Atkins on a budget

[Pearbear]

:wave: Hi. I'm new to the forum and to the Atkins Diet as well. This past summer, I found out that I am Reactive Hypoglycemic and needed to go on a low carb diet. Anyway, there's one problem with this...I'm still working through college and carbs are cheap. Does anyone know of an inexpensive way to stay on the diet? Also, what do you all do when you have to eat out? Are some restaurants better than others? (ex. wendy's better than burger king?) Anyway, thanks for your help! :wave:

[jescholler]

Tuna is fairly cheap. I usualy get 10 cans from sam's club for 5 dollars, or you can usualy find it for about $.50 a can in normal grocery stores. 2 cans is usualy plenty to eat for a meal when you mix it with full fat mayo. Good luck. And any restraunt is good as long as you just eat the beef patties and not the buns. A triple burger from wendy's would probably be the best for your money, but thats just my opinion. Good luck.

[Erin4980]

At first I thought that Atkins was way more than my only-eat-out policy (I am a college student too). However, after I got into a rythm I've food out it is much cheaper. I never cooked before, I mean never, so I never noticed how much the carbs add up;) Sushi here, taco bell there...I think I one point I was eating out for 4 meals a day $$$$. Anyway, if you have a stove/microwave you should be able to pull this off modestly. I make bacon, eggs, meatballs (make them once and keep 'em all week), salad, hamburger meat for taco salads, cheese , chicken (I make fried chicken, but that took 4 mo. of Atkins and cooking before I attempted that), and sourcream/ whipping cream, oh, and sf jello. It usually is less than 40 and that's a week!!!

On the eating out, I never want to buy hamburger onlys b/c it's like 3 bucks for double bacon cheese burger w/o the bun. I usually get the Wendy's chicken nugs - 12 carbs in 5. I stick with Wendys and KFC silly;)

Good Luck,
E

[kristin]

I'm pretty much a novice at cooking---used to only eat out or buy "lean cuisines". Now on Atkins, I get a hugh package of chicken thighs and legs weekly at my local grocery store (Fred Meyer) for only $2-3. I boil all of it for about 45 minutes, then have it for 5-6 meals over the week. I found an awesome BBQ sauce recipe on this site and found a low carb Italian dressing that I use on the chicken.

This week my husband and I decided that we're going to try a hugh boneless, skinless chicken breast package next time. Can use it for chicken stirfry, chicken fajitas, and chicken salad.

Speaking of salads, you can usually get a 1-2 pound salad mix for pretty cheap. You could add grated cheese, ham, and eggs, Italian, Bleu Cheese, or Caesar dressing.

Not really cheap, but pretty easy to fix (if I can do it, anyone can), is pork chops. I picked up a package of 3 pork chops for $4 today and "fried" them up (5 minutes each side), then put them in lunch containers --- 2 with BBQ sauce, 1 still plain--haven't decided how to dress it up yet.

And there's always eggs---boiled, scrambled, etc. Inexpensive and easy to cook.

Good luck to you!

Regards,
K.