BellaOnline Forums Food and Wine Low Carb Weekly Weight Loss

Dear Terri -

OK let's start with the fat percentage. It's really important to know that because you could easily be gaining muscle - which is good. Knowing your fat is in general more important than knowing your weight.

There are a wealth of inexpensive fat measuring devices on Amazon. If you can afford a fat-measuring scale - they're about $30 at most stores - I definitely recommend having one. They are immensely useful. If that's too much, you can get a fat caliper for about $5. That way you track your fat levels.

So I wouldn't worry about a plateau until you get one or the other and see if you really are stuck. You could be in a conversion stage which is very good for you.

On blood sugars and caffeine, if the body gets used to high - low cycles it can affect a wealth of things involving metabolism. There's definitely a "weaning" process when one moves from that type of a diet to a more even diet. You definitely do feel a crash for a few days to a week depending on how addicted you were. Then you feel much better. I both weaned myself off of caffeine and then weaned myself off of high sugar / high starch foods. So I know it's not easy. It's worth it though.

I'd try the starch / sugar move first, as that is the clearer health benefit. I'm not sure any nutritionist would recommend eating high sugar or high starch foods at this point. Even those who recommend eating bread always push for true whole grain breads (not just "wheat" which are often white bread dusted with brown bits ). So I'd take a look at your menu for a week and chop out anything involving high sugar or starch. Start that on a weekend so you can get through the first few days in relative isolation . If you want to share what a typical diet is for you I'm happy to help!

Okay, thanks. I'll look for something today.

I have cut out starch and sugar. My husband and I have been following Atkins. I'd like to know your menu. One of my main problems is what to eat. Unfortunately I don't like fish so I eat chicken.

I kept meaning to respond to this but I wanted to gather a giant list. And maybe that's not the best approach .

In essence my entire low carb site is full of all the recipes we cook. To me it seems like there's billions of recipes and they're all delicious and easy. I imagine that it's because we always eat this way. I imagine if someone came to low carb who was used to eating pasta, corn, and potatoes all the time, that it would be a "mental hurdle" more than anything else to start thinking about all the delicious options out there to eat instead.

There are for example probably thousands of delicious ways to cook chicken, just to start there. And SO many delicious veggies to have with them. I love brussels sprouts, cauliflower, broccoli - and all can be made in a variety of ways.

Now I'm hungry!

It's well worth it to train yourself to like fish. Fish is SO good for you. And your mouth gets used to any flavor if you eat it enough. I've trained myself to like many food types over the years.

Maybe start with nice Japanese tuna at a Japanese restaurant, with a good marinade?