Hi all

This is doing my head in!

How much EXACTLY is "a cup"? in OZ or grams or litres whateva, just please tell me the official meaning of "the cup"!

I tried to calculate it from the book, but not making ANY sense: You are allowed 3 cups of salad veggies (340 g) so this makes 1cup= ~113g

But

if you add 1 cup of other veggies(up to 200g) it makes 1 cup=200g! It doesn;t make sense! Its a double the difference so what is correct?

Finally, is 4 Oz = 110 g = 1cup?

Thanx!!!!!!!

It depends. A cup of feathers weighs diferently than a cup of lead. A cup of liquid is 8 ounces.

Generally speaking, I don't think you have to limit salad greens, they are so low in carbs, might as well have as much as you want.

I remember one guy used to define a cup of salad greens as to what he could compact into a cup with a jackhammer.

I was told that a cup of salad is approx the size of a fist. I am back on induction and am using this as my measure for salad on my plate. I don't think one can transfer weight to cup measure when it come to salad.

I feel the same way about metric. Personally, I measure in "heaps" and "blobs".

I agree that the exact measurement of salad greens isn't really important. I just put a pile on the plate...

Yes. But 1kg of feathers is exactly the same as 1 Kg of lead. Which is where the confusion lies. If we are going to go on a diet so sensitive to every little gram of carbs, then we cannot be measuring the essential food with vague measurments such as THE CUP! What kind of "cup"? Black cofee cup? Tea cup? Macdonalds Milkshake cup? Medium or large? Do I squash veggies or let them be loose? See the confusion.

I decided to write to Atkins about it, asking them to clarify the size of THE CUP, cos I am not happy to do a vague diet with strict carb allowances ??!!?? STRICT and VAGUE don;t mix. Every vegetable and salad has carbs, so we need to know.

The Atkins site is now showing that we are allowed 3-4 cups of salad veggies. Previously it was 2-3 or in book is written that this makes up to 340g.What is the limit now? Do I add 100g, opr 113g or 200g? That's a big difference!



With all due respect, I would advise people to NOT follow this advice. Each salad contains some carbs, even the basic round lettuce 100g contains 1.7g of carbs! Out of 20g allowed, that is a pretty high procentige. First time round on Atkins, I measured every little gram religously and my diet went smooth with 20Kg lost! I love both salad and veggies and I would definitly eat MUCH more then 20g if I was to listen to myself So i really need Atkins to clarify this for everyone, weaather it be in Ounces or grams, but stick to one for Pits sake! The book is driving me bananas,where one page is cups, other is grams, next one is OZ! Why is it so messed up!



I can see his point. That would be my logic as well. Does the cup mean compacting the veggies or leaving them loose? Round lettuce is taller then a cup, does that mean I can only eat the bit that is inside?

I know I'm being tideous now, but there are so many people who are eating this diet the wrong way and wonder why they are not loosing weight. In fact, I was shocked to realise that many people think that eating veggies was completely unnececery!

in america - a cup is a measurement for dry and liquid items.... according to my bag of salad greens (romaine specifically), 85 grams in weight equals approx. 2 cups.... hope that helps.... I think the cup used in the atkins book is not a weight measure but a volume measure.... so a cup of broccoli would weigh a lot more then a cup of romaine lettuce greens...


hth

And the Atkins book (DANDR) specifically mentions "1 cup lettuce, loosely packed."

I, however, have always used the fist-method. I like the sound of the "blob" or "heap" method too. Might make for a little variety.

Like Nancy, I never fussed too much about lettuce, even during Induction. Fussed much more about the other veg measurements, as they were so much more carby...

It might seem odd that they would choose volume measurements for veg, but in the US everyone uses measuring cups--diff ones for dry-measure and for liquid-measure--so most of us have it in our heads what a "cup" (for dry measure) holds.

...BTW, it's about the size of a small fist.

Lucy

[QUOTE=Gee1With all due respect, I would advise people to NOT follow this advice. Each salad contains some carbs, even the basic round lettuce 100g contains 1.7g of carbs! Out of 20g allowed, that is a pretty high procentige. First time round on Atkins, I measured every little gram religously and my diet went smooth with 20Kg lost! I love both salad and veggies and I would definitly eat MUCH more then 20g if I was to listen to myself So i really need Atkins to clarify this for everyone, weaather it be in Ounces or grams, but stick to one for Pits sake! The book is driving me bananas,where one page is cups, other is grams, next one is OZ! Why is it so messed up!
[/QUOTE]


With all due respect... if it went so perfectly the first time then why not measure things the same way? As for me, I lost approx 50lbs within a 6 month period and have maintained it for a year and through a pregnancy and I have to say I agree with potato. I used her method of measuring greens and it worked perfectly for me. I did use Atkins carb list list for re-introducing higher carb foods though.

Jenn

Okay, if you really want your head to explode....

If you measure exactly 3-4 cups of greens, using my dry best, most accurate measuring cup... even counting the microscopic amounts of carbs in the exact, measured amounts of cheese allowed. You are NOT going to come near the 20 gram allotment he gives, especially when you subtract the fiber grams as he instructs.

I figure the cup measurements were given as a reference for people who are starting out, so they have a rough idea of how much to eat until they get the hang of carb counting.

I personally think people who think Atkins is just eating meat and cheese, or fat fasting, or doing a 600 calorie modified fast are playing foolish games with their health... but I guess all I can do is eat THEIR share of veggies and hope they wise up!

Becuase Atkins web site now states we can eat 4 cups of salad veggies and I wanted to how much is that in grams exactly, so I started this thread. I love veggies and although true, I can do the diet as the last time,I don;t see why, if I can eat another CUP of veggies, I shouldn't. I just wanna know how much is a CUP. Like I said earlier, I need exact amounts, since you have exact amount of carbs allowed. I dont understand how do you guys count your carbs if you don;t weight your veggies? I'd be worried I went over the limit.



Maintaining the diet once you reach your goal, I can see that a loose CUP is not a problem as 5 grams up or down will not make a difference. On induction however is different cos every gram counts. I just want to do what Atkins advised exactly.

I managed to maintain my weight loss for 1.5yrs, but then decided I prefer chocolates, bread and pizzas. I knew I'd put on weight,my fault really. So back for round 2.