Atkins/Low Carb/High Protein - Anyone doing it?

[FrogBellyRatBone]

Lost 2st on Atkins but have since veered more to GL type diets. Unfortuntely don't seem to be able to stick to them like I could with Atkins.Still want to lose 3 stone (have put back on nearly a stone of the weight I lost) and am debating whether to go back on Atkins. Any opinions welcomed

It helps to clear ketones from your system.This stops you suffering from smelly breath. Apart from the fact that it's good for you anyway and most people don't drink enough.

Moonfrog - low-carb can help with IBS. It cured my DH's really bad IBS. But trust a GP to tell you how bad lc is . The medical establishment is slooooowly coming round to low carb but it won't filter down to GPs as yet. However - as far as I'm concerned you're still very welcome!

Moonfrog! I'm just glad you're still alive! (Little bit OTT I know!)

I too have irritable bowel and low carb does help with the bloated situation but I've fortunately never had a thrombosed pile.... oooooooo..... but I've seen a few!

I'm voting for you staying on this thread. If you really are going to go ahead with the GI diet just go light on the carbs and try having more beans than pasta/rice and have sweet potatoes as an alternative to king eddies! Alternatively ask Joelallie - I'm currently hero worshipping her knowledge of all things low carb!

Hi Emotional....

Ggirl/Joelallie....regarding the constipation can I just say that taking fybogel would be a much better option than senna.Fybogel(Ispaghula husk)is a very gentle bulk forming laxative which simply swells up on contact with water and increases the volume of the gut content helping it to move along. Senna however is a stimulant laxative which acts on the nerve endings in the gut, making the muscles in the intestine contract with more force and more often. The usual reason for constipation while on a low carb diet is low fibre intake - to get things moving therefore you need more fibre which is provided by fybogel, and it's fine to use on low carb diets.By the way it's not expensive, you can get it at any chemists and they have it on ebay - 60 sachets for £4.44 inc postage. I use the orange flavoured variety, you simply add a sachet to a glass of water twice daily. To start with use half a sachet and build up to 2 full sachets per day over time. Also I agree with Joelallie that you should be drinking lots of water

Well, I've pigged out over weekend (last supper type thingy going on), and am starting fresh again tomorrow. Will be doing the GL type diet, eating loads of fruit and veg, avoiding potatoes and any processed stuff.My plan is grapefruit, nat low fat yoghurt with sprinkle of seeds for breakfast, home made veg and lentil soup for dinner/lunch and whatever I'm cooking for dh and dd for tea/supper but in smaller quantity, and with loads of low gl veg.Also loads of water. Hopefully my gut will thank me.
Right I've waffled on enough - sort of verbal diarrhoea brought on by my enforced absence from here
x

mf - You should do whatever you need to make you feel better! I bow to your superior wisdom on bottom-related topics - I hardly ever suffer in that department luckily and not often even on lc so senna did the trick for me. I know my fil used fybogel when he had colonic cancer so I guess it must be good stuff. Hope you start to feel a whole lot better soon. One of my lc staples when on maintenance was butternut squash - a bit higher carb than courgettes - which is lovely roasted with garlic and olive oil (and chillies but those are my particular obsession which I don't expect everyone else to share )I used it as an alternative to spuds. Don't know it's GI count but it might be OK. I think that spuds are OK in some circs aren't they? New potatoes are good and baked if you eat them with something low-gi like baked beans. I enjoyed the food on low-gi but I got so confused about glycaemic loads and ended up with fluctuating blood sugars again which screwed me up completely.

Good luck!

ew - please don't hero worship me too much . I am not an expert by any means - I've just been hanging around doing lc for a while now and trying different versions of it so i've picked up a bit of info along the way. Anyway if you find you hate it and you are always hungry and you don't lose weight I don't want to become a fallen idol.....

hey everyone I've weighed in today at 14st 4lbs ,so have lost 6 lbs this week
I've bought the clark diet book and it looks really good so I'll be following that from now on .Just need to find the time to read the book.
Who was it that knew about the clark plan.
I think it's basically the atkins with more veg so pretty healthy really.
I took bisacodyl for my bowels and think it may be a bit too effective for me .I'll see how things go iyswim and get fybogal next time.

It is similar in principle to Atkins though I beleive that Clarke referred to Atkins as a 'meat fest'. More carbs, less meat perhaps, discourages snacks.

Evening all >

Well done Ggirl ! You're off to a brilliant start. Glad you got your little prob sorted Is it The New High Protein Diet that you've got ?

Well, I've had my first day back on GL today.
Breakfast - 1 grapefruit w/raspberries, nat low fat yog and seeds
Snack - 1 plum
Lunch - Home made veg soup (onions, leeks, lean bacon, carrots, celery, and red lentils, with chopped sugar snap peas added at end for some crunch)
Snack - 3 plums, 1 pear (I know... but the plums were very moreish and very small)
Supper - couple slices yesterdays roast pork with stir fried cabbage, Sp onions, red pepper, and courgette with peanut and chilli sauce. (Joelallie, I'm with you on the chillies - I use Busha Browne's Pukka Hot Pepper Sauce, crushed scotch bonnets, use with discretion.......)

Mmmmmmm.... was all yummy........ but by God you would not want to be downwind of me this evening I keep running to the front door to put my bum outside as dh is complaining about the smell. Good job we live in the middle of nowhere or I'd be getting some funny looks
x

ggirl - that is superb!

Its confession time........... had a double cheese burger from the golden arches............. resulted in horrendous wind and feelings of guilt. It also kicked off serious cravings for anything with refined carbohydrate in it. However, managed to resist the temptation but did have some kidney beans and coleslaw with chicken salad at lunchtime. Think I'm more bloated than usual as aunt flo is paying me an unscheduled visit! Will punish myself tomorrow morning with 10 hail treadmills, 5 hail crosstrainers and 2 hail rowing machine tomorrow at the gym!

MoonFrog - that meal sounded deelish!

OK - finally some progress!!

Waist - 28" (down from 29.5)
Hips - 38" (down from 39).

OK so it's slow but it's also TOM so am looking forward to perhaps a little more of the waist in a few days time [smile}

moonfrog - that sounded really nice - just my kind of food but I find that I'd be craving like made after all that fruit! . I really am a carb addict.

emotional wreck - don't worry about it now. Just try to get back on track. There is really nothing to eat at Maccy D's - even the salad dressing is packed with sugar. Tea, black coffee and diet coke is about it! Try L-Carnitine (holland and barret sell it) to deal with the cravings. Drink more water - sorry if I sound like a cracked record but it really does help.

Well done joelallie! your waist is now as wide as one of my thighs! Just kidding!

Must drink more water.....
must drink more water.....
must drink more gin, I mean water [hic]!!!

Weigh day - have stayed the same. Well and truly f*d off. Bad day at tw*ing work and am taking full advantage of my nickname.

am really tempted to join you all - I have 7 lbs that I just cannot shift!

I don't eat meat though (I do eat fish) - will I be able to do low-carb? can't thik what I'd have for breakfast even!

Hi Dinny.Yes I'm sure a low carb diet would help you shift those last 7 lbs..... at the 7 lbs.
For breakfst you could have mushrooms and egg,do vegetarians eat egg?Also cheese is low carb ,you could have one slice of wholemeal toast and cheese with mushrooms.On my diet I'm allowed one piece of bread a day and I find it best at breakfast,as it's easier to find alternatives for the other meals.

dinny - kippers? You could have scrambled eggs (made with cream and butter!) with smoked salmon.

Also - I know a few veggies who are lc-ing. Quorn is OK I beleive. Cheese and eggs are obviously OK. But if you eat fish as well the world is your oyster...or your mackerel or whatever . Some shellfish do have to be eaten in moderation though as they have a moderate carb count for some reason.

thanks, guys. so, can you give me a brief easy-guide (did glance at Atkins yonks ago but seems to complicated!) scrambled eggs for breakfast sounds nice (can you eat eggs EVERY DAY?) are you really allowed no fruit? what about yoghurt? and milk?

so, does this example menu sound right -

b. 1 slice wholemeal toast with scrambled egg
l. fish and salad/or veg
d. fish/Quorn with salad or veg

snacks - nuts

eek! isn't it really really hard to stick to?

Not complicated at all! You can eat as much fish, meat and eggs as you like and quite a lot of cheese. You can eat limited amounts of veg - mainly green leafy veg. Nuts in small quantities. Loads of water. No sugar. No starchy foods. See....simple It gets more complicated when you come off induction - as you can introduce more foods - more veg and different kinds and a few fruits (mainly berries).

If you are following Atkins bread isn't allowed at all. If you are following other plans (incl Clarke) then 1 slice of low-gi bread is permitted - strangely wholemeal isn't the best - Burgen soya and linseed is the best on for low-gi and low-carb.

And you don't have to worry about calories - to start with anyway.

Be prepared to get quite a few cravings to start with as your body gets used to doing without the sugar. Good luck.

thanks, Joelallie - what about milk? are there any good websites you recommend?

try this

No problem Milk is discouraged - ss milk is as high in sugar as it is in fat. I do use some in my tea bur very little, and cream in coffee. Youghurt is the same - unless you use greek youghurt - total is best - but in small quantities.

I use soya milk (unsweetened) in my tea. I started using it when I started low carb as I couldn't bear the idea of cream in tea. I actually prefer it now so have carried on using it. Soya milk is low carb - 0.2g per 100ml (Alpro Soya Milk)

Not doing very well on my GI diet ......I'm finding it difficult to stick to and am bloating like a michelin man, and the wind, . When I was on low carb I didn't suffer from wind at all. For some reason I find the really strict diets easier to stick to. I think the problem is my lack of willpower AF is due too, which means I'm craving sweet things with a vengeance.

Joelallie, if you don't mind me asking, how tall are you ?

Still having major problems with phone line so can't get on here as often as I'd like.

Keep up the good work. Pip pip.
x

moonfrog - I don't mind you asking at all - it's my excuse for being so heavy. I'm 5'11" so basically freak height

low gi is hard to do I find. I know that you are supposed to be eating low-gi foods and they don't make your blood sugar fluctuate so much but I am a sugar addict and the first taste of fruit or anything else sends me rushing for the chocolate. You do need willpower (which I don't have) but it works really well for some people and it's a really healthy balanced sort of diet.

hi,guys,i'm feeling a real need for some sugar ...right now.There's a huge slab of ds's chocolate birthday cake in the fridge and it's killing me.
I think the problem is that I had a few glasses of white wine tonight and it's brought me out of ketosis I think.I now would kill for somethin sweet.
I've just eaten 4 smarties from the top of the cake
May drive to the local shop for some sigar free chewing gum to cure the craving.

so, ggirl, do you know you'[re in ketosis when you've stopped cravign sugar? how long does it take to get into it?

good luck with the gum!