Induction Newbie!!

[JudithW]

Hi everyone!

I'm new to this forum & fairly new to Atkins. I did a week of a VLCD & lost 8lbs. I switched to Atkins induction 2 weeks ago but haven't lost anymore weight (haven't gained either though which is good!)

I can feel a difference in my clothes which is great but...it would be nice to see some weight loss on the scales just wondering if anyone else didn't lose much in induction? I've read about not being a slave to the scales & sudden 'whoosh' losses but just wanted to hear of other people's experiences.

Any advice/support would be great!

 

[moonlights]

Switching from a vlcd you won't lose much - you already had your big loss on the first week of your other diet and unfortunately you don't get it twice as that's water weight. Keep going though - there are a lot of folks here who switched from VLCD and after a couple of weeks they settle into losing the average 2lbs a week.

Do you have any daily menus you could put up? Sometimes people accidentally eat too little or eat things which may stall them.

 

[JudithW]

Thanks Moonlights! I think I'm just being too immediate'! I've actually gained 2lbs this week but I have been naughty!!

My typical menu is something like this:

I tend not to have breakfast - never have done. I just have a coffee with cream & 1 tsp of sweetner
Then about 11 I'll have a bag of pork scratchings.

For lunch I have salmon or sardines, king prawns or something like that with spinach leaves (a handful) sometimes I'll have 1/2 an avocado & some dressing (I don't exceed the 2 net carbs per tblsp)

Evening I'll have steak or pork or some kind of meat with mushrooms & salad

'afters' coffee (again cream & sweetener) & an Atkins choc bar suitable for induction.

I really haven't cheated (except this week!!) so I do hope I start to lose the average of a couple of pounds a week. Maybe there's something in my menu you can spot that could be stalling my loss?

Any advice appreciated! Thanks!

 

[bluecatlady]

Thanks Moonlights! I think I'm just being too immediate'! I've actually gained 2lbs this week but I have been naughty!!

My typical menu is something like this:

I tend not to have breakfast - never have done. I just have a coffee with cream & 1 tsp of sweetner
Then about 11 I'll have a bag of pork scratchings.

For lunch I have salmon or sardines, king prawns or something like that with spinach leaves (a handful) sometimes I'll have 1/2 an avocado & some dressing (I don't exceed the 2 net carbs per tblsp)

Evening I'll have steak or pork or some kind of meat with mushrooms & salad

'afters' coffee (again cream & sweetener) & an Atkins choc bar suitable for induction.

I really haven't cheated (except this week!!) so I do hope I start to lose the average of a couple of pounds a week. Maybe there's something in my menu you can spot that could be stalling my loss?

Any advice appreciated! Thanks!

Hey JudithW.

Can I ask are you eating the Atkins bars every day? as You'll find that thou the Atkins bars migth be suitable for Induction they are not recommended.

Induction is a time to get your body empty of 'bad' things you've eaten and to stop yourself from suffering future cravings by going cold turkey as it were and eating sweetened bars will sadly not help you.
You'll find people on here try to have maybe one a week maxium as they stall a lot of people.

You also might find the sweetener you eat daily will stall you, it's really common for lots of people (including me). Some poor folk on here gain from ingesting sweeteners and also find it triggers their cravings.

Me personally after being really strict with induction and avoiding all sweetned products I now find anything sweeter than plain cream too sweet, it's a good feeling

 

[Kat1e]

Hi judith and welcome. Definitely dump the atkins bar - they should have a large warning "staller for 99% of people" on them!

 

[JudithW]

Hey JudithW.

Can I ask are you eating the Atkins bars every day? as You'll find that thou the Atkins bars migth be suitable for Induction they are not recommended.

Induction is a time to get your body empty of 'bad' things you've eaten and to stop yourself from suffering future cravings by going cold turkey as it were and eating sweetened bars will sadly not help you.
You'll find people on here try to have maybe one a week maxium as they stall a lot of people.

You also might find the sweetener you eat daily will stall you, it's really common for lots of people (including me). Some poor folk on here gain from ingesting sweeteners and also find it triggers their cravings.

Me personally after being really strict with induction and avoiding all sweetned products I now find anything sweeter than plain cream too sweet, it's a good feeling

Thanks bluecatlady! That does sound great - not craving sweet things! That IS my weakness so yes, I have been having a bar EVERY day!!! Sometimes two (as it says up to two per day)!!

I will indeed try cutting out the bars to one 'treat' a week & see how that goes. I don't think I'm quite ready to cut sweetener yet!! Lol

 

[JudithW]

Hi judith and welcome. Definitely dump the atkins bar - they should have a large warning "staller for 99% of people" on them!

Thanks Kat! Shame, they were a scrummy!
Do you think sugar free jelly as an alternative a couple of times a week might be ok?

 

[Kat1e]

Sf jelly better than bars - but even then go easy! Actually better to retreat from the sweet stuff as much as possible....good news is your tastes do change!

 

[moonlights]

Aaaaaasrgh.

Honestly I would burn the whole supply of Atkins bars if I could. They are EVIL stallers. Yes Atkins nutritionals the company says you can have up to two a day. Atkins the company wants you to stay fat and keep buying their overpriced junk.

Atkins the doctor was very wary of artificial sweeteners and in his original book there is no way he would ever have sanctioned Atkins bars as part of the diet.

Atkins bars are sweetened with polyols. Polyols are sugar alcohols and - like real alcohol - they are a fuel that your body finds easier to burn than fat. So if you eat an Atkins bar your body has to burn that off before it can burn any fat off. If you're eating them daily it may never get to the fat burning point properly.

Really I think Atkins bars are ok in maintenance, they don't seem to make people gain, but they are very very likely to slow down or totally halt the actual weight loss stage.

I swear that stupid advice on the Atkins site where they recommend their products twice a day is the reason people think this diet doesn't work and give up.

Sugar free jelly is ok - it doesn't use syfar alcohol I don't think. The only artificial sweetener I use is aspartame (canderel) - and my sweet tooth is happy with a mug of alpro soya milk heated with a dash of vanilla essence and a couple of canderel tabs in it.

Also have a look at the Swiss roll recipe on the recipe thread - a pretty clean recipe that feels like a treat.

 

[bluecatlady]

Thanks bluecatlady! That does sound great - not craving sweet things! That IS my weakness so yes, I have been having a bar EVERY day!!! Sometimes two (as it says up to two per day)!!

I will indeed try cutting out the bars to one 'treat' a week & see how that goes. I don't think I'm quite ready to cut sweetener yet!! Lol

I'll be honest, it was not fun getting off sweet but now it's gone it's lovely to not be craving.

I have never considered myself to have a sweet tooth but upon starting Atkins I found out I was completly addicted to the sugars in milk. It took a whole month of resisting milk and it wasn't the 'oh I fancy some milk' addiction is was the 'I'll walk through fire for a glass of milk and rip your arm off!!'. The first two weeks was horrible, but after that it tailed off, now I hardly even think about it.

I admit I am craving today but that's becasue I just had a two week holiday I cheated on and it so was not worth it!! I had cadburys chocolate which was a bit rubbish and made cake which not only gave me a horriibbllee wheat tummy it was soooo sweet it was horible.

The best thing you can do is fight the urge for sweets because once you do you'll feel so much better and more in control. I feel so much better now (even today whilst craving the dastardly milk) because I know my cravings will pass and I'll be free from processed food again!!

If you really don't feel you can do cold turkey then cut down, you'll feel really good for it Good luck

Can I add Moonlight's makes some super points about the evils of sweeteners and that Atkins bars are not really in the spirit of Dr Atkins work.

 

[JudithW]

Thank you both so much for the advice! & you're so right Moonlights, I was starting to think Atkins wasn't going to work for me. Now you've explained it, I so get why the bars ARE clearly stalling weight loss! I'm definitely going to stay clear! I think I'll give the soya milk/vanilla drink a whirl & have a mooch at the Swiss roll

I've also seen that almond milk is allowed, have you tried it?

I'm going to try to kick this sweet tooth!

 

[stmcalee01]

I am trying the almond milk this week. Will let you know how I get on....

 

[JudithW]

I am trying the almond milk this week. Will let you know how I get on....

Ooh great! Thanks. I've not even tried soya milk so I'll give both a whirl

 

[moonlights]

I tried almond but didn't like it much. Soya (I use alpro unsweetened light) is much lower carb and I get on well with it so I'm happy with that.

I sometimes add a drop of flavoring to the mug, too. Vanilla essence or - I got on amazon - chocolate and banana essences. A little unsweetened cocoa powder (I use green and blacks but I think tescos is meant to be good too?) is fine as well so you can make hot choc - or whip up some cream with a little cocoa and sweetener for an almost choc mousse dessert. Really I rarely bother with desserts though - I don't crave them anymore.

Rhubarb stewed with sweetener is also something you can have. Rhubarb is technically a vegetable.

My biggest sweetener tip is to use tablet sweetener. I use candarel but there's splenda etc too. The tablets are 0.01g carb each whereas the granulated sweetener is 1g per teaspoon because they add stuff to stop the granules sticking together.

If I'm using sweetener in a recipe I just dissolve my tablets in a tbsp of hot water and use that.

 

[raverminx]

Out of curiosity which almond milk do you use? I can only find the sweetened one, I have to admit its really nice when warmed up.
I can't seem to find the unsweetened version in the uk

Sent from my iPhone using MiniMins

 

[JudithW]

Thanks for that Moonlights! Some great ideas there! I'm going to stock up over the weekend & give those a try!