It seems the difference between 2-3 tbl spoons of milk and half and half is neglible. As long as I keep within the 20g daily max should I care about this?

Also Dr. Atkins equates 1 packet of sacharin to 1 g of carbs. Packet says less than 1g and fitday lists zero.

The idea behind induction is very much like a drug withdrawal programme and almost as hard. There are carbs in milk, albeit limited and some people do have some intolerances. So in this respect, semi-skimmed milk(2%) is better than skimmed(1%). Whole milk is better than semi skimmed. Cream is better than whole milk and of course best of all is none at all.

Atkins also recommends decaffeinated tea and coffee because the caffeine for some people has an inhibiting weight loss effect. Similarly using any sweetner at all can fool the body into producing insulin and it is the insulin spike that you are trying to avoid.

Bear in mind that this is only for two weeks and is designed to shock the system into coping without its |"sugar buzz" and kickstart the process of weight loss. After that you then add back in the cream or whole milk. I hate decaffeinated coffee but I put up with it for two weeks. I am lucky that it does not affect me anyway.

It is the same reason why cheese, which although a good protein and fat source, is limited on induction. There is some carbohydrate present and again the objective is to almost zero the carb intake in the opening fight against the flab. Zero is not really possible and some intake cannot really be avoided which is why the suggestion is to get under 20grams per day.

If you count up absolutely everything I am always surprised at how many are present. 20 grams turns out to be quite difficult to do. There is always filler in hamburgers and sausages, flour in sauces, sugar in the ketchup etc. etc.

Having said all that there is no such thing as "can't" in this new way of eating. It is the total carbohydrate that you are trying to limit and the amount that is right for you may not be the same as for me. It is not the particular food. For example one banana and you have blown all the 20 carbs. Two slices of toast and you have blown it in spades. This is what you will have to experiment with and most of all- read labels and know exactly what you are eating. You have already found http://www.fitday.com to check out particular foods. Definitely a good idea for other readers of this post.

Some people lose quite easily on 40-50 carbs. But experience has shown that if you limit yourself to 20 carbs that is going to work.

So it is not the end of the world if you whiten you hot drinks with milk. Think of it as a detox. Perhaps you will even develop a taste for black coffee

I do put milk in my coffee...induction or not. I figure if that little bit were all it took to keep me from losing weight, then something else big is wrong! Never has kept me from losing weight as far as I know. I use sweet n low and light whipping cream.

Why bother with milk when cream is better? I use whipping cream. My daily expresso has never tasted so good! (I didn't do coffee on induction)

Katie

Rustpot is absolutely correct. Induction is like a detox. You are really prepping your body to deal with food in a new way. By turning it into a fat burning machine.

Since I was a big into flavored coffeemate with my coffee, it was a bit of an adjustment. I use splenda and heavy whipping cream and really like it. I now go get flavored bulk coffees instead of adding flavor with the creamer.

I did drink coffee during induction, but was very careful with it.

Another opinion--

A friend and I switched from half-and-half to heavy cream after reading about it in a low-carb book. He lost, I gained--the extra calories in the heavy cream put me over my 10X limit. I decided the few extra carbs were a good trade-off. YMMV.

Skywind

...so I switched back to half-and-half, in case that wasn't clear

Sky

This is a good point. I am not counting calories yet, except to make sure I get enough. However, my mom does count calories along with carbs and also had to switch to half and half.