12yr old and low carbing ?'s

[p31woman]

Hello, I just found your forums today and am I glad! :O)


My dd started Atkins about 4 weeks ago with her step-dad and I. She has done really well. I would like to allow her more food choices though but not stop her weight loss. The problem we have is that she flies to her dads for 4-5 days every month. They (bio-dad and stepmom) find the Atkins diet hard to follow and think it is an aggravation. My dd's dad wants her to lose weight though so they are trying to follow the diet. They don't cook; every meal is eaten out, except breakfast during the week (she fixes that herself).

I was wondering if dd could add about 6 oz. milk, yogurt with Splenda, some more fruit, Nature's Own low carb bread (it's sugrar free too), and some other starches like potatoes and pasta (in very small amounts) to her daily/weekly menu and still lose weight.

Here at home she eats the Nature's Own bread but no yogurt, milk, potatoes, or pasta. She eats veggies, eggs, chicken, beef, pork, oatmeal (about once a week w/Splenda and Twin brown sugar), sf jelly, sf salad dressing, cantalope once in a while & some peanut butter.

She has learned to look at the labels on food and won't eat it if it has more than 3 grams of sugar and 10 carbs per serving. She likes some of the Atkins bars and sometimes has an Atkins shake.

Thank you for any advice and input.

~p31woman

[CathyOh]

I think if your daughter likes yogurt you can try some full fat yogurt with some berries added or some of the lite yogurt sweetened with splenda if you can find it. See if it causes problems or not. I personally wouldn't add the potatoes, etc unless she is close to goal. Not sure if you're looking at adding these foods mainly when she's visiting her dad or all the time. If she likes veggies and salads there are plenty variations here to keep her satisfied.

As far as visiting her dad and having to eat most meals out hopefully she 's going someplace where she has the option of salads (if she eats them) or veggies to go with her protein. You might want to teach her to make some low carb pancakes. I make a batch at the beginning of the week and my soon to be 14 year old LCing son warms them up for breakfast every morning.

Cathy

[Lisa N]

I personally wouldn't add the potatoes, etc unless she is close to goal.

I agree and even then only in small amounts. Potatoes and pasta are far higher in glycemic value than plain yogurt or milk. The bread might be okay, although sugar-free is no guarantee of a low glycemic value.
Keep in mind, too, that if she's going to increase her carbs she needs to be decreasing her fats at the same time or you are just increasing calories all around and the weight loss could stop or reverse if she goes too much past her critical carb level for losing or maintaining.
Eating in restaurants shouldn't pose too much of a problem as long as there are salads and other low carb veggies on the menu and everything isn't breaded and deep fried. I haven't found too many places yet where I couldn't get at least something low carb, even if it was just a salad.

[DannysMom3]

Here are some ideas for your daughter if she goes out to eat a lot with her bio-dad:
1.) Order salads with meat - i.e. chicken salad, chef salad, tuna salad
2.) If they go out for Italian - she can always just eat the TOP of the pizza - that's what I do when I get those bad pizza cravings :D
3.) If they go to "American" places - get a bacon cheeseburger, and instead of using buns use lettuce! (Tell the waiter to hold the ketchup!!!)
4.) As for Asian foods, stick to veggies and meats (not Orange Chicken, even though it is the best thing on the menu IMHO!)

There is no need for her bio dad and step mom to follow the diet - my DH does NOT follow the diet at all, and I still am very good at watching what I eat. Just tell her to stick to meats, cheese and salad, eggs, bacon and diet soda for 4 or 5 days - I'm sure she'll do just fine!