can I add fruit next week?

[love777]

Ok so I am only 5ft tall please keep in mind.

I weighed 119.4 last Saturday.
Today I am at 114.9

I still have a goal to be 110.

If I start adding in more carbs I know I will lose weight still (depending on how many I add) but more slowly.

I was thinking to add Fruit on Monday. Just one fruit in the morning. Or is Nuts or wheat bread a better choice?

Now when you guys start adding carbs do you eliminate things from your menu to substitue it or do you just add it to your menu?

So for instance on my drive in to work I always have 2 deviled egss but I was going to eat an apple instead. Can I still eat my deviled eggs later along w/everything else I have been eating? or does my apple replace that food?

Thanks! These boards really help to talk about things and keep me on track. I need motivation to stick with it.

thanks!

[Georgiana]

Re: can I add fruit next week?

Are you on Induction now? Are you moving to OWL next week?

[liv]

Re: can I add fruit next week?

Jumping from induction straight to fruit is not recommended. There are steps to go throug. This is what we call the OWL laddes (OWL=ongoing weight loss)
Check the sticky on how to OWL in the OWL forum and check the OWL chapter in the book.
And congratulations on doing so well.

[love777]

Re: can I add fruit next week?

yes I am on induction now.
I am going to look at the owl sticky now too.

So while I'm looking - when we start adding foods do they replace foods or do we truly add it on top of what we already eat?

[liv]

Re: can I add fruit next week?

We add carbs (beginning with more veggies, then dairy, then nuts and seeds, then berries etc, etc) We are not suppose to eat more in total so we may have to lower fat a tad as we do this. But we add more carbs to find out how many carbs we can actually eat and still lose weight.

[atkinsgal08]

Re: can I add fruit next week?

Love777,

Do you have a copy of the book, Dr. Atkins New Diet Revolution (2002)?

[love777]

Re: can I add fruit next week?

I do have the book but I dont remember it specifically talking about it? I mean what I read was that you ADD 5 net carbs which would mean that I could ADD that food to my already induction menu not replace it with anything. BUt I wanted to be sure from experts like you guys as I really want to do this right.
Reading the owl ladder again i think next week I will add Nuts. But I want to know if that can be added to my foods that I am eating on induction since I"m under 20 net carbs now. if I replace nuts for something on my menu then I would still be around 20.

[love777]

Re: can I add fruit next week?

I dont have the book here with me at work - why do I have to add nuts in 1oz at a time? Why can't I add it 5net carbs total?
And macademia are the best I read what else is good or can someone give me a list of best to least? How about fancy mixed nuts?
thanks!

[atkinsgal08]

Re: can I add fruit next week?

Here's how OWL should work:

You're eating 20 net carbs on Induction, with MOST of them coming from Induction vegetables.

On the first rung of OWL, you add 5 net carbs (per day) of more Induction vegetables for a total of 25 net carbs per day. If you're adding a new food, you add it three times per week ... and on the other days, you use a tried and true vegetable.

Then when you move to the second rung of OWL, you can add 5 net carbs of fresh cheeses or more aged cheese or other dairy ... so you would be at 30 net carbs per day ... still with MOST of your daily net carbs from Induction vegetables.

Rung 3 is seeds and nuts.

Rung 4 is berries.

>>How about fancy mixed nuts?>>

Well, it's a mixture, so it would be very difficult to tell when you've had 5 net carbs ... easy enough to tell a serving though. It's best with nuts to stick with the one ounce serving.

However, nuts are not the next thing for you!

>>why do I have to add nuts in 1oz at a time?>>

Because that's a serving! It's very easy to overdo nuts ... they're a trigger food for many. One ounce of macadamias (about 10-12 nuts) is only 0.9 net carbs ... however, if you were to eat the full 5 net carbs, you would be overeating the macadamias. Best to add more vegetables to the mix ... 1 net carb of macs, 4 net carbs of vegetables!

[love777]

Re: can I add fruit next week?

hmmm ok here is my question.
Why is it that for adding foods/carbs I have to follow the rungs?
If I would rather have my carbs in fruit or bread can't I do that?
I think I could suvive atkins if in the end when I'm on maintenance I can have 1 whole fruit and 100 calories of whole wheat bread. then I could do it for life. If I could have 1 fat free yogurt on top of that that would be even better.

The rest of my carbs can be veggies for sure.

I dont understand why I have to add veggies or even cheese first if eventually I will add nuts and fruit and grains if I follow the rungs?

I hope I have made sense.
Is it not possible to be at 20 net carbs on induction
add 5 of cheese, veggies, nuts
then later add 5 of fruit
then 5 or more if tolerated of grains.

[atkinsgal08]

Re: can I add fruit next week?

>> Why is it that for adding foods/carbs I have to follow the rungs?>>

Because that's how Dr. Atkins wrote the plan. It's what he founds works best.

>> If I would rather have my carbs in fruit or bread can't I do that?>>

Not now.

>>I think I could suvive atkins if in the end when I'm on maintenance I can have 1 whole fruit and 100 calories of whole wheat bread.>>

You can have "whole fruit" when you get to the fruit rung ... when you get to the 2nd fruit rung, you can have more "whole fruit".

Why do you want to restrict yourself to "100 calories"? Also, Dr. Atkins recommends "whole grain" bread ... which is not the same as "whole wheat". It's very difficult even to find whole wheat bread in the grocery store without sugar or HFCS in it. And ... some people find that they can never add grains back in.

>>f I could have 1 fat free yogurt on top of that that would be even better.<<

Atkins isn't about "fat free" anything! You could try adding full fat yogurt (unsweetened) when you get to the dairy rung.

>>dont understand why I have to add veggies or even cheese first if eventually I will add nuts and fruit and grains if I follow the rungs?>>

The carb ladder works on the glycemic load principle ... so we add things back in that have the least impact on our blood sugar and work our way up.

Rather like how one starts a baby on solid food ... you don't start with a slab of meat ... you start with the easiest things for them to digest.

Follow the OWL carb ladder ... that's how you get to Maintenance.

[liv]

Re: can I add fruit next week?

I am sure you will get more answers so hang around for them
The ladder is one of my favourite things about Atkins and I think very very clever. The thing is that carbs are not equal things. They effect our bloodsugars uneavenly depending on how glycemic they are. So some stuff like lettuce, jicama, and celery we can eat quite a bit of and most of us will see no reaction. Other things like rice or potato or white flour will just make things go crazy even if it is just 5 carbs of the thing. Having done the ladder and experimented a lot with foods I have learned a lot about how they affect me. Some foods make me hungry, make me eat more and make me fat just because they are carbs. Carbs are tricky little things.

So the ladder is made in such a way that you start with the foods that are likely to effect you the least salad veggies, dairy, nuts.

Veggies are going for the most of us to be the carb source that we can easily eat from without having carb reactions. They are very dense on important nutrients that we need. We cannot go wrong with veggies. And Atkins clearly write that this where most of the daily carbs will come from for most of us on a daily basis in maintenance as well.
The other carbs, though we can have them are (again for many of us ) going to be window dressing. Yes I have a bit of yogurt or cottage cheese daily (but just a bit) yes I eat some nuts (but just a few) Yes I have strawberries - but not too many - I eat apples (but never more than a half and always together with somthing fatty), a few sections of grape fruit and once in awhile I have some low carb bread. But the basics is still meat, egg, fish, salad veggies.

Now you may experience different things as you add back carbs. But the trick is add them back in order (so you know how they work for you), to add them back slowly - OWL should for most of us be a long slow journey I think.

Low fat is aweful products. Have you seen how many chemicals they add to those things and a heap of sugar and artificial sugars. I would not feed low fat to my worst enemy. You can eat full fat yogurt - the fatter the better. I often make my own - because it is easy and it is fat and it is chemical free

Good luck

[Jenileigh]

Re: can I add fruit next week?

I just wanted to say thanks for the very helpful information in this thread. I appreciate the detailed explanations of how and why things are set up the way they are in taking the next step.

Thank-you!

[EverLosing]

Re: can I add fruit next week?

If you want long term success, you HAVE to follow the rungs. It's a plan. There is a formula. The reason for the plan's design is for you to be able to maintain your goal weight. If you doubt any of the advice you've been given here, go ahead, eat 5 grams of nuts. You'll be back in the forum asking everyone why you have stalled. That's exactly what happens when you eat 5 grams of nuts and ignore the 1 ounce rule. Don't forget the possibility of gaining weight by not playing by the rules. There's always that. Seriously, I cannot eat just a whole peach or a whole apple without making a meal out of it. It's extremely important for your blood sugar that you always consume carby things with protein and fat. That's how it works. If I must have a peach, you can bet I'm going to eat some tuna with mayo first. That's just how it works. That way I don't end up eating a huge bowl of cereal before the night is over. Doing low carb your way is the fastest road back to where we came from. I'm so not interested in being there again and I don't think you want to be there either. Follow the rungs. They were put in place for a reason.

[MelTin]

Re: can I add fruit next week?

You will in all probability never be eating an apple again. Fitday says that a medium apple has about 16 net carbs and a large has 24 net carbs, so probably the most you would ever eat would be 1/4 to 1/3 of an apple.