ATKINS support thread - who's with me?!

[ElectricElephant]

Following on from my other post asking advice on Atkins, I'm going to give it a preoper go now and aim to lose 10lb by the end of September.

Who's with me - Katisha, Eyeballs, anybody else?

I'll start. This time last week I was 14 stone. I'm now 13 stone, 11lb. WOOHOO!

I'm in. I have been low carbing for a few weeks but have been a bit half hearted about it. Got slightly distracted by the Zoe Hardcombe diet but I know from past experience that proper low carb is the only way for me to lose serious amounts of weight.

Today I will finish off the dark choc and coke zero and will start proper induction tommorow.

Good luck! Have lc-ed many times in the past and know it works. But not for me atm. Too much like hard work. Maybe in a few months time when I realise that this extra weight isn't going to drop off like magic when I can get back to running

thank you

I've bought some digital scales and have resigned myself to the fact that it's cheese, meat, fish and eggs for the next 4 weeks.

If you're really lucky I'll keep a daily update going!

Ahem...accidentally posted this on other thread.

Right here we go then. I rather scuppered the strict induction by going to pizza express at lunchtime. Had the salad nicoise but didn't eat the bread it comes with. What really didn't help was the wine.

So...start again properly tomorrow. I don't feel it was too disastrous today but that has been my problem with it really - in the last couple of years I have frequently done "lowish carb" but not rigorously, consequently the weight hasn't come off. I think my body knows what is going on and resists letting go of any weight!

I have scuppered myself slightly as well - very good day, but having a couple of glasses of wine tonight with the intention of not having any at all for the rest of the month (that should be interesting!)

Also - horrific moment earlier when my new scales told me I was 4lb heavier than I thought I was! Hoping it's the 4 litres of water I've drank today, rather than enormous arse.

Tomorrow
Omlette for breakfast
Feta salad for lunch (no sweetcorn, tomatoes or peppers - boo), and a tuna snack for the afternoon.
Undecided for dinner - chicken something I expect.

Do you know if curry is allowed? (don't know if I can do without curry, esp as I'm not allowed chilli!)

Re curry - I often have just the curry without the rice or naan. Or popadoms. And if it's a homemade curry I have found cabbage to be an acceptable thing to have as a bed.

But probably not fine for induction unless you know exactly what is in the sauce, which otherwise will be thickened with something carby. Tandoori might be OK though.

But if you are doing induction then I would say stick to something safe.

I frequently have curries without any rice or naan, trouble is they're full of tomatoes, peppers, mushrooms, onions etc which I'm guessing are NOT good on induction.

DP has been wanting to do Tandoori Chicken for a long time - perfect, thanks for the suggestion.

While we're here - any idea how many carbs are in a glass of white wine (or do I not want to know?)

I wish they'd put nutrition advice on booze.

fatjac How much do you want to lose? I've been low-carbing for a week now, and it's wprked a little bit, but need to do it seriously now.

Is Coke Zero bad? ~panics~ I hope to god diet coke is ok?!

Does anybody know how much weight you can expect to lose during the first week of induction, bearing in mind I'm 14st and 45% fat (gross, isn't it!!)

Electric there is a carb counter here. There are others if you google.

I don't know how much you would lose in induction - the point of it is to get your body into fat burning mode really. I would have thought you would see a pretty encouraging drop though, bearing in mind this is not a crash diet.

oh, that's perfect, thanks Katisha. I am normally the Queen of Google, but in unchartered waters here

Ok this is day one for me. I know in order to get a good weight loss I have to be really strict. So no dark choc,nuts or wine for a few weeks.

I want to lose a lot of weight 4-5 stone ideally.

Coke zero is better than diet coke as diet coke contains citric acid which can affect blood sugar in some people.

Wine has about 10 carbs a bottle and spirits dont have any but alcohol should be avoided in the first two weeks as your body will burn off the alcohol before fat and its fat that we want to use for energy.

all do you think we should have some kind of weekly weigh in, or is that a bit too 'fat fighters'?

OK - well I have my last Diet Coke with me today, so I'll drink that and then not have any more (sob!)

I think officially Diet Coke is allowed so have it if you must I'm just trying to keep things as clean as possible. That means no pork scratchings pepperami or the like for a few weeks. I'm trying to stick to eggs, meat fish, cheese, salad and veg. Nothing processed or artificial.

We can have a weigh in if you like. I'll probably weigh every day to start with.

I am here, just need to get my head round it and sort out what I want to eat. I'm picky at the best of times so cutting out my favourite food group causes me ishoos I know it's a cliche but am aiming to be ready to go on Monday. It's my bday this weekend and I ain't low carbing on it!

phew
Only drink it at work, but find that it stops me feeling hungry, so might be useful for the next day or two.

Looking forward to eating lots of nice cheeses (although not too many obviously) as I've been depriving myself for months!

Meant to say everyone should take a note of their bust waist and hip measurements. Some weeks you will lose inches rather than pounds.

Good idea - I will measure when I get home

I live on diet coke and continued to drink it when I did this before. I still lost lots of weight and it didn't seem to affect it. I drink less of it in the colder weather but this summer I've been knocking it back

Happy Birthday for the weekend Eyeballs

Sounds like a good plan, you can't possibly do LC on your birthday, that would be madness!

god, is it normal to be this tired when starting induction?

I think it is. I feel crap today but cant belief that it is down to induction because I was already doing lowish carb to begin with. I feel rotten and am about to camp out on the sofa as soon as DH gets in from work. I'v just had some diluting juice because I thought I was going to pass out. Think I may have the lurgy.

Unless it actually is the lurgy, give it a couple of days and you will feel fine.
But I do find that low carb is pretty hopeless when you are ill and need stuff like toast and soup.
Electric have you got the book yet - it explains about the tiredness at the beginning. It's because of your blood sugar and stuff...

fatjac - sorry to hear you might have the lurgy - hopefully you'll feel better tomorrow. Drink lots of water

Katisha - Just reading through the book now actually. I don't feel too low on blood sugar, I actually think my blood sugar is starting to balance out already because normally by this time of day i'd be feeling quite shaky if I hadn't had enough to eat.

Right - my daily weigh in (because if I don't do this then I'll never keep this up - hope it's not too boring for you all) [end disclimer]

(starting weight yesterday was 200.4lb)
Day 1 - weight 199.8lb
Waist - 96cm
Bust - 112cm
BMI - 33.3

going to re-start my Davina torture device DVD over the weekend to sort out enormous Mum Tum.

So, what are you eating, I need inspiration. I'm having burgers with cheese tonight (no bun, just homemade mince ones) and salad.

apologies for the boredom factor.

I have just had a cheese omelette with runner beans. The runner beans are probably a bit carby but there weren't all that many, and I haven't grown runner beans all summer to decide I can't eat them now!
(Ditto tomatoes...)

Have just spent 5 mins trying to google runner beans and carbs. American sites haven't heard of them. I think on balance they are not too bad. I'm going to believe the one that says 4oz = 2.3g carb.

are they just called string beans or french beans in the US?