Confused

[gc1379]

Okay I have endlessly read the rules of OWL & how to OWl but im still confused. So, in one week your supposed to add 5 net grams per rung (like 1 more gram each day)? or you should add 25 net grams per day. And how you have to go up the ladder right? adding one food per food group once a week but no more than 3 times. Can i skip some foods? and skip some rungs too? And is owl only up to 25 net grams?

[Elizellen]

Re: Confused

What you need to do before you start OWL is work out what yur average net carb count on induction was.
Then for the first rung of OWL you eat the same amount as you did on induction but add 5 net carbs more of the vegetables on the induction list. If you are adding a vegetable you were not eating on induction you add 5 net carbs of that 3 times a week and add 5 net carbs of the veggies you were eating on the other days.

So if you were eating say 15 net carbs on induction you aim for 20 net carbs on the first week of OWL.

You can stay on that rung for longer than a week or so if you want more veggies or to try out different veggies, each week adding 5 more net carbs. So you could reach maybe 30 or more net carbs on rung 1 if you love veggies and have been missing them on induction.

You don't have to try all the possible foods on each rung, just the ones you think you will want to include in your menus and can omit rungs if you definitely don't want to eat from them. A lot of people omit the 5th OWL rung for example if they don't drink or use wine in cooking.

I nearly missed the 2nd rung out as I was eating as much cheese as I wanted already and don't like milk or cottage cheese but soemone reminded me that yogurt was also on the dairy rung so I just added that for my 5 net carb addition.

Some people do OWL very slowly by first adding an extra 5 net carbs from the rung they are on to see if the extra carbs put them over their CCL then swapping those net carbs for foods from the next rung, so they can more easily tell if it is the extra carbs or the new food that affects their losing or blood sugar.

[not2late]

Re: Confused

Okay I have endlessly read the rules of OWL & how to OWl but im still confused. So, in one week your supposed to add 5 net grams per rung (like 1 more gram each day)? or you should add 25 net grams per day. And how you have to go up the ladder right? adding one food per food group once a week but no more than 3 times. Can i skip some foods? and skip some rungs too? And is owl only up to 25 net grams?

As what Elizellen wrote.

Additionally, you add 5 net carbs of a single Rung each week. The Rungs are listed 1-9. You begin with Rung 1, which is the Induction veggies. So, during the first week of OWL, you eat your current Induction menu, but you add an additional 5 net carbs of any Induction veggie. Your menu will look something like this:

Rung 1 : Induction menu + 5 net carbs of any Induction veg.
Rung 2: Rung 1 + 5 net carbs of Rung 2 foods

The exception to adding 5 net carbs is the Nuts/Seeds rung. Dr. Atkins specifically wrote that you add only 1 ounce of nuts and seeds, with the exception of cashews which are limited to 1/2 ounce.

If a food is "new" to you, meaning you have not eaten it during your Induction, then you add it 3 times a week, to see if it has any bad effect on you (weight gain/stall/slow down or a blood sugar instability symptom). If it has no bad effect, you may eat that food daily for the next week.

So let's say you did not eat asparagus during Induction and would like to add it during your OWL. So your menu would look something like this for the week.

Monday: Induction menu + 5 net carbs asparagus

Tuesday: Induction menu + 5 net carbs of an Induction veggie you have been eating since Induction phase

Wednesday: same as Monday

Thursday: same as Tuesday

Friday: same as Monday

Saturday: same as Tuesday

Sunday: Same as Monday

You may skip any rung you want. But before you do, really carefully examine what foods are on that particular rung. For example, you're not too crazy about blueberries so you want to skip the Berry rung, but strawberries, raspberries, blackberries, cranberries, and melons are on the berry rung as well and you like honeydew melon. So if you skip the Berry rung, you might be skipping out on honeydew melon.

[lannerjarv]

Re: Confused

the part that i am finding difficult, is the "stall" part.
if a stall isn't classified until you haven't lost any weight for 4 weeks, how to you determine what food could be attributing to the lack of weight loss?

[gc1379]

Re: Confused

thank you for the information, okay so to get this straight i add 5 extra net carbs per day for a week as i move up each ladder right? and so if im in rung 4 (berries) in week 4 i should be eating about 40 net carbs ?

[Elizellen]

Re: Confused

thank you for the information, okay so to get this straight i add 5 extra net carbs per day for a week as i move up each ladder right? and so if im in rung 4 (berries) in week 4 i should be eating about 40 net carbs ?

That is assuming that on induction you were eating 20 net carbs on average a day.
Some people (those who choose to eat mainly lettuce as their vegetables mainly) might only have eating maybe 5 to 10 net carbs on induction, in which case their rung 4 number would be around 25-30 net carbs

How many net carbs were you managing on induction? that would give you your 'base' line for adding the OWL 5 net carb additions to.

[2big4mysize]

Re: Confused

the part that i am finding difficult, is the "stall" part.
if a stall isn't classified until you haven't lost any weight for 4 weeks, how to you determine what food could be attributing to the lack of weight loss?

it is no weight nor inches lost so if you are working a rung and you finished testing all the foods you want to test and you didn't shed any inches nor pounds while working that rung you can still move to the next rung and add 5 more net grams of carbs of it. if you gain then the first thing you would do is cut back the 5 grams to see if you have arrived at your CCLL. if the pounds leave then you can try subbing some of the new food rung foods for 5 net grams of your other carbs to see if it was the rung foods or the carb total.

if you were on 40 and added 5 to do rung 6 and gained weight then you remove that added 5 and that rung foods and see if the weight goes away. if it does then you could try the rung 6 foods in 5 net grams but eat your other foods as 35 instead of 40 net total. if you don't have any weight issues doing that then you know your CCLL is 40 and you can either stop trying rungs or try them b holding at 40 and using 5 grams of your 40 for them too.

Once your are sure you are back sheding inches and pounds you could try increasing your carbs by 5 net again and see if the scales and inches stop and you gain again.
many folk find as they get closer to goal weight their CCLL will change. also if you get more or less active that can change your carb tolerance too.