Custy, come over here please and tell me about Atkins

[Rockbird]

here is the thread that started off ages ago - only sallystrawberry, mitchell81 and ggirl post on it regularly at the moment - so do join in.

where to begin

right start yourself off at 20 carbs.

atkins says no caffeine and that your body needs to detox - i say bollocks to that i need coffee!

no milk - i take black coffee now with one sweetner and wouldn't go back.

count the sweetners - you should use splenda - but they may well be anything upto 1 carb each - and it counts.

eat any meat or fish you like in any amount you like. if you wanted to you could get two roast chickens ready cooked from sainsbos and eat the lot.

what you have to watch out for is vegetables. no root veg - no carrott, swede, turnip, potato. you can eat cauliflower and vroccoli but only a small cupful per day IN TOTAL. you can eat mushrooms. onion and tomato are higher in carbs so be careful - use google to find out the carb value of your veg - soon you will know it off by heart.

so i think a full tomato is 5g carbs - thats 1/4 of your daily allowence!! ditto bell pepper 5g ( although i think green ones are less but not as tasty.)

so my main meals are

fried mince and onion and mushroom in FLAVOURED olive oil ( flavoured olive oil is your taste friend) add 1/2 tin tomatos (6 carbs) add herbs of your choice - i like to add herbs de provence for an italian bolognaise taste to the whole thing

thats it - no pasta, no rice - just that. it looks weird on your plate but you get used to it

i also have chicken breast cubed and fried in flavoured olive oil, add spices of your choice schwartz at morrisons do a wonderful lemon ginger and seseme spice thing in a small tin - i can't get enough of it. add that to chicken with mushrooms and onion serve with salad.

vary your salad - i can't be arsed so i buy the packet salads, i get a nice mix and variety and can add things like baby spinich leaves for a bit of zing. - don't go overboard with your salad.

courgette has 1.8g per 100g - so thats quite good and i think it was sal strawberry who told me that if you cut it into ribbons that can act as a kind of pasta substitute with the mince recipe above.

if you like fish - your laughing - i only like tinned tuna in sunflower oil and cod.

Cod i put in foil with lemon and butter and have with salad

tuna i had tonight. i fried mushrooms and onion and some spices and mixed in with tuna - roasted a bell pepper and ate that with a mixed salad - am stuffed.

get yourself some digital scales - its a must. your weightloss will be so dramatic that it will spur you on through the difficult times - and if you're like me a carbaholic ( 6 bags of crisp in one sitting not a problem IYKWIM) then your initial problem will be the snacking. and it totally gets you out of that

you have to weigh things up - you could have a piece of cake - but is it REALLY worth not losing weight all week? is it really worth 3 days of low carbing without seeing any effect? errr no.

so 3 days until weightloss probably.

www.lowcarbmegastore.com this site is your friend. it is expensive but oh so worth it

consider one slice of bread is typically 20 carbs, then you can by bread of this site ( £2.99) that has 1.9 carbs per (midget) slice but if bread is a big thing for you then its so worth it. you can buy sweets too - but be careful it can say no carb sweets - then describe it as having
81 carbs
81 polyols

now the polyols are a substitue sugar that are carbs, but as long as you only eat under 10 polyols thats ok - so if you get a packet of carb free sweets - you can't eat them all in one day. hope that makes sense - i only found that out the other day.

i get a bottle of the liquid sweetner of there £5, its like what you get in coffee shops but sugar free so no carbs to count for your sweetners. they do lots of flavours if you want a change in your BLACK coffee.

the way the diet works is you eat full fat not reduced fat. whilst people think that this is unhealthy, you end up eating so much less that your fat intake is less.

MY sil keeps telling me how unhealthy this diet is, and she goes to KFC and Maccy Ds!

eggs = no carbs. so if you like omlette your laughing ( i dont) you can have full fat cream it does have carbs but not many.

so you could eat eggs and bacon and sausage and tomato ....beware the sausage!

you can have sausage but sausage are often mixed with breadcrumbs and other thngs to fatten them up - the lowest carb sausages i have found are 0.6 each chippolatas from sainsburys.

chicken breast stuffed with cheese wrapped in bacon

cheese is your friend - check the carbs but its generally low

sausages pan fried to brown, with 1/2 can of tomatos left to reduce - splendid.

if your serious get some scales pronto - digital.

try www.fitday.com to track your weightloss and carb intake - i don't use it now but i did at the beginning.

i have lost 4 stone since last may. I remember last may saying to dh as we were sat int eh garden " i just want to get to 10stone - i look good on 10stone) now i', 8st.10

good luck

i didn't state the obvious
no bread
no pasta
no rice
no potatos
nothing with flour in
NO FRUIT - its fullof natural sugar. ( i love fruit)

you will be on a no sugar diet as well as a low carb diet.

once your weight has reached a plataeu, lower your carb intake to 15 - then if need be lower further.

i have found that 10 carbs maintains weightloss for me. as you will find out, its pretty hard keeping it that low.

no dairy.
no milk
no yoghurt

a little full fat cream is ok - but really what would you have that with except sugar free jelly ( which is no carbs btw)

you can have cream in your coffee if you absolutly can't go without milk - but it still has carbs so count it.

Custy you are wonderful, thank you! That must have taken ages

I had a look round Sainsbos on my way home and see what you mean about sausages and carbs. Thought I'd get myself some nice herby burgers, lob some cheese on and salad. Uh-oh. Even plain burgers have bloody carbs. I love mince and chicken through and don't mind fish. No milk, hmm, might have to give up tea then. Oh well.

I remember having grilled bacon and scambled eggs for brekkie or cooking batches of sausages and heating them up for brekkie with the eggs. That sounds ok?

Some kind of chickeny salady thing for lunch or the mushroom/ onion/ chicken or mince dinner sounds scrummy, all my favourite things ( sans pasta, rice etc. Hey ho)

have some serious digital body fat thing scales. I do remember craving fruit though and being desperate for an orange.

Four stone is fab, there must be nothing of you now I remember you saying you'd lost 31 pounds. Well done! I remember feeling quite energetic and being surprised because I usually feel rubbish even when not on a diet! How have you felt? Is it ups and downs like a low fat malarky or more steady? Questions questions. Sorry to be a pest

there are 100% beef burgers you can get which would be no carbs - or make your own ( mine always turn out shit)

i feel ok - my body is in a routine, it knows where its at - my weight is such that i take saturdays off and eat anything i want knowing that the week to come i will lose the 4 lbs or so i may put on that day. but sundays are shocking becuase of eating sugar on saturday - i feel hungry on sunday.

however when on the diet all the time, your body gets used to it's intake, i cant honestly say that i have felt more tired.

ooh tip- take vitamins. over winter i took vit c every day paranoid i was going to die from the flu so wanted to boost my immune system.

get a multi vit or something

I lost loads of weight no carbing but then of course, put it all back on. I'm going to try it again soon I think - either that or slimming world.

I just can't imagine not being able to treat, I socialise with clients a reasonable amount at fantastic restaurants and it would be hell not to have a pudding Let me know how you get on RB and all that info is fabulous Custy.

can you drink alcohol custy? Have you lost more weight since the xmas do as you were very slim then.

thanks! yes lost exactly 11lbs since the xmas do - i wanted to be 9.1/2 stone desperately for the do!

yes alcohol - pure spirits like gin vodka etc are ok - with diet coke or lemonade.

no beer.

you must be tiny now - are you at your target weight?

What you have to be careful of is that Atkins is a low carb, normal protein, high fat diet. Many people go off the rails and eat nothing but meat and that has so many unpleasant consequences.

The 20 grams of carbs is only supposed to be for the first fortnight as it's so restrictive, then you raise the amounts until you find the max you can have whilst still losing weight.

When my dp and I low-carbed long term a typical meal was something like a chicken breast (wrapped in bacon and stuffed with cream cheese is fantastic), or a couple of burgers, then green veggies (broccoli, green beans, cabbage) or salad.

Breakfast was berries and cream (check out how low carb frozen raspberries are!) or for a more yoghurty texture cream and creme fraiche (none of that low fat stuff - the full fat variety). I used to make pancakes with egg and marscapone cheese which we ate with diabetic jam.

Full of energy, and we still eat fairly low carb (rarely have bread or pasta in the house) because we just feel so much more awake on it.

I am very interested in doing this too - but I have a question....

about pooing..

I get really blocked up when I do Atkins, and it depresses me - how do you solve this issue????

pretty much, would like to be 8st 7lbs - so 3 to go - but have pretty much hit a plataeu and have started saturday treats ( which i absolutley love) i suppose i could forfeit a saturday and really put my heart into it, but i can't be arsed at the moment.

pollyanna, I don't know! there is a sugar substitute - ethynol? someone help me out here! it has a laxitive effect if you eat too much - take a look at the lowcarbmegastore site at the sweets section - most of the zero carb sweets have some chemicle sugar substitute and some say 'may have laxitive effect if taken in large quantities'

Could you just take Movicol or something? Put flaxseed (I think that is the right thing!) on your food?

Doing the Saturday treat thing, obviously takes you out of ketosis, do you get the 'down' symptoms when going back into ketosis over next couple of days?

i know its great oyu lsot weight but when do oytu segue back into a normal diet

ie one with fruit and veg

well i can't - it;s a lifestyle choice innit! been doing it year nearly

Pollyanna lots of water and m and s do sugar free caramels which have the desired effect!They are yum too.I have in the past done my own version with more veg and still lost a lot but as soon as I go back off it the weight returns virtually in days.Low carb is do able but v low like atkins you need to be driven like custy obv is.

ewe i don't know what the down symptoms are, i feel hungry come sunday when i go back into the routine

I wonder if you can maintain the loss with a low fat diet once you reach a decent weight as ketosis is not advisable in teh long term as organs do suffer

i eat veg btw. lots of salad and mushrooms - i get very defensive! sorry. todays meal - tuna mixed with mushrooms and onion stuffed in a bell pepper - healthy by most standards.

hmm
i did ww a couple fo times
all fruit and veg free the way i did it( so to encourage healthy eating)
i speak as someone who has had 2 bottle of wine between three ofus tonight and aHUGE risotto..