20 g carbs on 3 cups greens a day...IMPOSSIBLE

[rosadokar]

I've tried and tried different combinations but no way do three cups of greens add up to 20 carbs a day. How do you do it? I've been doing induction for 28 days and hace lost 12 pounds. I'm being very strict about my percentages: 25-30 % calories form protein, 65-70 % from fat, but somehow my carbs never don't come up to 5 % unless I use some dreesing ith a carb content, which I would prefer not to do. I've been adding in a cup of rosted cauliflower occasionally, a few cherry tomatos, and orange bell peppers, all of which have a few carbs, but there's no way three cups of greens a day comes even close. Any suggestions? I'd like to keep doing induction for a t least two monthe I'm 5'9"and started at 227, Weighed in at 215 this morning. My goal is 175.

[thecheshirekatt]

Nowhere in the book does it state that you MUST eat 20g of carbs a day and they MUST come from veggies, so you can relax on that one

The rule is that the MAX you can eat is 20g of carbs a day, and that the majority should come from veggies. Any sweeteners are counted as 1g of carbs per serving, cheese is also 1g of carbs per oz, eggs contain carbs as do spices and dressings. So does the majority of commercially produced mayonnaise. So make sure you are counting ALL of these things. I find that fitday.com is a good place to keep track, I put in everything I eat or drink during the day and it lets me know percentages I do have to account for some extra carbs in certain items, or plug in my own information if it is different to the label etc. but most of the time it is fine.

Congratulations on your losses so far, 12 lbs. is a great loss. You might want to consider moving to OWL soon (rung 1 is only 5g extra of carbs per day from veggies) as this teaches us what we can eat, and how much while maintaining our weight loss.

[claremontmom]

You don't have to get all 20 net carbs from veggies, as long as at least half of your net carbs are from veggies. Peppers count as salad veggies--1/2 cup each of green and red gets you to about 7 net carbs. (You could eat them raw, or cooked in meat or omelets or whatever, or substitute some lettuce and cukes and radishes to make them into a salad, which would lower the carb count some, but that would be okay.) In the category of "other" veggies, a half cup of spaghetti squash and a half cup of canned tomatoes to top it with is another 8 net carbs. So that's 15, and the other 5 can come from eggs, cream, cheese, sweetener (all within limits, of course). Remember, too, that 20 net carbs daily is the upper limit--not everyone gets 20 every day during induction.

[Elizellen]

I've tried and tried different combinations but no way do three cups of greens add up to 20 carbs a day.

Correct, if you choose to eat your 3 cups of vegetables as only lettuce or even some of the more carby green leaves ike parsley you will never get anywhere near that number. For that reason Dr Atkins added many other salad-type vegetables to his list.

As the others have said, you need to choose different vegetables from the "salad veg" list in order to maximise your nutrition and get "most" of however many net carbs up to 20 you eat on induction.

My induction 3 cups normally included at least a cup of red peppers and often a cup of onions in order to get my net carbs higher, and even now (when I can "legally" eat many more veggies) I seldom buy lettuce as it is really just "chewy water" and there are many better veggies I can choose nutrition-wise.