Some people add more carbs in the form of induction-allowed foods first to establish the level of carbs that their body can handle without gaining weight, then swap out 5 g of those carbs for non-induction foods to test which other foods they can handle and not gain weight.


You could also keep an eye out for any of the long list of "Blood Sugar Symptoms" Dr Atkins wrote about in Chapter 12 of DANDR to see if the new foods are affecting you in other ways than weight gain.

Thanks for the info Elizellen! I'm not doing DANDR, I'm doing A '72 so I guess I better research that chapter online.
Wishing all of us continued success on our personal LC WOE journeys!!

Okay today is day 299 (yesterday was the beginning of week 43) and to date I have lost 126 lbs -- 50.4% of myself.

I can’t believe how totally awesome I feel and how totally focused I have been since I started this new journey to a Healthier, Happier and Thinner me! In my wildest dreams I would have never thought I’d be down to under 150 and look at me, I am down to 124. I would have been perfectly happy at 150 wearing size 12/14 clothing but HOLY Hannah, I am so amazed that I am down to 124 and wearing size 6 jeans. I can probably fit into size 4 jeans, I haven’t tried that yet!!

Wishing all of us continued success on our personal LC WOE journeys!!

This thread on "vintage" Atkins lists the first week induction rules in the first post
http://forum.lowcarber.org/showthread.php?t=386471
After that week you are told to add 5 carbs of "whatever you were missing" if I recall correctly.
So adding your almond milk after the first 7 days would be following the plan

I am sure one of its regular contributors will be able to advise you further if you post there with any questions

Jo, thanks for sending me the link to this thread...I'd missed it. You have become my inspiration because your approach is so similar to mine, and now I see how to tweak what I'm doing. I've chipped away at myself for years, but have never gotten to my goal of 130. Along this journey I've been making peace with my dietary restrictions of gluten (I'm celiac) and dairy, and also the gradual realization that carbs of any consequence make me sick. That means no sugar or starches, extremely limited fruit such as a half apple is fine, occasional berries (limited. That's it. I'm finally "there", I think, where I know what to eat for maintenance, and what to eat to lose, and I'm OK with this, I've overcome my emotional attachment for certain goodies (my downfall, always).

The other thing I loved seeing was that YES...weight loss CAN continue quite nicely even as your go down down down and approach your goal weight. I've always succumbed to the fear that it got harder and harder to lose, but you have proved that WRONG. The key is staying 100% with something that works..which for you AND for me is Atkins '72.

I love what you said here: A '72 worked 100% of the time for me -- but I FAILED to work 100% of the time for it I totally agree with this!

I have to point out that she went EXTREMELY low calorie to do this. I don't think Atkins as he designed it would be so fast. Although he talked about calories, he NEVER recommended levels such as Jo used.

I can't speak for Jo, but I simply can't put away that many calories due to how I'm eating. I have bacon and eggs every day for breakfast, and that's under 200 calories yet it keeps me full for ages. Right now I'm doing an egg white protein powder shake for lunch, under 200 calories, and that keeps me plenty full through the afternoon and the workout I do. Dinner today was mahi mahi and collards with butter, that was 250 or so calories. My total for the day was 698 calories....I didn't try for that, it just happened and I'm not hungry. Why should I eat more? Other days I have things like ribeye steak so the calories go up, it varies. Also, I'm not a young thing so I don't need as many calories as I did when younger. I am NOT starving myself, I eat when I'm hungry and when I eat, I eat to the satisfaction point. I tried hitting prescribed calorie levels (generally 1200 for women) and it was too much food, I didn't lose much. I obviously need fewer calories than that. Also the right kind of calories.

One more thing: If you eat according to Atkins '72, it's really hard to get a lot of calories. The food choices are more limited and more low calorie overall. I felt Atkins was fairly vague about calorie levels, which I interpret as meaning he saw it as variable, from person to person.

This is exactly what I plan to do....build in a bit of leeway, keep weighing myself to watch for an upward tick on weight, and then back to the business of dropping it back down. I think 5 lbs is a good built-in error range (below the goal weight, of course).

RE: 2) I never ever tried to figure out what my CCL was so that I could maintain the weight loss -- this time I will! I want to lose about 3-5 more lbs so that I have "wiggle room" as I slowly increase the carbs (5 per day for 2 weeks, then evaluate the results before I add 5 more)

It seems like adding 5g carbs per day is too much too fast to determine the CCL. I would think that you'd add 5g and then wait several days, because not all reactions occur immediately. When I get to goal, I'm going to add 5g a week most likely, and see how that goes.

I saw a mention of almond milk...I'm using that now, but a particular brand: Califa coconut-almond milk. 8 oz has 1g carb and 50 calories. There is zero sugar in it. I use it in egg white protein smoothies. I'm trying to decide if I even need it (could use water, I guess), but it tastes nice in the smoothie and gives me extra calories, so why not?

Congrats Jo you are doing amazing!!!..heres to maintenance!!

How do you figure that calorie count? Two eggs even without any fat added would be 150 calories. Do you have, like, one bite of bacon? Maybe I'm more active than I'd think; I'd never be satisfied on less than about 2 eggs, 4 slices of bacon, and all the fat it was cooked in.

I don t have a clue to how many calories I eat....Im rarely hungry.......what does it matter....?
Jo lost...stuck to program..feels its sustainable..the proof will be in whether she can maintain long term and be healthy....that's the proof for all of us...Im cheering for you Jo!

I plug what I eat into my computer program "Perfect Diet Tracker." I scramble 3 eggs to be split by my husband and I, each gets half, so that's about 1.5 eggs each. 105 calories. I buy Oscar Mayer bacon, which is fairly thin, and the package says 2 pieces are 70 calories. So that's 175 calories for breakfast.

Today is exactly 10 months from the day I started this new journey, here are the results:

5-Jul 250 Start
5-Aug 215 -35 -35
5-Sep 200 -15 -50
5-Oct 185 -15 -65
5-Nov 170 -15 -80
5-Dec 160 -10 -90
5-Jan 149 -11 -101
5-Feb 140 -9 -110
5-Mar 133 -7 -117
5-Apr 127 -6 -123
5-May 124 -3 -126


Wishing all of us continued success on our personal LC WOE journeys!!