ATKINS & OTHER LOW-CARB TIPS
- If possible, give or throw away any leftover high-carb foods you may have in
the house. I gave most of mine to a local food bank and the rest (like opened
boxes of crackers, flour, etc.) to friends and relatives or even the trash.
- READ THE LABELS! Just because something SAYS it's low-carb, that doesn't mean
it IS. I got a free sample of something that is sold as a low-carb item, but it
had 17 carbs AFTER subtracting the fiber and even sugar alcohols! That's not
low-carb in MY book. If I were on induction, it would have taken up almost ALL
the carbs for the entire day!
- One thing I was told about (via the Atkins book) (but it didn't sink in for the
first couple of weeks until I saw a post here) was that I could SUBTRACT the
fiber count from the carb count of items, so if an item has, for instance, 5
carbs, but 2 of them are fiber, the NET or EFFECTIVE carbs are 3. That's
important to know when you are limiting carbs to 20 for the first couple of
weeks! (NOTE that in some countries, the fiber is PRE-subtracted on the label.)
- Pay attention to the SERVING SIZE on the nutrition label. What might SEEM to
be a good deal carb-wise (or calorie-wise, for that matter) might actually be a
miniscule portion and is almost NEVER an entire container's worth. For instance,
YOU might think an entire can of something is ONE serving when, in reality, it's
2.5 servings.
- Pay attention when something SAYS it's zero carb per serving. US law allows
anything between 0 and .5 carbs to be labeled as ZERO carb and anything between
..6-.9 carbs to be <1 carb. It's safer to count 1 carb or at least 1/2 carb for
these items. For instance, my heavy cream says it's zero carb per Tbl, but it
actually has about .5 carb, so an entire cup actually has EIGHT carbs. That can
make a big difference when your carb budget for the day is only TWENTY carbs!
- Keep track of what you eat. Fitday.com is an EXCELLENT way of doing this. I
use an Excel spreadsheet myself. You'd be AMAZED at how much it can help you
plan your day (or just finish it based on what you've already had -- you may need
more or less foods or types of foods).
- Measure and weigh! It's the only way to truly know how much of anything you
are getting and eyeballing it can be deceiving. You may be eating more (or less)
of something than you thought. I bought a bunch of sets of measuring spoons at
Big Lots (49 cents for a set) because I use so many of them.
- If you have trouble with portion control, try using smaller plates or bowls so
that the servings fill the plate. Also, 1/2-cup Pyrex bowls come in handy to
hold reasonable size servings of Jello, olives, nuts, etc.
- Trader Joe's is a great place to find all kinds of great low-carb stuff if you
have one in your area.
- The general consensus of this newsgroup seems to be to STAY AWAY from the low-
carb bars & shakes, at least during induction. It is felt by many that the sugar
alcohols used to sweeten them can a) have a laxative and/or STRONG gassy effect
(that means you aren't metabolizing them and absorbing many of the carbs), or b)
some people DO metabolize the sugar alcohols, so they ARE eating the FULL carb
amount, not just the net carbs (but hey, you're not crapping your pants). I view
it as a damned if you do and damned if you don't proposition, so pick your
poison. They may be convenient, but they aren't NECESSARY for low-carbing. They
are also VERY expensive and often taste like dirt. As you experiment with
cooking and eating different things, you'll find yourself gaining a whole new
appreciation for truly GOOD foods and won't want to WASTE your precious carbs on
something that isn't really WORTH it. Many of us find that we'll buy something,
decide it's not that great and simply throw it out because we KNOW we can do
better than THAT :-)
- Aspartame can trigger cravings in some people. Splenda usually goes over very
well, although some people DO have problems tolerating it. I switched to using
liquid Splenda in a syrup base, which truly has zero carbs, as opposed to
packets, which have about .5 carbs each. Unfortunately, the manufacturers of
Splenda have licensing issues with small companies creating liquid Splenda in
syrup bases, so supplies are now dwindling down to a trickle.
- Caffeine can trigger cravings, but if you are addicted to it via coffee, taper
off slowly to avoid excruciating caffeine withdrawal headaches.
- Make a big batch of hard boiled eggs to keep in the fridge. When you find
yourself opening the fridge out of habit, you'll see them and hopefully make the
right choice. They are great to stave off hunger, AND they're nutritious and
versatile.
- Be sure to get enough fat. You can add olive oil and/or butter to all kinds of
things, have whipped cream or bacon (Trader Joe's carries a brand that does not
use sugar to cure it).
- Make your own Jello using unsweetened Kool-Aid, Splenda and gelatine.
- EXERCISE! If you can, do some kind of weight training. Muscles need extra
calories just to maintain them, so the more muscle you have, the faster you'll
burn calories even when you're just sitting around. My body DEFINITELY changed
for the better via exercise even though I had not lost a significant amount of
weight.
- Take measurements at the beginning so you can keep track. Sometimes you won't
see any change on the scale, but you will lose inches. In fact, I can usually
tell I've lost weight that way and the scale doesn't reflect it for another few
days. Besides, it's a great feeling to make comparisons when you DO lose the
inches :-)
- Don't get discouraged when your weight loss slows down after about 3 weeks. A
good portion of weight lost during induction is water loss. That's because,
without a large amount of carbs in your diet, your body will start to use up its
emergency store of glycogen in the liver. Each molecule of glycogen has about 4
molecules of water bound to it, so when it's freed up to use as energy, the water
is shed. After that, the body will turn to fat to burn for energy, and the loss
will most likely slow to 1-2 lbs per week. Some people lose more, some less.
I'm one of the "less" :-( I usually lose only 2-4 lbs per month, if that, but
I'm also fairly sedentary when I'm not actively exercising. Also, the heavier
you are to begin with, the faster you'll lose weight comparatively speaking, at
least that seems to be the tendency. As you get closer to your goal weight, the
weight will come off more slowly.
- Check out the progress photos that people refer to. They can be VERY
inspirational! In fact, if you don't have a digital camera, GET one! You can
take photos in the privacy of your home by using the timer feature and keep
taking them until you get one that you are satisfied with. It's a good way to
gauge your progress. You don't have to share them with ANYONE if you don't want
to -- you can just tuck them away in a folder on your PC. Like taking
measurements, you'll be glad you did this at the beginning, even if you don't
like what you see at the moment.
- If you can, take your scale to your doctor's office and compare your weight on
it vs. the balance beam. Trust me, you do NOT want to THINK you are a certain
weight only to be crushed later to find out you actually weigh 10 lbs MORE than
that the way a some of us have. It's better to be brutally honest with yourself
at the beginning and just move on from that point.
- If you're a woman, your weight may go up during PMS. You probably already know
that, but keep it in mind. I chart my progress and can always tell when it's
about to hit due to that (I'm in peri-menopause, so I NEVER know whether it's
going to be 2 weeks or 7 weeks apart). Many women lose the extra weight within a
couple of days of starting their period (usually referred to as TOM (time of
month) here), but some of us don't lose it until AFTER our TOM. No amount of
logic, however, can quite overcome the dismay this temporary gain causes, so try
not to let it get to you too much. This, too, shall pass (literally). Just stay
the course and wait it out!
- Think outside the box. You don't HAVE to have eggs, sausages, bacon or cereal
for breakfast -- you can eat ANY kind of food (on plan, of course) at ANY time of
the day or night. Have leftover stew? It would make a LOVELY breakfast! How
about some chicken (I sometimes have hot wings for breakfast)? A nice salad
would work, too. Be creative!
- Be sure to get lots of fiber in your diet. Eating more protein and fat than
carbs can have a constipating effect. The combination of fiber and water will
hopefully keep things moving. Don't be surprised if you aren't having bowel
movements as often, though, since digestion takes a little longer and there isn't
as much volume as before.
- Read and post here often. This group has been INVALUABLE to helping me stay on
track. And people are here pretty much 24 hours a day. By the time I get to
bed, people in the UK are getting up :-) I get SO many ideas here that never
occurred to me before, and LOTS of recipes. If you have questions, just ask. If
YOU thought about something, someone else probably did, too. Just having a place
to brag about or bemoan certain changes is GREAT, because we GET it ;-)
- The 3 numbers people tend to put in their sigs are starting weight/current
weight/target weight.
- Pertinent words and common misspellings: 1) Lose/Loose -- when you LOSE
weight, your clothing becomes LOOSE. 2) Weigh/Weight -- you WEIGH yourself on a
scale to determine your WEIGHT. 3) Atkins/Adkins -- there is an ATKINS diet;
there is no such word as "ADKINS" pertaining to low carb.
- Ignore the trolls. They're fairly easy to spot. Some people can be abrasive
or abrupt, but they often mean well, so it's good to get to know their style
before deciding to filter them out (of course, that pretty much applies to ALL
newsgroups). Personally, I think life's too short to waste on perpetual
[censored]. JC Der Koenig is a resident troll -- he WILL insult you, ESPECIALLY if
it's one of your first posts. If he doesn't, then he's having an off-day
(possibly even hospitalized with no internet access). I recommend IGNORING him;
DO NOT consider him to be a representative of the newsgroup -- he apparently
LOVES angry responses, so replying to his nasty digs will only make him feel
BETTER, and you don't want THAT, do you?
After almost 14 months of doing Atkins, I've learned to just keep staying the
course and it WILL pay off, even if it IS taking longer than I had hoped for. I
look and, more importantly ***FEEL*** SOOOOO much better eating this way that I
have no intention of ever going back to the way I was eating before. My joint
pains have eased considerably, my IBS symptoms have COMPLETELY disappeared and I
have WAY more energy. I still have about 24 lbs to go to get to my goal, but the
difference in just my face after 56 lbs lost is WONDERFUL! I look like ME again!
This way of eating (WOE) has given me something I thought I had lost: HOPE, and
HOPE is a POWERFUL thing to have!
--
Saffire
205/149/125 - 5'1.5"
Atkins since 6/14/03
Progress photo: http://photos.yahoo.com/saffire333