I know you all have answered these questions many times before, but I feel I will feel better if I ask them myself and I can find all the answers I think I need.

1.Doing Atkins, Breakfast is Mcdonalds Sausage Egg and Cheese biscuit w/o the buns X 2
snack is half an avacado

Lunch is chicken/tuna on three cups of salad with ceasear Dressing and a mozzerala cheese stick
Dinner is meat and broccoli/cauliflower/lettuce what ever veggie I have in the fridge.

I have been doing this since Monday, today is day four.

Q: Am I in Ketosis yet? I have test strips but they show negative, I do however drink about a gallon a water a day( four Quart size nalgene bottles full)

I do feel lethargic after lunch, yesterday I had the sweats and got dizzy and very tired like I wanted to sleep, then I ate a Cheese stick and suffered through and I came out of it

Q: was that the start of Ketosis for me??

I am a Hunter and have lots of wild game in my fridge, Elk, Bison, Antelope,pheasant ,quail, and Venison. I eat almost exclusively wild game but do eat beef and pork plenty. IS this meat Ok for my dinner meal?

When will all the energy theses diets promise happen, right now I feel tired and have a dull headache often, I do take vitamins and lots of Vitamin C and try to get Potasium, although its hard to get Potassium.

OKm enough for now, sorry for the long post but I want this to work,
I think I have lost 2 pounds so far, but am concerned im NOT in Ketosis yet.

Thanks for your time.help and patience

Trout

I'm not an expert but I know during induction you should limit yourself to 4 ounces of cheese and only 3 cups of vegetables. All the meat you mentioned should be fine. I remember doing induction the first time and felt lousy almost like a flu for about 4 days and then felt better. Energy?? not sure if that ever happened but starting to lose weight was spirit lifting and that helped the energy level. good luck, hang in there.

1. The dizziness and headache are normal, as your body is getting rid of the last remaining sugar and is going through withdrawal. It will go away soon. In the meantime, pop some Tylenol and make sure you're eating something every few hours.

2. Your menu looks good — maybe a little higher in veggies than Dr. Atkins suggested, but no one ever got fat from eating too much lettuce. Looks like you are doing well.

3. I am a hunter too, and eat a lot of venison. All the game meats you listed are great for Atkins. The only problem I run across with venison is that it's so lean (you'll find you lose more weight when you eat more fat). I have learned to serve it with fattening sauces, fry it in olive oil/butter, and use other techniques to add fat.

4. About ketosis — as long as you're following the plan and not eating any hidden sugars (check the Ceaser dressing), I'll bet you're in ketosis. The water you're drinking will dilute your urine so it may not register strongly on the sticks. Do you notice a strong, nasty odor in your urine and your breath? That's how I know I'm in ketosis.

The ketostixs work different for different people, a lot don't rely on them. But one way to tell if you are in ketosis is if you have a funny taste in your mouth. I will say if you are following the plan it will work for you. Different people have different responses as to the quickness of it.

You might want to take measurements because I lose inches much quicker than pounds. Also maybe a pair of jeans that are too small, try them on weekly and see your progress that way.

It's also common when you start low carb to not feel real well for maybe a week to ten days or so, that is carb withdrawal. You may have a headache or just be kind of blah, no energy. The good thing is after that period you usually feel an energy burst.

You may want to track your calories in that you want to make sure you are eating enough. A good way to track that and your carbs is on a free site fitday.com. It can be a little cumbersome, but if you don't eat enough calories and fat it doesn't work as well.

As for your meat, sausages, bacons and lunch meats have a lot of salt and some have fillers. You have a lot of game meats, do you process those yourself or know the butcher who does? If so, then you can have them leave out the sugars and things you shouldn't have. Plus I think you will enjoy the taste of the meat itself more.

It sounds like you are drinking enough water, but are you taking supplements? You need potasium (if you are taking blood pressure medication ask your doctor about potasium supplements, some you shouldn't take them with), also magnesium is good.

Another good source of information for you is atkins.com. Sometimes it is easier to look at the website and search the information instead of searching for it in the book.

And always feel free to ask questions. This is a caring community of people who really encourage each other and rejoice in others successes.

You take care and keep us updated on your progress.

Debi

WOW! amazing,
you guys reply so fast ans so full of good info.

Wild game I do my self, mostly steaks and chops, I cut myself so no fillers and sugars.

Do eat lunch meat on salad so ill cut that out, thanks!

ill cut veggies, a little

I do take atenolol/clorthalidone 50/25 in the morning, (generic Tenoretic)so I dont know if I should take potasium or not, but you get potassium from veggies and Avacados and from meat too I think.

Also I eat two tums a day for calcium ( 2 G SUGAR) AND A a multi vitamin, but it does have Zinc and I read somewhere you dont want Zinc, dont know how to get a multi with out Zinc.

Thanks
Trout

Zinc is OK. It's Iron you don't really need more of, and you can buy vitamins for men or vitamins for senior citizens, and they won't have iron in them. I don't think you need to cut your veggies unless you're not losing weight. I also think a little lunch meat is OK, as long as you check the label and make sure you count any carbs in it.

Hi,

the symptoms you describe tell me you are in ketosis already!
I think you are doing this right and I would not cut any eggies out - in fact they will help you lose weight. Zinc is OK, Atkins says to avoid vitamin with iron but I take it anyway. The amounts are so small......

So - good luck, keep doing what you are doing and don't hesitate to come back here and ask more questions!!!

Alina

The only thing I would suggest, esp since you are a guy and larger, it to eat more. The veggies are great, but yes definetly get some more meat in thre. You need protien for lean muscle repair. Your body also uses it to repair vital organs and keep everything running. Atkins is a high fat diet, not high protien, but you still need to get adiquet protien to keep things running.

Be careful with the tuna. Studies have found that large predator fish such as tuna and sword fish can carry a risk of mercury poisoning. Only Two or Three times a week for the higher murcury fish is what they recomend. You might try Salmon too as it is a higher fat fish and works great on cesear salads.

My SO's family gave us some deer, elk, and antelope meat. I have a deer roast sitting in the fridge right now I mad eup last night. Game meat is not only good, but it is often free of the meny chemicals and antibiotics domesticated animals are exposed to. Sicne you do your own packaging you also are assured it is sugar and preservative free. Dig in

OK<

Last two questions for the day! yeah!

I enjoy about 8 ounces of real coffee in the Morning, is this going to be allright?

Secondly

I also enjoy about 2-4 oz. of Burben/wiskey water in the evening.
I know alcohol will be my energy source while you drink it, but after its gone should go back to Ketosis, is this correct/allright.

I am in no huge hurry to loose weight, Im patient, and only looking to dump 20 pds by spring.

would like to keep the night cap and the wake-up drink in the mroning?

I did read on Atkins Web page that distilled spirits (vodka,wiskey,gin etc.) have on "trace" amount of carbs, so Logic dictates it would not stop Ketosis or reverse the process,
AM I CORRECT??

thanks again!
trout

The coffee should be ok. Some people find they have to switch to decaf, that's your choice.

Ditch the alcohol though, at least during induction. Not only will your body burn the alcohol first, it will store anything eaten around that time as fat. Worse yet it will store the fat around your liver. It won't effect ketosis, because the alcohol is converted into keotenes and that is how it is used as energy.

For induction, I'd say give up the spirits, then after your 2 weeks, try reinterducing them again slowly.

http://atkins.com/Archive/2001/12/15-770965.html
The Carb Ladder (order to add foods back in)
Spirits is listed like 5 or 6 (I can't get the Atkins page to open atm)

trout,

with regards to alcohol, basically your body will burn the alcohol BEFORE it will burn the rest of the food - so yes it can kick you out of ketosis.

The longer standing people will probably be able to explain it better BUT I would suggest not having the night cap and see what the difference is over a few days.

BUT we are all individual so....

Basically if you are managing to lose weight at a level you are happy with WHILST having the night cap and coffee - then it would seem to work for you BUT if you aren't losing the weight then those two could be the things that are stopping you lose the weight - sorry not quite what you wanted to hear I know.

From my untrained eye though the rest of your menu sounds pretty much spot on! I am jealous of all that nice meat!!!

Good luck hope it goes well

Sarah