Should I move to OWL?

[Amber_Girl79]

Hello all! I have been on Induction for 48 days now, and I am wondering if I should move to OWL? I have lost 30lbs already, but i still have allot more to lose. I am fine with the foods, make great meals and am not bored. And truthfully I really never counted my veggies in the first place so I feel like I already am adding more veggies. So it is mostly nuts and berries I would love to add to my food choices. I have only lose 2lbs this week now, so I wonder if changing up something in my diet would work better for me.... quicken things up? Please let me know your thoughts! I have gone CHEAT FREE this whole time, and I am no rush to change my food up, I just want to lose more weight!!! (don't we all?) Thanks!

[hu11aba1oo2]

I have read several other people's posts stating that they moved on to OWL from Extended Induction and actually started to lose more weight. Just food for thought, literally I guess.

[rweeks]

If you are comfortable with induction go ahead and stay. I think the advantage of OWL is to find out what foods work and DO NOT work for your body. I personally think that this is a necessary step for lifetime success. You will not stay in induction forever.... so then what? Just my two cents. Good luck!

[not2late]

In OWL Phase, you learn how many carbs you can eat and still lose weight and you learn how your body reacts to certain foods.

What happens with some people is that they stay on Induction, hoping to lose weight faster or hoping for a consistent rate of weight loss...and they stop losing weight. From what I've seen on the Board, this happens to the folks who have a moderate to low metabolic resistance to weight loss. Why it happens, I don't know. My guess is that our bodies adapt to that lower carb level and hangs onto our fat rather than using it up---a version of "starvation mode".

And Dr. ATkins, wrote that the only people who may benefit from staying on Induction longer than 2 weeks are the people with a high metabolic resistance to weight loss because staying on Induction may correct the metabolic imbalances that hinder weight loss.

But back to OWL, knowing how many carbs your body can eat and still lose weight is very important to your weight maintenance plan. I've seen folks who stay on Induction lose nearly all their weight and decide to go to OWL for the last 10 pounds. Then they are terrified to add 5 net carbs of broccoli because it might stop their weight loss when they are so close to goal. I've seen the folks who reach goal and decide to move to OWL---which defeats the purpose of OWL because OWL is the On-Going Weight Loss phase, not maintenance phase.

Learning how your body reacts to various foods are important to you life long weight maintenance plan. By going through OWL and Pre-Maintenance, you can see how different amounts of foods affect your body.

And also, I've noticed the people who move to OWL are more satisfied with their Atkins and have less of a tendency to cheat with truly non-Atkins foods, like cookies or cake. Afterall, if you are on Rung 8 and you have a CCLL of 55, is eating a few potato chips really "cheating" or is eating a 1/2 of strawberries "cheating"? No, it isn't and having a wide variety of foods decreases the chance of food boredom.

[ShannonK]

My personal opinion is that you really should move on to OWL. I reached my goal weight three years ago doing strict induction the whole time - all the way to goal. Once I reached goal, I did not know how to locate my CCLL and I was in trouble. Of course, I gained all the weight back within a year and so here I am again. I am definitely going to hit the rungs as soon as possible.

Remember our goal is not to just lose the weight, but to MAINTAIN the weight loss for the rest of our lives.

[Sookie]

I thought that by staying on extended induction would help me to lose more weight and I kept stalling, only losing a few pounds in December. I was starting to get so bored with my food that I didn't want to eat anything. So finally, my digestive track made it clear that my body needed more veggies ( sorry if that's TMI) and I moved to OWL. Since then I have been losing weight steadily and have a lot more energy.
Look at it this way, all the foods are good for you on this WOE, if you move to OWL and don't lose, ( but I'll bet you will) you aren't really hurting yourself. Just try it, you can always modify what you eat as you go...