Hi People,

I found this site while surfing at work ;-) and thought i'd register. I've been on the Atkins diet religiously for 3 months (lost close to 20lb), my 4th month i slacked off and i gained a few pounds.
I just went back on the Induction phase - i have about 20 more lbs to lose but i'm having problems with it, cravings etc.. and getting obsessed with the scale reading :-)

I would like to know what you guys do for exercise (if any) ?

welcome aboard bluugirl! you seem to know your way around lowcarbing quite well! we have all different exercises here! i walk my dog homer for my cardio. he's a great coach! i work out w/weights 3 times a week, but i have been kinda slack this summer. only 1 or 2 times a week lately! hope to hear more about you!

No formal excercise but I think I'm an exception!

Welcome to the Forum bluu!

Karen

Me either at the present (no formal exercise). I do lead a very active lifestyle though; cutting a large lawn with a push gas mower, gardening, lots of DIY home jobs, and a full time job!!

Usually between the toughest months of winter (I shovel my own 4 car driveway) and the hottest months of summer I do spend time at the gym though.

Oxycise Level One fifteen minute workout once or twice a day at least five days a week. It's easy and it works. I've lost quite a few inches and can tell the difference, especially in the tummy area.

My doctor asked me one time what I did for exercise....she was childless and just out of college of course....I snapped out a quick and witty reply "I do that 'stair' thing, jog, lift weights, run, and jump" she said "that's great, how often do you work out?"..." 12 hours a day 7 days a week, 365 days a year. You see I have a 2yo and a 10yo and I live in a 3 story house....that means I am constantly climbing stairs. I jog when someone calls "mommy" and I run when someone screams "MOMMY". I lift kids, laundry, groceries, and baskets of toys. I jump to reach the snacks on the top shelf, to clean the top of the frig, or to grab the toy that mysteriously got stuck in the tree. If you added up the amount of exercise I did in a day it would put any fitness instructor to shame." She laughed of course and wrote "no physical exercise in her little book".....just wait till she has kids I quarentee she goes back and changes that.

No exercise? HA!
Tina

We do an every other day thing. We either take an hour long walk at night, or we do 45 minutes of cardio work out at the fitness center, he runs on a treadmill and I do the fat burner program on the elipsal(sp?) machine. we also do 50 sit-ups each and 50 straight ab-rolls, 20 to the left ab rolls, and 20 to the right ab rolls. On the days we do cardio we also lift, alternating between arms and legs.

i was curious, what it is you eat exactly? like, on an average day.. what will you eat.. I'm BRAND new to this diet.. so I'm not QUITE sure where to start! I'm only 19, so I am trying to keep food price within reason as well.. like on an average day, what is it you avoid...?
thanks for your help!!!
kristin

hi kanne,
(this is a long post!).
what do i eat on an average day? that's a good question. The first time i went on this diet, it took me about 2 weeks to figure out a pattern of eating , to find what i like. Before this diet i was a semi-vegeterian, ate meat rarely, and never red meat.

Now you can imagine it's the opposite,so it was kinda hard at first, and i understand you want to keep it within budget.
Anyway, i'll tell you what i have stocked up in my fridge on any particular day. There's always eggs, spicy beef sausages (just as a note, i do not eat pork products- so it's harder- but if you don't have this restriction you will find it easier to find things).
For breakfast i might eat a hardboiled egg or cook one of the sausages. I don't eat much for breakfast.

Anyway, i also have turkey slices, cheese, tuna, ground beef, (you can find ground chicken, turkey), turkey burgers, just anything that i see at the market. I always have mayo, vegetable/olive oil - i don't use butter much...Also some veggies, like tomatoes, broccoli, you can get creative and make omelets etc..I also have real half-and-half cream for my coffee. Non of that "non-dairy creamer" stuff... I love my coffee

I have recently purchased some Atkins Advantage Bars, but apparently they have hidden carbs and so i don't trust them anymore so i'm quitting them although they were tasty.

i hope this helps! It is an adjustment, and you need to give yourself time... Later, after the first phase of the diet (Induction) you can add nuts (which i have a big weakness for) which unfortunately have led me to gain some weight
So i stopped those too.

What do i avoid ? nuts, nut butters, bread, rice, grains, beans, fruit, juice, milk, sugar. I think thats the main list.

I use Splenda instead- which is 'sucralose'. I don't like aspartame in Equal, or Sweet N Low(saccharin) - i don't want to ingest a product which warns that it causes cancer in rats whose physiology is similar to humans. (!) But splenda is my sugar replacement. I use it just for my coffee/tea, so it lasts a while.

For dessert, i used to make sugar-free jello and whipped cream(even though it has aspartame) but i'm sick of jello.

Also avoid 'fat free' products, like cheese etc..or low fat because reduced fat = increased carbs.

Take a multi-vitamin/mineral product. I think that's about it!!!
Also be PATIENT with your weight loss... i was losing real slow..like 5lb/month.

wow, bluugirl, that surprised me!!! I suppose 5 lbs a month isnt BAD but for all that I'm giving up cold turkey, I was thinking/hoping, I'd see results faster .... does working out also effect it? I know, on other diets, where I just wtahc what I eat and workout, that I lose pretty fast, 2-3 lbs a week ... and that diet was PACKED with carbs .. i.e pasta, bagels EVERY day ...

thank you so much for the tips!! I plan on heading out to the store today to get this under way .. I think for a while I will be doing a lot of carb counting and searching!!! you mentioned something about hidden carbs and cheese ... you lost me on those

I'm such a dummy! I'm just lookin' to do something right for a change!!! And, I believe we're both at about the same weight hoping for the same weight!
get back to me!
kris

did i say hidden carbs in cheese? i must've been talking about those "low-carb" bars - i just calculated one of the bars i ate last week.. yikes..i think it had a total of 17g while it was saying ot had about 3g..
i know 5lb is slow, but in the beginning i was doing it as an experiment so i was shocked, and this is the thinnest i've been since i was 10 hehe. Unfortunately, i don't really exercise much - nothing formal like the gym or aerobics. I got back to you btw

Kristin, don't despair. The difference between a lowfat/low calorie diet, and lowcarbing is that in the diets where you just cut back .. the weight you lost was a combination of water, fat and lean muscle tissue. Very gratifying at the scales, but not so good for your body. Losing muscle mass means your metabolism slows .. makes it harder to continue losing weight, and makes it EASIER to gain the fat back and then some when you go off the diet.

With lowcarbing, you burn and lose fat, not muscle ... as long as you're eating enough protein, of course. Minimum 60 grams a day. As with ALL diet plans, there will be an initial water loss, so you may very well see greater losses in the beginning. Also with lowcarbing, you gain muscle, not lose it ... at the same time as you are losing fat. A pound of muscle is smaller than a lb of fat ... so the scales will show zero net lbs lost ... but you will be smaller in size. Get a measuring tape, and record your measurements NOW, before you get started. Don't just measure bust/waist/hips. Measure your ribcage under the bust, your thighs, calfs, upper arms ... Seeing the inches melt away is even more gratifying than the scales.

Doreen

there seems to be so many little details here and there!!!!!!

I just wanna do this right ... time to go shopping i guess!!!

I walk 3 miles over hilly terrain five days a week, do push-ups and some other weight training a few days a week, swim and jog occasionally. My biggest problem is my on-again-off-again way of low-carbing. I'm losing fat but I know I would be doing much better if I could keep from going of the regime every five days or so (I never binge, I just fall off the wagon and eat "normally"). Also, I think the most helpful thing I've gotten from reading this website is the realization that almost everyone who does low carbing has a "stall" at some point, sometimes for quite long periods of time. I had thought there was something wrong with me when this happened.

hi kristin and welcome aboard! my best advice to you is to get the books dr.atkin's new diet revolution and dr. eade's protein power plan. also get yourself a copy of corinne netzer's the complete book of food counts fifth edition. if you can't afford to buy them, borrow them from the library! i think it's really important to understand the concept of lowcarbing. especially if you've been eating lowfat. you really need to read the experts to really absorb the lowcarb way of eating.