So for me, extreme rules often help. But that's just me. Once I started Atkins, I found tons of convenient, packaged foods designed with low-carbers in mind: ParmCrisps, SmartSweets gummy bears, Quest protein bars, Atkins Endulge chocolate-coconut bars, and my beloved Keto Bars , which come in dark chocolate coconut and chocolate peanut butter. I gave in.
I kept going for prepackaged, processed foods when I was super-tired or late at night. And while these items are great when used in a pinch, you shouldn't eat them almost daily as I ended up doing. After all, sugar substitutes can hurt healthy weight-loss goals. In July, the Canadian Medical Association Journal released a report analyzing 37 research studies showing sugar substitutes are linked to weight gain, not weight loss or even weight maintenance. It gets worse: People who regularly consume artificial sweeteners are at a higher risk for obesity, diabetes , and heart disease, the report shows.
While experimenting with Atkins, I had to either trash the standby meals I usually make at home or transform them using substitutes. Think: veggie noodles instead of spaghetti. Breakfast is always the hardest for me, as I adore cold and hot cereals. So, I had to plan ahead: I made an egg-chorizo-spinach-ricotta casserole that lasted so many days I had to put squares of it in the freezer.
But I got tired of that and other popular low-carb tricks. How much riced cauliflower and zucchini noodles could I eat before I pulled my hair out? So besides using carb-conscious recipe blogs such as Kayln's Kitchen , I turned to the source: the huge recipe collection on the Atkins website. Tired of eggs, cheese and meat in the morning, I found my new favorite breakfast alternative, the Almond Muffin in a Minute. You make it with almond flour and an egg in a mug in the microwave. Easy peasy.
And it totally did the trick. Logging your meals is more of a pain and less precise than it was with the Keto app. Packaged ingredients with brand names and major chain restaurants pop up in the search just fine, but not raw ingredients. Also, the quantities are limited.
How Much Weight Can I Lose in the Induction Phase of Atkins?
It gives you only one measurement type ounces or grams or cups and you have to go with that. You can customize, writing in your own ingredients, but then you have to know how many macronutrients —carbs, fat, protein—every single ingredient has. An app is supposed to do that for you. I live with my boyfriend, and we both share a love of cooking and eating well. It's one of the things that attracted me to him in the first place.
But on Atkins, cooking together was hard because there was so much I "couldn't" eat. He struggled to figure out what to cook because of all my restrictions. I ended up making zucchini noodles for myself when he made whole-wheat pasta. I washed Bibb lettuce leaves while he bought himself a brioche bun for our lamb burgers with whipped feta. According to DietDoctor , there are three levels of low-carb diets.
I got a little notebook to log all of my meals and snacks, and to keep track of how I was feeling each week. I even created a cheat sheet. I found myself using Google on a daily basis to search "how many carbs are in X food. Some of the results were pretty shocking.
Can you believe all-purpose flour has 95 grams of carbs? Then, I'd write down all of the foods I was searching to keep track of it for later. I asked my doctor if she thought a low-carb diet was a good plan for me, and she was excited for me to try it. She was not a fan of how I used to eat in college, so the idea that I was banning bad carbs was A-OK in her book. She once yelled at me when she heard I regularly ate "Fat Sandwiches" at Rutgers. Those have varying ingredients, but my favorite had a cheeseburger, French fries, and mozzarella sticks inside.
For this low-carb diet, however, she did stress the importance of eating a higher protein diet at the same time. Week 1 started off with a bang.
I got home very late Sunday night and didn't have time to prep a meal. Instead, I did it first thing on Monday morning, planning to eat some eggs while I cooked. Unfortunately, it turned out that I didn't have any eggs, so I just made my meals and left for work. I forgot my lunch and healthy snacks, but still managed to stay under 50 grams of carbs on Day 1. One of the first things I noticed within a day of dieting was that if I didn't have enough protein, my decreased carb intake had obvious effects in two areas in particular: my energy and my headaches.
During that first week, I think I went to bed between 10 and 11 each night, which is early for me. If I hadn't eaten enough protein for lunch, by the time I boarded my train at 8 p. I made almost all of my work lunches ahead of time, which mainly consisted of ground turkey which I love and spaghetti squash which, two weeks into my diet, I realized I don't particularly like. I only made it to the gym once that week because I was so tired, but I managed to go in the morning and actually felt amazing after my workout.
I did it on a day after having a high-protein dinner, which was almost always steak, tuna, or salmon. When I woke up, I felt recharged and ready to tackle the day. Week 2 fell on a challenging time for me: Fourth of July! I had BBQs and pool clubs to hang out at — and a bridal shower on top of everything else. How on earth was I going to stay within my carb budget? Well, I wasn't. But I did stay between 50 and 75 carbs for two days, back-to-back.
As for the other days that week, I got back into my carb-a-day limit and stayed on track. By Day 9, I began to realize that my regular carb consumption had been well over that of the "average" person. I chanced a Google search to see how many carbs were in my favorite ice cream treat and almost passed out.
A dessert I used to have at least three times a month has carbs. For comparison, soft serve ice cream only has 19 grams! Moving forward, I will officially be making the swap. It was during this week that I also realized I wanted some of my dietary changes to become permanent. I can't maintain this exact lifestyle forever, but there are simple swaps like eating a lot more veggies at every meal and not nearly as many dinner rolls that can drastically cut down my carb intake. I told myself that cookies needed to become an occasional treat. Added bonus: Even though I wasn't being as diligent about going to the gym, I began to notice a change in my tummy I had been waiting months to see.
In March and April, I'd gone to the gym nearly five times a week and never felt like it made much of a difference.
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Yet two weeks into this diet, I could already notice a difference in my body. By Week 3, I finally managed to balance my protein and carb intake enough that I was no longer getting headaches. My energy levels were back up, high enough that I even managed to go to the gym several times that week — in the morning! Another big difference I began noticing was that I wasn't as hungry as I used to be. I still wanted snacks if I saw them, but I no longer felt like I "needed" to eat them.
I also discovered a great lunch hack: I started eating "fake" chicken tenders, which used a variety of seasonings like paprika, salt, pepper, onion powder, and Parmesan cheese instead of bread crumbs. If I didn't have time to make my lunches early, I'd grab a protein-packed salad with egg and chicken in it or a low-carb turkey chili from my favorite lunch place. I knew before going into this diet that eating out would limit my options, but I hadn't realized just how limited my options would be until I walked into a mall's food court and couldn't find any dinner options.
However, I also found that any restaurant that serves steak or meals with a lot of protein is a perfect place to eat at on a low-carb diet so long as you don't eat a baked potato with that steak! The biggest challenge during this diet came toward the beginning of Week 4, when I went to my cousin's wedding. I did some research ahead of time, and it turned out that I could drink — but only white wine. And not Moscato, which is my favorite.
Armed with a few glasses of pinot grigio 5 carbs, each , a steak for dinner, and a chicken kebab on the side, I stayed well within my budget. I spent the entire night dancing and felt energized enough to make it to the after-party! The real temptation came the following morning when we got to eat breakfast at the resort.
My Low-Carb Diet Plan
Are you consuming hidden carbs? Advise them to read the labels on all sauces, condiments, beverages and packaged products to avoid ingesting added sugars and other carbs. Are you overdoing Atkins Advantage shakes or bars? Are you using more than three packets a day of noncaloric sweeteners? Sweeteners themselves contain no carbs, but the powdered agent that prevents clumping contains somewhat less than 1 gram of carbs per packet.
Those small amounts can add up quickly when the total is 20 grams of Net Carbs a day. Cut back to three packets. Are you drinking at least eight 8-ounce glasses of water and other fluids? Liquid helps with satiety, making overeating less. Suggest they track fluid intake and aim for a minimum of 64 ounces. Are you skipping meals? One reason we recommend a morning and afternoon snack in addition to three meals is to avoid the internal gauge that signals.