Hi everyone,

I'm fairly new to Atkins but i'm determined and giving it my best shot. I have never been any good at calorie/point/carb counting. I find it stresses me out and makes me want more than I am allowed, so I tend to avoid this. I haven't been strictly sticking to the induction phase word for word but I was wondering if any of you could give your opinion on what I have been eating - Am i eating too many carbs and am I eating too much fat?

Today for example:

Breakfast: 2 grilled bacon with cheese, 2 sausage and a tomato

Lunch: 1 boiled egg mixed with egg, small bit of onion and small bit of cheese

Dinner: Chicken breast with cheese, lettuce, one tomato

snacks: teaspoon of peanut butter, 4 strawberries + double cream


I know I'm not supposed to have some of these foods, but I really am bad at sticking to diets and this way seems to be working so far. I have lost 6 lbs in my first week - please god that's more than just water! I find that if I can't stop thinking about chocolate a teaspoon of peanut butter gets me past it. And the strawberries help a lot with my sweet tooth too. Strangely enough I have not been craving the starchy carbs that were very much the majority of my diet up until last week!

Anyway if anyone could give me some feedback that would be great, thanks in advance

no its not strictly induction, the tomatoes are also a fruit and so are the strawberries. But neither is high in sugar and berries are so good for you.
I am wondering if you are getting enough food though, and you are losing a lot of weight through too serious calorie restriction.
I think you definitely need more veggies in there. Beans, broccoli, cauliflower, salad greens, peppers, etc. any of these sound good to you?

Hi fatmad, thanks so much for your reply. Those all sound great to me. I'd be concerned about the beans though. Would they not be too high in carbs? I haven't been counting calories but I thought they would have been quite high considering im eating such fatty foods. I think I need to go back and read my atkins books again! At the same time I'm finding this forum so much more informative than any book. Getting feedback from you and others has been invaluable in these early stages, so thankyou

I totally pigged out at breakfast this morning and added two sausages to my breakfast so I'm sure that will add to my calorie count

Sausages are the evil food they are packed with wheat to bulk them out and the and have added sugar and all sorts. Make sure u examine the ingredients very very closely when buying them

Beans definitely are way carby But otherwise good for you. However, not good on Induction... I think they can get added once you are adding carbs to your "carb ladder" to slow weight loss?

An example for cooked beans:
* 1 cup red kidney beans has 37 grams of Carbs, 12 Fiber = 25 net carbs
* 1 cup black beans has 34 Carbs, 8 Fiber = 26 net carbs

Atkins Induction is designed to be mostly fat. I seem to remember the breakdown as 65-70% Fat, 30-25% Protein & 5% Carbs, but someone else could probably fill you in more. Do not fear the fat!

Also, Veronica Atkins website will give you an intro to the plan, but does not replace reading the full book of course

Thanks guys.. i'll have a look at that website, and i'll have to look into the sausage thing too. i'm glad i mentioned it now I would hate all this hardwork to be undone by silly mistakes like that.

Feeling good about it today It's not hard to stick to this time (as opposed to the many other times i tried and failed) and I'm not going hungry either!

OMG I put on a pound today and I haven't even been doing anything different, very depressing I have read on here that you don't really lose weight during TOM but it's been that all week and I have until today!!

I'm not going to let it stop me but it's really put me on a downer for the start of the day

Sometimes your body can gain water just before it loses a bunch of fat too, as a kind of space-filler... Don't sweat it

Thanks, I hope that's all it is

You are doing your own LC diet, not Atkins. That's OK but please don't call it Atkins. This is how the Atkins WOE got such a bad rep; people do their own version of LCing and then say Atkins doesn't work when they don't lose weight or have health problems.

Sorry if this sounds harsh but there are many many general LC forums and boards that may give you more ideas on generic LCing.

Sorry if this comes across as defensive mizski (but i can't help feeling defensive now), but I haven't once said Atkins doesn't work, nor have I claimed to be sticking to Atkins as it is. I came here looking for support for doing what I think of as Atkins with a twist. It's not like I've completely changed the diet I just chose to allow myself a couple things that I should really be waiting a week or so for..

Well, im, you might have more luck & support in "Other Reduced Carb Diets" - but I'm not pushing you out, heh! But thinking of where you can get the best support.

Personally, I did Atkins with some modifications: I sometimes had vodka or red wine... I drank coffee every day... I had the random low-carb wrap during Induction... But I definitely saw the scale bounce back up from "low-carb" bread products, and drinking of course delays weight loss. As far as I can tell, the coffee didn't impact me, unless it made me somewhat hungrier due to its effect on metabolism.

There are degrees of low-carbing, and Atkins Induction levels anyway are super low. I hope you find your right balance

I guess where I'm coming from is - I've tried atkins full on a few times recently and i have failed, mainly because when i get stressed im used to eating sweet or startchy things i guess (and i get stressed lots the past couple years). So this time I'm *mostly* managing to stick to atkins ... but instead of fully blowing my chances when I get the urge to have a binge i have a couple of strawberries in cream instead of the chocolate, crisps and toast that i used to have. So whether it's scientifically correct or not to say, i consider myself to be doing atkins.. but I am also taking into account the fact that I personally have failed at atkins induction too many times before so i am modifying it so that i don't fail again..does this make sense or am i late night ranting?

Anyway, thanks BerkshireGrl, for not pushing me out and your advice is always great. I hope it wasnt meant that way, but it came across like mizski was trying to tell me to go elsewhere, and so i was offended. I apologise if that was not the case!

No, I understand what you're saying

But I think mizski was just cautioning you that you shouldn't blame "Atkins" if your modified diet doesn't work as well as you'd like, that's all. Sometimes tone is tough to read over the net