Carbs, Keto-Diastix, and Hair Loss

[AussieGal]

Hello all... I joined your Board this afternoon (now 1.30 a.m. Sunday and I will soon be in bed!!)

I have done some Searching here rather than just asking straight out, but because I haven't seen anything in the searches that help a great deal, plus my tiredness at this time of night, I thought I would just go ahead and write this message....

I don't have the Atkins books and have been following info on the Net. I am on Day 9 of Induction. The first 5 days were the worst, and I've been feeling really great in body and mind since then.

A friend of my Mother's who would be in his 60's goes on the Atkins Diet when he wants a quick weight loss. He has been giving me information and help etc. When I told him I could have crisp-bread and flat-bread, he said Definitely Not - don't have low-carbs, have NO-carbs. He loses 10 kg (20 lbs approx) in 5 weeks on the diet.

My days consist of all the same food..... bacon, eggs, lettuce, tomato, cucumber, Italian Dressing (can't find Creamy Italian Dressing), Swiss cheese, cheddar cheese and 1 or 2 cups of coffee with a very small amount of cream (I thought you could have a lot of cream but the friend says no way). Some nights, I have lamb or beef or chicken, and some of the days, I have a small amount of tuna or salmon.

Do you think I could eat the crisp-bread and flat-bread?

Next subject... the friend also suggested I buy Keto-Diastix. The glucose always stays on negative. The ketones sometimes change to the 2nd darkest colour but are usually in the middle colour. I doubt the above sentence made sense..... Anyway, I told him of the first reading (the 2nd darkest) and he said that's great, it means the diet is working. I went to my doctor today (about something else but mentioned it while I was there), and he said the colours indicate dehydration, so my 2nd darkest colour meant I was quite dehydrated. Is there someone here who could explain the colours better, as the friend said dark colours were great, and the doc said it's all about dehydration.

Lastly, I read about hair loss a few days ago, and the friend said he's never heard of that. But I read about it here in the forum during a Search tonight, and it does seem to be true. If I am going to lose a lot of hair in a few months, I don't want to stay on the diet.

Well, that's all as it's almost 2 a.m. I have noticed members writing their details, so I will write a few of mine...

Starting weight 180 lbs (82 kgs)
Current weight 176 lbs (80 kgs)
Goal weight 112 lbs (50 kgs)

Thankyou to anyone who comments... I will be back in about 7 hours

[Elizellen]

Hi welcome to our international ADBB family

Do you have a copy of the allowed list of foods for induction? It lists everything allowed and you will see does not include flatbreads or crispbreads. On the 'extended induction' forum is a wallet sized list (Wallet-sized Induction Acceptable foods List. NEW-IMPROVED)which you can save and print out to have on hand to check things out.

For processed foods you need to check the list of ingredients to make sure everything in it is on the allowed list and you wont go wrong. If the breads contain grains then you can try introducing them back into your menus when you are at the last rung/level of the second phase of Atkins (Ongoing Weight Loss aka OWL)

Your friend is right about the cream too - there is a daily limit on this and on cheese.

Your menu seems fine as long as you follow the servings recommended in the list for vegetables.

There are many threads covering the use of ketosis strips from which you can see that in general any colour showing on them will tell you there are ketones in your urine. Darker can mean dehydration as your doctor says. But some of us never get any colour showing so they are not an absolutely certain thing.

Take a look at some of the threads in the FAQ forum - there are a couple covering ketosis and use of the strips which might be helpful.

We all lose hair regularly whatever we eat - whether I am 'dieting' or not I always find hairs on the brush, so it is not a new 'hazard'

Increased hairloss is common on any weightloss regime or changes in life (stress etc) and usually sorts itself out in time, but it does grow back, so most of us are happy to see the weight drop off even if we have a temporary hairloss

Hope this helps.

[AussieGal]

Hello Elizellen, and thankyou for replying

The food list I am following is from www.atkins.com, in the "Two Week Induction Meal Plan". Crispbread and flatbread are mentioned as okay in the menus there.

Anyway, I think I have been doing a lot of things wrong, and that is mainly the AMOUNT of food I have been eating. Because I didn't understand what the following meant..... 20 grams of Net Carbs... 1 ounce of cheese as equivalent to 1 gram of carbohydrate... 12-15 net carbs a day of vegetables, I just ate as much as I wanted.

I would say I have been excessive with cheese, and possibly cucumber and tomatoes. This morning, I discovered the Carb Counter at that site, which will make it clearer as to how much I can eat.

I have lost weight in the last 10 days, but only 2 kgs. I will spend a lot of time today looking at the Carb Counter and controlling the amount of food I eat. I'm glad is HAS all been Acceptable though, and I haven't been eating the wrong food.

My 16 yearold daughter went on the diet too as she is now overweight, but on the third day, one of my younger children saw her having a cup of tea and adding about 5 teaspoons of sugar, and also yesterday, I asked her if she followed the diet and she said yes except for a can of Fanta (that is the sweetest of all soft drinks, having many, many teaspoons of sugar in it). So I don't think she will be able to stick to the right food.

Well, I'd better go do some reading........... thanks again for your help!

[Lamby-pie]

Aussie, that website is a BUSINESS. They are trying to sell you something. It is not in your best interest to rely on that. I'm telling you this because I want you to succeed.
Grain products are added into Atkins at the grain rung, when one is close to maintenance.
The first two weeks of Atkins, go ahead and eat! This is the time you will be ridding yourself of carb/sugar addiction, and your body will be switching over to burning fat instead of consumed carbs. Once ketosis kicks in, your appetite will die down.

I don't use the strips, I'm too cheap. I just stick to the eating plan, exercise, weigh occasionally, and go up the rungs when appropriate. Check out the stickies in each forum, they will be a great help to you.
Good luck, we are here for you.

[lucca]

Hi.

I just wanted to let you know that hair loss is pretty common when anyone loses a substantial amount of weight in a relatively short amount of time. I asked my doctor about it when I lost 60lbs after being on my vegetarian version of the Atkins Diet for less than a year. She said not to worry about the hair and told me it would come back when my weight loss slowed down, which it did. My hair loss wasn't all that noticeable either.

As for the bread, you shouldn't eat it right now. Maybe in like, a year, once in a while, you can have super-healthy whole grain bread. Only once in a while though. For now, stick with eggs, cheese, healthy meats, salads, mushrooms, broccoli, asparagus, okra, pumpkin, avocado, artichokes, zucchini... those kinds of low-carb nutrient-dense foods cooked in olive oil or grape seed oil or butter or something good for you. You want to eat lots of protein and fat!

Remember to eat enough fat! You can cook your food with fat as long as it isn't trans fats. You can put low-carb salad dressing on your veggies. You can have two tablespoons of cream a day on this diet if you want to. One tablespoon of cream in your decaff coffee and one tablespoon of sour cream on your tasty salsa omelet with queso and avocado. Mmm. Limit yourself to four ounces of cheese per-day though.

Foods you should not eat right now:

Sugar
Bread
Fruit
Nuts
Milk
Yogurt
Starchy vegetables like carrots and potatoes
The list goes on...

Anyways, if you're serious about this diet, read the book. It's pretty simple stuff.

Good luck!

[AussieGal]

Hello... I want to thank you two for replying and giving such detailed answers - that was great of you, but before I ask you any possibly dumb questions, I will check out the stickies as you suggest.

But apart from buying the book, and not going back to atkins.com, is there a list of foods somewhere especially for Induction at this stage. I know you have given me plenty of ideas, lucca, but I am confused when you mention eat FAT, as it seems hard to believe you can eat the fat on bacon and chops etc, but I like that and wouldn't mind. I have another thread going called No Energy, where another member mentions eating fat. I have asked her also if she MEANS fat.

Well, I will check out the stickies and get back to you then.

Thankyou so much for your help

P.S. It's almost lunchtime in South Australia and I have some bacon waiting to be cooked. I am dying to know whether to eat the fat too, so if you are online, could you answer re just that for now? Ta!

[soliwit]

Welcome Aboard !!!!!!

Yes Aussiegal, get yourself the 2002 copy of dr. Atkins book and read it cover to cover.
Those people at atkins.com indeed are a bussiness, all kinds of things have changed after the great Dr. died and they are not really about helping you, but getting their billfolds fat.
Make sure indeed to not eat too much cheese (it was a real trouble for me, made me stop losing), make sure not to eat more than 3-4 oz of that (about 100 grams)

Also the losing hair is not only when you do atkins, any diet that makes you lose a lot of weight is going to do that.

What I recomend btw is not to follow the path of your mothers friend and only 'jump on the diet' when you need to lose some weight and then go back off again, you are way better off to follow the whole path, so induction, owl into pre-maintenance into maintenance, it will help you to totally change your ways and now only get the weight off but KEEP it off forever !

Happy losing !!!!!

[edit] and yes we mean FAT ;-) eat the WHOLE bacon and enjoy it !!!!!!! have a great lunch !!!

[soliwit]

sorry for the double post, here is a link to the stickie that has the most clear list of foods you can and can't eat and the amounts.....

http://www.atkinsdietbulletinboard.c...ead.php?t=6781 (What foods can be eaten on Induction?)

[AussieGal]

Whoo hoo, some yummy bacon coming up soon!!!

Thanks for writing, soliwit, and I will check out your link as soon as I've had that bacon!

Btw, I think I have been overdosing on cheese too - I've been having 2 slices of Swiss a day, plus 2 of Cheddar - that would equal 84g. Well, going by what you say of 100g, that's okay!!!!!!

[soliwit]

Oh, I just thought about the fact that you measure in grams and not ounces and such, in this here thread I posted a list that I have made some time ago that could come in handy for you, it is the same vegetable list that is in the link I gave you before but this time with all measurements in grams mentioned too.
(I like weighing my food better than using a cup for measuring)
http://www.atkinsdietbulletinboard.c...651#post570651