3 because that is what I ate...1/3 of the pan.

That was what ediets sent...I forgot the snack though. And you can see that I'm over the 20c for Induction, but I've been doing this for 6 months nearly and I'm not holding myself to that...don't need to. But it's helping keep me under 30 which has been what I was aiming for until I hit 170.

The only drawback to ediets is they do recommend purchasing Atkins products ALOT. But I don't like the taste AND I don't need to be at true induction levels. So I substitute alot of the times or eliminate it from the menu if I can't substitute.

Hope this helps...

I just signed up for the EDiet program. I did their program like 4 years ago..but it was when I was doing a low-fat diet. I'm a lil confused w/ the site though. Does it automatically start you up in Induction?(cuz it says Day 1) Also..w/ the recipes...did you ever have to omit nuts since they are not allowed during induction???

I looked at it. I recieve thier email newsletter. There is really no way I can do the $5 a month though. I also don't do well with overly structured menus. The ones in the Atkins book have recipes that serve 6. I would have a fridge full of left overs

What I like about Akins is that it offers variety and I could customize it to my needs. The no dairy plan does sound interesting though. I wonder if they could do a candidia modified diet.