Going for a blood work up tomorrow and am 1/3 thru the Atkins book... I have a question: When it says zero carbs on the label of a jar of chunky blue cheese dressing can I have as much as I want? When it says 20 carbs to start, can I eat as much as I want as long as I stay under the 20 garb limit? There has to be something wrong if I can! I am capable of eating 4 lobsters at a sitting and maybe 2 chickens... (skinless?)

I quit smoking 4 packs a day 6 years ago, stopped drinking a couple of boxes of wine (a week) last December and now this.

My husband says (we are retired) that we have everything but the way to enjoy it is to be healthy. He is chunky, I am morbidly obese. 5'9" and size 24 (American). I can't buy decent duds, but I can buy good steak! I am glad to be "here" and look forward to stepping out of my obese hidding place.

Well, I wouldn't go hog wild on any food - low carb or not. You are to eat until you are satisfied and keep your carbs to 20 during the first two weeks.

This is a helpful website www.fitday.com where you can plan your menus and check your carb levels. Good luck and welcome!

Not necessarily. Legally, manufacturers are allowed to say "zero" if the count is leass than 1, so the true carb count may well be 0.9. It's also worth checking what they say is the serving size. If the serving size is, say, 1 tablespoon, you are certainly safe enough to have 1 or 2 tablespoons of the dressing, but you can never assume that zero really means zero with manufactured food.

HTH!

Rosebud