If I eat less than 20 carbs during Induction...

[pookeylou]

Why does it matter that I avoid certain foods on induction?

This is my first week on Induction. I am in ketosis. Got there very fast. I have been eating less than 20 carbs a day. So far I have lost 5 lbs. I feel pretty good.

But...I have been drinking Hood's low carb orange juice, (cant have fruit on induction). I have been eating almonds. I ate only salmon and chicken this week as protein and had Atkins cereal for breakfast. I've been drinking green tea everyday sweetened with Splenda. I have had green beans and salad as vegetables, but very little vegetables. Mostly chicken salad, baked salmon, cheeses, tea, cereal, jice and almonds.

I am losing weight. Is it really a bad thing that I am not sticking to the letter on the foods to avoid.

I am one of those people who can truly eat the same thing every day. I want to stay on induction until I am near my goal, which is over 70 pounds away. I feel like I could eat like I am eating for the rest of my life because I am getting the taste of fruit I love AND I am staying under 20 carbs.

Am I really messing myself up by not sticking to the "Induction rules"?

[MAMZELLE]

I'll offer my opinion before the nutritionist gets here, having done atkins for decades. Not commenting on what you're specifically eating, [because what you ARE eating and drinking is the equivelant in quality ..though not quantity...of probably AS much as 75% wrong lol, and nowhere even NEAR Atkins' induction and throwing you all off], so I will say that you're not actually 'doing' Atkins induction at all, and you're not setting up your system and cleansing it for the plan.... but if it works for you, and you find you're not hungry, have no cravings and losing weight, great!

But keep in mind that the first, intitial weight always comes off on ANY diet [often mostly water OR also just changing foods and a different way of eating may first show a loss before your body acclimates itself to it] so wait and see if it continues, and if it stops, and you find you do get hungry too often, have cravings, etc..... don't claim that "ATKINS" doesn't work [as a diehard follower and loyal advocate lol] because too many people don't do Atkins the way it's
supposed to be done and then claim that it doesn't work and it's the Atkins diet that gets the bad reputation, when it wasn't even Atkins in the first place [especially the ORIGINAL 72, without all the store bought products and the whole craze that's going on now with them].

The point of induction is really to set your body up and get it into the mode for what atkins diet does. It's only a mere two weeks out of our lives so really worth it.

But if you've found something you can live and find it works in the LONG RUN [the most important factor].... then that's great for YOU, if not, you can always start over with the pure induction, then add those things later down the road in weekly increments of 5 gms.... I hope it keeps working! I'm like you and have no problem eating the same things, but I really stick to the 'plan' and still love what I eat.

Also, Splenda and ALL powdered packets are 96% maltodextrin and/or dextrose and only 4% actual sweetner [sucralose] which in many spike sugar, so it's better to use tablet or liquid forms of any sweetners [except Stevia] without those chemicals and addatives, unless your results seem to work fine on you, and you have no sugar imbalances.

[pookeylou]

So why am I in ketosis if I have not truly cut my carbs? Do you go into ketosis from just going on a "diet"?

[MAMZELLE]

There are MANY different forms of low carb diets that will also put you in ketosis. It could also be that you have lowered your carbs so drastically that compared to the way you used to eat, is what your body is reacting to.... much LOWER carbs in general. The nutritionist could answer that more technically. Like I said, if you find this is still working for you down the line, then you've found even one MORE lol Now all you have to do is find a name for it :-)

[pookeylou]

I hear ya...just dont call it "Atkins Induction".

Thanks for responding.

[MAMZELLE]

another way of explaining it, I guess would be, that let's say you ate a spoonful of ice cream and it only had 20 carbs [of couse I don't know the count and don't even REMEMBER ice cream at all, one of my favorite things :-( But that wouldn't be doing your body any good even if you were under 20 grams, because of the carbs & sugar, but you'd
probably still be in keytosis.... also it's the distance the carb grams will take you, so it's better to get them from vegs [which I see you don't like] but also salad. They're complex carbs and still keep your proper body chemistry and sugar balance low, which is the most important thing. I'm not a medical person, so just trying to put into laymen's
understandable terms. It's also WHAT you eat and the kind of carbs.... not just the carb COUNT.

[pookeylou]

I do understand that! Thanks.

I actually love vegetables very much. But thinking I was doing "induction", so I was limiting myself for a while.

I could not do without the taste of fruit though, so I thought I was staying under 20 carbs with the low carb juices and having my fruit desire too!

Now where have I heard that rule..."you cant have your cake..." You know what I mean.

I am already re-reading some things on Atkins. But if there is a diet out there that is allowing me to stay on the low end of the carb scale, have my fruit, still allow me to lose weight and then gradually increase the amount of carbs to maintain my weight as I get closer to goal...I would love to find it.

Thanks for your insight on this.

[Susiecarbojunkie]

The Scarsdale diet is very lowcarb and allows fruit every day.
I did this for a few weeks this summer and it put me into ketosis. I found it difficult in the 3rd week because you cycle the diet--2 weeks of specific menus and then a week (or 2--I don't recall) of a more maintanence type eating. The idea there was to prevent the body from stalling at that point.

Anyway--I just never went back to it--my intention was to alternate it with Atkins--so that I could get in fruit and stay in ketosis

There were several of us this summer trying this--you could do a search--I'm sure there are more. The set menu can get a bit dull--but there is a website somewerhe referenced in the scarsdale threads--it has recipes on it , etc.
It had a lot of potential--I just didn't stick with it =-(

[MAMZELLE]

On Suzanne Summers you can eat fruit, but just keep it an hour or 2 away from meals on each side of them [think one hour before or after, and 2 hours before and after the next, not sure of the pecking order] but you also have to eat ALL your carbs together with no fats or protein and all your pro/fats [her term for proteins & fats] together and don't mix, except variables of some vegetables can be eaten with both, [ive never done it because I don't do well on carbs at ALL and now with high sugar especially. But I did find it fascinating and have all her books, before my sugar situation hit me. She says you only have to do the all carb meals twice a week if you prefer not to have too many of those meals..... but the point is, you can have your FRUITS. sommersize.com? Not sure of the URL. Forgot how to even spell her name lol.... but play with it in MSN search or Google. Easy to find.

I don't miss fruits, most of them too tart for me, and I only love all kinds of melons, don't miss any others [of the 'traditional' fruits.... but I miss tomatoes which I do deny myself because of the high sugar content but DO have avacados, both of which actually are fruits] so Atkins is easy for me. IF Jell-o didn't have all that maltodextrin I'd still be eating it as something refreshing and fruity tasting, but maybe the maltodextrin doesn't affect you, but it does spike sugar as all POWDERED preparations and mixes have as preservatives. But on atkins maybe you can tolerate and have the fruit flavors, but that's probably not enough for you, I'm sure. :-)

[Atkins_Nutritionist]

Thanks Mamzelle for such great responses! You stressed the point that I always try to make. If a person wants to lose weight, there are hundreds of 'diets' out there that they can follow, some are short term plans and others allow you to truly make lifestyle changes. These 'diets' give guidelines and structure to begin on a weight loss journey, but you don't need to stick to them exactly in order to lose weight. You have to modify them to fit your lifestyle. If you know enough about nutrition, you can even develop your own 'diet' that works for you, and it doesn't have to be one whose guidelines are spelled out line-by-line in the latest book sitting on the store shelves.

So, Poukeyloo, it seems like you have taken some of the principles of the Atkins Nutritional Approach and modified them in order to fit your lifestyle and what can work best for you. That's great! But you really should not be eating less than 20 grams of carbs a day and you really should not stay on this meal planning until you are so close to goal. There's plenty of info on the atkins website that you can refer to in order to understand why, and then you can take that knowledge and modify the guidelines to fit your meal planning, but just don't ignore them.

[jadeca1]

Just out of curiosity, why is it bad to have less than 20 carbs a day? Where did the number '20' come from?

Thanks!

[Atkins_Nutritionist]

The carbohydrates that you consume in Induction should be mostly coming from salad vegatables and other vegetables, which provide fiber and other important vitamins and minerals. By eating less than 20 gram of net carbs a day, you will be missing out on these nutrients. You want to be taking a multivitamin to supplement your diet, not to replace what you aren't getting from food if you eat less than the 20 grams.