help

[tryingtosucceed]

Hi everyone, im doing the induction phase and im going into my 2nd week, i just want to know how long i can stay in induction, also im keeping my carb count quite low, i want to lose over 100lbs and i know that i need to work extra hard so please any thing motivational, success stories and just advice will be appreciated. thank you all so much. also can any women tell me how long its taken them to lose weight, and how important is exercise, thanks

[niko772]

There is no limit on how long you can stay on induction. I'm on my 3rd week right now and will continue to stay in this phase until the food choices begin to bore me. According to Dr Atkins, it's a personal choice. Only you know what you need to do.

[RitaCeleste]

Well, I've been on Atkins off and on for over two years now. I've stopped for three months at a time here and there. Gained a little and came running back! I like walking, but prefer to hit a mall and just window shop to get in some steps. What happened the last time I went off was I gained 11 pounds or so. I lost 9 back during induction, so I'm only up two pounds. I found out I can't go back to carby foods, they make me hungery. Eat the whole house hungery. So I kept my weight down by limiting my carbs, which helped with hunger and I ate less. I could eat some things I hadn't seen in awhile and more than I thought and still maintain. I'm not big on excercise. It helps some when I do it. Plan on getting over sweets and junky foods and making lasting changes in what you eat. At first, I cheated almost once a week. I'd eat at a Chinese Buffet and put 7 pounds of water on and carry it for days. Gradually all this has become less. This time I am happy with induction foods. I started to associate white flour and white sugar with being hungery. I hate being hungery! I planned on dieting until I got happy with how I looked. I didn't care about my health. And I didn't plan on doing the diet for life, just until I was thin, then it was gonna be carby heaven. I'm glad it has taken me longer to get the weight off. I'm stubborn, I doubt I'd have made any lasting changes otherwise. But here I am, expecting to eat real meat and veggies and cheeses all the time.

[imagood1]

Make sure you are eating enough and not keeping your carbs too low daily...that is counterproductive. Eat until you feel full. What I do is eat my vegetables first - I eat vegetables at each meal to keep my blood sugars level and also it keeps me feeling full longer throughout the day. I eat my protein last.

You can stay on extended induction much longer than the 2 week period but just make sure you give yourself enough time to move up the rungs, adding foods back before you get to pre-maintence - OWL isn't something you want to rush through.

If you find once you've been on extended induction awhile you aren't loosing or you are geting bored, move to OWL Rung 1 and add 5 net carbs of additional veggies daily -- many people (including myself) started loosing again once they moved up the Rungs.

Good luck.

[JulieB]

There is really no reason to keep your carbs way below 20. Remember to eat your veggies and to get most of your daily carbs from them. The higher carb veggies are more nutritious than lettuce. I have a lot to lose too (about 150lbs), and am losing very well at 30-35 carbs/day.