Question about how much vegetables you can eat

[studyinscarlet]

I'm starting OWL today and its my understanding that I'm supposed to be eating 5 net carbs of vegetables in addition to the 3 cups of induction veggies. While I was induction I pretty much ate between 18-20 net carbs a day, however I have recently discovered that dairy products make me stall so I am cutting them out for special occasions only. As a result, my only significant sources of net carbs a day will be eggs, occasional sweeteners, and vegetables. As I am planning my meals for today I'm finding that the 3 cups of induction veggies plus 5 carbs of OWL veggies is not bringing me over 20 net carbs per day due to the removal of dairy. So my question is this - since I am trying to find my CCLL, is it ok to eat more veggies than the 3 cups + 5 addtional net carbs in order to bring my total net carb intake up to 25? Thanks! Sorry that was a little long winded.

[not2late]

Re: Question about how much vegetables you can eat

I'm starting OWL today and its my understanding that I'm supposed to be eating 5 net carbs of vegetables in addition to the 3 cups of induction veggies. While I was induction I pretty much ate between 18-20 net carbs a day, however I have recently discovered that dairy products make me stall so I am cutting them out for special occasions only. As a result, my only significant sources of net carbs a day will be eggs, occasional sweeteners, and vegetables. As I am planning my meals for today I'm finding that the 3 cups of induction veggies plus 5 carbs of OWL veggies is not bringing me over 20 net carbs per day due to the removal of dairy.

The majority of your daily carbs should be from vegetables during all phases of Atkins.

So if you were eating between 18-20 net carbs daily during Induction, 10-11 of those carbs should have been from veggies. The remainder should have been from non-vegetable foods like cheese, eggs, cream. Also artifical sweetener is limited to 3 servings per day. So if you were using packets or the pourable stuff, you could only have the carbs of 3 servings.

Your Induction dairy carbs maximum would have been 4 net carbs worth of cheese (because Dr. ATkins wrote that each ounce of cheese was to be counted as 1 net carb) and heavy cream. On average there is 1 net carb per tablespoon of heavy cream. Heavy cream is limited to 2-3 tablespoons daily (so 2-3 net carbs from that daily). However, it may be used at 3 ounces---fluid ounces---as a special category food. There are 6 tablespoons in 3 fluid ounces. The caution was that the special category foods might cause stalling/slowing of weight loss and they might need to be avoided during Induction. So the maximum number of dairy carbs during Induction would be 7---4 from cheese and 3 from heavy cream. If you used the Special category then the maximum would be 11 dairy net carbs. Since eating that many dairy carbs would mean you ate less than 11 net carbs of vegetables, it would be contrary to Dr. Atkins admonition of "the majority of your carbs should be from vegetables"--so you didn't do that.

My question is how many dairy carbs were you eating during Induction, before you removed them from your menu?

So my question is this - since I am trying to find my CCLL, is it ok to eat more veggies than the 3 cups + 5 addtional net carbs in order to bring my total net carb intake up to 25? Thanks! Sorry that was a little long winded.

No. If you removed all dairy from your menu, you figure your net carbs on OWL Rung 1 based on that. For example, if your dairyless menu is 15 net carbs, then your OWL Rung 1 total will be 20 net carbs.

[studyinscarlet]

Re: Question about how much vegetables you can eat

Hi, thanks for your response. I was eating 3 cups of veggies per day during induction and I am only now cutting out dairy starting today so my total net carbs up until now have been at or around 20. I ate different veggies every day so the total net carbs of veggies was not always the same. For the rest I was also eating at least 2oz of cheese per day plus 1/4 cup of heavy cream in shakes when I made them, eggs, flaxseed meal occasionally and then some additional carbs in the form of spices and seasonings, salad dressings, etc. So basically I was not eating a set amount of anything during induction, I just made sure I always ate 3 cups of veggies and didn't exceed the limits set by the book for other things (swetener, dairy, etc.) and kept it all under 20 carbs a day.

[not2late]

Re: Question about how much vegetables you can eat

Hi, thanks for your response. I was eating 3 cups of veggies per day during induction and I am only now cutting out dairy starting today so my total net carbs up until now have been at or around 20. I ate different veggies every day so the total net carbs of veggies was not always the same. For the rest I was also eating at least 2oz of cheese per day plus 1/4 cup of heavy cream in shakes when I made them, eggs, flaxseed meal occasionally and then some additional carbs in the form of spices and seasonings, salad dressings, etc. So basically I was not eating a set amount of anything during induction, I just made sure I always ate 3 cups of veggies and didn't exceed the limits set by the book for other things (swetener, dairy, etc.) and kept it all under 20 carbs a day.

So 2 ounces of cheese = 2 net carbs (1 net carb per ounce)
1/4 cup heavy cream= 4 tablespoons heavy cream = 4 net carbs

The maximum number of dairy carbs was 6 net carbs.

So, I have to ask, because I really can't figure this out from what you have written:

How many egg carbs were you eating during Induction?
How many salad dressing carbs were you eating during Induction?
How many flax meal carbs were you eating during Induction?

[studyinscarlet]

Re: Question about how much vegetables you can eat

I just always ate 3 cups of whatever veggies I ate that day. Sometimes it was 3 cups of lettuce, sometimes 1 cup of lettuce and 2 cups of broccoli, etc. Since I didn't eat the same veggies every day so my total carbs from veggies was different day to day so I don't know what number to add 5 carbs to. Thats' why I thought I should just eat enough veggies to bring the total up to 25. Also, I was planning on finding my CCLL while staying on the veggie rung so would I just replace those 6 carbs of dairy with 5 carbs of veggies to start even though that keeps me around 20?

[not2late]

Re: Question about how much vegetables you can eat

I just always ate 3 cups of whatever veggies I ate that day. Sometimes it was 3 cups of lettuce, sometimes 1 cup of lettuce and 2 cups of broccoli, etc. Since I didn't eat the same veggies every day so my total carbs from veggies was different day to day so I don't know what number to add 5 carbs to. Thats' why I thought I should just eat enough veggies to bring the total up to 25. Also, I was planning on finding my CCLL while staying on the veggie rung so would I just replace those 6 carbs of dairy with 5 carbs of veggies to start even though that keeps me around 20?

Lettuce has about 1 net carb per cup. Broccoli has about 3.4 net carbs per cup. So you were eating anywhere from 3- 7 net carbs of vegetables per day during Induction. If you were eating 18-20 net carbs daily during Induction, 3-7 net carbs is way below the "majority of daily carbs is from vegetables" rule.

It's no wonder you're having the problem you do. I wish you had posted your menues earlier in the Review My Menu Forum for someone to give you pointers on picking out better vegetables than lettuce. And if you did and nobody advised you about eating the other "salad" list veggies, then I'm sorry that happened. Every vegetable other than lettuce and broccoli is "new" to you. So you can only add "new" foods to your menu every other day for the first week, then daily for the following week.

But what's done is done. You will be starting your Rung 1 by eating 18-20 net carbs, since you've removed the 6 net carbs you've been eating from dairy and will be replacing them with 5 net carbs of any Induction vegetable.

[studyinscarlet]

Re: Question about how much vegetables you can eat

Oh, I was eating other vegetables besides broccoli and lettuce. That was just an example and didn't eat lettuce every day, only 1-2 times per week, sometimes less (I've been on induction for a month.) Sorry if that wasn't clear. I also ate tomatoes, string beans, zucchini, jicama, pumpkin, mushrooms, asparagus, and spinach, and others from the list in various combinations. I was just trying to illustrate the point that I only ate three cups no matter what it was so I don't know exactly how many net carbs of veggies it was per day. So I will go ahead and just switch out the dairy for 5 additional carbs instead of worrying about going up to 25 net per day for now. Thanks very much for your help!

[not2late]

Re: Question about how much vegetables you can eat

Oh, I was eating other vegetables besides broccoli and lettuce. That was just an example and didn't eat lettuce every day, only 1-2 times per week, sometimes less (I've been on induction for a month.) Sorry if that wasn't clear. I also ate tomatoes, string beans, zucchini, jicama, pumpkin, mushrooms, asparagus, and spinach, and others from the list in various combinations. I was just trying to illustrate the point that I only ate three cups no matter what it was so I don't know exactly how many net carbs of veggies it was per day. So I will go ahead and just switch out the dairy for 5 additional carbs instead of worrying about going up to 25 net per day for now. Thanks very much for your help!

It's VERY important to keep track of your carbs. See, the veggies you listed range anywhere from 10 net carbs per cup (like pumpkin) to 5 net carbs per cup (like tomatoes) to as little as 1 net carb per cup like spinach.

If you kept track of the foods you ate during Induction, I suggest you go back over your menues and calculate exactly how many carbs you truly were eating, so you will get a better idea of where you stand now.

You can't guess or estimate your carbs during OWL or Pre-Maintenance Phase---that's a recipe for disaster.

[studyinscarlet]

Re: Question about how much vegetables you can eat

Don't worry, I've never guessed or estimated anything. Since I have started Atkins I haven't put one single thing in my mouth without entering it into my food diary on sparkpeple.com, and it calculates net carbs automatically. So I know exactly how many carbs I was truly eating. If one of the vegetables I ate was high in carbs, I tweaked the rest of my menu to go around it. I've never eaten 3 cups of pumpkin in one day. I only eat 1/2 cup for dessert sometimes. My problem here with OWL is based purely around the fact that my net carbs from veggies is not the same very day, not because I don't keep track of what I'm eating. Anyway thanks, I understand what I am suppsed to do now.

[not2late]

Re: Question about how much vegetables you can eat

Don't worry, I've never guessed or estimated anything. Since I have started Atkins I haven't put one single thing in my mouth without entering it into my food diary on sparkpeple.com, and it calculates net carbs automatically. So I know exactly how many carbs I was truly eating. If one of the vegetables I ate was high in carbs, I tweaked the rest of my menu to go around it. I've never eaten 3 cups of pumpkin in one day. I only eat 1/2 cup for dessert sometimes. My problem here with OWL is based purely around the fact that my net carbs from veggies is not the same very day, not because I don't keep track of what I'm eating. Anyway thanks, I understand what I am suppsed to do now.

Now I'm really confused because in your prior posts you have written that you don't know how many vegetable carbs you've been eating.

[studyinscarlet]

Re: Question about how much vegetables you can eat

LOL, sorry for the confusion. My nutrition calculator adds everything you enter up and then calculates your net carbs for the whole day. It doesn't say how many net carbs came from a particular food group or net carbs for a particular item, just the total net carbs per day. Thats why I said I don't know how many of my daily carbs were coming from veggies. I could go though and manually calculate how many net carbs a day came just from vegetables but even if I did that it would not be the same every day, that's why I was confused. If I had to guess though I would say it ranged from 8-15, its just not a set number. Sorry, hope that makes more sense now and thanks again.