Can We Lose Weight On Our Low Carb Diet?

Atkins Diet Misconceptions: Low Carb Failure Rates Far Exceeds Others?

ourlowcarbdiet@gmail.com (Stuart) — Sun, 07 Mar 2010 10:39:00 +0000

This video is a reaction to a critic who claimed that low carb failures "FAR exceeds" those attempting low fat or moderation diet. Coincidentally at the same time I discovered a meta-analysis study of the major randomized trials of low carb at that point. In the end however, it only matters if you the dieter are successful and motivated to reach goal on your selected plan or way of eating. Others success or failure can't help or derail you unless you let it fuel your self-doubt. I personally just can't imagine a different way of eating.

The Low Carb Diet and Unprocessed Foods

ourlowcarbdiet@gmail.com (Stuart) — Mon, 15 Feb 2010 21:29:00 +0000

The Low Carb Diet and Unprocessed Foods

When you commence on the Atkins program or low carb diet, you might be tempted to capitalise of many of the low carbohydrate products on the market presently. There are a wide variety of packaged items that are specifically made to be low. These include low carbohydrate snacks, low carbohydrate baking products and low carbohydrate substitutes (like pasta or bread). While it might be enticing to fill your shopping cart with all of these goodies, it's best for your food intake and for your well being to try them sparingly.

One of the cornerstone things to remember about the Atkins diet is its centre on raw, unprocessed foods. The centre of diet, as shown by the Atkins diet food pyramid, is fresh vegetables and fresh meats. Additional into the mix are natural cheeses, a choice of fruits and, eventually, whole unprocessed grains. There aren't any packaged meats, canned vegetables or instant anything.

There is an excuse that the Atkins food pyramid shows these foods in their raw states. There are great health benefits in minimally processed foods. Raw, whole foods retain more minerals and nutrients than foods that have been through chemical and industrial processing. Manufactured foods are more likely to be tainted with chemical additives that can lead to a complete host of problems.

Raw, fresh produce constituents provide the best basis for a wholesome diet. Many dieters rely on foods that are technically allowed on the plan, but not good for health. One example is bacon. Many people on the Atkins diet consume a great deal of cured bacon. In point of fact, many use it as a day-to-day part of their protein foods. They do this even though; cured bacon contains high amounts of sodium nitrite, an ingredient that is known to cause cancer. The more bacon they eat, the more they expose themselves to this chemical and a good many others.

The Atkins pyramid, and the Atkins diet books, recommends unprocessed, unrefined and non-manufactured foods for a cause. If people follow these testimonials, they will shed weight and experienced health transformations. By eating fresh and natural foods you'll be providing your body with the nutrients that you ought to have optimum health.

Back to those packaged and processed low-carb foods. Technically, they're part of the low-carbohydrate program. They can be used in moderation as substitutes for your favourite carbohydrate heavy foods. In a pinch, low-carb bread and baked goods can help you pass though hunger pangs and add variety to your Atkins diet plan. Even so, one examine the labels of these goods highlights how chemically processed these items can be.

It is recommended that you apply these products sparingly. In a few individuals, low packaged items cause carbohydrate hunger pangs. This can produce sticking to the diet plan even tougher. If you find that low carbohydrate processed foods make you want to stuff yourself on carb-heavy foods, then its best that you stay far from these products. These products might have hidden carb counts that will grow your daily carbohydrate level without you realizing it.

If you are seeing a stall in your weight loss on the Atkins plan, re-evaluate your commitment to unprocessed and unrefined foods. If you've been eating too many low-carbohydrate processed foods, you may be consuming hidden carbs and consuming more than necessary. Try eliminating these products and refocusing your diet on unprocessed and unrefined foods, like those seen on the Atkins diet pyramid. When you go grocery shopping, spend time along the outer rim of the store where the fresh, unprocessed foods are. This will help you avoid the temptation of packaged foods that can lead your food consumption astray.

You might need to count on packaged meats, vegetables and fruits infrequently. We lead occupied lives and convenience foods are part of life. It's understandable that you might need to apply certain canned soup, bacon or canned vegetables in your daily living. Nonetheless, make a feat to focus your dietary efforts on a wide variety of fresh, unprocessed foods. Your well being and weight loss efforts will be greatly rewarded.

You can join an Atkins type diet with the Tesco eDiet as they have 15 different dieting styles to choose from and one of which is a low carb option. You will weigh in weekly and Tesco will supply you with a list of recipes for the week and if you like you can also get them to add all the ingredients to you Tesco Grocery Shopping Trolley, after which, you can then checkout and have all of the ingredients delivered to you. They also have a pledge that if you work with their diet for eight weeks then you will lose a stone or your money back – sounds good to me.

You can also find more Health & Wellbeing ideas at the following UK Shopping Online website Value Shopping Online.

Do I Still Feel Hungry on an Atkins Type Diet?

ourlowcarbdiet@gmail.com (Stuart) — Sat, 06 Feb 2010 07:56:00 +0000

One of the most common, and surprising, effects of following the Atkins diet is appetite suppression. Many followers of the plan report that the between meal hunger pangs they disappear very rapidly. This makes it easier to remain on the diet plan and continue to shed weight. While other diets have their follower’s starvation between meals, the Atkins diet offers relief from constant hunger. The Atkins diet, with its specific combination of foods and elements, has powerful appetite suppressing effects.

The first key component is the volume of protein in the Atkins diet. Protein, more so than carbohydrates, has the power to satiate hunger. If you've ever eaten a carb heavy meal and then felt hungry afterward, you realize that carbohydrates do not have much staying power. Protein, when blended with a small amount of healthy fats, can keep you feeling full for long periods of time.

One of the most potent appetite suppressing foods on the Atkins diet are eggs. Eggs are a great kind of easy and quick protein. A fresh study showed that eating eggs for morning meal would actually avert hunger pangs through the rest of the day. The research concerned two categories of females. One group ate eggs for morning meal and the other had a morning meal of bagels and cream cheese. The calorie count for both breakfasts was exactly the same. The subjects kept track of what they ate the remainder of the day and answered doubts about their levels of hunger and satisfaction throughout the day. The consequences showed that the females who ate the eggs for morning meal felt more satisfied throughout the total day. They ate less at each meal than the females who were in the bagel group.

Eggs contain about 6 grams of protein each. This helps to even out blood sugar and produces a notion of satisfaction. Probably both of these reasons help to curb addictions. Egg yolks also contain lutein and xenazanthin. These nutrients have been demonstrated to have incredible effects on eye health. So it's critical to eat the whole egg, and not only the white. Eggs contain choline that is essential in brain functioning and memory. These nutrients are only an extra benefit to the appetite suppressing qualities.

Broccoli and cauliflower, two of the acceptable vegetables on the Atkins program, also have appetite-suppressing effects. These vegetables are very bulky and they help make your stomach feel full. When your stomach feels full, it will genuinely create a chemical response inside you. Your body will reduce its appetite because it believes that your stomach is jam-packed with high calorie foods. This will happen no matter what is in your stomach. You can achieve the same results with water and psyllium husk fibre. Both broccoli and cauliflower provide bulk in your diet and are essential vegetables on the Atkins plan.

The Atkins diet focuses on eating small protein balanced meals a few times per day. This will help keep your blood sugar stabilized and avoid carbohydrate addictions. With high carbohydrate diets, you are riding the wave of carbohydrate highs. After you eat, you feel great and full. Then a few hours later, you come crashing down and are hungrier than you were previous to eating the carbohydrate. This cycle continues and, in time, you will eat more and gain weight. The protein, fat and vegetable meals of the Atkins plan put your blood sugar back in balance. They provide just plenty of each type of food, with a proper amount of carbohydrates (from the vegetables). The vegetables provide quick carbohydrate energy, and the protein gives the meal stamina. This combination helps suppress your appetite.

The Atkins diet is actually a craving control diet that can help suppress your appetite. If you've had a complaint with carbohydrate urges before, this new way of eating will help control those hunger pangs. The more you eat on the plan, the better your cravings will be controlled and the easier it will be to follow the dietary plan.

You can also find more Health & Wellbeing ideas at the following UK Shopping Online website Value Shopping Online.

Atkins Diet Misconceptions: Waning popularity or passing fad?

ourlowcarbdiet@gmail.com (Stuart) — Mon, 11 Jan 2010 21:37:00 +0000

One of the constant comments is "didn't low carb die off in 2004?" or "didn't Atkins Nutrition go bankrupt?" The implication is that it was obviously a fad diet, and that all wise people know better now.

There are still numerous people doing the diet and many starting on a daily basis, and while perhaps it might not be as "hip" or cool as 2004, people doing Atkins now have better access to more low carb recipes, better support sites, and better communal atmosphere than back in 2004. A lot of the naysayers criticisms have been addressed or proven false since 2004 as well.

Atkins Diet Recipes: Low Carb Chicken Sausage Casserole

ourlowcarbdiet@gmail.com (Stuart) — Mon, 04 Jan 2010 21:52:00 +0000

From bowulf:

"My recipe video to celebrate the holidays - a perfect complement to most holiday menus. This recipe was derived from a recipe from Linda's Low Carb (http://genaw.com/lowcarb/mushroom_chick en-sausage_casserole.html) but was changed due to taste and items in the house. My wife loves this recipe!

Ingredients:
2 pounds Sausage
3 cups Roast Chicken or Turkey
1 Medium Onion, Chopped
1 Medium Green Pepper, Chopped
2 stalks of Celery, Chopped
1 Medium Head of Cauliflower
8 oz. Cream Cheese
8 oz. Cheese, Shredded
1/2 tsp Black pepper
Paprika
Makes 10 servings.

Cook covered 30 minutes @ 350 degrees, and 10-15 minutes uncovered.

Nutrition Info:
391 Calories, 28.6g Fat, 6.5g Carbs (2g Fiber - 4.5 Net Carbs), 28g Protein. "

Stuart's latest diet update 8 October

ourlowcarbdiet@gmail.com (Stuart) — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 06:18:00 +0000

Well I've not updated for a while as I've been static for 2 or 3 weeks. There have been a few 'wine days' which probably haven't helped but then again thats not high in carbs either.

Anyway on the diet I have now moved to having lost 15lbs in 6 weeks so I am happy with that and is a positive move of 2.5lb since last week. Ironically on my last post I mentioned about starting to do some walks at the weekend and I noticed pretty quickly that after those walks I would often have added weight when I weighed in the morning before and after. That was despite keeping to the diet plan on those days!

I have now added a few supplements to my diet and they are a probiotice multi vitamin and a selenium supplement which helps with ensuring that the thyroid works properly and thus that any food is processed efficiently.

On the snack front this week I have dropped peanuts for walnuts which contain a lot more fibre and are therefore effectively carb neutral.

Yesterdays diet plan on this Tesco ediet was:

Bacon & vegetable stir fry with cheese
Gammon steak & salad
Thai coconut chicken curry
snack of Chicken strips & guacamole
orange 60g

What I have noticed now that I have moved to advancement level is that you are able to manipulate each recipe so if you didn't fancy the 3oz's of Feta Cheese on the Gammon Steak Salad then you can swap it for 9 oz cottage cheese, 3 oz brie or 3 oz low fat cheese. This sort of swap is available on a number of the recipes so you can stay to the meals even if you have run out of one ingredient or you don't like one of them.

Good stuff.

Atkins Diet Product Reviews: BBQ Sauces

ourlowcarbdiet@gmail.com (Stuart) — Sun, 04 Oct 2009 21:34:00 +0000

This video is from Bowulf:

"In a first of a new series, I review low carb products that I have encountered in my own life. These are my own personal opinions and based upon my own tastes. In this episode, I deal with BBQ sauces.

Walden Farms Barbeque Thick and Spicy - Thumbs Down (too watery, too sweet, and weird taste)

KC Masterpiece Classic Blend - Thumbs Up (Thick Rich taste, and good commercial product

As an alternative to these commercial products, you can always create your own."

Atkins Diet: Motivation to get you to goal

ourlowcarbdiet@gmail.com (Stuart) — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 21:27:00 +0000

I found this video on YouTube today:

"I was just asked today how do I prevent from cheating. "I am having problems staying strict on the diet." For me, I had to do what I advocate in this video. It was black and white for me. I either had to be one that was progressing towards that goal or working towards that proverbial one million dollar prize or I was the guy who giving it back. I had to make it that concrete for me. That was also why I think Atkins worked so well for me.

The diet is pretty black and white in the Induction and Extended Induction phase. You are either following the rules or not. If you follow the rules, you'll get to goal. If not, well you are on your own.

I fully admit others can do their own plan or take off days, and STILL get to goal. I am not one of those people. I don't do things "sort of" or halfsies well. I am much more likely to quit in that situation.

Good luck to everyone doing low carb, and you guys are doing great! "

Latest weigh in update on the Low Carb diet.

ourlowcarbdiet@gmail.com (Stuart) — Sat, 12 Sep 2009 06:54:00 +0000

I had my latest weigh in on the Tesco ediet on Thursday morning and I'm please to say that I lost 4lbs this week which makes 10lbs in all in just 11 days.

The menus this week have been pretty similar to last week with scrambled eggs, frittata or fried eggs for breakfast with sausages or bacon. I've had a problem with the afternoon meals though as many of them were not really the sort of foods to put in a food flask so I have been making up a salad with a bit of french dressing and some meats eg chicken, grilled bacon, bacon lardons and even a sliced up hot pepperami in with a bacon salad. I usually make sure that all of the ingredients are mixed together in my bowl and then I grate some parmesan on top. I am generally also having a mixed selection of Kiwi fruit, melon and grapes mid morning which happily is brought around on a trolley around the office for just £1.50. You can buy similar products from your local supermarket.

I dodged a bit of a bullet on Tuesday as that was my the day of my twice monthly lunch at the Thai Restaurant/own brew pub. Great food and great beer what more could you ask for? Well going through the menu it was clear that anything with rice, noodles or Thai fries was out and that some of the curries had potatoes in them anyway which is not good. In the end I went for Grilled Neck of Pork which was served on a bed of beansprouts. This came with some Tamarind sauce which I just lightly drizzled some onto the meat. All in all it was very nice but it has to be said it was a few pounds more expensive than the Yellow Curry meal deal that we normally have. I have say that I did sin a bit though as I had my only pint of beer since starting the diet.

Last evening I had some zesty sea bass with asparagus and tomatoes which to be honest I wasn't too hopeful about as I don't really do asparagus or cooked tomatoes but I have to say I was really surprised and the zesty lemony sauce on the fish sort of made everything go together really well. I shall definately have this again which is more than can be said for some Avacado, Broccoli and Turnip concoction on Thursday. The avacado has joined smoked salmon on the banned ingredients list!

I've generated the recipes for the coming week and going through the ingredients list I don't think that I need to place an online order this week. The eggs and meat I will source locally and the small amounts of salads and vegetable shall be covered from either our weekly delivery of a farmers box from Riverford or a trip to Aldi.

Like last week I am planning to go for a walk around Spalding which I have now planned on Map My Walk which is a great site for working out distances and planning your walks. If you put in your height, weight, distance walked and time the walk was completed in then the site will show you how many calories that you burned on the walk. It will also show this if you walk, run etc. After running last weeks route through this web site then distance last week was 4.16 miles rather than the 4.5 as advertised but still not bad. I have also gone for a walk around the block in our village which I have also plotted in the map as 1.25 miles so I have done a couple of short walks as well as the longer one. Using this website though I have managed to plot a nice 3.6 mile walk around the village so I might have a go at that one tomorrow.

Saturday update to the new Low Carb diet

ourlowcarbdiet@gmail.com (Stuart) — Sat, 05 Sep 2009 14:43:00 +0000

Just a quick update as to the state of play since Thursday.

If you recall I was to take sweet potato and smoked salmon to work in a food flask so that I could have them at the office. This ended up a dismal failure as the vegetables were cold by the time I came to add the salmon and cream cheese. I managed some of it but to be honest the amount of salmon that I was supposed to have was far too much and as I don't really like it that much then it was a bit of a problem.

Luckily I had taken a chicken salad with Parmesan shavings on it as that was the snack on my Tesco ediet. I'd not really had Parmesan like this before and you know the salad was really nice when I came to have that in the afternoon.

For the evening we had Thai Fish cakes which were made from whitefish and some of those fish sticks that you can get. I saw the fish sticks on offer so I bought a couple of packs and then realised that in fact they look better than they taste! Instead of wasting them though I had some of them put into the fish cakes that were served with stir fried veg. These fish cakes were top notch and I will definitely be having them again.

Friday morning was supposed to be warm strawberry and cream cheese danish but the strawberries that were delivered at the start of the week were starting to look like they were not going to be any good by Friday so the rest of the family had them whilst they were still good earlier in the week. I replaced that breakfast therefore with bacon, sausage, egg and tomatoes. I grilled 5 slices of bacon and 2 sausages and when done I placed them in a pan which I was heating up a tin of chopped tomatoes. I let the bacon and sausage intermingle with the tomatoes whilst I fried one egg and I then had the egg with just 2 of the bacon slices and 1 sausage and some of the tomatoes. The remaining bacon, sausage and tomatoes were put into the prewarmed food flask for the mid day meal.

This time the flask worked fine. I think as there was more food in the flask and instead of warming the flask with hot water I used boiling water that there was a big difference. I also had the food after just 4 hours instead of 7 and whilst it was not piping hot it was warm enough to be pleasant.

I also took a similar chicken salad as yesterday but this time used some spicy chicken pieces. I had this mid afternoon and this came out really good as well.

For the evening meal we went off the recipe list and had some pork chops with spinach, chilli and sweetcorn which came from one of the Atkins books. This was a favourite of ours last time I did a diet and it made use of the spinach which would otherwise have been thrown away.

This morning we are back on the Tesco eDiet recipe with Burger scramble which is effectively minced beef and onions fried until cooked and then beaten eggs added and the whole mixture is mixed to give the scrambled egg burger effect! I added the remaining chilli from last nights meal to give a bit of an extra burn!

Exercise is my achilles heel and I don't really do any but today I went for a 4.5 mile walk around our town which took me about 1 hour 40 mins. I could have done it quicker but as I was following the rivers around I took my camera to see if I could get any decent shots of the route and of the town.

For lunch today I again went off the recipe sheet for the day but I did have a recipe from a previous day which was Quorn with stir fried veg. I've not had Quorn before so that was a new experience and I am not averse to having it again as it tasted pretty much chicken like.

Its the first weigh in on the Tesco eDiet

ourlowcarbdiet@gmail.com (Stuart) — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 06:30:00 +0000

Its the first weigh in on the Tesco eDiet today. I signed up to the program last Thursday and the diet officially started on Sunday although I was fairly low carb on the days prior to that so the result in not entirely the diet but nevertheless I had had alcohol on the days to Saturday and none since so there has been a change of sorts.

My result is 6lbs off in the first week which is pretty good and is ahead of the plan so I'm happy with that. Going forward if I can stay to plan and be 2lbs ahead each week then that would be great. As well as being 6lbs off my BMI has decreased by 2 points - OK we're still in danger levels but we're moving the right way.

From today though things get more tricky as I'm back at work and a lot of these recipes require cooking. I've bought a food flask so I am going to try smoked salmon and sweet potato, courgette and asparagus. Hopefully it won't be a disaster! Todays snack is a chicken salad so I'll be taking that as well.

When I get home from work I will then review the recipes for next week and swap them around where necessary and then place my Tesco order so that it all of the ingredients I don't have will be delivered on Saturday or Sunday.

Day 3 of Low Carb Teso eDiet

ourlowcarbdiet@gmail.com (Stuart) — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 18:45:00 +0000

Its day 3 and we have another day where we have gone out and therefore have had to manage one meal 'off the Tesco eDiet plan'.

I started OK with the Greek Breakfast of eggs, feta cheese, tomatoe, cucumber and olives. Well I say I started OK but I really cannot stand olives and the jar of olives in brine looks remarkably large considering Ijust need 2 for this meal. The ingredients had olive oil dribbled over it and then salt and pepper added. I decided that I could manage the olives if I cut them into small pieces and had them combine with something else and thus I managed to get through the meal.

You have to record daily the number of fruit and veg portions each day so I have been having some fruit but looking at the site this evening I note that fruit is not necessarily what they are after in first stage of this diet. Thats a bit of a blow as I had an apple before we went out.

We ended up at Ferry Meadows in Peterborough for a picnic and we had had visit to Sainsburys on the way so I had a packet of sweet chilli chicken pieces, a mixed fruit selection (naughty!) and 40g of cheddar cheese that came in those small selection bags. The meal that I missed whilst we were here was a Turkey or Chicken sausage & courgette frittata with salad. I have the chicken sausages in the fridge so hopefully we will use them later in the week.

For a while it was quite hot and after we finished flying our kite or to be more precise after we demolished it in a crash we ended up at the watersports bar for an ice cream! I had a Solero which seemed to be the best of what was on offer at just 98 calories.

The evening meal was Thai coconut chicken curry which included a portion of green beans. The recipe provided by Tesco eDiets didn't say to add any spice to the curry so I added a small touch of Thai red curry paste to give it some pizzaz and instead of rice or noodles I had a cauliflower rice substitute.

I haven't had the snack for today yet either so depending on how it goes this evening I may or may not have the Tuna salad.

I must admit I'm not looking forward to stuffed avacado tomorrow so I'm hoping that once the beef, onion and tomato get into it it'll be alright. I must take more notice as to what is on the menu next week and swap out the meals that I'm not too keen on before ordering my recipe list!

Day 2 of New diet

ourlowcarbdiet@gmail.com (Stuart) — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 18:31:00 +0000

Well its the second day and but things didn't quite go to plan as we went out for the day to a family fund day at Grimsthorpe Castle near Bourne.

For breakfast I did OK with a meal which was as per the Tesco eDiet. The meal was fried bacon, egg & courgette with cherry tomatoes. I must admit to being a bit iffy about this as courgette is not my favourite veg. I must say though that once I had had fried the courgette with the bacon that it didn't end up too bad and the cherry tomatoes which I cut in half brought back memories of my childhood when we used to have bacon cooked with plum tomatoes.

The afternoon was supposed to be Egg & Bacon salad but as we went out that wasn't on the cards and the options were a touch limited at the event. I ended up having an Ostrich burger as it is low in fat and high in protein.

For evening meal the Tesco eDiet has tasty chicken fingers which I had served up with the bacon and egg and some salad which I had bought for the afternoon meal. All in all that was very nice and it was very spicy - maybe we put in too much cayenne pepper but I do like it spicy so not too much hardship.

The snack option in the diet for the day is an egg mayonnaise salad but I probably won't be having that as I had the burger earlier.

In addition I have had a couple of babybels and a litre of water and 1.5 litres of low calorie barley water (Tropical/Strawberry & Kiwi). My 5 a day fruit and veg would be the courgette, tomatoes, salad? (does that count) and so is short so I will try and have an apple or banana for a snack later.

Starting diet again (eek)

ourlowcarbdiet@gmail.com (Stuart) — Sat, 29 Aug 2009 12:03:00 +0000

Lol – this time its serious I’ve paid a chunk of cash to Tesco to join their ediet scheme and I’ve chosen the Low Carb option.

They have weigh ins each Thursday which are updated online and you can also update each day with what you actually eat and I believe once a week they will come back on your progress. The system keeps track of your weight against a target and also calculates your BMI as you go along. The target set is unrealistic with a target loss of 2 pounds per week so the target is to lose 2 stone 2 pounds in the next 15 weeks – which should bring us nicely to the danger period at Christmas!

The nice thing is that they provide recipe’s for each meal for a week and they provide you with a shopping list. You just go through the list and tick the items that you currently have and therefore do not need to buy and then you can either print your list or you can press another button which will ask the eDiet team to add the items to your Tesco online shopping trolley (nice touch). They will then email you to let you know that they have added the items and they will advise if there were any items that they could not find. You can then go online and add any extras or swap for cheaper/more expensive versions before booking your delivery slot and checking out.

I got our first delivery today so the recipes start tomorrow with:

Breakfast – Broccoli frittata

Afternoon – Curried cauliflower soup

Evening – Grilled lemon herb lamb chops

Snack – Tuscan scrambled eggs

If you’re not into Low Carb then no worries as they do the following diet plans - Weight loss & Healthy Eating, Gi Diet, Light choices Diet, Mediterranean Diet, Total Wellbeing Diet, Vegetarian Diet and Low Carb Diet.

Click here to visit Tesco eDiets

Stuart

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Atkins Diet: How did you determine what your goal weight is?

ourlowcarbdiet@gmail.com (Stuart) — Fri, 07 Aug 2009 13:30:00 +0000

deal with the question how to determine what your goal weight should be. Certainly the problems with using BMI are well known. It has no idea of body composition or if your body is 15% Body Fat or 30% Body Fat. It has no idea if your heart is in shape or not.

If you have no idea where to start, you might try a virtual model site:
http://www.mvm.com/cs/
They give you a virtual image of yourself of what you might look like at a weight.

The height weight charts are another possibility for setting an initial target:
http://www.halls.md/ideal-weight/body...

The best way in my opinion is to use Body Fat Percentage. Body measurements while not as accurate as a dunk test do provide an easy cheap way to get an idea of where your Body Fat % is. Electro-resistance scales do as well. Here are the promised sites for taking measurements and telling BF %:
Most comprehensive - http://www.linear-software.com/online...
Army method - http://www.the-master-runner.com/mili...
Excel spreadsheets to track results:
http://forums.johnstonefitness.com/sh...
http://rapidshare.com/files/97892415/...

Atkins Diet Recipes: Low Carb Sausage Quiche

ourlowcarbdiet@gmail.com (Stuart) — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 06:17:00 +0000

This is from Bowulf's Atkin's Diet Recipes on Youtube ..

"In this Low Carb recipe video, I make one of the easiest breakfast ideas and perhaps one of the best recipes to bring to a potluck. It is a Low Carb Sausage Quiche with peppers and onions. This quiche is acceptable for Induction and latter phases.

"Real men do eat quiche!" :-)

Instructions:
1. Brown 1.5 pounds sausage
2. Sautee 2 Medium Peppers and 1 onion
3. Preheat Oven to 350 degrees
4. Beat 6 eggs and 1 cup Heavy Cream. Add 1 tsp Salt and .5 tsp pepper. Add 8 oz of cheese (your choice)
5. Grease 13x9 baking pan
6. Cover bottom of pan with Sausage/onion/pepper mixture. Pour Cream, Cheese, Egg mixture over top.
7. Bake for 40-45 minutes until slightly brown on top.

Nutrition Info: (1 serving 1/12th)
380 Calories
32.25g Fat
2.75g Carbs (.5g Fiber - 2.25g Net Carbs)
19.5g Protein "

Atkins Diet: Goal is just another number...

ourlowcarbdiet@gmail.com (Stuart) — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 06:45:00 +0000

From Bowulf..

"In this video, I deal with the subject of goal weight fixation. Being focused on getting yourself to goal is a good thing, but NOT at the expense of ignoring other things to be learned along the way. It also does not represent an end, but rather a beginning to a new phase, the maintenance phase.

So you achieve one goal (weight on the scale), does that mean your WL career is over? No it just transfers to a new focus. That could be fitness related (how many miles or long can you workout), health related (curing sleep apnea), look related (Body Fat percentage), etc. Finally, hitting goal only settles or demonstrates you've solved one piece of the equation. Now comes the real challenge -- how to live at goal."

Atkins Diet: Why do people fail on Atkins diet?

ourlowcarbdiet@gmail.com (Stuart) — Sat, 13 Jun 2009 07:59:00 +0000

In what might not be the most popular video I have ever done, I deal with the topic on why others have failed or not succeeded on the Atkins Diet. Some times you have to take accountability for your own actions, but my goal was to use these stories of past failed attempts of the Atkins Diets to prevent others from falling victim to the same thinking.

Here is the top 7 reasons people fail:
1. Use it as a fad diet or quick weight loss, and then hop off the diet.
2. Never read the book / think there is only one phase
3. Modify the diet or believe they know better
4. Believe if a little is good, then none must be better
5. Believe they can cycle carbs to achieve better results, and end up just cycling on
6. Cheat a single time due to a unique occassion / failure to plan, and give up on themselves
7. Get frustrated with a weight loss hesitation or stall and call it quits

Atkins Diet Recipes: Low Carb Chewy Candy Bar

ourlowcarbdiet@gmail.com (Stuart) — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 06:32:00 +0000

Another great low carb comfort food recipe from Linda's Low Carb (http://www.genaw.com/lowcarb/chewy_peanutbutter_candy.html):
2 TBS butter
1/4 cup natural chunky peanut butter
1/4 cup Splenda
1 cup chocolate whey protein powder
1/4 cup Da Vinci SF Vanilla syrup
1/4 cup Salted nuts (optional)

* Melt the Butter, and mix with Splenda.
* Add the Peanut Butter to the mix until smooth.
* Mix protein powder until crumbly
* Add SF syrup, and the mix should turn glossy and much easier to form into 2 mini loaf pans
* Freeze mixture for 1 hour, and it should be able to be eaten.

Stuarts Low Carb Diet update 16 April 2009

ourlowcarbdiet@gmail.com (Stuart) — Thu, 16 Apr 2009 05:55:00 +0000

I've had a couple of weeks off the blog so it's time we got going again. Its fair to say that the last couple of weeks hadn't been that great with a number of days out to events where the food available was not exactly low carb friendly and there was even one evening where we finished off the beers in the house. All in all as of last Saturday I was back to 8lbs down.

That said, however, I have had protein bars for breakfast for the last few days and then some peanuts to snack on during the day. For lunch I have had a small salad with a further protein bar during the afternoon. Last night I was back on the Sainsbury soup which I have mentioned before which is butternut squash, ginger and lentils. This soup is relatively low in carbs with a high fibre content and even better it tastes great!

So I had a quick weigh in this morning and I've at least made a move in the right direction and I am now down 12 lb. Andrea is currently in Italy on holiday so we'll see how much damage that has done when she gets back at the end of the week!

Stuarts update 29 March 2009

ourlowcarbdiet@gmail.com (Stuart) — Mon, 30 Mar 2009 06:17:00 +0000

First the good news that we are still down 10lbs since the start of the diet and too be honest after the last two days I'm not sure how!!

On Saturday we ended up at our local pub for lunch and I had a pint of Tribute bitter with gammon,egg, vegetables and some new potatoes. (I would have preferred chips with gammon and egg but needs must!)

Sunday was always going to be a dangerous day as we were due to go for a trip to London to see the Model Train Show there. The change of the clocks caught us out a bit so we had to rush to get the train so there was no breakfast and we didn't have time to prepare anything either. I had to make do with picking up a protein bar on the way out of the door. Of course we are then at the mercy of the food that they served up at Alexandra Palace and with different food bars scattered around the hall it is possible to get a low carb salad BUT we only realised that each eating area was different after we had had Pizza. I must say that this was probably the most amount of carbs I had had in one go for a month and whilst the Pizza was OK I was not clamouring for more and turned down the chance to finish off my sons pizza.

For the evening meal we picked up some bits from the train station - chicken breast, cheese etc and had those on the way home so that wasn't too bad. I confess that I did have a couple of beers when I got home and so I was a bit nervous about the results this morning but it was the same as a couple of days ago! I guess all the walking around yesterday must have offset the carbs consumed so overall there was a nil effect.

Its The 4 Week Diet Review!

ourlowcarbdiet@gmail.com (Stuart) — Wed, 25 Mar 2009 07:21:00 +0000

It's 4 weeks since we started this journey into a low carb diet and this week is a non mover so we're stuck with a 9lb loss during those 4 weeks. I'll be honest I was hoping for a bit at this point but that's still not to be sniffed at.

What I really need to do now is to have some consecutive days without any alcohol as I still haven't worked out whether that, albeit in low carb delivery system such as wine, effects how the body's metablolism works.

Over the last few days its been a bit more of the same so bacon and eggs, omelette, salads etc. I made another "low carb" chicken curry and this time it was using a morrocan style chick pea and spinach soup (again from Sainsbury's) as the base for the sauce. I did,however, add some sweet chilli dipping sauce to it (high carb!! but not much) to get the heat. As before the rice substitute was cauliflower but because this time I was making for two and there wasn't enough cauliflower I also used some broccoli. The result was OK but I think it is better using just cauliflower on its own or with just a couple of florets of broccoli and not in 50/50 portions like I used.

The final result for the week may be dissapointing but I have still had more protein than carbs each day this week so maybe I am using up the fat but storing the protein which when stored as muscle is somewhat heavier than fat anyway so let's not get too disheartened and lets keep going with the diet.

Summary Of The First 24 Days Of My Low Carb Diet

ourlowcarbdiet@gmail.com (Stuart) — Sat, 21 Mar 2009 09:15:00 +0000

Its been about 3 and a half weeks since we started the low carb diet so I thought it worthwhile just having an overview of what that has really entailed.

Well for a start the following which were staples of my diet have been virtually wiped out - potatoes, crisps, beer, rice, sweets, chocolate and bread. I have put potatoes here but generally any vegetable that is grown under the ground has been limited. That doesn't mean that parsnips and carrots are on a banned list but just that they are limited. Likewise potatoes probably only make an appearance once a week for the Sunday roast but generally are not used at any other time.

Some of the foods above have low carb alternatives so instead of having a beer then I can have some wine, potato crisps are replaced by peanuts and in some instances potatoes can be replaced by cauliflower, broccoli and even some mashed turnip (which is OK). I always thought getting a rice substitute was difficult but using shredded caulflower means that curry is on the menu in a low carb diet.

Of course one of the main components of a low carb diet is in fact that you are on a high protein diet. I have bought some high protein chocolate bars which do have around 18g carbs in them but 13g or so is in polyols which can be deducted to find the net carb and around 8g is fibre so basically they are a net -3g carbs per bar and surprisingly they taste great! Another great way of getting the protein is to have a chocolate whey protein drink which has around 3g per pint. Be careful when buying these as some have 20g or more as they are usually designed for body builders and whilst coming in tins that look the same some are for bulking up and some are for the high protein to turn to muscle. The bulk up formula generally has a much higher carb content. The great thing about having one of these shakes for breakfast is that the protein does take away that hungry feeling and generally you do not feel like eating as much as before.

There is not a lot of substitutes for bread but to be honest I have been having a salad from the trolley each day rather than bread rolls and I haven't really missed it. I will, however, probably reintroduce a bread into my diet over the next week which will be home made using an organic wholemeal flour from one of the local mills in the area. The flour is untreated and unbleached as it comes straight off the stones so I can be sure that I will not be using and processed ingredients in the bread. I just intend to use this in some small slices to create a bit of variety in the meals and with the high fibre content and lower carb content than normal bread this is a good bread option.

The scales were wavering this morning between a loss of 9lb and 10lb so we'll call it 9lb and then hopefully by the time we get to the end of 4 weeks on Wednesday morning we will have got that to 10 or 11lb.

Update on Stuarts' low carb diet

ourlowcarbdiet@gmail.com (Stuart) — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 08:04:00 +0000

Yesterday morning was a weigh in and I was dreading it slightly as last Saturday when I had an interim weigh in I was up 4lbs!! (yikes). The good news is that some progress was made as that turned around into a 1lb loss on the week so that I'm now down 9lb in the first 3 weeks which is still above the 2lb a week target that I thought was reasonable at the start.

I think it just goes to show that you can do everything right during a week (apart from the wine of course!) and yet you are still subject to factors outside your control such as how much water or waste you are carrying at any one time. I have learnt from this that it is probably best just to do a weigh in the once a week as doing it on a more regular basis may make you feel that the diet isn't working when it probably is.

We took delivery of our protein shakes and bars from Nature's Best yesterday and I have had a shake with some some Acai Berry juice added to it this morning. Its going to be chicken and sausages for dinner with a bit of salad and a protein bar.

The Absent blogger returns Andrea's Day Tue 17th March

noreply@blogger.com (Andrea) — Tue, 17 Mar 2009 22:00:00 +0000

had been keeping off the carbs until Saturday - Saturday was really BAD!
A pub lunch of ploughmans came with a large crusty roll (I ate half) and then to a party in the evening - the buffet was exclusively carb loaded - sandwiches, sausage rolls, pizza, pork pie, crips, quiche!

I've not put any weight back on so still lost 4lbs in total.

Sunday:
breakfast: special K with berries
lunch: leftover curry & small scoop of rice
dinner: Roast beef & veggies

Monday:
breakfast: Weetabix
snack: banana
lunch: chicken salad
afternoon: Atkins bar
evening: beef & veg stirfry

Tuesday:
breakfast: Porridge & banana (?!?)
lunch: sausage, egg, lettuce & tomato salad with mayo
evening: chicken dhansak with one spoon rice

Weighed in again at 4lbs total loss. i'm at a plateau but obviously not trying too hard at the mo am I?