Not getting near 20 Net Carbs -- is that bad?

[Houston]

Hi! I'm new here and making my first post. I've been reading a ton on this great site for the last three days. What an amazing resource! Hello all! You are all so neat and supportive. I'm glad to be here.

I'm on Day 4 of Induction and so far I've followed all of the rules to a "t", but have consumed far LESS than 20 Net Carbs each day. I'm getting in anywhere from 12.5 to 15.5. I've studied many of the menus on this site and feel like I'm eating very similar proportions and foods. I'm not uncomfortably hungry (although I have had a headache on an off yesterday and today) so I think I could continue at this Net Carb count if it's "okay" under the Atkins rules.

So my question is, is it bad to consume only 12.5-15.5 Net Carbs per day so long as I'm following all of the rules? Should I try to increase my Carb count by selecting veggies from the two veggie lists that are near the highest in carb count? I'm a rule follower so want to make sure I'm doing all of this right. Thanks in advance for all of your help!!

Kristen (aka "Houston")

[Georgiana]

Welcome Kristen!

It would be very useful if you could post a menu... but to answer your question, I would increase the carbs a bit.

You should aim for 65% fat, 5% carbs, 30% protein. Unless you eat a lot of fiber, I don't see how you can get close to this ratios without having a large calorie deficit. Now I'm not a big fan of the BMR thing (never really worked for me) and I do believe that you should eat only when/if you're hungry, but eating higher carb veggies will not fill you up a lot more than lower carb ones.

Out of those max. 20 net carbs indicated for induction, 12-15 should come from veggies. This means something like 65-70%. How many of those 12-15 net carbs you eat come from veggies and how many from other stuff (e.g. spices, mayo, vinegar, etc.)?

You said you're not "uncomfortably hungry". Well, you should NOT be hungry AT ALL on Atkins. If you had a headache every day, even if not a very bad one, would you live with it for your whole life or would you want to get rid of it at some point? If you don't want to 'get rid' of this woe, you have to get comfortable with it. So !

As I've said in the beginning, it would be great if you could post a typical menu.

See you around!

[momtomany1]

No, you are actually doing things perfectly. Most of us don't reach the whole 20 in induction, it leaves room for 'cream' carbs or the odd carb from salad dressings, etc. I would venture to say anyone who is strict is going to come in around exactly what you post. Good going!

[momtomany1]

Here is a little example, if you ate these 4 great veggies today,

1/2 cup green pepper, 1/2 cup mushrooms, 1 cup radishes, 1 cup romaine,

that would be a whole 11 carbs. Then say you got a carb from some cream cheese, 2 from eggs... you would still be under 15. So really, you are good.

[not2late]

The way the book is written, the majority of your carbs should be from vegetables. However, if you follow the book's vegetable recommendations--3 cups of the vegetables in either 3 cups from the salad list or 2 cups from the salad list and 1 cup from the "other list", then you'll probably average about 10 net carbs from vegetables alone. Factor in the cheese carbs (1 carb per ounce), the egg carbs (1 carb per egg), etc. that would probably bring your carb count to about 15 net carbs daily.

Sometime last year, atkins.com revamped their website again and changed the Induction Rules to say that 12-15 net carbs are to come from vegetables and they got rid of the 3 cup rule, allowing a person to eat volume unrestricted from either vegetable list. Now here's the problem with that. 1 cup of lettuce is roughly .5 to 1 net carb. So if you choose to eat 12 carbs of lettuce for your Induction veggie, then you're stuck eating a mountain of lettuce. The problem with that is you don't have any concept of proper portion sizes. Many of us are overweight because we don't know what a "serving" size is. So that doesn't really educate us about food and proper eating.

The other problem with the atkins.com new vegetable rule is that you could choose to eat 15 carbs of tomatoes. Well, tomatoes are higher glycemic index than some of the other vegetables on that list and Dr. Atkins said to be aware that the higher glycemic indes veggies might cause weight loss problems for some people.

Here on ADBB, we follow the book--DANDR 2002 ed. And it says that the majority of your daily carbs should be from veggies and your veggies are limited to 3 cups of the list during Induction. So....that means if you are eating 10 total net carbs, then at least 6 of them should be from vegetables.

The question is why did atkins.com change the veggie rules? Perhaps for the same reason why they now say bread is allowed during Induction---in order to make it more "acceptable" to the low fat dieticians who keep criticizing Atkins due to the fat content of the diet. But they really don't need to do that.

The USDA defines 1 serving of veggies as 1 cup raw veg or 1/2 cup cooked veg and that we should eat 5 servings of veggies daily. So if you use the 2 cups salad/raw + 1 cup other method, then that will be 4 servings---which almost satisfies the USDA's five a day/cooked recommendation. And remember that Dr. Atkins never said that you couldn't eat your veggies cooked or even if you should slice or leave the vegetables whole when you measured them. From my mushroom omelette this morning, I used 1 cup of whole mushrooms. When I sliced them, that one cup whole mushrooms turned into almost 2 cups of sliced mushrooms.

[blueberrylady]

Hi Kristen, welcome to the board. It sounds like you're doing fine. The headache will go away in a few days. Good luck and keep us posted on your progress.

[LaceyLooWho]

Sounds good to me... I could never reach the 20 carbs either. Keep at it, you are doing fantastic

[Houston]

Thank you SO much for all of the great responses! I feel much better now about what I'm eating. Thank you!!

Kristen
Day 6 and going strong

[livelaughlove08]

Make sure you get your veggies!! but I'm pretty sure in the book it says 15-20 net carbs... any lower then that and its not good