Hi everyone...first, I apologize if these questions have been asked over and over by others.

My first question is regarding coffee. How exactly does coffee affect your results on Atkins? Does it actually hinder it or does it just induce cravings and affect progress indirectly? I have given up all of my carbs (except what's required), but I really don't want to give up my coffee. I'm worried that giving this up may hinder my devotion to the plan. I have switched to black coffee instead of my normal 2 cream/2 sugar.

Second, I know cheese should be limited, but to how much? I usually put 2 or 3 slices on eggs in the morning. I normally eat a chunk 1 inch thick and 4 inches long for a snack in the afternoon. At night, I'll eat twice that much with slices of pepperoni.

Third, I know have made great progress starting off. Today is my 7th day and so far I have lost about 9lbs. However, the last 2 days I haven't lost any...I haven't changed my eating style since I started.

Fourth, I can't help but feel like I'm eating horribly while on the induction phase. I'm doing a Weight and Wellness course in university right now and what I'm eating is going against everything I'm being taught. Atkins was even mentioned in a negative light. Funny, it was this mention of Atkins that got me interested again.

Lastly, (I know, thank God!) I keep hearing about the Atkins flu. I know different people feel it in different ways, but starting on the end of day 5 I started feeling slightly more tired. On day 6 I began getting a sinus-like headache. Today, day 7, I almost feel like I'm acutally getting a cold. I'm trying to determine if it's Atkins induced or it is an actual cold.

Thanks for your time and comments...and I'm sorry for killing your morning with such a long read! lol

Hi, SN, it might be the Atkins flu - hard to tell. In a few days you should know one way or the other. Sorry I can't give a better answer than that.

The book I've been reading says that in some people, caffeine causes blood sugar instability and therefore cravings/hunger. But some people doing the Atkins diet now (I am one of them) still use caffeine anyhow.

We are supposed to be limited to 4 ounces of cheese per day. One ounce is about the size of a pair of dice.

Yeah, most of the medical community is dead set against Atkins. But look around and see how fat people have gotten since they started pushing high-carb, low-fat on everyone.

Plus, look at how the Innuit used to eat, before they adopted the typical westernized diet - they used to eat almost all protein and fat. Lots and lots of fat. Whale blubber was especially prized. And they were among the healthiest people on earth. Then they started eating simple carbs and have all kinds of health problems/obesity problems.

Cavemen eat the way we are eating now. There weren't any wonder bread stores and dunkin' donut stores back in caveman days. Cavemen ate meat with lots of fat and whatever plants and berries and nuts they could find. Then when we switched to grains, and became farmers, we lost about a foot in average height, developed crowded jaws/dental problems, and suffered many more diseases. We became sickly when we switched from a hunter/gatherer diet and went to a farming diet of mostly grains.

Most of that weight you are losing at first is water weight and will come back on once you add some carbs back. So don't get too caught up in the scale, pay more attention to how you feel, how your clothes fit, etc. in the long run. There's no such thing as a quick fix when it comes to diet, the only way to fix things is to stick to the diet for a long period of time and exercise. Nobody ever wants to hear that, but it's the truth. Also, this WOE is famous for fits and starts. You lose some pounds, then you have a stall of a couple of weeks, or three weeks, or four, or in some cases I have read, even eleven weeks. Then you lose some more pounds, then you stall again. Fits and starts. So patience is required on this diet, maybe on every diet actually.

Best of luck to you, hope you feel better soon! Don't worry about asking questions, we are all here to help and to encourage each other!

P.S. you can have cream in your coffee - cream is low carb. One tablespoon and some splenda in my tea makes the tea seem like a wonderful, sinful treat!

P.P.S. Check out this link for information that refutes what you are learning in nutrition classes.... http://www.atkins.com/Science.aspx

Lori answered your questions already, but I will chime in to say that I lost 8 pounds my first week, and now, as of Day 11, I haven't lost any more. Everything I've read says a week 2 stall is not the norm, but not unheard of, either.

That said, your cheese intake might be stalling your progress. It happens to some people, and it sounds like you're way over the 3-4 ounces a day allotment. Cheese has carbs, so that could be affecting your loss. I might cut back and see what happens.

I still drink coffee every day. I've thought about giving it up to see if that helps my loss start up again, but I'll give it a little more time. Mostly because caffeine withdrawal is so painful and I don't think I can cope with the headaches and my job at the same time!

Good luck. Sounds like you're off to a good start. (I freak out about the health of this diet sometimes too, but I know Induction is not forever. Eventually I'll be eating lower fat and much lower cholesterol again, and I look very much forward to increasing my vegetables someday!)

Thanks a lot for the insight!! I'll def cut my cheese intake down...could explain other issues too...lol.

SN, some of us (most of us I suspect) get constipated on this diet. I've been using Senna (a natural laxative) combined with stool softeners to help.

GREAT post!

For more of the science on low-carb diets, if you really want to go deeply in-depth why it is really ok to eat this way (and with its high fat ratio), check out Gary Taube's book Good Calories, Bad Calories.

It reassured me because I'm not used to eating this way either - and I have quite high cholesterol (near 300, waiting for a retest in a few months). But I feel so much better, much less bloated, high energy, and I'm not obsessed with food like I am on a low-cal, low-fat diet.

Think of it as a Comparitive Religions class. Just because you are learning about other belief systems (i.e. believing low-fat is "the one true way") does not mean you have to agree with it.

If we're really all honest with ourselves, we could admit that Atkins isn't any less healthy than the typical American diet -- those people are usually also eating lots of meat and fat, but ALSO those horrible carbs and sugars! They aren't just having a donut and a cup of sugary coffee, or a plain biscuit, but also the sausage, bacon, steaks, burgers, wings, etc... By process of elimination alone, Atkins wins in the health corner. And if you reverse it: let's have people avoid protein and fat and ONLY eat carbs, it doesn't work out the same way. Plus, the vegetables we can eat in Induction, along with our healthy fat and protein, are some of the best vegetables for people in general in the world. I don't know if most people eat real, actual vegetables very much -- but with Atkins we are encouraged to.

Hello and welcome SN! Just wanted to say that I also drink coffee, I just love my coffee and so far it has not caused me any problems at all.

Cheese? Yes, I found that cheese could be a problem for me, especially cream cheese. Hard cheeses in a limited amount works better for me so I stopped the cream cheese for a while.

I think Atkins is the best diet! I look at it this way: Before I went on Atkins I was eating really bad foods and lots of carbs. I am actually eating healthier now because I am eating veggies (didn't eat them before), salads (didn't eat much of that either before) and lean meats (except for sausage which I drain as much fat as I can). Eggs are really healthy as they are pure protein and very filling.

Diabetes runs in my family so I am predisposed to getting that just by being overweight. So by losing the weight, I am preventing getting diabeties, lowering my cholesterol, etc. As you probably know already, bad carbs turn into sugar.

I don't know about you but I needed my bread and white flour products before, I was really addicted to them! Now that time has passed, I no longer "crave" those bad carbs. I do not feel hungry like I used to be and if I do feel hungry late at night I keep hard boiled eggs in my fridge just in case..

Oh, I did have the "Atkins Flu" where I felt weak and a bit dizzy but it passed in about 24 hours or 1-1/2 days.. I think the reason for that is that our bodies go into a sugar withdrawal with all the changes we made plus our bodies are so used to the "old" way of eating that our bodies need to adjust to the new way.

Good luck to you!
Toby

like one doc said on CNN the other day....low fat dieting has caused America to become obese and diabetic. meats and veggies are the way to go! Oh...and strawberries....I cant wait for big, juicy, red strawberries to come in season! They arent induction friendly but they are low carb and that is what I am doing. YUMMY!

Well, right now it has been officially one week. With the exception of probably too much cheese, I stayed on track pretty good. I have had a few cravings that I overcame...i wanted to lick the spoon after making pancakes for my kid this weekend...he brought home a box of bars to sell for Beavers...I managed! lol

After the first week i went from 270lbs down to 259lbs...yeah, i'm happy! With the exception of the sinus cold, i feel great!

Well, it looks like it may actually be a sinus cold...I don't think the Atkins flu actually causes you to be stuffed up.

Good point...it's funny, my wife will look at my plate when I have an omellette and a couple strips of bacon. She'd question it and I'd simply say that if i threw 2 slices of toast on the plate, it would look normal. It's the same meal, just without the toast.

I was told by a doc a while ago that I'm at risk to develop diabetes. I don't have it, but if I don't drop some weight I have a good chance to get it...scary stuff.

It's funny, when you really stop and think about it, it all makes sense. Yet, as soon as you sit at the dinner table you can't help but think, "this isn't the normal way to eat".

Thanks again everyone for your comments!

That's why we're here This is really a great group to get support from and information, etc. There are just a lot of nice, smart people on these boards!

Someday a newbie will come along and you will be able to help them, too!

I hope your sinus cold goes away very soon!

Hi there,

Coffee has not affected my weight loss or my ketosis at all....however, artificial sweeteners did and I've had to limit this to only 3 packs of Splenda maximum per day.

Men generally lose weight much faster than women do...they have more efficient metabolisms due to a higher percentage of fat and they are not programmed/hard-wired genetically to create body fat as much as women are....mainly by hormones.

However, if you do find yourself hitting a stall....just give us a run-down of your daily menu for a day or two and we can trouble-shoot for you. That's how I finally figured-out the artificial sweetener problem. You have to be careful not only with cheese but also processed meats, which have hidden sugars...including pepperoni. Being a guy, you can probably stretch the limits and get away with it more than we women can but generally, trouble-shooting ones menu is usually the most helpful if one runs into problems.

Not only will losing weight lower your chance of getting diabetes...but so will a low-carb/low glycemic index diet. They used to say "sugar doesn't give you diabetes. It's genetics".....but in the last few decades, that has turned out to be untrue. Sugar (carbohydrates), especially corn syrup is causing a huge epidemic of diabetes....not to mention obesity.
Here's a great lecture on this by Gary Taubes:

http://www.dhslides.org/mgr/mgr060509f/f.htm

It's a bit complex but essentially....glucose (which can only come from carbs) is needed to accumulate fat (as triglycerides) and one needs insulin in order to get the glucose into the cells....to then cause accumulation of fat. Eating a diet high in carbs can cause the pancreas to overwork and malfunction, often beginning with hypoglycemia and eventually turning into diabetes. We cannot make glucose out of proteins or fats...therefore we do not accumulate fat without the requisite glucose needed to change the stored fat into fatty acids (therefore, decreasing fat accumulation in the body).

Essentially......fat is not making us fat...carbohydrates are.
AND...sugar (esp. corn syrup) CAN give you diabetes.

deena

Thanks for that lecture, Deena. You asked in another thread how I'm doing, well so far I'm doing great. In my first 10 days I lost 15lbs and my belt tightens up a notch tighter (could squeeze in 2, but slightly snug). I'm quite happy over the results so far. This week I'm planning on incorporating exercise into my routine.

The only thing I experienced so far that's negative is a nagging headache. I do have a slight sinus cold, so perhaps it's due to that. I've been pounding back the water daily, so I don't think it's from dehydration. I am sleeping about 6 hours a night, perhaps I need another hour or so. Either way, I'll monitor that until my sinus cold is gone and then try and pinpoint the cause.

Deena, strictly speaking, this is incorrect. We can make glucose out of protein and some fatty acids (called "odd-chain"), through a process called Gluconeogenesis. It is not the body's preferred way of making it but if needed, when carbs are super low, it will resort to this.

Certainly though, cutting your carbs back, like with the Atkins diet, will greatly decrease the circulating glucose and insulin in your body