Can I up carbs?

[BreakfastSurreal]

Hi all! I was just wondering, since I am staying on extended induction for a while, do you think it would be ok to up my carbs to 25 a day instead of 20? It just seems a little more practical for me, and if I am not losing weight I would drop back to the 20 a day...what do you guys think?

[love2beeamom]

I say go for it, alot of people (myself included) saw the scale start moving again after upping my carbs a little. But, then you will no longer be in induction.. you are moving into OWL.. so come over to the OWL boards, read the stickies, and start posting there.

[not2late]

Re: Can I up carbs?

Hi all! I was just wondering, since I am staying on extended induction for a while, do you think it would be ok to up my carbs to 25 a day instead of 20? It just seems a little more practical for me, and if I am not losing weight I would drop back to the 20 a day...what do you guys think?

Why not just move into OWL because by upping your carbs to 25, that's what you're doing....

[**Nikki**]

Nothing wrong with it, and like you said if you see no weight loss you can always drop back down to 20. It might just give you a boost in weight loss, it did for me, but thats a looong story . But you never know until you try. Good Luck Clare!!!!! Keep us posted on your results too!!

[BreakfastSurreal]

I really don't want to get started with the rungs yet...I don't want my loss to start slowing down yet, and I don't really think 25 will slow me down...but I was going to test and see...hmm maybe I'll stick with the 20

[**Nikki**]

I don't blame you for not starting the rungs yet. I wouldn't either, just do what feels best for you girl. I stick with 20 or less a day myself. I want to see results too.

[FightingTheFight]

I think a common misconception is that as soon as you start OWL the weight just stops coming off. Its on going weight loss, alot of people on OWL who are eating up to 40 carbs a day are losing 2lbs a week.

This is really going to be the experimenting time. Some peoples Carb limit is high, some peoples are low. Depends on the person.

[not2late]

I really don't want to get started with the rungs yet...I don't want my loss to start slowing down yet, and I don't really think 25 will slow me down...but I was going to test and see...hmm maybe I'll stick with the 20

Okay. But if you had decided to up your carbs from 20 to 25, where would those 5 extra net carbs had come from?

By the way, your loss on OWL does not slow to a crawl. That's a very, very, very bad misconception---almost as bad as the misconception that all you eat on Atkins is meat, eggs and cheese. OWL is called On-Going Weight Loss for a reason---you continue losing weight.

[**Nikki**]

I think a common misconception is that as soon as you start OWL the weight just stops coming off. Its on going weight loss, alot of people on OWL who are eating up to 40 carbs a day are losing 2lbs a week.

This is really going to be the experimenting time. Some peoples Carb limit is high, some peoples are low. Depends on the person.

I don't believe she insinuated that the weight will stop coming off. She told me that she has her 2002 DANDR and Dr. Atkins do say that it will slow down, as she was stating. I wonder how many people actually have 2002 DANDR and read it, because Dr. Atkins is waaay cool about this WOE and tells you the real deal about stuff like this. I think its imperative that you read that book like 2-5 times through to get the full understanding, you'll see that he is super laid back about this whole WOE, that's why I'm on it because of his approach.

[FightingTheFight]

It just seems a little more practical for me, and if I am not losing weight I would drop back to the 20 a day...what do you guys think?

Seems to me like she was worried about the weight slowing down. I may have read that wrong though.

I agree he is kinda lax about it all, when it comes to following his plan to the "T".

[**Nikki**]

It just seems a little more practical for me, and if I am not losing weight I would drop back to the 20 a day...what do you guys think?

Seems to me like she was worried about the weight slowing down. I may have read that wrong though.

I agree he is kinda lax about it all, when it comes to following his plan to the "T".

That's right, he is laid back about his plan .

[not2late]

I think a common misconception is that as soon as you start OWL the weight just stops coming off. Its on going weight loss, alot of people on OWL who are eating up to 40 carbs a day are losing 2lbs a week.

This is really going to be the experimenting time. Some peoples Carb limit is high, some peoples are low. Depends on the person.

I don't believe she insinuated that the weight will stop coming off. She told me that she has her 2002 DANDR and Dr. Atkins do say that it will slow down, as she was stating. I wonder how many people actually have 2002 DANDR and read it, because Dr. Atkins is waaay cool about this WOE and tells you the real deal about stuff like this. I think its imperative that you read that book like 2-5 times through to get the full understanding, you'll see that he is super laid back about this whole WOE, that's why I'm on it because of his approach.

What I've noticed here on the Extended Forum is that there's a fear of moving onto OWL because of the weight loss slow down. The initial fast weight loss on Atkins is both it's boon and curse because we get trained to think that losing 1-2 pounds a week is absolutely unacceptable---which is ironic because many of us would have given our right arms to lose 1-2 pounds a week before beginning this WOE.

While Dr. Atkins does say that the rate of your loss is related to amount of carbohydrate that you eat, he also mentions your CCLL---which is the maximum carb level your body can tolerate and still lose weight. One of our OWL mods, Loonatika has a CCLL of over 100 net carbs daily. 2Big has a CCLL of over 100 net carbs as well. My own CCLL is 40. So unless you were severely metabolically resistant to weight loss (which you figured out on Day 15 of Induction), you really don't need to restrict your carbs to 15-20 in order to lose weight.

And just as a word of caution, we have had some members, like Cleochatra, who did the extended Induction, stopped losing weight, and the weight loss only picked back up when they moved onto OWL. This is the explanation of that phenomenon by one carb expert:

I explained to him my theory as to why the body needs some good carbohydrates—in order to get the metabolism to function efficiently. I also explained to him that when the body is placed into ketosis, for example, for an extended period of time, that gimmick stops to work. Ketosis is actually what happens to your body when it is starving and your body begins to break down muscle protein. Your body will adapt and the ketosis becomes less effective at helping the body to lose weight. You can only fool Mother Nature for so long. I gave him the program I use, which consisted of more carbohydrates than he had been consuming for over a year, and within three months, he lost the remaining 40 pounds and an extra 10 to “play around with,” as he put it. He was able to do this because he had learned which carbohydrates to eat, and was not told, “eat all you want.”

http://detroitnews.healthology.com/printer_friendlyAR.asp?f=beyond_dieting&c=truthlowcarddiet

[**Nikki**]

And just as a word of caution, we have had some members, like Cleochatra, who did the extended Induction, stopped losing weight, and the weight loss only picked back up when they moved onto OWL.

I believe that Not2late. That's a trip how you can stall, and the only thing is to add in more carbs, I believe in that.

[love2beeamom]

I was the same way, after doing extended induction for months, my weight loss slowed to almost a crawl, so I decided to move on a see what happened..My weight loss started moving again after starting OWL. I found that I could handle around 40-45 carbs a day and still lose consistently. So, I say, nothing ventured, nothing gained. Don't be afraid of the rungs, the aren't so scary.. I actually enjoy them, especially the berries :nod

And I wondered, if you weren't gonna add the rungs, what were you gonna add for 5 more carbs a day?? Just curious?

[DebbietheHugBug]

May I respond? ensive

Last year, I lost 10 lbs on induction and then stopped. I finally moved to OWL and my weight loss did pick up again. I'm at the end of induction again, which was only to make sure I was in ketosis before moving on again.

Sometimes eating more is what your body needs to get moving again. I know that goes against everything we've been told all our lives, but it's true. By exercising, you're gaining more muscle mass, which requires more carbs and nourishment.

You should give it a try and see what happens :joy