So, three weeks in now and pretty much failing. I've basically gone 7 days low carb and then splurge. 7 days and then splurge. I keep losing the same 5 pounds and gaining them back. I'm really having trouble with groceries, ie: getting enough low carb food on Sunday to last all week. And the price is freakin' ridiculous. Half the family grocery bill is just me.

Here's what I normally get:
• big thing of ground beef
• chicken breast
• chunk & shredded cheese
• salad, red bell peppers, onions
• broccoli (lots)
• Good deli meats (turkey, chicken, roast beef)
• Bacon and Sausage
• Diet Dr. Pepper

I can't stand eggs, so that limits me a little. Just not sure what to add or delete. So frustrating. Every -single- year from Jan to May, I screw around with getting in shape, fail, and then feel like crap all summer long.

Personally I would cut out the deli meats. They tend to have some carbs and higher sodium. Although lately I haven't even been watching my sodium levels, and I've been losing. You might also want to add in more fats. I try to keep my fats around 70 to 75% of my food. This usually means when I drink tea I put 2 tablespoons of heavy cream into 2 cups of tea. I probably have three of those a day.

Some people also stall out when eating cheeses. I eat some during the day but not a ton. I find that alternating a low-carb week and then a splurge does not work for me. I think there are couple plans that recommend that, South Beach maybe or Protein Power, but it just doesn't work for me. I have to keep to a low-carb diet every day. Plus the splurges tend to be bigger than I planned, and they also make me start to crave things I don't need.

These are just my experiences though, you'll have to find what works for you.

If you're charting your foods on MyFitnessPal, you're welcome to friend me. Then you can see what I eat during the day. It's nice to be able to see other people's food plan. It helps with ideas. My name on MyFitnessPal is ContessaKris.

You are doing the Carb Nite plan..... Are you measuring and losing?
If not, then you HAVE to start tracking and counting calories...... If you eat too much, you will gain. Cut your splurges down and your low carb days keep around 1700 cals.


To tell you the honest truth, I am trying this plan, but I already am Very low carb and have been for a year. I lost my weight and am experimenting with this.

Try to stay at the induction low carb for a month. Do not splurge. At least until you think you have your appetite under control. See what happens.

Also do you have a crockpot? Get inexpensive cuts of meat and slow cook them. You can cook enough for a week. Use chicken thighs with the skin on, cheaper than breasts. shred your own cheese. Look for veges in bulk. Sometimes veges are cheaper frozen than fresh and are just as good for you.

IMHO, you're trying to do too much. You're tracking and you're trying to save money. You're going to have to let that go for a while. For now eat. Just eat. Eat so much that the idea of splurging turns your stomach. Once you're through the first two to four weeks you'll find your desire to splurge goes away.



Eggs? Limits a little? I get something like 1/3 of my calories from eggs cooked in oil or bacon fat. Well everyone is different. I would cut out the diet Dr. Pepper. Some people say that caffeine and sugar substitutes cause insulin spikes and cravings.

I missed that. Thanks.

So Batguy, screw the carb night plan. It obviously isn't working. Go full Atkins.

Don't most one day carb plans start off with weeks of no-carb Atkins induction? I thought they did.

I also use a crockpot. But I make a whole roast or a corned beef. You can do both in the oven as well.

Is there no way you can eat eggs. I'm not much of a fan either. Omelets, scrambled, sunny side up are gross. I can tolerate deviled or egg salad to a point. Maybe if you threw lots of bacon or some meat in with the eggs you'd be able to eat some. Maybe tuna salad with eggs in it? Eggs are so good for this way of eating, you might try again...

oh yes, Carb nite is started with 9 full days of 30 or less carbs and says if you can stay under 20 it is even better. I REALLY believe, unless your body is ready for this binge, I mean at least a month or longer on VLCarbs, you will not do well with this. You body needs to be able to bounce back into ketosis fast. It used to take me four days, now it is about two for full on ketosis.

Find ways that you can stand eggs. Maybe mixed in your ground beef or in a quiche. It will help your budget. Also STOP eating and do not eat again until you are HUNGRY. I started skipping breakfast to find out if I could, then I figured out what REAL hunger was, not the habit hunger of the clock ruling my eating patterns. Eating in ketosis means you should not be as hungry, that is why it works so much better than other lower calorie programs. You don't have to eat as much and You do NOT get as hungry!

Learn about your eating and triggers before you give yourself treat or splurge or binge days. You will have these, of course, but in the beginning, NO!

Mindset...... this is a way of eating for the rest of your life. Learn how it works for you before you give yourself treats. If you don't, then you will gain the weight back with a vengeance. Adding in carbs after LC is shocking how fast it comes back.

Added fats will decrease the amount of meat you need to feel full and decrease the grocery bill. Also, if you like dark chicken meat at all, that will decrease the bill and help with upping the fat a little bit.

I'm more and more in the school that says while ketosis isn't necessary to weight loss on a low carb diet, it can be crucial. They might just be a symptom of low insulin, or protect against an increase in appetite due to hypoglycemia, or just decrease appetite in general by some other mechanism, but what ever it is, for me ketosis seems to mean way less binging. For me a binge is 700 grams of peanuts or so, so it's not a small thing. Personally, I don't think carb nite's worth that--nor is it necessary to carb up to support working out, once you're sufficiently adapted. I've tried carbing up a number of times, it's never done anything for my workouts. Better workouts after a carb-up aren't a trait of carb-ups themselves, they're a trait of individual metabolism that a person may or may not benefit from.

I never knew that this plan had a name. But if you want the biggest plaudit of it his name is Ronnie Coleman. Yes the bodybuilder. He is a 6 no carb days one massive carb day. That is the way he has shed most of his body fat and keeps it low. (There is obviously going to be a big thing here about PED's but we shall just ignore that bit as it is a little bit of a gray area).

I like the sound of carb nite, it seems an ideal to my lifestyle, I go on an aptly named Chippy Run (on motorbikes) every friday and I feel a little hard done by only have a sausage while everyone else tucks into there suppers.

However, I am inclined to agree with Aradasky, when she says stick to the low carb for 30 days, then go into the carb nite. If anything from reading Kiefer's page that is what he did when he succumbed to his 2 dozen do-nuts.

The meat bill is nearly always the sticking point for people going on a low carb plan. I know we are on two different continents and meat is normally cheaper with you rather than in old Blighty but part of the secret is to by the cheapest of cheap meats. We have a great love of selling low fat extra lean this that and the other, when my beef and lamb is definately not steak mince its just beef mince. The same is true with chicken, stick to the bone in portions and leave the breast meat for someone else.

What are the carbs in your sausages like, I don't eat sausages because of a gluten intolerance so I do have that problem, but a lot of sausages are very high in carbs.

My last piece of advice that I am going to suggest in this rather long and waffling piece is that try to weigh yourself either on the same day each week, or only every other week. Over the course of a week, when I am not trying to loose weight, my weight can alter by as much as 5 % of my body weight.

Any way, stick with it, and you will get there :-) (he says hopefully as he's just a newbie like you !! )

Welcome Batguy!! Lots of people here with wonderful advice and success stories. Wishing you much success in your journey to the LC WOE. It worked for me!!!

WOW. Thanks for all the great advice all. I'm back on track and losing this week. I have a measurement this weekend, so that will be three weeks in. Looking forward to it. I'm wondering how much of an impact stress has on success. I have a very tight deadline coming soon, so I'm writing tons (while teaching full time) and being a dad to 4 teenagers. (the teens alone get me a medal, right?) lol

Anyway, thanks so much for the ideas. This is precisely why I joined. So many pieces of wisdom that no book covers.

If you're an emotional eater, then stress could impact your food choices. I suggest you have on hand those "legal" (no carb) foods to avoid making poor food choices. Old "FAT Jo" could eat any time, "low stress, high stress, just because..." Food does not have the same meaning for me now because I am Eating to Live not Living to Eat.

Hello...and welcome!!

I know I had read your opening post before, but re-read it this morning.

My first gut reaction was to the "carb-loading". I think you have gotten some great insight into this and I would like to add my own. Someone said in another post that "a little, a piece, a tiny bite..." something like that...these are not your friends. Dr. Atkins was explicit in that even the tiniest cheats will be the death of the plan. This is why I do not agree with 6 days on / 1 day off. Perhaps it works for some....

By being on plan 100% of the time, you will see the results. I stay very low in carbs eating primarily meat and eggs (I've gotten very creative ) and find the results are much better. It was a lesson I learned after nearly 4 months of slow losses... I just wasn't low enough.

Aradasky is right about the way the pounds pile on shockingly fast after being low carb. I had not let one bite of anything pass through my mouth for months...until my dear sweet hubby thought MAYBE I would eat a tiny cheesecake he bought for my birthday this weekend. I had it, a half of donut and a scoop of ice cream. I know he meant well but it caused a 5 pound jump in the scale...and while I went right back to plan the next meal, even this morning, the dang scale is still 2 over where I was, 5 days ago. I know it's water, but now I have lost those days where the scale could have been going down.

My point in telling you this is that just those extra carbs and calories have cost me a week of losses...UGH!!!!...so each time you binge or load up, I think you undo your progress.

As far as groceries - cheap, fatty meats are your friends..easy to cook in oven or crock pot. For satiety, you need the fats and these cuts, bone in / with skin, are almost always cheaper as well. Maybe there is a way to get the eggs in..they can help stretch a cheap ground beef into a quiche or something you can eat. Bulk stores like Sam's is a good place for tuna, canned chicken breast, veggies ...this might help stretch the grocery dollars too. I have found that one of my local stores marks down meats Thursday/Friday. I try to get in there and see what's on sale and stock up when I can.

I hope this helps along with everyone else's comments...I didn't mean it to be so long. But like everyone, I want you to be successful at this WOL.

Best wishes to you!
Deanna

Stress doesn't help, but I would look more to that Splurge after LC being the cause. That just doesn't work for a 40 something with a history of yo-yo dieting. Body says…"relax...It's party-time.. the guy has fallen off his latest diet again"

Consider going back to your first post. Why We Get Fat is the book that brought you here. Turn to Dr. Westman's Diet from Duke in the back of the book. Follow it, including limits on certain foods...4oz limit on cheese and broccoli is one cup. I too would suggest you stay away from artificial sweeteners as much as possible. In last months' local support group he asked the 30+ attendees who thought diet soda hindered weight loss…large number, more than half raised their hand. Ditching all diet soda is one of the personal adjustments often used in the clinic, some is allowed to start, but often after a while, weight loss is better without AS. "The best beverage is water" This diet is based on Dr. Atkins clinic diet from 1990, so in short, I agree with inflammable….

After reading Carb Plan several times and being on it myself, I am keeping my fingers crossed that it works for you. I seem to have lost 1/2 an inch on my waist in one week. We shall see if it continues. I like the idea of losing and hopefully KILLING the fat cells and not losing more muscle. I do know there are docs who are diabetic specialists who have patients on it.