Newbie has questions!!

[Star_Eyes]

Hello, I have now been in the induction phase for 10 days and I've run into a few things that I could use some answers to. Any help is much appreciated!

1. Why during the first 7 days did I lose 9 pounds but now am losing nothing?

2. I finally bought the ketone strips to test my level and today was at "moderate" (40), is that normal or should I be higher? If so, how do I get higher?

3. Are the 3 cups of salad allowed daily separate from any other veggies that I eat or is that a total of 3 cups of veggies (including salad) daily?

I believe that's it for now. I'm sure I'll have more questions later! Thank you!!

[atkinsgal08]

Re: Newbie has questions!!

1. Don't know! Weight loss isn't linear ... you don't lose ever day. However, if you post a typical menu, with quantities and net carbs, we can take a look. How much WATER are you drinking?

2. The color of the strips doesn't matter for Atkins. They're really not helpful, since you can turn them and not lose, nor be doing Atkins correctly.

3. The vegetables you eat are the 3 cups.

[Star_Eyes]

Re: Newbie has questions!!

Thanks for your reply...I wish I'd known that the strips weren't helpful before I spent $11 on them! As for a typical menu, it varies daily of course but I'd say for the most part it's something around these lines:

Breakfast- 1/2 of a 3 egg omlett with cheese, bacon, onion, jalapeno + a cup of coffee
Lunch-10 buffalo wings
Snack-cheese cube, deviled eggs or stuffed mushrooms
Dinner-Some sort of meat protein cooked to atkins standards with a salad or veggie on the side

Overall net carbs tend to be between 15-20 carbs.

As for the water, I am sure I could be drinking more. I'm still drinking diet coke (maybe 12 oz. a day). I think I drink at least 6 cups of water a day.

[atkinsgal08]

Re: Newbie has questions!!

The minimum of water is 64 ounces. And you should have an extra glass of water for each cup of coffee, since coffee is a diuretic.

Are you getting enough vegetables?

Do you make the buffalo wings?

[Star_Eyes]

Re: Newbie has questions!!

I will make more of an effort to drink more water. Does sparkling spring water count for water?

Do you have to eat the full 3 cups of vegetables a day? Towards the beginning of the induction period I definitely wasn't getting 3 cups a day but now I think I'm getting that amount, which is about when I stopped losing the weight.

Yes, I make the buffalo wings. I just bake them plain and then toss them in some Buffalo Wild Wings Sauce which has 1 carb per serving.

[atkinsgal08]

Re: Newbie has questions!!

>> Does sparkling spring water count for water?>>

No, it doesn't. Sad to say.

>> Do you have to eat the full 3 cups of vegetables a day? >>

Yes, you do.

>>some Buffalo Wild Wings Sauce which has 1 carb per serving.>>

What's the ingredients?

You might want to try entering your food into FitDay - Free Weight Loss and Diet Journal and see what "the numbers" are.

[2big4mysize]

Re: Newbie has questions!!

your lowing of your weight loss is very normal. When we begin low carbing our bodies will because they are not up to snuff for primarily burning fats for making energy so when you cut off the carbs the biody was using for making energy the cells scream WE NEED FUEL and your body releases your glycogen reserves. Glycogen is stored with fluids so when the glycogen is released the fluid is too. People have varying amounts of it stored so the inital weight loss will vary by how much is stored. Now you are into body fat burning and will be from now on.

This is why it is important to measure too cause the human body doesn't like to collaspe inward upon itself so it will attempt to hold shape by stuffing tissues where body fat is being removed for fuel making with fluids. This happenes on any weight loss plan high carb or low carb. As your individual tolerance for that fluid is reached your body will release compounds to remove that fluid and you will over night see pounds gone out of proportion to what you did the day before. Because the fluid is denser then the body fat it replaced you can measure the inches of body fat being burned off even when the scales don't validate your hard work.

Eating your veggies is important because they contain micronutriants needed for your body chemistry and the better the body chem works the faster you shed the excess body fat.

it isn't important at all to use stix as they measure only the excess consnetration of one tyep of ketone body that is used for making energy. We can make the stix darker by drinking less fluids since the more concnetrated your urine is the more ketones it will contain. You can also alter the fat molecules you consume to make the stix darker eating stuff like butter or coconut oil which are short and medium chain fatty acids will cause an increase in ketones produced by our liver.

it won;t effect your weight loss but if color on stix is somehting you need go for it. that taste in your mouth is actually a free ketone stix. You are tasting the ketone bodies in your saliva