OWL Curiosity

[chadcs]

Ok. I had 55 pounds to lose total, and tomorrow will be day 14. It looks like total weight loss will be 10 pounds. No cheating. So that puts me in the high metabolic resistance range. So things are a little more clear, I did lose 50 pounds with Atkins previously and stopped only because other health issues got me.

Here is the interesting part. I am more than happy with 20 grams of carbs a day. I am already eating way fewer than that without any issue. If you stay in extended induction then you are saying, you will not eat more than the 3 ounces of cheese which is the deal breaker for me. It also eliminates the occasional low-carb treats. An occasional snack with nuts, etc.

(musing over what I ate last successful Atkins)
Rung 1 is useless for me as I eat none of those anyway.
Rung 2 however, allows me to use my carb count in a way that I will actually eat which is more cheese.
Rung 3 I occasionally have a pack of nuts
Rung 6 I love black soy beans which have very, very little carbs.
Rung 9- I have one low carb tortilla a day. I made a lot of stir fry that frankly are missing something without a holder.

I have seen some say to stick at rungs before moving up, ie in this case another week of induction before moving to rung 2 or i could just stay like i am now and pretend to be on rung 1 this week. Re-reading his book he is not as hung up with the rungs as much as he is the number of carbs increased and where you get them (more on the lower half). In theory one could add from any rung as long as they stayed under their carb level and still completely follow what he is saying realizing that you could goof your loss but for those of us who use the ketostix daily that is easy to see immediately.

So I am curious as to how most have done it. I once said I stayed on induction and lost 50 the first time, but re-reading that is not the case. After the first 2 weeks I stayed at 20 grams but allowed myself access to rungs 1-6. Never a starchy vegetable or grains (except that lc tortilla). For me at that time, it was very fulfilling and made me more aware of what each food cost. You learn that if you want those berries as a late night snack you better not have those nuts earlier. Stayed in ketosis, stayed losing consistently, but most of all stayed happy.

[liv]

So what is your source of carb if it is not vegetables? More than half of the carbs on induction should be vegetables. Lots of good nutrient in veggies.
Rung one is probable the most important rung. Veggies are going to be most of our carbs for the first few rungs.

So I followed the ladder slowly. First adding 5 more veggies carbs and then dwelling on each run quite a while trying to determine how the different foods affected me and my loss.

[JulieB]

I thought cheese was limited to 3-4 oz even after induction?

[chadcs]

I detest most vegetables. The main vegetables I eat are lettuce and green beans with some use of onions and peppers. I do eat the occasional cauliflower mash potatoes. Snow peas are ok. And I occasionally blend a tomato and use it for making a beanless chili. At most I get around 15 carbs a day.

[liv]

Well that is not all bad.
Keep working on it. You got some help in that Veggie hater thread.
The thing about veggie carb is that it is hard to go wrong with them.

[chadcs]

Yeah. I think I am going to do the modified OWL this week since it worked very well in the past sticking to 20 grams. As long as things have not changed internally, I know which of the OWL foods stall me. The Ketostix and scales will tell me if it is too much.

That is one thing I like about Atkins. In the end you have a wide range of ways to "do it right."

[liv]

Things change all the time.
I don't think what you are doing is modified OWL. It is more like extended induction with cheats.
Eventually you do want to eat more carbs to find out how you react to them. Atkins is all about long term. Losing is the easy part.

[chadcs]

There is no cheating involved though I can see how it might look like there is. You simply add all the items from rungs that do not negatively impact you so long as you do not go over your target carbs. The biggest problem is that there are few foods at certain levels that I have any desire to consume. It is what it is. The good news is the things that I want are ery low in carbs anyway and have never caused me to crave. I do not drink milk and never eat from the starchy vegetables or grains except the occasional lc tortilla. The actual items that I eat from the other rungs are more cheese, occasionally some nuts, rarely berries, black soy beans almost daily (very low in carbs but way up that ladder), and occasionally a vodka or lc beer. You can raise the carb level later as you get closer to your goal and introduce the other items. But I most certainly agree that you should begin to increase the carbs as you get closer to your goal otherwise you really do not know how some of the "other" foods will affect you. If it goofs me this week, get cravings, or the strips are not pink, I will know to instantly back off.