Amneris
Full Member
Afternoon lovely, I hope your well. I was wondering if you could help me, as I wanted some advice on Atkins. I will have to come off vlcd for 2 weeks due to my up coming operation. I don't want to gain loads of weight in that time, as I reintroduce food to my body. I know you've done Atkins before and I'm trying to come up with a meal plan that will be low carb in those 2 weeks so I don't gain loads of weight. I've seen these Atkin protein bars that come in a 5pk in Asda, have you tried them before and are they any good for weightloss ? I'm thinking of having x1 mainmeal and then an Atkins shake and a bar each day. Have you tried their shake also ? And I'm taking it, all their products are low carb ?
I really appreciate all your help
Kay xx
Okay take this as a former hardxcore atkinser re the Atkins bars: nooooooooooooooooo!!
Tbh if you were keeping as low cal as it looks like you want to one probably wouldn't hurt but - Atkins bars are made by the company that bought the Atkins name after he died, and if you read his books he would never recommend them. He recommends only one form of sweetener, stevia, and to stay away from sugar alcohols. Sugar alcohols (sweeteners that end in 'ol') are not absorbed by the body in the same way as sugar so they're permitted to be sold as low carb.
However they are 1) used by the body as fuel just like sugar so won't bring you out of ketosis but will slow your weight loss 2) in some cases they react in your body just like sugar and cause blood sugar spikes (the worst sugar alcohol, maltitol, has a GI as high as orange juice) and 3) many people find they cause nasty gastric distress.
Atkins bars contain the worst sugar alcohol: maltitol, which is a byproduct of corn syrup. High fructose corn syrup is banned in this country as dangerous and I have a feeling eventually maltitol will be too.
So there's my very long answer to don't use the bars!!!
The shakes however are pretty ok unless they've changed the recipe recently. I personally would happily have the shakes.
Ftr I don't totally go along with Atkins no sweetener policy, sucrose works fine for me, but sweeteners are very much a your mileage may vary thing.
Remember if you're transitioning onto Atkins you are going to need to raise your calorie and fat intake gradually. Low fat & low carb isn't a great idea. Fat is what you burn for fuel when in ketosis.
If you're currently having 600 calories a day, to begin with I'd simply add a 200 cal protein meal for a couple of days. Eg. Chicken breast or eggs.
Then add a 400 cal meal eg steak and veggies with some butter, for a couple of days. This isn't much different to the food week on most
Vlcds.
Then keep the 400 cal meal and replace 300 (approx) cals of your meal replacements with a protein meal.
Then you could switch one meal to Atkins shakes if you want. Remember that by the time you do this you'll need to be adding fat to your meals - not loads and loads, but cooking using butter etc.
Check with your doctor what calorie level they'll want you eating at pre: surgery but I'd imagine it will be at least 1200 cal, maybe more. The most important thing is obviously to be strong for your surgery.
Remember if you're an in-patient after surgery low carb is incredibly hard to do in hospital (I've been there) and you're likely to have a little upward bounce - 99.9 percent of this will be water weight and will come right off after so try not to let it worry you.
Uhh what else. If you're desperate to replace a meal with a bar, low carbers I know recommend quest bars, which use non-sugar alcohol sweeteners. You can get them on Amazon. I'd recommend real food, though.
Meal wise, sticking to smallish meals of meat and veggies is a good plan - green veggies like broccoli, spinach, cabbage etc are best. Cauliflower is also great. Adding some cheese is fine though I'd rec staying under 30g at first and be careful with nuts as they can add up fast but a few almonds are a good snack.
I hope that helps! I'll respond to everyone else when I have a few more minutes x
