Dr. Atkins doesn't specifically tell you because everybody starts at a different weight, but he pretty much says that you can stay on Induction if you have a lot of weight to lose and then go onto OWL if you don't mind the weight loss slowing down. I don't think I'd want my weight loss to slow down with 109 lbs left to go, but I'm not sure when it will be the proper time to start OWL.

I could go with when I reach under 200lbs, which will hopefully be sometime this summer. However, I'll still have 75lbs left to go at that point and it seems a bit high. I was thinking maybe 160? Would that give me time to slowly climb the carb ladder before I reach my pre-maintenance weight of 135? It's also the weight that I will just be barely scraping the top-end of an overweight BMI for my height.

If I lose at 2lbs per week on Induction until 160, I'd probably be starting OWL sometime in November, which will mark being on Induction for 14 months which seems waaaaaaaaaaaaaay too long.

Any advice?

here is my humble opinion and I say humble because I am new to Atkins. I did so well on Ideal Protein and lost 58 pounds in 16 weeks. I lost my will-power in a split second and quit IP and joined Atkins. My body is having a tough time with the switch and changes. I am sure it will be fine soon. I wish I had stuck out what I was doing just a little longer. I still have 25 pounds to lose. I started at a size 18 and now a nice loose 10 and even an 8 or two fits. I wear size medium tops at every store I have been too and I used to wear 1X. So I am thrilled with where I am at....I shrunk on IP, but my weight is still at the high end of overweight so I need to lose 25 pounds. Stick to your fastest weight loss as long as you can without getting discouraged. You will be happier in the end that you did. I have a cruise coming up in 3 weeks, a wine weekend 3 weeks later, and a casino weekend 3 weeks after that. I may go on induction after all that. Stay the course and congrats on your accomplishments so far. (I have a link to my progress pics below and you can see where I am at so far).

Linsy: I have decided that I am no longer going to look at the total that I need to lose; it's just too overwhelming for me, personally. And if I dwell on that total, I get discouraged. I am looking at "10 lbs at a time", that's all. With that said, here is what I plan on doing:

I plan on staying on induction for as long as I can stand it. Once I feel like I just can't anymore, I will add maybe a few carbs a day via beans, or something OTHER than "white" foods/sugar. If I do well with those few carbs, I will stay at that level of carbs till I just can't stand IT any more.

I have no idea how it will go since I am only on Day 4 of induction; but I have it planned out in my head, and for me, as long as I have a "what if" contingency plan, I feel a lot better.

I hope that made sense!

Yeah, I want to stay on Induction until I can't stand it anymore, but I'm afraid I'm going to burn myself out. There's still a looooooooooot of weight to go. I have a hard time not looking at the overall picture. I also need time to climb the carb ladder 1 food at a time 3x a week once I move into OWL, but I'm pretty sure that right now my weight is too high for me to deliberately slow it. I guess 160 is a good weight--I know I have the willpower to stick with it until then because I'm determined to take this weight off so I guess I'll just have to see what happens.

I totally know where you are at....Ideal Protein is like a super duper strict induction...eating packets and then meat and veggie for dinner. I totally lost it in my 17th week (down 58 pounds so averaged 3.625 per week). You reach a point where it is too much and you do need to look at the big picture (I am trying to do that myself). I have lost 60, but need to lose 25 maybe 30 more. I am very happy to be in a nice loose size 10 bottom and medium or small top, but I really want to be between a 6 and an 8. I try to look at my progress photos to remind myself where I have come from, but I think I am my own worst enemy. Good luck to you and do what makes you most relaxed.