re: PuttaDaForkDown

I need to lose weight badly...have tried before numerous times and always failed. I am thinking of starting Atkins but am so damned confused. I have been following this thread and admiring everyone from afar. Can someone give me some sample menus of their induction phase? I do far better planning ahead and knowing what I should do.

Thanks

Myth, CAD, and I are all Atkins guys, so you're in good company.

Induction is pretty simple, really. You're allowed 20g carbs/day. You should have 2 servings of salad (serving = 1 cup) and 1 serving of some other veggie (broccoli for example). That should take up the majority of your carbs, 12-15. The rest is for "hidden" carbs, such as the .5 carbs in an egg and other things like that.

So basically, in induction, think simple. K.I.S.S - Keep It Simple, Stupid! (not calling you stupid lol).

A typical induction menu would look something like this:
Breakfast - eggs and bacon or pork breakfast sausage. (I personally like 3 eggs, 2 strips of bacon. I eat a huge breakfast because I eat at 7 AM and don't get lunch until 1:00 PM at the earliest.) I put a tbsp of butter in a skillet, cook the bacon or sausage, and then cook my eggs in the leftover grease.

Snack 1 - Cheese or serving of veggies

Lunch - Some sort of protein with one cup of salad. Hamburger patty, steak, pork chop, chicken breast, chicken thigh, etc... makes no difference as long as it's something carb free, normal meat. I personally recommend something fatty, such as a pork chop, because it will hold you over much better. When I eat a chicken breast I'm typically starving again a little over an hour later. Fats keep you feeling full, especially on Atkins.

Snack 2 - Cheese or serving of veggies, depending if you chose to eat a serving of veggies before. If you did, then eat cheese. My favorites are pepperjack and mild cheddar. I started out on string cheese but I gag at the smell of it now, blech

Dinner - Same layout as lunch. Protein and a salad.


Atkins says induction is a 2 week period. That was his design, 2 weeks and then move on to Ongoing Weight Loss phase 2, or OWL. OWL is a complicated beast. Atkins also states that you can stay in induction for up to 6 months if you really want, and if you have a lot to lose, you should stay in induction for the majority of that, if you can stand it.

OWL, as I said, is a complicated motha. Each week you add 5g carbs to your menu in the form of different foods. Week 1 of OWL, add 5g carbs from veggies, and try at least 3 different kinds of veggies. Broccoli, cauliflower, celery, carrots, etc. So your menu would include 2 servings of veggies and 2 servings of salad.

They call the different stages of OWL the "OWL Carbohydrate Ladder", and each week is a rung of the ladder. Here is the OWL Carbohydrate ladder (meaning each week add 5g of each food group:

quote:

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1.Vegetables
More salad and other vegetables on the acceptable foods list

2.Dairy:
Fresh cheeses:
Cottage cheese, Ricotta cheese, Pot cheese
Keep portions small for: Hard aged cheese, Cream; heavy and light, Half and half, Sour cream, Low-carb ice cream, yogurt, and milk.

3. Seeds and Nuts
Macadamias, Almonds, Peanuts/Natural Peanut Butter, Coconut, Sunflower seeds, Sesame seeds, Walnuts, Pistachios

4. Berries
Eat frequently from:
Strawberries, Blueberries, Blackberries, Raspberries.
Eat moderately from higher AGR melons: Honeydew, Cantaloupe

5. Wine and other spirits low in carbs:
Spirits, White Wine, Red Wine, Low-carbohydrate Beer

6. Legumes (NOTE: THIS POINT AND BELOW IS REALLY ONLY FOR PRE-MAINTENANCE AND MAINTENANCE PHASES):
Lentils, Kidney Beans, Pinto Beans, Black Beans, Hummus, Chickpeas, Tofu, Soybeans, Soy milk, unsweetened

7.Fruits other than Berries and Melons: Plums, Kiwis, Peaches, Apples, Grapefruit, Tangerines, Watermelon.

8.Starchy Vegetables:
Keep all portions small: Carrots, Green Peas, Acorn squash, Butternut squash, Eat rarely: Potatoes, Sweet potatoes, Whole Grains.
Keep all portions small and focus on whole, unprocessed grains: Old fashioned Oatmeal, Oat Bran, Wheat Bran, Low carb (soy) bread and muffins, All-bran, Barley cooked, corn

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OWL is designed to help you learn how your body reacts to carbs of various kinds. What you need to do is learn your Atkins Carbohydrate Equilibrium, or ACE. In a nutshell, ACE is where you stop losing and you're teetering on the edge of knocking your body out of ketosis. Your ACE is where you want to maintain at once you've lost all of your weight. You have to find your ACE and eat less than that to continue losing weight.

Once you're down to about 10 pounds left to lose, you move on to pre-maintenance. You can really start hitting those higher rungs. Once you hit your goal, maintenance. Pretty much eat any and all of those rungs as you are comfortable doing so.

I as just wondering this morning how much weight has been lost by the people in this thread cumulatively. I bet the number is pretty impressive.
I know we won't catch everyone, but it may be interesting to see how high we can get the number. The easiest way would be if everyone posts how much he/she has lost and what the cumulative is up to.

I'll start so that I get to do the easy math:

Lost 67 pounds
Thread cumulative: 67 pounds

Myth, get in here so that the number gets moving up quickly.

My cumulative since starting again a few weeks ago is 10 lbs as of this morning

The induction is the introduction really

Some people do. Myth is awesome at it, and it paid off for him. I'm not. I try but after a few weeks I get burnt out. But I don't eat much more than 20, maybe 30 max.

quote:

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Powerman, is that 10 pounds just your recent losses or is that your total loss from when you were your biggest?

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If you go back to 2005 or so my cumulative loss would be around 75 lbs

The 10 lbs is just the recent losses

I am down 40 lbs since mid july. Football season has really held up my losing lately.

Hulk,

You need to get spanky to start posting in this thread.