Please describe a non atkins low carb approach. And sorry for getting some ppl stressed...

As I have ruffled a few feathers in the past week, talking about choices I
have made in foods while doing a low carb diet, and referring to it as
"Atkins", I thought I would ask that someone tell me, if they are doing a
non Atkins low carb approach, how well it works, and if they are still able
to lose as long as they get exercise and keep their carbs low, but not so
low that they are on an induction style of diet.

what I am thinking is that while the induction phase of Atkins served me
well, I have read success stories from people who have eaten anywhere from
75-125g of carbs a day and continued to lose.

See, I lost almost 20 lbs on induction, but I was never dangerously
overweight, I was at most, 190lbs, and 5 foot 7 inches, but am now anywhere
between 168-190, and as I am muscular and have bigger thicker bones, I LOOK
slim, but am not the same weight as the same guy at my work of similar
build, who is 140lbs on a "heavy day".

I am after about 2 months (of induction, following it to the letter, not
even eating 10g of carbs), now finding it particularly hard now to lose the
1 inch of fat on my stomach, and to lose weight, even 2 weeks ago before I
started "cheating" the diet... I leveled off, and after I got over my
terrible chest cold, I found that I had hit a plateau.

Lately I have added weight training, cardio, and trunk exercise, and I hope
that this can help to trim that 1 inch from my waist. its especially
annoying, since I think I am one of the most impatient people I know, and
need to learn patience.

so if you can describe a general low carb day, then perhaps that can help
me.

thanks.

Steven C (Doktersteve) wrote:

so if you can describe a general low carb day, then perhaps that can help
me.

thanks.



My low carb approach has never been strictly Atkins.

When I was "put on" this diet by a kinesiotherapist I was seeing for my
back, he told me to cut out all forms of sugar, bread, potatoes and
other grains. He told me to eat all the fruit and vegetables that I
wanted and that I should have protein 5 times a day.

I then went out and discovered the glycemic index chart at
http://diabetes.about.com/library/me...nmendosagi.htm, so I
incorporated that into my plan also. I try to aim toward fruit and
vegetables on the lower end of that. This therapist told me that he has
oatmeal once a week, so I decided to allow myself that too. Oatmeal is
not one of the worst grains you can eat anyway, and it's supposed to be
good for your heart. After a few weeks, he let me start adding in
grains once in a while. Barley is about the lowest. Bananas are high,
as are raisins, and pineapple. So his diet is sort of a
modified-Atkins, and then I modified it even more.

In the early days (I've now been eating this way for about two years), I
drank a lot of protein shakes. I bought the lowest carb protein shakes
I could, and I mix the powder with Rice Dream. I know that Rice Dream
is not all that low carb, but I have food allergies/intolerances, and
that's what I got used to years ago.

My problem with oatmeal is that I really love it with brown sugar. So I
still need a solution for that. I've been eating that Hi-Lo cereal a
lot lately, with frozen berries mixed in, and Rice Dream as the liquid.
Perhaps I'll try oatmeal with those berries today.

I rarely eat bread now. I decided long ago that for me to be able to do
this for the long term, I needed to be able to sometimes indulge without
going overboard. So the rule I created for myself, is that if I am
going to indulge it has to be for the highest quality thing there is.
So I eat bread when it is homemade and straight out of the oven. I buy
only 100% whole wheat bread for my family so the rare instances when I
slip and eat a sandwich (once every three months or so), at least it's
as low glycemic index as possible.

I haven't eaten potatoes in ages, but I plan to make latkes for
Hannukah, and I'm going to eat them. Once a year, I can manage that.

I make a lot of omelets, for breakfasts and lunches. And for dinners, I
always make some hunk of meat with a couple of low-glycemic vegetables
on the side. We eat a lot of leftovers for lunches, so I don't miss
sandwiches. I try to follow the rule that I don't eat at all after
dinner time and before bedtime. That makes a big difference for my weight.

I do snack on nuts some times, but I tend to eat them without stopping,
so they don't come out every day otherwise my weight creeps back up.

We eat a lot of apples and pears because they are lower g.i. than most
fruits and they're filling. I've discovered Asian pears since we moved
to California a few months ago so we now have those around a lot too. I
don't know their g.i. I hope it's low.

Good luck. I hope you find a good way for you.
Rebecca

I first went on Atkins about 3 years ago and lost 40 pounds in 6 months. I
strayed off it since then and have gained back 50. It was tough to stay on
it because I'm not a good cook and there were few pre-prepared low-carb
foods in my area, so the variety in the diet was really lacking. I'm back
on it now, with a much greater variety of LC foods available. I've lost 10
pounds in 13 days, but I never followed a strict Atkins approach except for
maybe the first 3 days.

I allow myself 40 to 50 carbs a day. I don't count calories, but I probably
got up to about 3,000 on some days. Nuts are fine and I drink diet soda
laced with caffeine and aspartame. Most weekday mornings before work I stop
at McDonalds and order 2 sausage mcmuffins with eggs and then throw away
half the bun (the other half sticks to the cheese, can't throw that away!).
That's 29 carbs right there. But still I lose weight, so I'm happy with it.

In article AREEb.25826$Lu1.20326@edtnps84,
"Steven C \(Doktersteve\)" wrote:

so if you can describe a general low carb day, then perhaps that can help
me.

thanks.



For me it's pretty simple. I stopped eating pasta, rice, bread, potatoes,
and pastries/sweets/etc when I realized that those foods were making me
sleepy after eating them, and that I could eat seemingly unlimited amounts
of them and never feel satisfied. Along with working out (circuit training
at Curves) the change in eating resulted in weight loss. I tracked carbs on
FitDay for a few weeks, and I vary a lot from day to day. I think in the 2
weeks or so that I tracked, my lowest day was 20 something and my highest
was 70 something.

I am not the most adventurous eater, I have certain staples in my diet that
I mix up in various ways on various days to make meals. Here's what a
grocery list might be like:

Bagged salad with as many dark leaves as possible
Chicken
Steak
Hamburger patties
Frozen shrimp
Turkey sausage
Deli meat and various sliced cheeses
Shredded cheese
Fresh spinach
Cream cheese
Butter (Smart Balance, actually)
Ranch Dressing
Eggs
Mushrooms
Brocolli
Peppers
Tomatoes
Onions

So from these ingredients I might make scrambled eggs with cheese,
mushrooms, onions, turkey sausage

or

A hamburger patty or grilled chicken breast topped with creamed spinach
(melt a bit of butter and some cream cheese in a pan, add fresh spinach,
stir it all up until the spinach is the desired tenderness)

or

A super-salad with grilled chicken and/or shrimp, peppers, shredded cheese,
tomatoes, hard-boiled egg, ranch dressing

or

steamed brocolli with butter and/or cheese

or, when I'm hungry but lazy, meat and cheese rollups

Of course those above ingredients can be combined in a lot of different
ways, for a lot of different meals and snacks. For a while I was buying
pork rinds and using them crushed up as breading for chicken nuggets, but
it's time consuming, messy, and uses a lot of oil and I haven't felt up to
it lately, but they are good.

--
-Michelle Levin (Luna)
http://www.mindspring.com/~lunachick
http://www.mindspring.com/~designbyluna

This sounds perfect to me!~ We snack some evenings on a diet jello with
cool whip or 15 almonds, or a ham and cheese rollup. Don't forget the
water !

"Steven C (Doktersteve)" wrote in message
news:AREEb.25826$Lu1.20326@edtnps84...
As I have ruffled a few feathers in the past week, talking about choices I
have made in foods while doing a low carb diet, and referring to it as
"Atkins", I thought I would ask that someone tell me, if they are doing a
non Atkins low carb approach, how well it works, and if they are still
able
to lose as long as they get exercise and keep their carbs low, but not so
low that they are on an induction style of diet.

Protein Power is good, as is the Paleo.
The combination I use is part Protein Power and Paleo, and in the last three
weeks I have lost 26 pounds w/o having to do an induction phase.
But that is me.

Rules I follow:

1. Eat a nice large portion of protein at every meal.
2. Eat no refined sugars.
3. No grains.
4. No legumes.
5. As many green veggies per meal as I want.
6. Some fruit during each meal if possible.

Brought my triglycerides down from over 4000 to less than 400 in less than 2
weeks and now working my way down.
No stomach problems, sinuses have cleared, along with the skin.

So, now to do the convention around he

LC since 12/01/03
6'2'' 276/250/200

"Rebecca" wrote in message
news:taGEb.592679$HS4.4350956@attbi_s01...
My problem with oatmeal is that I really love it with brown sugar. So I
still need a solution for that.

Nature's Flavors makes a brown-sugar flavored syrup (sweetened with
Splenda). I haven't tried it yet.

http://www.naturesflavors.com/produc...oducts_id=3674

Pete wrote:
"Rebecca" wrote in message
news:taGEb.592679$HS4.4350956@attbi_s01...

My problem with oatmeal is that I really love it with brown sugar. So I
still need a solution for that.


Nature's Flavors makes a brown-sugar flavored syrup (sweetened with
Splenda). I haven't tried it yet.

http://www.naturesflavors.com/produc...oducts_id=3674






Thanks. That'd be worth a try.

Rebecca

Pete wrote:

"Rebecca" wrote in message
news:taGEb.592679$HS4.4350956@attbi_s01...
My problem with oatmeal is that I really love it with brown sugar. So I
still need a solution for that.

Nature's Flavors makes a brown-sugar flavored syrup (sweetened with
Splenda). I haven't tried it yet.

http://www.naturesflavors.com/produc...oducts_id=3674

Lemme tell you that all those Nature's Flavors syrups that look
like they would be very useful smell awful--and just the same.
--
Jean B.

I'm doing the South Beach Diet...it is low-carb and low-fat....more =
balanced nutritionally than the Atkin's.

--=20
katysails


"Women and cats will do as they please, and men and dogs should relax
and get used to the idea." - Robert A. Heinlein