Hi All, you look like a really knowledgable group of women! I'm hoping you can help me get started. I just turned 30 and have been "doing
Atkins" since the beginning of the year. I lost about 10lbs at the
end of last year just cutting out some junk food. In all, I have
lost 26lbs, going from 176lbs (I'm 5'4) to 150lbs. I've felt really
good on Atkins (I eat around 50 carbs most days) - have stopped
having blood sugar swings and stopped obsessing about food. I don't eat low carb junk food - for the big majority, I only eat real, whole food. I finally feel like a "normal" person where food is concerned. The
only problem I've noticed is that I DO NOT have enough energy to
work out. I don't know if this feeling would pass if I just made
myself do it because I've never stuck it out through more than a
week of workouts before I took 3wks off. It's just like after one
set, my muscles are at complete failure and HURT. After just a few
minutes of cardio, I am BEAT. It's like my muscles just feel like
jello. Last week, I had a smoothie full of fruit about an hour
before I went to work out and guess what?? I actually got a good
workout. This is when the light bulb went off that part of my
problems with working out is not enough carbs.

I have the BFL book and have been reading it and getting motivated
to start a challenge. Do any of you have experience switching from
Atkins to BFL, or do any of you eat Atkins but work out BFL? I am
so afraid of being obsessed with food again and binging and having
blood sugar issues, but since I have come this far - I really want
to feel proud of my body and I can't do that without building some
muscle. Any advice?

The old me was looking at the calendar and realized that there only
nine weeks until my family vacation. She said, "You don't want to
start a challenge now - you won't get to finish it before vacation.
You know you're not going to be able to work out for those 10 days,
so why bother starting a challenge now?" Suddenly I snapped to and
realized that the next nine weeks will go by whether I'm taking care
of myself or not! So what if my first real challenge will be a 9
week challenge! I'll start challenge 2 when I come back! I've
finally realized in my 19 years of dieting that any fitness plan has
to be a little flexible to be able to fit into my life and stay
there :-) Just thought I'd share my little A-ha! moment.

I see on this forum, that at one point you thought BFL was a good place to start. Do you think it's a good place to start for someone coming from Atkins, or is there a plan closer suited to me out there? I'm really just rearing to get started now and looking for advice. Thanks in advance for your help.

Take Care,
Katy

Katy - welcome to LWL!

First place you might want to try is our Bodybuilding Info sticky. Some really good links there - including Krista Scott Dixon's Stumptous website which would be the first place I'd refer you to as a beginner (or even if you're not a beginner...great fun AND informative).

As far as carbs go - if you're only getting 50g of carbs a day, I'd say that you're way underdoing it. Yup, your body needs carbs for energy, especially when weight training.

Join us on the weekly thread!

Katy,

I understand your predicament because before I started my new strength training diet I tried (key word = "tried") to follow the South Beach Diet. Sure, I lost weight, but also lost all my energy. Everyone kept telling me I'd get it back, but never did. So I read BFL & BodyRx (Scott Connelly - got it at library). Then I experiemented with my eating for about 3 weeks til I finally settled into my own groove, which is neither BFL or BodyRx but rather my own thing based upon the priciples in those 2 books. You definitely need more carbs if you want to have energy to exercise. I added back all fruits & oatmeal (1 cup cooked per day, not instant but steel cut raw oats) and also often eat a wheat pita w/my egg beaters and then brown rice with dinner (3/4 cup or so). I have not gained one ounce, and although I've fallen off the wagon 3 or 4 times in the past 10 weeks, I get right back on my plan.

Here is my typical day:

Meal 1: 1/2 to 1 c egg beater
1 slice soy cheese
wheat pita (organic, no high fructose c.s.)
salsa

Meal 2: asian pear or apple or citrus fruit
1/2 c raw oats made with 1 c skim milk
1/2 c cottage cheese (no fat)

Meal 3: protein shake with 1 scoop protein powder, 1 c skim milk, frozen berries

Meal 4: some sort of protein such as chicken, fish, beef, pork (lean)
huge portion of veggies - no butter added
sometimes even have a salad
1/2 to 3/4 cup brown rice or sometimes whole wheat pasta
fruit

I do work out about 4 times week, and do cardio 3X week. I push myself to my limit in every workout because I have had fantastic results this way. At first, I was eating too much, even though my meals were all whole foods. I tried 6 meals a day, but found that I never really felt satisfied, so I cut it to 4 slightly bigger meals even though that's not what's recommended in BFL. But it totally works for me so I'm sticking to it. I do eat a little less at times when I'm not working out. Good luck!!!