Seeking An Asian Perspective & some advice please

[xiaofen]

I am 29 years old and weigh 240 pounds. I have never really tried dieting or exercising but at this point of my life, I wanted a change. So when I read Atkins (the new version) I was very interested and I have this sneaking feeling that that person sounded just like me.

But it was very hard. the 1st week was horrible because I am an Asian and my daily diet consists of rice and noodles. I rarely take fruits, veges aren't my favourite and my one weakness is actually potatoes. I guess I know my problems. One week into induction I became very sick so I had to stop. I was sick because of fever and not because of the diet itself. Maybe my sore throat has something to do with it.

I am writing because I intend to start again. I realised I actually felt better during that 1 week if not for my sickness. I hope to get some support, especially those from Asia since Atkins is primarily written for westerners in the sense that in Asia we have more variety but mostly carbohydrates.

But I can't survive on omelettes and sausages and grilled chickens. I am always in the hurry in the morning and I can't get those shakes here because Malaysia doesn't sell those products. Any tips for a fast and easy breakfast that I can prepare overnight without much hassle? I am not that great a cook.

Any tips from an Asian to an Asian? Like tofu, beancurd, dim sums - I wrote to the Atkins.com but their answer was they don't know. There must be an Asian here who is going through what I am going through.

And I wonder if you were sick during induction or any phase, what do you do since you may have to take cough syrup. It will interrupt with the whole cycle wouldn't it?

And I have read about a few deaths associated with Atkins diet. Could these people did something wrong?

Please advise. I really need help on how to do this.

[tickletussler]

Asian perspective

Hi,
I am very new to posting messages although I have been reading many posts for a few weeks now. However when I saw your post I decided to register as I was excited to see an asian doing Atkins.

I initially found it difficult but not as difficult as you have found it by the sounds of it. Prior to Atkins I tried the grapefruit diet. I dislike exercise and found I did not lose weight because I ate more whilst exercising. Also basically I have a passion for food - I absolutely LOVE food, so cutting calores was a very hard option for me.

I have been on extended Induction for 2 months now and have gotten used to not eating rice and noodles. I missed it terribly initially as my favourite is flat rice noodles. But I am used to it now and don't miss it at all.

I also got the impression that Atkins was initially designed for the extremely obese American (hope I do not offend anyone here). I only had 44lbs/20kg to lose and I was only just out of the healthy BMI range of 25. However ever since I made the lifestyle change to Atkins, I have been happier, more energetic and guilt-free over the foods I have eaten. Atkins can be modified for the asian diet and many asian foods are found in www.fitday.com to help with carb-counting. If you are vegan and don't eat any protein like eggs, cheese or seafood, then Atkins will be very difficult for you. If you eat most things then you will find cutting back on rice and noodles not such a great loss

For breakfast I often eat omelettes with an asian spin to it - I would add oyster mushrooms, leftover meat from dinner, some chilli powder and cook it in sesame oil (can be done in a microwave too). Other times I would take a packet of tofu, add some shallots, sesame oil and a tin of sardines, and heat it up in the microwave at work. I know it sounds strange to a westerner to have this for breakfast, but if you work in an environment like mine, where the Japanese eat bbq mackeral & rice or the vietnamese eat rice noodle soup for breakfast, then my breakfast of tofu is not unusual. You can even eat leftover dinner if you don't mind eating it that early in the day.

In Malaysia, I can think if quite a few things you could eat at breakfast. What about ordering a curry without the roti? Sambal egg curry? BBQ soy chicken wings? Oyster omelette? Tofu & salted veg soup? Get a MacDonalds egg, bacon mcmuffin and ditch the muffin? If you can't find some of these food because it is too early in the morning then buy/make extra when you have dinner the night before, then you can eat some for breakfast if you have a microwave at work.

I often make curries (Thai & Indian), soups, stirfries based on Atkins principles. Make sure you add little or no salt, that way you can eat these foods without rice. Also I make sure I count every single carb in www.fitday.com If I do occasionally have a steak and veg like the Americans do, I would eat my steak with some nice sambal and stirfry my veg in olive oil added with some garlic and chilli. Like I said, you can take an Atkins recommended food and give it an asian spin to it. You can do it with all the meats, make a nice chilli dip for prawns & mussels, sambal egg curry, stirfry your veg and tofu as a substitute for egg dishes. It is difficult to adjust at first, but you get used to it after a while and keep motivated as the weight comes off.

Give Atkins a go. As Dr Atkins says, make sure you start Induction during a period in your life with minimum distractions - when you are not sick, when you're not going on a holiday, when you don't have to eat out for 2 weeks - basically during a time when you can cook all your own meals for 2 weeks and stick to Induction.

I too have heard about people being taken to hospital after starting Atkins. When I questioned them further, I discovered they had not been drinking their 64oz of water a day or been following Atkins properly.

2 of my colleagues have started on Atkins because they have seen that I use butter instead of margarine, eat eggs for breakfast, smell my curries for lunch, smoked salmon for snacks and most of all, seen me shrink in size. They have since lost weight, so as far as I am concerned Atkins is a better way of life because you only eat foods that are good for you and you feel better for it.

[matawguro]

I'm from the Philippines. I agree that the first two weeks without rice is ****. I felt like throwing up a few times without the rice to temper the taste of what I was eating. Believe it or not, you'll get used to it. I hardly think about rice or noodles these days.

If you're in a rush, certain foods can be pre-prepared the night before like hard-boiled eggs, certain sandwhich spreads (like chicken), etc.

I'm not sure what the state of fast-food outlets like McDonalds is in Malaysia, but here in the Philippines, one has to be careful of carb-creep, hidden carbs found in what would normally be Atkins friendly foods.

The same goes with Chinese food. Not all Chinese restaurants are created equal.

As you can see in my sig, I started at 240lbs too. I'm down to 175. Exercise is non-negotiable. I hate exercising too, so I take up stuff that in my mind isn't exercising like martial arts (I'm not exercising, I'm learning to defend myself) or ballroom dancing (I'm not exercising, I'm socializing).

If you have more questions, feel free to ask.

[Johnny B Goode]

Hi -

I'm asian too - and lots of things that I grew up with (some of the ethnic main dishes, desserts, and of course, the rice) aren't allowed (at least not at the begining stages of Atkins, but may be when you reach maintenance). I've found after a little over two months that I really don't need to eat rice and the other stuff. I'm not Korean but I currently live in Korea and they have stuff over here in restaurants that are very Atkins friendly - like the roast pork/beef and lettuce, "bosam" pork and kimchi, the meat or fish soups, the roast/grilled fish, crab, etc. - you can probably find something that you can still have from what you've been previously eating to be allowable on Atkins. Of course I can make stuff that needs sugar like Korean bulgogi (soy sauce marinated beef and pork) with splenda and eat that with lettuce and vegetables. I also still make steak, hamburger, beef stroganoff (sp?) and other dishes and have spinach and other leafy vegetables.

Specifically on tofu - I'm pretty sure that's an allowed item - I don't have my book in front of me though. I eat a spicy Korean bean paste soup that has tofu and hot peppers in it - maybe a little clam or two - every so often. I wouldn't recommend it everyday because of the use of the bean paste/curd to make the soup and different places cook it different ways (with differing carbohydrate amounts) but I've eaten it and still have stayed in ketosis. Watch the salt though.

For the cough medicine - I would use sugar-free cough drops - but I have not had to use them, so I have not really looked at the carb content.

I am about in the same starting weight range as you (I started at 237).

Good Luck!

[xiaofen]

Oh thank you so much. I was so into my "I miss my noodles/rice" that I didn't see so many options! I really can't you all enough, especially Tickletussler and I really thank you all for your insightful comments. I am still quite sick, and am looking forward to starting Atkins again.

But my mentality is still stuck on the missing the old stuff I had and not thinking about the positive. I hope to improve my health so I thought Atkins was easy. It isn't. Psychologically very difficult, as difficult as doing it because my mom refused to believe eating fats won't kill me and strangers would look at me with this funny look when I say save the rice. Which was why it was difficult. I hope to find more foods that I can buy that I don't need to cook because frankly I can't cook, maybe fried rice and that is out of the picture, right?

But the way you all mentioned it, Atkins does require a person to be able to cook. Were you all good cook before you started or you experimented and became one to prepare your own food?

Just one more question. I wonder all of your who ate the way you described and started almost the same weight as I was, and assuming you're female also, how mugh weight did you lose in the 1st 2 weeks?

And just today in the local newspaper I have read about a report where several diet plans were compared and Atkins fared the worse (in Malaysia check out NST). I read so many negative news and yet I have read some real accounts of positive news. I think my biggest problems is as much as physically changing my attitute towards food to as well as psychologically, because I am not getting much support from my family who is concerned about the high fat/protein context of this approach.

Which is why I joined this forum, I needed support. Thanks for your advice.

One more question; anyone here who is beyond Induction and is taking rice again? Or perhaps Dim Sum?

By the way I am really curious; during Induction, is tofu (any tofu) and "fu chuk" (cantonese word if you know what it is) permitted?

[spirittalker]

My thought on the tofu is that it qualifies as cheese so your daily allowance would be 3 ounces.

[tickletussler]

It is definitely difficult during Induction, and especially so during the first 3 - 7 days. In DANDR, it does specify the more food you are "addicted" to eg if rice, noodles are your staple, then the harder the first week of Induction is, as your body tries to combat the "addiction" and fight your cravings. That is why it is important to start Induction when there aren't other areas of your life to deal with eg sickness, conflict, change, etc

But from what I've read, in FAQs and many posts, if you can survive Induction, I can almost promise you, you will feel more energetic, you will not have cravings, and you won't feel like eating constantly. My partner kept wondering if I was eating sugar, because I kept bouncing off the walls because I was so energetic.

I lost 3kg/6.6lbs in the first 2 weeks... but everyone is different. DANDR does have guidelines regarding metabolic resistance and average weight loss. I suggest you have a read through the book.

One of our local news stations did a report and interview with some scientists about how Atkins worked. A university in Denmark did a year-long study with 2 groups of people - one on a low caloried det and other on Atkins. They found not only after a while, those on Atkins naturally ate less calories because they were satisfied with the food they were eating, they also found the Atkins group had significantly lower cholestrol.
I can see why Atkins gets bad reviews, but in my opinion, it often comes from those who don't study or understand Atkins, and build their impression on the Induction phase. I can also see Atkins getting bad reviews if you don't follow the rules of Atkins, because people can make their diet very unbalanced if they don't eat their recommended vegetables and fruits.

If you use a carb counter, follow Atkins, and eat many of the foods you can enjoy under Atkins, you will find that we are not eating more fats/oils than we previously did. The main difference is you are cutting out refined carbs and sugars, which is much healthier for you. I recommend going for the initial blood test ie cholestrol, lipids, trying Atkins for 3 months then go to the doctor again. If you had been doing Atkins right, you will find that your blood work has improved.

"One more question; anyone here who is beyond Induction and is taking rice again? Or perhaps Dim Sum?"

I think in pre-maintenance onwards, you can eat brown rice in moderation/sparingly (someone correct me here). As for Dim Sum, I prefer the steamed ones and I simply take all the rice flour coating off it and eat the filling!

Tofu is permitted during Induction in the Acceptable lists of foods. I have seen it in Atkins Made Easy the first two weeks. If tofu packages are anything like those they have in Australia, they should list a carb total in the nutritional panel. Soft tofu has less carbs than firm tofu, but check the packaging - on average I find there is 1.8g net carbs per 100g tofu.

[sskyeye]

Can you get cauliflower? There are recipes in the database for using cauliflower to make fake rice and even mashed potatoes (just to show the versatility, I guess you aren't too interested in mashed potatoes). It isn't that difficult, and you can use frozen cauliflower if you can find it where you are. Cauliflower is induction friendly and this might help you "over the hump."

[not2late]

Tofu is allowed during Induction. It's the "soy cheese" refered to in the cheese footnote. Long before vegan companies made cheese flavored soy products, tofu was called "soy cheese" in the US due to the similarity of the tofu-making process and the dairy cheese making process.

Tofu does have carbohydrates, so you will need to count those.

[pingtastic]

good luck on your diet :yes

i haven't eaten a grain of rice or a strand of noodles since i started atkins on the 24th of january 2005... strangely i don't have any cravings whatsoever for them even though i used to eat them every day before i started atkins. after time you'll get used to eating your veggies and you'll find you won't miss your rice and noodles that much after all. I eat more veggies now than i've ever eaten in my life.

[pingtastic]

in regards to "fu chuk".. i remember having that during induction cos my mum made "fu chuk tong so". From what i remember it had a pretty low carb count (considering you eat it in moderation of course :yes )