hi everyone who wants to share their experiences .
i have the DANDR book but i couldnt find anywhere in it where it says anything about going off ketose to kickstart the process of weightloss.
i have been on induction for 4 weeks now and its working real good and all is fine . right from the start i promised myself that once a month i could have a day off where i could eat whatever i wanted.this has worked as a good mental tool when i really wanted something i couldnt have . i just told myself that the day would soon come that i could. what do all of you lowcarbers think? im pretty sure that i would be able to stick to the plan and just cheat for one day and no more. and off course i know i would have to go through the induction flu again.
tell me what you think or what your experiences are with something like this.
mylle

Hi, for me one day of anything I want WILL turn into 2 days, then 1 week, and so on. A carb hangover is worse that one from alcohol.
But with that said, everybody is different.

Take care
Astird

The fact that you couldn't find "cheat days" in DANDR should be a big red flag to you. It isn't there because cheat days are not a part of the plan. Only when you have reached your goal and begun Maintenance will you be able to have "off plan" days, and then only once in a great while.

You don't want to go out of ketosis. It is what is making your body burn stored fat instead of carbs for energy. But if you cheat, you definitely risk going out of ketosis, and sometimes it can be difficult to get it started again. In addition, cheating can often cause all your old cravings to return, making it extremely difficult to get back on plan.

A few people have posted that they always lose a pound or two after they cheat, but you want my own experience? I tried it. The only "result" I got was 6 long and miserable weeks of terrible cravings. I even had to fight off cravings for high-carb foods that I didn't like! I will never do it again. Never!

Look at the Introductions forum, and you will see post after post made by people who were sure they could get away with one or two days of cheating, but they weren't able to get back on plan for months, sometimes years. Now they're having to start over.

These are the dangers you face if you decide to cheat, but the decision is all yours. My advice? Don't do it!

Most people here will tell you pretty much the same as Astrid, that if you take one day off, it will throw you off, most likely result in going off for longer than what you originally intended, perhaps throwing you off plan for good, making you gain all your weight back, that all your cravings will come back, etc... And, perhaps, for alot of people that it true. But it is NOT true for everyone. It is up to you to decide if you want to take the chance. I did. I have one off meal a week, Sunday night, and then Monday I am back on plan. I have not had extra cravings, it has never extended past that meal, and I didn't go through induction flu again. Has it slowed my weight loss down? I don't know. I was losing very very slow before, and since starting my weekend cheat, the pattern of my weight loss has stayed pretty much exactly the same, slow and steady wins the race. For me, having that meal to look forward to at the end of week helps keep me focused throughout the rest of the week, and is a pattern I could potentially live with for the rest of my life, as it fits with the pattern of my life. Dh and I do this together and this is what works for us. As is said many time on this forum YMMV (your mileage may vary), so take my experience with that in mind.

Usually on lowcarb, cravings disappear. I wander if you still have those? If not, why would you cheat? My big problem was french fries, yesterday when I made some for my boyfriend, I looked at them, I remembered how good they taste but I did not crave them. So I said to myself: I`m not gonna eat those just because my memory is telling me to do so and risk being on a binge for 1 month! For me, if I eat one fries I eat 5 pounds of them. It`s like an alcoolic who cannot have only one beer!

Using food as a reward can be risky also. Finding new ways to reward ourselves can help a lot. One of my reward is: after I lose 10 pounds, I will go shop for smaller size!

i used to give myself off days once a month. that stopped when the third one sparked a stall that has lasted 4½ months.

This is a way of life so I don't think eating off plan once in a while hurts, as long as you have the self control to jump back on the wagon. I also thing rewarding yourself with food is a bad idea. If you want to minimize the damage of a cheat day, don't cheat for a whole day, just have one off plan item, like dessert for one meal, or some french fries with lunch, but take the bun off the burger with it, or something like that. It's small, it's controlled and you can jump back on the plan as soon as the fork leaves your hand.

All in my opinion, of course. Good luck.

Regal, that is so true, I find myself doing the same thing. I see a piece of fried chicken or a cookie, and I'm wrestling with the memory of how much I used to want that. But the person here and now can walk away from it. I wonder how long it will take for my way of thinking to really change, but I guess just this conciousness of it is proof it's happening.

Mylle, my problem is that the more I cheat the more i want to, and that becomes a very slippery slope. Conversly, I find the less i cheat, the less i want to, and this WOE becomes amazingly easy to stick with.

You may find, like dolphin, that your planned cheats don't get in your way. But sounds like you're planning a major huge cheat, if you thinking "induction flu" again afterwards? Perhaps instead of a whole cheat meal or day that would throw you further off than you'd like, you can just plan to occasionally eat the one thing you really are craving or missing?

This plan only works if you can live with it!

Also, I should add, my cheats aren't full blown carb fests. My last cheat, we went to Denny's and I had the chopped steak with swiss cheese and mushrooms that had a gravy on top, 1/4 of the garlic bread that came with it (gave the other 3/4 to my 3 kids, so it came out fair! lol) and a small slice of cheesecake, which I ended up not even eating the crust on. I also stay away from things that I know, once I start, I won't be able to stop, such as real soda pop. If I have a regular Pepsi, I am in big trouble. I used to joke around that I was addicted to soda pop, now I think that might have actually been true!

The bottom line is that, as someone else said, cheat days are not part of the Atkins weight loss phase of the diet. A cheat for me more than once has turned into a year or 2 off plan. I decided no more of that! I've decided once I get to maintenance, I'll be able to possibly take a few days off a year, haven't decided what those will be yet, but the rest of the time I intend to stay on plan at whatever carb level I settle out at, and I've come up with some reasonable substitutes that help me to do that. Will cheating work for you for weight loss? I don't know. I can tell that a weekly cheat day will not help your blood profiles in the long run. I can tell you that it is NOT provided for in the plan itself b/c Atkins is about ridding ourselves of that nasty food that made us fat and on the verge of disease. I can't imagine wanting to eat that stuff again on a weekly or even a monthly basis. Good luck and keep us posted!

Well said and I have to agree 100%. Despite the fact that I need to gain some weight, I am not cheating to do so. Rather, I am trying to up my good carbs as this is a way of life for me. Jill

no offense but 6 weeks ago i fell for one of these dumb threads that say the say thing: go off to jump start weight loss. in a nutshell it doesn't work. one day may not turn into two at that time but you'll find after a week or two you'll take another day off and so on. in six weeks i've gone off 6 times, before that i was strong for 3 1/2 months. although i've lost close to 60 pounds in 4 months and 3 weeks i would've lost 20 more if i didn't go off...

i'm just not as strict as i was before my 'planned cheat'.

Once I start eating sugar, I can not stop. The cravings are unbearable. I only have 10 pounds to lose but I have given up sugar for life. For me it is like an alcoholic having one drink. I know this for a fact because I am an alcoholic and sugar addict. Don't cheat. Cheaters never win.

In the DANDR, he says if you have cravings or at a stall, there is nothing wrong with doing a diet change of high carbs for 3 days and then when you go back on the diet you will see the dramatic results that you experienced the first time around (initial rapid weight loss). And this advice comes from the Dr. Atkins himself, page 218 under reversal diet. A 3 day diet low in fat and protein and high in complex carbohydrates. Dr. Atkins says at some point we should all try the reversal diet. The main point is staying in control of whatever diet you choose.

I started the reversal diet today and will restart induction on friday. I will keep you all posted on how much weight I loose in the next few weeks! Good luck to me! Good luck to you!