Can someone explain a couple of things for me please.

First, I keep reading round the boards that you need a MINIMUM number of calories per day. I haven't found anything about that in the books I've read. What's that one about?

Second is similar, I've read on the net that plain yogurt is OK but Atkins says it isn't. Can someone please clarify.

Blues-
I know that most people on the site try to use the guideline of 10 - 12x your weight to get your calorie count.
The yogurt, someone else is going to have to help you with...that I don't know. I stay away from it.
~Michelle

I had problems with the same yogurt question.

I decided to make my own with 35% cream it makes a very nice yogurt ,more like a mild sour cream.

The milk sugar"lactose" is suppose to be digested by the bacteria but for milk it would have to be very sour to lower the carb content.

Someone more knowledable might appear ,to help you.

On Atkins you don't worry about calories, but about content. Have you read his book? It's very informative and if you haven't read it fully, I highly recomend you do!

The main thing with Atkins is what you eat and where your carbs come from.

What have your measl been like? post a day or two menu and see what people think!

Rob......

The minimum number of calories is a universally accepted number that is meant to be equal to your basal metabolism needs. In other words, it's the number of calories required to keep your body running, without the addition or any exercise or activity. Eating any less than that amount (10-12X your weight) signals to your body to shift into starvation mode.

Yogurt is something some of us have added with the understanding that the yogurt would need to have two active cultures. The reason for this, is that the active cultures actually digest some of the carbs in the yogurt, leaving it with a lower net carb count than what the container shows. This applies only to "natural" yogurt. In other words, nothing that is flavoured or has added fruit etc.

I have used yogurt in the past as a way to boost my good carbs to support weight lifting and muscle building.

HTH
Marlaine