Induction lasts for two weeks (or more, if you wish).
OWL (ongoing weight loss) follows. This is where you begin to add foods, based on a pre-set grouping, in approximate five-carb increments. You can stay on each "rung" of the carb ladder for a week or more - some people go much longer to make sure they don't have adverse reactions.
You can skip a rung (like the alcohol rung, for instance), but you don't jump around. You should add them in the order they are published, as they are listed that way for scientific reasons.
You can read more about it on the Atkins Website, as well as the book. Here's an exerpt:
Are You Ready to Move Beyond Induction?
Before you even think about stepping up from Induction, consider the possibility of staying with it for a while longer.
A lot of people think of Induction as lasting only two weeks, but it can be followed for a longer time. If you have a lot of weight to lose or have difficulty losing weight, you might want to do Induction for quite a while. That way you'll see dramatic progress before moving on to the more moderate phases of the program.
Although Induction offers plenty of advantages, there are lots of valid reasons for progressing: boredom with the food choices, modest weight-loss goals (say, 20 or 30 pounds) and perhaps the chance to avoid becoming dependent on a crash-diet mentality. When people learn that they can lose weight quickly, as they do during Induction, they sometimes take their ability to lose weight for granted. They don't think in terms of a lifetime commitment to the Atkins Nutritional Approach™—just a quick fix for overindulgence. The result of this faulty thinking is yo-yo dieting and a metabolic resistance to weight loss. While the next phase—Ongoing Weight Loss (OWL)—may likely slow your rate of weight loss, this is not a bad thing. The slower the progress, the more chance you have to permanently change bad habits over the long term.
In order to decide if this is the right time for you to move on, ask yourself the following four questions:
Are you bored with Induction?
How much weight do you have to lose?
How metabolically resistant are you to weight loss?
Are you willing to slow down the pace of weight loss in exchange for more food choices?
If you are bored, and this boredom could lead to not complying with the rules of Induction, by all means move on to OWL after two weeks. However, if you are comfortable staying in this phase, and you still have a lot of weight to lose, you can do Induction safely for six months or more. If you do not have much more weight to lose, it is advisable for you to advance to OWL so you can cycle through all the phases of the program.
If you are metabolically resistant to weight loss—which you will know by how much weight you lost in the first two weeks and by comparing your results with the categories in the metabolic resistance tables (See What Is Your Degree of Metabolic Resistance?)—you will lose weight relatively slowly. People with high metabolic resistance can benefit from doing Induction longer because it gives them time to correct metabolic imbalances they may have developed over time. These include insulin resistance, blood-sugar imbalances, carbohydrate addictions and allergies. Once the metabolic imbalances are corrected, weight loss may speed up.
But after all is said and done, to a large degree, your decision to continue Induction or move to OWL will depend on your personality and lifestyle. If you are the type to just go for it and can easily make your life work around the Induction eating program, you may decide to stick with it until you drop some more weight. Another person, who perhaps is under a lot of stress and wants to relax a bit about food choices, might choose to move to the more liberal phase of OWL. This brings us to the last, and ultimately the only, answer that matters. Is a longer period of time until you get to your goal weight the trade-off you're willing to make to have more food choices? It's up to you. A young, active man who loses weight easily may chose to move to OWL after two weeks, while a menopausal woman who has high metabolic resistance may chose to stay on the strictest phase until she gets close to her goal weight. The decision is yours alone and is another example of how much individualization is possible on Atkins.
Moving Into Ongoing Weight Loss
As you leave behind the regimen of Induction, it's time to proceed with caution!
First of all, congratulations on reaching the first stage of your goal! Ongoing Weight Loss (OWL) is where you'll start tailoring the Atkins Nutritional Approach™ to fit your special tastes; it's what makes Atkins so unique and such a pleasure. But if you have decided to move to phase two, it's crucial not to cut loose and undo all the good work you have just completed. OWL has a couple of fundamental differences from Induction, but it is also very similar to it in that you will continue to derive the majority of your carbohydrates from vegetables low in carbs. You will add more portions of vegetables, and most people will be able to gradually add nuts, seeds and even some berries. It's important to understand that you will not be shifting significantly away from protein and fat to carbs, although you will be slowly changing the ratio of carbs to that of fat and protein.
In one sense, doing Induction is the easiest part of Atkins. You're following a strict regimen that almost always works. Now, as you learn how to liberalize that regimen, you will be re-entering the real world. That doesn't have to be the bad world of junk food and uncontrollable cravings, but it is a world of greater choice, and certainly one in which you will be closer to the place where weight gain is a possibility.
But you need to be careful not to muff this opportunity. Over the course of the next few months, you can teach yourself a whole new way of life that will keep you healthy for decades. That is what doing Atkins is really all about. When you begin OWL, you will be at a crucial stage for learning the parameters of your lifetime program. You'll find out what's the most liberal level of carbohydrate consumption your metabolism can handle while continuing to take off excess pounds. Once you learn how your body reacts and how quickly you can add new foods yet continue to lose pounds, you have the tools with which to enjoy of lifetime of slimness.
While you are doing OWL the one thing you don't want to do is get out of lipolysis and halt your forward momentum. Although more lenient than Induction, OWL will continue to allow you to dissolve fat. Expect a gradual decrease in the rate at which the pounds and inches disappear—this is a deliberate part of the plan. An important caveat, however: Allowing a few more carbs at this phase is not a license to return to your old habits of dining on foods full of sugar, white flour and other junk carbs. The quality of the carbohydrate foods you eat continues to be as important as the quantity. If you do fall back into those old ways, lipolysis and resultant weight loss will cease and you'll have to resume Induction. This phase remains a safe haven to which you can return if you get into trouble. You would then stay on Induction for a few days to get your metabolism fired up again. When you're in lipolysis you can start OWL again, this time moving more cautiously.
Before we get into the specifics of how you will actually do OWL, take a moment to focus on the positive changes you have already begun to enjoy. Now you—not that nameless, food-obsessed demon—are the one in charge of your appetite. And what delicious things you can have on your plate! In all likelihood, the crispy duck in Chinese restaurants or cheese omelettes garnished with thick slices of avocado were among the luxuries you had to do without when you were watching your fat intake. Also remind yourself that you're on a nutritional plan that's healthier than any other one you've tried before.
How to Follow Phase Two
Learn how to add up those grams of carb intake and you'll be rewarded with the ongoing subtraction of excess weight.
There are three key differences between Induction and Ongoing Weight Loss (OWL). The first is obvious: You will consume more carbohydrates. Second, whereas during Induction you ate your protein and fat foods—plus three cups of salad and other veggies (and the special foods such as avocado, olives and sour cream)—OWL allows you much more choice. That means you can now craft a weight-loss regimen that is uniquely yours. But it also means—and here's the third key—that counting carbohydrate grams is truly your responsibility.
If you don't count, you could get in trouble. Fortunately, counting is easy with the help of a carbohydrate gram counter, which will familiarize you with the number of grams of carbs in common foods. (A copy of Dr. Atkins' New Carbohydrate Gram Counter, for example, is a good resource.) After you have been following the Atkins Nutritional Approach™ for a while, you will begin to have a natural feel for the carb counts of your favorite foods, but it is always a good idea to keep your carb counter handy so you can check out new or unfamiliar foods.
The Power of Five
These portions contain roughly 5 grams of Net Carbs. Food groups are arranged in the general order in which they should be added.
Vegetables1 cup cooked spinach 2/3 cup red bell peppers 1 medium tomato 1 cup cooked broccoli 12 medium asparagus 1 cup cauliflower 1/2 cup chopped onion 1/2 California avocado 2/3 cup summer squash Dairy5 ounces farmer’s cheese or pot cheese 5 ounces mozzarella cheese 3/4 cup cottage cheese 3/4 cup ricotta cheese 3/4 cup heavy cream Nuts and Seeds1 ounce of: macadamias (approximately 10 to 12 nuts) walnuts (approximately 14 halves) almonds (approximately 14 nuts) pecans (approximately 14 halves) hulled sunflower seeds (3 tablespoons) roasted shelled peanuts (approximately 26 nuts) 1/2 ounce of cashews (approximately 9 nuts) Fruits1/3 cup blueberries (fresh)3/4 cup raspberries (fresh)3/4 cup strawberries (fresh)1/4 cup cantaloupe or honeydew Juices1/4 cup lemon juice 1/4 cup lime juice 1/2 cup tomato juice
Convenience Foods
You can select from the variety of convenience foods (bars and shakes are the two most available), but be sure to determine the actual number of digestible carbohydrates in any particular product.
The Carbohydrate Ladder
As you move from one level to another, add carbohydrate foods back into your diet in the order that follows. Your ability to add all the food groups back depends upon your degree of metabolic resistance. For example, someone with high metabolic resistance would probably not be able to add legumes back during Ongoing Weight Loss (OWL), while someone who is young and works out regularly might well be able to do so. Few people can add back all these foods during OWL. Adhering to this order tends to minimize blood-sugar surges that could reactivate cravings:
· more salad and other vegetables on the acceptable foods list
· fresh cheeses (as well as more aged cheese)
· seeds and nuts
· berries
· wine and other spirits low in carbs
· legumes
· fruits other than berries and melons
· starchy vegetables
· whole grains
The Purpose of OWL
Induction takes weight off quickly, but Ongoing Weight Loss (OWL) lets you personalize the Atkins Nutritional Approach™ to your tastes and needs.
On OWL you will:
· continue to burn and dissolve fat
· maintain control of your appetite sufficiently to control cravings
· learn your threshold Level of Carbohydrate Consumption, which will allow you to continue to lose weight
· eat a broader range of healthy foods, selecting those you enjoy most
· learn to make the most nutrient-rich choices among carbohydrate foods
· deliberately slow your rate of weight loss to lay the groundwork for permanent weight management
Rules of OWL
To be successful on OWL, remember to:
· keep protein and fat as the mainstays of your nutritional regimen
· increase your daily carb intake by no more than 5 grams each week
· add new foods in the order listed in the carbohydrate ladder
· add one new food group at a time
· eat a food group no more than three times per week to start, then eat it daily
· stop new foods immediately if they provoke weight gain, the return of physical symptoms lost doing Induction or increased appetite or cravings
· continue doing OWL until you have five to 10 pounds left to lose
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