A Newbie that is confused

[SweetIrishRoses]

Ok, I have the book, and I am starting today...but Im confused and hoping that you can all help me... It says in the book to eat liberal amounts of protein such as eggs, lean meat, bacon, but, it also says to be aware of bacon because of the carbs...yettt I look on the package and it says no carbs.. I don't want to overdue my 20 grams of carbs a day over 1 piece of bacon. I was excited to read I could have bacon, eggs and sausage for breakfast And also, it said something about I can have diet soda but only with splenda...is there a general rule with that also? And the cheese can't be pastuerized just reallll cheese!!! HELP I love the diet, I just don't want to do something wrong thinkin I am doing it right.

[Slapshot]

Hi and welcome! You're in the right spot for these questions...

I don't think the book says to be aware of bacon because of the carbs. What it likely says is be aware of added sugar to bacon (i.e "Maple Flavored" etc.) So, if your bacon is 0g of carbs and has no added sugar or other off-limits ingredients, you're good to go. However, one word of warning - the sodium in bacon tends to be high, so you will likely retain water.

Actually, second word of warning - avoid bacon that has sodium nitrite in it as it's a known carcinogen. You can find "uncured" bacon in virtually every supermarket.

Diet soda with splenda is fine, but some people reports that it slows/stalls their weightloss. For me, avoiding arfiticial sweeteners of every sort helped me crave all of my sugar cravings.

I don't know about the pastuerized cheese - first time I heard of that. I would think pasteurized cheese would be no different - carb-wise - than any other.

good luck!

[kibskix]

dont freak out, its easier than you're making it
bacon is usually cured in sugar. thats why he says not to overdo it. i personally avoid bacon and sausage alltogether because of the curing process, fillers, and nitrates in them.

splenda is one of the sweeteners atkins approved to use, and the sugar alcohols in other diet drinks cause some people to stall. some can get away with it, some can't. also you're only allowed 3 packets of splenda a day, so if you do decide to drink diet rite make sure you remember that counts as a sweetener. ideally on your first 2 weeks, you should avoid anything sweet alltogether. the first week the cravings for sweet things are the worst, and you need to break the habit and not enable it.

cheese is just natural cheese. as in don't eat processed american cheese slices or velveeta, etc.

check the sticky at the top of the main forum where the print out induction food list is. keep that in your wallet and refer to it when you have questions, it should help answer a lot of them, it lets you know what cheese, meat, veggies etc you can have while you're doing induction.

[Georgiana]

Originally Posted by SweetIrishRoses

Ok, I have the book, and I am starting today...but Im confused and hoping that you can all help me... It says in the book to eat liberal amounts of protein such as eggs, lean meat, bacon, but, it also says to be aware of bacon because of the carbs...yettt I look on the package and it says no carbs.. I don't want to overdue my 20 grams of carbs a day over 1 piece of bacon. I was excited to read I could have bacon, eggs and sausage for breakfast And also, it said something about I can have diet soda but only with splenda...is there a general rule with that also? And the cheese can't be pastuerized just reallll cheese!!! HELP I love the diet, I just don't want to do something wrong thinkin I am doing it right.

What edition of the book are you using? We go by the 2002 ed. here and you seem to be using a more recent one.

If the amount of carbs in a food are below 1 g, the manufacturer can "round" it to zero. So the bacon may have carbs. This is why you have to always check the list of ingredients and don't go exclusively by the label.

The lean meat part is a change done after Dr. Atkins' death. You can eat any kind of meat. In fact, Atkins is a high fat diet, so about 65% of your calories should come from fat. The rest should be distributed something like 5% carbs and 30% protein.

Sweetened foods (with Splenda or any other acceptable sweetener) are limited to 3 servings per day. For diet drinks, a serving is 8 oz. So assuming you are not having sweetener from anywhere else, you can have max. 24 oz of Splenda-sweetened soda. But as it was said before, diet sodas are known to stall people, so you're taking a chance if you decide to have them.

[kibskix]

at one point back in the day i was drinking 1 can of plain diet rite every evening. i still lost weight, but honestly, i have totally lost my taste for soda. it actually hurts my stomach now. so even though i can technically get away with it, i don't bother. there's something sort of creepy about drinking black fizzy liquids that make my stomach hurt these days lol

[momonmission99*]

Kib, I also get a stomach ache from soda! If I crave it, 3 times in six weeks isn't bad, I will go buy a can of diet soda. I'm never able to finish it and I always get an upset stomach!

Sweet, go for the nitrate, sugar free bacon. It tastes just as good and you don't have to worry! It is more expensive, but if you don't eat it every single day then it's not a problem. Although I probably spend $8 a week on chorizo LOL.

[SweetIrishRoses]

I am reading off of several different books that Dr. Atkins has.. Its just all so new and a different way to eat, Im not used to someone saying....eat that fat and like it LOL. Don't get me wrong...this gal likes it!!! I just want to make sure I am grabbing the right foods, and making sure the labels read what is actually in the product, the bacon I purchased today said no carbs no sugars...buttt in the ingrediant list, there is sugar..so I was scratchin my head going huh? I love the eggs though.. yummm with mayo ohh my Momma gonna like this diet

[CherylA]

I am wondering if the splenda is what has slowed me down in my other attempts. I think back to the first time I was on Atkins and lost 35 pounds....I only had basically meat, eggs and cheese and water. I dont like diet pop. In my other attempts on Atkins I have been drinking coffee with splenda and heavy cream. It is like a sweet treat for me but I also noticed that I wasnt loosing very quickly. I also work night shift so I wondered if that had anything to do with my SLOW progress. I started again at the beginning of the year and really only lost 5 lbs in 2 months! AHH! Any advise? I feel like I should just be drinking water....maybe that is it.

[Elizellen]

Originally Posted by SweetIrishRoses

the bacon I purchased today said no carbs no sugars...buttt in the ingrediant list, there is sugar..

Manufacturers are allowed to claim zero carbs if one serving of it has less than 0.5 carbs.
If sugar is listed in the ingredients (or any other aliases of sugar like dextrose, cane sugar, fructose, HFCS etc) then there will be 'some' carbs in one serving.
Maybe count one carb for each 2 or 3 servings just to be on the safe side?

[imagood1]

Hi Sweet - I was a 6 - 8 can of Diet Rite drinker before I started Atkins -- since January 5 I have had 3 cans and have NOT enjoyed any of them. I haven't been able to finish them when I have had them and the joints in my hands are stiff the next day. I've decided Diet Rite just isn't worth it for me any more.

Make sure you drink plenty of plain water - at least 64 ounces a day and you'll do fine.