Newbie: Alcohol/caffiene during induction?

[EmmyM]

My sister in law dropped and has maintained a loss of 4 dress sizes on Atkins and she drinks like a fish. During Induction she only drank Gin/Vodka instead of wine and would have it with Soda Water or Lite Tonic Water.

I'm not saying its right, because it's not, but it's not induction, however, it worked for her.

Personally, I don't drink alcohol when I do Induction, although I am not a massive caffeine drinker so find that I'm ok with the odd cup of de caff coffee with cream and also find that aspartame doesn't affect me either, so the "odd" glass of diet coke doesn't bother me either (only allow it after my 2 litres of water though!).

Everyone is different, but if you SERIOUSLY want to do this and have it WORK, then cut it all out completely.

[Slapshot]

Have people seen results doing what you're talking about doing? Yes.

Have they hit their maximum potential and changed the kinds of habits that caused them issue in the first place? Not likely.

Can you call drinking wine and keeping yourself on a caffeine IV drip Atkins induction? Nope. You can't, because it's not. It would then be a "modified low-carb" diet.

You can ignore lots of rules/guidelines/advice and get results. They're not going to be optimal results, and they're not going to be tried and true methods.

This is very astute and something I think about/struggle with on a daily basis as I keep trying to right my Atkins ship. (doing OK). The conversation in my mind has been boiling down to this lately: is 80% Atkins all the time better than 100% Atkins half the time and 0% Atkins the other half? That's the piece of this I'm struggling with. I know that 100% Atkins all the time (up the Rungs) is best for me, and that's what I'm aiming for.

[Slapshot]

Originally Posted by chadcs

The books says to avoid caffeine. Period.

I don't have the book handy, but I recall it being somewhat contradictory on this. I think Dr. A says people "should try to avoid caffeine." Then, in the next sentence, he starts off with "excessive caffeine has been shown to..."

This suggests (at least to me), Dr. A was not banning caffeine, but it should be limited. I think his concern was primarily unstable blood sugars and cravings. So, query whether it's one of those YMMV things. It's a shame he's not around!

That's just my take based upon a spotty memory of the book. I could be wrong.

[chadcs]

He states to avoid it in several places. Inductions specifically says "Avoid....that contains caffeine."

Now granted, I do not think a serving a day is bad at all. In fact it does reduce appetite but that happens naturally once you have passed the day 4-6 hurdle. In fact, it is easy to undereat on Atkins as you can forget to eat. Caffeine also increases fat metabolism, but the diet does this as well.

The biggest worry I would have is those who have more than a single serving because it does increase blood sugar. You can check it with a glucometer. These spikes will reduce your potential and create weird blood sugar spikes and drops that do alter your loss.

What scares me with caffeine is that at one point we all used it and got a boost with a single cup. Now we have double, triple, or quadruple espressos just to function. Being free from sugar is a great feeling as is being free from caffeine. It is so much nicer needing a rare caffeine beverage if you need to work extra, stay up, or work out vs needing it just to get out of bed.

You should really read the warnings on pure caffeine that we used in a lab. It reads like a bioweapon label.

[liv]

Well chadcs. For some reason I suddenly feel like I should drink some decaffeinated tea instead of my usual afternoon coffee. I am thinking green tea today.

[PeteinVA]

I used to drink 2 or 3 mugs of coffee each morning with a s & L each. Now I drink one mug black, and as far as I'm concerned if I'm stalled I don't know it! My body's reacting very well to Atkins and I've lost 26 pounds in less than six weeks.

(was that a boast?!!)

[chadcs]

LOL. Because right now I sure could use a SF Red Bull. It is funny. We all have our vices. At least everyone here is all in agreement that excess sugar and pounds on our body is not going to be on that list.