Help!! I am new and am not seeing results! I need help assesing my daily food intake!

[tara5578]

Hi, I am new to this forum and to the Atkins diet. I have done my research and have read the book as well as spent hours reading online. I am 29 yrs old, weigh 180, 5'8 and would like to get down to 130-140. I have been in the Induction Phase for 9 days. I have not lost any weight nor have any of my clothes become loose. I have read so many posts and it seems I am very far behind and am losing hope. I have followed the rules, I drink at least 64 oz of water a day and am confused at what I am doing wrong. I bought the keto stix tonight and I am light pink verging on a little purple. My breath has been tasting funny so I thought I was in ketosis. I am very frustrated. An example of my daily intake is:

Breakfast- 2 eggs cooked in bacon grease along with 2 slices of bacon(I just started buying nitrate free and will start with it tomorrow)

Snack-1 oz string cheese mozzerella 2%.

Lunch- Mixed Greens(2 cups) with around 2 chicken breasts. The chicken breast are cooked plain. I use 0 carb Creamy a-Caesar Dressing. I would say 2-3 tablespoons. Today I added one hard boiled egg as well.

Dinner-A chicken breast or two cooked with a sauce. I only use the atkins diet recipes. I had Chicken with Tarragon Sauce tonight (real butter, heavy cream, tarragon, digon mustard). I only use 2 tablespoons of cream per day. I eat it with 6-9 stems of Asparagus.

Snack- I am a late night person due to my job and do not get to bed till at least 3-4 am so I usually need a snack. My snack has been 2 oz. of Ricotta cheese with vanilla and a half packet of splenda.

I do drink Green Tea all day long(decaf) only 2 tea bags without any sugar. The most Splenda I ever have in a day in 2 packets but usually not that much.

I unfortunately can not workout. I used to hardcore but I had a spinal fusion that failed(lower back L-5 region). All my movement in limited and I can only do light walking. I have not cheated once in these 9 days. I am confused about the vegetables allowed on the atkins(not the kinds I follow the allowed vs. not allowed). I am referring to the my book which states I can only have 2 cups mixed greens and 1 cup of another vegetable. I have been reading that I should be getting 12-15 grams of carbs from my vegetables though. I would have to eat more vegetables to get most of my carbs from them though. Should I increase my vegetable intake? I try to reach the 20 carbs a day but I don't think I am reaching it.

On a side not I have done the grapefruit diet in the past for 3 weeks eating pretty much the same foods(without sauces or cheese) and it took me a while to loose weight but I finally lost some. I am just a resistant person or do I need to take a look at my diet and tweak it? Sorry if this is to long. I have spent hours trying to find threads with similar problems but there are so many to sift through!!

Thank you for taking the time to read my post and respond. I am very excited to be on this diet and just want to finally see some results!!!

[Moretta]

Re: Help!! I am new and am not seeing results! I need help assesing my daily food intake!

Welcome tara5578!

Ricotta cheese is not allowed on induction.

I usually eat Mozzarella and nothing else, but if you refer to the DANDR book it tells you the cheeses that are legal. I believe Swizz, goat, blue cheese.

I only drink water and nothing else. I do not use any salad dressings except for some mayo

Make sure you are eating 3 cups of veggies per day. I see only 2 cups in your menu.

You should be eating 65% Fat 30% Meat and 5% Carbs total per day.

Good luck.

[Elizellen]

Re: Help!! I am new and am not seeing results! I need help assesing my daily food intake!

Hi Tara
As Mary said, ricotta is a fresh cheese so it is not 'legal' till you reach the Dairy rung of OWL.

You can have any of the hard cheeses as well as aged soft cheeses like brie and camembert.

The rest of your food choices seem fine to me. Many people dont manage to eat as many as 20 net carbs on in induction, but as long as you are getting most of your carbs from your veggies it shouldn't matter.

To check this you can use a website like www.fitday.com which would show you your totals of everything including the carbs from cheese, cream and eggs to see how close you come to the ratio that Mary mentioned.

I would suggest waiting till you reach day 15 then seeing what weight you have lost in order to discover your metabolic resistance to weightloss as in DANDR before making too many changes in your menus.

With a total of 30 pounds to lose an 'average' result of between 5% and 10% for you would be between 1.5 and 3 pounds in the 14 days.

[tara5578]

Re: Help!! I am new and am not seeing results! I need help assesing my daily food intake!

Thanks Guys!!! I guess I overlooked Ricotta as "not legal" during the induciton phase. Thank you for moving my post. I am a bit confused why the ricotta is not allowed (due to such low carbs) but I am not one to argue if it brings results!! I went to fitday and here are my results.
Calories Eaten Today

grams cals %total Total: 3408 Fat: 233 2098 63% Sat: 83 748 22% Poly: 48 428 13% Mono: 86 771 23% Carbs: 18 47 1% Fiber: 6 0 0% Protein: 298 1193 36% Alcohol: 1 10 0%

In the pie chart my Fat is 63%, Carbs 1%, Protien is 36%.

My calories are 3408 which to me seems like an insane amount!!!
My carbs are 18 so I am reaching my goal of 20g almost but it says I am only getting 1% so I am confused. I altered the diet a little:


Today's Foods Food Name Servings Serving Size Cals Fat Carb Prot Egg, whole, fried cup extra large jumbo large medium small Quantity not specified 181 14 1 12 Pork bacon, smoked or cured, cooked cup, pieces oz, cooked oz, raw (yield after cooking) medium slice (yield after cooking) thick slice (yield after cooking) thin slice (yield after cooking) Quantity not specified 184 16 0 10 Cheese, Mozzarella, NFS cup, NFS cup, diced cup, shredded cubic inch cheese curd slice (1 oz) stick Quantity not specified 159 10 2 16 Chicken, breast, with or without bone, fried, no coating, skin eaten cup, cooked, diced oz, boneless, cooked oz, boneless, raw (yield after cooking) oz, with bone, cooked (yield after b... oz, with bone, raw (yield after cook... cubic inch, boneless, cooked medium slice (approx 2" x 1-1/2" x 1/4") thick slice (approx 2" x 1-1/2" x 3/8") thin slice (approx 2" x 1-1/2" x 1/8") large breast (yield after cooking, b... medium breast (yield after cooking, ... small breast (yield after cooking, b... Quantity not specified 1700 70 0 250 Butter, stick, salted cup tablespoon pat (1" sq, 1/3" high) stick Guideline amount per slice of bread/roll Quantity not specified 407 46 0 0 Mixed salad greens, raw cup, shredded or chopped Quantity not specified 27 0 5 3 Caesar dressing cup tablespoon Quantity not specified 233 25 1 1 Cream, heavy, fluid cup fl oz Guideline amount per fl oz of beverage Quantity not specified 103 11 1 1 Asparagus, cooked, from fresh, fat added in cooking cup small spear (5" long or less) medium spear (5-1/4" to 7" long) large spear (7-1/4" to 8-1/2" long) extra large spear (8-3/4" to 10" long) spear tip (2" long or less) Quantity not specified 60 3 6 4 Canola and soybean oil cup tablespoon Quantity not specified 240 27 0 0 Cheese, cream cup tablespoon tablespoon, whipped cubic inch small package (3 oz) Quantity not specified 101 10 1 2 Saccharin, sugar substitute grain tablet (1/2 grain) Quantity not specified 0 0 0 0 Vanilla extract cup tablespoon teaspoon 12 0 1 0 Totals 3408 233 18 298I took out the ricotta and added mozzeralla only. I also added one more cup of mixed greens but it doesn't seem to help the percentage of carbs needed daily.

What should I do about this? I don't know how to increase my carb intake in vegetables without going over the 3 cups a day, I am so confused.......

Also, It said that I am eating more calories than burning. I am scared I will gain weight with all the calories I am eating. It seems I am staying where my fat intake should be but I feel like I should cut back on the butter, oil so I don't eat as many calories. Is that a good idea?

Thanks so much!!!!

Tara

[liv]

Re: Help!! I am new and am not seeing results! I need help assesing my daily food int

That is a lot of calories. I wonder if you are adding it right. Can you list what you ate today (without copying it from Fitday - because it is hard to follow) (or you can make fitday public and we can have a look at it)

I think you may not be counting net carbs (you have to substract the fibre) and the reality is that you have to eat a lot mixed greens to make up 5-10 carbs. Probably better to look into another veggie - broccoli? cauliflower? mushrooms? avocado?

[tara5578]

Re: Help!! I am new and am not seeing results! I need help assesing my daily food intake!

For some reason my post bulked together my food intake.

Breakfast: 2 eggs fried in a half tablespoon butter. 3 strips of pork bacon(nitrate free). 1 oz Mozz cheese(string 2%).

Snack": 1 oz Mozz cheese(string 2%).

Lunch: 1-2 Chicken breast cooked plain. 3 cups Mixed Greens, 2-3 tablespoons of 0 carb Creamy Caesar Dressing. 1 Hard Boiled Egg.

Dinner: 1-2 Chicken breast cooked in butter(1 tablespoon) and canola oil(1 tablespoon) with 2 tablespoons heavy cream and 1 tsp tarragon(dried).

Snack: 1 oz Cream Cheese with a tsp of Vanilla and 1/2 packet of Splenda.

[liv]

Re: Help!! I am new and am not seeing results! I need help assesing my daily food int

That looks pretty good to me.

I think fitday has somewhat huge numbers for chicken breasts. May be better to go by weight - and see what comes out.

BUT you need more vegetables. 3 cups mixed greens is mostly air and water and not substantial enough

[tara5578]

Re: Help!! I am new and am not seeing results! I need help assesing my daily food int

I love veggies so that won't be a problem for me. I have been worried about adding extra veggies because I don't want to go over my 3 cup max. Any suggestions on tasty veggies to salads? I love tomatoes but am worried about the sugar content. Also, for the extra 1 cup is Edamame allowed? I think it might be to starchy for the Induction phase but I have so much of it in my freezer and would love to use it up!!

I am still concerned about my calories though. Should I also cut back on my oil and butter intake?

[Elizellen]

Re: Help!! I am new and am not seeing results! I need help assesing my daily food int

I love veggies so that won't be a problem for me. I have been worried about adding extra veggies because I don't want to go over my 3 cup max. Any suggestions on tasty veggies to salads? I love tomatoes but am worried about the sugar content.

Maybe you could lose 2 cups of the mixed salad greens and add a cup of mushrooms or peppers or radishes to lunch.
Then you could add a cup of cherry tomatoes or broccolli or onions to your dinner to help spread your carbs across the day.

The natural sugars in veg are good for us and help us get our net carb count higher especially on induction.
Now and again we have a vegetables challenge on ADBb where people try to work it so they aare getting the majority of their carbs from them and it might be useful to take a look at the threads of those challenges to see how they managed it.
Here is the last one http://www.atkinsdietbulletinboard.c...ad.php?t=50267 and the next one should be starting fairly soon I think, so might be good for anyone having problems getting enough veg to join when it starts.

When you have done your 14 days on induction then move to OWL veg rung and add 5 net carbs of the 'other veg' list to start with. I stayed on that OWL rung for a while, adding several 5 net carb additions to allow a good amount of veggies into my menu choices.

Also, for the extra 1 cup is Edamame allowed? I think it might be to starchy for the Induction phase but I have so much of it in my freezer and would love to use it up!!

Edamame is a legume, so not 'legal' till the legumes rung of OWL

I am still concerned about my calories though. Should I also cut back on my oil and butter intake?

Without knowing your weight and height I cant see whether the amount of calories you are eating is likely to cause a problem, but for induction most of us dont have to think about them or count them. Just eat when hungry and till no longer hungry and you should be fine

[tara5578]

Re: Help!! I am new and am not seeing results! I need help assesing my daily food intake!

Thank You all for the help!! I will start using tomatoes since I love them and I just started eating Jicama and love it!! I do hope this works. I got rid of the ricotta cheese, that was sooo hard!