Day 4 on Induction, and today I went between lunch and dinner with absolutely NOTHING to eat!! No snacks...NOTHING!! I am so pleased!

Before Atkins I would be shaking, irritable and going insane after 2 hours to find something to eat, and find it NOW!!

I was hungry, but I could have still waited.

WOW....this is definately the right diet for me!

Natascha

Instead of making yourself wait, go ahead and snack. Eating many small meals through the day instead of 3 large meals helps to increase metabolism

The shaking and irritability before was probably due to low blood sugar. With a LC diet you control your blood sugar more so you don't get a rush, then an extream crash down. I am a much nicer person to live around and I no longer get sick if I don't eat something now that I'm LC

Isn´t soooo nice to be in control of food?
That is one fo the reasons why I really love this WOL!
Isiar

I have to plug in my 2 cents. Not everyone needs to snack. There are some people for whom snacking is a "trigger" and leads to overeating. If you are not hungry then it is ok to not eat. After years of eating for reasons other than hunger we must learn to listen to our body. If you are not hungry, don't eat!!! I totally know what you are going through because I feel that way too. I have lost 72 pounds and I feel fantastic. I eat when I am hungry and I don't eat otherwise and it is the greatest thing that has ever happened to me. There are days I eat a lot more than other days but I just eat only if I am hungry.

I think that pretty much sums it up. While I understand the posters happiness in not having all the jitters etc. one should not go 5.5 hours between meals....just mho.

I know what you mean! I used to be driven by cravings all day... I even found that if I ate breakfast I was hungrier all day than if I skipped it!! Of course, when "breakfast" means "doughnut" the problem is easy to see...NOW!

Although Atkins says you can snack, be aware that other plans like the Carbohydrate Addicts Diet don't allow it. They have one or two low-carb meals, then the reward meal a day. I never thought I could go without my snacks, but have been experimenting, and find that once I cut them down, some days OUT, I'm starting to lose again.

That's the beauty of it, we're now in control of food, not controlled BY it. We can design the program around how we feel and what our bodies need.

Liberating, isn't it?

only 4 days? Just weight er wait. . till the energy faerie hits you up side the head. I find myself doing housework and have to take myself out back to smack myself around. "Cleaning again? What have I told you about that!" <g> redawn

I was so shocked when the "energy faerie" arrived about a week into this WOL ... and she just insists on staying too!

Energy to spare and being in control over food - feels GREAT!

It's not that I purposely missed a snack....I was at my parents house...and there wasn't any suitable food...so I just waited.

The energy fairy....I can't wait!!! I have been so extremely fatigued since I had DS 2 years ago....I just can't seem to shake it.

I'm down 3.6 lbs since Friday! Yippee!! Yahoo!!!

Have a great one!
Natascha

congrats. I wouldn't recommend anything longer than 6 hours (except of course when sleeping). But hey, if you weren't hungry, then don't force food down or anything

Natascha:

Welcome to the other side. You are discovering what we all have discovered. My only advice is not to starve yourself. With Atkins, the #1 rule is if you are hungry, then eat. Never deprieve yourself.

The CAD book tells you not to eat if you are not hungry. For example they advocate not eating breakfast if you are not hungry. That goes against what you hear in WW and everywhere but I am one of the people who is never hungry at "breakfast" time but I force myself to eat because that is what we are "supposed" to do and then I find that the act of eating makes me hungry. Then I spend the rest of the day eating. Well no more! I took CAD advice and I don't eat until I am hungry. Maybe I am an oddball but when I truly wait until I am hungry to eat I am simply not hungry until around noon or so.

I don't eat in the morning till 10 or 10:30. I just don't feel hungry, and I eat less than when I first started. The bodies cycles are digestion noon til 8 pm, absorbtion 8pm -4am, elimination from 4am to 12 noon. As soon as you eat, you body turns off the elimination and digests. I believe that is part of what messes up the health of shift workers. You know, starting work at 5 am and eating breakfast at 4am. It would be better to eat a piece of fruit - comes with its own digestive enzymes, but isn't very LC for everyday, and wait til later to eat. My kids take the bus at 7:30, and I encourage them to eat last thing before they leave, or take it with them for later. There is a whole notion about not eating after 8 pm. It seems to be valid, but there is an added concept that I have read. A persons timing can be off by up to 2 hours. So, if you are not hungry in the morning till 10, you can probably have something to eat a bit later than 8.