coffee?

[msrobins]

Hello - I am on my sixth day of induction. For the first three days I felt terrible. I feel much better now. I have one question...before starting this I drank A LOT of coffee. I have mixed my beans half decaf half not. Is this hurting my weight loss? I know I am not supposed to have any caffeine but honestly, I could not do this. Please advise.

[atkinsgal08]

Re: coffee?

You won't know if it's "hurting" your weight loss unless you don't drink it.

Everybody reacts differently to different foods, so there's no way to know how drinking coffee is affecting you.

Lots of people don't ever give coffee up.

You know what Dr. Atkins recommends, and you know how you feel about giving it up.

[liv]

Re: coffee?

I gave it up when I did induction because I wanted to do a very pure induction.

It was an eye opener for me. I realized that drinking coffee actually makes me hungry and makes me eat. For some reason it stimulates hunger responses in me. I would not have learned that if I had not cut it out and then reintroduced it in OWL. I learned something really important about how my body functions.
Maybe you can shift towards gradually doing more decaf till you are totally decaf?

[msrobins]

Re: coffee?

Hello - Thanks for the responses. I read in the book that Dr. Atkins was concerned about caffeine causing low blood sugar. I took that as a danger not as a weight loss barrier.

I actually don't eat if I have coffee. I have been mixing half and half because I didn't want to get a headache worse than the one I had. It was raging! I have lost 9lbs since last Monday, so I am happy with that. Other than the coffee, I have been very faithful to the diet.

In addition to the coffee I also take a low dose antidepressant. I know that can slow weight loss too. I'm just trying to do what I can do.

My husband has been told he must do this diet for life by his physician, if he wants to avoid insulin. This came as a shock to us very recently. However, it is a blessing in disguise because I had already started weight watchers, so I did this to support him.

Thanks to all again. Robin

[liv]

Re: coffee?

That is wonderful that you are doing it. I hope things are going well for your husband too. We are here for support and help. Congrats on your pounds coming off - that is a great start.

[msrobins]

Re: coffee?

I love your inspiring pictures!!

[FormerVeggie]

Re: coffee?

That's great msrobins! I too have a hard time with the idea of giving up coffee! I have seriously reduced the amount I drink, but still do the real stuff in the morning with heavy cream. I had horrible headaches at first too but am much better now. I can give you some antecdotal statistics from my results so far: I started at 202 last Sunday and was at 195 last night. I feel pretty happy with my results so far and am not sure if I would give up the coffee to improve!

[msrobins]

Re: coffee?

That's how I feel. I did only have real coffee once this morning. The rest of today I have had decaf. Honestly, I really love coffee and my morning routine. Since I've had to dump my bagels, I've decided to have this one thing. I'm still losing, so I'm okay with it. We started dieting the same time. I hope that we both succeed in meeting our goals!!! Robin

[JDMarvin]

Re: coffee?

Ms.Robins,
I too am on my 6th day of induction. I also was a pretty heavy coffee drinker (4 to 6 cups per day and then sometimes more). I switched to full decaff so that I could still enjoy the flavor but avoid the caffeine. I now drink 4 to 6 cups but without the side-effects of the caffeine. I use Starbucks decaff, rich in flavor.

my .02

[msrobins]

Re: coffee?

Awesome idea! Robin

[atkinsgal08]

Re: coffee?

Remember, 8 ounces of coffee is 1 net carbs.

[FormerVeggie]

Re: coffee?

I think I will get some decaf for work. It's so hard when the coffee is made in the morning and I don't get any!

[msrobins]

Re: coffee?

I'm going to try it with the half and half (half caffeinated and half decaf). I was researching on this site. A person named Meg, who has been a member since 2003
posted this about coffee...

"...As for your caffeine, you've probably read in your DANDR 2002 that caffeine has the tendency to lower the blood sugar and therefore cause symptoms of blood sugar instability, like cravings, hunger, headaches, light-headedness, etc. Blood sugar instability isn't a good thing for this WOE because part of the weight loss depends on keeping your blood sugar stable---so Dr. Atkins said to avoid caffeine."

[atkinsgal08]

Re: coffee?

>>I'm going to try it with the half and half. I>>

Half and half isn't allowed on Induction though.

Use real cream.

[msrobins]

Re: coffee?

Half and half meaning half caffeinated and half decaf, referring back to an earlier post. I realize half and half is not on the allowed list of foods. I almost always drink black coffee. Today was the first time I have had a decaf espresso with cream.