Moving through the OWL rungs

[Big Daz]

I'm now on day 67 of Atkins. I've been doing the induction for about a month and since then I have moved on to OWL rung 1 so I can afford myself some extra veggies each day.

Is it permissable to skip out rung 2 and just move to rung 3? I do have a small bit of cheese daily as it is, I don't really feel the need to have any more than that.

I suppose the one thing I might like is some greek yogurt if that was OK. Can somebody give me some advice on this please?

[liv]

You can skip it if you like.
I think if you want to try yogurt though you should. Greek yogurt is quite nice. I also added some milk (just in cooking), yogurt, ricotta cheese and my favourite cottage cheese on rung 2.
Good job on OWLing.

[Big Daz]

So what do I need to watch out for when buying yogurt, or cottage cheese? Just the obvious stuff like buying full fat and no added sugar?

I would say at present my weight loss is about 2-3lbs per week. Is it likely as I get to rung 2, 3, 4 that I might start to see the rate of my weight loss really slow down?

[liv]

Yes try to find as full fat as possible. Greek yogurt is often great because there is quite a bit of fat in it. Avoid anything with added fruit. I cannot find good yogurt here at a price I like so I make my own. With cottage cheese also as much fat content as possible. Bot yogurt and cottage cheese are carby so the thing to learn with them is to watch portion size.
About your future weightloss, my crystal ball is a little cloudy , it varies. Some will see a slowdown, others actually do better once they add more carbs.

[Big Daz]

Ok tomorrow when I go to the supermarket I shall investigate the yogurts and cottage cheese options.

I am a bit paranoid that I'll stop losing weight by adding a wider range of food. Hopefully my fears are unfounded

[Big Daz]

OK here is what I decided on in the end:



The cottage cheese was a bit of a nightmare. 99% of what Tescos offer is low fat, and therefore higher in carbs! The product I ended up with has:

Per 100g
=======
Cals 105k
Carbs 2.7g (Sugars 1.8g)
Protein 12.1g
Fat 4.8g (saturates 2.3g)

The greek yogurts were hard to decide between also. They really varied in quality. I found a brand called "Total" however, which is strained. Here's how it shapes up:

Per 100g
=======
Cals 130k
Carbs 3.2g
Protein 6.8g
Fat 10g (saturates 7.9g)

I had a cheeky spoonful when I got back home. It is super thick like spooning cream, but very very tasty!

Now the trick will be to make sure that I stick to my allowed portion per day. No cheating so far, it's not gonna start now!! heh heh

[liv]

Those look really good. I wish I could find them here but no such look. Everybody loves the fage yogurt. So one product at the time so you can get a feel for what you body thinks about them.

[rweeks]

If you see your weight loss slowing down, adjust your carb count. I was up to about 55 carbs per day going through OWL. That is about 15 too many for me. I dropped it to 40 but still climbed the ladder. My average weight loss per week is 3.5 to 4.0 lbs, which is the same rate that I have had since the beginning. Keep adding the variety of OWL but play with the carb number to find what works for you. You might be surprised to find that the number is much higher than you think! Good luck!

[Big Daz]

I'm just upping from 25g to 30g with this step. Hopefully it'll get things moving again if anything. I track everything I eat on FitDay and despite my best intentions some days I end up with only 15g of carbs even though I was aiming for 25g.

I'll keep on trucking!