Hi,
I was just wondering if anyone has a vegetarian menu plan for the induction stage of the Atkin’s diet. I have been LC for a while but would really like to try this plan.

Regards
Lindy

I haven't done Atkins, but doing it veggie-style would be a little tricky. Tricky, but do-able. It takes some careful label-reading for vegetarian products, because many of them are grain based. Most Yves brand stuff is fairly low since it's soy based, as is TVP. But the carbs do add up.

You might want to ask over on the Atkins forum: this one seems pretty quiet.

I am re-starting Atkins. I only need to loose 15 lbs. But I am tring to remain a veggie. I am actually thinking about eating meat again I'm so desperate. If you find an answer please let me know.

Thanks

vegitarian,

If you send me a private email (my address is lsaxon~energy.com.au) I can show you the vegetarian diet plan that I have been following.

Regards Lindy

Hi LindyJane..

Do you still have your veggie plan? If you do I would really appreciate it! Could I send you my email address? I am DESPERATE!!! Thanks

I think Atkins' only vegetarian protein options for induction are, cheese, cream, sour cream if you do lacto and eggs if you do ovo. I don't think you have any induction options if you don't do lacto or ovo. Interestingly enough Atkins fat fast to induce ketosis in metabolically resistant persons allows macadamia nuts. Macadamias are so high in fat and so low in carbs that I bet you could use them in induction if you're a vegetarian. I'd talk to someone at the Atkins center before I tried it though.

hi guys! I have been doing ATkins for about three months now and so I have a variety of meal plans that I could share with you. I am still doing the induction (20g or less) so all of these are ones that you could use right away.

I kept a food journal which was helpful because if I didn't know what to have for dinner I could look back and think 'yeah, that was tasty'. Another source I use is allrecipes.com which has wonderful recipes that have been reviewed by others so you get an idea of if they will taste good or not. It has a lot of high carb ones on there though, so you have to be careful.

Sample days:

Breakfast: piece of quiche and veggie burger pattie: 4 carbs
lunch: string cheese and some almonds 2 carbs
snack: 3 deviled egg halves 1 carb
dinner: half a block of smoked tofu with several stuffed mushrooms : 9
snack: atkins corn muffin: 3 carbs
Total: 19 carbs

same but instead of dinner and later snack: 1 C spaghetti squash with alfredo sauce and a nice salad

Breakfast: piece of quiche and atkins corn muffin: 5 carbs
Lunch: cheese and almonds: 2 carbs
Dinner: Salad with 1/4c. red enchilada sauce, cheese, spoonful salsa, 1/2 avacado, and then under the broiler until the cheese melts: 9 carbs
snack: 1/3 cucumber with ranch dip: 6 carbs
Total: 22 carbs

Breakfast: celery with cream cheese: 3 carbs
Lunch: Broccoli quiche: 4 carbs
Dinner: cheese omelet with mock mashed potatoes 7 carbs
dessert: coconut pudding: 3 carbs
Total: 17 carbs

Breakfast: meringue cookies and coconut pudding: 4 carbs
Lunch: almonds: 2 carbs
Snack: cheese and some turnip fries: 3 carbs
Dinner: Tomato and cheddar soup: 9 carbs
Total: 18 carbs

So I hope that gives you some examples of what you can eat. If you want, let me know and I can put up more examples. You mainly will have to do some research to find recipes that you like that are low carb. My husband thought I was crazy but now that he sees how good I eat he is going to join me the low carb way! The meal that convinced him was when we took some poblano peppers and roasted them, and peeled off their skins. While they were roasting we took 1 C of cream, boiled it, and stirred in 1 1/2 C. shredded mexican melting cheese (chihuahua cheese) and let boil until reduced to 1 C. Then, we scrambled some eggs with fake bacon bits, slid the eggs into the roasted peppers and topped it off with the cream cheese sauce.

yum yum! and I don't even really like eggs!

Hi there,
Thks for the vegetarian plans. .These sure wud help.I've been on Atkins for 6 days and on the 7th i cheated with a mouthful of brownie, 1/2 a cookie, huge portions of *allowed* vegetables Basically i was so fed up of eating fish, eggs and chicken day after day..as i'm not much of a non-vegetarian.All the raw looking meats and bacon bites,pork rinds gross me out.Thumbs down So plz post more options and the brand names too if u can ........Thanx a ton.......!!

And hey....if anyone can suggest-is paneer (what we call cottage cheese in India ) simialr to Ricotta i believe ,allowed?........and what portions?....

Hi there,
Thks for the vegetarian plans..These sure wud help.I've been on Atkins for 6 days and on the 7th i cheated with a mouthful of brownie, 1/2 a cookie, huge portions of *allowed* vegetables Basically i was so fed up of eating fish, eggs and chicken day after day..as i'm not much of a non-vegetarian.All the raw looking meats and bacon bites,pork rinds gross me out. So plz post more options and the brand names too if u can........Thanx a ton.......!!

Soft fresh cheeses such as cottage cheese are higher in carbs (because the lactose hasn't had time to break down) than older hard cheeses.

Where cheddar cheese has less than 1g carb per 30g/1 oz cheese, soft cheeses can have up to 4g carbs per 30g.

If you can get cream cheese (eg Kraft Philidelphia) this is a better option (1g carb per 30g).

Paneer, or pressed ricotta, farmer's dry curd cottage cheese, pressed queso fresco, etc., is completely 'allowed.' 1/4c ricotta has 7g protein and 2g carbs; farmer's dry curd cottage cheese is about the same. You just have to watch your portion sizes.

There's no need to eat meat on low carb, but Atkins Induction's 20g carb limit can be very tricky as a vegetarian, especially if you aren't ovo-lacto. Try to find a high quality protein powder, either whey based or soy based, which you can use to make shakes, and in baking to oomph up recipes that use nut flours like almond meal.

I find low carb as a Protein Power vegetarian MUCH easier than as an Atkins vegetarian, but YMMV. The menu plans posted are okay as far as they go, but they are light on protein, which you really need to effectively reshape your body. Protein Power, written by Drs. Michael and Mary Dan Eades, allows up to 40g ECC in Phase I. IMO that makes staying vegetarian a LOT easier. However, Protein Power *does* emphasize getting a minimum protein daily requirement based on your lean body mass...and even at five feet tall, my protein minimum per day is 80g.

A typical menu for me would look more like this:
Breakfast: cinnamon hazelnut Kefir protein shake (37g protein, 12g ECC)

snack: an oz. of mixed nuts or an almond meal-cranberry scone (16g protein, 6g ECC)

Lunch: green salad with browned tempeh cubes, pumkin seeds and shredded cheese (30g protein, 7g ECC)

snack: ricotta and berries (7g protein, 5g ECC)

Dinner: egg-drop broth with shredded vegetables; maybe a Joseph's reduced carb oat bran pita with shredded cheese or a pappadum with shredded cheese (20g protein, 10g ECC)

That would be as much as 100g protein, and 40g ECC. I usually go over my protein minimum recommendations (which is okay) but try to never go under them.

Gaelen

so are you guys pretty liberal about the induction guidelines, as long as you stay under 20g net carbs a day? Because I don't think soy products or nuts are really on the acceptable foods list. I've been doing induction for three days and have eaten basically nothing but eggs and cheese (under 4 oz/day), plus my three cups of salad. I don't know if I can make it through two weeks of this, so maybe I should be less dogmatic about induction rules?

Well, Chunklet...I'm very 'liberal' about the induction rules since I do Protein Power, rather than Atkins. As I mentioned in my earlier post, being able to eat up to 40g ECC (effective carbs) per day is much more do-able for me...I can have nuts, vegetables, fruits, more kinds of cheese, muffins and pancakes made from nut flours and bean flours, etc. There's no room for that on Atkins induction...and for me, I needed to adopt an eating plan that wasn't going to demoralize me in the first two weeks. The thing about Protein Power is that anything is 'allowed' as long as you get your minimum daily protein requirement and you keep your daily carb intake under 7-10g ECC per meal and 40g ECC per day. And it emphasizes fresh, natural and minimally processed foods...which is one of the aspects of eating meatless that I prefer anyway. You might want to check that out.

Gaelen

I don't use a strict vegetarian plan for induction on Atkins, but I do use a lot of the Loma Linda and Worthington Brand vegetarian meats. They come in a can so they don't spoil. I happen to like Worthington Choplets. VERY low carb/High protein. They're good "breaded" with parmesean cheese and fried in olive oil or butter. I was raised with these types of meats so I like to just open a can and eat them cold. (REALLY grosses out some of my friends. LOL) They have a great variety of different kinds of meat. You can find more information at www.morningstar.com or check your local health food store. If you can't find them that way, see if you have a local Seventh Day Adventist Church in the area and ask them where they purchase them. Adventists are vegetarian and use these product and similar products all the time. Hope this helps. I lost 40 lbs in 3 months on Induction when I did it the first time and I was an ovo-veggie and ate a TON of the veggie meat!