20 max carbs--is there a minimum?

[kath310]

Hello all!

I'm brand spankin'-new to the plan. Just finishing day 2 of induction. I'm PLEASANTLY surprised that I'm not hungry or craving sweets!! Yay! :D

Just a question about the number of carbs. I know during induction it's a maximum of 20 per day. Yesterday I had 7.9 and today I've had 14.7. I'm not hungry, but I just want to make sure I don't go into "starvation mode" by not eating enough.

My carbs are mostly coming from romaine lettuce, caesar dressing and eggs (hardboiled or scrambled).

Since it's only day 2, I haven't checked the progress on my scale, nor would I notice any change in my clothing or my energy level yet.

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated!!

Oh, and I'm drinking between 3-4 litres of water a day. I was barely at my desk today at work!! ;)

Thanks in advance for any help!!

....Kath :)

[Dean4Prez]

You're probably better off spending more of your daily carb "budget" on more vegetables. If you look at Table 2 from this site: http://atkins.com/img/assets/862/Volekand_Westman_Ketogenic_Review.pdf , you'll notice that the people on the two zero-carb diets listed tended to lose more lean body mass than those on the low-carb plans. Get at least 1 one-cup serving of the non-salad vegetables allowed on Induction, and maybe add some other allowable salad ingredients to your Romaine lettuce.

If nothing else, you've got a long way to go on this diet and you don't want to get bored by a limited selection.

[gilibel]

Hi Cath! :wave:
First of all, welcome to this board! It's *the* place to be, jam packed with wonderful knowledge and lovely people.

You've done a great job so far! Congrats.
I do however second what Dean4prez says about adding more variety to your vegetable ration. Your goal is to get to 20g carbs, anything around 18-21 is acceptable as far as I see it (that's where I kept it throughout my induction - which I kept going for a couple of months.) But you need the fibers (for your belly) and the variety (not to get bored with this WOE.) Try to add some other types of sallad (oak leaf, ruccola, endive - last one is a great source of fibers and hardly any carbs at all!), asparaguses or boiled pe-tsai (Chinese cabbage) with melted butter on top (yum!), broccoli/cauliflower, eggplant, turnips, waxbeans etc etc.

And don't forget to take extra calcium/magnesium/potassium as you flush minerals/electrolytes out with this high water intake, which otherwise could cause nasty leg cramps.

Oh! And please measure yourself thoroughly so you have good "start stats"! Sometimes when you don't see any change on the scale, you'll notice that you've still lost several inches! A great way of tracking your real loss is to create profiles here:
http://www.mybodycomp.com

Here is a great thread, BTW:
http://forum.lowcarber.org/showthread.php?t=94619

Best of luck! :sunny:

/gil

[orchidday]

From what I understand, your body can do fine with no carbs. They have done nutritional studies on the Intuit Indians in Alaska who consume virtually no carbs for a large part of the year, and they find no ill effects. But it is important for us to be eating at least 20 carbs a day for the fiber which is very important but also the micronutrients and vitamins that are only found in vegetable foods. Vegetables are too good for us to ignore and they are very low-carb. The Inuits would only consume meat and fat much of the year as the cold climate did not produce plant foods much of the year. It was found though, that they consumed the contents of the animal's stomach which did contain a minimal amount of carb foods....... Take Care - Orchid

[bzeus]

Very interesting! I did have a few days when I was below 10 carbs and wondered if this is safe. Now I know that it won't kill me, just don't do it all the time! :wiggle:

[kath310]

sorry this post is so late! but i just wanted to thank everyone for their responses!

just to reply to a few points:
i did take my measurements. after being on enough "diets" in the past, i was always sad that i didn't do this first to gauge my progress. this time i'm prepared to go the distance and change my WOE!!!

as for the "variety" in my menu....since i wasn't getting many vegetables, if any, in my eating before, having a caesar salad *is* a change for me. i know eventually down the line, i will want a change, but i'm really enjoying my salad at lunch and can't believe how full i am after lunch and the vending machines at work don't call my name!

i was a full blown skeptic before starting this plan....cut out carbs? i can't live without bread, pasta, rice, potatoes and the like.....after reading DANDR (about 1/2 way thru the book now, actually), i can understand why the other diet plans i was on just have not worked for me! yikes! i look at the carb count on my previous "safe" foods and i'm in shock.....and i thought i was being "good" when i brought pretzels to the movies instead of popcorn (lesser of two evils??)

anyway....i just wanted to thank everyone again for the responses. i've just finished day 4 and am not looking back!!!

of course, i started induction on sunday, and monday when i got to work, my friend had brought me 6 grapefruits directly from florida. i graciously declined, but i will miss fruit for the next few weeks (or more if i stay on induction!!) but that's ok.....at least my cravings are gone!! yay me!!

thanks again....kath :)

[gilibel]

Yes kath, yay you!! :D

You seem very well prepaired and I wish you the best of luck!

As for fruit, I thought I'd die of yearning for orange juice in the beginning (even wrote a thread about it, lol), but that craving is totally gone now.

If you miss the fruity taste sometimes, I believe there are lots of SF fruit flavoured lemonades to at least slightly compensate for it now and then. That said, best thing is to avoid SF stuff as well, with all the discussions on artificial sweeteners going on here.

On OWL you can indulge in some berries to begin with. I did a 3 month Induction, where I still kept at 20g carbs after the initial two weeks but adapted the OWL thinking by gradually trying out new OWL food. That worked splendid for me.

About the veggies - romaine salad, although very nice, doesn't contain that much phyto-nutrients and fibers as other veggies do, so you might want to check some alternatives/complements up anyhow.

See ya around the board! :wave:

/gil

[niudog]

My advice to ypu is to eat lots of brocolli. I feel it is "THE KING" of veggies and key to my success on the WOE. I couldnt believe how sweet brocolli tastes to me after cutting out all the sugar and processed crap from my diet.

Here are some ideas. Eat it raw at lunch. Put it in your salad, munch on it right out of a baggie for the cruchy taste. Steam it for dinner - top it with Mrs Dash or some melted cheese. Stir fry with some olive oil, just a tniy bit of soy sauce, splenda and garlic. Hope this helps!!!