I have another post on here, so I do appreciate your advice. I have been investigating CAD. Am currently followin Atkins (which I find very easy, but restricting).

Will following Atkins, but introducing the principals of CAD work? I mean, can i follow Atkins, but adhere to the CAD principal of carbs being consumed in a one hour period every now and then (but not necessarily every day)?

I imagine there is more difference between the two plans than the reward meal, but i'm not sure its obvious to me what they are?

So.. if I were to go out to dinner, or on a conference or business trip, and eat low carb for the day except for one hour, would this still be effective ? I don't know that I want to eat carbs every day for an hour (as I am a diabetic).

Anybody tried this?

Actually it kind of doesn't work. What happens is that alot of the Atkins guidelines don't fit into CAD at all. You kind of end up being a jack of all trades but a master of none, if you know what I mean.

On the other hand, if you're on Atkins (real Atkins) and on a special occasion you splurge (and TGIF is not a special occasion ) then I would definitely reccommend you keep the hour time frame. It would help with the insulin surge and also put some limits on your splurge.

Maybe I should look at it the other way around then... ..

If i follow the principals of CAD.. i.e. no snacks.. weighing protein, only eating foods on list... do i HAVE to eat carbs during the reward meal every day? I would ideally like to do this only 4 nights a week (and stick to the hour) when i eat out, or at the least have a reasonably low carb dinner, only adding fruit.

CAD considers alot of veggies, any kind of fruit or nuts, and quite a few other things as carbs.

You can follow the CAD rules for your complimentary meals, then still have a very low to moderate carb dinner that is low GI while keeping balance. From what alot of people say on here they lose better when thier carb is a fruit or other low GI form of carb. Have spaghetti squash with meatballs and sauce. Add in some sliced zucchini for your veggie.

Instead of doing it 4 nights a week though, you would have to stay low carb for the entire week. Probably keeping your breakfast and lunch from the complimentary list. The problem would be after a reward meal if you took the next day of, you would get the larger insulin spikes. Remember CAD belives that how much insulin is released is based on the last 2 meals eaten.

I'm not sure what you mean by weighing protien though. I thought complimentary things such as meats weren't limited except by what our body tells us.

Thank you LadyBelle, that was very helpful. So to confirm, the quantity of carbs you have in your reward meal each day should be the same every day? So having lower carb one reward meal, and higher carb the next reward meal the next day will cause problems? Or perhaps, you may have misunderstood my post. When i said I wanted to eat reward meal 4 nights a week, I meant to eat a low carb (as per Atkins) on the remaining 3 nights. I did not mean I wanted to only follow a low carb plan for 4 days a week?

Regarding weighing the protein, the book says 3-4 ounces. I assumed that meant you could not have more than 4 ounces and therefore you would have to weight. That is less protein than i am used to consuming on Atkins were it was no trouble for me to sit down to a 8-10 ounce steak. 4 oz is like a small tin of salmon or tuna .. right. I live in metric world, and I believe 3-4 oz is the same as 90-120 grams. That would be a snack for us carnivores down under

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Hey- this is my first post so I hope it comes out right.
I came over to CAD/CALP from Atkins and after three weeks have found I am usually consuming fewer carbs on CAD than I was on Atkins. I was snacking all day long on lo-carb stuff on Atkins. Now I have one CM and one RM every day on CAD (usually), with virtually no carbs on the CM. The RM is usually a salad, an entree that is usually a low-carb meal from the Dana Carpender 500 recipes book, and then one or two other things that are still reasonably low-carb- a serving of lo-carb chips or low-carb pasta or a couple of low-carb cookies. I like Carpender's low-carb recipes and the low-carb pasta because they tend to have more usable stuff in them- more protein, more fiber, etc. Even on the days I have a scoop of sugar-free ice cream I figure I'm only getting 40 grams of carb a day. And I'm losing, on average, about a pound a week! As of today I am only 5 pounds from my goal of 135! So I would say you can combine Atkins and CAD. I wasn't intending to but that's the way it has turned out (it helps to actually like the low-carb foods, I guess).
Also a bit of encouragement for the older dieters out there-- it wasn't until after I turned 40 that I have been able to lose weight and keep it off. I turned 45 on Wednesday and have been overweight my whole life until about two years ago- I have slowly and steadily lost about 35 pounds (low carb, mostly Atkins), have had no trouble keeping it off, and feel in control of my eating (huge appetite- I mean HUGE) for the first time. Go figure.

No, your reward meal is what ever your choose. I ment your complimentary meals. An Atkins meal can sometimes be higher carb or have more food choices then a CAD complimentary meal. Basically the nights you stay low carb, still have your complimentary meals as CAD instructs instead of spreading carbs out through the day as Atkins instructs. This way you don't have an insulin rush associated with your complimentary meals.

Also the nights you do reward meals, make sure to balance them. If you do a carb overload you may end up gaining instead of losing

(Great nickname, by the way... we are all a bunch of lucious ladies here, if you ask me! lol)

I know CAD can be really confusing at the beginning. And I would imagine that having a head already full of Atkins rules wouldn't make it any easier. I have heard of people combining the two programs, but it would be tricky. CAD's reward meal concept really only works because we keep our CM's ultra-low carb, don't snack between meals and strive toward some balance in the RM. So, for it to work, you would have to stick to the allowed list of foods and give up snacking, if that is something you do. But, then at the reward meal, you don't have to sit and eat carbs for an hour... none of us do that. (Well, rarely at least!) You have a healthy meal of protein and low carb veggies, with whatever kind of carb you like added to it... it could just be a complex carb veggie, some fruit or yogurt.. or any one of a million different things. If you want some higher carb desserts, that is ok too, but you certainly don't have to.

I think if I was you, I would rather do CAD 'clean' for a couple of weeks, to see how it suits me, instead of just adding a reward meal here and there. Then you aren't really doing CAD or Atkins and it might be hard to know what is working and what isn't. But, on the other hand, lots of people design custom low carb plans and that seems to work out good for some.

As far as CM protein goes. The CAD book says start with a 'normal' serving of protein for your CM's, 3-4 ounces. But, feel free to have more if you are still hungry or are finding you can't last till your next meal. But, you might find that you don't need quite as much food once you are on CAD, that is what others have said.

Good luck with whatever you decide to do.. we are all on this journey together!

Hey Luscious,

What Vel was saying is Soooooooooo true !!! it DOES work... i went from Atkins of 4 mo.... to CAD....for 4...
then a combo of the two for 8 more mo....they work !



just wanted to tell ya that.
jarrod

I think it would be easy to combine the two. To do it properly, you would need to get the CAD book for allowed food and non-allowed. Then eat your CM's twice a day, and on your reward meal instead of going crazy like you're allowed with candy bars and such, eat a lc product for the "naughty" part of the reward. That way it's still a reward....you can have lc bread or an lc dessert.....but it would stay lc which is where the Atkins part steps in. Personally I think it would be hard for me to do CAD the normal way....I would want to binge on the "naughty" part of the meal. Even if they say the cravings would get me....I know they would. I would do much better eating something lc. I know you can eat the bad veggies and stuff for the reward....but that's no fun! That's what is supposed to make CAD nice is that you can have something normal. I did CAD for 3 months before and lost 45 lbs (then I got pregnant and that was shot) but I never did the reward meal....so I guess I was more on Atkins than anything.

I guess it all depends on HOW you combine the two but it did work for me. Like another poster commented, just doing straight Atkins I found I was snacking A LOT and my loss stopped. I was still eating my Atkins levels of carbs, watching the cals and only eating legal foods but I think for me it was the frequency of which I was eating that gave me trouble.

I switched to eating 2 CM's and NO SNACKING during the day. I would have a regular Atkins dinner but I may have a heavier load of veggies or throw in an LC treat or bread or nuts or something. I made sure to consume it in one hour though. After my day shook out I still consumed the same amount of carbs and cals as I was before (also the same ratio of protein and fats) as I was when doing straight Atkins-- I basically just changed the timing of my meals and made sure 1 meal consisted of the heavier load of carbs in the evening-- CAD style (but still remaining Atkins legal). After 2 months of not losing I think I lost 4 or 5 lbs the first week I tried this. I also kicked the cravings I was getting by legal snacking on Atkins.

Since I first tried this a few months ago I've gone on and off following this. I seem to only loose now when I combine the two (but I'm close to goal now so weight loss is supposed to get harder at this stage anyway).

I never actually ate a RM that was not Atkins legal so I'm not sure how taking it this far will effect you.

From my own experience and a 38 pound loss so far.. I find that Atkins day time and CAD for dinner, you get the same efficient results. The key is to not eat sugar at CAD time, and to not binge.
Water is a must.. and if you must eat sugar , try a fruit or sugarfree product..
Give it a whirl..
Anyother questions e-mail me!!
Cheers,
T

This is my first post for a while. but I've been on some low carb plan for almost two years now.

I did an Atkins-like plan for about 6 months and lost a bunch of weight, then stalled; then I switched to CAD and lost a little more until another stall.

I find that I can stay on CAD much more easily, and maintain my current weight. When I cheat and go up five pounds or so, it's back on Atkins. I lose the excess in a week or two.

Problem is, I just can lose the last 10 pounds; I think the only thing that will do this is more exercise.


In short, you can mix up the two plans; just find what works for you..experiment until you find something that you know you can follow for the long term.

shutt