Hi,

I have been on the Atkins diet and I hate it. I have lost about 15 pounds. The past few days I have had carbs with my dinner and it really has not made me gain wait and I am still in Ketosis. I was reading this forum and the CAD diet sounds interesting and I think that I would have more success on this diet than Atkins.

I plan on going to the bookstore tomorrow to buy the book but I have a few initial questions before I switch diets.

What is the difference with CAD & CALP and which book should I buy.

I have some eating issues. I cannot eat breakfast on workdays. I cannot eat that early. At lunch I have been eating a ceasar salad with grilled chicken and blue cheese dressing. Then I have dinner.
Is it a problem on this diet to have only one low carb meal (4) and one low carb snack? The I can have my rewards meal. Or do I replace the meal I am missing with beef jerkey or cheese or something,

Also as for the rewards meal. I hate vegetables. There is no way for me to eat them. Can I eat my salad as my vegetable part of the meal?

Also are these combos ok for the rewards meal:

chicken, french fries, salad
cheeseburger, salad, ice cream
steak, 1/2 potatoe, salad, piece of cake

I am sorry to be repetative but I just would like to know a few things before I go out and buy another book and make the change to this diet.

Also, say you are out to eat and you want some cake for dessert and you are having some french fries as well. That is obviosly more carbs, can you eat a larger portion of chicken and salad to make sure that you are balanced?

Thanks to anyone who helps me with these questions.

I am also working out. I go to curves 4-5 times a week.

Just went out and bought both books. Time to do some reading.

Nothing you have asked would interfere with you doing CAD or Calp. As far as the vegies go I am sure additional salad is ok since lettuce and most salad ingredients are considered complimentary vegetables. As you will read the secret of the Rm is to balance your foods and to complete it within one hour. I did Atkins for 1 day before switching to CAD. After 8 weeks I still love it and love the 17 pounds that I have lost. I also love the fact that for the first time in my life I have dessert every night!

Ok, I have read the book and I have officially switched to this plan. I think it will work out well for me. I went to Friendly's with my son last night and had a salad, a cheeseburger with some ketchup, no bread and an ice cream with hot fudge. I think that is pretty balanced. I really enjoyed it.

I still have a few questions that I thought someone with experience can answer for me.

The book says that it is ok to have 0 calorie diet soda. The diet soda never had any "bad" effect on me during Atkins, so I am planning on continuing to drink it on CAD. Can I only drink it with my meals? Or can I have it throughout the day when I want.

I have read on this board that CM's should be restricted to 8 grams and the snack to 4 grams. Can I comprose this of low-carb foods instead of food that are on the list? For instance, I never eat cooked breakfast, but sometimes I have a low-carb muffin. They have 6 grams of carbs. Can I have this for my breakfast meal?

Where did these #s come from, as I have not read that in the book.

Also, I like low-carb chocolate bars. They have under 4 carbs for a bar. Can I eat this for my snack or for my breakfast because it has low carbs. I know these could cause craings, but I am not worried about that because I will not eat because of them. I ate them when I was on Atkins.

Thank you.

As I understand the diet soda thing, because God knows I wanted loop holes on this subject, if the body perceives that it is sweet, it reacts as if to sugar, so....diet soda should be saved for meals only. I save mine for RM's except for a few times I have also enjoyed at CM.

I believe this is explained in the CALP book under the option about sweeteners and also Zule explained it to me once. I really did not want to hear this! But....

Deb

The book Ihave says that I can have diet soda that has no fruit juice added and to avoid it during CMs if it has more than 4 grams of carbs.

The book seems to warn you away from artificial sweetners because of the addiction it might cause you..crave more carbs. To me the book was saying if you crave more carbs you will eat more and gain weight. It doesn't say the sweetners will cause you to gain weight.

They do not effect me nor does sugar alcohole.
As for the low-carb snacks, I thought a chocolate bar that has no effect on me to cause more cravings would be ok for a snack because it only has 3 carbs.

The book has desert recipies that have ingrediants not on the CM list, but they are low carb.

What do you guys think of that?

As I understand it, the problem with the sweetners is that they cause an insulin surge, so if consumed outside the meals, the insulin remains elevated, thus defeating the purpose of CAD.

If you think this is not the case with you, I suppose you will just have to experiment and if you are not losing or become stalled, you will know what to tweak first.

We're all bit different and have to find our own way. I really wanted the soda and tried every rationale to fit it in. Finally had to decide it had to go, but it tastes sooooo wonderful at RM.

See what happens. Maybe it will work for you.
Deb