has anyone done atkins diet?

[scottishgal89]

just what the title says.

i have a few questions for anyone who replies

 

[Weeplin]

My Oh and I tried it a while back. There is a really good forum
https://www.atkinsdietbulletinboard.com/ It has some awesome journals with pictures. A recipe area etc and the other members are very friendly.

 

[loveinbinary]

The Atkins diet is by far the BEST diet I have ever been on. Grant it, the first two weeks are difficult as the food options aren't too vast, but in 08' I managed to lose 40lbs in 4 months. I was also walking 3 miles to and from work, but exercise in unison with the diet does wonders.

 

[Little_Roo]

I did the atkins a few years ago and I did loose quite a bit of weight but the moment I ate carbs it all piled back on, and then some extra it also gave me bad breath so if your gonna do it get some gum. Lol. All that meat makes your stomach work harder and gives off more gases hense the breath. I found the best diet for me is slimming world. It's sort of like the atkins in away and your body doent go into keytosis (I spelt that soooo wrong). You have the choice of meat/proteins one day and carbs the next.

 

[AngelzTears]

My Dad did this diet and ended up in the hospital from it. =/ Too much iron in his body I think it was. So make sure you ladies are staying healthy!

 

[Blah11]

i have and i lost a lot of weight but it isnt sustainable imo. too meaty

 

[FunkyClaire]

I did until pregnant and lost 6 stone. No side effects at all for me. Absolutely love it and can't wait to get going again, it is definitely a little more effort than others as not really convenience food compatible but it's the best way to eat for me, carbs send me craving and eating *so* much (hence my unending appetite right now)! If you do it I hugely advise you to read the book and do it properly, eg. the veggies are a must. Any questions feel free to ask or PM me, I'm a bit of an Atkins cheerleader.

 

[scottishgal89]

I did until pregnant and lost 6 stone. No side effects at all for me. Absolutely love it and can't wait to get going again, it is definitely a little more effort than others as not really convenience food compatible but it's the best way to eat for me, carbs send me craving and eating *so* much (hence my unending appetite right now)! If you do it I hugely advise you to read the book and do it properly, eg. the veggies are a must. Any questions feel free to ask or PM me, I'm a bit of an Atkins cheerleader.

thank you so much for your reply.

i only had the side effect of light headed, dizzy, felt sick, sore tummy- ended up caving last week so im really quite annoyed at myself.
but starting again from now.
my mum started the diet before me and she has the book so shes advised me on what i can and cant eat.
problem is im quite a fussy eater.
do you have any meal or snack ideas you could share with me? im struggling with the amount of meat you have to eat
thanks in advance for your help

 

[scottishgal89]

also in reply to earlier post- i never ended up with smelly breath but your not meant to chew chewing gum on the diet

 

[FunkyClaire]

What stage are you on? Induction still? My favourite thing ever to eat (and even now I'm not currently low-carbing!) was cauliflower mash. I'm a creature of habit I suppose, as I had it most days for tea! So adaptable, you can have it however you like. Also a salmon and cauliflower cheesy bake thing I used to do. What sort of things do you like in general? It's sort of easier to work from there... I used to make my own choccy mousse with whipping cream, Splenda (essential low-carbing item) and cocoa powder. Or sugar-free jelly and cream is fab if you miss sweets (I did).
Oh and you don't *have* to eat huge amounts of meat at all, that's quite a common misconception - I knew a couple of veggies who did it! Though I guess in Induction you'd struggle without meat. I don't think my meals were very meat based mind you, I usually had some but meat was never a massive part.

 

[FunkyClaire]

Oh oh and I recommend this cookbook *SO* much: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Neris-Indi...=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1272900603&sr=1-2 - it's for a different diet but that diet's also basically low-carb. Every low-carb cookbook without fail is useless IMO except for this one - actual food you'd want to eat. I got my salmon broccoli bake from it.

 

[scottishgal89]

ok well...not a big fan of fish to be honest although i did try some salmon the other day.
my jelly is cooling in the fridge just now
what sauces am i allowed? i feel things are too plain
any snacks that spring to mind for when im hungry and want to eat crap? something which will fill me up...
how do you make the choco mousse?
any other desert ideas?
do you NEED to eat three meals a day? i struggle with that.
how much cheese can you eat?
dinner ideas- things that are filling without eating carbs?
can you drink sugarfree flavoured sparking water? its from tesco and says no carb and only a trace of sugar?

sorry thats loads of questions. the problem im having is that i used to live on carbs! so its so hard to cut them out really. i also didnt really cook much so im just getting used to that too.

thanks so much for your advice

 

[FunkyClaire]

I've had to get my book out on the cheese one! It's a max of 110g of cheese a day, and 3 tablespoons of cream (double, whipping, sour). I stuck to those limits for induction and then forgot all about them. It never affected my loss rate though.
I'm thinking you could substitute the salmon for something like ham? I'm not always good at knowing what should go with what, I just throw it what I have/fancy.
Ok so back to your other questions:
Sauces - not sure on all of them as I'm easily pleased and just threw mayo and low-carb ketchup on everything! Anything with minimum/no sugar and no flour ought to be ok? You can make your own salad dressings (I did once and too lazy to bother after that).
My snacks were usually Babybels, straws & cream (after induction) or fake choccy mousse, in maintenance I ate an awful lot of dark chocolate but I felt I'd earnt it. Oh and nuts once you reach that phase. You do honestly feel the need to snack much less though, after induction my never ending hunger was gone which I didn't think possible! It comes back a bit in maintenance but you have to find your own balance at that point.
Choccy mousse is just 3 tablespoons of cream (whipping or double), 1 teaspoon of cocoa powder and 1/4 teaspoon of Splenda all whipped up for a minute-ish. You can adjust it to your taste though. It's gorgeous with raspberries which you get to have as one of the first phases I think.
If you don't want 3 meals a day then don't, more regular smaller ones are fine, it's the carb count that matters (and for me getting enough carbs was the struggle in induction!).
Have a read of these forums for more meal/snack ideas or grab that cookbook - there's loads of good ones. https://www.pig2twig.co.uk/forums/
The sparkling water's fine I think, I drank plenty of it anyway.
I know how you feel, I was a total carb addict and never thought I could give up my bread and potatoes! Never felt the same about bread since Atkins though. Also I was rubbish and snacked on boring stuff like cooked bacon etc. as I had no idea what to make but reading some forums was a Godsend as everything you can think of has a low-carb substitute from people with more imagination than me!
When you're further along you can buy low-carb products like pasta, sweets and wraps, etc. which might help? Very pricey though. Keep saying to yourself 'induction is only 2 weeks!'
Hope that helped a bit!
x

 

[scottishgal89]

thanks for your help.

after induction- which i plan to do for as long as possible- when u started introducing carbs again- did the weight stay off?

 

[FunkyClaire]

Yep, I only did induction for 1 extra week and then 1 week at each extra stage (skipped the bean stage or whatever it is as don't eat them anyway), and the weight just kept coming off, mostly 2lbs a week but never less than 1lb. Everyone's different though and you might find a certain stage stalls you because you can't tolerate a certain food type, I didn't have any trouble with anything luckily. It certainly piled back on when I got pregnant though and had to eat the bad carbs again!