My husband drank at least a six-pack, or more, of Coke a day for probably 15 years. We started the Atkins diet yesterday and it was his first day without Coke. When he came home from work he just crashed on the couch he was just soooo tired. He switched to Diet Dr. Peper and I read on the label that it contains caffine so I couldn't figure out why he was so tired bc he was still getting caffine...could it be the lack of sugar that is making him so tired?

I drink at least one to two pots of coffee a day. I jut can't stop drinking coffee, if I do I get severe migraine headaches daily and have to take pain medications to relieve them. Dr. Atkins says NO caffiene, but other low-carb diets I have read don't even mention caffiene at all. Any suggestions or advice?

Caffeine is a YMMV thing (your mileage may vary). This subject comes up over and over and over again. I have personally scoured the medical literature, and can find no studies that show caffeine causing a rise in insulin. More recently, there has been suggestion that the study Atkins refers to in his book, was done in the late 80s/early 90s, using diet cola --- and that it was the citric acid in the cola that caused the insulin spike, not the caffeine. I checked the Atkinscenter.com website recently, and in the FAQs/ Food Issues ... it's suggested that caffeine be avoided during Induction, then may be added back during OWL as long as it doesn't interfere with ketosis and fat-loss.. .. the contradiction continues. The larger percentage of lowcarbers report that caffeine does not have a negative effect on their weight loss.

That being said, as you enter ketosis and your body gets rid of excess carbs in your system, you may find yourself more sensitive to caffeine's other effects ... trouble sleeping, irritable, etc ... so it might be wise to cut back. The diet cola your husband consumes might be a problem because of the citric and/or phosphoric acid. If things seem stuck or stalled, then the cola might be the first thing to suspect, and cut back or cut it out altogether.

I've cut back from 6 cups to 2 - 3 cups in the mornings, with a little cream, no sweetener. Still can't drink it black though .. Ugghhhh!

Doreen

that was nice to read. . .because we are coffee addicts in this house. . .just in the morning and only a cup or two. . .but our cup or two equals in caffine and taste probably other peoples 12 cups! We use a french press and use expresso roast or french roast coffee from starbucks. Most people avoid my coffee like the plague! You can chew it! Not really. . .but you come away just a tad hairier. Has not yet given me a plateu problem. . .but I will keep it in mind. redawn

Caffeine is an essential food group. Besides, it's the 100% natural, pure, organic substitute for SLEEP!

Glad to see confirmation that it's OK in small amounts, especially since I drink it black (getting rid of the other stuff leaves more room for caffeine!)

Gooserider

The "flop on the couch" may have been due to LC itself, not just a change in caffeine habits. Many people experience a flat two or three days as their metabolism shifts from HC to LC and fat-burning.

When you decide to cut back on caffeine, it's often easier to start skipping one cup at a time. Caffeine withdrawal is NASTY--the headache passes, but it can be avoided if you have some time to cut back step-wise. I dropped back cup-by-cup, starting with "after 8 pm" and then "after noon" and now it's real in the morning, decaf thereafter, and if I have a diet soda at dinner, I'll be up till 3 or 4 am. But I skipped the headaches by cutting back over several years.

Caffeine has been somewhat of an issue for me as well. I am a strong coffee lover! French press, espresso roast, the whole nine yards. Black. No sugar or sweetener.

I'd cut back to about 2 cups per a.m. over the first several weeks of LC-ing and was doing fine. Then it seemed like suddenly it was just starting to bother me. I'd get jittery and have palpitations. Never was a problem before. Not sure if I'm just more sensitive to it because of the weight loss or what.

So I switched to tea about 2 weeks ago. I used to think of tea as a wussy sort of drink -- pardon my prejudice, please -- but now I love it. It still has caffeine, of course, but not nearly so much.

One added benefit of getting off coffee is that I no longer stumble, bleary-eyed, to the coffee pot first thing when my feet hit the floor in the mornings. I can now go about my morning and fix myself a cup of tea whenever I darn-well feel like it. Nice not to be "hooked" on something!

Oddly, I was never a big coffee drinker until I started Atkins this time...I was hooked on diet soda, and when I replaced that with water, I must have been missing the caffeine, so...the coffeepot has been getting heavy use in the last few months! I think for me it is not only the caffeine I like but the warmth of the drink (in cold weather) and the yummy cream in it.

I drank coffee all through induction...no problem for me. I think it is just so cool that I can have real cream (I switched from heavy to light after Induction) in my coffee and lose weight!!!

Lucy

I think it's a Carb Crash and a lot of people go thru it.

I've done Induction without caffeine (and no artificial sweeteners, either) and I've done Induction with caffeine and a.s. and I lost the same amount of weight each time (11 months apart -- 10 lbs each time).

I have a big travel mug of coffee with heavy whipping cream, da vinci syrup and 1 tsp. of unsweetened cocoa powder every morning and sometimes one in the evening, too.

I don't use it for the flop on the couch so much as I frequently get by on considerably less than 8 hrs/day of sleep. (Who needs more than about 2? ) I use caffeine as a sleep substitute as needed to keep me going. Not on a daily basis, but frequently.

I am drinking less now, as I don't like wasting carbs on it (remember 1g/cup for black!) and am finding that one cup keeps me wired for longer than it used to in my pre-LC days. I would guess my consumption is down ~50% on average.

I actually transitioned to LC pretty easily, never had any times when I didn't feel OK. OTOH, I don't seem to have had much of the increased energy DANDR says you should get.

My GF still is getting the 'hungries' - I suspect that it may be because she insists on eating LC chocolates, and various other 'legal snack' frankenfoods.

Gooserider

You can stop counting the carbs in coffee. It's been officially confirmed by the USDA that coffee has 0 carbs. Someone here was actually in touch with the USDA and got the corrected information.

REPEAT: Coffee is 0 carbs!

(I need a canned macro for this the news hasn't seeped into the collective carb consciousness)

Umm... your body is asking for more sleep, if you need the caffeine to stifle those sleep signals... maybe there's a connection between no sleep and no energy?

I started low carb three weeks ago. I was drinking a 2 litre of coke and 6 coffee a day with 2 sugar in each cup. I felt so bad for the first 3 days, still drinking coffee but black. It is the sugar. Now if I have a coffee with sugar it makes me feel so sleepy. Don't give in, it will start of feel better.

Well, glad to hear that coffee is supposed to be a zero, but I have found my best policy is to say that 'there are no zeroes', and count nominal zeroes as ones... It helps keep me honest and not overdoing the 'freebies'.

It also allows for a slight bit of 'fudge factor' on serving sizes, and the fact that US food regs allow amounts less than 1g to be counted as a zero.

Seems to work...

Gooserider

Caffeine is pretty bad for your brain, your temperment, and the rest of your body. It's one of those things, like alcohol, sugar, fat, and nicotine that Americans tend to poison themselves with because they refuse to learn moderate intake.

I used to be a "junkie" of ALL of those substances that I listed above. You can learn to moderate... but you have to be willing to get through the horrible pain first. Eventually it'll dissipate and you'll feel 1000% times better. You'll be left wondering, completely in awe, why you were previously so committed to poisioning yourself.

Hope I don't sound preachy. I just know what it's like to get horrible caffeine headaches, tummy aches from too much sugar, hangovers from too much alcohol, hacking coughs from too many cigarettes. Eventually you have to say "Enough of this." If you can handle the physical and emotional withdrawal, walk through the door of fire, than you'll come out renewed and feeling wonderful.

Caffeine especially tends to cause mood swings, poor concentration, anxiety, and fatigue. You won't believe how much clearer minded and calmer you'll feel once it's out of your system.

I agree with you HB if one is doing it as an addictive type thing. I don't feel that there is nearly as much issue if one does these sorts of things in moderation, and as a matter of choice, as opposed to compulsion.

My most 'problematic vice' is tobacco - I smoke a pipe, 1-3 bowls / day on average. It's the closest thing I have to feeling not comfortable if I don't have at least one bowl a day, but if I'm busy it is easy for me to skip the rest. (Ironically, being around alot of smoking restrictions are more likely to cause me to smoke MORE on the 'grab it while you can' theory) OTOH, if I'm busy I may often skip all but the end of the evening bowl.

Caffeine I drink if I'm short on sleep, not otherwise, and then in moderation, usually not more than one or two cups / day, and I usually nurse one cup for several hours as opposed to the big chug that some folks do.... I don't find it hard to resist the coffee pot at work, and I very seldom fire up the one at home.

Ditto alchohol - I enjoy good whiskey's, and I brew my own meads and beers (although I'm having to give up the beer - I define Guinness as 'Light' so I hate to think what is in one of my brews for carbs!) but I only drink when I deliberately decide to drink, in the amount that I choose, again usually moderate. I've cut back considerably since starting the LC thing, but since induction I would estimate that I might have one or two glasses of mead a week.

One of the things that many folks who talk about 'poisons' forget is that the dose is what makes the poison, and it is possible to enjoy many items that are 'bad for you' as long as you are ABLE (and regrettably many folks are not) to control your 'dose' at a level that doesn't do significant harm.

Gooserider