The Carbohydrate Ladder in OWL

[grovemonkey]

Does Atkins in the OWL chapter explicitly state that you must follow the Carbohydrate Ladder progressively?

If so, where?

[Elizellen]

During the first week on OWL, increase your daily carb intake from the 20 grams a day on Induction to 25 grams a day-going up one level. I recommend you add either another salad, half an avocado, a cup of cauliflower or six to eight stalks of asparagus or another vegetable. Continue to eat this way for the rest of the week. As long as your weight loss continues steadily, you can go up another level-to 30 grams daily-the following week. If you are a veggie lover, you may be happy continuing to add more salad greens and other vegetables. Or you may choose to add a half-cup of cottage cheese, an ounce of sunflower seeds or a dozen macadamia nuts. If you have been feeling fruit deprived, now is the time to add berries, the fruits lowest on the glycemic index. (Thirteen average-size strawberries contain 5 grams of carbs.)
Look at "The Power of Five" on pages 174-175 for other suggestions of foods you can add to your daily menu. Most people find it best to add back foods in a certain order what I call the Carbohydrate Ladder (see below).
Note that few people will be able to add back all these food groups in OWL. Those on the second half of the list tend to rank higher on the glycemic index and are more commonly introduced in Pre-Maintenance. Following this order tends to minimize blood-sugar surges that could reactivate cravings.

So it is a suggestion rather than an 'order' but the way Dr Atkins thought most people did better with.

[grovemonkey]

Page 171 doesn't explicitly demand that you must follow the Carbohydrate Ladder. It does say the following though:

1. Most people find it best to add them back in order
2. That few people will be able to add back ALL of the items on the list

In fact, the entire section of OWL is all about choices and finding your CCLL by adding determining your metabolic resistance and adding 5 gram increments of carbs backing into your diet slowly and through a variety of foods.

I would go as far as to say that Atkins clearly spells out the rules of induction in great detail but is much more relaxed about OWL since the whole idea of OWL isn't to keep yourself to some highly ridged regime.

What do you think about that idea? Anyone?

[not2late]

The Ladder is arranged so that the lower Rungs have the lowest glycemic index. For example, grains (Rung 9) have a higher glycemic index than full fat dairy (Rung 2). Hence Dr. Atkins wrote "Most people find it best to add them back in order"

Therefore according to Dr. Atkins, following the Ladder is beneficial for most people. Are you one of the few who can add 5 net carbs of potatoes the first week of OWL? You may be and you may not be. There's no "test" to determine that. I was completely surprized that cantaloupe destabilized my blood sugar, but watermelon did not. We've had some folks who found that wheat and other grains completely stall them out. And a few who have found that things like broccoli or celery do the same thing.

OWL can be a slippery slope for folks.

[not2late]

I just want to further explain my last sentence. OWL can be a slippery slope for some people because it isn't as rigidly structured as Induction. Induction is mindless in the sense that as long as you follow the Rules and eat off the list, you'll do okay.

With OWL, there's more freedom---meaning less structure. Prior to the 2002 edition of the book, OWL phase was essentially adding 5 net carbs or "more carbs" of any food. My guess is that plenty of people fell flat on their faces without any structure at all, so Dr. Atkins included a more structured OWL phase in 2002 and he continued it in his last book Atkins For Life, with modifications. For example, in AFL, there is no alcohol rung because Dr. Atkins found that some people were using their alcohol carbs and foregoing carbs from more nutrient dense things like food.

But again, the book does say the Ladder works for most people. Are you one of those "most people" or are you not? I don't know. Do you?

[ValidRouge]

I know, for me, that had I not followed the "rungs" and added foods in one at a time I never would have found the foods that were stalling me. In fact, as I came into maintenance, I found even MORE foods stalling me, but it takes ISOLATING those foods/food groups. The only way you can do that is in a structured way. You have to keep your diet very basic and add them in one at a time to be able to isolate the blood sugar instability. Let me clarify that even more. During my weight loss phase, it actually was kind of hard to find my stallers as I was rapidly losing. What happened to me was that as I got into premaintenance, the weight loss slowed way down and the foods that were stallers actually made me start gaining. I really got to know my body during this time, and know what foods cause blood sugar instability (makes me CRAZY, shakey, hungry, etc.). I wonder now if I had been even more rigid in my OWL might I have had larger, faster weight losses?

[grovemonkey]

I don't disagree with the benefits or the idea behind following OWL in a progressive manner. I do think with anyone stating that you can't eat something until you reach a certain Rung on the Carbohydrate Ladder is not fully grasping the idea behind OWL. Atkins didn't write this in the DANDR and it's not a rule of OWL.

If someone wants to make statements like that, it's fine, but is it really what Atkins said regarding OWL and beyond?

[not2late]

Originally Posted by grovemonkey

I don't disagree with the benefits or the idea behind following OWL in a progressive manner. I do think with anyone stating that you can't eat something until you reach a certain Rung on the Carbohydrate Ladder is not fully grasping the idea behind OWL. Atkins didn't write this in the DANDR and it's not a rule of OWL.

If someone wants to make statements like that, it's fine, but is it really what Atkins said regarding OWL and beyond?

The fact that Dr. Atkins created a Carbohydrate Ladder and gave OWL a more structured form in the 2002 ed tells me that he saw plenty of people needing a more structured approach to OWL. Again, in the 1972 and 1992 books, the phase that became OWL was unstructured. In the 1972 book, how to do the second phase was about 2 or 3 paragraphs. In the 1992 book it was a chapter---a very thin chapter, about 2 or 3 pages if I recall correctly. It's too bad Dr. Atkins died when he did, because I'm sure he would have modified or further explained OWL and Pre-Maintenance (which is another phase that needs a bit more explanation, imo.)

The Ladder makes sense in a scientific way because it is arranged so that the lower rungs have lower glycemic index foods, which means the chances of your blood sugars going wacky is lower when you begin OWL than if higher glycemic foods were introduced first.

It might not make sense in an emotional way because if it's fresh corn season and you're only on Rung 1, you can't eat fresh corn now if you follow the ladder. But then, I'm guilty of being an emotional eater in the past----part of the reason why I fattened up to almost 250 pounds, lol. I'm a starchy carb addict. I don't think I would have been successful if I didn't follow the Ladder because I would have been so "hurrah I can eat potatoes, rice and pasta!" that I wouldn't have paid attention to the 5 net carb limits or the signs of blood sugar instability. By the time I did introduce potatoes to my Atkins, I had gained enough knowledge about myself---my food attitude in addition to the blood sugar things---to be able to eat them without having one more bit or self-bargaining (you know, "well, I'll eat a little more of this rice, but I'll cut out berries. So it will all even out for the carbs.")