Help Me Tweak! Another post-Kimkins Member

[Lovin'Life]

Oh my what a weekend. By accident I came across a thread speaking of this Kimkins controversy and spent the rest of the day investigating. I have decided that I wish to no longer support the site in the evidence I have found. To me the most damaging evidence is that of Christin, Becky, and Deni (sorry if I misspelled any names) these are three admin that dealt with Kimmer that I can not find a reason to want to lie about their experience.

So that said I started researching more about the “unhealthy” habits and side effects and became nervous and confused as must others seem to have.

I’m thinking that I did tweak my plan some and that may be why I’m not having any terrible side effects?? But I’m thinking it needs more tweaking and wanted your help.

First I will tell you that when I am on the plan I feel great. I never had nauseous feelings, felt sick, or any of these. In fact I find that I have more energy, my skin clears up, my hair looks great and I all around feel better. So I have felt I’m down the right path. My appetite is not suppressed as I still get hungry and I do eat. When at work I usually eat at the same time and never stop to think if I’m hungry I just eat. I eat breakfast, lunch, and dinner. But I DEFINITELY do not want to cause future problems and would be devastated if my hair began to fall out.

I do not keep a fitday as it is hard for me to find the time. I am not a fan of the so called “hidden” carbs I disregard this as I don’t eat a lot of carbs anyway. I have NO IDEA about the fiber zeroing out carbs and would love some input. I do not stick the plan as stated as I do eat cheese, deli meat and other meats that are not included. I have never taken a laxative or any other drastic measures. So I’m asking you what you think about my eating and what I should be adding to benefit my health but continue to lose the weight. I usually lose about .5 a day and thought that was a decent weight loss without being excessive but a little better then when I was eating more carbs.


I do not know the calories of this and I expect they may be too low and I may need to add some so again any advice would be great.

Morning: I drink a bottle of water (I try to drink mostly water during the day, and maybe one cup/can of sugar free punch, crystal light, or diet soda)

I take a multi vitamin, B-Complex, and green tea extract

Breakfast:

I usually have two Morning Star Veggie Patties (6 carbs and 6g fat)
With this I will have one egg or egg beaters

Or I will have a Carb Control protein shake from EAS with 3 g fat and 2-4 carbs

I drink water during the day.

Lunch again water.

I may have one of the following

1. 6oz Turkey Burger (sometimes with a piece of cheese)
2. 6oz Shrimp either cooked with a little butter or the Lime Recipe from Kimkins
3. A Lettuce sandwich which is two pieces of lettuce with a piece of provolone cheese, an onion, and buffalo style chicken breast from the deli
4. 1 ½ Italian sausage from Jennie-O (15g of fat)
5. Turkey fried in a pan with Pam, garlic salt, seasonings, and provolone cheese on two pieces of lettuce
6. Turkey cutlets from Jennie-O

I usually drink a sugar free drink (0 carbs) around 3pm or sometimes I may do a carb control yogurt

For Dinner:

I will have one lunch options with water


Ok I’m pretty sure my calorie intake is too low and I need to add veggies preferably these good ones that you talk off. I definitely want to experiment to get the right mix, continue loses weight at a steady rate, and NOT endangering my health.

My question is can I still lose the weight I am losing by adding this or will it slow down some? And what do you suggest I add to my current eating habits.

Thank you in advance, btw my screen name is different then it was on Kimkins as I wanted to totally get away from it (thankfully I was a newbie and have not really forged any friendships. I just feel personally I do not want to be a part of the community)

[lisabinil]

What stands out from your menu is the serious lack of fats and vegetables. Have you considered EFA supplementation? I take Nature's Bounty Fish Oil for Omega 3's and take the CLA/GLA combo. Coconut oil is also a very beneficial and healthy fat to add to one's diet. Also you could have a cup of buttered broccoli, asparagus, cauliflower etc. My best advice is to also read and research. Try reading a copy of DANDR-it contains helpful info and scientific info that backs up this WOE by a licensed medical doc. He gives the scientific reasoning why fats are not the enemy and are needed for optimum health and weight loss. He also gives many tips for supplementation and disease fighting and prevention. From there you can go on to any number of good reads, "Protein Power" by the Eades, "Eat Fat Get Thin" by Dr. Barry Groves, "The South Beach Diet" by Dr. Agatston etc. You can then pick a plan that will suit your eating habits and that you can sustain for lifetime. Good luck to you!

[lindaokc]

Welcome, glad you found this site and I think you are smart to get away from the low calories of kimkins. There are several threads on here dealing w/ the right way to eat, one that comes to mind is "Building a better WOE" and there is a ton of good information on there about fats, calories, etc. that will help you learn the healthy way to lose weight. I was on kimkins also and right now I'm just maintaining my loss, close to goal and satisfied to learn which way I want to go. There is also a kimkins refugee thread on here that can help you with support. We are supporting each other and learning as we go. Come join us.

[Lovin'Life]

Thank you I may do that.

Atkins-I tried this once about 10 years ago and hated it, I had lots of pain in my kidney's, and at that time it had gotten a bad rap and I kinda felt the same way I do know about Kimkins, have things changed since then?

[lindaokc]

Maybe you weren't drinking enough water? Or getting enough carbs I've never had kidney problems w/ Atkins, so I really can't answer that, but I'm sure there are others here who can. Also, you don't have to do Atkins, there are other routes you can take. It will probably take some time before you decide which way you want to go, but you will be learning in a healthy way.

[Lovin'Life]

Thanks Linda I posted over at the refugee thread. I'm just as confused as ever LOL...I'm glad I have a good sense of humor though.

My only concern here is not damaging something by losing weight. Ugh why does it have to be so hard!!

[2big4mysize]

glad you are in the refugees topic. the building a healthy WOE info can give you lots of easy to incorporate inof about protein needs and healthy fat choices cause despite Kimmers stance that you are carrying all the fat your body needs it just isn't so. Dietary fats are needed for digesting fat soluble vits, those same fats will contain the Essential fatty acids our bodies don't produce nor store, and will become the fatty acids used in creating hormones and other chemicals each system in our body needs espically the brain. Body fat is used as an energy store not storage for those things.

The sick feeling on kimkins is actually not healthy ketosis by caused by the proteins for fuel byproducts.

Atkins will not cause kidney damage in folk with healthy kidneys. You might want to discuss your diet with your doc if you already have some kidney issues.

One huge advantage of using fitday is it also allows us in the report section to see what vits and minerals we are deficient in and can take the needed for our food choices supplements to meet our daily needs.

the fiber thing is easy to understand once you have been taught how to use it. fiber by definiton is the only carbohydrate that will go in our mouth and come out the other end unmetabolized so the cals and grams of carbs in it are not used by us and we can subtract the daily fiber total from the daily carbohydart total for all food that we ate. their is one issue with using that and that is it is based on UDS FDA nutritional labeling laws. In the UK and many forgein countries the total carbs on their label already has the fiber removed. so if you eat something already in a package check to be sure it is made in america before you sub out the fiber.

Glad you are tweaking your WOE and I hiope you didn't follow that no exercise part of her plan too.

[Lovin'Life]

LOL about the exercise. I didn't follow it because of her recommendation but because I had yet to fit it into my schedule. I have three children and two of them play sports right now. I get up at 5:30 to get ready for work and don't get home some nights until 8pm.

However just this week I am making myself get up at 5:00 to exercise as well as trying to get some in while they are at practice.

I think i am doing well. I have added a salad into my plan with Italian Dressing (the kind you make with oil and vingear and the packet) I have added nuts, more cheese, and cream cheese in the form of snacks as well as a veggie with dinner.

It wasn't too hard to up my calorie intake at all once I added in the fat. I'm enjoying my food much better though I will admit the cravings have come back some, but I'm working through it.

[2big4mysize]

if you have cravings it could be you are eatting a food that for you is a triggering food. for me it is anything sweetened with Splenda and celery some folk have nuts triggers others fresh dairy and still others grains. keep a journal of your foods with how you are feeling beofre during and after and see if you can spot the trigger. then just remove it for now from your eating plan. the added fat should be depening your ketosis as ketosis is from fat metabolism.

[ShellyW]

Salad is a great add on to plan.. Keep in mind the darker the leaf the more fiber the more you will get from it. Cheri posted a link to a interview she just did with Atkins Nutrionalist and you might find that helpful. I find if I eat the right veggies... high fiber, I have no issues with losing. You can find a list of them on this site or on Cheri's newbie site. Not sure if this will help.

[lindaokc]

Salad is great and I have always hated it. I get my daily dose of salad now w/ the "Fawn shake" and get a HUGE serving or several servings of green veggies. I love it so much I eat one every day for lunch. Errmmm, make that "drink" one every day, and this coming from a person who has always hated veggies, unless they were a starch.

[2big4mysize]

so how is the adding back the healthy fats and more healthy low glycemic veggies going?
Cravings better?

[richchick]

Originally Posted by ShellyW

Salad is a great add on to plan.. Keep in mind the darker the leaf the more fiber the more you will get from it. Cheri posted a link to a interview she just did with Atkins Nutrionalist and you might find that helpful. I find if I eat the right veggies... high fiber, I have no issues with losing. You can find a list of them on this site or on Cheri's newbie site. Not sure if this will help.

Thank you, Shelly, for the info on salad. I had no idea about the colour of the leaf. I will check out these sites.

[2big4mysize]

actually the darker the leaf the more micro nutrients in it. which as martha says is a good thing. iceberg lettuce have very few nutrients but romain, redleaf, cos, etc have lots.