OK, I am having a hard time understanding this. Could you please look at my revised menu and tell what I am doing wrong. This is what I ate today:

Bkfst. : 2 cups of coffee w/sweetnlow and half & half, 2 hard boiled eggs

Snack: 6 small stalks of celery w/laughing cow spreadable swiss cheese

Lunch: Gorton's frozen fish fillet (Garlic & Butter seasoned, non breaded)
1/2 cup asparagus, 1 1/2 cups cauliflower/broccoli

Snack: 4oz v-8 low sodium, 4 oz 1 % cottage cheese

Dinner: 4 oz cube steak, 2 cups broccol/cauliflower

70 oz of water throughout the day
1/2 of 16 oz bottle diet pepsi

Now, I didn't think that was too bad, but according to FITDAY I am at 38 grams of carbs!

What am I supposed to be cutting out??????
I feel like I am never gonna get this right!

Hey there
Now I am only a novice at this, but I was like you in the beginning...for one try only one cup of coffee OR get a sugar free syrup such as Davinci's...READ all packaged food labels they are evil for sneaking in sugars..try sticking to all FRESH foods for now...drink more water...I drink 128oz a day....I counted more than 20 carbs in your menue too....but as I said above...DONT THROW IN TOWEL tomorrow in another day with more knowledge under your belt read your book, took me a month to get this right and to my my mind set in the right frame! Good luck!!!!

Are you on induction?

If so, nix the V8, and the cottage cheese. The rest of your menu looks fine - you're getting plenty of legal veggies, which is good.

If you're not on induction, nix the V8 anyway - you're getting more than enough veggies in, that the V8 isn't really beneficial, making it a waste of carbs. Cottage cheese is 4 carbs per 1/2 cup serving of the 4% milkfat version, and should be added later in OWL; not suitable for induction.

Your water looks good, too, assuming you weigh 140lbs right now. If you don't, then up the water to 1/2 your body weight in ounces.

Don't worry about "overdoing" it on legal veggies like broccoli...

(296/225/135) 04/01/03
The Downward Spiral Begins

Also I have heard that sweeteners other than splenda stall people. I dont know,,, I just dont lose weight! PERIOD! No I am just having a pity party. Stay with it and so will I! Good Luck!

sbarstow:

Are you following the Atkins plan? Are you in the Induction phase? If so, starting on page 135 of DANDR (Dr. Atkins' New Diet Revolution) it outlines what you can and cannot eat. In fact, the first words are: "Eat nothing that's not on the list." Things like V-8 and cottage cheese and cheese spreads are not on the list.

Also, make sure you are reading labels and keeping a tally of your daily carbs. I see that you're using fitday and that's good. When you were drinking that V-8, did you check the label before you consumed it? According to the Campbell's site, there are 10 carbs per 8 ounces and 8 grams of sugar. Also, don't use half-n-half in your coffee. Use heavy whipping cream. The kind you buy in the milk section of the grocery store. There are less carbs.
The fish is a good choice. I did an Internet lookup on the nutritional information and there's only 1 carb per serving, 2 servings per box.
The asparagus has 2 carbs per 4 spears. Make sure you count each carb.
It appears to me that you need to up the protein and the veggies, as well.
To specifically address your concern about the amount of carbs you're ingesting, the best advice I can dispense is to make sure you're reading labels and serving sizes and simply count your carbs and add them up before you ingest them.

My two cents...

April
352 / 201 / 180
5'10", large frame, size 13 shoe
www.geocities.com/aprilreinhardt
NOTE: my web site will be changing shortly...the Yahoo people deactivated my account for some silly reason


[This message was edited by April on 09-30-03 at 03:27 AM.]

I have to admit, I am going into this blind. I have read all kinds of information including what is on the Atkins website. I have NOT yet read the book. I have ordered it and it will be here within the next couple of days. I will read it cover to cover I am sure more than once. I just figured I would try to get a start on this before I got it. I am having a hard time though. I know I should have read the book first and that was my first mistake. But I will continue to try to watch my carb intake until it arrives.
Thank you for all the advice that has been given to me.

Ditto what April said.
Cheese spreads are processed cheese which generally contain more carbs tahn natural aged cheeses. Often they have added sugar or worse high fructose corn syrup. Get in the habit of not only reading nutritional analysis labels but check the ingredients list as well. The only point I differ with April on is half and half. I use it in coffee because nothing stalls me as bad as heavy cream.
Good luck! once you have read the Atkins book you'll understand a lot more.
Rob
310/250/180
Rob

sbarstow,

I agree with what everyone said, but there's one thing you might not be considering: Fitday does not deduct the fiber from the total carb count. You have to manually do this. If you go back and look at the nutritional values of each item, add up the fiber and subtract it from your total carb count. I think you'll be much happier with your daily ECC totals.

Kellie, F38
Started Atkins 8/1/03 (off and on for the last few years but sticking to it this time!)
206/193/160 -- 10.75 inches GONE! (as of 9/28)

Well, I did a quick calculation for you and came out with about 37 carbs (close enough to the Fitday number). Subtracting the fiber comes to about 18 net carbs. So the previous comment about fiber is probablyt right on. I didn't count everything, so I would guesstimate that your total net is around 20 carbs or so.

Just something to think about. V8 is about 9 net carbs per cup. If you ate cherry tomatoes and celery, you could have a cup of cherry tomatoes, and almost 3 cups of celery for about the same net carb load. I personally love V8, but am specifically saving it for when I get to maint. and can up the carb count a bit. For now, I can do without it.

I also agree with the comment about cottage cheese. 1/2 cup of cottage cheese is about 3 grams of carbs, all in the form of sugars. By comparison, 1/2 cup of cheddar cheese (cubed) is about .9 grams of carbs, only 1/3 of those from sugars.

I guess the bottom line is to try to target foods that give you the best bang for the buck, so to speak.

HTH.

--jim

Ditto about the V8. Dump it. I love V8. Wish I could drink it. It's a lot better for you than 99% of the illegal foods. But you can get all the benefits without the carb rush by just eating real vegetables.

***********************
"Sometimes I think you have to march right in and demand your rights, even if you don't know what your rights are, or who the person is you're talking to. Then on the way out, slam the door."

Ditto above and welcome to the board.


Member since 2001
http://www.ilovelowcarb.com
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